#//This might have been my longest post on the blog... I'm sorry about that.

[kingofbodyrolls]

For this rainbow, I finally picked up my professional camera again. The last images stored there tells me that the last time I used it was the 1st of December 2023. Wild. But I picked it up thanks to this pretty rainbow, which was actually a double rainbow. So pretty. This image is made up of three into a panorama shot, and Lightroom was a bit funky with putting them together, so please don't mind the badly processed house in the middle; no, we're not looking at that 😂

For people who want a wall of text status update, it's under the cut.

How are you all doing? I'm hanging in there. Not active much, but I still haven't gotten myself into deleting my tumblr app. So I still see and get all your notifs, even if I don't reply right away! I'm still taking time off, trying to figure out what I want to do with the blog for the future... I have not written a fanfic in some time now, but I have two finished stories that are ready to be published, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure about a lot of things these days... I've had dark days, written a lot of sad and dark poems (that will go on my sub blog some time in the future), and I've begun to write an original story. It's really fun; about magic, witches and mages; about good and evil and all the gray in between. It will probably bore you, but it's fun to write, even though I don't think anyone would read it except for a few friends (even though this thing might be the longest thing I'll write, turning into either two or three books lol).

Serotonin boost I get happy when I get notifs with comments and/or reblogs of my stories; it really touches my heart. To be honest, this is why I left/taking time off. I've always felt that interaction was low, and my stupid brain will not let me stop comparing myself to others, so it slowly killed my drive for writing and posting. If no one interacts, what's the point of posting? If no one interacts, what's the point of writing? But I love writing, and it's one of my creative outlets, so I couldn't let that go completely, hence I started writing original stories instead; no ones gonna read them anyway, but I can still play with characters, world building and storytelling. Those are the things I loved about fanfics---and I still do, don't get me wrong. But I feel so discouraged being on here. But I'm happy to know that a few people still care.

The Downfall This also made it quite hard for me to read; because I felt so unmotivated... I haven't read much this month at all. I tried to read a fanfic this Monday, didn't finish it and haven't picked it up since. Honestly, I've just been watching documentaries because I'm in a (tumblr) slump. I feel drained though; I feel like I've given so much, and I love it. I love making people happy, leaving lovely reviews, and it's as much for myself as it is for making another person happy---but to be honest, it has drained me. I know I shouldn't ask for anything in return, but I feel imbalanced. Like I'm not being filled with much love, if that makes sense? I don't really feel appreciated, but don't get me wrong, I don't feel hated (yeah, I'm so good at being black and white), sorry---I know I sound very pessimistic. But you guess have always been so kind to me, and I love you a lot, and I have a few super lovely mutuals and friends that are lovely internet friends that I adore, so I wanted to be real with all of you. You can hate me for it if you want to. Go ahead.

I don't think I'm going to make a recommend list this month. I haven't really read anything, so it'll be really small. And I don't like the pressure of it anymore... which is why for a long time I've thought about not doing them anymore. Maybe some day I will again in the future. But I'd still love to make rec list on the member's birthdays! And I think this will help me, take some pressure off myself (that I've created myself), so I'll still read and rec, it will just be slower---whenever I feel like it, and not because I have to read to make a monthly rec list. This isn't my job, I'm not getting paid doing all of this, and the amount of time I've been spending on both reading and writing is more than 37+ hours a week, sooo. I have to slow down.

A part of me thinks that I flew too fast, too high and too close to the sun, lol. I'm still gonna be here, you can still send in asks for rec list or whatever you want, all is welcome (except hate, because then I'll simply just delete my blog, my mental health can't take that).

To post, or not to post? Should I post the two stories that I have? Both of them are for the series Friendcation.

And for the unfinished mermaid stories I still have left, I hope I'll finish them in the future; when, I don't know. Maybe one day I'll feel love for them again, to finish them. I have them all planned out, but like I mentioned before, with low interaction, I'm really not motivated to finish them, even though part of me really want to for the like five people that are so sweet and invested, and always comments and reblogs (you guys know who you are, and I love you so fucking much 🥰).

To all the stories I'll probably never write...

I still have some other unfinished but planned stories, and I'm gonna list them here, just for the hell of it. Don't know if people would have found them interesting anyway, but here goes:

Words on a Page (a Namjoon x reader, idol!au where reader is a fanfiction writer and interviewer for a magazine and has to interview BTS). Author's comment: probably never gonna write it. It has been done before, and it was just a very very silly dream I had.

Songs of The Heart (a Jimin x reader, musician!au where Jimin is a single father and reader moves into the house next to his, hear his lonely songs etc, they meet, talk, very angsty, sad and nostalgic and 'Who' coded). Author's comment: this idea came to me after listening to 'who' and then thinking about Jimin being my next door neighbor, yeah, that's it. Don't know if this will ever get written.

IT Support (a Jimin x reader, office!au where Jimin is your nerdy coworker, but a freak in the sheets, lol). Author's comment: this has honestly been on my list for years, but I never written anything for it, and I probably never will, even though I've made the banner and all.

I do have a few more, but I've already scraped those, and then there's the four mermaid stories to add to the list. I'm probably mostly excited about the mermaid stories, and those would be my priority if I ever get back into writing fanfiction again.

I swear, I'm almost finished... Okay, this whole thing has gotten incredibly long. Sorry. Before I end this post, I just want to say how happy and grateful I am to each and everyone of you. I've met some incredible nice people on here, some really caring ones. I'll never forget that. And I'll never forget each wonderful and lovely comment, some people have really helped me, motivated me when I felt low, and when I wanted to stop writing a few months back. Thank you. I kept going, and I wish I could keep going for you, making something special, for the special people I met here. I actually really wanted to do requests for you guys in hopes that it would motivate me into writing, but I just don't know. I still want to give so much back to the people who have hyped me up, so I'm going to tag a few of you lovely people--- if you have a request for a story, you're welcome to message me or send me an ask. I don't know if or when I'll write it, but in case I get a bit of motivation, I have some things I could write from, so if you want to, you can send me a request (just keep in mind the story will probably be a one-shot from 10-20k max or maybe shorter, lol, you never know with me). You don't have to send me a request, I simply want to give back to some lovely people. I wish I could hug you.

@letjungcoook7 @honeybloomyyyy @babystarcandyjk97 @minpdrecs @bobathi @allie-is-a-panda @back2bluesidex @gimeow @antisocial-mochi267

These are but just a few of the people that have supported me on there, either by commenting, reblogging, ask, messaging--you name it. I could list many others, and one day I might make a post celebrating all mt lovely mutuals, that means a lot to me. Thank you for interacting; you've (as long with others) helped me when times were tough. Thank you.

I had actually planned to open a "recommend a fic" section/box, but I'm not sure about that. I still have so many fics on my to read list, and right now I don't want to pile more onto it. Might do it in the future, when I've finally made it through my own lists.

Okay, I have to end this post for real now.

I'm still on tumblr, I still have my app. I deleted my discord app on my phone, but I'm still part of the servers I was before, I'm just not active. It's better for me that way right now, because it all got to be too much. I was just reminded of how much of a failure I feel like (no, we're not getting into that not, store it away). But you can always contact me here. I'm lurking sometimes. I look forward to reading in a more leisurely pace and hopefully not feeling pressured to make the rec lists as I did before (even though just for the completionist in me I want to finish them for just this year, lol).

Okay. If you read this far---thank you, I adore you, I love you, you're nice, keep going 💜

[daughter-of-sapph0]

quick question, what's an era 2 tumblr user? we have eras??

it's sorta something I made up myself. tumblr has gone through various shifts in presentation and tone that dramatically affected how people use the website. honestly idk if anyone besides me actually uses this system, but I'm gonna use it anyway because it's funny

so Era 1 is from the start of tumblr until dashcon. this is where the dashboard had those weird lines on the side of reblogs, was the hight of superwholock, allows editing other people's posts, and was filled the overwhelming prevalence of fandom. back then, tumblr wasn't very mainstream and most people who used it were big nerds (affectionate). so there was a strong sense of community between people who had shared interests.

