#I can't believe my first discourse is going to be a top/bottom discourse

[id-rather-be-home]

do you think a lot of bylers try to force will into “the girl role” and mike into “the boy role”?

now obviously will is sensitive and gnc and more feminine in that regard, and mike is a leader and protective so he’s more “masculine” in that regard, but some bylers take that to mean will would always be submissive/passive in the bedroom too. what are your thoughts on this?

ooooof i feel like i may step on some toes with this one because top/bottom discourse gets on my nerves

(no hate at all to you anon though!!! just wanna make that clear first; this is a very good question!)

i think that a lot of bylers do tend to put will into "the girl role" and mike into "the boy role" subconsciously because it is fairly easy to do so! like you pointed out, will has some "feminine" characteristics while mike has quite a few "masculine" ones which makes it very easy to sort them into pre-existing gendered roles. it also probably doesn't help that mike is usually always the one to take care of and protect will and it hasn't really been seen the other way around (which i think is going to change in s5 but that's besides the point)

i think that we tend to sort homosexual couples into heterosexual roles even though i believe most of us who ship byler are queer ourselves; it's just such an easy thing to fall into because of how gender is treated in our society. if a boy is seen as "girly" then it's assumed he'd be on the bottom in the bedroom even though that isn't necessarily the case! it also doesn't help that will has, uhhh, certain Assets that make him more appealing to be on the bottom in a sexual relationship

however, i don't like when people treat sexual relationships as if they're so black and white; even when it comes to heterosexual ones where the sexual roles are pretty well defined.

do i think that will bottoms? yes.

do i think that mike bottoms? also yes.

their relationship is so... balanced and they treat one another as equals in such a way that i can't imagine they have sex only one type of way (whether that's bottom will or bottom mike). i think they would be very versatile and switch things up depending on how they're feeling that day or maybe who needs a little more reassurance and attention, things like that

that doesn't mean that neither of them have a preference for topping or bottoming. but we do not know enough about the characters in a sexual light to be able to determinedly say what their preference is - it's entirely up to an individual's perception based on what we know about them as is! i ended up in the camp that believes mike doesn't have a preference for either bottoming or topping (though he does play a bit more of a submissive role either way) because all he wants to do is make will feel good

will, on the other hand... honestly, it's something i'm still trying to decide. in my fic right now (which is where i'm exploring a lot of these concepts) he has a preference for topping BUT i can see that changing as the fic goes on and they get to experiment more with switching their roles up a little bit

however, whether or not will prefers to bottom i can't really imagine him taking a passive role in the bedroom?? even if he gets a little more submissive from time to time, he would never be passive about it

at the end of the day, nobody actually knows what these characters would prefer because we don't know their sexual preferences aside from what gender they like (confirmed in will's case, highly suspected in mike's obviously). so i think that people should be able to put them in whatever roles they want as long as they don't get mad at other people for not thinking the same as them which is... bizarre behavior if i'm to be honest

like, why would somebody get mad at me if i believe mike wheeler has a preference for bottoming instead of the other way around?

this has gotten pretty long so i'm gonna cut it off here but if you or anyone else has more questions about it, feel free to shoot them my way!

[darkangel0410]

this might be the best asks of all time bc our DMs are nothing but hater-nation and we are ultimately the correct ones. SOOOOO; 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 12, 16, 18, 19, 24 - i had to ask so many bc your opinions are my FAV lmaooooo but feel free to *not* answer any you dont want!

We ARE always the correct ones - eventually people will realize it 🙄

the character everyone gets wrong

Listen, I have a list of players I'm going to take away from fandom because of crimes of mischaracterization and the list includes, but is not limited to: Matthew (Tkachuk), Jack (Eichel), Trevor, Jamie. Sometimes I swear people haven't ever spoken to a real live boy when they write the convos these guys have in fic

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

I'll be strong and not turn this into an opportunity for my bottom!Jamie agenda, and instead say: Jack Eichel isn't a top - he wants to be fucked often and well, and would also like a few smacks on the ass before and after, thanks. He won't hesitate to tell whoever's fucking him what they're doing wrong, either.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

THERE ARE SO MANY WRONG TAKES ON HERE, WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???? but easily the worst take I see on any given day is every single take about Matt (Tkachuk) and how his dad hates him and how he needs a fake gf because his dad's is ASHAMED of him or whatever the fuck people have decided is the new hot trauma to put him through - they've turned Matt into the fandom crier and I hate it with every fiber of my being

