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hanleiacelebration · 1 year

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About Holiday Exchanges (AKA The Rules)

This is a post version of our Rules page for easy access, as pages are not accessible from the Tumblr app for some users. If you're looking for our FAQ about the blog, please see here.

What is a Fic Exchange? A fic exchange is a game in which each person is assigned a recipient (“giftee”) to whom they will give a gift—in this case, for whom they will write a HanLeia fic. When you sign up, you’ll select at least one fandom and some tags and share some information about what’s on your fic wish list – favorite tropes or situations, favorite eras – and what things are dealbreakers for you (or just not your favorite thing). Your recipient will NOT know who you are until you reveal your gift (shh, it’s a secret!). You are encouraged to contact your giftee throughout the process via anon on Tumblr to send cheer and love, chat about Han/Leia, stoke excitement, and to get any info you need. The person assigned to write for you will also be contacting you as they craft your fic. Since we now do our exchanges via Archive of Our Own (AO3), the reveals will happen in two stages: first, fics will be revealed, but no one will know who wrote for whom. Then at the end of the exchange, we’ll reveal (and celebrate) all the participants.

Do all gifts have to be fics? Yes, this is a fic exchange! There is a 500 word minimum. If you wish to include fan art, a fan mix, or an edit with a fic of at least 500 words, you are welcome to do so.

Is there a word max? We suggest 5,000 words as a max, but aren’t strict about it. Please be mindful, however, that long fics can be a major time commitment for a recipient and sometimes even a challenge to read (especially since English is not the first language of all participants).

How does this whole process work? Do I post my fic on my blog or what? We’re doing our exchanges through Archive of Our Own (AO3) now. You’ll need both a Tumblr blog and an AO3 account to participate. (If you don’t have one of those, contact one of the mods; we’ll walk you through getting set up with what you need.) You’ll sign up sharing what you’d like to / be willing to write, and what you might be willing to receive from your assigned writer, including prompts, tropes, preferred fandoms (aka Original Trilogy, Sequel Trilogy, Legends, etc), and Do Not Wants. We’ll use those signups to match you up with someone for whom you’ll write, and someone who will write for you. After that, you will get your assignment: your recipient and the fandoms, tropes, prompts, and Do Not Wants they put in their sign-up form.

Once your fic is ready to go, you’ll submit it to the collection via AO3. On the fic reveal day, the fic collection will be revealed (without author names) and we’ll post a link on this blog. You’ll be able to see the gift that was written for you and have fun trying to guess who wrote what. On the author reveal day, the fic collection will be updated to reveal author names, and we’ll again post a link on the blog. Then you’ll have the opportunity to thank your writer, leave them a nice comment, and promote their fic (and the one you wrote, too) on your blog so we can share the joy.

Can I post my fic whenever it's ready, then? You can submit your fic to the AO3 collection whenever it's ready, yes. You cannot post your fic on Tumblr, FanFictionNet or any other sites until authors are revealed, though. However, please keep in mind that, once your fic is revealed, it will show up with the date you submitted it on, not the date it was revealed on. So if you submit your fic early, in December or early January, by the time it's visible it might be buried under newer fics in the search. You can choose the "Set a different publication date" option to avoid this issue.

I want to participate, but I only write AUs/OT/Disney canon/Legends… Please join us! All writers are welcome, and we believe all writers have that special recipient just waiting for them. Our sign-ups are designed to facilitate this, and the mods have been known to employ a little magic in their exchange pairings. ;)

I usually write with a friend. Can we sign up together? While we hope both you and your friend will consider participating, exchange pairings are intended to be individual. Grouping people as writers and recipients is hard enough as it is! It would also not be fair to the rest of participants who signed up individually. So, if you’re interested, we’d ask you both to sign up on your own—and you can always work with a cheerleader or a beta reader if you want (ask us if you need us to find you one!)

How will my Exchange Writer know what I like to read? How will the mods know I want to write what my recipient likes to read? All on the sign-up through AO3. You’ll pick tags, ratings, fandoms, etc that you’re willing to write for, and ones you’re happy to receive, as well as things you definitely don’t want to write or don’t want to read. You’ll share these preference through the Request (what you’d like to read) and Offer (what you’d like to write) sections of the AO3 signup form. You’ll be able to choose up to four fandoms, 10 additional tags, and whatever ratings you are comfortable with. We probably can’t match every tag or fandom in your signup – we can only guarantee matches on one fandom, two additional tags from our collection tagset, and one rating - but the more details you provide in your “Likes, Do Not Wants, and Prompts” and you “Would love to write & Will not write” sections, the easier it will be to make a great match with your writer and your giftee. So, for instance, if you’re only interested in reading fics that are set during or around the Original Trilogy canon, you’d select the Star Wars Original Trilogy fandom for your Request, and similarly for your Offer if that’s what you prefer to write. If you love the OT but enjoy throwing some Extended Universe (aka Legends) characters or situations in there, you could select Star Wars Original Trilogy AND Star War Legends. If you only like to write fluff, you can add “Fluff” (and other tags that appeal to you) as one of your tags in the Offer section. If you’re cool writing in the Sequel Trilogy era but you don’t want to write anything where a character dies, you can include the Sequel Trilogy as a fandom in your Offer but include “major character death” as one of the things you Will Not Write.

You will also be asked to give your writer three prompts to inspire them as they’re writing. These prompts could be situations (”Han Solo loves baths”), lines of dialogue (”I thought you’d never ask”), song lyrics or lines of poetry, or general themes or ideas you think fit well with Han and Leia and would like to read about.

Also, once you’re matched, we encourage you to communicate (anonymously, using the Tumblr ask function) with your recipient and your writer, so that’s a good time to chat, ask questions, get feedback on story ideas, etc.

What if there are some things - characters, pairings, squicks, plot points or tropes (like sexual assault or character death), even ‘verses- that I don’t want to read? There’s a place for that in the sign-up form – we want to know about your Do Not Wants specifically. This information will be shared with your writer, who will know to avoid them. The more detail you provide, the better.

Do I have to include prompts? What if I’m good with reading whatever? We do ask that you include at least three prompts in your signup form. Including a prompt is really helpful and kind to your writer—especially people who may not know you well, or who may be newer to fic writing. Sometimes even the most experienced writers just don’t know where to start, and a prompt really helps keep them from getting lost. Feel free to clarify if you’re not particularly attached to your prompt, and/or if you really, really would particularly love a certain prompt written. We do ask all readers to be flexible and understand that the writer may just not be inspired by a given prompt and may write something else! Again, you and your reader/writer can also communicate via anons, so you can also clarify this sort of thing there.

How will the mods pair me with a reader who will like what I want to write? We’ll match you up based on the fandoms, tags, ratings, likes, and will not writes you included in your signup. Plus magic. There’s definitely magic involved. Or the Force?

Do you guys have a masterlist of everyone who is participating? We don’t necessarily share that out with folks, but there is a way on AO3 to see who has signed up for the exchange. We do encourage participants to tag #hanleiacelebration on any posts they make about the exchange--including anon asks from their writers--so that everyone can join in the fun of guessing who might be writing for whom. (No need to @ us on these posts though- that’s too much for the mods to wade through!)

AAAHHH! It’s almost the deadline for submission already? Sign-ups were just yesterday, right? NOOOOO I’m not done! Can I get an extension? Please talk to the mods immediately if you’re having trouble getting done in time. We are going to check in with everyone about halfway through the writing time for the exchange, and that’s a great time to let us know if you’re struggling to finish, or if we can help you out by matching you with a beta reader or just a fic cheerleader. If it’s almost the deadline, again, contact us right away. We may be able to give you a short extension (we’re talking days, not weeks), but the sooner we know, the better we can help.

We also know that sometimes life happens and while you had every good intention of writing a fic, you’re not going to make it. The sooner you let us know, the sooner we can get your giftee a pinch-hitter to write their gift. And if you started a fic but didn’t finish in time and had to drop out, we hope you’ll still consider sharing your finished fic with the HanLeia fandom.

Please keep in mind: we are doing our best to give participants plenty of time to get their gifts together. This is an extremely busy time of year. Your recipient is relying on you. Please choose your projects based on what is realistic for you to accomplish in the time that you have. Overestimate the amount of time you will need, and still build in a few extra days as a cushion.

Keep in mind too that you can’t measure the quality of a fic by length. Short gifts are often much beloved.

If you’re having issues pacing yourself appropriately or knowing how much you can handle, find a fanfic friend to talk to about it or hit up a mod.

I’d like someone to check my work for grammar/spelling/word use before I post it. Contact the mods! We can find you a beta reader. We’ll be doing a call for folks willing to be beta readers or pinch hitters — if you’re interested in helping out with either of those, contact the mods when that call goes out.

I am under 18, but I’m not a kid! Why can’t I receive/write smut for my gift? Under U.S. law (where several of the mods are from), it is illegal for adults to provide minors (those under 18) with pornographic materials (and smut counts). It is also illegal for minors to send pornographic materials (smut still counts) to adults. Facilitating the exchange of smut between two minors is also almost certainly a no-no for adults under U.S. law.

Debating these laws isn’t relevant here—the fact is that we have to abide by them, or we put ourselves at risk.

If you are a minor, we support and respect you, but know that the NSFW content here is not and cannot be created for you.

If you participate in our exchanges, we trust you to be responsible and safe consumers. (Just as we trust our participants to tag appropriately.) If you're under 18, please DO NOT request smut or works of explicit nature. If you are a minor and we find that you requested something explicit (or that you lied about your age), this will result in your being banned from future exchanges. Please just be honest and respect the rules.

So if I’m under 18 and I read smut anyway…? Or write smut in my personal time…? The mods are all happy consumers and sometimes creators of smut—but we’re all over 18 and we don’t knowingly share smut or NSFW content with people who are under 18. We’re not here to judge, but we have to abide by the rules, many of which are in place to ensure that people under 18 can enjoy fandom spaces safely.

My recipient a) loves my NOTP, b) hates my other OTPs, c) promotes a genre of writing I hate, d) hates another genre of writing I do, and/or e) disagrees with me about some fundamental piece of Star Wars canon or fanon. :( How can I possibly write for them?

By putting words on a page!

We also recommend using Tumblr’s built-in Filtering option (under your Account Settings) to blacklist specific tags and content you don’t want to see posts for when you check their blog.

We’re all here for Han and Leia, and to share stories about Han and Leia with each other. You don’t have to be your recipient’s follower or friend (although if you do make friends through this, that’s great); you just have to write them a story. They get a nice story, and you get to say you have created something—something that will always have your name on it, something that you too can enjoy, and something that you can share with many people for years to come.

No, you don’t understand—my recipient likes [insert ship you hate/ship you consider immoral and/or illegal/other dealbreaker here]! We’re assuming your dealbreaker ship isn’t Han and Leia, or you wouldn’t have signed up. And you wouldn’t get matched together if you didn’t have at least one fandom and some tags that matched up. So you have something in common, at least; focus on that, if you can. Presumably you listed things you wouldn’t write in your Do Not Wants; you don’t need to write those. But shipping the “right” pairings isn’t a fair criterion for inclusion in the exchange, and the mods cannot spend their time ensuring only people who like the same stuff (outside of what they’re willing to write/read for the exchange) are paired with each other. So if you’re struggling with your match, try to look at it as an interesting writing challenge to take on.

If you are having significant struggles with this, please talk to a mod—but know that changes are only likely to be made in extreme cases.

I am blocked by my recipient. Eek! Please come talk to one of the mods ASAP.

I’m thinking about contacting the mods about something, but I’m not sure I should? Or that it’s something big enough to bother them with. Contact the mods! We exist to serve you! We love to help! Contacting us early can also prevent bigger problems down the road.

Uh, how do I contact the mods? Well, you can contact us through this blog (@hanleiacelebration), or individually: @hanorganaas @lajulie24 @otterandterrier

#mod post #exchange rules

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atemporalmelancholy · 1 year

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Here's my pov.

Dark themes should be allowed in fiction. All dark themes.

I mean, you're allowed to enjoy horror films without being attacked. Why is murdering the only dark theme people deem acceptable in media?

Every excuse for not letting people ship whatever they want is so easily the same augments against horror films and violent video games

Yeah some people may get inspired to act on those topics irl. Sure. But guess what? People get inspired from horror way way more often.

Especially from Slenderman.

It's not the media existing that's the problem, already fucked up people are.

Fiction is fiction

Yeah, you make good points anon. Though I must say that the Slenderman thing proves that fiction can affect reality. Though it isn't 1-1 ratio where everything dark that happens in fiction effects reality and causes people to act and do bad things.

I personally feel that the fiction to reality ratio is different depending on the person. A person who experiences delusions may have the line between fiction and reality blurred because of their delusions. And may be more likely to act on the dark media they consume.

So I personally agree that all dark media should be allowed in fiction but there should be at least a content warning and a disclaimer that everything in the media is fictional and should not be acted upon. For fan content of the media it should be allowed but there has to be rules in place to keep it out of mainstream media where children with internet access, especially unrestricted Internet access will see it. The reason for that is that children are still learning. They are learning their morals, values, opinions, and who they are as a person.

For rules to keep it away from children and those who don't want to see it I have a few ideas. Rules such as using proper tags that state that It's dark content, that way the dark content can easily be filtered out of feeds of those who do not wish to see it. And having consequences in place for those who break the rules. Such as having the content removed and having the account banned for multiple offences or just even lose posting rights for a temporary period of time. Where the account is unable to post content but can still like, send messages and comment on other posts depending on the platform. Or maybe just an option for filtering through dark content instead of it being all dark content or none.

You can simply choose what you want to see in terms of dark content. That way people who enjoy darker content can enjoy it, and those who don't enjoy darker content don't have to see it. Though it won't stop people from attacking others for liking certain dark Medias, it will help keep people from seeing media they don't want to see. And it will help show who's actively searching for dark media they don't like just to attack those who enjoy it.

#idk how to tag this #discourse #and #discussion #i guess #maybe #proship #answering asks

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sivarajc · 2 years

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How do I increase YouTube traffic for my channel?

It’s fairly easy for your video to urge lost in the gigantic YouTube galaxy, but fortunately enough, there are some pretty simple and effective ways to make unique organic traffic for your videos.

Here are some tips to stay in mind to win some clicks

1. Choose carefully your thumbnail

The thumbnails you decide on for each video are more important than you think. It’s the primary thing people will see when they search for your videos, so it must have the “click-worthy” value.

In other words, make it appealing. YouTube automatically gives you three thumbnail options to settle on from when you upload a video, but if you are feeling you need something catchier, customize and upload your own. It goes an extended way.