Era 2 starts after dashcon in summer of 2014. this was a disaster of an event that sorta boosted tumblr's popularity for better or for worse. this is also when I first joined in late 2015 as an undertale blogger originally (my first blog has since been deleted though). this is what I'd call the meme era of tumblr. it's when most of the most popular jokes are from. it's when massive inside jokes and tumblr references started. and it's the time where the most people were active. and it lasted until about late 2018 with the porn ban

Era 3 was kicked off with many users deciding to leave tumblr near the end of 2018 beginning of 2019. tumblr's policy on porn up until then had been "go nuts. show nuts" until it was bought by virison who tried their best to make it "family friendly". the whole thing was handled very poorly ("female presenting nipples") and didn't even get rid of all porn, just porn from sex workers and artists who sold nsfw content to make a living. most of those people left for sites like twitter, and many other sfw artists (and also people who just used tumblr for free porn) left with them. for a while, tumblr was pretty empty. but not entirely. there were still very close knit communities, arguably even closer than Era 1 even. and honestly, this is when tumblr was at its most usable. it was quiet. the only thing that you had to worry about was the occasional porn bot (and staff's growing authoritarianism, but we'll get to that). it's hard to argue when exactly Era 3 ends. I like to say it's when elon musk bought twitter, but I also think it might have started a bit before then. it's more of a slow transition that happened sometime between early and late 2022

Era 4 is the return era. when everyone who went to twitter came crawling back. this was sorta kicked off with staff starting to be more lax with their porn restrictions. but don't think that staff was having a change of heart and suddenly nice. for the longest time, they had been overstepping boundaries and abusing their authority, such as banning mainly Black and leftist users calling them "Russian psyops". it was also around this time that people discovered that there were several terfs on the development team, and that was likely the reason they didn't ban nazis and terfs despite both being in clear violation of the tos. tumblr staff tried to distract from this controversy by adding a bunch of gimmicks. the crabs for April fools, blazing posts, checkmarks, tumblr live. this for some reason actually worked, and a lot of people just forgot or didn't care about staff any more, and it actually brought in a lot of new users. I have no idea how long Era 4 will last. all the Eras have been kicked off with a massive change in how social media operates that becomes more dramic and impactful each time. so short of the us government completely banning tiktok for good, I doubt Era 4 will end any time soon.

sorry this turned mostly into a rant against staff near the end. as you can obviously tell, I'm sorta biased towards Era 2 and 3, as that's when I had the best experiences with tumblr. and a lot of the problems I have with the site today can be traced back to staffs stupid decisions and abuse of power and authority.

but yeah. I hope that makes sense.

[putschki1969]

2024/04/10 Blog post by Wakana おしゃべりガーデン第8回目‼︎〜ガーデン史上最長の回が誕生しました〜

❗This is Fan Club EXCLUSIVE content❗ ❗PERSONAL USE ONLY❗ ❗Do NOT SHARE on other sites❗ ❗Join her FAN CLUB! Check out my detailed TUTORIAL ❗

Talk Garden Vol.8!! ~The Longest Episode in the History of My Garden~

Wakana's Talk Garden Vol.8 has just been uploaded! This time, I abandonded the idea of a strict topic (the presents are also on hold for the time being☆), and instead, I wanted to do a sort of extra edition where you could send me all of your questions for me. I was very determined to read as many messages as possible! And as a result...the podcast ended up being over an hour long!! 😂🤣Sorry!! *laughs* I didn't edit it at all so you get to listen to everything🤣Everyone, please take your time and check it out＼＼\٩( 'ω' )و //／／

I'd like to post some photos of the things I talked about in the podcast! This here is the whiskey which I always use to make highballs🥃Looks cute together with Tet. Next up are my training items. A FLOWIN training mat with pads. Apparently, professional footballer Yūto Nagatomo ⚽️ also uses them. Next are my voice training companions. These are textbooks for voice lessons. They are incredibly helpful. This is already my second Concone book. Then we have this English chat app. Here you can see Teacher Susan (AI). She says a lot of difficult things that I struggle to understand. Finally, these are my hair care and makeup products. I use most of them daily, depending on my mood. I mainly go for the pink one in the middle. And these are my latest top makeup products. The yellow ones look so cute. I bought the star-shaped shiny silver one to apply some of it to my décolletage at the Ghibli concert but then I completely forgot to do it.

All right. that's about it! If I wasn't able to convey my answers properly during the podcast, please check out the pictures here for reference !(I'm not very good at explaining)

Thank you so much for all the messages! 🤗

If there's anything else you'd like to ask me, please feel free to write it in the comment section of this blog post or along with your message for the next talk topic o(^▽^)o

Speaking of which, the next talk topic for the episode on May 10th will focus on two things since my concert "Wakana 5th Anniversary Live ~The "VOICE" Stories~" is just two days after that and May 12th also happens to be Mother's Day, so I'd like to hear about both the concert as well as everyone's mothers🤔Therefore, the next talk topic is: ・Stories about your mother ・Your routine on the day of a live ・Things you're looking forward to at the concert

I know, I'm greedy😂You can choose your favourite topic and narrow it down to one or you can write something for all of them!! I'll be waiting for your submissions~~!! !! !! !! !!

Well, that's it for today! Until next time~☆( '▽')/

＊＊＊Wakana＊＊＊

2024/04/28 Blog post by Wakana 会報続編‼︎春の訪れとあなたとの出逢い〜薬局編〜

FC Bulletin Sequel‼︎ Arrival of Spring & Meeting You〜Pharmacy Edition〜

This is a continuation from the Talk Corner in the latest issue of my fan club bulletin. My diagnosis story ended with me visiting an ENT specialist due to a feeling of pressure in my ears. There, I ended up receiving a shocking diagnosis from the doctor that I might be experiencing hay fever😇 Unable to accept this sudden reality, I grabbed my prescription and headed to the pharmacy, feeling anxious. When I entered the pharmacy feeling depressed, I was greeted by two female pharmacists with kind smiles.

Pharmacist 1 (hereinafter referred to as Pharma1): "This is a prescription for an allergy medicine. Do you suffer from hay fever?" Wakana (hereinafter referred to as W): "Yes…it seems like I'm making hay fever debut..." Pharma1+Pharma2: (with a big smile in unison) "Ohhh! Welcome to our world! \(^o^)／" 😂 Pharma1: "Don't worry. It will go away if you take this medicine. Also, the doctor didn't prescribe anything strong so I don't think you're struggling with serious symptoms." Pharma2: "These days, there are many ways to deal with hay fever so you really don’t need to worry!" W: "Thank you…😭" (What a relief *sobs* Along with the pressure in my ears, I sometimes got itchy eyes. I had been prescribed eye drops, but the pharmacists told me there was a ``eye drop-type eye wash'' that they recommended. I asked them to introduce it to me. ) Pharma1: "Well, that girl from one of the something-something~zaka bands is doing a commercial for it." Pharma2: "That’s right, the one from the ~Zaka group!." Pharma1: "What's their name again? There are too many already!" Pharma2: "Hmm, yes, I wonder which group it was…" W: " Ugh, sorry, I'm not familiar with the group...'' (← I wasn't able to follow their conversation and had to give a vague answer. The two of them kept trying to remember the group's name instead of trying to figure out the girl's name from the commercial. By the way, the correct answer was Erika Ikuta from the first group, Nogizaka46.)

This is the eyewash that was recommended. In the morning, usuallly use something else to wash my eyes but the two pharmacists said this eye wash was even better😳 Now, after washing my face in the morning and before putting in my contacts, I always use this "Well Wash EYE"! ←It kind of looks like in the commercial. Of course, you can also use it as a sort of eye drop when you are out and about, so I keep it in my bag 😊

Anyway, I was very anxious about experiencing my very first hay fever, but thanks to the two kind pharmacists my future is looking bright! ! 😊 . . . . As for my current condition, I think the hay fever has completely gone away🤣🤣🤣 I no longer need to take allergy medicine every night 😂 Sometimes my eyes mysteriously swell, when I went to the allergist, I was prescribed the same medicine as last time, so I think I'll keep it on hand in case something flares up again. It was a short experience with hay fever...🥺😂 However, it may be a seasonal thing and the symptoms may appear again in the future! If that happens, I will remember those kind pharmacists and get through it! ! ･:*+.\(( °ω° ))/.:+

Now, I'll post some pictures from the "Selfie Challenge" that I talked about in my last "Talk Garden" episode! [Note: A fan asked her to post more pictures of herself on Instagram since it's mostly flowers and the sky XD] Ughhh, it's so difficult... I don't even know what to do with my face. This is clearly the face of someone who has been completely defeated... The road to selfies is rough *laughs*😂 I'll continue to do my best so please support me! ! 🥺🥺✨

So, that’s it for today! Everyone, please enjoy Golden Week ~ ＼＼\\٩( 'ω' )و //／／ Until next time~ ☆( *'▽'*)/

＊＊＊Wakana＊＊＊

Wakana’s Talk Garden #8

❗This is Fan Club EXCLUSIVE content❗ ❗PERSONAL USE ONLY❗ ❗Do NOT SHARE on other sites❗ ❗Join her FAN CLUB! Check out my detailed TUTORIAL ❗

Episode #8 »»—— CLICK ME 🎁 CLICK ME ——««

Vol 8 Topic “Anything you'd like to ask Wakana” Someone asked Wakana about her weight. To be honest, I've always been curious about that as well (especially since Keiko started talking so openly about her weight and different diets) but I would have never found the courage to actually ask her about it. Unfortunately, Wakana is not nearly as willing to share this sort of stuff with us. She says she is a bit embarrassed and would rather not talk about it but for the past five years, she has roughly been the same weight. Another interesting snippet: Her favourite movie is Interstellar, her favourite actors are Haruka Ayase and Takao Osawa

Instagram posts by Wakana

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『Wakana 5th Anniversary Live ～The “VOICE” Stories～』 FC Tokuten

Fan club members who have tickets for both performances of "Wakana 5th Anniversary Live ~The "VOICE" Stories~" will receive a commemorative postcard autographed by Wakana!! Please stop by the fan club booth at the collection time listed below.