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

for me, personally, it's any x reader/ yn or whatever writer who doesn't put their shit behind a read more (Also Nolan Moyle is not a dom, like come the fuck on people)

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Crosby, full stop. I cannot stand the way fandom is with him and I can't even watch him play hockey and enjoy it any more

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

The Knights. Just. The whole roster lmaooo

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Rule 63, full stop. I don't get why people write it, why they never put in any actual character work into it when they do, and it gives me homophobic vibes (like in general, as a trope, not a specific fic). Like you change everything about someone, and the way the world sees them, the way it interacts with them, and I'm supposed to believe that every single thing happens exactly the same???? Pull the other leg, it has bells on

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

Alex Turcotte, My Beloved - truly he's so pretty and sweet and plays good hockey and is just someone fandom needs to pay more attention to

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

I don't do shame, but I do find it kind of funny how much I love a/b/o now because I used to absolutely hate it when it first showed up lmaooo

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Censorship, 1000% because besides being gross on it's own, it's always dragging purity wank in with it and I've seen so much of that shit, I hate it

*

Thanks for asking bestie!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ (choose violence ask game)

[trainsinanime]

Oh man, the discourse around this for the next few weeks is going to be wild! And I think Staff is well aware of that, and is not going to read the replies to this, so I'm just going to list my thoughts here. But I do believe every Tumblr user who is at all interested should read the entire thing, top to bottom.

With that, three main takeaways from this:

Tumblr isn't making enough money; they're not showing enough ads to enough people

Other social networks prove that algorithms work at getting more people to see more ads

Other social networks prove that annoying users and random passers-by works at getting more people to see more ads

I really wish these things weren't true, but I fear that they are. The conclusions from that are basically inevitable. I mean, I absolutely hope that @staff manage to find some other way to make more money that no other social network has managed before, but I'm not holding my breath.

Most of the knee-jerk replies to this post are kind of useless, dealing with age-old Tumblr minutiae. I particularly love the people who go "improve the search" and, best of all, "we don't want an algorithm, just give us better blog recommendations", as if blog recommendations were not fed by an algorithm. My hope is that Tumblr will allow old users to turn off the more annoying features. If not, yes, I will definitely start to think about things.

But more importantly in a broader context: This once again proves that all that shit people have been saying in the wake of the Reddit collapse is wrong. Tumblr isn't "the only good social network". Tumblr isn't "the one that magically survived". Tumblr is actually in the same goddamn position as Twitter and Reddit: A website designed to make a profit some day, that now has to deal with the fact that "some day" has come.

We don't notice it because in a lot of areas, Tumblr is already on the other side of this whole debacle (or part-way through). Consider how third-party clients, the thing that Twitter and Reddit both killed, were never allowed here to begin with. Or the whole porn ban.

I have seen people call this enshittification, and I can't disagree with that. But I've also seen people say, "Tumblr is not a product, you idiots, Tumblr is a community", and that's just plain wrong. Of course it's a product, run by a corporation that wants to make money. It always has been, it just has gone for long times when the big corporation was too busy with other stuff to notice it. Community doesn't pay the AWS server bills. Ultimately, making money (or at least not losing money) will always come first as long as we all continue to pledge allegiance to the big centralised sites.

(Man, I should really look into that whole Mastodon and Fediverse thing again. Setting up my own ActivityPub server is certainly way too difficult, but it sure sounds like an interesting challenge…)

Some of the issues described here absolutely sound reasonable, like how replies and reblogs and "prev tags" are a mess that is very annoying to navigate. Will the solution be any better? I have doubts, but we'll see.

Overall, I fully understand the impulse to go, "I hate you idiots, I hate that you're trying to make money". But obviously staff can't and won't listen to that, and getting angry at them treating Tumblr like a product now, in 2023, is not productive.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[we-all-horny-here]

op do you imply that Virgil is a bottom cause u right if so

Maybe I do, who knows. Or maybe there was just 5 places on the list and I'm not into emo boys.

But tbh I'd see him more as a bottom leaning switch, but ykno, that's just my opinion.

[multigenderswag]

people are only trans/nonbinary allies when it suits THEIR identity and it sickens me.

it’s so widespread I can’t even do anything about it except seethe in silence because I don’t want to get hunted down and embarrassed again.

if people could look outside of what accepting trans/nb people would mean for THEIR sexuality for one fucking second i guarantee you there would be less discourse in this dumpster fire of community

yes, this is about man lesbians/woman gays.

