#i’m still not 100% sure if i want to post this and i might delete it later. but right now i think it’s important to say

[whimsicalnancy]

hey, ⭐girl :)

I saw your void success story post, first of all congrats! Secondly, I was wondering if you’d be open to sharing the subliminal you made with all of us? It honestly sounds so powerful and helpful.

& of course, I completely understand if you can’t share it, as it might include personal affirmations or questions. If that’s the case, would you maybe consider making a custom subliminal instead? Something specifically tailored for me? I’d be more than happy to pay for your time and effort, I know you mentioned it took you over 2 hours to create yours, and I truly respect that. No pressure at all, but if you’re open to it (which I really hope you are!), I’d love to know the details like pricing and how the whole process works.

Thank you, either way!

thankyou! and first of all, i genuinely feel so honoured that you trust me enough to ask for something this personal. and actually… not just you, a lot of you have been asking me the same thing lately. at first, i wasn't sure if should or i wanna do it or not but maybe i can? if this can help you even a fraction of how much it helped me, then yes, i’d love to.

but you know what? you can definitely make it yourself too. it’s not that hard. you just need to prepare your subliminal, come up with the right interview-style questions, write your answers, record everything clearly, and then piece it all together. it’s not rocket science… but it does take time, effort, and lots of editing.

but if that feels like a lot, i’m more than happy to make it for you and yes, this service is open for anyone else who needs it too.

— custom “interview subliminal”

here’s how it’ll work if you’d like a custom subliminal from me:

1. message me on Instagram

find me at @/whimsical.subliminal and just send a ⭐ star emoji so i know you’re from Tumblr.

2. i'll ask you a few questions to personalize your subliminal, so be ready with the following info:

• what exactly are you manifesting?

• your name, to include in the affirmations (optional)

• basic birth info like date of birth, time of birth, place of birth, for astrology based insights (optional)

this helps me pull your natal chart, which reveals your core placements (Sun, Moon, Rising, etc.) and deeper subconscious patterns. to help me create affirmations for you accordingly.

• what are your biggest limiting beliefs related to what you're trying to manifest?

3. next, i’ll send you a few questions.

you’ll need to record and answer each of them thoughtfully, in your own words. Take your time, breathe deep, and answer honestly. if anything feels confusing, we can talk it out. after you are done, you have to send the recordings to me.

4. pricing

i haven't thought about this honestly. i’m still figuring this part out, but anything around $25–$35 would be okay. i want it to stay accessible while still honoring the energy and time that goes into making something so specific.

5. payment

i won't accept any payment upfront. you’ll only pay once your subliminal is ready. when it's done, i’ll let you know, you pay, and I’ll send it to you immediately. no complications or worries on both sides.

price reductions may be considered for those who genuinely need it.

6. your privacy

everything you share is 100% safe and confidential. your voice clips, personal info, and answers will never be shared or reposted. any recordings you send will only be used in your subliminal and deleted from my device afterward. i take your trust seriously.

important note:

i'll be only making these custom subs for a very limited number of people.

my own sub took over 2 hours to make (and not gonna lie, it got a little frustrating at times lol), so I really want to keep this intentional, powerful, and not something I burn out from. hope y'all understand.

[louisjude]

I feel like atp even if there were plans to make bvddie canon theyre gone now. if tim minear is even half as petty as I am he would see that reaction and go u know what fuck you u actually don't get what you want now cause ur acting so goddamn entitled. like when tarlos fans got mad about the deleted scenes instead of appreciating them being released and his reaction was to say "okay fine then I just won't release deleted scenes anymore" (like I'm sure it was mostly a marketing decision but part of me thinks they intentionally released a scene about bucktommy just to prove a point.) idk man it's just really upsetting as a bi man to see the absolutely vile shit bvddie stans are saying and even tho I love the ship I now never want it to go canon cause they've fuckin ruined it

hey anon, at first let me agree with the fact that i do in fact also love bvddie a lot and i still love reading fics for them, the edits of them are fantastic and the fanart is S tier. it’s a great pairing with a lot of potential there IF the writers decided to ever go there but…

huge answer below

yeah, i agree. i honestly think before tommy was introduced again in 7x03 and the kiss in 7x04 that in my brain, bvddie was the most logical endgame for buck until it wasn’t.

i came into the show shipping bvddie much like a lot of new fans to the show but instead of hopping onto the tommy anti express hate train i found myself falling in love with buck and tommy together. at first i was still on board with bvddie still being endgame but as each episode aired after 7x04 i became faced with the reality of the situation (at least the way i see it) that bvddie might always be fanon and that’s ok because fandom keeps ships alive whether they’re canon or not. some of the biggest ships EVER are non-canon (i mean, cmon spirk? one of the OG MM ships?) so it didn’t really deter me from enjoying bvddie to this day. what HAS deterred me from interacting with bvddie content is toxic bvddies. i don’t like using the lil nicknames, idc if other ppl do, whatever, but i prefer just referring to certain kinds as just toxic plain and simple.

toxic shippers have made it difficult for anyone who multiships to interact with bvddie content. while there are incredibly nice & welcoming bvddie endgamers out there, it doesn’t overshadow the hateful ones in my online experience at least. i’ve blocked so many ppl over this ship discourse, which ive never had to do with any other fandom before the extent i have with 911. everyday i still find new ppl to block, you go under almost any comment section on the 911 insta and its filled with nasty comments abt tommy and only caring abt whether bvddie will be canon in s8. people projecting their hatred of tommy/lou onto the cast/crew of the show when it’s be said and proven time and time again that it’s quite the opposite. now im certain there’s bad apples in the bucktommy side as well, but from what ive seen online so far it is not nearly to the caliber of the bvddie side. ive blocked maybe a handful of bucktommy’s for being hateful towards eddie or being toxic overall, but ive probably blocked over 100+ toxic bvddies. i can only imagine it’d be worse if i was active on 911 twt which i’m not (thank god) but i have ventured into the tags before on there and let me tell you, it’s fucking horrifying how gross ppl are over there. twt is a cesspool for fandom anyways tho, the fucking asshole of fandom, it’s a septic tank really.

now im my own opinion which could be completely untrue of course, but just basing my thoughts on what i’ve seen online and interviews and such, tim seems to be really happy about bucktommy and idk how ppl believe otherwise. tim has expressed he loves LFJ and wanted him back on the show. tim showed up on set for the kiss scene. tim posting an entire youtube vibe abt bucktommy being soulmates that touches on the invisible string theory and explains how they accidentally found buck’s perfect match. tim sharing the deleted tommy scene is also huge but im waiting to see if he releases more (because i remember seen somewhere that he said there’d be more?) and if he does then great but it’s also still pretty telling to me after the whole karaoke fiasco.

oliver has said nothing but praises towards buck’s queer storyline. he quite literally said if you dont like it then watch something else. despite ppl saying he’s never interacted with bucktommy content online, that’s a lie because he has liked fanart of them.