[Details for FC Tokuten] Date: May 12, 2024 Place of collection: Fan club booth at I'M A SHOW Time of collection: 13:00-14:00, 14:45-15:30/18:15-19:00 How to redeem the tokuten: Your tickets (or QR code) and membership ID will be checked.

※Tickets purchased outside of the FC advance sale are eligible. ※Your seat number and membership number will be recorded. ※Please note that this benefit is limited to the day of the event.

『Wakana 5th Anniversary Live ～The “VOICE” Stories～ After Talk Event』

A fan club exclusive live stream will be held to reflect on the May 12 concert. After the 5th anniversary band live, Wakana will look back on the live and share her thoughts on it. The broadcast will be enjoyable not only for those who attended the live but also those who couldn't make it. Be sure to watch this FC-exclusive live stream!

‖Event details Botanical Land FC Exclusive Wakana 5th Anniversary Live ~The "VOICE" Stories~ After Talk Event Date: May 17, 2024 Time: 19:00- Appearing artist: Wakana

‖Ticket details Ticket sales: Bitfan Tickets Live stream platform: Bitfan Live Streaming ticket ¥2,000 (tax included)

[Application period] April 26 - May 23 ※Tickets are exclusive to FC members. ※Archive will be available until May 24. ❗ Join her FAN CLUB NOW! Check out my detailed TUTORIAL ❗ In order to buy a ticket, please refer to the tutorial provided by Botanical Land! I have also written my own tutorial for a previous FC event so feel free to check that out! Bitfan is a very foreigner-friendly platform so be sure to use this opportunity!

[fan-clan-fun]

Hello! I love this blog and always come to it for inspiration!

Right now my current fan project takes place in a post apocalyptic future where cats are going through their own Stone Age and using tools, very simple like clay bowls, antler and stone knives, learning to control and use fire, etc.. (I wanted to get rid of humans as the idea of sentient humans owning sentient cats doesn’t sit well with me) Instead of Clans they’re called Guards, and they each protect a small place of power within their territory from outsiders, relations between guards are actually pretty good and they allow cats to move Guards when necessary and encourage friendships and rivalries between cats.

Their leadership is loosely based on British Monarchy, with a ‘King and Queen’ (called Commander and Consort) and a ‘parliament’ of skilled cats who advise the commander (usually the Commander ends up picking his mentor and his parents perhaps some friends but his choices have to be approved by the Oracle so they don’t choose untrained or unliked cats) they do have a ‘Deputy’ but they are now called ‘Second’, Seconds are usually the oldest most promising heir from the Commander and consort, or a cat the Oracle and Advisors (elders) choose.

I tried to base the culture heavily on succession and mentorship, passing knowledge down, so it’s considered an honor to be given the same or similar suffix as your mentor. Cats are also apprenticed differently, becoming apprentices at 3 moons, early into training is just going over the code, games that teach them skills, and when they reach 7 moons they choose which guild they want to join (they can change their mind whenever but it’s uncommon)

The Guards are larger than Clans in general and have unique ranks, Guardians are warriors, a focus on fighting and hunting, regularly do patrols, switch amongst the territory camps to help protect them, especially camps that may not have a lot of fighters. Next are Crafters, cooking falls into crafting, but they also make satchels, knives, rudimentary traps, toys, as well as den maintenance. Then I have Ambassadors, I condensed them with one of the healer positions, ‘Speaker’ as they essentially do the same thing, Ambassadors are outside relations and Speakers were inside relations, but now they’re basically the guard therapists that also mediates with other Guards and groups. Mentors are pretty self explanatory, while every cat should get the chance to experience the bond between mentor and apprentice, these cats spend a lot of time with the young cats before 7 moons and pick their mentors according to personality and desired skill. My personal favorite are my Keepers, they keep track of history and familial relations, they’re essentially Perma-queens with a huge role in keeping bloodlines clear and recording history, they’re rarely storytellers but often parents. Lastly I have a sort of unique rank for each guard, usually something to do with the unique dangers each territory presents, (ie Mount Guard has an ‘Avalancher’ who after mountain slides they take a count of all the cats and go out searching for those missing)

I hope this isn’t too long, I got really excited seeing you pop up on my notifications again, I might send another ask going over healers or some of the unique customs the Guard cats practice.

I'm so sorry this took me so long to answer, truth is I've been answering most of these on mobile, so the longest ones have taken me a lot longer to get to, thank you for your patience in that!

I'm always curious how people plan on going about settings with cats and tools, as it's something that could be very interesting. Ultimately it requires a liiiittle suspension of disbelief, but I find sometimes that can be more fun.

Some of these concepts I've actually used or considered using myself before, so I am perhaps a bit biased when I say I enjoy them. I'm curious, do the commander and their consort often fulfill certain roles? Is it exclusively to produce kits for the next generation of leadership? Or is it more of a partnership than that?

I do have some clarifying curiosities, are the Guards the replacements for Clans? Or are there both?

So many fun different roles, and I like that you call them guilds. Once upon a time I wanted to do something similar, with a bunch of different ranks, each with their own little group of suffixes to denote their rank/guild, and when you apprenticed, you chose which guild to join. Seems like you could make it work well with your system.

I also think apprenticing that young, as long as they aren't fighting, makes sense. The bigger kits would likely require extra effort to keep busy, as they are pretty large at that point, so adding a few moons of education in camp before going out makes perfect sense.

Thanks for sending this in! Sounds like you have thought this all out pretty well, keep working hard and having fun!

[animezinglife]

Hello! I saw your reblog on one of my posts about the Day Court in my upcoming Elucien fic, and I couldn't help but look at the tags. I'm so, so glad I found someone who shares my overfixation about "practical" worldbuilding 😍 and I'd love to hear your ideas. I would've sent you a private message but Tumblr didn't allow me to, so here I am. Don't feel pressured to answer this in public, though — don't feel pressured to answer about this at all. But if you do choose to reply, you'll make me a happy girl indeed 🥰

I don't mind at all! Sorry about the private messaging thing--I have it set up so only mutuals/people I follow can do so, and this was actually my first time coming across your blog.

I don't mind posting publicly because I love sharing these ideas. I mostly write Elucien one-shots, and they almost always take place in different courts. I love thinking about the types of spaces they might share and places they could be truly happy and at ease. I lean on the idea of Lucien having friends in every court and into the idea of both of them taking on emissary duties (and making the most of them).

My fics aren't the type that technically require research, but I do it anyway. I spent a lot of time mentally "designing" the quarters they share in Helion's palace in Day for The Dance of Day (warning: it's smutty). I did a deep dive into the flora and greenery that would grow well or be native to both what would've been in the northern Persian empire (the modern countries there) and Greece: what could be used for privacy and shade. Types of layouts that would allow for great airflow and that would lean into this idea I had of using goddess imagery with Elain.

I did something similar with my one-shots taking place in Winter (with the greenhouse and courtyard layouts), with their rooms in Summer (I was thinking of a very resort-style waterfront layout), (and I have a private cottage in Spring that's already made one appearance and will again with some deliberately-laid out gardens. I have a whole masterlist that saves some time.

While I don't think SJM needs to spend quite the level of time and detail planning out these things, it's always bothered me how little grounding and worldbuilding she does in her books. We're already how many books in and I still don't understand Night Court fashion at all (which is where we've now spent the longest). A lot of times, it's completely random and inconsistent.

I love that someone else is all about those grounding details and practical worldbuilding! It can do a lot for a story and it's something I take seriously in my own original fiction.

I'll try to make it so you can message me privately, but never hesitate to drop into my inbox, too!

[ciaossu-imagines]

hiiiii im just wondering when your commissions will be open again? sorry if you already answered this!

Hello there 😊 No need to be sorry at all, my dear, even if a question has been asked, I don’t mind answering it again, in most cases! As far as when commissions will reopen, the short answer is not as soon as I’d like. In all honesty, worst case scenario, it won’t be until September. I mean, I will be honest and say that I hope it will be earlier, but that’s probably the best line to go by, unless I desperately need money before then.

The longer answer requires parting the curtain just a little bit. I always try to be really transparent with all you lovely readers about my writing process, about my projects and the things I have on the go, so I don’t really mind doing so here. In good news, I’ve finished both commissions I had owing this weekend, on my days off. Now that those are done, I’m moving on to my do-to list for writing, which is as below. I'm not rushing or overloading myself on the below - I expect a lot from myself, but I am realizing I need some rest and relaxation (or at least time to eat and sleep every day) as well.