I saw someone call a demiboy lesbian “straight” and then have the audacity to say “nonbinary lesbians are valid!1!”. PICK A FUCKING SIDE.

hi yes last anon i forgot my last point so-called “trans allies” also like to ignore the idea of male and female not being mutually exclusive. I pray they get their asses handed to them one day by some fellow multigender folk because at this point direct confrontation is the only that that’ll get them to see the cold light of day and stop being part of the problem. they don’t like to accept us because they can’t handle the thought of being attracted to the opposite gender, even if it’s in the most slim way- so much so that they can’t see that *we’re not forcing them to DATE us, we’re asking them to ACCEPT and INCLUDE us.* if there’s someone in a community they don’t want to date it’s fine until that person happens to be genderqueer/trans/enby. and that’s very telling about how accepting they really are.

Trans liberation, and honestly any kind of activism for any marginalized group, would not be possible if people only ever stood up for their own identity. We need to support each other in order to have any strength.

Some people really will only expand their view of sexuality and gender until they find something that fits, and then stop there, and don't bother learning about or advocating for anyone else. And that's not how activism works! If aroallo people like me never made any effort to understand and accept and stand up for asexual folks, the aspec community as a whole wouldn't get very far. And like you said, if trans/nonbinary people only cared about their own gender identity, and never made an effort to learn about and stand up for the variety of trans/nonbinary identities that exist in the community, the trans community wouldn't get very far!

It's disgusting to insist that someone's sexuality is something they say it isn't. Did that demiboy identify as straight? If the answer to that is no, don't call them straight. It's very simple, really.

Did they not hear the contradiction? Do they listen to themselves speak? At this point, I'm convinced some of the "lesbian means NON MEN loving NON MEN" crowd includes nonbinary lesbians because they see nonbinary people as women. Nonbinary can mean woman with short hair or woman who uses they/them pronouns or maybe even woman who got top surgery, but god forbid nonbinary lesbians call themselves men or go on T or get bottom surgery or be someone who was assigned male at birth and doesn't want to medically transition. Basically, they only support nonbinary people if they can conveniently view them as "basically a woman."

There's no way to be a trans ally if you view "male" and "female" as mutually exclusive or as polar opposites. That shit is Gender Binary 101, and deconstructing it should be one of the first steps of being a trans ally. It shouldn't be something that other trans and nonbinary people believe so commonly. Not only does this mindset exclude multigender people who are both men and women, but it hurts binary trans people who are connected to or feel like they used to be their assigned gender.

"We can't accept men who identify as lesbians, because then they will invade lesbian spaces and force lesbians to date them." Does this sound like TERF talking about lesbian trans women, or a so-called trans ally talking about multigender lesbians? Trick question, it sounds like both, because they're practically indistinguishable from each other. So many trans allies, even trans/nonbinary people themselves, will make the exact same arguments as TERFs and not see a single thing wrong with it, and it's awful.

You're not helping the trans community if you only accept identities that are convenient for you.

[thesaurus-lover]

why we love aoba johsai: a very long thought dump

because the first thing i always do after finishing a good show like this is analyzing the hell outta it

cw: major haikyuu!! spoilers until season 3

also small disclaimer that all of this is from a thematic/narrative perspective in writing, so it definitely wouldn’t strictly apply if we were talking about something irl

tl;dr is that seijoh will always be an arm's length away from being the best, almost to the point we could call them hidden underdogs

started to binge a series of haikyuu video essays, and reading the comments on both the oikawa and shiratorizawa vids back-to-back has me realizing how much the fandom can resonate with seijoh.

even while watching the show i realized early on how much i loved their matches, with the s1 and 2 finales being some of the games i really jumped in my seat to cheer. but i actually didn't know why?? i kinda brushed it off as "oh i like their dynamic with karasuno" but looking back that's a super lame and vague reasoning lol

and then one of the videos helped make it click for me. so let's start with Crappy Personality–kun himself, oikawa tooru.

i mean sure he has a pretty face and annoyingly precisely styled hair??? but that's not why we like him so much. he's a prime example of what it means to fall behind those who are naturally gifted in the one thing you love more than anything just because you aren't one of those gifted people.

and the truth is that a heartbreaking number of people can relate to exactly that.

while all that's been made very clear in the narrative, i think that to an extent, that sentiment can be applied to the rest of the team; yes, they're very strong and are one of the best in the prefecture (not to mention the first major antagonist team) but when you factor, let's say, shiratorizawa into the picture, the common folk just know who's stronger—who's the very best.

this team represents what it’s like to be stuck in that limbo between still being better than the rising underdogs, but weaker then the ultimate powerhouse.