2. chew over your title and video description

Your title is clearly important for intriguing viewers, but it also can improve your search results and should definitively drive more traffic to your channel. The very first term should be relevant, as a keyword and you should follow that with what is featured in the video, building a keyword phrase. While your title should be clear and concise, the video description is where you’ll go a little more in-depth.

The description can include a keyword phrase, your URL, and a mini-post that briefly describes the content of your video.

3. Create a Custom Background Image

Compliment your content with a clean channel design. Your background image also can invite viewers, so aside from the theme and color options YouTube offers, you’ll also upload your own background image, helping you to face out from the crowd.

4. Make Your Best Video “Featured”

YouTube automatically shows your most up-to-date video in the main “Featured” window on your channel page. For users that post regularly, this is often ideal, except for those that post less, sometimes a far better option is selecting another video to occupy that slot.

Here’s how: attend your “Creator Studio” settings and select “Featured Content” from the left menu under “Channel”. Then click the “Feature Content” button and choose if you would like to use the most recent uploaded video or choose a new video or playlist.

5. Add Channel Tags

Tag away! this is often as fundamental as tagging your videos with keywords. You’ll bring the viewers to you and may find this on your settings option on the My Channel menu.

6. concentrate on Comments

Engage together with your audience. Take the time to read your channel comments also as those posted on your videos and be sure to respond. Remember; pack up if you have to. Delete or report spam comments, if not, it comes off as if you’ll be ignoring your channel.

7. Recent Activity may be a win-win situation

Show what you’ve been up to on YouTube lately. If you wish or favorite a video on YouTube, this action will show up in your “Recent Activity” also as the “Recent Activity” box of the content creator. It’s an easy way to make YouTube contacts, and it’s going to bring viewers to your page.

8. Users like playlists

Create playlists of your videos rather than having a series of separate videos. Start together with your most popular or recent videos to get your fans interested, then let them sift through new and old material.

9. Leverage cross-channel promotion

Cross-channel promotions are often a highly effective way to drive traffic to the target destination — in this case, your YouTube Channel. you’ll create blog posts about the themes related to your YouTube Channel and embed and link your videos to them. The blog posts (and your new and old videos) successively can also be shared with your opted-in subscribers of the blog or YouTube channel or some other email list as a fortnightly or monthly newsletter. The blog posts (and in fact your videos too) can even be promoted on your social media. This cyclical sharing will facilitate your finding and lock in followers from a number of channels.

If you’re short on time (considering managing a YouTube Channel) itself is a big task, you’ll consider outsourcing blog writing and social media content management to specialized writing agencies or marketplaces like Narrato.io

Conclusion

So you see here, a touch goes a long way. And the following pointers work. Just try them out and check how you drive more traffic to your YouTube channel.

#youtube traffic #youtubevideo #youtube #seo #digital marketing #seo2022 #seotips #organic seo #digitalmarketing #digital marketing2022

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handsomeamoeba · 1 year

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A Tumblr Guide for Newbies

Also available as a Google Doc to print or share with people who are not on Tumblr yet.

Wondering how to get started on Tumblr, what Tumblr culture is like, and who some of the big names are? Read on! It's a bit long, but hopefully it's approachable!

Starting Out

Welcome to Tumblr! To Twitter refugees, the morbidly curious, and everyone in between, welcome!

The first thing you want to do before you do anything on Tumblr is add an icon. You can do this by clicking the person-shaped Account icon, going to Settings, then clicking on your blog in the sidebar. You may also optionally wish to customize your blog’s colors and banner here, but you can come back to that later.

The reason it is important to add an icon right away is because a default icon makes veteran Tumblr users suspicious that you may be a bot, and they may block you. Your icon can be anything you wish, but Picrews are sometimes looked down on (though not always), and if you are a pretty female-appearing individual you may not wish to use a photo of yourself (this is another sign of a possible bot).

Next, before you interact with too many blogs on Tumblr, you will also want to add a post or two. You can just start reblogging right away if you wish, or you can type up a quick intro post. An empty blog is another warning sign of a bot account.

An important aspect of Tumblr is that there is no real algorithm to speak of. There’s a “For You” page but it doesn’t work very well. Tumblr users love the lack of an algorithm, because it means that there’s a lack of predatory data tracking, the website will never deliberately funnel you into rage clicks and radicalization, and the things you want to see will always be the things shown to you. However it does mean that it can be difficult to start out, because you are starting from nothing.

You’re going to want to find some blogs to follow! It helps if you already know a Tumblr user or two– you can follow them, and they can suggest some more blogs to you. If you’re starting from scratch, try searching the tags for subjects or fandoms you’re interested in, and following a few blogs from there. If you don’t enjoy them, you can always unfollow later. Remember that Tumblr’s search function is generally unreliable, won’t always show you everything under a certain tag, and is nearly impossible to use to find specific posts. It’s good enough for getting a start in browsing, though.

You may also wish to follow a few tags for subjects you are interested in. Not everyone does this, but it can be useful when just starting out to find more content. To do this, go to the Your Tags tab and click Manage.

There is also a function on the site called Tumblr Live. Please be advised that no Tumblr regulars like, want, or use Tumblr Live, despite the fact that the website keeps pushing the feature. We’re pretty sure that Tumblr staff brought in people specifically to use Tumblr Live, because none of the people on it seem like our… type, so to speak. They’re just trying to attract the TikTok crowd. You can “Snooze” Tumblr Live for 7 days by going to Settings, then Dashboard, then scrolling to the bottom to toggle the option. There is no setting to turn it off completely despite vocal demand for it. Be advised that if you use Tumblr Live, this will probably alienate you from Tumblr veterans. I have been informed that the above does not currently apply to EU nationals, who are not subjected to Tumblr Live.

Going forward, you may choose to either Like or Reblog posts as they appear on your Dashboard. Keep in mind that unlike some other social media sites, your Likes are not public (or at least, you should toggle this option off– see below), and serve only as either a bookmark for yourself, or a small kudos to the OP. If you want to share the post with your own followers, or show major appreciation to the OP, you should Reblog it. This is especially appreciated by artists! Some people will tell you that “Likes Do Nothing”, but they can still be useful to track posts you have already seen or just give a little nod and a wave to the OP or the person who reblogged it. The more you reblog, the more likely your blog is to gain traction. It is difficult for someone who mostly makes original posts to get a foot in the door, especially in light of the previously mentioned unreliable Search feature.

If you would like to comment on a post, there are three ways to do this, and each has different use cases. If you want to say something to the OP directly, you may use the comment function.

Most commonly, people put their commentary in the tags of the post. This allows you to make a remark or humorous aside without cluttering the post for others. If someone likes your tags enough, they may screencap or copy your tags and add them to the post themselves in a process sometimes called Peer Review. Sometimes people will also tag a post “#prev” or “#prev tags” to agree with the tags of someone they reblogged from, but older Tumblr users do not tend to prefer this, as reblog chains can get messy, and blogs often rename or deactivate. It can sometimes still be used just as a nod to the person you follow.

It is possible to add your commentary directly to the post, but this is not recommended unless you strongly feel that what you have to say is important or very funny. The difference between using tags or adding to the text post has been likened to the difference between whispering to your friends versus getting up on stage.

There are two settings that Tumblr makes available that most Tumblr users turn off: Best Stuff First and Based On Your Likes. These can be toggled off under Settings, then Dashboard, then Preferences. You will also want to go to your own Blog settings and make sure that sharing for Likes and Follows is toggled off (no one likes this).

Tumblr Culture & Politics

Tumblr users have a love-hate relationship with Staff. Of course we love our Hellsite, and we want it to remain as is– free of algorithms, aggressive marketing, and the other features that make other social media sites unlivable. As such, Staff generally has a lighthearted and casual way of addressing the userbase, and there is often mutual ribbing. However, Staff have made a number of controversial moves in the past (the porn ban, adding Tumblr Live, inconsistent moderation choices, etc) that have given the users some skepticism towards them. Financially supporting Tumblr can be sometimes controversial; some will cite Tumblr’s past transgressions as a reason not to support them while others will point out that Tumblr needs our support to keep running as it does specifically because they don’t sell our data like other websites.

On a related note, Tumblr users are notoriously difficult to market to and tend to resent marketing and advertisement. Brands and celebrities (with a couple notable exceptions, see Famous Tumblr Users) are widely shunned, most use ad block (few pay for ad free), and it can be difficult for even independent artists and small stores to promote their work. Some Tumblr users see any attempt to make money outside of charitable fundraising and crowdfunding to be bad, although this is a particularly extreme view not held by all.

Politically, a majority of Tumblr is left leaning, often queer, and leftist infighting is common. It is best not to get involved for the sake of your sanity. Regrettably there is a small and stubborn foothold of TERFs and other such bigots. Block, do not engage. You may report if you wish, but as mentioned above, moderation on Tumblr can be inconsistent. If you are very worried about encountering TERFs, many use an app known as Shinigami Eyes, which highlights transphobic social network pages in red.

Tumblr was once infamous for particularly insane hot takes, and while this still happens, the general consensus is most of the worst users left when the porn ban took effect and went to places like Twitter and TikTok. Tumblr is protective of its current cultural ethos and users do not want to see a return to the likes of early 2010s culture. Outside of Tumblr it is common for people to either perceive the website as dead, or as full of insane people. We like to keep it that way. A certain style of aggressively weird or cringe blogging, known as Rent Lowering Gunshots, is sometimes employed to dissuade users of a more delicate sensibility from joining.

It helps to already be kind of a weirdo to enjoy it here.

Fandom culture is pervasive on Tumblr, and promoted even by Staff. While not everyone is a fandom blogger, it is likely that most are to some extent. Some people choose to have separate blogs, or Sideblogs, for some or all of their specific interests and fandoms in order to keep content consistent. Other people prefer to dump all of their posts onto their Main and let god sort it out! This is entirely up to you.

Tags are not only used to find content, but also to filter it! You may easily block tags you do not want to see by going to your Settings. This will block anything your followed blogs tag with these tags, as well as any posts tagged by the OP as such even if the reblogger did not use them. As such it is advised that you do NOT censor any tags so that people’s block lists will catch them. If you wish to provide content warnings, please tag with “#[warning] cw” or “#[warning] tw”. Tagging with cw or tw first may mess with some people’s block lists, and tagging with the warning ONLY but without cw or tw may put the post in discussion tags for those triggers.

Speaking of censorship, since, again, there is no algorithm, there is no need to censor curses, reclaimed slurs, words like “kill” or “death”, etc. Doing so will generally get you made fun of. The only time you may need to censor words in your post is if you are making a post critical of a subject or fandom and you don’t want to risk it coming up in their search results. In that case it’s considered polite to censor the name of the fandom, character, or other subject (or, in the case of H*rry P*tter, just a good way to avoid TERFs).

In recent times, the infamous porn ban has been lightened somewhat. Artistic and educational nudity and sexuality, and really anything short of full-on pornography, is now generally allowed under the Mature Audiences community label. If your post needs a Mature label, click on the button that says “For Everyone” and change it to “Mature”.

On most social media websites there is an unspoken time limit to interact with a post before it becomes weird to do so. This is not the case on Tumblr. We still have posts circulating from 2011 and no one cares.

Tumblr Memes

Tumblr is rife with memes and shitposts (short, weird text posts). The landscape of Tumblr memes is always changing, but to get you up and running, here’s a few common ones to get you started (in no particular order).

DESTIEL CONFESSION: ever since the 2020 Elections, when Supernatural ship Destiel went canon in the weirdest possible way at the same time Trump was being defeated, a screencap of Castiel confessing his feelings to Dean has been the most common way for Tumblr users to share breaking news.

CRAB RAVE: similar to Destiel Confession, gifs from the music video for Crab Rave are often used to celebrate breaking news stories. This is most commonly the spiteful celebration of the death or downfall of terrible people.

THE TUMBLR CALENDAR: Tumblr users love any excuse to celebrate something and have a great number of weekly and annual observances. Weekly observances include Tuesday No Problem, Out of Touch Thursday, Flat Fuck Friday, and others. Annual observances include the Ides of March, Halloween (celebrated throughout October and also whenever you feel like it), November 5th (the anniversary of the 2020 Elections & Destiel Confession), and others.

DRACULA DAILY: A service that has chapters of “Dracula” by Bram Stoker sent directly to your email inbox, on the date the events happened in the story. Starts every year on May 3rd, currently in its second year running. Frequently memed on. Users will often reference emails from Our Good Friend Jonathan. There are other literary substacks but this one is by far the most popular.

DO YOU LOVE THE COLOR OF THE SKY?: A notorious, extremely long post mostly consisting of a color gradient. No one likes this post. Sometimes people will reblog it just to troll others. Other times people will reblog fakeout posts that seem like they’re going to be Do You Love The Color of the Sky, but turn out to be something else.

COLOR THEORY: An oft-referenced post in which a Tumblr user aggressively defended a hospital’s use of a streak of red painted on their floor, with seemingly no self awareness that the streak looked like a long trail of blood. Now pictures of apparent or obvious blood stains may contain jokes about color theory to explain why they’re perfectly innocent, actually.

GONCHAROV: A months long ruse conducted by many Tumblr users to make a completely fake Scorsese film seem like it was real. While anyone with any decency will admit to the farce when asked directly, most people still jokingly talk about Goncharov like it’s a real thing. Sometimes a new fake media will come along and be referred to as “the new Goncharov.”

HORSE PLINKO: A gif of a horse falling down a plinko machine, usually into a fire. That’s it.

THE TUMBLR CODE: A very old post from the early 2010s proposed a code for Tumblr users to identify each other in public. The call and response is “I like your shoelaces.” “Thanks, I stole them from the president.” Originally posted as silly but completely sincere, it is now embraced begrudgingly and ironically. Tumblr sells officially branded shoelaces as a reference to this post. It is considered embarrassing to buy them.

JOHN GREEN COCK MONOLOGUE: Once upon a time, it was possible for Tumblr users to edit the content of a post when reblogging it. In retrospect, this was always a terrible idea. It was made clear how terrible an idea this was when a post by author John Green was famously edited to be a long rant about how “Cock is my favorite taste”. This spread like wildfire, and was used as part of a larger harassment campaign that drove Green off the site completely. While still frequently joked about, the John Green Cock Monologue is more controversial than it once was, with many now citing it in retrospect as sexual harassment. In the wake of the Cock Monologue, Tumblr finally made reblogs uneditable.

THEN PERISH: A menacing close-up screenshot of Obama’s squinting eyes. Originating from an absurd roleplay thread in which President Obama allowed a small monkey-like creature to drown, including an exchange frequently paraphrased as “I’ll do anything you want” “Then perish”. Frequently the image of Obama’s eyes alone are posted and understood to mean this phrase.

CONNECTICUT CLARK: Originating from Twitter and Reddit and spreading to Tumblr from there, Connecticut Clark was a character from the webcomics by Flork of Cows, originating an OC with absolutely no interesting powers, backstory, or particularly good looks. In fact he looks like a weird little lump. Tumblr users love Connecticut Clark and his romance with the demon witch Malfina.

GIFS: Gifsets are a popular aspect of Tumblr fandom culture. Reaction gifs, however, are no longer preferred and often considered obnoxious, thanks to their overuse in the early days of Tumblr. Sometimes long chains of gifs are used as Rent Lowering Gunshots (see Tumblr Culture).

THREE WEED SMOKING GIRLFRIENDS: A post by now defunct Tumblr user thejorie vehemently insisting that he had three girlfriends who smoked weed, and getting into aggressive arguments with most of the people who responded to the thread in any way.

BONEGHAZI: An infamous drama in which a Tumblr user openly admitted to stealing human bones from a nearby cemetery to use in witchcraft and/or sell to others. If you ever hear anyone talking about The Tumblr Bone-Stealing Witch, just know that that’s a real thing that really happened.

MIKU BINDER THOMAS JEFFERSON: Of all of the bizarre things to come out of the Hamilton fandom (besides the Cannibal Mermaid Fanfic and the person who faked AIDS for clout, two controversies I am NOT going to get into here and that you can look up on your own), one famous fanart depicted Hamilton’s version of Thomas Jefferson as a trans man wearing a binder emblazoned with virtual musician Hatsune Miku. Widely mocked.

Famous (and Infamous) Tumblr Users

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses: AKA Gaud. Controversial but very pervasive shitposter. I tend to avoid them, lots of people consider them annoying, but I don’t think they did anything specific? Someone correct me if I’m wrong. In spite of the name I don’t think they’re a H*rry P*tter blogger.

bunjywunjy: Animal blogger known for their #Cursed Biology animal facts series. Very informative!

chongoblog: Mashup musician and streamer. Also memes a lot. His longest work to date is Mad Rat Monday, a mashup album based around the soundtrack to Mad Rat Dead.

communismkills: Thankfully no longer active, famous for harassing and doxxing trans people, as well as a frequently mocked post where they tried to get people to pay them $8000 to stop posting.

cryptotheism: Occultist and author, one of the most famous of the oft-referenced Tumblr Wizards. Posts frequently about occult history and practice.

dingdongyouarewrong: Youtube video essayist Sarah Z. Shitposts more than she posts about her YouTube channel. Has a vocal group of detractors but I’ve never figured out why. Tbf I am a fan of her channel.

doubleca5t: Well-liked trans woman shitposter and former YouTuber, though she quit her YouTube channel to focus on her career.

evilwizard: Another popular Tumblr Wizard. Unlike cryptotheism, whose “wizardry” is rooted in a sincere interest in alchemy and occultism, evilwizard’s wizardry is a schtick. Funny, though.

gallusrostromegalus: Artist and author known for their extremely long but very funny story posts.

iguanamouth: Artist and meme blogger. Many of their artworks have become memes in their own right.

neil-gaiman: Yes, that Neil Gaiman. The popular fantasy author is also a popular Tumblr blogger and one of the few celebrities Tumblr users will tolerate (although some resent even him).

nyancrimew: AKA maia arson crimew. The internationally wanted hacktivist who released the no-fly list is also a beloved fixture on Tumblr.

pangur-and-grim: AKA Greer Stothers. Illustrator, author, and pet blogger. Their oriental longhair cat Pangur is particularly beloved.

pizza: A once well liked blogger who fell into infamy for being a huge racist, and was ultimately banned, not for the racism, but for promoting diet pills on their blog.

prokopetz: Tabletop game designer and prolific blogger. Has a pinned post with all his game designs, if you are interested.

punkitt-is-here: One of the most well known My Little Pony bloggers on the site today. Known for their silly comics, liked even by people who do not watch MLP.

reallyndacarter: Actress Lynda Carter is fairly new to Tumblr, a recent Twitter refugee, but Tumblr has embraced her for her earnestness and willingness to play along with the website’s weirdness.

sixpenceee: Bafflingly still active despite the well-known controversy where they straight up admitted their family owns a child slave. Not recommended.

straycatj: Well liked Japanese cat blog, written (usually) from the perspective of the cats. Extremely cute and wholesome.

were–ralph: Beloved furry and werewolf fucker. Blog tends to trend very NSFW so follow at your own risk. Also he keeps getting banned and has to keep remaking, either because of the spicy content or because Staff is racist.

I hope this has been helpful! If you are a Tumblr newbie, again, welcome, and don't be shy to reach out and ask other Tumblr users about anything you need to know!

And if you are a Tumblr veteran who has read all this way and you think something in this guide needs to be changed, added, or removed, let me know!

#i don't fucking know how to tag this #tumblr itself #advice

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floraone · 4 years

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So, September is coming up, and with it smutember, and we’re doing it again! (At least I hope you’re with me, lol).

Just like last year, it runs alongside to the official daily word prompts on the official smutember blog: Smutember is an event that runs all throughout September for all fandoms. The following is meant as an addition, not a replacement. If you want to do daily prompts, please use the official words prompts (linked above). However, since daily prompts can be a bit intimidating (especially for a fandom corner that’s 25+ years old like ours and people in it have busy lives), as the resident smut advocate in our fandom, I again customized an alternative that can still incorporate the official themes.

Just like last year, down below you have a list of TROPE AND THEME PROMPTS. They’re a remix of sorts of last year’s tropes, with some you’ve seen before and some new ones, meant to spark a variety of ideas. The idea is that with these you can post once (or twice) per week instead of daily.

Be it for fanart or fanfic or any other sort of fanwork, tropes can be combined, (and they can be combined with the daily themes too), whatever floats your boat. Also, specifically: This event isn’t Usamamo-centric only. I will reblog any Sailor Moon content of any pairing as long as it follows the rules! (See below)

The aim of this event is to create sex-positive content together that celebrates a healthy depiction of consentual sexuality. Erotic fanfiction is a beautiful art, especially in a fandom of ours so largely cultivated by women and for women, as well as a strong inclusive focus on queer and gender-queer content and their creators!

What’s new: I’m taking a page out of the mini-bang’s impressive book, and when smutember is over, I will compile all entries that followed the rules into an online-only e-zine! This also means that art that may be too explicit for tumblr can still be included in the e-zine!

Here are the weekly trope challenges:

Reinvent a trope!

WEEK 1 (September 1st - 7th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Reunion Sex 🍋 Sex Fails 🍋 Second Chance Sex 🍋 You Talk In Your Sleep 🍋 Unresolved Sexual Tension 🍋 New Old Flame 🍋 Go Seduce My Archnemesis 🍋 Bedsharing 🍋 Sex with the Ex/Break-Up Sex 🍋 In Public

WEEK 2 (September 8th - 14th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Make-Up Sex 🍋 Battle Couple 🍋 Mission Sex 🍋 Work-Out Sex 🍋 Accidental Pervert 🍋 Bathing/Shower 🍋 Pool/Onsen 🍋 Sexual Fantasies 🍋 Blind Date 🍋 Aroused By Your____ (pick a feature)

WEEK 3 (September 15th - 21st): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Established Relationship 🍋 “Thank God We’re Alive” 🍋 Caught In The Act 🍋 First Times 🍋 Introduction By Hook-Up 🍋 Pining 🍋 Locked In Together In A Small Space/ Trapped Together 🍋 Huddling For Warmth 🍋 Socially Distanced Sex 🍋 Stupid Sexy Friend 🍋 Caught In The Rain 🍋 Living Food Platter/Eating Off You 🍋 Shunga

WEEK 4 (September 22nd - 30th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Mutual Masturbation 🍋 Awkward/Clumsy Sex 🍋 Oh Crap There’s Fanfic Of Us 🍋 Talking In Bed 🍋 Fidelity Test 🍋 Fake-NOT-Dating 🍋 Mindlink 🍋 Sex Games 🍋 Tinder 🍋 Blackout/Quarantine/Disaster Warning/Weathering The Storm

RULES

1. Rating: These fics don’t necessarily need to be M or, in the case of Ao3, E- rated. Obviously, they are very, very welcome to be explicit for this event, but you can also go T-rated and stay in lime or ‘blacked out’-territory if you’re uncomfortable with writing explicit scenes! Both is perfectly and absolutely welcome! This of course also goes for fanart - your fanart may depict sexy scenes, but does NOT have to be explicit! (It can, though! Be aware that for tumblr’s guidelines, when sharing your art first, you may have to clip your images as a sort of preview. The original can then be sent to me privately to include into the e-zine!) 2. Minimum Age of Characters: Since this is a community event, if you do go explicit M rated material: age them up where necessary! So that everyone can be comfortable writing and reading these, let them be 18 at the minimum if they’re going to openly and explicitly wohoo. (16-17 is the global average age of consent worldwide, and also the average age for first sex among girls in many western countries. However, since most fanfic readers are located in the US, where the age of consent is 18, we’re going with 18 so that everyone can be comfortable reading!) If you go for canon fics at a time they are below this age, where you do not want to age up (say you’re going for an episode fix!) please stay in T territory for this event. 3. Off limits: Depictions of sexual acts that contain harmful, violent and non-consenting behaviour with non-consenting individuals (or those that aren’t able to consent, for instance because of their age, or state of mind among else!). If it doesn’t fly by law or the ICD in real life, please refrain from depicting it in the context of this event. This means that dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged for the event, so that people can be safely consuming the content without being triggered. All content will be screened in this regard, and I may contact you regarding trigger warnings. This is not at all to censor content, or that this content is in any form less valid (as long as it is properly tagged and not including characters that aren’t of age), but simply to ensure a safe environment for everyone reading. 4. Tag your triggers. Except the aforementioned limitation of harmful content, nothing is off limits. Explore your kinks! But if you write something that might be offensive to your readers, please tag it. This is ALSO a good way for your readers to find exactly what they ARE looking for! On Ao3 this can be done directly on the fic tags, for FF fics and fic links you can do it here on Tumblr via the fic post tags or in ANs. This is in consideration of your readers. 5. You can obviously post art for this event too. All previous rules apply here, as well. Unfortunately, Tumblr is now against tasteful nudity. That doesn’t mean you can’t link to a deviant art or similar account though, should you want to. And, since this year will include an e-zine at the end of it, all art will still be included fully in it. Here too, please tag your triggers. If you still want to post art on Tumblr, choose a T rated image - clip them where needed, or keep them (semi-)clothed, show us a heated kiss, etc! (Obviously we would love ALL the art and the nude body is a beautiful, wonderful thing, but obviously Tumblr doesn’t agree with us anymore!) 6. Have fun! Celebrate sexuality in an open, sex-positive way with us, try to be unapologetic about your likes while you write this, and appreciate the beauty that comes in the form of content with a largely female-gazing creator-base and audience! Smut in fanfiction has been beautifully put as the subjectification of sexuality (as opposed to objectification). So let’s celebrate this art form together! 7. Reviews: No one is forced to review. It can be uncomfortable to review a fic that contains sexual acts for any number of always valid reasons. Keep in mind, however, that much like a Burlesque dancer on stage, putting out sexual content can also be very intimidating to an author, and nothing is more discouraging than silence when baring yourself to an audience like this. That being said: Both Ao3 and FF have the option to review in anon mode. That means you have the option to remain anonymous while cheering the author on all the same. Just like the Burlesque dancer, your resident smut authors prefer to go on stage to loud cheering - it makes it all less awkward for them, and feels a little more like a big celebration!

If you’re unsure what sex positivity entails and want to read up, I wrote a post about it here.

This event is not supposed to cause harm. This means that I will screen all content before I reblog it here, and include it in the e-zine. So that everyone of age can feel safe reading the fanworks in the event, dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged and included in the e-zine, and accurate tagging and content warning will be watched. This does NOT MEAN that you cannot post this material: your own desire to write it and someone else’s desire to explicitly read this material are valid. I do not entitle myself to censor. It just means it will not be reblogged and shared through the event so that everyone may feel safe to read to the best of my ability. (But, of course, remember that I, too, might be biased, and not discover subtle forms of it, either. We’re all, in the end, a product of our upbringing and society, and I cannot be completely unbiased.)

During the event, I will be posting all Sailor Moon Smutember contributions in this format on my blog if you @ me to the post.

The official hashtag for the event is #smutember2020 hosted by the official smutember blog. Using it helps people find the content who search for it as well as those who wish to block it!

#smutember2020 #smutember sailor moon fandom #smutember usamamo fandom corner #smutember2020 rules #Spread the word!

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purrincess-chat · 3 years

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In thinking about tags and tagging hate comments, I've realized that not a lot of people know how/what that means, so here is some advice from your local former-salt poster.

If you mention something by name, it will pop up in tumblr search. For instance, if I just say Adrien Agreste, this can pop up when anyone searches for Adrien Agreste, even if I don't tag him (because tumblr is coded by beavers). The easiest way to circumvent this is by breaking up his name with // so Ad//rien Ag//reste or something similar. Alternatively, you can come up with a nickname for whoever or whatever you're talking about so that people who see your post on your blog will know what you are referring to, but it will 100% keep it out of searches. Continuing to use Adrien as an example because people clown on him a lot, you might refer to him as sunshine boy or the cat boy in your posts instead of referring to him by name. Most of my followers know I've adopted this method for a certain other boy in the show, but that's besides the point 😏

That brings us to tagging. Now this is personal preference for me, but I've found it to be effective. Using the same logic as above, if anything in your tags contains a character or ship name, it's going to pop up in the search. All of my Ladrien Wednesday posts pop up in the Ladrien search because they contain the word Ladrien, even though I don't tag them exclusively as "#ladrien". Even if you tag something as "[character] salt" or "anti [ship]" you've still used the name. And while someone could just blacklist that tag, a lot of the time they have to see the content first before they block the tag. The advice I'm giving here is how to keep your posts out of these searches entirely. Personally, I use the same nickname method as above. So, for instance when I wanted to talk about a character I don't particularly care for, I adopted the tag "#blue one salt" for all posts on that subject matter. And ya know what, my posts never popped up in his tags. People who follow me were still welcome to blacklist that tag if they didnt want to see those posts too.

Now all you non-salty people might be saying, "But, Cat, then we will have a million tags to blacklist" and here's the thing: tumblr is at its heart, a curate your own experience platform. What you see directly correlates to who you are choosing to follow, or where you are choosing to look. No one holds a gun to your head and says follow this person or search this tag. If someone posts content you don't like, unfollow them. But if they have established a consistent tagging system, it's then your job to decide what you do and don't want to see. My blacklist is a mile long, but ya know what? I don't see shit I don't want to anymore. Imagine that. It takes maybe 10 seconds to add something to the blacklist.

If other people are being considerate enough to provide you a means, but you're too lazy to use it, that's on you, friend. If someone consistently posts content that bothers you, unfollow them. "But what if I like their fic/art" no one is telling you that you can't tune back in every now and then to check for the stuff you want to see. If it's fic, they likely post it on another platform that has the option to follow or subscribe to a story. If it's art, a lot of people have a personal art tag, or a tag for a particular AU they're doing, or hell even an instagram. Follow those tags.

At the end of the day, regardless of what people do, it's your job to tailor your experience how you want it. Grow up and make those decisions for yourself. Absolutely do not content police. Ask someone to tag something, sure, but never ever say "I don't like this, you shouldn't have posted it" because you could easily just unfollow them.

Personally, I don't care if people like or dislike certain characters/ships, and I feel like a lot of people in fandom don't. What we care about is when you insert those negative opinions into spaces that are meant to be positive. Someone going through the Adrien Agreste tag is likely looking for cute art or fanfic involving him. What they don't want to see is why you think he is a literal spawn of satan. Or whatever you're posting about. And you can argue that they can blacklist tags and curate their own experience, which is true and they should, but you can also choose to not be an asshole and make it easier for them to do so. Because at best people will just block you, but at worst you may start some discourse and get an angry mob in your inbox. We all have to work together in this regard. Salters should be considerate enough to keep their hate out of primary tags, and non-salty people should utilize the filtering/blacklist system available to them to avoid content they don't wish to see.

Be considerate. That's all anyone is asking. Personally, I have no problem with people expressing their opinions on their own blogs, but you need to do so responsibly. Give people the option to see your posts by using proper tagging and censoring. "But Cat, if I don't use main tags how will anyone ever see my posts?" I hear you, but here's the thing: using the main tags won't always attract the people you want on your posts. If your intention is to send out a mating call for other people that think like you, use the ml salt tag (because people perusing that tag are often looking for salt) or join a discord or some shit. There are plenty of them in this fandom. By posting all of your character/ship hate in main tags, all you're doing is clogging the tag, pissing people off, and making fandom less enjoyable for everyone. Just don't be a dick. That's all anyone wants.

#cat speaks #advice from someone who's been here a long ass time and seen shit #trust me in my hiatus i learned how to stay out of the main fandom

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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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Ask Explo--

...you know what, you’re right. Name change effective immediately.

Askplosion #10:

(unrelated to everything by the way but I DEMAND THE ANON WHO MENTIONED “REMARRIED EMPRESS” A WHILE BACK COME FORTH AND ANSWER FOR THEIR CRIMES. IT’S SO GOOD BUT IT’S UNFINISHED AND I’M HOOKED, HOW DARE YOU)

Asks responding to previous posts:

It’s okay! I figured that was what it was but it’s been so loooong.

Ah, wow.

Um, that’s definitely not a part 2; I think that’s more like a four-parter/five-parter or something.

Sorry! No can do!

That’s totally fair!

I think the reason I so quickly agreed with it is like--

I’ve been watching the Inuyasha sequel and it’s not like I don’t think the narrative’s apparent punching bag Moroha (who is fourteen years old) shouldn’t be punished when she does something wrong/sneaky/manipulative, but they punish her as if she’s Miroku (who was eighteen years old).

Basically, I want the punishment to take the age into account, or at least only affect Marinette on a more personal level and not be “Heart Hunter” where they take totally understandable feelings of heartache (remember, it wouldn’t have mattered which miraculous she took because Hawk Moth got the Miracle Box and Fu regardless; even beyond her emotions, I feel like she chose the best option available to her considering which temps she knew the location of) and then punish her for them by memory wiping Fu and taking away all of her temps and giving Hawk Moth the grimoire translation.

Yes!! I really wanted to respond to this one, thank you! (It’s this one and then there was another one talking about Luka and Adrien, then talked to me about how I refer to Luka as “soft” but not in a bad way; I unfortunately don’t remember the whole thing.)

Ahaha, and yeah, I feel you. Anti-salters are a very strange conundrum I still haven’t figured out; like, I get not liking salt, but...

I mean, when I don’t like certain content, I just blacklist it. If I end up seeing it anyway due to cross-tagging or a lack of tagging, then I just blacklist the person themself. You won’t see me going after people for that very reason; I only see what people send/ask me if it’s content I don’t like.

I’m glad you’ve found some peace in this blog! Hopefully it continues to be that way for you in the future!

(and yay, a fellow INTJ!!)

New Asks:

There are female writers? ;P I just assumed they were all locked in a closet until the male ones were like, “okay, pretend to help us here, we need one female writer to claim girl power.”

As for Ladybug all like, “Cute, isn’t she?” I think it was rhetorical (she could also be messing with him but “Glaciator” tells us that she didn’t know he crushed on her so who knows). The writers do this thing where Marinette is all panic-y and occasionally self-conscious as herself, but then as Ladybug, she suddenly gets a bit of an ego. I think it’s meant to be there in order to make Chat Noir look less... idk, “obnoxious” when he starts boosting his own ego; trying to balance the two by giving them both big heads, so to speak.

Honestly, I feel like Adrien needs less screen time. :|

Even when he’s not on-screen, characters are usually talking about him, or you see his face in Marinette’s room/somewhere in Paris. I’m become so jaded by the guy that I don’t even think it’d matter if they remade the series and gave it a “totally good and interesting Adrien.” That’s how badly the show has made him out for me; “Adrien Agreste” the character is just... sigh, I’m so done with him.

And yeah, this whole idea about, “Marinette is [x], we need more AAAAAADRIEN!” comes off really bad, lol, especially when Adrien has very little going for him.

(this ask ends off like there should be a part 2 but there isn’t one in my inbox, so sorry if there’s meant to be something else!)

The exact lyrics according to the wiki:

My wish for a cat who's in love, with our own Ladybug. Is that he'll get what he's always wanted! She doesn't know she loves him, only sees Adrien, But Christmas miracles always happen!

Yeah, especially nowadays, those lines bothers me. Not only does it imply “true selves,” but that it’s Chat who should be getting what he always wanted and Ladybug is the one with a problem.

Like, excuse me?

Probably Stormy Weather, even in the first episode. Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t even touch her until they arrived on top of the TV station.

+ With all those effects and shots, it made it feel more action-y than typical episodes.

Marinette, Aurore, Luka, Anarka, Jagged...

basically any name that I haven’t really heard before (”Luka” makes me think of Vocaloid but the Luka there was female), or a name that relates a lot to the character (like “Aurore” for “aurora” since she loves weather things).

dfjbghfkdgfdgnjfdg this anon really like, “I NEED ANSWERS!!!”

It’s as if these characters hit 18 or something and just grow overnight, I swear. I’m hypothetically fine with some more variety in character height (it’s not like the show tries to be realistic, after all), but maybe don’t give us official heights if they’re gonna be this weird/inaccurate.

Especially when they change it just for the sake of a shot anyway. If you watch “Simon Says” when Ladybug and Adrien stand next to each other while looking at the picture of Adrien’s mother, the very next close-up has an obvious difference in their heights from what you just saw.

They’re 3D models!!! This shouldn’t happen!

I... honestly never thought of the “less threatening” thing! Dang!

And yeah, Marinette isn’t helpless or incompetent, but because of the Adrien crush, it makes her that way at times since she’s always falling on him and--

...ugh, actually, yeah, don’t wanna think about those implications. Hard pass.

Gross.

I’m not familiar with that one, though Astruc deletes his tweets all the time (there was one tweet where he confirmed that Luka was poor and it only exists in screenshots now because it didn’t get archived and he deleted it almost like he realized that he was pointing out the blatant classism in the show, oops).

Yeah though, I haven’t seen anything like what you’re describing. Sorry!

It’s okay! Sorry for having you clarify but him choosing and Marinette deciding to never give it back are very different things.

I don’t recall Chat Noir having much purpose in the final fight (in terms of both contributing and actual fighting; I know Cataclysm broke the object to release the akuma but was it needed?) so Marinette might either go cat-less or get a temp. Plagg could also be helpful in his own right because he’s small and blends in with the night, so he could hypothetically sneak up on the bad guy.

Afterwards, there’d need to be a new cat, but Adrien would also have to reconsider his actions and really think about what happened. I could also see Plagg going to Adrien’s house, half to apologize for giving the idea to Adrien that Adrien leave without telling Ladybug, but also half to call him out for giving up without consulting anyone. Adrien is a lot of conflicting things (see Adrien’s passivity compared to Chat Noir’s recklessness) so he’d have to find a middle ground within himself.

Marinette might carry Plagg around in her purse for a while and let Plagg have a say in who he goes to. Plagg might grieve for a bit over not having Adrien around (even if Adrien was flawed, Plagg didn’t ask for any of this so Marinette is doing her best here).

O-oh.

That’s always the rough patch with “endgame ships.” Once it’s obvious to the audience that they’re endgame, no more effort needs to be put into them.

The other thing too is how Kagami, for example, is friends with Marinette. Even once Adrimi sinks, she’ll presumably stay friends with her. Luka, meanwhile, is Juleka’s brother.

They have lives outside of their love interests. Adrien is so into Ladybug that he doesn’t have that; I mean, Nino is Adrien’s best friend like once in a blue moon.

The entire class is just watching an episode and then calling on raised hands to answer what was wrong with what they just watched.

“Everything?”

“I mean, yes, but I’m sorry, you have to be more specific to get credit.”

I think Aeon herself is fine. It’s mostly just her transformed and that transformed name that I have a problem with (she doesn’t even look uncanny so I don’t get it). I heard there was something wrong with the name “Aeon” but searching the name doesn’t give me anything I would qualify as such so I have no idea. I just wish she was given a little less “I’m programmed to--” (makes her seem less sentient) and more “[anything that doesn’t have to do with pushing the love square]” because I feel like they might’ve done the latter to make her more “likable”? I think fans of anything usually like the “matchmaker” character provided it’s for a ship they like. Also strange that they make her a robot but Max and Markov don’t extensively interact with her, but that’s a nitpick and not a criticism of her character.

...I’m rambling, my bad lol.

(Ohhh, she was supposed to be a mummy? Like, foreshadowing her “dying”?? That went right over my head but I guess that’d be where the name Uncanny Valley came from? No clue.)

Best case scenario is probably the middle or the end of Season 4.

And yeah, it really doesn’t matter to me what they do with the love square. Marinette had gone through too much suffering and the show goes out of its way to show how much stress Marinette is being put under (and also keeping Luka away during episodes like “Gamer 2.0″ even when it makes sense for them to be there, as if trying to make sure Marinette doesn’t have enough moments with him to forget Adrien).

Like, ah, yes, I totally believe that Marinette is in a position where she can make reasonable decisions about her love life while all circles of her life are on fire.

If the Sonic movie of all things can have an interracial couple, there’s no reason why this show can’t, just saying.

And, even with Marinette, she’s white-passing (according to what basically everyone says, I’m really awful about recognizing race so this isn’t my field; I wasn’t aware that Ondine was Asian, for example).

Does Nadja count? Manon’s dark-skinned (I’m still not over the fact that all the kids in this show are dark-skinned; it’s not like it’s a problem from a representation standpoint - though all the kids are also all generically bratty/whiny so there’s that - but the percentages in this show are weird) while Nadja is really light-skinned, meaning either a dark-skinned husband or Manon is adopted.

Though I guess the problem then is that we don’t know, so there’s no established couple there.

Non-Miraculous Asks:

w-who gave you the right to say such things????

Uhhhh, that might be too broad of a question, I’m sorry!

I know this isn’t satisfactory, but I will say that my favorite genre is Fantasy/Romance (it’s why I adore Red Shoes so much; by the way, an anon asked for my opinion on that a while back and I will get to it! I’d need to watch it again to get screenshots) and my least favorite is probably Tragedy/Horror.

I don’t think I’ve watched enough to really be able to say? I’ve kind of been all over but I’ve never fully gone through any of them outside of Miraculous. I’ve seen bits of Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Star VS the Forces of Evil (don’t know if that counts), and I meant to watch Yuki Yuna is a Hero but never got around to it. I saw the entirety of Puella Magi Madoka Magica but you guys know how I feel about that one.

Maybe Cardcaptor Sakura by default then? It was definitely not perfect but I liked some of the character dynamics (I also have a clipcut of it - basically where I go through a series/movie and cut out parts I don’t like so it’s only good stuff - so I’m cheating a little) and the male love interest was a tsundere type that I actually ended up liking, which is really rare.

!!! That sounds sweet~ I know Sailor Moon is popular so I’ll definitely take your word for it on that one.

I would also accept a “reincarnated”/”destined lovers” trope if maybe the ship themselves are the one who set it up in the first place. I have a Lukanette AU, for example, where they basically got together and then prayed to the shrine of the renewal god that they’d “always be together,” which ended up allowing them to reincarnate over and over (as if they set up their own soulmate AU ;P) and continuously find each other.

Though I guess that’s not technically a “meant to be trope,” but still, it’s a form of it but where it was totally consensual on both sides.

Also, I finally thought of a show that ended with the ship I wanted: Gargoyles. I didn’t see the entire series, mind you, but I saw most of it and Goliath and Elisa were just... quality, I adored them.

+ With Beauty and the Beast being my favorite Disney movie, they fit right in with my tastes.

I forget that AangToph (I think the “official” name for the ship is Taang, but don’t quote me on that) exists sometimes, maybe because I’ve never shipped Aang with anyone; I’ve got no problems with the ship though.

Ugh, and this is what I mean when I talk about people who set up these reasons behind people shipping something based on what they saw a few people do. It’s like, “you only ship Adrimi/Lukanette to spite Adrienette!!”

Meanwhile, me having shipped all three at one point and then dropped off the love square.

Also, me shipping Zutara has nothing to do with it being dark/edgy because I’ve never seen it that way (intriguing, sure but dark and edgy? lol) and also avoid dark/edgy ships like the plague.

I still laugh at people who are like, “you can’t ship it because it’s not endgaaaaame!” as if shows can dictate how and why I enjoy something. Like sure, if you want to let a show/movie spoonfeed you how you’re supposed to feel, then by all means, go ahead.

I suppose people may be theoretically happier that way, but it doesn’t make for an analytic mind.

I legitimately thought that “AssClass” must’ve been the actual name for something until it registered with me what it actually meant.

And eh, I guess it depends on the comparison and how accurate the comparison actually is? Like, comparing Puella Magic Madoka Magica to Miraculous... they’re not really close at all, but comparing... idk, Bunnyx to Homura or the concept behind “backfiring wishes”... maybe?

(note that the rest of this post is more Puella Magi Madoka Magica salt so you can stop reading here if you’re not interested in that; I’m not sure if this is all the same anon but I don’t mind letting people vent so I let them go off~)

why can’t we just have nice things

I agree, and I give a little eyeroll every time it’s like, “oh, this person had [miraculous]”

+ even just in general, I feel weird about any show that mentions/implies that real world famous people are [x] or [y] in their show. It breaks my immersion; real world locations are one thing but when it’s specific people (unless they’re made up characters like Santa Claus) or games just--break me.

I also don’t know what to think when there aren’t magical boys but you have these magical girls in this frilly outfits/skirts. The demographic is girls so I presume the reason must be like, “you can look pretty and still beat people up” (;P) but having so many magical girl shows without a hint of a magical boy makes me suspicious that it’s for fanservice. Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask but I also don’t know what that guy did outside of the meme of him doing nothing so I’ve got no clue.

(edit: I should correct myself that I’m not talking about Sailor Moon specifically; I don’t know magical girls that well, though I do know there are ones clearly intended for fanservice (you could say that for anything, to be fair, but still). It’s just that I see things like super short skirts or very “questionable” shots and I’m just like, “hm”)

Hmmm, good question. I feel like there has to be a lot but I’m also the type who doesn’t watch a lot of TV lol. I’m just familiar with cliches and tropes and such.

The reason I try not to use “ism”s of any kind is mostly because it’s too broad. Like, you know how the English language only has one way of saying, “I love you,” but other languages like Spanish have multiple?

It’s like that, and sometimes I think it’s too easy to throw those words out there. A “small” (possibly completely unintentional/misunderstood) offense is sexism, and then a “large” offense is called the exact same thing. I’d rather go into why something is sexist than just call it that, y’know? The only exception I make is “classism” because I feel like that’s not as... I dunno, divisive?

Anyway, for that same reason, I can’t answer firmly that, “Madoka Magica is sexist.” I will however say that it makes me uncomfortable with how the show makes out the girls being emotional because they’re young and female and then proceeds to make their life a living hell before they’re old enough to properly answer to it (I know that’s the point but that kind of makes it worse?). It doesn’t help with how all the girls have different personalities, so it’s not like you have only “crybaby girls” who are being taken advantage of; it’s basically like... all girls.

Not helped is the fact that their soul gem not only deteriorates naturally, but it can also do so faster if the girl falls into despair, which then turns them into a monster (and I know it’s kind of like an akuma thing, but the fact that it’s only girls is... I dunno, it comes off wrong?). It seems cheap that the soul gem deteriorates no matter what so it constantly needs fed even if the girl is consistently happy.

I would probably opt for the show being centered more around Kyubey being new to this or something - like, magical girls are a new thing - and then have Kyubey being surprised because they presumed that the soul gem would deteriorate naturally since “emotions are powerful but destructive to the person having them,” but then all the girls team up and help each other work out their problems. Maybe the reason magical girls are usually alone isn’t even because of the grief seed (I think that’s what it’s called?) thing not being able to be shared, but because Kyubey intentionally separates magical girls so they can’t do what the main group is doing, but Madoka is so into the idea that, “We shouldn’t have to be alone,” and so she’s constantly pulling all the girls together, which keeps them healthy.

Maybe Homura’s backstory could be that Madoka originally was more sheepish and more afraid to put herself out there, especially since she was a magical girl (who are encouraged to go it alone), which is why their soul gems were both deteriorating; they were friends but kept more of a distance, or maybe they were a team but that’s all they were. Then Madoka gives Homura the last grief seed to save her and that’s what inspires Homura and makes her see Madoka as something more than a teammate, which is why Homura actively tries to save Madoka specifically (which then encourages Madoka to want to keep everyone together as friends).

In the case that Kyubey doesn’t separate them out of concern of fRiEnDsHiP, but for another reason altogether, and then it’s ultimately their own downfall when they allow the girls to hang out and realize that it’s doing a lot of good for them.

“cute and innocent”

That was exactly it. It’s on Kyubey’s trivia section on the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Wiki.

Before the anime's first dark plot twist aired, head writer Gen Urobuchi said on his Twitter account that the "Kyu" in Kyubey's name comes from the English word "cute". This was a lie meant to further mislead fans into thinking that Madoka Magica is an innocent happy show. In a later episode, it was revealed that "Kyubey" is, in fact, short for "incubator".

In my personal opinion, a spoiled plot can’t be “ruined” if it’s a good plot. If you told me that Kagome was trapped in the Modern era for three years and then decided to stay with Inuyasha at the end of Inuyasha, it wouldn’t/shouldn’t decrease the value when I finally see it for myself because it’s good. That’s not to say that everything should just be spoiled right out of the gate, but it’s saying that maybe your plot isn’t good if you have to rely on shock value to make it work??

I FEEL THAT “ASSIGNING IT TO THE WHOLE GENDER” THING SO BAD. It just adds to my “the girls all have varying personalities so it’s not like Kyubey’s only after emotional crybabies or anything” salt.

I have no idea about any of the stuff about the writers so I can’t confirm or deny them. I will very much agree on the target audience thing though, especially with the whole “keeping the dark plot a secret” because really? Who is this for then? Like, the first two and a half episodes are for one demographic and then the others are--???

I dunno. Me personally, I just like feel good stories. I do like some good conflict and drama (for context, Remarried Empress is basically a webtoon that gives you things to feel salty about and then makes its own salt fic as its plot, allowing for endless streams of feels and catharsis, so I’m definitely not against drama), but there are other times where I just want to feel good watching something.

I feel like the show expects the characters to be selfless/perfect and then punishes them even though it’s their writing that’s causing them to act out. I can’t really talking about “out-of-character” but sometimes it’s just obvious where “we did this because we needed a plot/conflict.”

Like, hello? We don’t need the main characters screwing up; why can’t we just have some feel good thing where they take the day for themselves (seriously, imagine a Miraculous episode where Chat Noir actually tells Ladybug to take a couple days for herself, like maybe someone else gets the earrings for a few days as a temp while Marinette gets to breathe; IMAGINE IT). Not everything needs to be high-stakes to be interesting and you need those calmer moments so that the action-packed ones feel more intense.

SAYAKA DESERVES BETTER.

I feel like the magical girl genre as a whole can be way more complex than it’s made out to be. I think people hear the word “magical girl” and think “cute girls in short skirts talk about girl problems and fight evil with the power of friendship and accessories.”

Ugh, just the mention of Rebellion makes me sigh internally.

Congrats on working on your own magical girl story! I hope it goes well for you!

I know it’s not technically a magical girl show, but there was also Totally Spies that Astruc worked on to some degree (I think there was some characters who were based on/a loose reference to the mains from that show but I don’t remember exactly).

The thing about the female characters suffering is that they could make for good lessons on positively directing one’s emotions (like Usagi from Sailor Moon, for example, maybe having a problem with taking her anger out on her friends, but learns that she can save that rage for the bad guys; “Gamer 2.0″ from Miraculous could’ve done that, honestly, by having Ladybug absolutely WRECK all of her gaming opponents in “violent” (cartoon violence obviously) fashion). It’s just a shame that it’s not taken advantage of.

Sayaka??? Selfish???????

*does not compute*

(Also, I wasn’t tired of them, don’t worry! It was a little overwhelming in my inbox but it’s me who’s allowing all the asks to flow in so the blame isn’t on you lol.)

I’m not sure where this obsession came from with, “you have to be selfless and you’re not allowed to use your powers for yourself.” It’s like the world’s going to end if a character leaves to go Self-Care or something. I think what happened is that shows got this idea that promoting only the giving of others is great and it’s not important to take time for yourself (even with “Gamer 2.0,” it was still Marinette playing games with everyone else, and they treated her dedication and seriousness like a bad thing when she literally did not have time to waste and they didn’t give a reason why it was good for her to take a break, only that she should).

This usually leads to the “demonization” of characters who sport a lot of self-confidence or any sort of ego. It works on both sides; Marinette is a punching bag because of her anxiety and occasional lack of confidence, but if she had an ego as Ladybug, there are parts of the fandom who deem her “obnoxious” (i.e: “Reflekdoll”). There’s a delicate balance between “be confident” and “be humble” and it’s a tightrope act.

#((Yes! This strategy works for not losing asks.))#((In other news--))#((I gotta test out this new microphone so I wanna do a ''Voiced Askplosion'' where I record my answers instead of writing them))#((Anyone who sends me a 🎤 alongside their asks will get a voiced response next time!))#((I probably can't answer everything but you know how it is~))#(((i swear that someone is going to do it just to see if they can get me to swear when I read out their asks)))#((or... like--))#((''ok i don't actually have a question''))#((''but plz say the words 'adrien and marinette are meant to be' because i want to hear how much u struggle to say it''))#category: salt #other: non ml talk #category: ramble #character: Marinette Dupain Cheng #category: fandom #episode: Evillustrator #character: Chat Noir #character: Ladybug #character: Adrien Agreste #character: Stormy Weather #category: me myself and i #category: staff #relationship: Adrien Agreste & Marinette Dupain Cheng #character: Aeon #character: Uncanny Valley #relationship: love square #MC's Renders #render: persona

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redshoesnblueskies · 4 years

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free PillowFort invites - would you like one? what is PF? glad you asked!

Do you know about PillowFort? Did you find yourself nodding (nay, weeping) about the post I reblogged yesterday about how the tumblr platform sucks for community building? The one with the quote, “When Authors stopped being friends and turned into content providers, new fandom members never learned to care.” from zoinomiko? PILLOWFORT MAY BE EXACTLY RIGHT FOR YOU. Lemme explain!

Pillowfort is like the best of the LJ/DW platform and the best of the tumblr platform, if all of tumblr had most of x-kit installed (snort). (forgive me if this list is long but that’s because PF is fucking amazing - I can’t help it!)

Such as:

following: you can follow others, they can follow you. your feed will be an endless scroll, like here.

reblogs - you like a post, reblog jand it will show up on your PF blog to all of your followers, just like here.

HOWEVER - if you are the original post creator, you control it. Forever.

if you are the post author/creator, you can delete it at any time - and it will be deleted everywhere. (god haven’t you wished you could do this for some of your tumblr posts where reblogs have content you despise but are now permanently out in the world???)

to reiterate: if you made a post, you are in complete control as to its existence - it never ends up reblogged out of your control, because it’s never embedded on someone elses’ blog as new content, even though it’s visible in the PF feeds of those who reblog from you.

you can tag posts when you reblog them, just like here

you can comment on posts (whether you reblog them or not)

as a commenter, you can delete your own comment at any time.

the comment structure is NESTED - like a well constructed forum or DW or LJ. If someone responds to you, it shows up indented under your comment. If someone comments on the original post, it shows up as not indented. Just as you’d expect.

if you’ve only ever been on tumblr you have no idea how much this creates relationships and real community. That post that I reblogged yesterday that talked about how “When Authors stopped being friends and turned into content providers, new fandom members never learned to care.” - THAT is what a forum designed for real discussion in a comprehensible visual format creates.

As the post creator, you can delete anyone’s comments. You are in charge of the vibe on your own original post.

this creates self-selected community involvement - if you’re a jerk, nice people will un-friend your blog and just leave it alone. If you foster happy healthy vibes, people will appear and join and comment.

This fosters a huge golden-rule environment that made some blogs a huge happy success on LJ/DW where mean people were banned and kind people were welcomed and celebrated; and some mean toxic successes - where healthy people went somewhere nicer. I‘m not even gonna bold that. Because fuck that dynamic on the entire internet.

you can create original posts your followers can read/see on their feeds

you can make these available to all without restrictions

OR you can make them any of these options:

un-rebloggable

un-commentable

marked/categorized as NSFW to help others screen

or visible only to mutuals

(a feature whereby we can create our own curated ‘friend groups’ is promised. remember, this is entirely new code they’re creating. features are being requested and implemented as fast as they can roll them out in a functional way)

Incidentally, if you have a problem, the staff is actually real humans who really respond to you! Shocking, isn’t it?

there are communities you can join or create - have a particular fandom or RL interest? find or create a community - search by tags!

There are different post types to choose from:

text

picture

video (currently only youtube, but that will expand)

link (shows a preview of the website you’re linking to, just like here) (incidentally, this will embed an instagram photo or video and the video will play - yes!)

audio (currently soundcloud only, that will expand)

You can send private mail to another member (and mail you write does not vanish into the ether, it remains as part of the conversation chain when you click on it. kinda clunky, but getting there!)

you can choose to receive messages from anyone, noone, or only your mutuals

You can blacklist content based on key-word

You can filter as well

You can block users (god bless the block button anywhere on the internet)

You can check notifications

you can instantly sort ‘replies’ from ‘likes & reblogs’

There are avatars (do they support animation yet? I’m not sure?)

there aren’t themes yet (give the poor coders time!), but you can change your PF’s color scheme to whatever you like

You can deactivate your account - make in vanish, but without deleting it. handy if you just wanna go away, but not lose all your content - and not have your content be visible while you’re gone

You can delete you account (of course)

You have three invites a week you can give away free! Though PF needs the $5 life-long one-time registration fee to keep the lights on, this is a way to help someone who’d love to be a member, but hasn’t got the cash :)

If you want to join PF and cannot afford the one-time $5 fee (which is paying for server & bandwidth ), I am happy to give away my 3 invites a week to any friends on here - where ‘friend’ equals ‘nice people who’ve been nice on here!’ Just DM me, and I’ll give you one :) Please pay them if you can afford to though!

Pillowfort is a great design for fandom, it’s not owned by some big corporate entity - it’s run by fans. Remember what that feels like? Dreamwidth? AO3? Like that. Real humans, who will really respond to you.

I really really want to see Pillowfort become a successful platform - COME JOIN US! WE’RE HAVING GREAT FUN AND MAKING REAL RELATIONSHIPS :)

PF members - feel free to chime in about any awesomeness I forgot to include! [any haters, eff off]

Everyone keep in mind, Pillowfort is a brand new platform being created from scratch - updates roll out regularly (if they break anything, staff is all over it and its fixed quickly), requested features are being implemented all the time (and seldom break things - how weird), and Real Humans Such As Yourself are doing all of this, without whopping paychecks [any paychecks] and without being owned by some corporation. (Incidentally, they could use your donation - whether one time or subscription, amount is your choice)

If ‘being nice to fellow fans because they are friends, not simply faceless content creators’ is an unfamiliar concept...please feel free to try it out when discussing PF on this post :D

ETA!!!

in her HUGELY THOROUGH pifo info post, @lavender-sprinkles also pointed people toward ‘a completely interaction-free Google form” where you can find free invites!!

The PILLOWFORT INVITE KEY EXCHANGE PROJECT - ‘Itching to join Pillowfort, but can't swing the $5 fee? Fear not! All you have to do is fill out this form and we will connect you with a PiFo user who has a spare key meant just for you! Absolutely FREE! Then just sit back and patiently wait for it to arrive.‘

DUDE. IT COULD NOT BE EASIER TO GET A FREE ACCOUNT - AWESOME!

#pillowfort invites #pillowfort #pillowfort.io #pillowfort.social #fandom culture #fandom history #no i am not affiliated in any way with PF #I JUST LOVE IT OKAY?#ETA FOR PILLOWFORT INVITE KEY EXCHANGE PROJECT

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beca-mitchell · 4 years

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you can think that you're in love (when you're really just in pain) (1/1)

anonymous said: Imagine a scenario where Beca never emerged from the water after the explosion, and Chloe was eventually brought to land. She stood on the harbour all night and all morning as search and rescue tried to locate her but they never found her. Chloe eventually moved on with Chicago at the urging of her friends and on the day of her wedding, Beca reappears. She was discovered washed up on a nearby shore with amnesia and was nursed back to health. Eventually finding her way back to Chloe.

*posted as text because i have issues w/ the ask/answer format and tagging

Notes: lmao i got carried away and i promise i only intended to respond to this ask in a short concise way, but here’s 1.7k words. title from “moral of the story”.

read below or on AO3.

* * * * *

"Chloe, you can’t stay out here all night.”

It is Chicago’s voice, soft and urgent, that lulls Chloe back into the present moment. Amidst the ringing in her ears, a product of being in such close proximity to an exploding boat. With disappointment, she scans the rippling water—water far too gentle for the turmoil she feels within her own body—to no avail.

Still no sign of Beca.

At this point, she feels increasingly helpless and even more poignant, she feels hopeless—a sentiment she never thought she’d feel when it came to Beca Mitchell. It’s just hard to really feel anything else at the moment because Beca isn’t standing there by her side.

Things had been frantic and unclear when they landed in the water. Chloe’s throat is still sore from both the copious amounts of water she swallowed and how loudly she had screamed for Beca, disoriented by the cold water and the darkness around them. She had felt various pairs of hands on her shoulders and arms—other Bellas to be sure—but she hadn’t felt Beca. And when they all had been pulled ashore eventually, first onto a rescue boat, then to blessed, solid land, Chloe had finally come to the conclusion that they had left Beca behind.

“We didn’t find her,” the search and rescue operations had told them. “We couldn’t find her—we’ll search again in the morning.”

Chloe couldn’t wait for morning.

“Chloe,” Chicago says again.

“We left her behind,” Chloe whispers. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“It’s...” Chicago hesitates when Chloe’s eyes cut to his with warning flaring up in them. “It’s just cold...and dark out there,” he tries. “It’s probably...”

“Stop,” Chloe whispers with a waver in her voice. “She’ll come. She has to.”

* * * * *

(More vivid than ever, a memory floats to the forefront of Chloe’s mind—Beca tentatively rounding the corner, hesitant and wary, showing up late to an acapella try-out. And all Chloe recalls is how relieved she had felt. How comforted. How happy because Beca had made it. Beca had made it and Chloe was happy.)

* * * * *

She doesn’t make it. She doesn't come. She doesn't wash ashore in some grand scene. Chloe doesn't sweep Beca into her arms and kiss her until the morning comes.

It's just...nothing.

* * * * *

It is incredible to Chloe how it only takes a few days to declare somebody missing when that person has a vibrant two—almost three—decades of life behind them. Life that Chloe was only so fortunate to share in for a brief period. Too short a period.

It is incredible how the words “legally missing” mean nothing and everything at the same time.

* * * * *

“Are you going to stay out here all night?”

Aubrey’s voice, soft and sincere, cuts through Chloe’s thoughts.

“What’s that?” Chloe murmurs, shaking some of the faint rushing from her head. It reminds her of waves gently rolling against an empty shore bringing her nothing but dashed dreams and disappointments.

"I asked if you're going to stay out here all night," Aubrey prompts again.

A part of Chloe wishes she could. It had felt remarkably draining to have to smile and accept congratulatory hugs from people she barely knew. Then to receive sympathetic looks from people she considered closer friends. “I’ll have to go back in soon. I mean—I should, shouldn’t I?” she murmurs, mostly asking herself at this point. She's sure Aubrey will respond regardless.

“It is your engagement party,” Aubrey points out, surprisingly delicate. “Chloe, I...” She doesn’t finish her thoughts, another surprising moment for Aubrey, but Chloe appreciates the brief reprieve from questioning and inquiry.

Chloe sighs, lifting her left hand from the balcony railing to look at the ring adorning her finger.

“Do you think...” Chloe swallows, unsure what she even wants to ask.

Do you think she’s out there still?

Do you think he’s right for me?

Do you think I’ll ever move on from loving her?

She has asked herself and others variations of these questions over the past year. One year of not having Beca Mitchell in her life. One year of not knowing whether Beca is even dead or alive. One year of constantly feeling relief and dread all at once with each passing day of the coast guard notifying them that they have yet to find Beca or, worse, her lifeless body.

One year of all the love for Beca welling up inside herself and nowhere to put it.

Chicago had seemed like a safe option. An option so safe that the result of her decision rests heavy on her finger, sparkling back at her like it dares to wink.

“You know it’s never too late, right, Chloe?”

“To do what?”

“To...to not marry him.”

It makes Chloe take pause as she contemplates Aubrey’s words. It’s true that she could just choose not marry Chicago, but he does, for all intents and purposes, make her happy. He makes her feel safe and cherished.

He loves her.

That fact is particularly important because if she’s being honest with herself, for as much as she remains distraught and hung up on Beca, she hadn’t truly known if Beca had loved her in return. Not in the way that Chloe had wanted all these years, at least.

(It seems almost like a cheap shot at Beca’s memory, however, because of course Beca had loved her. And Chloe had let herself fall deeper for Beca even though things remained unspoken between them. Beca had never been good with words, but Chloe had been one of the few people that had been privy to being let in by Beca herself. Privy to understanding Beca and everything she stood for. The things she didn’t say.)

“I love him,” Chloe finally responds, ignoring the way her voice wavers. “And he loves me. And we’re getting married because of that and nothing else.”

Aubrey says nothing. Instead, she pulls Chloe in for a hug, a long, comfortable hug, and lets Chloe cry on her shoulder.

* * * * *

Life has a weird way of somehow working out and yet completely throwing Chloe into a tailspin all at the same time. She is roused from sleep less than a week after her engagement party. She sighs, noting the empty space on the bed next to her. Chicago had left just the day before and she already misses the comforting sensation of feeling less alone upon waking up.

However, this morning she realizes belatedly that she has been roused from sleep due to the obnoxious buzzing of her phone on her bedside. She peers at the screen noting the unfamiliar number before she decides to let it go to voicemail, opting for more sleep instead.

She regrets that decision much later.

* * * * *

Chloe Beale? This is Dr. Carter from Mount Sinai in Manhattan. This might come as a shock to you but we have recently been working with authorities as a patient has come into our care and you were listed as one of the main contacts for her. We have a Beca Mitchell being attended to at this moment, having just been brought over from Europe where she had sustained a fairly serious head injury about a year ago. We can’t get into more details at the moment and we would appreciate it if you could make your way to New York as soon as possible. We are also reaching out to other contacts to make sure—

Chloe hits the replay button with a trembling finger.

Chloe Beale? This is Dr. Carter—

She can’t believe what she’s hearing.

—patient has come into our care—

It feels like a dream and a nightmare all rolled into one. She feels sick, she feels nauseous, she feels—

—have a Beca Mitchell being attended to at—

She collapses onto her bed, staring in shock at her phone, now loosely grasped in her hand. The faint echo of the voicemail calls out to her, but she can barely force herself to move. To function. To breathe.

When she finally comes to her senses, Chloe takes a gasping breath, clasping a hand over her mouth to stop the sob that threatens to escape.

“Beca,” she whispers, testing the name aloud on her lips for the first time in a long time.

Beca is home.

* * * * *

“Miss, are you going to go in?”

Chloe lifts her head from where she had been watching her foot scuff the floor of the bright hospital tile. She feels exhausted and drained already, mostly from the flight from California to New York, where she had spent most of it on the verge of throwing up and also on the verge of crying. She hadn’t expected this—had dreamed of it—to fall into her lap. She hadn’t prepared. She hadn’t even given herself a chance to decide what she wanted to say to Beca.

“I—” Chloe takes in the sympathetic expression on the nurse’s face. Like the nurse understands the turmoil she is going through at this moment. She fiddles with the ring on her finger, her hand jammed into the pocket of her sweater. “I should just...” she clears her throat. She knows she can’t wait outside forever.

She never wants Beca to be waiting for her.

“Can I?” she asks timidly, placing a hand on the door.

“You can. I’ll just take the paperwork,” the nurse says kindly. He gently takes the paperwork Chloe had filled out while waiting and guides her with a hand outstretched towards the room, gesturing at her to go in. “She was asking for you, you know?”

At that, Chloe feels unmistakable tears well up in her eyes and she twists before he can see anything else on her face. To twist however, is to enter the room completely where she comes face-to-face with Beca Mitchell for the first time in a year. She couldn’t stop the gasping breath that escapes her even if she had foresight to do so. Beca looks up, startled, looking paler and thinner than Chloe remembers, but very much alive.

“Chloe,” Beca rasps. She clears her throat, a hint of colour returning to her cheeks. “Chloe,” she tries again, clearer than before. “You’re here,” she says, awe tainting her voice.

Chloe breaks, rushing towards the bed into Beca’s outstretched arms, nestling herself in the feeling of home.

She feels nothing except the warmth of Beca’s body against her. Nothing except of how tightly Beca’s hands tangle into her hair, holding her close. Nothing, not even the press of the cool metal band around her finger.

Just Beca, in her arms, like she had dreamt of all this time.

fin.

#bechloe #pitch perfect #beca mitchell #chloe beale #you can think that you're in love #my fanfic #mine #bechloe fic

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reallybadfeeling · 3 years

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My Obikin Playlist Masterpost Part 2

Not that anybody was really waiting for this, but here is the second part of the playlist with an explanation for each song. If you are interested in reading my rant on the first 20 songs, you can check the post I made last week HERE.

Without further ado, I'll leave you to my rant for songs 21 to 40.

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❧ One in a Million - Midnight to Monaco

Tears fall like acid rain and it burns me through the skin It's taken everything from me, I've lost my innocence The bats brings the night today, watch them turn the sky to black Like a gun that fires that sound again Frightens me until the bitter end I can't keep holding on And I hide away I need it to keep me from breaking down And I'm under Baby I can't carry on, dead and I've been buried on Baby, I was one in a million Even if our love was strong, take me down and let it fall Baby, I was one in a million And I was holding, burning, waking, turning Tasting blood and losing time I want to get a hold of myself Baby, I was one in a million [...] And I need it to keep me from thinking I won't find my wings no more

This entire song is about how someone's life gets absolutely destroyed by drug abuse. Or at least, that's how I always interpreted this. But drug abuse always makes me think about any kind of obsessions doing exactly the same thing. So I love this song for Anakin in particular. That "I was one in a million" giving me this "Chosen One" vibe. Like he got lost on the way to what he was supposed to be, and now that he's fallen he has no clue how to get back to what he was supposed to be, that one in a million.

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❧ Losing My Religion - R.E.M.

The lengths that I will go to The distance in your eyes Oh no, I've said too much I set it up That's me in the corner That's me in the spotlight Losing my religion Trying to keep up with you And I don't know if I can do it Oh no, I've said too much I haven't said enough [...] Every whisper, of every waking hour I'm choosing my confessions Trying to keep an eye on you Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool [...] Consider this the hint of the century Consider this the slip That brought me to my knees, failed

Another classic song that is in basically any ships' playlist. And it fits so much with unrequited love (or pining in general). How can I not think of Obi-Wan trying desperately to be a good Jedi while he's well aware of his feelings for Anakin?

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❧ Hurt Me - Lapsley

Can't look at you the same way, anticipatin' heartbreak And I know, and I know, and I know I'm puttin' on a brave face to meet you in the same place And I know, and I know, and I know Gotta let my mind find another space 'Cause I heard these scars never go away And now I'm runnin' out of ways to numb the pain So if you're gonna hurt Why don't you hurt me a little bit more? Just dig a little deeper Push a little harder than before [...] Like breathing underwater, what's the law and order? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know You're sitting in a corner, hiding til it's over And it shows, and it shows, and it shows Buildin' up my walls just to tear them down Tell me that it's love, force me to drown Buildin' up my walls just to tear them down Tell me that it's love And I thought you said you still loved me [...] And I'm counting down the seconds that we have I can see the end in sight, at last So if you're gonna hurt me Why don't you hurt me a little bit more?

This entire song makes me think of one of those situations where both of them are pining and convinced that the other is about to tell them something that would end up breaking their heart. Basically first half is Obi-Wan knowing from the start that they won't work, maybe because he thinks Anakin is in love with Padmé and that's what Anakin wants to talk about; second half is Anakin, sure that Obi-Wan would deny having feelings for him because of how much he loves being a Jedi so he tries to be a better Jedi for the sake of Obi-Wan. Because I love the trope of both of them being too oblivious to realize they are in love.

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❧ The Shelter of My Love - Astropol

When you have nothing to lose No one dear and no one to care for Non one sees you but I do I'll take you in I won't let you go Oh the middle of the night Black as tar and eager to hold you Just as pretty as my love Just as hungry Just as eternal [...] When you have no bridge to burn No place to go, no place to return to No one loves you like I do I love you [...] When you have nothing to lose And nightfall comes, eager to hold you No one loves you like I do I love you I love you, I love you Oh shelter of my faith All the peril, all the weight Mighty glorious The shelter of my faith Oh shelter of my trust All the longing, all the lust God will help you if you lost the shelter of my trust

I'm perfectly aware that this is a song about faith. It's basically like a call to pray because even when you are lost the one person that will always be there for you is God. BUT, this actually works pretty well for the Jedi Order too. And if we think of how Anakin joined the Jedi, how he felt like the only thing he would lose is his mother, it kinda makes sense with these lyrics. And even Obi-Wan: he was given to the Jedi when he was so young that that's the only life he knows. At the same time, it can be about Anakin and Obi-Wan finding that solace in each other too, because sure, the entire Order is there to support them. But it's almost like it's their last option to them, because when in need the first person they go to is the other.

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❧ The Night We Met - Lord Huron

I am not the only traveler Who has not repaid his debt I've been searching for a trail to follow again Take me back to the night we met And then I can tell myself What the hell I'm supposed to do And then I can tell myself Not to ride along with you I had all and then most of you Some and now none of you Take me back to the night we met I don't know what I'm supposed to do Haunted by the ghost of you Oh, take me back to the night we met When the night was full of terrors And your eyes were filled with tears When you had not touched me yet Oh, take me back to the night we met

You should know me by now. If a song that is basically perfect for Obi-Wan post RotS, I'm gonna find it. And this one is just PERFECT! Like, Obi-Wan absolutely feels like he owes something to the universe because he is the one who failed Anakin, who allowed him to fall. So I imagine him wanting a do-over, a chance to stay away from Anakin so that Anakin can be better and his own heart can't be broken in such a terrible way. Basically, this is also perfect for a time traveler Obi-Wan trying to fix things from day 1.

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❧ Danger - JKAY feat Shola Ama

I'm a million reasons in And I'm going out on a limb But I can't, no I can't deny Cause I, I fell in love with danger And I think I found a stranger in you The boy that I knew, left me torn into two And I don't know what to do

Nothing fancy about this one, just Obi-Wan realizing there is a wild side to the cute, totally unable to flirt young teenager he took care of for so long. Basically something to write smut on. You all know you need these kind of songs too. (And I picked the acoustic version because it gives me more soft love-making vibes, but the original one is perfect for a more passionate kind of mood).

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❧ Amandoti - Giovanni Lindo Ferretti

Loving you makes me weary, guts my insides (It’s) Something that feels like laughing in tears Loving you makes me weary, it makes me sorrowful What can you do (about it), that’s life That’s life, my (life) [...] Loving you comforts my sleepless nights It’s something that replaces old dead flames Loving you comforts me, it gives me joy What can you do (about it), that’s life But (that) life is my life Love me once more, do it softly One year, one month, one hour (Do it) Hopelessly Love me once more, do it softly Just for an hour But let it be forever

I was forced to put the live version from the original composer in the playlist, but a couple of weeks ago I posted a link to Maneskin's cover of this song (which, isn't on Spotify). You can check it out HERE, with a full translation of the lyrics (yes, Italian songs will always be a thing for this playlist, get over it). Like I said in the tags of that post, this is just another one of those songs that give me post RotS Obi-Wan feels. Just him all alone and heartbroken wishing he could feel Anakin's love just once more. Simply perfection.

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❧ Lemon Eyes - Meg Myers

Hush now baby, there's no need to cry Let me wipe away those lemon eyes All your worries, such a waste of time You can't even see how much you're mine You're so bitter, bitter, bitter, yellow Settle, settle, got to settle down, okay Listen, listen, you listen, yellow It's a killer, a killer, a killer jealousy Lemon eyes, you're mine Yellow eyes, all mine I bet you wanna walk away, run away, look away, turn away Honey you can't hide Lemon eyes, all mine

Do I even have to explain this? It's basically perfect for all of Anakin's issues with jealousy, but with what yellow eyes mean in this fandom it could absolutely be about Sith!Anakin. It's just such a fitting song for these two, with Obi-Wan trying to reason with a very unreasonable Anakin... (And I might have anonymously suggested to someone to listen to it as a good song for their fic. *coff coff* @tennessoui *coff coff*)

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❧ 10 Years - Daði Freyr

We've been together for a decade now Still everyday I'm lovin' you more If I could do it all again I'd probably do it all the same as before I don't wanna know what would've happened If I never had had your love I didn't became myself before I met you I don't wanna know what would've happened If I never had felt you love Everything about you, I like We started out so fast Now we can take it slower Love takes some time Takes a little time, so take a litte time As it ages like wine [...] And just when I thought that my heart was full I found place that I never explored You're so fascinating And I can't remember the last time I was bored [...] How does it keep getting better? Everyday our love finds a new way to grow The time we spend together Simply feels good We got a good thing going

How could I not put this song in this playlist? Like, it can literally be about how in the many years together, their love for each other grew and grew, and changed to get better with time. But it can also be just Anakin and Obi-Wan in an established relationship, since this is technically a song about a ten years anniversary. I just LOVE IT. It's super sweet and we all need fluff sometimes.

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❧ Different Kind Of Love - Kid Runner

It was always you there Dancing towards me Grabbing both my hands like Here we go, here we go again Maybe it was destiny We were so familiar But you caught me staring And I don't know, I don't know, I guess [...] And when you're near me I can't help but be under your spell Can I make you believe you're the only one I need? [...] It must've been something A switch in my brain It kept me in motion It drove me insane It must've been something Something you said You're pulling me under Holding me close Inside my head Oh, it's a different kind of love And when I see your face I know, I know You got me going Oh, and this could be enough I'm dreaming wide awake I know, I know

Classic friends to lovers AU song that works wonders with Anakin's kind of love, all obsessive and stuff. Definitely can picture teen Anakin pining over Obi-Wan to the tune of this, all awkward boners at absolutely inappropriate times and Obi-Wan never truly pointing it out, because he doesn't want to make Anakin even more uncomfortable.

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❧ Ruthless - GIRLI

Home? What's that? I got a doll's house with a few cracks Grew too tall, now I'm poking out the attic My feet are in the basement 'cause I never wanna hack it Life, what's that? Life, what's that? [...] Take my soul, Take me down Take me back to the beginning of this when I was still innocent Me, sorry who? I'm a kid in a grown-up suit Looking in the mirror tryna figure out who's Banging on the glass 'cause they're tryna break through Is it me? Is it you? Think it's me, wish I knew Take me, use me, screw me over Play me like I like losing Trip me, trick me, drug me Say you love me but you like cheating You're the only one to blame You made me this way Guess that's why I'm so damn Ruthless You made me, you made me You made me ruthless You made me, you made me You made me ruthless Only way to do it When you break me and I lose it Oh, you made me You made me so damn fucking ruthless [...] Yeah it's tragic All the bad bits Made me so damn ruthless No, it's not me I don't wanna be Ruthless

Being a woman, I know perfectly that this song is about how sometimes women have to grow up to be mean because of all of the abuse they go throw in their life. But I kind of see Anakin as this person that would absolutely blame everyone else for his fall to the Dark Side and this works so well! Like, the doll house is a metaphor for how the Jedi Order was supposed to be his home, but in the end he felt like he was used, like the Jedi told him they loved him just to trick him into doing whatever they wanted, basically cheating him of a simpler life with his mom. And even the looking in the mirror thing could be when he's already in the Vader suit and he doesn't know if Vader is what he was supposed to be all along or somewhere inside him there's this young innocent child trying to get out. What can I say, most of the times I have Obi-Wan feelings. But every once in a while I find something twisted enough to give me Anakin/Vader feelings too.

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❧ All or Nothing - Wild Youth

I remember when we were younger We used to stay up late We used to watch the sun go down, the sun go down Yeah at night I, I think about ya How I spent so long living without ya You're all I need, the air I breathe So hold tight, I'm coming 'Cause it's all or nothing I'm a million miles away and I feel so low I've been driving all night just to get back home to you To you See the sunrise, it's a classi break Driving down roads that I used to take with you With you Every streetlight, new horizon Start to wonder if you realise Oh, we were vain, was more than friends So hold tight, I'm coming 'Cause it's all or nothing

Okay, this is kind of perfect for a very specific kind of AU. Like, the "they used to be childhood friends, then got separated by life, but they were always meant for each other, so after meeting once by chance after years separated, they can't go back to their life, they have to stay with the other" kind of specific AU. The song might work with how the Clone Wars kept them separate too, but... yeah. It's kinda specific. Sorry not sorry.

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❧ Someone Like You - Noah Kahan feat. Joy Oladokun

Guess I'm a mess now Lost with my head down I haven't heard from you in weeks You must have left town I can't go back now And all that I have now Are those feelings I felt Knowing that no one else can bring them back out And I've been trying to find a silver lining But I can't But I can't Now that I can't hold you I wish that I had tried to Do more not to lose you Now that I can't find you Because the second you left, yeah the voice in my head screamed "What did I do?" Now you're gone and all I want is someone like you

Once again, ignoring that this is a song about a couple breaking up after one of the two cheated because this is also perfect for Anakin confessing his love for Obi-Wan as soon as he's a Knight. He was sure that would make Obi-Wan accept his love and try to get in a relationship, instead Obi-Wan panicked and asked to get sent as far away from Anakin as he could. So of course Anakin is filled with regret about his confession.

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❧ Big Boy - Charlotte Cardin

Maybe if I spell it out Big boy will take me on proper You nailed my heart to your wall You never dusted off after [...] Maybe if I'm a broken wing Big boy in my nest You nailed my heart to your wall And disposed of the rest of me With your push and shove Like what's love ain't love But it's love to me My boy is not a man yet My boy is not a man yet But boy do I love it when you kiss my neck Oh boy last night was perfect You're changing my mind Like what's mine ain't mine Be mine to be Maybe if we try again Big boy we could have it my way You nailed my heart to your wall But it was damaged anyways

Another song to write smut to, but smut with feels. Mainly Obi-Wan's, that maybe feels like Anakin played with him just so that they could sleep together, but never actually tried to put a pin on what their relationship is supposed to be after. And Obi-Wan realizes that part of the reason is that Anakin is still so young and maybe he's the one that made a mistake. Like, he's not even sure that what he feels is real, but he still keeps following what Anakin wants because what is the alternative after all?

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❧ Home with You - Marie Dahlstrom

Happy to be home with you Happy to wake up with you Even after all that you've benne through Happy that you feel the same Hope that I can ease the pain Happy to come by 'Cause you just give me life And I love spending time with you It's easy when I want you like that I don't regret it even if you might think That I've got Plenty other reasons in my head Plenty other questions still unsaid Nobody knows where you'll go but I'm here [...] I don't understand it all Still I will accept your flaws Just the way that you're accepting mine No, I'm not really one to judge We can laugh it off because It's just one life for you and I and I know [...] Feels so good when it's You by my side I could just stay all night I could just stay all night I love the things you do Nobody knows where we'll go but I'm here Baby, whenever you need me Baby come over, baby come over Whenever you need I will always be by your side

This song can honestly fit multiple things. It can absolutely be Obi-Wan accepting that Anakin reaches out for him only in certain situations and him always being open to it, no matter how their relationship isn't really the traditional kind of relationship (like, a friends with benefits kind of deal). But it can also be Obi-Wan and Anakin getting together when Anakin is already Vader, so Obi-Wan is slowly falling to the Dark Side too. You can also just use this as another song to write soft love making too since it's so slow and soft. Or just do whatever you want with it.

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❧ Hands Tied - Beatrich

You got me home sick for your arms The arms that keep me close But you just slip though my fingers Like I'm tryna catch a ghost I'd travel to the moon and back For you and all that you could say is That you didn't ask for that You'd never ask I'd travel to the moon and back For you and all that you could say is That you didn't ask for that You'd never And you stand there Looking at me with my hands tied And how foolish Foolish of me to let this one slide I'm terrified The roots are way too deep And there is no way out You just stand there Looking at me with my hands tied

Huge vibes of Anakin being mad in love with Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan pushing him away because he sees Anakin as a brother, not as a lover. And there's all kind of pining from Anakin because of the unrequited love and he tries to do crazy stuff for Obi-Wan hoping he will fall in love with him but it fails... Yeah, that's the angst that hurts in the best way! (But, you know, can totally be reversed to Obi-Wan in love with Anakin in a canon scenario with Anakin married to Padmé.)

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❧ Same Bed - Lola Young

I'm too quick to judge, too fast to fuck If we're lonely and I'm No good in love, 'cause the last time I ended up a little dead inside Sorry I lied, I do not want you, no Sorry my pride's a little too high To let you know I cried when you said you had to go, baby [...] (whispered) Fuck then, don't do this to me now Don't say my name when you're talking to me Don't say we're on the same page Don't look away when you walk into me I like the pain, I like the pain I'm making it hard for you to move on And be lonely 'cause I'm So good with words that the last time I broke his heart [...] I got a bit drunk yesterday evening and I Told you some things I didn't mean, oh did I? Hate it, I hate it when I get complacent I love it when you pull that face and we make mistakes Utterly wasted And wake up in the same bed In the same t-shirt I told you I loved you in The same regrets Like wearing the t-shirt I told you I love you in [...] I only like you when you're naked At least, that's what I proved to myself Can't make a fool of myself, baby God, it's so frustrating, making such a fool of myself Gotta make do with myself, baby I only like you when you're naked At least, that's what I proved to myself You make a fool of myself, baby Let's overcomplicate it, maybe just lose ourselves

Back with the complicated relationship and the angst. Can see this in a canon compliant AU with both Anakin and Obi-Wan not really wanting to admit they are in love with each other, but somehow they always end up sleeping together, and telling the other how much they love them just to regret all of it the day after. Basically making things complicated for no reason other than Obi-Wan not wanting to break the rules/his belief that he's meant for infinite sadness, but also because Anakin can't give up on this twisted love despite how much it hurts him and being petty in trying to make Obi-Wan suffer just as much.

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❧ Ghost - Harper

Not putting lyrics here because this entire song gives me Obi-Wan on Tatooine post-RotS vibes. Like, he's literally on the planet Anakin came from, there to protect Anakin's kids. OF COURSE he sees Anakin's "ghost". Like, he sees so much of Anakin in Luke when he grows up. And it feels kind of fitting as a punishment for Obi-Wan to be slowly going crazy because he keeps being haunted by this image of Anakin around him. Literally this line: "why you gotta make me weak to make me stronger". That's Obi-Wan trying to get over this love for Anakin and realizing that he has to mourn and suffer before he becomes stronger and able to get free from this ghost's hold. (But, you know, Anakin's ghost might even be actually Anakin, in a scenario where Anakin is actually trapped inside of Vader and trying to get free by reaching out to Obi-Wan for help.)

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❧ Qualcosa di Grande - Cesare Cremonini

What happened, you changed You are not the same Or are you still the one That grew up with me What happened, you ran away And with you so did my life I searched for it, I searched for it But I found it only in you There's something important between us That you can never change Not even if you want to But there's something important between us That you can never forget Not even if you want to What happened, you fell You fell too low and now you try to climb back up But it's a struggle you don't want [...] What happened, your light Your light is obscured By someone that I know And that took you away from me What happened, your star Your star eclipsed And now (I dare you to) shine from the darkness without me

Yet another song that gives me RotS feels. It's obviously a break up song, a song about regrets and struggling to move on. So of course in it I see Anakin falling to the Dark Side and Obi-Wan trying to remind him of what is between the two of them so that Anakin comes back to him. (If you want to read the complete translation, you can check it out here.)

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❧ Dark Side - Phoebe Ryan

At your worst, you're the best Baby I don't want another version, no Hard to love, hard to trust But don't change Don't be a better person for me 'Cuz I'm in love with your dark side I'm in love with your dark side So don't turn on the light [...] Even if it hurts, I want you heart Even at your worst, I love you hard If you wanna keep me, go too far

Another song that is more of a both!Sith AU but also something Vaderwan would work honestly. I like the twisted nature of this kind of love so much in fics. Can absolutely works with any version of Anakin or/and Obi-Wan being the bad guy in the story.

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All done! All 20 new songs I added to the original playlist explained away. Like last time, I hope you find any of this entertaining or useful. If any of this inspires your creativity, don't be shy and tag me on your stuff. I'll gladly read it/watch it/enjoy it.

#obikin #obikin playlist #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #if you use any of these please tag me #i wanna see all of the content!#feel free to suggest songs if you want #i'm always happy to listen to something new #and my ask box is always open #i'm getting more and more specific because i think every au needs its own song #so yeah #there are a bunch of songs that work for specific AUs #but i'm sure out there a writer is waiting for that specific song to get out of a writer's block while writing their fic #and i wanna help them finish their fics!#also my brain sees obikin everywhere so of course i have to make you part of this disease of mine #i'll probably post part 3 next week because I have more songs to add to this playlist #finger crossed that my migraine decides to chill for a while so i can write the next post #Spotify

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taxominn · 4 years

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A Comprehensive Guide to Archive of Our Own Filters

It’s complicated, I know. I’ve been using the website for years and there’s still stuff I don’t understand! I thought it’d be a nice idea to add a little guide for the filters on here for all those who need it. Enjoy!

What is Archive of Our Own?

Archive of Our Own, called Ao3 for short, is an “archive for transformative fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fan videos, and podfic.” (Official Statement on the website.) It’s a place where fans can find and enjoy work from the others within their own fandom, as well as upload their own work!

What are Filters?

On Ao3, Filters allow users to narrow down their searches so that they can find the specific things they’re looking for. BUT, the Filtering system — as well as the tagging system — on Ao3 can get a little complicated.

That’s what this guide is for, so continue on!

Understanding Filters

After selecting a fandom to search in, you’ll see the following image, slightly varied depending on if you’re on desktop or mobile:

(I’m on mobile and I used the Naruto fandom as an example.)

Upon clicking the Filters button, you’ll see a number of choices and drop-down menus:

I’ll be going over these in order!

What is Sort By?

The first option you see is the Sort By menu. Upon clicking the drop-down menu, there are nine things to choose from. What Sort By allows you to do, is choose the order you want your search results to appear in. If, for example, you want the longest fanfics with a bunch of words to appear first, you would click the Word Count option.

If you want the most recently updated fanfics to appear first, you would click the Date Updated option. If you want the fanfics to appear in an alphabetical order (A-Z), you would either click Title or Author.

NOTE:

Numerical Order — Word Count, Hits, Kudos, Comments, Bookmarks.

Alphabetical Order — Author, Title.

Chronological Order — Date Posted, Date Updated.

Include or Exclude?

After Sort By, there are two sections: Include and Exclude.

If there are tags you want to see, make sure to select them under the Include section.

BUT, if there are tags you do NOT want to see, select them under the Exclude section.

What are Ratings?

Content ratings are used for games, TV shows, and movies. They rate how suitable the work is for its audience, and Ao3 does the same.

Ratings are as follows from most widely suitable to least suitable:

General Audiences - E for everyone can read it!

Teen and Up Audiences - 15 and up, leave the children behind.

Mature - 18 and up, sorry teens, adults only!

Explicit - Even some of the adults left the room. 🤐

Not Rated - In limbo, the author decided not to use a rating.

What are Warnings?

Warnings are assigned to works that contain triggering content that can make readers upset or uncomfortable.

Ao3 Warnings are as follows:

Major Character Death - If a work includes an important character death that doesn’t happen in the source material.

Graphic Depictions of Violence - If a work includes gruesome scenes, blood, murder, death, torture, or fighting.

Underage - If a work includes minors participating in illegal acts, specifically regarding sex.

Rape/Non-Con - If a work includes scenes where non-consensual sex takes place.

No Archive Warnings Apply - None of the above warnings are included in the work.

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings - For one reason or another, the creator does not disclose the warnings in the tags, or the warnings just don’t apply.

What are the Categories?

Ao3 Categories allow you to pick the relationship dynamics you wish to search for, or exclude from your search. They are as follows:

M/M - Two male characters in a relationship.

F/F - Two female characters in a relationship.

F/M - One female character and one male character in a relationship.

Multi - More than one kind of relationship and/or a relationship with more than two people.

Other - A relationship that’s not covered by the above categories.

Gen - Fics that aren’t primarily about shipping or explore different types of character relationships.

What are the Fandoms?

Obviously, fandoms are the different fan communities for pieces of entertainment media (musicians, games, tv, anime, etc.) Since you usually select the Fandom you want before filtering, this might confuse you, but it does have a purpose.

The Fandoms section allows you to choose other fandoms within the one you’re searching for. This is for crossover fanfics, or fics that take inspiration and story elements from more than one source material.

When you click the Fandoms tab, it shows you the top ten most used fandom tags under the fandom you’ve already picked. My example fandom was Naruto, so Naruto is the first fandom that shows up.

What are Characters?

The Characters tab shows you the characters in the source material of the fandom you’re looking in. It shows the top ten most used character tags within your search and the amount of fics that they are tagged for in parenthesis.

Select their names to include/exclude different characters.

What are Relationships?

Under the Relationships tab, it shows you the top ten most used relationship tags for the characters within your fandom. The relationships might include characters from other fandoms as well as the commonly written Blank Character/Reader or Blank Character/Original Character fanfics, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Select any of them to include/exclude from your search.

What are Additional Tags?

When you click Additional Tags, it shows the top ten most used tags in general for your fandom that don’t apply to the prior sections. Here, you’ll probably find the Alternate Universe tags, the Angst tag, the Fluff tag, and other common subjects found in your fandom’s fanfiction community.

Other Tags To Include/Exclude?

If the tag you’re looking for couldn’t be found in the previous options, then type it into the Other Tags search bar and you’ll likely find it. If it's a common tag, then it’ll show in an autofill selection pop-up underneath the search bar. If it doesn’t show up there, then you can still type it in yourself and see if you can find any fanfics that fit your search.

...

Now, after all that, there’s still a few more things to tackle, and that would be the More Options section. Under More Options, there are miscellaneous things you can choose to further refine your search.

Crossovers?

We talked about crossovers earlier! Under this section, you can choose one of three options: Include Crossovers, Exclude Crossovers, and Show Only Crossovers.

Include Crossovers allows crossover fanfics into your search, Exclude Crossovers removes crossover fanfics from your search, and Show Only Crossovers is for if you’re only searching for crossover fanfics.

What is Completion Status?

Completion Status is how much of a work is finished. Here, you have three options: All Works, Complete Works Only, and Works in Progress only.

All Works includes both complete and incomplete works in your search. Complete Works Only filters out any works that are not finished. Works in Progress Only filters out any works that are finished.

What is Word Count?

Under Word Count, you can decide how long you want the fanfics in your search results to be. Depending on the amount of words you specify, it will filter out any fanfics that do not fit into your range.

There are two search bars. The first search bar is labelled From. The second is labelled To.

If you put a number in the From search bar, your search results will only show you fanfics with a word count that is equal to and more than the number you searched for.

If you put a number in the To search bar, your search results will only show you fanfics with a word count that is equal to and less than the number you searched for.

Putting numbers in both search bars will give you fanfics with a word count that falls between the two numbers.

What is Date Updated?

Under Date Updated, you can search for works that were updated within a specific time period.

Like the Word Count tab, there is a From search bar and a To search bar. Clicking on either of these search bars should cause a mini calendar to pop up, where you can select the date that you want to specify.

If, for some reason, that does not happen, then the date format should look like this: YYYY-MM-DD.

If you put a date in the From search bar, your search results will only show you fanfics that have been updated on that date and afterwards.

If you put a date in the To search bar, your search results will only show you fanfics that have been updated on that date and previous.

Putting dates in both search bars will give you fanfics that have been updated within the time span you have searched for.

What is Search Within Results?

The Search Within Results search bar allows you to further specify what you want. Here, after you select all your tags, any thing you put in this search bar will be found in the title or summary of your search results. You can search for specific authors or specific phrases, if you want. NOTE: all the stories you search for will have all the tags you selected.

There’s a small blue question mark next to where it says Search Within Results, and that gives you instructions on how to use special characters/symbols to include or exclude which words you’d like or would not like to find.

What is Language?

After choosing all the different tags and all of that, you have your last selection option. Here, you’ll see a drop-down menu where you can choose one language that you want all of your search results to be in.

Anddd… done!

When you’re ready, click the Sort and Filter button and your search results will pop up!

I hope A Comprehensive Guide to Ao3 Filters has been helpful for anyone confused about the filters and search options. If you’ve got anymore questions, don’t be afraid to ask.

ℋ𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎 ℛℯ𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓃ℊ!

Taxomin, out! ⭐️

#ao3 fanfic #how to use ao3 #ao3 guide #confusion #filters #tagging #archive of our own #fanfiction #ao3 writer #how to #guide #questions #help

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transgenderteensurvivalguide · 4 years

Note

Are you aware of operation pridefall?

Lee says:

Transphobic and homophobic trolls have been on the internet forever, and sadly it looks like they won’t be going away any time soon. Ain’t nothin new.

I’m a pre-med college student with a wonderful partner and plenty of friends, and I’m happy, loud, proud, and living my life. I came out 8 years ago and never looked back, so nobody is going to stuff me back in a closet. Trolls don’t have any more power over me or my life than the power I give to them, so I’m not going to be afraid because there’s nothing to be afraid of. Like ? Ohh noo, what if someone sends something rude to my inbox?? whatever will I do, I sure wish there was a “block” button ...

But while I personally don’t feel concerned about this particular troll effort and I’m no stranger to rude and hateful anons, you should always take whatever steps you feel like you need to take in order to protect your mental health.

If you get anon hate, or are worried about getting anon hate, here are a few options:

Step one: Don’t reply to the ask, and don’t delete the ask- block them! You can’t do this in the Tumblr mobile app, but if you’re on the computer-version of the Tumblr website you can block an anon in the inbox, which will also delete their ask. Often anon hate is just from like 1 user pretending to be different people.

Step two: If you keep getting hateful anon asks from different anons, you may want to check the tags on your original posts. You might be accidentally using a tag that discoursers use, which makes it more likely that you’ll attract hate from people scrolling through that tag. You may also want to avoid tagging or using key words in your posts, so censoring things when necessary can help avoid your blog from showing up in searches.

Step three: If you don’t want to appear in search results at all, you can always remove your blog from all search engine results (including Tumblr’s) by turning off the “Allow this blog to appear in search results” option in your blog’s settings on the web. This means your posts won’t show up in the “recent” posts if you search on Tumblr, and it makes it harder for people to search within your blog itself.

Step four: If that doesn’t work, and you’re still getting anon hate, turn off anon. People can’t send you anon asks if anon asks aren’t enabled. People are less likely to send hate when their URL is attached- it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to avoid getting hate, but it does make it way less likely.

On the Tumblr website on the computer, click “Settings” under the account menu at the top of the dashboard, then on the right side of the page, choose the blog you’d like to update. In the Ask section, enable “Let people ask questions.” Then uncheck the box that says “Allow anonymous questions.”

I’ve turned off anon asks on a number of my blogs, including @brownandtrans because there’s no reason someone has to be sending me questions anonymously in some places. I know you might get fewer asks, but you have to ask yourself if that’s an acceptable trade off, and honestly it usually is.

Step five: Your other option is turning off asks entirely and turning off submissions. You can similarly restrict replies so only blogs you follow can reply to your posts, and you can restrict messaging so only blogs you follow can message you. That way people can only send hate via reblogs.

It’s reasonable and valid to be upset about people being transphobic in your inbox, and I’ve been through the same thing so I know how you’re feeling. It sucks. But you don’t have to be passive about it! If IRL transphobia was something you could control your exposure to and simply turn off in the settings we’d all be a lot happier, but that isn’t the case. But that is true in some cases when you’re online, so why not take advantage of the opportunity?

If you’re getting a lot of hate, it’s worth blocking those asks and then turning off anons or asks entirely for at least a month and seeing how it goes. Your social media is supposed to be safe space for you, and you control what content you want to be seeing and interacting with, so there’s no reason you have to allow people to send you asks at all if it’s going to be negatively impacting your mental health. Even if you haven’t had any trolls yet but you’re really anxious about it and it’s affecting your mental health, it’s okay to take the steps you need to take to protect yourself.

Step six: Hide your blog entirely and password protect it. Only tell your blog’s password to people you trust and want to interact with, like friends or mutuals. This is another option in your blog’s settings on Tumblr. Now the only people who can see your blog are the people you’ve explicitly given permission to.

TLDR: You don’t have to take all these steps if you don’t feel like you need to, but at the very least don’t reply to anon hate (stop feeding the trolls, it isn’t helping you or the best way you can spend your efforts to help the movement) and block the ask instead.

Note: These are my tips for Tumblr specially, so you should look through your privacy settings and options on any social media site you use to see what your options are!

But honestly, I don’t really predict much more trolling this June than we experience in general. Most of these troll campaigns are a lot of bark and no bite, and they usually end up creating more fear and anxiety when people warn each other about it than from the troll’s actual actions, in my opinion. Sadly, we can get homophobic and transphobic anons at any point in the year.

#Lee says #operation pridefall #anon hate #hate #pride #lgbt pride #trans #transgender #nonbinary #lgbtq #lgbt #transgender teen survival guide #transgenderteensurvivalguide #TTSG

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