I’m working on writing a long-fic that I’m really excited about. It’s a self-ship fic, yeah, but it’s also letting me work with some friend’s really amazing OC’s or self-inserts and it’s been something I’ve been really wanting to get the chance to seriously work on. I’ve been working on it, writing little scenes from it here and there, so now it’s having the fun of doing it from the beginning and stringing everything together. So, I’m treating it like a commission and making it my focus – however, full transparency, I work 50 hours this upcoming week and the large majority of it is in the pharmacy, where we’re not allowed to sit at all during our shifts (because it might make the customers think we’re lazy) so there’s very, very little chance I’ll be able to finish the fic this week due to exhaustion and pain. I’m aiming for having it done within the next two weeks though, ideally, because it really is something I’m just that excited about writing.

Once I’m done with that fic, I’m taking about a week to reply to dm’s and email’s from friends and to send the fic to get approval for posting from the friend's featured in it. It takes about that long because I do write novels in reply to people I love talking to, sorry about that to all those lovelies who talk to me. I’d also, during this time, like to try making a Discord account and start trying to beat some of my shyness and get into fandom spaces to meet and talk to people, make fandom even more enjoyable for me 😊

After that, I’m concentrating really hard on getting the rest of my queue built on the blog, a mixture of one-shots, drabbles, headcanons, and such. I’d like to have at least 100 posts ready, that way I can post twice a day for 50 days, which buys me lots of free time, without any worries about the blog, to work on the things below. Headcanon posts don’t take a real long time to write, at most half an hour to an hour for the most intricate, drabbles at most two hours, so I can get a queue built pretty quickly thankfully, with the one-shots being the things that take me the longest. As teased in the previous post, I’ll also be giving you guys rewritten, updated one-shots from a years old smut collection in that queue.

Once that is done, because it was largely agreed upon that many potential commissioners would feel a lot better about commissioning if I had examples of what they could get, I would like to write examples of each type of commission I accept - I had played around with the idea of using some of the commissions already finished, but to be honest, I don't feel good about everyone being able to have access to something someone paid to have, all their own. However, this also does take some time and to ensure they’re all the same quality I give to people who actually do commission, I want to not rush them.

When that is done, I want to focus on the Patreon I keep saying is coming. My plans are that, for the people buying in on tiers to support my work, I’ll be posting one long one-shot story a month. I have some fun ideas for potential other Patreon perks, because I want at least two perks for the Patreons. So my time will be spent getting at least three months ready for that.

Once that is done, I’ll restock the queue and reopen commissions! And by that time, I'll be approaching the slow season, more than likely so I'll be better able to keep to deadlines and stay up with the multiple things on the go.

[spade-andthe-microwave]

Meet The Microwave

Meet the Microwave

Howdy there, folks. You can call me Spade or Microwave! I am trans-masculine non-binary and use he/they pronouns! I am 23+, so minors, please do not interact. It gets spicy in here. DNI if you ship Clone-cest, incest, Rexsoka, or things along those lines (baseline, if its incest or pedophilia, don't try your luck) Please feel free to tag me in things you think I might like! I'll do my best to respond! I also love bugs and food, feel free to ask me about that! (I'm even working on a stupid little recipe book) I tend to bounce from fandom to fandom, so sorry in advanced if you followed me for something specific only to get blasted with a billion different things instead. I also reblog from RP accounts, especially ones I interact with I juggle between a few things, but I've been mostly writing and painting/sketching (pssst, here's the Master List for my current on-going Star Wars OC (Faovi "Nightshade" Nasta-Fett) btw. Read if you'd like <3) [UPDATE: This is currently on hiatus as I've lost the steam to continue with it for the time being] Please! Feel free to slide into my questions box, I like to interact with people! Even RP blogs! (which I may make some for a few OCs, who knows) Below the cut are some tags I use for this blog, and a few OCs that I have posted on this blog

Remi (AKA: Roachie); Fandom: Star Wars: Roachie is a relatively newer OC of mine, so please be patient as I work out a couple of kinks with them! Read about them here.

Faovi "Nightshade" Nasta-Fett; Fandom: Star Wars: One of my longest running OCs, chock-full of yummy angst! She is currently my main OC, and I have finally got the kick in the ass to write her backstory and her experience through the Clone Wars (link to her fic available up above in purple) You will not be seeing this character shipped with Clones. Read about her by clicking here. Her squad-mates and their information are listed below Clone Corporal StarburstClone Trooper StuffsClone Trooper PuffsClone Medic Fluffs

Tags used on this blog (tags for OCs listed in the tag of this post) Random rambles or chatting: #microwave rambles Cooking or Recipes: #microwave cooks Art Pieces (fandom or original pieces): #microwave draws Other pieces of art that I like: #microwave admires Reading recommendations or things I plan on reading later: #microwave reads Music Recommendations or whatever the hell I'm listening to: #microwave listens Things I have saved for later with the intent to write it into fics: #microwave writes Photography I've done (persons or otherwise): #microwave shoots

[mariska]

tumblr buddies, hello!!! its been like two months since i've posted on here which is maybe one of the longest periods of time i've ever unintentionally gone on a posting hiatus on this blog ever in the 10+ years i've had it???? im super sorry if i've worried anyone with my unexplained absence; long story short i have been in literal fight-or-flight survival mode since pretty much right after my birthday at the start of May because of medication and healthcare and disability related issues so it's been very difficult for me to set aside even a few minutes to browse through my dashboard here or on instagram and stuff. i just wanted to make a post to let you all know that i'm [glados voice] Still Alive, and hopefully i'll be feeling more like my usual self soon, but at the moment i'm still very overwhelmed and burned out from life outside of the internet and my hobbies/internet communities etc so i might still be away from here a bit longer. i am surviving though!! not entirely sure how at this point but my god dude i sure am trying as much as i physically and mentally can 😭😭😭

also, in unrelated and much more positive brief news; if any of you are taking part in this year's "Art Fight" on the official website for it, i'm hoping to at least contribute some art for the first time and have slowly been uploading reference pics/info/etc about some of my ocs on my profile there if anyone is interested in that! my art fight username is MariskaO so if you look me up i should hopefully be on there, so far i only have pics/descriptions of my dungeons & dragons necromancer Sludge, but as soon as i have a few minutes to do so i'll be adding my oc Paige (the blonde one from the 60s/70s that i made as a teenager and hold very close 2 my heart forever lol 🩵) to my character page on there too. i'm on the Vampire team but i'm more interested in just making art in general than the point game system so if you have an art fight profile and want me to check it out and maybe make some art of an oc of yours let me know, i haven't had a chance to contribute any new art yet and i would absolutely love to start drawing stuff to give (or, attack/defend, is how i think its worded on the site) to anyone!!

ok thats all for now just wanted to check in and mostly let everyone know that i have not expired. that i am still runnin up that road runnin up that hill runnin up that building

[museenkuss]

Sorry if you've already answered this but bro can I ask wtf happened to shipping and incest? Like I have been around in fandoms for a long time now and I swear the change between shipping siblings and it being what helps dictate you are vile human happened like whiplash for me. One moment it was fine and another moment you were getting death threats for daring to treat Loki and Thor as more than siblings even though the mcu fandom was sorta chill with it for years. I'm not saying EVERYONE was ok with shipping siblings (like no one should judge you for that lol) but it WAS tolerated for a long time. What happened??? I felt like purity culture sneak up on me. Now shipping incest gets thrown in with 'wrong things that help show you are a bad person' such as a being pedo (no one is defending that hopefully...). I suppose I'm not trying ask if it's moral or not (it's shipping), but more so what the fuck happened and if I should feel guilty and bad about enjoying those types of ships?? Are they truly in the same line as liking gross pedo ships?? Apologies for if this ask stirs trouble, I am just genuinely confused about what happened and why the tolerance for those ships dropped so low and you get called a demon for doing so (everyone knows incest is bad, no one was ever agreeing it wasn't but none of it was real. It was just literally fun...)

You're really summarising some of my own thoughts and questions on the matter. Honestly, I wasn't actively involved in fandom back in 2013 or so, but I recently noticed that same change as well! For example, for the longest time I wasn't even aware that people were opposed to the Thor&Loki ship based on the incest factor and the most contact I had with wincest at the time was a gif set where apparently someone asked JP during a con what he thought of it and he said "I don't think they think it's real, it's just a hot fantasy" - I remember that post so vividly because I saw it and went "yeah, makes sense" and went back to my 2014 posting. In 2020, my first introduction to the spn fandom was a BLOCK LIST with blogs who post wincest content. A BLOCK LIST?! that was so absurd and laughable and honestly made me feel so bad about fandom in general. So, yeah. I definitely agree with you, there has been a huge shift in fandom culture as to what is seen as "approptiate shipping behaviour".

Firstly: I do of course understand why people might be uncomfortable with the topic. I understand that it can be triggering, too. This makes this topic a complicated and layered one, but I don't think it means we should erase the theme from all pieces of fiction. I also don't think making others feel miserable, sending death threads or other witch hunts of the sort to strangers on the internet is justified in ANY way. Now as for your questions —

What happened? Honestly, no idea. I wonder if it's a side effect of websites being made more and more "kid friendly", banning nudity and swear words and all that to appeal to advertisers. Maybe the kids being raised in this environment adopt those mind sets? I'm not sure.