in the s2 finale match especially we saw how much of their raw desperation cracked through. i’m sure nobody can get rid of the image of oikawa scrambling back onto the court after literally crashing into a table. it was a desperation that rivaled even karasuno’s, who just needed to win this match to contrinue their rise to the top.

but seijoh is definitely still viewed as a threat, oh yeah. when shoyo and tobio confront ushijima at the beginning of s2 and seijoh is called weak, the two of them FUME, because they have fought seijoh, and they’re a damn difficult team to beat. hence the idea “oh so if they’re weak then what the hell are we, a team who lost to them? just concrete, yeah?” it's why we were also given the mindset from the very beginning that they're also near-unbeatable.

the thing is, while karasuno has fallen to rock bottom before, they're now climbing back up, and at a scary fast pace.

karasuno beat the school who plays only their strongest cards. they represented their prefecture against all of japan.

yet despite being a prestigious school who gathers talents from middle schools like kageyama's—despite clearly even having more experience, seijoh didn't beat shiratorizawa. seijoh didn’t go to nationals.

why? because being good—or great, or even downright amazing—is not the same as being the best.

and knowing how hungrily competitive practically everyone in this anime is to be the best, i'm sure it kills them inside. especially to their captain, who's smart enough to be painfully aware of their entire situation.

while we obviously still love shiratorizawa's players like ushijima and tendou, most of us can't see ourselves in the team's general position—because the majority of us aren't the best.

and one last thing that i think can connect to this is the whole “you should’ve come to shiratorizawa” discourse. it took me a painfully long time to put my finger on why it made tooru’s blood boil so much, but i settled on believing that it was because he knew exactly of their nature of only gathering the strongest; and ushijima did see him as one of these strongest. if he was their setter, they’d only become even more unstoppable, right?

but oikawa is petty, and he hates those who need to struggle any little less than him just because of an innate, unfair head-start (but that's not to say that the gifted characters don’t also work very hard.) that’s why his useless pride won't let him be in a team full of those kinds of people. he’s also probably insecure of eventually being overtaken by people like goshiki, who's only a first year but is practically already next in line for the title of the prefecture’s Big Bad Ace™.

so instead, he fights with aoba johsai, with people like him. it’s a crazy battle that never totally meets the spotlight—to keep trying to climb to the top even when you know someone can overtake you so easily, reducing your efforts to almost nothing.

that’s all for now lmfao i really poured everything into this :’) i'd totally need other people's thoughts & stances to concretize my opinion on tho, so this really just is a thought dump for now >:)

[janiedean]

1) So, lately I've been seeing all these Takes about how most m/m smut is from the bottom's POV bc most writers are female bottoms and they identify with him (which, okay, guess I'll never be free from THAT oversemplification), how most ppl in fandom just pretend to like femdom bc it's the most "progressive" option, if you ship any m/f you're forced to make it a girlboss/malewife deal to be woke, ppl only "like" pegging as a statement and that's going to make men irl feel pressured to try it...