aisha, kenneth & tracie have all expressed how they like tommy/lou and love working with him.

jlh said she loved bvddie before but is excited to see where buck and tommy go and then on an insta live said she doesn’t think bvddie is happening and was bombarded by toxic fans to the point of ending the live early.

ppl think it’s all some ruse to make it seem like bvddie is never happening so when it does happen it’s a “surprise” ……..

the nasty hate comments are doing nothing but exposing these types of ppl for who they are and that honestly to them, 911 is just the bvddie show to them. the people who run these social media accs for 911 are looking at these comments and cringing, they aren’t running to tim and abc being like “we must give these crazies what they want!” they’re mostly likely being ignored or honestly, as you said, being looked at and just reinforcing their decision to most likely make tommy buck’s endgame so as long as his schedule is open for filming.

what gets me the most about the hate these types of shippers spew online is how they aren’t embarrassed because they are so sooo convinced they will be right one day and therefore their insane, nasty behavior online will be justified. oliver stark literally left twt because of fans like this, people act like he was joking around, that he was shooting the shit probably because “he’s british and british people just have that kind of humor” which yes to a certain extent but let me just add these posts to set an example to why if oliver were still on twt he absolutely would not be happy with the way toxic bvddies are acting right now.

oliver (and ryan&other cast too) being positive abt bvddie never meant it was going to be canon of become canon one day. they do not decide these things, whether they believe it should or not. a lot of bvddie shippers come from previous fandoms where queerbaiting was there, where they were made fun of by actors of their ships, by the creators of the show! so i understand the frustration but oliver is not queerbaiting and buck is not a queerbait character when he quite literally is now confirmed bisexual and in a relationship with a man.

he’s just not the “correct” queer to these people. despite headcanons (hell even i hc eddie as queer!!) eddie so far, in canon, is not queer. by the end s7 he is still shown to not be over shannon and ruins his relationship with his son over this. ryan has stated in interviews he sees eddie as heterosexual, possibly pushing this because of the influx of ship discourse, and he’s glad to see a vulnerable and deep friendship that buck and eddie can have as a straight man and a queer man and how important he thinks it is.

every single thing that points to bvddie never going canon is like they’re being shot point blank in the chest. i get it, your ship not becoming canon sucks, but again, that is what fandom is for! shipping has never been about how canon smth is, there is 20k fics out there for bvddie and they aren’t canon. they can turn that into 40k, 100k, 1M if they really wanted to! instead they use their time and energy posting death threats, wishing death upon a gay character, bullying ppl online for enjoying a ship.

meanwhile from what ive seen bucktommys are rolling with goofy ass spy tommy theories created by antis and making jokes for our own fun.

so yes, i agree overall. they truly don’t deserve what they think they do. we didn’t whine and scream for a deleted scene. they did. we got ours without even expecting it and are having fun.

maybe if they behaved better i wouldn’t be so petty abt it. it’s a shame because of how much potential it has, unfortunately it is just not going that way atm. and even if it does one day, it is not because they paraded online with hate, it is because that’s the story tim and the others wanted to write and abc approved it.

🫳🎤

[queenshelby]

On Changing Writing Styles and Finding My Voice (Again)

I’ve received some criticism (twice now) about changes in my writing style and honestly, it’s been incredibly frustrating. Writing takes so much time, energy, and mental space. It’s not just about stringing words together mindlessly, especially not for me. It’s a deeply personal, emotional process, and I have been doing it for a long time.

When I first started writing, my writing style was actually really basic. Primitive even. Then it became more formal and descriptive with lots of names and their actions after every dialogue. I.e. "I love you," Dream said as he did this or that... It wasn’t really me, but it was how I learned to write when I started working in an English-speaking country and my basic writing style from 2014 or thereabouts went to more descriptive around the time COVID hit I guess. I even took lessons to improve. At the time, that was the standard I thought I had to follow.

But I’ve since learned—especially through reading and actually studying creative writing, that that kind of rigid structure is uncommon in modern fiction. It took me so long to unlearn it. And with that unlearning came guilt and shame. I felt like I had been doing it wrong for years.

I’ve been away from Tumblr for months. During that time, I wrote a lot of Sandman Fics (season two dropped, so who could have guessed that I am back on the bandwagon). I did so quietly, privately and I didn’t post any of it. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t feel like the writing was right yet. I kept amending things. It was out of my comfort zone. I used shorter sentences. But even with all that uncertainty I had about it, it was a lot closer to what I love reading. I've read so many books and fics over the past two months and started to write the way I want to write, not the way I thought I had to or my ability allowed me to.

Truthfully, I’ve also been battling bouts of depression, maybe even rediscovering parts of myself. At the moment, for example, I cannot even bring myself to write the super dark, intense fics that usually pull me in. My creativity goes in phases. Sometimes it flourishes, sometimes it vanishes. I’ve had long blocks before.

I first started writing in 2014, under a different name, mostly Cillian fics. Many here knew me but I never shared that it was me because I deleted that entire blog because I hated how I wrote. I wasn’t proud. It felt basic. Raw in the wrong ways. I was galwaygirl69.

Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve deleted this one too and started fresh now that I am in a new phase.

But here I am, slowly rediscovering my voice. Writing in a way that once intimidated me because I admired it so much in others. There was a woman on tumblr once, she wrote the best fic. Not sure where she is, but it was how I wanted to write mine. I am a tad closer. But I’m still learning. Still experimenting. I also write a lot with my wife—she has a blog too—and it’s something we share. For fun. We connected that way many years ago.

And yeah. I’m bipolar. Writing doesn’t come easily and it will never be the same depending on the state I am in. It takes immense focus and mood balance. I have to immerse myself in a character, sometimes literally needing a TV playing in the background just to absorb their speech. Right now, I’m rewatching The Sandman obsessively because Morpheus speaks strangely. It’s poetic and cold and ancient and a giant pain in the arse. But I love it. And yet, it takes work to capture. It’s entirely different to writing Peaky Blinders, for example.

Have I used AI before? Yes. For a lot of things. Especially when I’m stuck describing something. I might type in a line and ask for synonyms or alternate ways to say something. I never hide that. Writing tools are tools. They don’t replace the heart of the story which is 100% mine! I make up the plot. I write the story. I occasionally ask AI to help when I am struggling with something. Today, for example, I asked AI for another word for brooding and what words I could use to describe a character's state of mind. I helped immensely, giving me a lovely 300-word chapter, that I spent yet another 30 min to amend because I didn't like it entirely. Every story still takes hours and hours of me: pacing, tone, dialogue, emotion, revision, self-doubt. The stories are mine. So is 99% of the words I put on paper and, if that is not good enough, then I am sorry. That is all I can do.

So yeah, it stings to be told that my stories feel “generated.” I get it—style shifts are noticeable. But they aren’t fake. They’re the product of growth of trying to find myself as a writer all over again after the worst bound of depression I had since I have been diagnosed. And if I sound different, it’s because I probably am. Literally. That's what bipolar is.

If you’ve been here a while, I hope you’ll stay. If you’re new, welcome. And if you don’t like where my writing is heading, that’s okay too. But please understand, I put in a lot of work. I love writing. It is an escape for me. It's a journey.

Thanks for reading. Queen

[sleepysnk]

there’s some things i really wanted to talk about especially regarding my account and tumblr as a whole, so i decided to finally make this post as a way to sort of vent out my feelings on some things.

i’m not gonna lie, tumblr has become a very different place from what it was. i started creating content 3 years ago and it’s gone through so many changes (much expected). however, i don’t think tumblr has really changed for the better, especially when it comes to content creators. this used to be a really safe space for me to come on and create works for fandoms that i enjoyed, but recently, that safe space hasn’t felt, well, safe anymore. there is constant discourse everywhere on this platform and i’ve found that many people here are just extremely bitter? it’s almost like it’s become a mean girl center and it makes it difficult to interact with others.

obviously, this doesn’t go for everyone. i’m not trying to come at people specifically or cause issues, but i have seen my fair share of problems with people on here and some of it is just completely ridiculous.

next, i’d like to discuss the elephant in the room and that’s the lack of interaction/support to writers. it is just mind blowing to me that we as creators have to BEG our followers to reblog or even send us asks. obviously, some people are new to tumblr and don’t understand it’s algorithm, but there are people on here who just simply chose not to reblog for some reason?? it’s not only discouraging, but it puts less confidence in writers and then we aren’t motivated to create content. i’ve said this before, but there is no reason why a 2k note fic should have only 100 or so reblogs. likes mean nothing on this platform. it’s not Twitter. i genuinely have gotten so tired of repeating myself that i don’t even say it anymore because i know it won’t be acknowledged.

i understand people have lives, i do too, but it isn’t hard to send an ask to a writer about literally anything. i think the last time i had an anon ask was weeks ago and i genuinely get disappointed when i ask for interactions just to receive nothing? no one is obligated to speak with me or send me asks by any means, but a little “hey! how are you?” goes a long way. i probably sound ridiculous, but it’s just how i feel about the matter.

another thing that bothers me is when a writer doesn’t write smut or suggestive content, they hardly get any interaction. i’ve seen it myself before and i’m not sure why people just ignore greatly written fics?? i understand that smut is the main appeal. trust me, i 100% get it, but fluff writers hardly get any attention and some of the best fics i’ve read weren’t even smut related. i’m not saying every person here has to read fluff or angst fics by any means, but it makes me sad that people write these fics to hardly get any interaction because it isn’t smut content. the least y’all can do is reblog it.

to discuss my account, i honestly don’t really feel the most happy here. i don’t have as much motivation as i used to and i have contemplated removing my account, but i have some great fics i’d rather not have be deleted. i might start a new account for a fresh start, but i’m still not 100% on it.

and if you read this till the end, thank you! i probably sound like a whiny baby but i just wanted to express some of my feelings because it’s been weighing on me a lot recently.

[laura1633]

I'm really very sorry if this is offensive but i don't know if making all works inaccessible to the rest of us who can't or don't want to get an ao3 acc for some reasons is the right way to combat ai. Now some previously beloved authors have disappeared from tumblr and ao3 after probably being accused of using ai, and the tropes and tags they used to write (which already had a less amt of fics) now have even lesser fics, it's a little devastating tbh

I don’t find it offensive anon but it’s something I have been slowly doing for some time. Most of my recent stories have been archived locked from the start and some of the older ones have also now been locked. They are still there for anyone who has an ao3 account. Accounts are free and don’t need to be linked to any of your social media, it’s even possible to set up a brand new email address and use that solely for setting up an ao3 account.  I don’t know if there are  restrictions in some countries as I have noted you have said some people can’t get accounts and if that is the case then I agree that that is really unfortunate. 

It’s unfortunately not just the ai thing that has led to this decision, I haven’t spoken about it on here but I found out some of my stories were being taken and reposted to other sites without my permission which honestly was devastating and a reminder that I can’t really control what happens to the stories when they are out there but I can at least add an extra barrier to people seeing them. 

I would prefer not to archive lock them. I would love the stories to be available to everyone and on a purely selfish level I know that archive locking them has and will lead to less engagement. I wish that ai wasn’t scraping actual writers stories to train itself, I wish that fandom etiquette was being followed and people weren’t reposting and talking about fanfiction in spaces outside of fandom spaces.

I don’t know which  fics have gone missing from ao3 so I won’t get into specifics but if the stories that have been deleted were generated by ai then they were not created by ‘beloved authors’ they were created by an ai system that is making things extremely difficult for writers. I personally would prefer to see 10 stories crafted by writers in a tag than 100 generated by ai. 

I’m not sure if I am speaking for other writers but right now I feel real disheartened by everything. I normally sit down and happily work on my wips during the week but I haven’t been able to touch them for the past few days. Like I have already said, archive locking already leads to less engagement but then you also know that when you do post your fic is going to be quickly swamped by ai fics and likely be skipped over. When someone using ai is able to put out 10k stories multiple times a week then they are taking up a lot of readers time and attention. I’m just a bit tired and demotivated at the moment and struggling to get any words down. Throw into the mix the fact that I have to also constantly see people talking about the downturn in the quality of Lestappen content (which I suppose may actually be related to the rampant ai usage so they may have a point in that regard).

Writers might write for the joy of it but part of that joy also comes from sharing something you have crafted and knowing that people enjoyed it and want to engage with it. I am extremely lucky that I do get good engagement on my fics and I appreciate those people so much but even so I am still feeling a little lost right now.

[shreedle]

Hey there!

I was just wondering if you had any general advice in regard to AO3, or managing fanfics in general? I’ve tried to do my own research but I’m also trying to ask people who are actively involved in the scene.

You’ve got a ton of content on there and it’s really inspiring.

-Aero

Hi Aero!

Hm, I don't delve too much into the nitty-gritty of AO3 itself. I'm not exactly sure what kind of advice you're looking for, but there are a few things that I've picked up and generally find helpful.

(You know I've already seen you post a fic; I can tell you that you're doing just fine already. c:)

Also throwing this under a Read More since it got longer than I thought.

1) Tags - Tagging is everything. You wanna make sure that you have all the appropriate tags on your fic so that anyone who is interested can find them. On the other hand, you want to make sure that you don't overtag (for example, don't tag a character that only has one line and then never appears again). Try to keep your tags concise - you don't want to give away the whole fic, but you also don't want half a page of tags. You can make your own tags if you need to, especially to clarify something, but generally "chatting" in the tags is not a good idea.

2) Filters - When searching for fics, definitely use the filters to narrow it down. They're extremely useful considering you can make sure you find fics that have something specific tagged, or exclude fics that you don't want to see under any circumstances.

3) Posting - How you post fics is entirely up to you, but I've noticed that by posting multi-chapter fics chapter-by-chapter, you tend to get more eyes on it since it's pushed up to the top of the page more often.

4) Bookmarks - Super useful. Some people like to use Bookmarks as a Favorites section, where they store all of their favorite fics for future rereading. Other people like to use it as a "To Read Eventually" section and then remove the fic once they finished. How you use it is up to you.

5) Pseuds - Some people like to use Pseuds to separate their fics - for example, they might post for Fandom A under one Pseud, and Fandom B under another Pseud, or post different ships under different Pseuds. This can be used to simply sort or organize fics on your account, or for reader convenience, so that readers can follow the Pseud that is posting fanfics for what they want.

6) Multiple Accounts - Some people have multiple accounts; this could be to post fics that they don't want associated with their main username, or to do something similar to Pseuds and keep their fandoms completely separated from each other.

7) Anonymous - If you don't want a fic to be associated with your name at all, but still retain full control over it, you can add it to an "Anonymous" collection when you are posting it. No on will associate it with you, and any comments you make on your fic's page will be abled as "Anonymous Creator".

8) Orphaning - If you no longer want to be associated with a fic at all, give up all control over it, not receive comments, but don't want to delete it, you can Orphan a fic. This will leave the fic up, but your name will no longer be associated with the fic and it will move to AO3's "Orphan Account". You can't get control back once you do this, so only do it if you're 100% sure.

9) Stats - Try not to fret too much about stats. XD It'll only stress you out if you compare the Kudos/Comments/Bookmarks you are getting to other people. Stats are no indicator as to whether you'll enjoy a fic or not, and since AO3 has no algorithm outside of your own filters, you will not automatically be shown fics with the highest stats.

If there's anything super important that I missed, let me know!

[arwen17]

I'm done with Marvel. You killed my favorite character and I have no reason to stay.

Posting here since I'm unable to discuss it on reddit. The sub apparently only allows you to praise the show. You're never allowed to complain about anything.

Here's the post I put on reddit that got removed by the mods with zero explanation (aka they don't want anyone to criticize the show in any way, shape, or form)

Part 1:

The ONE thing they MUST NOT do was kill Agatha. And what did they do? Kill her. Absolutely there is no way to make a ghost interesting. She's going to have a few cameos and quips here and there and that's it.

I'm also pissed about the Road being totally fake. It makes no sense Billy can call trials into being like that when he doesn't even know how Taro works that well or anything else. It was fine to think Billy and other coven members were influencing the Road, but to say Billy 100% created it is ridiculous. And they could have easily had the Road never being summoned by Agatha before WITHOUT the Road being fake. They literally took a badass character like Agatha from Wandavision (who had the Darkhold etc) and turned her into someone who just wandered thru the woods with no food or money and never actually did anything cool like survive the real Witch's Road. They totally diminished her and now she's even further diminshed because she's a talking hologram from now on!

I liked the trial where Agatha helps Billy remember how he saved Tommy. I liked Billy zapping Agatha to restore her power. I hated most of everything from the moment Agatha died.

I kept thinking "surely Billy will resurrect her somehow? They won't leave her a talking hologram will they?"

UGH!! Such a waste of a great actress who could have done more in the future!

Most of Episode 8 was great like the rest of the series. Episode 9 can go die in a trash can. The heartwarming scenes with Agatha and her son were nice, but the rest of Episode 9 was garbage.

Part 2:

You cannot make this character work as a hologram. Just not going to happen. That’s a cameo role.

I’m so pissed we got so little backstory on her and it was right at the very end. I’m so pissed she got so little screentime in her own show overall. 9 episodes is too short to do much of anything, especially if you’re going to try to use only 9 episodes to flush out so many characters. Nobody got much screentime or backstory because there were so few episodes, but it really hurt Agatha because she has the most backstory that should have been explored. Agatha is not a starving peasant in the woods who only feeds like a parasite. She’s a badass, clever witch who loves knowledge and loves the craft and wants to know everything she can about it and wants to live a full life. Living in the woods as a beggar is not a full life.

The Road should have been real (heavily influenced by Billy and the other witches in the coven) but still REAL. Agatha should have been a survivor of the Road in the past. It should have been how she got the Darkhold for example. And she still could have fake-summoned the Road the rest of the time in order to trick covens.

For the ending, Agatha should have remained alive. Either she goes on the journey with Billy (and thinks she’s going to sneakily drain a few witches along the way) OR Billy finds a way to chain her power so she can’t drain others without his permission. No hologram ghost!!

Agatha was a really cool character in Wandavision and for most of Agatha All Along. They totally diminished her into a forest beggar parasite in episode 9.

P.S. before the subreddit mods deleted my post, someone was able to comment that Agatha manages to get her body back in the comics. So there's a tiny grain of hope. But in the meantime, if they even use her at all, holograms SUCK! She might as well be a disembodied voice at this point.

View-bombing the show is frustrating. But the other side is manipulating too. They aren't allowing any posts that criticize the show at all. There's a giant hole in my heart right now where Agatha Harkness used to be, but I'm supposed to "praise" and "cheer" the direction the show as taken because that's the allowed narrative.

[sadghost761]

Hi, I’m Anya, I’m twenty, and I’m a (not-so-)anonymous idiot.

I’m not totally sure which parts of my life I want to share here yet — but this is my safe space, and I don’t want to limit it to just fandom stuff.

Some facts about me:

• I’m a writer. (My ao3)

• I’m from Ukraine, but I’ve been living in Ireland for a few years now.

• I work in a nursing home.

• My last hyperfixation lasted about six(?) years — it was The 100, and I still love it.

• I have a main Tumblr blog, but it’s inactive. I’m not ready to go back to it, but I don’t want to delete it either.

• I love chocolate.

Fandoms: Right now I’m mostly active in Yellowjackets (Travnat!), but I might show up in other fandoms too.

This is my second time rewriting this because I have no idea what these intro posts are supposed to look like. Sorry. <3

[merlucide]

HIII!! okay i saw your post abt having four months to “look good” and just to preface — i’m sure you’re already absolutely beautiful regardless but as someone who kind of did smth similar i figured i would share what helped me lose weight and look better and be sustainable about it without being restrictive or unhealthy (since that’ll lead to rebounding and regaining the weight as well as a host of other possible health issues which we don’t want 🙂‍↔️). disclaimer i’m in no way considered a professional or anything this is just what happened to work for me!! so take it w a pinch of salt (and also i hope this isn’t intrusive or rude or anything 😰 ik you asked for help but also idk since we’re not mutuals or anything i hope i don’t sound like a jerk or weird KFDNKSS feel free to delete if i do!!)

so the biggest thing to remember is no food is necessarily bad or good it’s really about portion control and eating things in moderation!! i’ve lost weight while having chips and dessert every day 😭 if you want to be super scientific and guarantee you’ll lose weight you can calculate how many calories per day you need to maintain your current weight and then figure out what deficit you need to be in to lose it (lots of calculators online to figure this out) and measure food appropriately but to be honest this can make eating stressful and it’s a very hard mindset to break out of even once you’re at your “goal” so def be careful with that!! honestly just being cognizant of what you eat and only eating when you’re hungry instead of bored/thirsty (top tip is just drink a glass of water when you think you’re hungry and if you’re still hungry afterwards then you should 100% eat!! and if not then you were probs dehydrated) would probably be sufficient too

in terms of working out (resident gym lover here) the key is that it’s better to go less times but be consistent than trying to go everyday and burning out and quitting entirely!! i go to the gym 2-3x a week and then i have a horseback riding lesson once a week so i never really exercise more than 3 or 4 times a week which would probably make hardcore gym bros freak out but 🤷🏻‍♀️…if i’m ever too busy and miss a day (or an entire week LMAO) i don’t freak out either because muscle memory is strong and you won’t lose everything that quickly!! just get back to it when you can and remember that even going and only doing half of your exercises is better than doing none at all (i had a lot of trouble w the all or nothing mindset where if i didn’t feel up to doing EVERYTHING i was like ok well might as well not go but it’s been really helpful to remember that a lighter day is better than nothing)

as for the actual exercises i do i usually warm up with cardio which isn’t necessarily recommended but i do what i want and what works for me so idgaf 😭 when i first started working out i would go on the treadmill at a 12 incline and 3 speed for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on my mood but now i usually do a 15 incline because 12 is too easy…this is def dependent on you though find what works for you/what you enjoy and stick with that!! in order to get the “toned” look you’ll have to lift weights…trust me i hated the idea of lifting at first but it’s honestly pretty fun and you don’t have to go crazy!! i just use dumbbells KDJFJSJS nothing massive by any means just enough that i feel like my muscles are actually working 🤩 you don’t have to do a ton of exercises or use a million machines or anything either — just pick a few that you like doing and that target diff parts of your body (i really like RDLs, squats, and lateral pull downs) and stick w those ‼️ there’s also a million beginner’s guides to lifting with videos for form and all online that you can access for free too so definitely a lot of resources 🤞🏻 but if you’re not into the whole treadmill + lifting vibe then just pick any form of exercise you enjoy and be consistent with it because again even if it’s not as perfectly suited to weight loss or toning or whatever you will get 1000x more results if you keep exercising than if you do smth you don’t enjoy and quit within a couple of days

ALSO make sure to stretch after you workout!! i think i read somewhere that you build 300% more muscle if you stretch after exercising which idk if that’s true or not but why not do it if ykwim…also it helps if you’re lifting because your muscles can get tight and be more sore if you don’t stretch them out afterwards 😨 and music always helps like if you listen to hype music (i always go for meghan thee stallion) it makes working out sm more fun and enjoyable!! and as a side note i know personally i struggled a lot w gym anxiety and even now i hate being perceived at the gym but you really just have to remember that everyone there is doing there own thing and you have just as much of a right to be there as anyone else!! so ignore anyone who’s being annoying but also keep in mind that you’re probably overthinking it and no one is really concerned w what you’re doing ☝🏻

OKAY that was so much omg like i said if any of this doesn’t resonate def disregard it and also if you feel uncomfortable please feel free to ignore and delete this!! i wish you luck and you’ve got this i’m rooting for you!! but please remember that things like weight are arbitrary and at the end of the day the most important thing is how you feel about yourself — as long as you believe you are a baddie you will exude baddie energy no matter what 🙂‍↕️

oh my goodness

thank you so much 😭😭

This is seriously so, so so helpful 😭🙏

ugh this makes me feel so much better tysm😭 seriously this is such great advice tysm for taking the time to tell me this

I head to the gym about 2-3x a week I’d say and focus on legs and cardio ig?? I’ll def do the incline on the treadmill (weights scare me but I’ll woman up 🫡)

tysm for all of this info + and the kind words you made me feel very good 😭🙏

edit: do you know any good free websites to find which deficit I should do? 🫠

[kitcatttt]

Serious post.

Hi guys. I know you guys are probably surprised to hear from me considering my last post, and no, I’m not back permanently, but there is something I feel I need to make a post about.

Disclaimer: Do not harass the user mentioned in this post, I do not wish any harm onto them.

If you have been in the TPC community since January of this year, you know about the drama involving the user Cintagonisupset. If you’ve been keeping up with his blog (only reason I have is because I do 100% expect him to make another post about me and/or my friends) you would have seen one, or both of these posts.

Now, you might be wondering, why am I bringing these up? Both of these situations are extremely unfortunate, and they would be, if he wasn’t lying.

I know that it’s a bold claim to make, but it isn’t inaccurate. I may not have concrete confirmation of him lying, but I have more than enough evidence.

For the first image, he legit just- didn’t leave tumblr. He just pinned that post and kept on tumblr like normal. For the ENTIRE time he was supposedly gone, he was still reblogging posts, just putting in tags that he was “still gone”. After about,, maybe a week or so his pinned post was back to the usual one and he was posting like normal. Not to mention, a little ways through that whole leaving tumblr bs he had changed the pinned post to this. “I hope y’all bitches burn in hell” (actual picture to be added once I fucking find it AUGH)

(UPDATE I GOT IT) And the second image? He claimed. To have to be sent to a mental hospital because of a mental breakdown. That is EXTREMELY serious. Do you know how in need of help you need to be to be admitted to a mental hospital? Do you know how horrid that would be to fake? Now, I haven’t been to a mental hospital myself, but I have several friends who have. Hell, I even have a IRL friend who has been to one AND has written a 10 page research paper on them. They have all stated to me that they wouldn’t let a patient keep their phone, and my IRL has stated that the wait times there would most likely keep them in the hospital for longer than they supposedly were in there.

All of this alone isn’t enough for me to claim that he faked it, seeing as he is in Canada and I’m in the US, and they most likely operate different than here. But you know what is? The fact that he has deleted EVERY SINGLE POST HE HAS MADE ABOUT HIM BEING IN THE HOSPITAL. Sure, he could’ve gotten out early, but why delete all of the posts about it, and not at the very least make an update post on his condition? I know for a fact that there are still people that care about him, and not making a post about his condition when he CLEARLY has the ability to be on tumblr seeing as he deleted all his posts mentioning the hospital is extremely suspicious, and basically proves that he has ulterior motives for making these posts.

What do I think these motives are? Well, I believe that he is trying to make anyone who checks his blog that was involved in the drama against him think that he’s gone, so that they stop checking his blog for good. Then he gets rid of or hides/buries the posts and goes on with life like nothing happened. I honestly don’t blame him for trying this, as trying to get out of drama with desperate tactics isn’t that surprising and is not that odd of a response. BUT LYING ABOUT GETTING SENT TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL??? YOU REALLY COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING BETTER??? Honestly, it makes me sick. Seeing someone fake something as SERIOUS as that. Makes me sick.

I do not wish harm on him. I wish for him to heal. I wish for him to get the help that he needs. From his repeated behavior, there appears to be something wrong with him mentally. While I do not enjoy claiming this, it’s the most logical explanation seeing as he’s been doing shit like this FOR OVER 4 YEARS. He genuinely needs professional help, and I pray that he gets it. But for now, all we can do is defend ourselves if he decides he wants to attack us yet again.

And a personal message to Cintagonisupset, if he just so happens to be reading this. Your actions severely upset me. This post has not been made to wish ill will onto you, but to bring to light something that you have done wrong, that is genuinely disgusting in my opinion. You have made callout posts for way less. Again, I do not wish any harm onto you, so do not wish any harm onto me. Or do. It’s just more evidence against you.

If anyone has read this far, thank you. Once again, do not harass Cintagonisupset, that is not the purpose of this post. Thank you, and have a wonderful rest of your day.

[fayedartmouth]

18 💛

A deleted sentence/paragraph from a posted fic....

Truth be told, I don't keep the stuff I delete to my recollection. I mean, I'm sure I have at some point in my writing career, but I don't have any outtakes to share from my OBX stuff.

But I won't leave you with nothing! What I will share is a snippet from a fic I will almost 100% never finish for a wide range of reasons. Very very early on I had one where JJ tracked down his mom (obviously before the Larissa storyline) and just -- talked it out with her. The problem is that fic never had any point or purpose. It was literally just the two of them talking and now it doesn't fit with anything at all. I have two sections of dialogue written, though, and they're still in my brainstorming docs. I'll drop one of them below the cut.

Context is that the mom has already tried to explain why she left (she was an addict and just needed to get out, and she didn't take JJ with her). And she asks JJ how things went after she left. JJ tells her and lets a lot go.

“How was it?” she asks, and she says it like that because he sees it in her eyes that she knows.  “How was Luke?”

For a moment, he wants to lie to her.  That’s what he’s been doing his whole life.  He’s lied for Luke; he’s lied for himself.  He’s lied because he’s so scared what will happen if he admits that nothing’s ever been okay, not since the day she walked out on him.

But if there’s one person who deserves the truth, it’s her.

Because JJ loves her.

And hates her all at once.

“Bad,” he says, and he feels choked.  It’s hard to breathe and his eyes are suspiciously burning.  He shakes his head, realizing just how close to tears he is.  “The whole thing.  It was bad.”

The answer clearly hurts her.

Hurts her – but doesn’t surprise her.  “He never got clean?”

“A few times, on and off,” JJ says.  “But he never stayed clean.  Never kept a job.  Barely paid the rent.”

She sighs now, long and slow.  “It’s not an easy disease, addiction.  And Luke had no one to fall back on.”

The sympathy in her voice is real, and JJ wishes he knew how to understand it.  He wishes it had been enough.  He just wishes.  “I had to fend for myself, most of the time,” he continues, even though she hasn’t asked for more.  He needs to tell her, though.  “Not a lot of food.  Never any new clothes.  Nothing under the tree at Christmas.  Hell, we didn’t even bother with a tree.”

He’s hurting her now, and he can see it.  He’s driving it home, what her absence has meant.  This isn’t why he came, he tells himself.  He didn’t come because he hates her.

But he’s spent a lifetime waiting for comfort.

He thinks he might finally get it.

“JJ,” she starts, shaking her head.  “I’m sorry–”

He’s not done, though.  He’s started this, and he’s come all this way.  He will finish it.  “He used to tell me how much he hated me.  He used to tell me it was my fault, all of it.  He said you didn’t want me.”

Her breath catches now.  “JJ, that was the drugs and alcohol–”

It hurts so much that he can’t keep it in.  Sitting there, the emotions brimming, he almost can’t remember how he’s kept it in check all this time.  It spills out, and he confesses:  “He hit me,” he says, voice breaking on the words.  “All the time.  Over big things.  Over little things.  Beat the shit out of me.  Broke my ribs, broke my nose, put me in the hospital.  I almost killed him.  I wanted to kill him.  I thought I was going to kill him or he was going to kill me.”

That’s the worst of it.  His father’s sins and his own.

She has the decency at least to bear it.  She has the maturity to take it.  He appreciates that much, that she doesn’t flinch.  She takes it on the chin.  “JJ, I don’t deserve you, and I never did,” she says.  “I can’t – I can’t fix it.  I can’t go back.  But anything you need now, I will give you.  Money, a place to stay, a free meal–”

Her sincerity just makes it worse.  Everything just makes it worse.

He came here for closure, he guesses.  He came here for – something, anything.

But it’s a fool’s errand.  She can’t make amends.  She can’t rectify anything.  She can offer him food and comfort.  She can give hom money and apologies. What does that matter, though? When all JJ has ever wanted was a mom?

[antisyscourse]

I’m not sure if this is alright to vent/rant abt, but if not, feel free to delete this! <3 /Gen

We don’t understand why or how, whenever we have a relationship or a friendship of over a year, more specifically always hitting the 2 years mark, everything always fall apart. And it always fall apart when said partner/friend meet new people. Even tho they’ve reassured us that they care and that we’ll always be important them , it just feels like, a lie, to just comfort us. Which makes us hate it even more-

It gotten til the point that we don’t want them to meet new people, afraid that same things might happened again. And again. And we are aware that it’s such a controlling behaviour and it’s 100% not good. Hence why we usually try our best to reason with ourselves and let things happens. We’ve recently just got out from a relationship, not gonna lie, we are struggling a lot and trying to move on so fast, just being hyperomantic is not great..and I really wish we weren’t.

I just don’t understand why is it always us that get unlucky with friendships and relationships. I get that we still have a life ahead of us and all, but we just wanna experience what a happy relationship and friendship feels like.

With our social anxiety, it makes it harder for us to try and find friends, it’s usually always them that approach us, cuz it shows us that they are actually interested to get to know us, yk what I mean?? And add on the fact that we aren’t good at keeping a conversation going with said person/system…

Thank you for reading..^^ and thank you to you (owner of this blog) for posting this <33 If it does get posted, hope everyone’s day is going better than ours…🤍🤍

-🤍🪽

aw, anon, i'm so sorry you're experiencing this. i cannot imagine how you are feeling. i'm sending all the hugs and good vibes in the world, it is going to be okay, i promise. eventually, you will find somebody whom you will click with, and they will not abandon you. people can be cruel, and relationships hard, but remember not to lose hope!! :)) 🫂

[ID: STOP! this is a syscourse free blog! it is a safe space for all systems, so please go away if you intend upon stirring up drama!]

[straightguysdont2]

More on Niall pls, I have always felt something shady with him considering how he still has business relations with Modest! and is managed by them. Super shady given how all of his bandmates were mistreated by them. More shade on what happened, or if the truth will ever get out pls!

👀

⬇️

**cracks knuckles, stretches fingers** yall are gonna get my blog deleted but it won’t be the first time so here goes: 🤣🤷🏼‍♀️

Things were okay (as much as they could be w that disastrous management team & S👁️m🔛 🐄🛎�� at the helm) within the band until mid-2014. However as you can imagine, Louis and Harry wanted something to change bc their lives were very much NOT okay. Louis brought in the Azoffs to rattle Modest’s cage and begin the process of changing things & hopefully ending 1D so L/H could move on w their lives. Enter “no chill Novemeber 2014” where Harry was out there wilding talking about how being female “isn’t that important” when looking for a partner. And Louis talking about having a girlfriend just for the winter. “First day of spring, see you later.” We assumed at the time that they were also in contract talks to extend the end of what was a 5-year contract (2010-2015) Everyone save N wanted the 5 years to be the end, but he loves money more than anything so he pulled a proper strop over the Azoffs being involved. Remember the disastrous Ben Winston interview in mid-Nov 2014 where he pushed for Louis to deny Larry but he refused? They all looked so sad that day bc they were ready for it to end but N said “No” so they had to toe the line yet again. All of this is also leading to Zayn’s departure. He left, in part, bc of Niall but that’s another story for another time.

In early 2015 the Azoffs finally helped Louis and Harry negotiate the end of 1D in a year (Feb 2016), with no guarantees they would ever get back together. Louis and Harry were DONE, as was Zayn (Liam was a bit like Switzerland in that he wanted to keep the peace). The Azoffs also played a role in allowing Lairport to happen but that’s another story for another day. And then something really, really, REALLY bad happened. Like idek how they made it through the OTRA tour with their sanity intact (no wonder they called it “Only The Real Alcohol” tour 😆). There was no coming back from that & it almost destroyed L&H as people (their relationship proved strong).

I’m not even going to get into how party-boy Louis and babygate and the beards and all the other shit that happened to Louis from late 2014 to when the band ended was 100% to protect Harry (might make another post ab that). Louis did what he could to make sure Harry was the breakout star under Azoff management (& N didn’t like that ONE BIT). So N agreed to stay w Modest & began working on his solo album to be released the same time as Harry’s. This is also why Louis didn’t drop his first album for about 2 years-it wasn’t by choice. Contractually, Harry/N went first so Louis had to wait (but imho Louis wanted Harry to go first which is another reason why he brought in the Azoffs)

There’s some kind of contract in place and/or lawyers involved regarding interactions between N & L/H. When H went to N’s concert recently? He was MADE to go (notice how he was just seen there and never interacted w N? That was purposeful). Do not think that ANY of these post-1D public interactions are NORMAL or unscripted bc they’re not.

N insists on the interactions but the rest can’t be arsed and they’ve moved on from him and 1D. There’s also some kind of blackmail going on that’s keeping H/L in the closet (& babygate continuing indefinitely). I have my guesses as to what that involves but I absolutely will not discuss it publicly.

And bc of the assholes who watch my blog I’m gonna say this: ALLEGEDLY

Do with that what you will.

[chapel-of-rizztual]

hey, this is absolutely NOT a hate ask, just want to start with that. I REALLY enjoy your writing, you're one of my fave nsfw writers for ghost for real. I just wanted to say that I think your fics might be considered better in many ways if you would take more care of some technical stuff. you have a lot of typos, punctuation errors, tenses mixing and sentences that just don't make sense. I DON'T mean it like "ugh youre such an idiot, you shouldn't write if you dont know how", I mean it like "i really like your work, I think you deserve more positive recognition and I think that you could get it if your fics would be better in technical aspects". maybe a beta reader/editor would work for you? I bet you have awesome writer mutuals/friends that would want to help it you don't wanna do that stuff yourself after writing the whole thing already. I really hope it doesn't come off as hate, I really don't mean anything bad😭 feel free to not answer this ask publicly and of course delete it or just ignore or whatever you want, i just wanted to tell you that?

This is such a backhanded compliment. If a compliment at all? I’m dyslexic. Nothing I do is ever going to be perfect because of that. I go through and edit all my fics as finely as I can to make sure there’s as little mistakes as possible but there’s still going to be mistakes because I don’t always see them all. I do my best to do what I can but it’ll never be 100% perfect. It’s very easy for you to say I could get a beta/editor but people have lives outside of this fandom and outside of me. They don’t need to be using whatever spare time they have to be editing my shit. Fanfiction is written for free and posted for free by regular people that are not professional writers, there are going to be mistakes. My fics aren’t perfect, they never will be, and I never claimed they are. I’m just trying to get the silly little ideas in my head onto paper so other people can enjoy them as well. If them not being perfect bothers you so much I suggest you put the fanfiction down and pick up an actual book.

[jordanianprincesses]

My post is actually going to get some heat but I really have to say it

I know rajwa gets a lot of hate online and people are sympathetic towards her BUT BOOHOO CRY ME A RIVER she’s an iffing future queen and frankly I think she doesn’t give a damn (I’m not excusing bullying I’m just saying she clearly doesn’t care) here’s why I think some of the criticism she’s getting is actually somewhat justified…

Rajwa was really popular once the engagement was announced ALOT of people praised her and liked her but unfortunately here’s a list of what the JRF did to completely ruin rajwa’s reputation

1) they acted as if she was this very conservative Saudi woman from a big and important family (they literally mentioned all her family tree during the announcement) when in fact she wasn’t!

2) they literally didn’t even try to remove pictures from online and save rajwa from the public scrutiny she’s going to get once the pictures are released

3) rania spent so much time praising her and pushing her which gave people the illusion that she will be a working royal SINCE WE SAW HER EVERYWHERE BEFORE THE WEEDDING

4) they set high expectations for her without making sure that she was actually fit for these expectations (I feel like they just ignored that she might be lazy and simply didn’t want to work)

5) they spent way too much time coddling and protecting her instead of working on improving her and her work ethic. I think they did that because they were terrified she would leave otherwise!

It seems like the JRF were actually setting her up from the start l. Now now for the part that I will get hate for…I don’t think rajwa is completely innocent and she helped in tarnishing her image as well

1) she did not contact certain people to delete some of her past photos which is insane because she knows how popular Hussein was in the past and she should’ve at least used her brain a bit.

2) she enjoyed the limelight before the engagement a bit too much without thinking this will make the expectations for her higher.

3) she thought that being queen in Jordan is an easy task where you only have to play dress up and look pretty, which leads me to believe she didn’t even bother to simply google how messed things inJordan are.

4) she doesn’t even TRY to push against the royal family! She does what they want without even asking or thinking whether it was good for her or not. She doesn’t use her brain at all.

5) THE FAMOUS BIKINI SCANDAL: now now before you eat me alive I do think she was a victim and we should blame the person that invaded their privacy BUT it’s so stupid on her part to think that she can just slip under the radar and wear whatever she wants after the HUGE wedding they had! She was 100% aware of how popular she had become and still she didn’t USE HER BRAIN and think for a moment that there’s always people watching especially in public. I genuinely would’ve excused her if they were in the privacy of their own home.

6) now finally the most inexcusable of all: I think she genuinely doesn’t want to work. Now people like to come up with “theories” that maybe rania doesn’t want her to work (which is almost impossible considering how much time and effort rania put into hyping up rajwa and making her popular) or that Hussein is the one setting her up with is also not true because he is trying to push her as well… so we are left with the only option that Rajwa genuinely doesn’t want to be a working royal and just wants royal treatment with no royal responsibilities… because if she wanted to work, she would have. It’s not that hard to ask your team to give you a task to do.

7) wearing boycotted brands in the middle of genocide

Conclusion: I think both parts are at fault here they set her up and then she proceeded to set herself up as well. I wholeheartedly believe rajwa did marry for the title mainly and was so protected and coddled that she thought that’s all she’s getting A TITLE. I think she was shocked and overwhelmed with the work that comes with it. So she decided not to work at all. As if for the bullying? I honestly don’t think she cares she’s living her absolute best life and she’s set for life with the JRF stolen money and endless connections. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It’s crazy coming up with these conclusions now… I was rooting for her & Hussein so hard just about a year ago ! 💔

I agree with you in most of what you said but not all of them . Anyway, welcoome

[vonpharma]

“handwaving genuine, good-hearted concrit, to refusing to even engage in the conversation at all, to constant changes that make the event less fun for a huge chunk of us”

Do you mind if I ask more about this? I’ve also participated in sicktember (casually) and I haven’t really noticed anything that fit this, so I just wanted to ask more about your experiences if you were comfortable elaborating. I’m mostly curious what changes were made that made the event less fun (other than delay in prompts released I heard about that)

yeah sure! right off the bat i wanna say that this is not something i was like. PISSED OFF or intending to start any drama about, just some stuff that made the event less enjoyable for me.

i also wanna say that you haven't noticed it because sicktember is very very careful to not publish anything that makes them look bad. they do not engage with any of their replies or asks unless they can spin it in a very sanitized, pr-friendly manner. try creeping through the tags and replies on some of their posts, and while a lot of shit is deleted or lost, you can still see traces of it, some of which i will link to here.

the prompts becoming more delayed. i wasn't here in 2021 (when they dropped in early march), but in 2022 they dropped in mid may. that was awesome because it gave us all lots of time to prep--my favourite thing about sicktember is how accessible of a prompt event it is! the prompts don't all drop like a week before the event starts, you have all summer to write so if you have a full time job or responsibilities you can still participate. this year they made it very clear the prompts were ready to go in may but didn't drop them until mid-june.

when people started sending asks about this, they responded thusly. they maintain this weird kinda... pr-friendly, stepford smiley vibe whenever anyone tries to open a dialogue with them? and it just comes across as so dismissive of anyone trying to make genuine points.

here they say that "many things go into planning prompts" but don't elaborate on that at all. for context, the night before this ask, they had made it clear that the prompts were all ready to go. the hand-waving comes in the form of all the "suggestions" they offer here--"well, you don't have to do every prompt!" (but i want to. it's fun. it feels good. and that's what i've done in the past) "you can write after september!" (i did that last year. it was kind of miserable. i like posting with everyone, it feels like a big celebration!) "we give you like 100 days!" (that's cool. but you could give us more at no detriment to yourself. a lot of us didn't make the deadline last year.)

check the notes on this post and you'll see several disappointed contributors/fans who are trying to open a dialogue with the event runners, all of whom were ignored. several people have reached out to me saying that their asks about this were ignored.

2. last year, they said they would only be accepting fills on the sicktember blog through submissions, and only posting 10 random ones a day. in the past, sicktember has reblogged every single fill directly from the writers.

here's why this is shitty:

when you submit something to a blog, the blog owner then becomes the one who effectively "owns" its engagement. that means any notes, reblogs, comments, follows, etc. all go to sicktember. they do not go to the person who MADE THE STORY. if you, the author, want to see what people are saying about your work, you have to pull up the sicktember window and obsessively check it. if you want to respond to any comments, you give sicktember more notes.

this is just more work, especially if you still want those notes. you would then have to make TWO posts, one on your personal blog and one on sicktember's. and people are probably disinclined to reblog a story twice. it is not exposure or engagement to do this, it actively robs authors of engagement.

sicktember might not even post your fill. they pick ten random ones a day. this is because...

they literally admitted that they lose followers when they reblog every fill. they said aloud that it is all about engagement for them. maintaining followers means more to them than highlighting the contributions of all the people who are making their event what it is. they are quite literally trying to maximize followers and stealing engagement from their contributors. it's kind of fucking insidious.

the only valid point here is the thing about reducing mod workload. still, they could've just... opened apps for another mod? inquired for some extra help? lord knows i would've jumped at the opportunity to curate! i'm sure others would've too.

contrast this to whumptober, who religiously reblog every single fill despite being a much longer running event than sicktember.

this is why i started @sicktemberfeed. with permission, but the mods were even weird about THAT... i asked if it would be ok to make, and they said "well, it's not like we could stop you." weird fucking answer. it's fine to say no.

3. i didn't speak out about point 2, but did speak out a little bit on this blog about point 1. @yes-i-am-happyaspie's husband (@spaceninjas42) dug through my blog, somehow found my untagged critique (it was not vitriolic or cruel, just a plea for an open discussion) and started getting on my case for talking about it on my personal blog. there was a second, much more vitriolic reply that he left but i was a dingus and blocked him as soon as i saw it, which means it's now marked deleted and i have no way of getting it back or proving it. that's kind of a "just trust me bro" situation.

4. the prompts this year were not very good. that is a purely subjective opinion i have, but a lot of us agree that they really stray from the concept of sickfic. we have a lot of heavier whump events floating around and the appeal of sicktember is that it is for fluffier, more low stakes stuff. seeing "cardiac arrest" and "anaphylaxis" and "medieval treatment" on there had me and a lot of others scratching our heads. their response to this is always "just sub it out!" but when we start running out of alt prompts because so many of the main ones are not what the audience is vibing with... there is room for critique there. there is room for a discussion.

i can't stress enough that the problem isn't necessarily these changes--they are not dealbreakers! the problem was sicktember's attitude. every single time anyone in the community tried to say 'hey, i think this idea could use work/tweaking' the response was basically just, again, the happy-go-lucky stepford smiler pr voice "we'd like to remind you that blah blah blah! happy writing, authors!" and absolute refusal to talk to their community at all. as i've said many times, this is not a dichotomy--where one side is "we fold to any criticism! our fans control us!" and the other side is "you're not entitled to anything! we run this event for free despite our busy lives!" like you can very much find a happy medium there but they just. do not.

none of that is a deal breaker, genuinely. i was still planning on participating up until the very end, and i obviously am now.

what was a deal breaker was them posting harry potter shit.