Should you feel guilty for enjoying those kinds of ships? Absolutely not. Incest can be a very interesting trope for many reasons - it can be used in gothic settings, it can be used as a "forbidden love" trope, etc. Some people make it a point to say that they like it but ONLY if those stories are dark and evil and metaphors for abuse etc, they're not like those nasty creatures who think it's "hot". But, honestly, I always get back to JP and his nonchalant reaction. "It's a hot fantasy", and voilà. I don't like it when people insist on feeling shame or - even worse - making others feel shame for meaningless things like that.

Which brings me to the idea that enjoying incest ships (for whatever reason, be it because the relationship is intricate, rotten and terrible or because it'd be hot) makes you a bad person - that's ridiculous. "Incest harms real people", yes. So does murder. I hope we're not using this logic to hunt down everyone who likes fictional murderers. Enjoying a specific dynamic in fiction does not mean you would encourage this behaviour in real life. It also doesn't mean you'd put anyone in real life in danger or hurt them. It means you enjoy this specific dynamic for one reason or another, that's all. So please, don't make yourself feel miserable for something like this.

There is also the fact that incest porn (as in, real porn where real people are filmed acting out fantasies for other people to get off to) is so incredibly popular. In the logic of the purity culture fandom people (who seem to ignore this fact and focus on random people drawing or writing about fictional people btw), this would mean that many, MANY men (who those videos are usually aimed at) secretly want to fuck their siblings, step mothers, etc. I sincerely doubt that that's the case. Instead, I think it's a sign that sexuality is very complex and we can't just narrow it down to "you think this is hot = you're evil rotten and morally corrupted"

I also have to bring up one last point: This shift in culture is not limited to fandom, although fandom people seem to be extremely loud and ruthless about this with their witch hunts. I've seen people act this way about Lolita by Nabokov and other pieces of literature, for example. Frankly, it's embarrassing to see. It's sad, too. Can people not interact with fiction anymore? Not every piece of fiction is meant as a moral indicator, we aren't 10 anymore and not every piece of art has to be Dr Seuss or Aesop.

This got very long and I don't want to get too off track, so to sum up: I don't think you should feel guilty for enjoying incest ships or themes in fiction. Really, that's your personal business and not anyone else's - and I mean that in a positive way.

I hope we as a culture grow out of this phase soon and we can all go back to having a relaxed, healthy approach to shipping/fandom/literature/art by avoiding what we dislike and focusing on what we enjoy.

[rawrtriesagain]

Heya, same anon who asked you for art advice! First, I wanted to thank you for answer my questions and listing all that wonderful advice! I just have some followups. It’s really okay to just draw without even knowing how to put down a line? Won’t that just lead to bad habits or not learning the right techniques? And you mentioned learning how to draw the human body, will the sites you listed help, or are there other resources I should look up (like maybe on Pinterest?). Again, thanks!

Combining your asks into one. Thank you for the kind words! I'll be happy to continue helping where I can :)

So in terms of bad habits and practices, this is where my advice will fall flat haha because I myself don't know what's a good practice actually - I just do what I want to do even if its the worst way to do something anyone's ever seen! For example, my way of doing 'lineart' (just cleaning up my sketches) is to draw big fat lines and then slowly carve it with an eraser into a line I deem good enough. Someone who could grab a pen and draw a perfect line on the fly would probably be like wtf watching me meticulously erase my one fat line lol

But!

If you really don't know how to put down a line at all yet, your best bet really is to just start. There's not really a trick or technique too it, its just practice. I think unless you were trying to go into art school or something and needed to work on a portfolio (btw again I am not the person to ask for that), there's not really a 'bad habit,' its just as long as you're having fun. In my earlier example about my 'lineart' I pretty much know I'm doing it in such a dumb way, but I actually find it really fun to carve away my line with an eraser haha. Yea I could put in the effort to actually learn how to do things properly, but I like wasting hours just nitpicking on this little thing just because its fun to me. (I do the same thing for coloring also. I'll scribble my entire screen and then use an eraser to start carving things out lmao)

Of course while you're drawing and you're doing something that makes you think "hey this actually sucks actually-" that's when you take the opportunity to grow and learn something new that you didn't know before. This is a digital art thing: but for the longest time I literally didn't know anything about layers and my thoughts were just "man there's got to be a better way to do this" which throws me into a rabbit hole of searching "how do I do This Thing"

If you're really into learning art techniques though it might be good to slowly go over all of the 'art fundamentals' especially when it comes to like shading and perspective. I looked at this blog post and it looks like it would help start you out with some links to other resources: link then of course you can look up the corresponding Youtube videos to see someone actually do the fundamental for real. I'd also honestly recommend like a beginners artist course in person if that's something affordable and accessible to you. It's been one of my dreams to go to like random art classes for fun haha but alas life happens so its just me and my tablet until I'm rich as hell I guess. I've never taken a digital course either, but if that's one of the ways you're able to learn that's great too and I'd recommend it!

Next on human body:

Sorry I should have talked about them more in depth at the time, but yes they will help but only if you're determined to use them correctly! So the sites I listed basically show a pose for 30 seconds, and the idea is you're supposed to just try to take in the shape/form of the pose and draw it without nitpicking over minor details. You can also set the timer higher if you need (I used to set it to at least 60 seconds just because I was just a slow ass artist). But basically it should help you break down the human body into simple shapes and lines.

Now what I mean by using the sites correctly: So there's two ways to approach drawing from references:

1. "eye tracing" which is where your eyes are kind of just following the outline of whatever you're drawing but you're not really processing what exactly you're doing to help you later down the line. I have a bad habit of doing this and I tend to struggle later again for the same pose.

2. Breaking down the reference into small chunks and shapes, and then morphing those shapes into your piece. And later down the line you should start to be able to think of things like "oh the Circle piece of the body normally goes Here!"

Here's a random google image I found to help illustrate what I'm kind of talking about:

So eye tracing would kind of be like a less refined version of #3. Just a blobby but like you can somewhat tell what it is and that's cool I guess, but its not very helpful for when you want to try drawing a variant of the pose above. Breaking down the reference is like steps #1 and #2, simple shapes and blocks that help guide and outline the final shape you want. #1 in particular is very easy to change around should you want to.

So while you're on the sites I linked, you should try to break down each pose into its shape instead of drawing exactly what you see. You should also keep in mind the 'line of action' while doing so:

It's definitely a lot to take in all at once, so I'd honestly recommend just loading up the site and doing your best to replicate the pose, 'eye tracing' or not. Once you get more used to the routine and flow, then try to branch into learning more appropriate techniques. I've seen around that some people also recommend removing the time limit on the poses, as some people learn better by taking their time on one thing and breaking things down even further from there, but that's definitely up to you. You could also go out and try drawing random people if that helps and if you're bold!

My experience with Pinterest has mostly been for inspiration or cool things I've never thought of before, though I'm sure others are able to use it better than I can haha. I'm sure there are step by step guides to help you out around there!

I think resources to learn how to draw better really do come down to what kind of learner you are in the first place. Lots of people learn really well from Youtube tutorials for example, or maybe reading and following along with a book about anatomy would work for you too. I have like the most god awful attention span ever, so what works for me is just raw trial and error and hoping for the best. tbh idk how I even got this far haha but i am happy that I've progressed at all

Let me know if you have more questions and I'll definitely do my best to answer them! If you're looking for more advice regarding traditional art learning fundamentals, I'm sure there are many other artists that would be happy to answer your questions as well!

Best of luck! :)

[chaotic-archaeologist]

I posted 2,004 times in 2022

1,024 posts created (51%)

980 posts reblogged (49%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@chaotic-archaeologist

@archaeologistproblems

@micewithknives

@saintartemis

@invisible-goats

I tagged 1,758 of my posts in 2022

Only 12% of my posts had no tags

#he speaks - 938 posts

#he answers - 622 posts

#archaeology - 265 posts

#archaeology humor - 145 posts

#20 questions - 103 posts

#academic advice - 91 posts

#academic humor - 76 posts

#life advice - 62 posts

#he learns - 57 posts

#history humor - 54 posts

Longest Tag: 104 characters

#i have several asks in my inbox right now that are a barrage of questions and it feels very overwhelming

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Can you be kinda chubby and be an archaeologist? I’m working on my health and fitness, but I’m still kinda chubby and not really cut out for field school yet. I read this article saying fat people can’t be archeologist and it kinda crushed my dreams. Because I know it will take a bit to get rid of the weight, but I feel so out of place after reading that..

Hi there, dirtling, this makes me so insanely angry. I am incandescent with rage. I would like to find the author of that article and rip them from limb to limb.

You can absolutely be fat and be an archaeologist.