2) And on the one hand I'm just so... bitter about it. My first experiences with m/f smut were "not explicitly maledom but the guy takes the initiave and the reins and does p much everything and the girl sorts of lies there with a vague sub streak" or actual maledom. And I kept wondering "okay, but can the girl like... do the fun stuff, too? Like pin the guy down and kiss and bite his neck a bit, or play with his nipples, and be kinda the one in charge?" And I was so afraid the answer was no. 3) And that's one of the (many) reasons I read way more m/m than m/f. I wasn't interested in f/f at that point even if I thought that was the only place where women could Do Fun Stuff during sex, and also I wanted my fave guys to have fun stuff done to them (and possibly watch as the fun stuff wrecked them from their own POV, more like an emotional voyeur thing than a "omg they're so lucky I wanna be in their place!" thing) and women weren't allowed to be the ones to do it to, apparently. 4) And know that I'm p sure the actual femdom/woman on top/pegging content in fandom is still the same (tho I get told it's "everywhere" even in ships where it would make more "sense" for the guy to dom/top... then WHY can't I find more of it for my fave fandoms/ships/characters, btw?!) but at least ppl talk and even joke about it like it's normal and even appealing and cool, I get told that ALL of it MUST be performative... and I get to feel like a weird freak outlier all over again. 5) Not just that, but sometimes I get to be told that by ppl who seriously believe the "the only reason to write from a bottom's POV is being a bottom yourself" thing and also in the tangentially related "service tops who get off on giving pleasure are a myth/a fantasy made up by selfish bottoms/unfeminist if they're women" thing. When I like writing from both the top's and the bottom's POV, and I LOVE female service tops and gentle/playful femdom and women topping with only *hints* of femdom... 6) ... and I already had to go through a whole phase when I thought I was the only one interested in writing and reading about all THAT, and that "real" femdom/woman on top stuff had to be about icy goddesses/greedy queens/heavy or not-quite-so-heavy sadism/men caring only about serving women and women not caring about men at all in the past. And that women topping couldn't exist without explicit femdom anyway. So, yeah, double the "what is this, my teenage insecurity all over again?!" effect. 7) ... but on the other hand, all of this is making me think back to how happy I was when I finally found creators, both in fandom and out of it, who wrote and drew femdom and woman on top content that actually fit my specific tastes to a T. How much happier and secure it made me feel, and how it made me understand that I didn't need to write or consume that kind of thing the supposedly "right" way. And that includes YOUR fics, Lavi. Especially the JB ones. Thank you so, so much for those!! 8) I'd tell you off anon bc that's how much it means to me, but... I have a good, solid idea of what I like and how I like it in fiction but as far as rl goes it's all questioning and confusion right now. I haven't even figured if I'm allo or ace tbqh. And I feel this kind of fandom discourse is SO inextricably tied to own's own sexuality and sexual preferences that it feels embarrassing to put my name on a rant like this without even *knowing*, like someone's gonna pop up form nowhere and... 9) ... and be like "well, ofc you don't *get* it and you have all these weird ideas and you don't know how things are SUPPOSED to be like! You're confused on one thing, so you MUST be confused on everything else including your own preferences, too!" And I know that's not going to happen with you, but, y'know. It's not exactly easy. Tbh it's one of the things I hate about tumblr fandom and modern fandom in general. But, huh. Getting back on track: thank you, again. So, so much.

hey anon first of all dw I get why you wouldn't want to say this off anon given the current climate, but other than that and getting into what you're actually saying.. first of all let me tell you the whole 'ah if you write the bottom then you ID with the bottom' thing is top ten of my most dreaded arguments wrt writing fic ever never mind that time I actually discoursed about it with someone who decided that if I could imagine stuff done to me by a guy then WHAT DIFFERENCE IT MADE IF IT WAS A GIRL during the mythical discourse in which half of this hellsite blocked me because I said that straight women would most likely prefer to write/consume porn involving men without it being fetishism because if you're straight you don't care for f/f which apparently made me extremely problematic but *rolls eyes* that's like complete bullshit and I've been sadly laughing about it years later because that's actually way more sexist of them to say bc it implies that women can only want to bottom which is... an... extremely sexist thing to say so *rolls eyes* and honestly I've stayed out of any pegging debate because like I really doubt that it's a thing that translates into rl practice - if a dude irl doesn't want to try pegging he just has to say it and no one forces him to because guess what to have consensual sex both people have to consent, which automatically turns into the usual assuming that a thing that has a traction in fiction/fandom means irl consequences which is completely idiotic either and honestly the fact that people are pearl-clutching over femdom content and deciding it's popular because it's woke just makes me side-eye everything because it's the usual dumb af terfy debate where ppl make sexual preferences political, which... is... stupid af like ppl like what they like in bed, there is no exclusive to roles or positions based on genders, service tops are not a myth and saying that writing X sex is woker or less woke than Y sex is just ridiculous - and someone could be writing a thing they're not into irl just because it fits the character(s) they're writing for that matter (see that time I wrote that damned jon/ygritte mommy kink where it's like so not my thing XDD) - but again... it's again the usual stupid discourse wrt wanting to say what women can find acceptable in bed or not which I would hope we had left behind us with the victorians and it's honestly worrying how many people fall for that dumbass rhetoric just because it sounds vaguely woke? then again fandom is overrun with in disguise terf discourse these days so what can you do except doing your thing, but tldr there's nothing performative in most of that and if some people are into it for that it doesn't mean everyone is? also lmao I mean now there's a fair amount of content also because media became a bit better wrt showing women in charge sexually but like idk how to say it but before what S6-S7 of got and I'm being very generous with the times just if you looked at the jb tag the femdom/pegging content was basically yours truly and four other people and not that much, it exploded later and BELIEVE ME I WAS VERY HAPPY ABOUT IT but ppl saying that it's such a thing everywhere are seeing things because in my experience it's really not (I mean.... guys look at the percentages in r*ylo fandom X°DDD like I don't read fic for that ship because 99% of that is topbensolo which I'm not interested in reading at all so X°DD) X°D also the whole top-bottom debate is idiotic af because personally I just write the sex from whichever pov fits the story better and I can assure that every time I do it from bottom pov that is not the pov I'm relating to most of the time anyway and I'm generally thinking of what the other person's doing anyway (and the one time I had to pull teeth to write m/f porn was where I was doing the bottom female pov X°DDDD like writing the guy would have been way easier but that didn't work for that story and idt that ship has the dynamic where the girl would generally top so X°DDDDD) and like... obv if you're into men in any way and you're

not interested in reading maledom m/f you'd rather read m/m that's not exactly surprising but ofc according to people that's fetishizing and whatnot, and I don't even want to touch the f/f topic because the discourse there is ridiculous and I'm pretty sure people are assholes about what's legit to write in f/f stuff too and I'll be glad to avoid it because I have one f/f sandbox where no one else plays and I'll stick with it, but like the fact that people want to dictate what you can like or not and decide what's a fetish or not is to me absolutely ridiculous *shrug* and on top of that telling ppl 'ah you're confused so ofc you think this' is ridiculous because if you're questioning it's your right to do that and no one is hurrying you to not do it in your own time and while you do you read/consume whatever tf you want? people should find out in their own time and sometimes it takes a lot to get there and new stuff pops out even when you think you have it figured out, and again there's nothing more antifeminist than telling women that they can't like whatever thing in bed whichever it is and I'm wholly not even caring about this discourse because the last thing anyone needs is making sex political and what people like to read or write political but -__-''

anyway you're very welcome and you're too kind T____T much glad if I could provide you content you liked and made you feel better about it but hey as stated all there's nothing bad or un-woke in liking any of that XD <3333

[delightfulstarlightparadise]

Stardew valley Imagine. Reader/ Sebastian (?)

-Before we start, oce again I remind you that English is not my main language, but I am doing my best.

“I didn’t think you were so tired to the point of passing out in that sofa.” Sebastian says while taking a drag of his cigarette. “If I knew we would have come earlier.”

“Aw... I shouldn’t have drink that beer.” you say, feeling sick to your stomach.

“If you are going to throw up, please do it in some bush and not near me.”

You didn’t even bother answering him. Next thing you knew, you were kneeling down barfing behind a tree. You were not very used to drinking.

“Sorry.” you say when you can finally talk.

“What about?”

“Everything.”

He shrugs and helps you stand up.

“You are... different.” he says.

“I know, I am weird.”

He laughs.

“You think you are weird? My best friend is the weirdest person I know. Being different in a town like this is not a bad thing you know?” he says.

You stare at him for a while too long, he blushes showing is uncomfort.

“You didn’t pass as a supportive type at first.” you say.  

“Don’t get used to it.” he says smirking at you.

When you arrive the farm you can see that the seeds you planted in the morning had turned into little saplings already. You shake your head, sure that it is a prank of your dizzy mind, but they are there.

“Sebastian, can you see those or am I really wasted?” you ask him, pointing at the saplings.

“I can see them, but I am also pretty sure you ARE wasted.” He mocks you.

“How can it be?! I planted them this morning!” you look at him completely astonished.

“So what?” he asks.

“They were not supposed to grow like this… I mean, this is crazy!”

“Oh really? I don’t understand much about farming.” he says while getting another cigarette from his pocket. “I will be going now, ok? Thanks for the game, I had fun. Destroying Sam every time was starting to get boring.

As he goes, you sit down on your porch staring at those little saplings.

…

You have a dream.

You are playing with your cousins by the mountain river. A younger Sam and a younger Sebastian are there too. Sebastian is ginger back then, but Sam’s hair still challenges gravity somehow. There is a third boy that is not from your family, he is brunette, very alethic and seems to like you a lot.

Sebastian challenges you all: who can go up a tree by the shore faster. You are the first to run there, before anyone even agrees to the bet. He doesn’t like it and runs as fast as he can, followed by the other boy and your cousins. Sam kind of gets left behind.

You start climbing the tree so fast, you didn’t even remember being so agile, you feel like a feral squirl. The other boy is right behind you, he even tries to hold your foot and tickle you, but you don’t give up. As you laugh together, Sebastian gets to pass you, but you quickly follow after him.

Somehow you manage to get to the top first, Sebastian is all sweaty and puffing. The other boy comes after and congratulates you on the win. He kisses you on the cheek and you get all red about it. Sebastian doesn’t like it, actually he seems really jealous. You think it is about you having won and start mocking on him.