I am so sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this. I am sorry that you have not received support from other members of my community. I am sorry that someone's ignorant fatphobia has crushed your dreams. Please let me try to convince you otherwise.

I have had the privilege to dig with dig with several fat people, and in each case they were an asset to our team. They were just as capable of excavating as those of us who were carrying less weight, and each of them brought special skill sets and unique capabilities to the table that we would have been worse off without had they not been working with us.

You do not have to lose weight before going on a field school. You know your body better than the writer of that article ever can. If you feel like you are capable of performing the manual labor required during an excavation, then I believe your self assessment. There is no maximum weight limit for participating in an archaeological dig.

Even if you don't feel like you're physically able to go on a dig, there are other archaeological opportunities for you! As someone with a disability who can't do a ton of manual labor, I do a lot of lab work because it allows me to be sitting down. There is so much more to archaeology than just digging stuff out of the ground, and there is absolutely room for you in this field of study.

Here are some resources that I was able to find about obesity and archaeology.

The Fat Archaeologist

Who decided it was bad to be fat— Sapiens

The Archaeology of Obesity: Discourse Analysis and Implications for North American Obesity Research

I did actually try to find the article that you mentioned so that I could take apart its argument piece by piece, but I wasn't able to locate it easily. If someone could direct me to it, I would be more than happy to rip it to shreds because it is categorically false and actively harmful. In my personal opinion, that author can suck it. Sorry, not sorry. I'm mad.

-Reid

1,007 notes - Posted June 12, 2022

#4

How to write a diary for future historians

I began keeping a diary at the beginning of the pandemic to document what was going on and how I felt about it in case someone from the future ever reads it. For anyone looking to get started, here's the "diary recipe" I use.

You will need:

Pen with black or blue ink. Ink stains the paper whereas pencil just puts pigment on top of the paper. This means that most of the lead can be brushed off or fall off over time. Black and blue ink are important because they're the most stable over time. Other ink colors might fade or otherwise degrade over time.

Acid free notebook. This is once again a conservation thing. Acid free paper is exactly what it sounds like, and is thus less likely to chemically degrade/disintegrate over time. I personally use a moleskine notebook, but any other acid free paper will do just fine.

Why should I write? Because your perspective matters. You don't have to be famous or important to deserve to have your voice recorded. The fact that you are alive right now and experiencing events as they happen is enough. Your thoughts and feelings and the details of your daily life will be of great interest to future historians.

Isn't it sort of late to start? Absolutely not! The best time to start journaling is always now. Don't worry about having missed anything important. Whatever happens next is going to be important too, and having your unique perspective is vital.

What do I write about? Whatever you want! It can be world events or what's happening in your life or anything else that's on your mind. There is no one right way to keep a diary, and whatever you choose will be an important addition to the historical record.

How do I write? The great news is that there's no rules for this either! You don't have to write long entries if you don't have the time, energy, and interest for that. You can do a couple of short sentences. You can do bullet points. You can copy down headlines that you feel are notable.

How often do I have to write? It's totally fine if you don't write an entry every day. Write whenever you have the inclination to, even if it's only every couple of weeks or months. Don't feel bad about the frequency of your updates— sporadic entries are still better than no entries at all!

History doesn't just have to be written by the victors, it can be written by all of us. Add your voice to the record to make sure that it includes the things you think are important. Your perspective matters.

1,634 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

#3

If i found a ancient coin hoard buried in my backyard could i keep a coin or two when i donate it to a museum?

Absolutely not. I think that this is probably a joke, but depending on where you are, it's also illegal.

I am against private collections and the desire to own the material past. Keeping any item from a discovery is incredibly unethical and would earn you the permanent animosity from archaeologists, museum workers, archivists, curators, restoration specialists, and pretty much anyone else who belongs to a scientific study of the past.

I know that you probably meant this as a joke, and that this was not the answer you were expecting. My firmness is not in any way personal. I cannot stand for the humor about topics that are essentially looting, because humor serves to legitimize the act.

-Reid

3,114 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

#2

This is why fieldwork safety is of utmost importance. I've been in situations where it felt like my safety was not the primary concern, and I constantly worried about things like this happening.

OSHA guidelines are written in blood. They're there for a reason. Don't ever let someone convince you to compromise on your safety. (link to tweet) (link to news coverage)

3,129 notes - Posted July 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS

49,776 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[advnttt]

This might be a bit long-winded, and I'm pretty sure no one's even gonna be here to read it, but I just wanted to reminisce for a bit. After all my name-changes I'm not sure who will even remember me, but this blog was named "siiq" and "addict3d" for the longest periods of time. Bear with me as I just word-vomit all over the place.

TL;DR It's been fun, but this might finally be the last time I hop on here.

Hell, the last time I logged in was like a year and a half ago. Nonetheless, it's been kinda fun coming back here and just seeing what's what who's still around, who's deactivated, and what the site even looks like.

I still remember when shortly before the end of my Senior year of high school in 2011 God I'm fucking old when one of my friends in my GFX class decided to make a Tumblr account for me against my will because SHE felt like I needed one. I didn't even do anything with it over that whole Summer either. It wasn't until September I decided to get on here and see what it was all about. Very quickly it became sort of a home away from home. Myself and my immediate family members had had our entire world rocked and flipped upside down shortly before I got on here, and Tumblr became an escape for me. A way to disconnect from my world and circumstances at the time. An outlet for me to express myself and my creativity as well. Never did I think upon logging in here for the first time that I would eventually have over 25,000 people following me, and that a fair few of them would become great friends for that season of my life. People that could relate to me. People that would listen. People that were also, in different ways, broken like I was. People that needed a friend, like I did. Side note, it amazes me that people still talk shit about friendships online. One of my best friends of 15+ years is a guy I first met gaming in like '08 and we didn't even meet each other in person for the first time until about 5 years later.

But anyways, I don't think y'all will ever really know how much everything meant to me. The messaging back and forth, getting to know each other, the late night phone calls when one of us just needed to talk, all the times we'd get the gang together in Tinychat and just hang out, the roasting and trash-talking, reblogging each other's selfies just 'cause we just wanted our friends faces on our blogs, all of it.

All the little things. Such simple things. They meant so much.

So now here I am. Sitting at my desk, almost 12 years to the day after my first post. Scrolling through my archive and my messages for the last little while, just reliving some moments, scrolling through who I'm following and remembering simpler times. A lot of us have moved on and away from this site. A lot of us have grown up and subsequently grown apart as life has carried us in different directions and down different paths. And I know at this point most of y'all will never see this, but just know, wherever you are in life, whatever you're keeping yourselves busy with, I'm thinking about you and truly wishing all of you the best of luck in whatever you set your hand to. You, unknowingly, helped me through arguably the toughest years of my life and I'll never be able to repay you for that. You deserve the world and more, and I wish I could give it to you.

Again, sorry for the wall of text but I just wanted to get this all out in one sitting. I feel like it's been a long time coming.

With that all being said, I'm not going to deactivate this blog (at least not until Tumblr decides to do it for me), but it's at this time that I will bid you all a very fond farewell.

Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. And keep on keepin' on.

Adieu, my friends. And thank you.

Josh

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

I posted 2,647 times in 2022

That's 574 more posts than 2021!

165 posts created (6%)

2,482 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mari-wrongway

@mykingdomforasong

@thatgeeklover

@wondersmith-and-sons

@ace-din-djarin

I tagged 1,461 of my posts in 2022

Only 45% of my posts had no tags

#art - 192 posts

#our flag means death - 113 posts

#shirozora awkwardly responds to asks - 113 posts

#ofmd - 109 posts

#star wars - 106 posts

#dinluke - 93 posts

#the mandalorian - 58 posts

#shirozora draws - 43 posts

#skydalorian - 40 posts

#what are cats - 39 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#if only i could get off my ass to finish my 2010 deancas big bang fic where dean and cas only kissed once and it was maybe around the 180k

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

So.

Due to Adventures in Adulting like "we need to remodel these bathrooms so we don't die of black mold", I'm resurrecting my "sell some of my arts as limited prints" plot and investigating local printing services (and crying over costs/the cringe of strangers looking at my art). I'll probably go the "gauge interest and make an Etsy for preorders" route after I get some proofs printed to test everything.

89 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#4

hey there! hope i'm not catching you at a bad time. i was wondering about your latest post on your concerns with the dinluke fandom. i'm really sorry about that. i'm not as active on socmed as i used to be so i might have missed on how the fandom is slowly, urm, going up into flames(?) but if you don't mind, what are your major concerns that's making you question your association? i love your dinluke stuff sm and i'd hate to lose someone like you :(

Hi there!

For a long while now, a certain "genre" of dinluke content has been dominating the Tumblr and AO3 tags and - more importantly - the general impression of the ship itself, which is dark!dinluke. Unfortunately, dark!dinluke is usually not about "dark" themes but about a racist, fetishizing, gendered relationship/dynamic between Din and Luke where Din is hypersexualized, aggressive, and possessive and Luke is a virginal effeminate twink with tradwife traits. You'll note that Din is the darker-skinned character and Luke is lily white in this particular dynamic (Bobadin has a similar problem where the darker-skinned Boba is the aggressive/possessive one while the lighter-skinned Din is the delicate flower). That's an extreme generalization of the general trend of assigning incredibly uncomfortable characteristics to characters who don't have them.

Fandom tends to vibe by the "live and let live" philosophy, and that's okay IF everyone follows general "guidelines" for fandoming, like proper tagging so that people who don't want to see that content for ANY REASON don't have to see it. A lot of these content creators have been terrible at tagging (or don't tag at all) using inappropriate or targetted tags that only make sense to people who are already in the know. If you had never seen Arrested Development before and don't know the context of the tag "dead dove do not eat" how do you know it's supposed to warn you for dark content? How do you know "cinnamon role Luke Skywalker" isn't always about a sweet soft Luke or that "protective Din Djarin" is actually about an aggressively possessive Din? Gotcha phrases like "don't like, don't read" can't work if people don't know what they're supposed to be blacklisting before they click the ship tag. So, you have posts that no one can block until it's too late dominating the ship tags, which makes for an incredibly uncomfortable experience.

But it's not just the tagging fiasco, it's also the idea that dark!dinluke creators were allowed to exist and dominate fandom conversations in the first place. It's why I said we should've been louder and meaner sooner. There is no point in living by the "live and let live" fandom philosophy if your idea of inclusivity includes allowing people to create harmful toxic tropes and trends unbothered and unscathed. This is really part of the larger conversation around POCs in fandom spaces; we have to contend with a lot of shit that makes us uncomfortable and a lot of times we are in spaces dominated by white/white-adjacent fans who don't want anyone harshing their good time or making them look bad.

I have not forgotten the utter shitshow around finnpoe (and Finn/John Boyega in general) where the concerns of Black and Latine fans were ignored in favor of protecting white feelings. I follow people on Tumblr and Twitter who discuss racism in fandom and are also harassed constantly by fans who don't want to hear the truth. It's not comfortable and you must always be aware of when it's time to speak up and when to amplify other voices, but if you want your fandom spaces to be inclusive and more safe, you have to be willing to listen and put yourself out there. I didn't because I get anxious about interacting in larger communal spaces but I always wondered if I could've helped if I did speak up about the troubling tropes and trends that dinluke fandom was heading towards. I'm just one person but it still has to mean something even if the larger fandom still chooses to ignore you.

Someone added their own thoughts to my post about fandom ignoring Latine fans expressing their concerns about Din and Pedro's other characters and I remember seeing those conversations in the old dinluke server. I tell myself I was at work at the time and that's why I didn't comment when people started nitpicking or just generally ignored the criticisms, but I wish I could've done more. So instead, here I am posting to the tumblr tag.

I'm not leaving the dinluke fandom anytime soon. I have a story to tell that I want to see to its conclusion. The day after making that post, I was doodling some thoughts about Luke (mainly his clothes, but also I should be writing instead of doodling????? get your act together, shiro). I'm in a good space where I'm still comfortable enough and I won't be chased off by the people I share space with, but it hurts knowing that they're there and they contributed a lot to the current state of dinluke. I've been in enough fandoms that crashed and burned over this sort of shit so I know when it's time to pack up my bags and leave but hopefully I'll get all my stories out before that day comes.

111 notes - Posted May 21, 2022

#3

The "I Can 'Pin' Posts on Tumblr Now? Since When?" Intro/Masterpost

Greetings and welcome to the "Who The Fuck Am I?" post written by yours truly, whoever the fuck I am. Now that I'm back on my Fandom bullshit again in at least 2 blogs, I thought I'd re-introduce myself.

I am 2nd gen Korean-American on the Best West Coast. I ID as she/they/shiro, and ace/demi. I'm in the millennial bracket (aka, I am a Legal Adult) so be mindful when interacting with me. I do what I can to be antiracist and am always learning to be better.

I am some iteration of "shirozora" on: LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, AO3, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Discord. My first Fandom 2.0 was political/pundit RPF and my first fandom fallout was Racefail '09, so you could say I've Seen Some Shit. Been 5+ years since I last engaged in actual Fandom, yet here the fuck I am.

Fandoms I have written/drawn for (FFN years do not count, I purged that account): political/pundit RPF, Supernatural, Tron: Legacy, MCU, Star Trek (AOS), Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy XIV, Star Wars/The Mandalorian

A Short List Of Things I Wrote in No Particular Order:

Lost Symphony (T): SPN; Dean/Cassie, Sam/Jessica, pre-Dean/Castiel; for the Racebending Revenge challenge - "Mary Ahn Winchester died on the ceiling of the nursery on November 2, 1983."

We Are Pilots (T+): Tron: Legacy; Sam/Tron; for the Tron Kink Meme - "Six months and Sam still can't shake off his father's ghost, so Quorra suggests returning to the Grid to find the answers he needs to move on."

Wishing Well (T): Captain America: The First Avenger; Steve/Howard, Steve/Peggy, unfulfilled Howard/Peggy/Steve; for the Cap Kink Meme - "And you just wanna feel like a coin that's been tossed / In a wishing well, a wishing well."

A Thousand Eyes Staring Back (T+): Mass Effect 2; Kaiden/m!Shep - "His problems start at Horizon, aka that time Kaidan Alenko was having a really bad day and his former CO was supposed to be dead."

Waking Ghosts (T+): Dragon Age; Dorian Pavus/Male Trevelyan Inquisitor; the Mummy (1999) AU nobody asked for - "Dorian Pavus, formerly of Qarinus, is an archivist at the Magisterium research outpost in Hightown."

Seasons Change (T): Black Panther/MCU; M'Baku/T'Challa - "A fisherman finds a dying king in his nets and Hanuman offers M'Baku an opportunity to repay T'Challa for sparing his life at Warrior Falls."

born in a thunderstorm (T+): Star Trek: AOS, Captain Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy; Kirk/McCoy; the worst AU I ever wrote - "Kevin Riley insists that James Kirk didn't die on Tarsus IV. Nobody believes him."

Dangerous Dreams series (T) - The Storm; The Suns; Between Planets: Star Wars/The Mandalorian; Din/Luke; the reason why I'm writing this post - "To want something for yourself, that is a dangerous dream."

I cross-post and occasionally write about writing at @shirozora-writes. But I bet a bunch of y'all stumbled into my little sandbox through @shirozora-draws, so let's talk about that!

I suffered from artist's block for almost 4 years. That ended when I became utterly fixated on "So Grogu has two dads now - oh no." I fucking ragequit Star Wars after the fucking world lied to me about The Last Jedi* and now I'm doing the most insane and involved fanworks because of Star Wars. The fuck???

To end this unapologetically long-ass Intro Post, here are my 3 favorite recent doodles:

The original post is here. First time animating with Clip Studio Paint and I had a two-day meltdown over it.

See the full post

141 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

#2

Where the hell do you get off assuming a man's race in order to propagate your "racism" agenda? Do you even know what it means to be white Latino?

No. You don't. You're Korean American.

So, have you ever considered that maybe, by making assumptions and incorrectly representing Pedro Pascal's race, you're the racist asshole?

I'm guessing not because that would require an ounce of humility and self reflection.

Grow the fuck up and shut up about issues you don't understand.

My dear sweet summer child, where exactly have I assumed anything? Is Pedro white Latine or no? I’ve only referred to him as others, including Pedro himself, has called him. 

Do I have to be a white Latine to talk about these things? Am I only allowed to talk about Korean American issues? Must I keep my mouth shut if I see racist depictions of characters who aren’t Korean American? Is it okay to talk about East Asian Americans or does it have to be only Korean American?

Latine fans have been calling out dinluke fandom’s racist depictions of Din Djarin for months. What exactly am I assuming here? 

Listen, I am happy to take a backseat and amplify other voices that do know more than I do. What I’m not going to do is pretend this is not my problem because I’m Korean American. Racial politics in America are hell on earth and solidarity is how you push back.

155 notes - Posted May 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

it is my strongly held belief that we could’ve slowed the hemorrhaging of people from the dinluke sandbox if we’d gotten louder and meaner at the grosser and more toxic corners much sooner.  the “live and let live” philosophy (don’t like, don’t read; ymmv; ykinmk) doesn’t work if it allows racist tropes, harmful fetishism, gendered stereotypes, and other toxic trends to flourish and define the sandbox. the inability to exercise basic courtesy and tact especially in more public and easily accessible fandom spaces has done so much seemingly irreversible damage to a ship I love, and it really does make me question my continued association with it. 

199 notes - Posted May 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[ask-the-virtual-council]

I posted 5,353 times in 2022

That's 5,353 more posts than 2021!