You call him gingerbread man. He hates it and pushes you. Because of your weigh the branch you fall on cracks and you fall on the river. You can see both Sebastian and the other boy reaching towards you.

Your head hits a rock and you get unconscious. But actually, you just can't move, you still can see... everyone is jumping on the water after you, but you feel like you are nowhere to be found. Maybe that is it, your short life has come to an end.

You hear a funny sound and turn your head to the left. You see an apple.

The apple has two eyes and pink cheeks.  

There are others, they are all around you, making that funny sound and lifting you up from the bottom of the lake.

Next thing you see, a hand grabs your wrist, lifted by the little apple spirits. You are pulled out of the water by Sebastian, he has almost drowned too. He is crying and doesn’t stop apologizing, but you aren’t able to say anything to him, the words don’t come out.

You spend some days in the hospital, all your vitals are ok, but you keep seeing those little apple spirits around. The adults are afraid you had too bad of a concussion and no one believes in you... except for... grandpa?  

He says you were saved by the forest spirits, but your mother and father tell him not to incentive these kind of thoughts in you. Eventually, they stop taking you to Stardew valley.

The longer you are away, the more you forget about your time there.

When you wake up, the dream seems like a shadow, but you feel very different.

…

They were even bigger! From one night to the other, the saplings have grown as much as they should in a week.

“Am I going insane?” you ask yourself.

You water them and put some extra fertilizer, then you decide to go to the city and buy some food for the farm. When you arrive there, you see Mayor Lewis in front of a big old house behind the square.

“Oh, hi y/n!” he calls you, as you two seem to be the only people around. “Come here a second.”

You feel a little annoyed. Is it going to be like this now? Every day that amount of interaction in your life... how can you handle it?

“Good afternoon, Mr. Lewis.” you say.

“Call me Lewis.” he says with a gentle smile. “Do you remember this place?”

You take a look at it. Everything is so broken and old you can swear it is probably haunted. You can’t seem to remember anything like it.

“I see.” he says. “You were so young, but you, your cousins and your grandpa used to come here. This is the community center of Pelican town. Well... it used to be. Come on in.”

You follow him inside and it looks even worse than the outside.  Bindweed has taken over the walls, there isn’t a single piece of wood that is not broken or rotten and there is even a tree fully grown in the corner of the main hall, but even that tree seems to be decaying.

“This used to be the heart of the town, everyone in the community gathered here for parties, birthdays and even city events.” he says. “But as time went by... it seems like these kinds of things are not as important nowadays.”  

He starts a discourse about how people would rather watch TV instead of gathering with the community, but you can’t follow because... there is an apple jumping by the window.

“Y/n, what’s with you?” the mayor asks turning to the place you are looking.

It immediately disappears.

“It was...” you are about to tell him about the apple but, why bother? “I think I saw a mouse.”

“This place is probably infested by mice, it has been closed for so long.” He says and sighs. “It is sad to see it like this. But I think that is what happens to old things, see Paradise farm, for example. Good that now you are there to rebuild it. Too bad for this place, there aren’t people willing to do it.”

“Did you ask people?” you ask out of curiosity.

“Unfortunately, every time we set to rebuild everyone was busy with something else. Eventually, I think everyone just gave up.” the mayor let go a long sigh. “And since Joja Mart came to town, they keep making offers to buy it and turn it into a warehouse. I am thinking about selling it by the end of this year... the city could use the money.”

You look around once more. It does seem sad to let ANYTHING that once was good end up in Joja corporation’s hands. Wasn’t this what happened to you.  

You feel a strange connection to the place.

“Anyway, I must be going now. Have some mayor duties to accomplish. Thanks for giving an old man some time to be nostalgic.” he says and chuckles. “I will leave this place open if you want to take a look, maybe you can find some of you Paradise kid’s old toys in the crafts room.”

It is weird because you wouldn’t usually do something like that, but as the mayor went away, you started exploring the rooms and they seemed to bring you back some blurry memories. Maybe you played with your cousins in that corner. Maybe you attended someone’s birthday and ate cake by that old table. Maybe you sat with your grandpa in front of that big fish tank and he told you stories about fishing.

You hear a sound and it immediately makes you turn to the decaying tree in the corner of the main hall. Your heartbeat increases as you see not one, but many apple spirits jumping around and waving at you. They seem to be talking but you can’t quite understand.

“What the hell is going on with me?” you say, rubbing your eyes and shaking your head.

They are still there.  

One of them, a green one makes you a sign for you to follow it Still uncertain, you do, and it takes you to a golden scroll in the middle of the crafts room. You see there is something written there, but you can’t quite understand it.

“Junimos?” is the only thing you can discern.

The little apple starts jumping and making that funny sound as if it is agreeing to you.

“You are Junimos?”

It seems even more excited. The more it makes those funny sounds, the more it seems like it is saying your name.

“You know me, isn’t it?”

It seems to agree.

“You saved me that day.” you say. “So either everyone was wrong and I didn’t go crazy back then, or I am going crazy right now.”

“You are certainly not going crazy, my dear.”

You yell as you listen to a voice come from behind you and a figure comes from the shadows of the corner of the room. A purple bearded wizard dressed up in a fine robe walks towards you.

“Don’t be afraid. I am Rasmodius, the Wizard, keeper of the secrets of the forest, master of the elemental’s knowledge... you get the picture.”

“Where did you come from?!” you yell as you try to step back, but you end up tripping and falling.

“I have been paying close attention to you for the past couple of days. You are the one whose arrival was foreseen by the valley. The one connected to the forest powers, the one to change the valleys destiny... well you, my friend, are a hero to become.”

“What the fuck is going on here? Am I dreaming? Am I dead? Am I dreaming in a comma?” you star hyperventilating. “I have gone crazy, that is it. I finally lost it!”

“Please, calm down.” the wizard says as he can see you going pale.

“Oh my, what if I never left Zuzu city? I must still be in bed, I need to wake up to go to work, that is it! I am not crazy I am just sleeping...”

The little Junimo beside up jumps and slaps your face with his little stick hand and it hurts way more than it seems to be possible.

“What the...” you say, but it seems to take you away from your anxious thoughts.

“As I was saying...” the Wizard cleans his throat. “You were brought back to this valley to help it heal from the many hazards it has been imposed by both mankind and witchcraft. Also, I have seen, to change the destiny of the people who live here.”

“Me?” you screech with unbelief. “Man, I can’t barely fix my own life.”

The wizard chuckles.

“Well, sometimes to help another one is the best way of helping oneself.” he says.

“What the hell is going on?” you say rubbing your temples.

“You will understand when the time is right.” the wizard replies. “For now, drink this.”

He extended to you a cup filled with a green liquid.

“You are kidding right?” you say.

“No, you are supposed to drink. These are the ingredients from the forest, it will help you understand the language of the elementals.” he says.

“I am not drinking it.”  

The Junimo beside you starts jumping and puffing in a way to demonstrate impatience and he seems so angry that you take the cup from the wizard’s hand and, after taking a nauseated look at the content, you drink it.

You feel dizzy and things start moving a lot slower. You can see the memories of yourself as a kid running among trees, playing in the river, collecting and eating savage berries. You see yourself playing with animals, riding a horse, rolling in the mud with grandpa's pig.

You see the faces of some people from the town. You are beside them, helping them and doing nice things, things you had never thought you would do in your life. You feel happy to help, you feel like a part of something. And then... there is this someone you suddenly see yourself kiss.

“If you might ever need me... meet me in the towers west Cindersap forest.” you hear the Wizard’s voice.

As you open your eyes, you see the image of a man and a girl, both with glasses in front of you.

“Y/n? Are you ok?” you hear Maru’s voice coming from the distance. “Oh my Yoba, what a scare you gave me!”

“What? Where am I?” you say slowly sitting down and looking around.

“You are in the clinic. Maru found you passed out near the fountain. You have symptoms of an insulation, perhaps you have been working too hard in the farm.” the man says, adjusting his glasses. “I am doctor Harvey.”

“Insulation? Last thing I remember I was drinking that green thing from the wizard...”

Both Maru and the doctor stare at you, looking concerned.

“I mean, I probably had a bad dream while passed out. Thanks for bringing me Maru, sorry for the trouble.” you say.

“No problem, I am stronger than I look.” she says. “Now lay down, you are taking intravenous medicine, you seem to be very poorly nourished. Have you been skipping meals?”

She gently pushes you into laying down.

“I forget to eat sometimes.”

“That is very hazardous! Even more being a farmer and working a lot in the sun and with so much physical effort!” says Harvey, looking very angry.

He gives you a full lecture about the importance of eating healthy and says that he is going to give you some supplements. You are actually worried about how you are going to pay for the treatment.

…-

Next part here:

Credits for the pose reference: https://snuffysbox.tumblr.com/post/160658875287/have-another-angsty-draw-your-otp-%E1%95%95-3-%E1%95%97-please