149 posts created (3%)

5,204 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@samithemanni

@jsab-strawberry

@irummna

@corpsefiend

I tagged 561 of my posts in 2022

#fnaf - 113 posts

#the council has spoken - 81 posts

#william afton - 68 posts

#five nights at freddy's - 58 posts

#afton blogging - 37 posts

#prev tags - 34 posts

#fnaf fanart - 34 posts

#springtrap - 29 posts

#william's reblogs - 23 posts

#michael afton - 21 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes ye-

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Cue Toby just staring at Slender intensely.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Slender... Not gonna lie, being your proxy had its perks, but it also had its downsides."

'You're not my Toby, are you?', the thin creature said, crossing his arms.

21 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

#4

Unknown:Uhm...where am i?Am i- *looks around and he can't seem to know where he is* okay, hello?Anyone here? *calles out for anyone* If uhm...i'm disturbing anyone here...i'm sorry, i try my best to go back but...this happens randomly!Can't control it...

A tall, thin figure in a suit approaches him(you called them a 'he', so I'm just inferring). 'How did you even...?', he stutters before reaching out a pale, bony hand to the unknown individual.

29 notes - Posted May 29, 2022

#3

(aight imma shove the last thing i sent in here since the gltch so we can continue the rp)

Zaen's whispering from earlier is a bit louder now, though the words are rubbish. Was he speaking a foreign language?

Zaen looks up, and the Papyrus is somehow startled though nothing about him seems off. Even he questions this as he shakes his head and spawns more bones, "I'm only going easy on you, I do have access to every attack in the multiverse. You could be easily be dead right now, count yourself lucky..But count out the goat, he looks like a goner."

He laughs again, and shoots the bones he's spawned at Zaen and Aliza. They stop abruptly before getting close, and a look of confusion spreads across his face as he tries to get them to move again but fails.

Zaen is scared, yet he looks at him with contempt.

*You look at Zaen with astonishment, but you refuse to bend down and help your brother.

*You look at Aliza, hoping to get an answer as to what happened.

40 notes - Posted May 30, 2022

#2

Random Tidbit of my Ask Blog Universe, if this is received well enough for someone to ask, I might actually start it:

Henry Emily: And then I told him tha-

Bonnie/Jeremy, pops head through small portal: Hey Mr Emily!

Henry: Yeah?

Bonnie: Your Gay!

Henry, thinking he'll win an argument: What about my gay?

Bonnie: It's re-arranging all the furniture in your office!

Henry, leaning into the portal to take a look: What do you me- What the... [proceeds to climb and fall in portal] WILLIAM AFTON GET BACK HERE WITH MY DESK, IT'S FINE WHERE IT IS!

William, dropping desk and running for dear afterlife: FUCK OFF HENRY, I'M TRYING TO MAKE THIS EASIER FOR YOU!

69 notes - Posted May 15, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Frostbite: "ngh!! Where am I..." ((I'm bored, so have an RP starter))

Oh? What's this? Who might you be? [Holds out her gloved hand]

92 notes - Posted May 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[hotshot9]

I posted 8,608 times in 2022

That's 1,447 more posts than 2021!

75 posts created (1%)

8,533 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@genifer-first-of-her-name

@crclocalunhingedsith

@kiwikipedia

@i-will-bite

@infected

I tagged 1,555 of my posts in 2022

#for later - 144 posts

#tbobf spoilers - 88 posts

#talented vod - 68 posts

#talented friend - 59 posts

#galaxy brained friend - 49 posts

#dathomiri word of the day - 46 posts

#friend's art - 44 posts

#unreality - 30 posts

#tw unreality - 27 posts

#goncharov - 27 posts

Longest Tag: 118 characters

#💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

I sent 1 gift in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

"They made the Tuskens characters that are not throw away. And then they threw them away."

-my mom about tbobf ep. 3

19 notes - Posted January 15, 2022

#4

I keep seeing posts about tbobf ep 6 saying we should give the star wars writers a chance to further develop Luke's character, that this version of Luke isn't the end goal, that they might be doing this so he can learn.

Two problems with that.

One. I have given them chances.

I gave them a chance with the Tuskens - they killed them.

I gave them a chance to compel me with whatever story they were going to tell about Boba after that - they sidelined him in his own show.

I gave them a chance to return to the story they had been telling - we got this episode full of junk characterizations instead.

Two. We know what the end goal is.

And it's the sequels.

Did you forget about those? Disney hasn't. That is their end goal Luke. And he starts here.

So, no, I'm done giving them chances. I'm watching this show solely for Temeura Morrison amd Ming-Na Wen at this point.

19 notes - Posted February 3, 2022

#3

He shall be called Uli, in honor of a child with no name who deserved better

23 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

#2

oh mY GOD SHUT UP ABOUT POSSIBLY SEEING LUKE IN TBOBF JUST BECAUSE DIN GOT A WHOLE EPISODE ALL TO HIMSELF THE SHOW IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT BOBA NOT DIN NOT LUKE NOT THE FRICKIN PLOTLINES OF THE MANDALORIAN BOBA GOT SIDELINED IN HIS OWN SHOW CAN YOU JUST

I'm so sorry, Mr. Morrison, you do not deserve the clownery you had to deal with on this show.

Star Wars, quit sidelining people of color

24 notes - Posted January 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

34 notes - Posted February 4, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[paradoxesofgalaxies]

I posted 4,667 times in 2022

That's 1,943 more posts than 2021!

992 posts created (21%)

3,675 posts reblogged (79%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@clever-and-unique-name

@honeysuckle-venom

@drabbleswithdragons

@felis-the-complex-multiple

@snorlax-and-co

I tagged 1,568 of my posts in 2022

#galactic gab - 986 posts

#vent tw - 234 posts

#asked and answered - 210 posts

#parts stuff - 90 posts

#bone fuckery - 72 posts

#ask bait - 40 posts

#covid tw - 38 posts

#doctors tw - 35 posts

#trauma stuff - 35 posts

#trans stuff - 27 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#i keep thinking it's allergies bc of how much i'm sneezing but the allergy meds aren't helping and cold medicine is ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I used to think I was an open book. That I had no problems with vulnerability.

But I've learned that being willing to recount the horrors of my life with the detachment of telling a story about someone else isn't vulnerability. But rather a way to avoid being vulnerable.

Vulnerability is taking the risk of reaching out to a potential friend, knowing that pain may follow. It's talking about my emotions with those I've come to trust even though it feels too dangerous. It's talking to a friend about the things that fill me with shame and giving them the chance to love me through it.

The vulnerability of love can feel so dangerous. But I'm finding that it's worth it

61 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

#4

There's a part crying out inside "why didn't you save me?"

As tears fell from my face, i told them I'm sorry i couldn't save them before, but I'm saving us now. We're safe from those who hurt us, and we're putting in the work to heal.

"Why didn't you save me?"

Let's save ourselves together now

87 notes - Posted July 31, 2022

#3

It has seemed that over the past several years, the pushback against trauma olympics has morphed into this idea that all trauma should be treated as equal and that any differentiation is inherently ableist.

And while I agree that competing over who has it worst is an exercise in futility that is often damaging, I think the inability to have conversations with nuance regarding different traumas has been really damaging to community discussions.

Like, yes, what is traumatic to one person may not be traumatic to another and what a child's brain counts as trauma might not make sense to an adult. If you're traumatized by something, then it was traumatic for you. It doesn't matter if other people think it shouldn't have been traumatizing, your trauma is real.

But I think it is damaging that community discussions have become so warped that stating that some traumas are more severe than others is met with hostility. There are, in fact, degrees of severity when it comes to trauma.

Hell, I'm very carefully picking my words in this and not really specifying any specifics because I don't want to deal with the hostility that would likely ensue.

Acknowledging that some experiences are more inherently traumatic than others does not invalidate your pain and struggles. Each person's response to trauma is shaped by a vast array of factors including the support a person has after the trauma. It's not bad or wrong to be more affected by a specific trauma than someone else who went through something similar because we all are shaped by our own unique circumstances.

However, that doesn't make it ok to flatten the way we talk about trauma by never acknowledging that some events are more inherently traumatic than others.

This shift in the community has made it really difficult for people who have gone through very severe trauma to talk about their experiences without being attacked for ~invalidating~ other people's trauma just by talking about their own experiences.

I'm leaving reblogs on and I'm to discussion on this, but anyone coming in with hostility will be blocked.

179 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#2

It's so upsetting and frustrating seeing more and more people say they want to get COVID to "get it over with".

Aside from the multitude of other reasons that this attitude is dangerous and reckless, it overlooks the fact that *you can get COVID multiple times*

This isn't like the chicken pox where getting it provides immunity. People can, and many have, get COVID multiple times.

Every time you get COVID is another chance to end up with lifelong complications.

COVID isn't something you can catch to just get it over with. You'll still be at risk of catching it again and you may end up with complications that make each new case even more risky

Various studies show that anywhere from 1 in 6 to 1 in 2 people with COVID will end up with long COVID.

Please stay safe. Please continue taking precautions to protect yourself and those around you.

205 notes - Posted January 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

263 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →