#back when autoplay was a thing i had it playing on my blog and it would've been in my pinned post if i'd figured out how

[talentforlying]

so there was that one uquiz i did where it decided that constantine's symphony was 'the nocturne' and i just realized during my reread earlier that the volume of sandman in which constantine's story shows up is called 'preludes & nocturnes'......i'm unwell

[forjongseong]

dive // jay (ENHYPEN)

pairing: secretary!jay x CEO!fem!reader (minisode part 11 of the series)

genre: office!au, smut (minors dni) // warning: older reader; Jay calls reader “Boss”; oral sex (f. receiving, obviously) // wc: ~2.5k oops

previous chapters:

part 1 - carmesí part 2 - mi reina part 3 - millones part 3.5 - hasta los dientes part 4 - vente conmigo part 5 - tusa part 5.5 - apaga y vámonos part 6 - versos de placer minisode part 1 - cuando nadie ve part 6.5 - yo te quiero más minisode part 2 - la niña de mis ojos part 7 - aeropuerto minisode part 3 - falling autumn minisode part 4 - night night part 8 - ambulancia minisode part 5 - subtítulos part 9 - al caer la noche minisode part 6 - after last night part 9.5 - the way you look tonight part 10 - mon soleil minisode part 7 - daylight minisode part 8 - subside minisode part 9 - your princess, my queen part 11 - qué bonito part 11.5 - enchule minisode part 10 - meet cute

next chapters:

click here for the masterlist

summary: you've been sleeping with your dearest secretary for a while and you're dying to know how it feels when he goes down on you.

author’s notes: here's the second treat of the week--minisode part 11!!!

I know, I know. I just released minisode part 10 yesterday but that's the best thing about owning a blog and writing your own series--you can post whatever you want, whenever you want!

to be honest, I had a different minisode prepared that was sfw and takes place way before yn and Jay started their thing, but I was chilling and putting Spotify on autoplay and it played this song:

go google the lyrics... maybe then you'll understand why I felt compelled to write this minisode.

taglist: @thots4hee @jayked @end-hyphen @nyanggk @yoursjaeyun @maggstar @bucketofhiros @dimplejaehyuncutie @excusememissiloveyou @shinkenprincess-oh @mochimchimo @jongseonglogy

(send an ask if you want to be added or removed)

Staying at a luxurious hotel over the weekend was one of the very few indulgences that you would let yourself have. Normally, you would never splurge on a suite for just two nights, especially when the hotel is not out of town. Fortunately, this time your suite was a complementary gesture from the event that hired you as one of the keynote speakers.

Unfortunately, though, since the event was downtown and you did not have to travel, you handled everything alone. You could not ask your staff to accompany you to do something that was not part of their job, and not when the task did not concern your company either. You even sent Mr. Lee home early the day before, claiming that you could just take the bus or ride the subway to the hotel.

The first day of the event ended right on time, and you were invited to the gala dinner in the main ballroom. You attended, ate just enough to keep your stomach satisfied, and then you excused yourself to go back to your suite. You wanted to take advantage of the huge bathtub and treat yourself to a nice hot bath, thinking that you deserved it after all the talking and walking around in heels.

Maybe because it was in your nature to do things fast, your pampering session ended quickly. Your hair was half dry, and you were already lounging on the loveseat, playing a series you already finished on Netflix. You just needed the background noise, you thought, as you scrolled through your phone. It was a Saturday night, so most of the people you followed on Instagram were posting stories of their night out.

You wondered what Jay was doing at the moment.

Your thumb stopped scrolling and you eyed the clock in the corner of your screen. It was almost eight, yet you feel bored, but it was too late to get ready to go out. Where were you going to go anyway? Taehyung’s jazz club would be way too crowded, and it’s not like any of your close friends were within reach—your two best friends lived in other countries, and it wasn’t the scheduled night for your monthly video calls.

You mindlessly opened your phone’s gallery and found pictures of documents and a couple of videos from the meetings that were held the past week. You clicked on one that showed Jay giving a short presentation, it was on the day that you were not feeling your best, so he stepped up and filled in for you. You focused on the way he was gesturing with his hands—and the way his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. His hair was slicked back, and his jaw clenched whenever he was emphasizing a word. You then looked at the way he repeatedly licked his lips, and you noticed yourself breathing a little heavier.

Great, you thought. A little pathetic, actually, that you were sitting alone in a hotel, thirsting over your secretary whom you started sleeping with since, what, a couple of weeks ago? None of you were keeping count. This behavior of yours was a little uncalled for, and you got suspicious of yourself that you opened the app that tracked your period.

And of course, you found out that you were ovulating.

Usually, you would always take the more practical path. In this case, you could easily watch videos, or look at pictures of Jay and imagine him touching you as you touch yourself.

But why would you do that when he was literally just one call away?

“Hello?” You heard his voice as he picked up your call. “Is this an emergency? I didn’t get a text from you.”

You heard him entering a room and closing the door behind him.

“Boss?” He called for you after not hearing a reply. “Everything good?”

“I need you to come over,” you replied.

There was a brief pause before Jay answered.

“Alright,” he said as he took a deep breath. “On my way.”

“Not to my place,” you hurriedly added. “The hotel. You know my schedule.”

“In that case,” Jay said, seemingly shoving something into his pants and opening the door again, “I’ll be there in ten.”

You frowned but Jay ended the call before you could even say something back. You decided to retreat to the bedroom and check your reflection in the mirror. Your black silk camisole was tucked into your beige cotton shorts, and you still had your hair down after the bath you had. You then remembered that you had not put on any fragrance yet, so you rummaged through your makeup pouch and spritzed on the first fragrance you could get your hands on.

The bell rang and your heart almost dropped to your feet. You did not think ten minutes would go by so fast. You grabbed the satin robe from the bathroom and quickly wrapped it around your body as you made your way to the front door. When you opened it, Jay stood in front of you with a confused look on his face.

He was wearing rimless glasses, which you doubt were a fashion statement, and underneath his denim jacket, he was wearing a graphic tee of some sort of logo you had never seen before. It seemed like he was going for a comfortable look, judging from the chinos he had on in place of jeans. The Converse shoes also made him look like a regular college student going for a fun night out in town.

“I was in the area,” Jay explained without waiting for you to ask him. “Which is why I could come fast but also unprepared. Did you need your iPad?”

“Just come inside,” you said softly, holding the door wide open for him. He hesitated before taking a few steps in. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Jay frowned, but at the same time, he started looking around and admiring the suite. “This is a nice view,” he stated, gazing outside the window. “So, what do you need me for?”

“You’re really going to make me say it?” You asked back, crossing your arms in front of your chest.

Jay took off his denim jacket and set it on a lounge chair. If he had to be honest, he actually sprinted here, determined to reach you as fast as possible even though he wasn’t quite confident if the reason he thought you called him was the actual reason you had.

At the sight of his arms, you breathed out dramatically, and it just made Jay even more confused.

“I just didn’t want to be alone,” you confessed, taking your robe off and throwing it to the same spot where Jay had placed his jacket.

You boldly took the couple of steps that you needed to reach him, and when you did, you carefully took his glasses off before circling an arm around his neck, making him instinctively pull you in by your waist.

“I wanted company,” you continued, placing his glasses carefully on the table nearby. “Your company.”

Hearing your confession, you could clearly see the way Jay’s lips curled up into a smirk.

“I canceled plans with my friends to be here,” Jay spoke in a whisper, gradually leaning in towards you.

Your eyes fell to his lips. “Why would you do that?” You asked back, also in a whisper.

“Because,” Jay said, hanging his sentence so he could graze his lips against yours.

“Don’t say because I’m your boss,” you spoke, purposefully against his lips.

Jay chuckled softly, and all you wanted to do for the rest of the night was to breathe the air that he exhaled.

“Because I think I’ll like it better here,” he said before sealing your lips with a deep kiss. You had to fight back a moan to not give him the satisfaction, but you still reciprocated his kiss.

“You think?” You said as you pulled back. “You’re not sure?”

Jay squeezed your waist, turning your legs to jelly. The moan you tried hard to stifle eventually found its way out of your lips when you felt his mouth latch on to your neck. You began caressing the back of his neck, squirming as he was determined to leave marks on your skin.

“Jay,” you breathed. “Fuck.”

“Hmm,” he hummed before pulling back to look at you. “Do you want me to continue?”

You cupped his face before smashing your lips onto his, making him take a step back to keep his balance. After that, you took his hand and dragged him to the bedroom. You sat on the edge of the bed and pulled him in by his neck, and after a short fight, he finally threw his body on yours, kissing you fervently as his hands tugged your shorts down in a rush.

When you felt his fingers trace your thighs, you felt the heat rush up to your cheeks. Your lips were still pressed on his, and his tongue was still tangled with yours, yet you were desperate to feel both elsewhere. Jay’s hand managed to slip in between your legs and your body jerked the moment he palmed your clothed core.

“Jay,” you called as both your hands grabbed his shoulders.

He answered you with a look in his eyes, demanding you continue what you wanted to say.

“I want to see what your head game is like.”

You weren’t expecting Jay to laugh, resting his head in the crook of your neck as his shoulders moved up and down.

“Ask and you shall receive,” Jay said after containing himself. “You really called me over so I could go down on you?”

“Okay, can you stop being so patronizing?” You moved your hand over to his chest, pushing him away.

“Whoa, whoa.”

Jay propped himself up with his elbow as he took your hand and brought it up to his lips.

“I’m sorry if it came off that way,” Jay spoke with his lips against the back of your hand. “I will gladly show you my head game.”

The way he emphasized the last phrase made you roll your eyes. Jay chuckled lightly, kissing your cheek as you looked away from him.

You relaxed once he started peppering kisses down your jaw and to your neck. At the same time, his fingers were skillfully pulling the straps of your top down, revealing your breasts, and perfectly matching the timing of his lips. He kissed your nipple softly before circling his tongue around it and sucking it gently, only to release it with a pop.

“Close your eyes,” Jay said. You were in no position to disobey him.

He continued kissing you while pulling your camisole down, bunching it up around your waist. He planted a harder kiss to the right of your waist before pulling your panties along with the top down to your feet. You kicked it away way too enthusiastically, and Jay merely smirked at the way you were behaving.

Your eyes were still closed, but you could sense that he was tugging his shirt off, and it was proven right when you felt him settle between your legs, placing both of your thighs on top of his now bare shoulders. He kissed the inside of your thigh and you flinched, and you could feel the way your arousal dripped out of you.

“God,” Jay muttered, more to himself. “You’re gorgeous.”

He bumped the tip of his nose and you whimpered at the delicious contact. Once he placed his mouth on your cunt you moaned, feeling an overwhelming mixture of pleasure and contentment. At first, he was just kissing your folds, making loud sloppy sounds on purpose, and when you began to moan louder, he decided it would be nice to let you feel the warmth of his tongue.

“Fuck,” you sighed, jerking your hips. You could hear and feel Jay chuckle against your core, lapping up your arousal and strengthening the grip he had around your thighs.

His tongue made steady strokes against your folds and your legs were already shaking from the pleasure. You couldn’t stop thrusting your hips and grasping the sheets under you, and Jay literally had to push you back down.

“Relax,” he said as he detached his lips. He looked up at you and you looked back at him through your lashes. “Stay down.”

“Fuck you,” you replied weakly. Jay laughed and placed his lips between your legs again, making you feel the vibration of his voice against your cunt.

You began jerking your hips up again and Jay figured that he needed a new way to keep you steady. He noticed how hard you were grabbing the sheets, so very slowly, he pulled your fingers apart before placing them on his head.

“Just grab here,” Jay spoke against your folds. “I don’t mind.”

You sighed once you feel his tongue graze your clit. After placing one hand behind his head, you realized it wasn’t enough, so after a while you rested both your hands on his luscious hair, pulling only when it became unbearable.

Soon after, your grasp on his hair tightened and you became silent. Jay’s eyes flickered to your face, and he tried his best to keep his pace.

“Are you close?” He asked. You replied by nodding frantically.

Jay continued to eat you out, keeping the same pressure and pace no matter how hard you squirmed or how harshly you were pulling on his hair. He let you grind your hips into his face, careful not to let his teeth graze you, and when you finally reached your high, he groaned against your cunt, almost matching the moans that you let out.

Jay waited for you to catch your breath, gradually lowering your hips down and gently stroking your thigh to comfort you. You were breathing with your mouth open, and only when you came back down from your high you realized how dry your throat had become. You licked your lips and coughed a little, and Jay winced at the sound that you made.

“Are you okay?” He asked, his hand giving you a gentle squeeze on your hips.

You nodded slowly as you opened your eyes. When your gaze met his, his lips formed into a smile. Not a smirk, a genuine smile.

“So, what do we think of my head game?”

“Oh my God.”

At the sound of your groan, Jay laughed softly, crawling up to level with your eyes. You hesitated when he leaned in to kiss you, but he did so in such a gentle way that you couldn’t help but whimper into his mouth.

“Do I taste okay?” You asked, your eyes glowing in pure curiosity.

“You,” Jay replied, kissing your cheek. “Taste,” he kissed your jaw. “Divine,” he whispered, kissing your neck.

You closed your eyes and pulled him into an embrace, sighing in relief as you felt his skin come in contact with yours.

“There’s gonna be a round two, right?” Jay murmured against your neck.

You smiled, almost snorting from the bold question. “Only if you stay with me throughout the weekend.”

“Deal,” Jay replied, not missing a beat.

-END-

© forjongseong 2023, all rights reserved

read the next part: tus gafitas

[n1ghtcrwler]

Hi, I was reading your reblog on the social media post and I was wondering how you define things?

Like I agree that the messaging apps aren't really social media, but like instagram has a lot of social features (like stories for instance)? What makes youtube a video hosting platform but not tiktok? Why can't tumblr be both a blogging platform and a social media site?

If i'm not imposing too much im curious how you see things!

You may not know this, so I should warn you that I am not great at writing brief answers. I'll try to include a workable tl;dr at the end.

It is important to understand that the internet today is a specific iteration of what the internet can be, but not the first (and hopefully not the last). There has been social media for a very long time--hell, my first social media account was on a site called Bolt that I and other teens were on in the late 90s and early 2000s--but it is a specific hallmark of this form of the web. The categories I assigned sites like YouTube and Tumblr are vestiges of a previous form.

At the heart of social media is the social aspect; that is, a social media site does not have social features, its very design is to become a society online. In the age of forums, this was distinct not because it enabled people to interact or to share things they created, but because you were encouraged to share yourself. Back then, we had a collection of different sites for different aspects of interaction. You went to a forum to talk about a specific interest, you shared your art on a hosting platform, you made posts about your personal life on a blog, you played games and read comics and found text stories on dedicated pages. But in real life, you would do all of this and more while sitting around in a living room. Social media is, by definition, an attempt to become an online living room. To be the place where all the socializing would happen, where you were supposed to be yourself instead of a character or a username or a faceless visitor. But being a one-stop internet doesn't work if people just pop in for a specific thing and then go to a forum and a webcomic and an AIM chat, so not only do they seek to have all of that on their own platform, but they seek to keep you there long enough that you rely on it to get all those things.

YouTube was not designed to be a place full of vlogs, it was a place to share clips from tv shows and music videos and informational videos, and it is still best at that. The video essay finds its home there because it was made for that purpose. User accounts are just channels, not a place where people are expected to really drop all their masks. The video suggestions are just suggestions, and it was only recently they started giving you the option to autoplay the next suggested video. You follow a channel, and it really makes very little difference to your experience of the site aside from the other videos it suggests. None of the social aspects are native to YouTube, and most of what they've incorporated don't really sit right with the feel of the site. TikTok, on the other hand, came out of the gate trying to be everything to everyone, expecting you to be yourself for public consumption, drawing you in with an endless scroll that promised everything you want from the internet in one place. On YouTube, the videos are hosted for wide engagement with very little depth; on TikTok, you are personally the hook that will keep people from looking for other aspects of the internet elsewhere.

So, look around Tumblr, and what do you see? People make posts about things that interest them, and they share each other's posts, and they may even engage with one another enough to build a friendship. But you aren't required to verify your identity, or limit yourself to one blog or account. They've tried rolling out things like chat, but it doesn't seem to have really caught on in a big way. In fact, most of the time when they try to integrate something from a social media site, the userbase pushes back because it doesn't fit the design of the site or our use of it! The draw of the site is the blogs, and the communal aspects are more related to shared interests (like forums were) than actual, personal connection. The social aspect is an afterthought, a side effect of having a bunch of social creatures in a shared space. We are screaming into the void and occasionally getting a response, not sitting on a couch together.

And that's the difference. A site like tumblr allows you to develop communities, if you want to, while you happen to be doing whatever you came to do; a social media site intends to be a singular community. Do people try to use other sites like they're social media? Sure, but that's more to do with them being used to social media as the default than the actual design of the site. And sites that try to make money off social aspects, without having the one-stop online society model at their core, tend to feel wrong. Essentially, once you've really used other sites as they are designed and experienced things that aren't social media, you get a sort of feel for what does and doesn't belong under that umbrella. At their core, sites like Pinterest are fundamentally different from sites like Facebook, not because they are used differently, but because one fills a niche in the ecosystem while the other attempts to become an ecosystem.

TL;DR: Social Media is a specific business model built around being a singular online society, not a use case.

Thanks for asking!

[willing-but-not-able]

I can't believe I didn't think to post this on my blog where I mention stuff about Obey Me! 🤦

Anyways, this is a fanfic I'm writing about my OCs and the Obey Me Boys, the title is shitty so it'll be left in the tags 😷 but fair warning, this isn't a xreader, it's an xOC.

I'm also posting this on Wattpad so head over there if you wanna read everything I've posted instead of waiting for my slow ass to post it here.

Alright, with that out the way, enjoy reading~

Chapter 1: Unwanted Meeting

It was an unusually dark Sunday night. Outside was deathly quiet and most everyone was at home sleeping the night away. One person was awake in the early hours of three in the morning. Cassie sat in her bedroom letting a video play in the back. She lay on her bed staring at the ceiling, the only light came from her laptop and even that was starting to bother her. Her head limply rolled to one side and that only made the headache she had throb worse than it already was.

She just wanted a fleeting moment of relief where she could fall asleep and end the day of her sorrows, but that didn't seem as if it were coming. She remained awake with videos behind her playing on autoplay. She opened and shut her eyes over and over hoping one time she'd finally fall asleep.

She sighed. "If only things weren't this way..." Her mind raced with all her intrusive thoughts she tried to suppress, not just during the day, but all the time.

Loneliness always crept on her during the night the most. That creeping feeling forced her to cling onto any comfort she could give herself. Her arms wrapped around her body and she tightly closed her eyes curling in a ball hoping sleep would finally come.

Behind her, the light from her laptop started to glow brighter, so bright that she opened her eyes wondering why the light was getting brighter. She shielded her eyes and tried to push down the laptop screen at its brightness, however, it was stuck and she couldn't even close it.

"What the hell?"

Then something emerged from the screen and she felt a weight push her back on her bed. The light finally faded and her eyes landed on the object that pushed her back-well, the person. Resting with their body half on her bed and half off, this person had seemingly come from her laptop, her window was still closed and there was nowhere else they could have come from.

Carefully, she inched her hands toward them wanting to see if they were real. Touching their back, she flinched when feeling their body.

"What's going on?"

She got off her bed and tried to see the person's face. They were slumped over her bed and in an act of curiosity, she pushed their shoulders and got them to slide off the bed onto their back. She still flinched, but now seeing their faces they looked pretty normal-as normal as purple hair could.

That's when their eyes started to flutter open and Cassie let out a small gasp not knowing what to do. She pressed herself against the wall and let them get up.

"That was harder than I thought." The purple haired individual soon noticed Cassie and they both stared at each other. "Woah! Who are you?" He said in a panic.

"Me? Who are you? This is my room and you just... appeared inside here."

He looked around and then looked back at Cassie. "This is where I ended up? Some normie's bedroom?"

Cassie's eyes narrowed. "The hell is a normie?"

He snickered. "That's something a normie would say."

Knowing he wasn't going to answer her question, she moved on. "Okay, so you just appear in my room, insult it, then don't even tell me who you are or even where you came from?"

"Okay, fine. My name's Leviathan-you can call me Levi-and I came here because I was summoned."

"Summon? Like a ritual or something?"

"Yeah." He gave a confused look. "You did summon me didn't you?"

Her head shook. "No, I don't know anything about demons or summoning." Her eyes narrowed. "Are you... a demon?"

"Yeah I am, but if you didn't summon me, then why did I appear here?"

While Levi thought about the situation, neither one of them said anything. It was a shock for them both on different levels, this made Cassie speak up after a moment.

"So what, since you were summoned, are you stuck here now?"

Levi looked off. "Pretty much, until I fulfill whatever request you asked of me, I can't leave."

"Are you serious? I-I don't know what I could have asked of you."

Levi grinned and took out his phone. "Well, this is good for me. There's a new game out right now and it's so popular, even my pre-order got canceled. I was gonna go in-store to get it and being in the human realm is my best chance to get it!"

In his excitement, Cassie put two-and-two together. Her eyes narrowed and she turned around to pick up something from a side table behind her.

"You mean this game?" While she held up the game package Levi's eyes went wide and he got close to her barely trying to touch it.

"You actually have it? What's a normie like you doing with a game like this? It was delayed for a while and you mean to tell me you have it, but I don't? No, it must be because it's a sequel. It was hyped up so you probably just got it and quit playing after an hour."

Cassie sighed. "Dude, I have all the games in this series, and I was one of the people waiting to get this game five years ago."

He seemed shocked. "You actually know how long it was delayed for?"

"Yeah, I did pre-order this and mines was almost canceled too."

Levi's gaze went from annoyed to slightly interested. "Then why don't you have more memorabilia? How can you be a fan of something and not buy everything they come out with."

"Maybe because I'm a broke college student?"

"Huh? Oh, you're in school."

"Yeah, that's why I need you to leave. I have school in the morning and if I'm lucky I can get at least three hours of sleep."

"I told you I can't leave, but I can promise to get out of your way if you let me play the game."

"Do you at least have a console to play it on?"

"You think I'd risk losing that?"

"Then you're not playing it. You'll have to create a new profile and I don't want that, plus who knows what stupid settings you'll change."

"I promise I won't do anything, just let me play!"

His voice was whining at this point and it didn't seem as if he was going to give up. The time ticked on and Cassie was well aware she wasn't getting any sleep, but it occurred to her she could at least get her mind off the night with his playing.

She crossed her arms. "Fine, whatever."

Levi was overjoyed and grabbed her hands, showing his appreciation by lowering his head. "Thank you!"

She took her hands back. "Anyways, but there's a condition... let me watch you."

"That's all? Then I don't mind, besides I'm sure you're not that good at the game anyways, so I'd be more than glad to teach-"

Cassie walked out her bedroom door and slammed it shut.

"Hey!"

Levi was quick to follow her and found the living room where she was standing in front of her TV changing the input.

"Did you hear me human?"

She glared at him. "You sure talk a lot."

"What's with you, aren't you scared in the slightest that I'm a demon? Who talks to a demon like that?"

"A person who's more scared of their own species. Besides, you don't exactly come off as a 'demon' no bright red horns or deformed figure you know?"

Levi pursed his lips and started fuming. "I'm just not in my demon form."

"Really? Still, unless you look like some of the monsters in this game, you're probably not that scary." Before Levi could say anything else, she held the controller out to him. "Here, I made the profile and started the game. Be careful not to screw up my save."

With a slight pout, he took the controller and sat down on her couch. Cassie sighed and sat on the other end, she pulled her feet up and listened to the soft sounds of his excitement.

While Cassie couldn't believe he was a demon, he had to have been something. How else did he pop out of her laptop? So while she was curled up on the corner of the couch, she watched Levi and found him fully invested in the opening cinematic of the game.

Just as quickly as he started playing, Cassie felt herself grow drowsy. No matter her efforts, she eventually fell asleep faster than she ever could have on her own...

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Recommendation engines and "lean-back" media

In William Gibson’s 1992 novel “Idoru,” a media executive describes her company’s core audience:

“Best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It’s covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth…no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections.”

It’s an astonishingly great passage, not just for the image it evokes, but for how it captures the character of the speaker and her contempt for the people who made her fortune.

It’s also a beautiful distillation of the 1990s anxiety about TV’s role in a societal “dumbing down,” that had brewed for a long time, at least since the Nixon-JFK televised debates, whose outcome was widely attributed not to JFK’s ideas, but to Nixon’s terrible TV manner.

Neil Postman’s 1985 “Amusing Ourselves To Death” was a watershed here, comparing the soundbitey Reagan-Dukakis debates with the long, rhetorically complex Lincoln-Douglas debates of the previous century.

(Incidentally, when I finally experienced those debates for myself, courtesy of the 2009 BBC America audiobook, I was more surprised by Lincoln’s unequivocal, forceful repudiations of slavery abolition than by the rhetoric’s nuance)

https://memex.craphound.com/2009/01/20/lincoln-douglas-debate-audiobook-civics-history-and-rhetoric-lesson-in-16-hours/

“Media literacy” scholarship entered the spotlight, and its left flank — epitomized by Chomsky’s 1988 “Manufacturing Consent” — claimed that an increasingly oligarchic media industry was steering society, rather than reflecting it.

Thus, when the internet was demilitarized and the general public started trickling — and then rushing — to use it, there was a widespread hope that we might break free of the tyranny of concentrated, linear programming (in the sense of “what’s on,” and “what it does to you”).

Much of the excitement over Napster wasn’t about getting music for free — it was about the mix-tapification of all music, where your custom playlists would replace the linear album.

Likewise Tivo, whose ad-skipping was ultimately less important than the ability to watch the shows you liked, rather than the shows that were on.

Blogging, too: the promise was that a community of reader-writers could assemble a daily “newsfeed” that reflected their idiosyncratic interests across a variety of sources, surfacing ideas from other places and even other times.

The heady feeling of the time is hard to recall, honestly, but there was a thrill to getting up and reading the news that you chose, listening to a playlist you created, then watching a show you picked.

And while there were those who fretted about the “Daily Me” (what we later came to call the “filter bubble”) the truth was that this kind of active media creation/consumption ranged far more widely than the monopolistic media did.

The real “bubble” wasn’t choosing your own programming — it was everyone turning on their TV on Thursday nights to Friends, Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

The optimism of the era is best summarized in a taxonomy that grouped media into two categories: “lean back” (turn it on and passively consume it) and “lean forward” (steer your media consumption with a series of conscious decisions that explores a vast landscape).

Lean-forward media was intensely sociable: not just because of the distributed conversation that consisted of blog-reblog-reply, but also thanks to user reviews and fannish message-board analysis and recommendations.

I remember the thrill of being in a hotel room years after I’d left my hometown, using Napster to grab rare live recordings of a band I’d grown up seeing in clubs, and striking up a chat with the node’s proprietor that ranged fondly and widely over the shows we’d both seen.

But that sociability was markedly different from the “social” in social media. From the earliest days of Myspace and Facebook, it was clear that this was a sea-change, though it was hard to say exactly what was changing and how.

Around the time Rupert Murdoch bought Myspace, a close friend a blazing argument with a TV executive who insisted that the internet was just a passing fad: that the day would come when all these online kids grew up, got beaten down by work and just wanted to lean back.

To collapse on the sofa and consume media that someone else had programmed for them, anaesthetizing themselves with passive media that didn’t make them think too hard.

This guy was obviously wrong — the internet didn’t disappear — but he was also right about the resurgence of passive, linear media.

But this passive media wasn’t the “must-see TV” of the 80s and 90s.

Rather, it was the passivity of the recommendation algorithm, which created a per-user linear media feed, coupled with mechanisms like “endless scroll” and “autoplay,” that incinerated any trace of an active role for the “consumer” (a very apt term here).

It took me a long time to figure out exactly what I disliked about algorithmic recommendation/autoplay, but I knew I hated it. The reason my 2008 novel LITTLE BROTHER doesn’t have any social media? Wishful thinking. I was hoping it would all die in a fire.

Today, active media is viewed with suspicion, considered synonymous with Qanon-addled boomers who flee Facebook for Parler so they can stan their favorite insurrectionists in peace, freed from the tyranny of the dread shadowban.

But I’m still on team active media. I would rather people actively choose their media diets, in a truly sociable mode of consumption and production, than leaning back and getting fed whatever is served up by the feed.

Today on Wired, Duke public policy scholar Philip M Napoli writes about lean forward and lean back in the context of Trump’s catastrophic failure to launch an independent blog, “From the Desk of Donald J Trump.”

https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-trumps-failed-blog-proves-he-was-just-howling-into-the-void/

In a nutshell, Trump started a blog which he grandiosely characterized as a replacement for the social media monopolists who’d kicked him off their platforms. Within a month, he shut it down.

While Trump claimed the shut-down was all part of the plan, it’s painfully obvious that the real reason was that no one was visiting his website.

Now, there are many possible, non-exclusive explanations for this.

For starters, it was a very bad social media website. It lacked even rudimentary social tools. The Washington Post called it “a primitive one-way loudspeaker,” noting its lack of per-post comments, a decades old commonplace.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/21/trump-online-traffic-plunge/

Trump paid (or more likely, stiffed) a grifter crony to build the site for him, and it shows: the “Like” buttons didn’t do anything, the video-sharing buttons created links to nowhere, etc. From the Desk… was cursed at birth.

But Napoli’s argument is that even if Trump had built a good blog, it would have failed. Trump has a highly motivated cult of tens of millions of people — people who deliberately risked death to follow him, some even ingesting fish-tank cleaner and bleach at his urging.

The fact that these cult-members were willing to risk their lives, but not endure poor web design, says a lot about the nature of the Trump cult, and its relationship to passive media.

The Trump cult is a “push media” cult, simultaneously completely committed to Trump but unwilling to do much to follow him.

That’s the common thread between Fox News (and its successors like OANN) and MAGA Facebook.

And it echoes the despairing testimony of the children of Fox cultists, that their boomer parents consume endless linear TV, turning on Fox from the moment they arise and leaving it on until they fall asleep in front of it (also, reportedly, how Trump spent his presidency).

Napoli says that Trump’s success on monopoly social media platforms and his failure as a blogger reveals the role that algorithmically derived, per-user, endless scroll linear media played in the ascendancy of his views.

It makes me think of that TV exec and his prediction of the internet’s imminent disappearance (which, come to think of it, is not so far off from my own wishful thinking about social media’s disappearance in Little Brother).

He was absolutely right that this century has left so many of us exhausted, wanting nothing more than the numbness of lean-back, linear feeds.

But up against that is another phenomenon: the resurgence of active political movements.

After a 12-month period that saw widescale civil unrest, from last summer’s BLM uprising to the bizarre storming of the capital, you can’t really call this the golden age of passivity.

While Fox and OANN consumption might be the passive daily round of one of Idoru’s “vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organisms craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed,” that is in no way true of Qanon.

Qanon is an active pastime, a form of collaborative storytelling with all the mechanics of the Alternate Reality Games that the lean-forward media advocates who came out of the blogging era love so fiercely:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/06/no-vitiated-air/#other-hon

Meanwhile, the “clicktivism” that progressive cynics decried as useless performance a decade ago has become an active contact sport, welding together global movements from Occupy to BLM that use the digital to organize the highly physical.

That’s the paradox of lean-forward and lean-back: sometimes, the things you learn while leaning back make you lean forward — in fact, they might just get you off the couch altogether.

I think that Napoli is onto something. The fact that Trump’s cultists didn’t follow him to his crummy blog tells us that Trump was an effect, not a cause (something many of us suspected all along, as he’s clearly neither bright nor competent enough to inspire a movement).

But the fact that “cyberspace keeps everting” (to paraphrase “Spook Country,” another William Gibson novel) tells us that passive media consumption isn’t a guarantee of passivity in the rest of your life (and sometimes, it’s a guarantee of the opposite).

And it clarifies the role that social media plays in our discourse — not so much a “radicalizer” as a means to corral likeminded people together without them having to do much. Within those groups are those who are poised for action, or who can be moved to it.

The ease with which these people find one another doesn’t produce a deterministic outcome. Sometimes, the feed satisfies your urge for change (“clicktivism”). Sometimes, it fuels it (“radicalizing”).

Notwithstanding smug media execs, the digital realm equips us to “express our mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire” by doing much more than “changing the channels on a universal remote” — for better and for worse.

Image: Ian Burt (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/oddsock/267206444

CC BY: https://creativecommo

ns.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[mary-nesbitt-larking]

Why I moved from Choices to Lovestruck (and you should too)

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me well that I was a BIG Choices stan. I ran three Choices blogs (begging-for-kamilah, ask-kamilah sayeed and ask-priya-lacroix) for a long time, fulfilling fanfiction requests and interacting with many wonderful people. During my time in the fandom, I made some beautiful friends and created brilliant memories that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Unfortunately, as time passed, I started to notice a decline in the quality of content that Pixelberry were providing, and after a lot of hesitation, I decided to remove the app and leave the fandom. I was very lucky in that a very good friend introduced me to a different app with a similar style. Lovestruck was something that I’d heard about on the grapevine but had no idea what it was or if it could possibly compare to the fun that Choices had given me over the years. After a lot of resisting and stubborn behaviour on my part, I finally gave it a chance and have never looked back since. Here are just some of the many reasons why you should too:

There are no forced love interests in Lovestruck. That’s right. You read that correctly. You choose your love interest BEFORE you start the story so there will never be any frustrating interactions with characters that you’re not interested in. Remember in Bloodbound Book 2 when you go to Paris with Adrian and Jax (leaving the only two female love interests at home) and you were forced to hold hands with one of them (until Pixelberry later apologised and altered the scene)? There is definitely none of that to worry about in Lovestruck. The person you’re interested in is the only character who will show interest in you, and the entire story will be centred around him/her/them. 

Speaking of which, it’s time to talk about the fantastic level of LGBTQ representation in Lovestruck. Non binary characters aren’t just side characters. They actually have their own routes, as well as a huge array of adorable side characters. There are also demisexual characters, asexuals and of course, plenty of lesbians and bisexuals. Voltage (creators of Lovestruck) also very proudly celebrate pride month by releasing incredible LGBTQ content.

On the topic of representation, something that has to be applauded is the racial and religious representation in Lovestruck. You can romance Jewish characters, black characters, south American characters, Asian characters and I’m sure the list goes on. Choices fans might be sad to find that you don’t have the option to customise any love interests or MCs, but I think that this is a blessing. 

Something that I find very cool about Lovestruck is that there are different stories for every love interest. For example, if you romance one person from a certain book, romancing another from the same book will get you a completely different story with a totally different route. It’s a stark contrast to Choices, in which Pixelberry- quite literally- copy and paste the same lines for all the available love interests. 

And along the same lines of copying and pasting, it’s very refreshing to see that Lovestruck doesn’t reuse faces. I always found it terribly off putting when you’d be playing a Choices book and a love interest from another book would be your waiter or waitress. 

One brilliant thing about Lovestruck is the way that they present the MC. Every MC has their own unique personality and backstory. Whilst that does mean “less choice”, it’s really refreshing having an MC with parents. With siblings. With a job. A life. An actual story outside their love interest. There’s one MC who discusses her experiences as a woman of colour, and I think that’s exceptionally important for the player. 

On a superficial note, Lovestruck has GORGEOUS art. I did love the art in Choices too, but I don’t think it has anything on Lovestruck. The backgrounds are stunning, but it’s the characters who are gorgeous. Not to mention, we get absolutely beautiful CGs. This is something Choices sorely lacks. In the later books, the LIs and MCs even blink and move which I find gives it a more engaging feel. There are also MANY more facial expressions for every character in Lovestruck. Blushing faces, a neutral face, smiles, angry faces, sad faces, shocked faces, anxious faces... It’s not just the same standard five like in Choices. 

Another superficial- but very cool aspect- of Lovestruck is that almost every outfit is 100% free. The MCs and LIs will change their clothes whenever appropriate and you don’t have to pay a penny. The only time when outfits will ever cost any in-game currency is if it will mean you gain a CG out of it, but in my personal experience, I’ve only ever seen this being the case for two books. 

This is just a side note but something I love in Lovestruck is that adorable animals aren’t paywalled. They’re just there. Your love interest might have a cat- or a bear in one book- and you don’t have to pay to love up on them. They’re just another part of the story.

Still on the more superficial side of things is the music. I will totally admit, I LOVE the music in Choices and have a fair bit of it downloaded to my iTunes. But for anyone hesitant to move over to Lovestruck for the sake of the music, don’t panic! The music is just as brilliant, just as catchy and just as heartfelt. 

One of the things that always stressed me about Choices was the in-game currency. Diamonds were expensive and unfortunately, every single chapter would involve multiple diamond scenes. In many books, the diamond scenes were so important to the story that to go without them would mean that huge chunks of plot were missed. The amazing thing about Lovestruck is that if you choose not to do the premium scenes (the currency is hearts) then it does absolutely nothing to the story whatsoever. The heart scenes are purely there to give you a little bonus but whether you choose to do them or not, nothing about the story or your relationship with your love interest will change. 

And whilst we’re on the topic of heart scenes, it’s important to note that whilst Choices usually has 3-4 diamond scenes PER chapter, heart scenes only pop up around 9 out of every 12 chapters, and you will VERY rarely find anything that costs more than 30 hearts. 

The system to earn these hearts is totally different to Choices. Whilst you could watch ads to earn diamonds a few times per day, plus playing chapters would gain you two diamonds, Lovestruck gives you “quests”. Every few hours, the quests refresh and all you have to do is read a certain amount of chapters of a specified love interest, and you get the hearts. It’s a win/win situation because the more you play, the more you get.

Not to mention, every day you get to earn a puzzle piece and when you complete a puzzle, you win a certain amount of hearts. It seems tedious at first but they add up fast! 

And it’s not just hearts you earn, either! In Choices, you would use “keys” to read a chapter. In Lovestruck, you use “tickets”. Some quests mean that if you read a certain amount of chapters, you get given 2, 3 or even 5 tickets so you can just keep on reading! 

Since I’ve addressed some of the Lovestruck mechanics, I just want to talk about how much I love that you can fast forward, rewind, autoplay (it plays hands free and there are three different speeds to choose from) and even choose the chapter you’d like to play. This is amazingly refreshing because when it comes to Choices, you have to start the entire book again if you want to get to a specific chapter, AND you have to click through it fast because you can’t fast forward. 

Oh, and when you’ve played a chapter, a little heart symbol will appear next to it if it has a premium scene so you know whether or not you need to save your hearts! 

I really want to address the smut scenes. I know that sounds like another more superficial topic but I think it’s pretty important. I think there’s something more “mature” about Lovestruck and smut. The sex scenes are tasteful yet somehow sexier. They’re not rushed at all. And Voltage aren’t afraid to include actual kinky moments. 

More importantly, though, is that Lovestruck addresses virginity and handles it incredibly tastefully. It’s done in a realistic fashion, too. Sometimes, characters don’t really feel like having sex with their partner. Sometimes they want to at first but then feel anxiety. Sometimes they’re scared. Sometimes they want to stop half way through. Sometimes they have trouble reaching orgasm. All very real scenarios that are addressed tactfully and beautifully. The virgins (be they the MC or LI) in Lovestruck are realistic. They don’t just dive into bed. It’s a process. There’s fear along with excitement. There are moments of panic. It’s not just smut for the sake of smut. It deals with adult situations, something that I always thought Choices struggled with. 

Actually, it’s not just sex. These character get anxiety, depression and genuine mental health problems. And it’s dealt with so perfectly, yet so realistically. They’re anxious when it’s appropriate. 

I don’t want to bash Choices too badly, as I don’t think Pixelberry are an evil company, but some of the things they did- particularly towards the end- were unforgivable. 

Hana Lee’s infertility and the way that it was merely glossed over was appalling. As someone who is also infertile, I can tell you that you don’t just “get over it”, even if your partner is carrying your child. 

I’ll also never quite get over the fact that when you’re almost raped in Red Carpet Diaries 2, you have to pay 30 diamonds if you want someone to stay and comfort you. As a sexual abuse victim, I think that’s grotesque, and a glorification of rape. 

I can safely say, there is NOTHING like that in Lovestruck, and just to reiterate, all the important plot points are FREE. 

To bring this mood back up a little bit, something I think is really cute is that when you’re choosing the love interest you’d like to romance in Lovestruck, you can see sweet little facts about them, including their birthdays, their height and their personality traits. 

Sometimes the stories cross over, too, and love interests will appear in each other’s stories. And the cute thing is, if you’re romancing an LGBTQ character, it will be canonical that whichever love interest crosses over will be in an LGBTQ relationship with MC. 

There are also fun little side stories that you can play, and to really make things interesting, you can often play the same book but from the point of view of your love interest! These do usually cost hearts but not many at all. 15 hearts can get you things like 4 chapters, for example! 

I just want to talk about how wonderful Voltage are as a company, too. You can tell this isn’t about money for them. They just want the best for their players and it shows. They are often asking the community what they want and bringing out polls, and they will always let us have our say.

There are also no false promises of stories being “in the works”. If a story is abandoned, they won’t lie about it. There are no “politician’s answers” from them. Just pure transparency. 

The last thing I want to talk about is the writing style. Lovestruck’s style is worlds apart from Choices. To describe it for you, Choices feels like playing a fun app with cool stories. Lovestruck feels like reading a book, immersing yourself in a novel. And the style is unbeatable. 

TLDR; it’s time to cut the apron strings and move on from Choices. Lovestruck awaits! Tagging @lovestruckvoltage because I love you and appreciate you.

[prcphesise]

 FIVE SONGS

list five songs associated with your muse and its meaning to them as a character, or to you as the writer. this can be applied in-character or out-of-character. it can go as deep as looking at the song’s real-world origins or meaning along with the themes it carries to the muses’ story, values, or experiences, or as simple as if your muse would listen to this kind of music, or even if you just listen to these pieces for inspiration.

TAGGED BY: @citialiin​​​​ aka my legal guardian. i wasn’t as detailed as you were because i’m dumb but i love and appreciate u.

TAGGING: @betelguide​​​​, @est1960​​​​​, @pcrticlvcid​​​​, @magaprima​​​​, @ofmorte​​​​, @sunnydaleslays​​​​, @fasciinating​​​​​ and anyone else who’s down!!!

01. running up that hill - kate bush

And if I only could  I'd make a deal with God And I'd get him to swap our places Be running up that road Be running up that hill Be running up that building

this is one of the songs i relate the strongest to buffy’s character and might be one of my favorite songs of all time. some of the messages in the lyrics remind me of her desire to return to normalcy and give up her destiny of slayerhood. i think it’s also the overall vibe of the song; while the sound is very 80s, it has this intensity to it that reminds me of something buffy would listen to while working out, training, or patrolling. something that makes her feel strong but conveys that deep rooted desire to swap places with someone else.

02. i blame myself - sky ferreira

How could you know what it feels like to fight the hounds of hell? You think you know me so well How could you know what it feels like to be outside yourself? You think you know me so well

who is buffy if not a catchy pop song with sad and bitter lyrics? i think this song fits buffy to a T, not just lyrically but with its contrasting upbeat sound because to me, that represents her character. this song expresses frustration with not being able to be your true self and having people tell you who you’re supposed to be. again, buffy would give anything to just be herself and not have to be the slayer. this song used to play at forever 21 when @citialiin​ and i worked there together :’ )

03. nighttime is my time - sky ferreira

I wouldn't feel anything When we burst into dust forever And no angels will help us out 'Cause they've all gone away

more sky ferreira i know. i know this song is about laura palmer. idk why it reminds me of buffy, it just does?? i listened to this album a lot when i was creating the blog, particularly this song, and back when i made the blog autoplays were a big thing so i was going to have this as my autoplay! it reminds me of buff when she’s at her peak emo, when she feels the most vulnerable and helpless.

04. the walker - christine and the queens

I am out for a walk And I will not be back 'til they're staining my skin This is how I chose to talk With some violent hits, violent blossoms akin 

this is a song i listen to a lot when i’m getting in the buffy headspace. it’s another pop song with not so much angry lyrics, but lyrics that are a reflection on someone’s destructive tendencies. i think buffy sometimes has impulsive responses to her problems and sometimes reacts rashly or violently. when the slayer responsibilities kick in, she feels like she has to isolate herself from her friends and family. some of the lyrics in this song remind me of that struggle, plus it again reminds me of her patrolling at night.

05. crucible - sleigh bells

Hunting sheep in my sleep, no I don't count them A time to wake every day cause I'm not trying Know I cut my hair with a pocket knife when I'm on fire But tomorrow, who knows, it might be a horror show

so this song gets me HYPED to write buffy. before i started writing for her, i had this on a workout playlist and it would always remind me of her character and remind me to be strong like her (which i think about an embarrassing amount whenever i do any kind of workout lol). it’s fun and poppy like she is, but has some of the most generally bad ass lyrics. the perfect song to get our favorite slayer our of her emo rut and ready to fight some monsters and take names. 

[human-zim]

ok but like serious question umm? i rlly wanna be/make a zim-related rp blog but i dont exactly know how to start? uh sorry for the dumb question dude but do yall got any advice for me..?

You Cannot BE A ZIM unless you ARE ZIM! Seeing as I am ZIM myself, you CANNOT BE. Unless of course you are a LIAR. To each his own.

Now, ZIM-RELATED you say, is also impossible, as I have no relatives. Unless, of course, I am a LIAR. To each my own.

———————————

(((First of all I don’t want you to be afraid of NOTHIN that comes your way, not fear for the unknown nor fear of interacting with others in a pleasant manner. NOTHING matters if you’re not looking out for the number ONE (you). My advice is to JUST DO IT. That aside, I only got some basic shit to say but HOPEFULLY it will help you to organize your thoughts. This is gonna be long my bad

(1) Personally I think it’s a good idea to start by gathering the general aesthetics you want. Also personally, I tend to leave a lot of that TBD (to be discovered). But while that route offers flexibility, it can also lead to some momentary pursuits that you may regret later. Even the job description “loud and chaotic” has some guidelines.

(2) Idea: Think about how you want to go about characterizing your character. List some vocab words or concepts that reflect your intentions. Ex: Loud or passive? Sexy? Keeps-to-themselves, or assertive? If so, in what affairs? Naive? Pugnacious? Capable? Wordy, or laconic? Do they interact with others, or not much at all? Just keep that in mind as you do what you do.

(3) Idea: Think about what role YOU are going to play. For example, are you gonna break character a lot (y’know in those double parenthesis that people do when they’re just talkin as themselves), in the tags or otherwise? Or are you going to remain gloriously hidden behind the shroud of the screen, making your puppet appear the puppetmaster? The latter was my goal for this blog, I never wanted to get personally involved at all. I hate breaking character in these parenthesis because this is ZIM’S BLOG GODDAMNIT…but i still do it and that’s on me

Also: as it is your blog, think about your limits. If you have any, and if you want to be open about the fact that you exist, then feel free to list them in the bio or just keep them near. One good role that You play if you grant yourself a presence is the ability to moderate how others interact with you, by just lettin them know in the bio or the tags what’s what.

(4) Idea: Get your aesthetics in place! What kind of posts will you reblog - Productive or Puzzling? Visuals or texts? Does it matter? What will YOU post - words, pictures, stories, what? What would your character like? For example, I originally wanted this blog to reblog relevant posts, sometimes about aliens, but nothing good ever came up back then. Nowadays, ZIM here enjoys reblogging weird and out of context things (also Golden Girls) and making solitary textposts that serve as brief glimpses into the life of what must be a maniac. There is some continuity, but most things are said and then forgotten as the ferris wheel of his life whips him around for another go-around. Mostly, there is no logic to the madness. Think about what kind of vibe you want your characterization to give off, and let it develop over time.

(5) Idea: Decorate your blog! Think about what you want to convey. 

Ex: this blog is a HARSH red and purple and a simple, yet awful, icon. The header image is just what it is. the title and whatnot is bullshit. This effect (whatever it is) was better put together when the autoplay (an instrumental of Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science,” aptly titled “ZIM’s Theme” on here) was functioning, but the youtube audio that I had used got taken down and this stupid idiot asshole website wouldn’t let me edit the autoplay with the replacement vid back into the html bc it “wasnt compatible” so eat my ass i guess…sorry y’all I miss it too

Note: see a busted ass autoplay could potentially serve a purpose, had i wanted the aesthetic to follow a more twisted, broken, dismissive route, but ZIM here is Cocksure and Loud and SEXY and he’s not broken it is YOU who is the bastard…so yeah don’t be afraid to get metaphorical if you want

(6) Idea: ask others more qualified than I. I’ve seen everybody do it differently. Some people keep a very organized tag system with who they interact with. Others have a specific way that they handle replies (reblogs, start a new post and @ them, reblogs but have a cut-off point…?). Maybe you’d like some extra input on that. Go ahead and ask. They’ll be happy to answer, they’re RPers, it’s their job to reply. Personally, my only limit is to stop the reblog chain when it becomes a burden to scroll past. Then ZIM @’s them if he wants to keep the arguementConversation going.

Note: I never considered this blog an RP blog - in my words, it’s a “shitpost blog” - so I’m sure that there are things (customs, norms, taboos maybe) that I just flat don’t know about, but, maybe not. Regardless, if you’re uncertain, just follow others’ examples. Human-zim counts as an example bc it’s a free internet (for now) and you can do what you want

(7) Idea: Hopefully you know what your intentions (or motives, or reasons) are. If not then find them now I guess. Also, hopefully one or all of them is to HAVE FUN. just show up one day and do shit and make others deal with you. Get comfy while one ancient purple-hued blog with a strenuously grinning icon and a busted autoplay scrolls past all that nonsense on their dash real quick while wondering whether they, too, should make a post that day or not..

also remember that it’ll be rough at the beginning as you’re trying to get a foothold on the blog/character, but you’re free to go in any direction you choose as time progresses. So don’t worry if you hate how you start out, it happens to the best of us.

 thanks for asking and I hope this helped xoxo….if anyone else has any input then don’t be afraid to add-on)))

[mochidust]

Yes, i am 100% a Jikook supporter.  My blog is a safe haven for those who love them as well as for those who love OT7.  I have zero tolerance for negative asks so if i don't post and answer your ask, most likely it was negative and i don't want to address it and start wars or... Tumblr ate it. Choose your option :) Also, I'm only going to talk about how I view them, not how anyone else should so don't get those panties up in a wad, thanks. Oh and this is gonna be a pretty fcuking long essay so please have your coffee, tea, bubble-tea, wine ready... you have been warned ;)

Shipping has never been my thing and even if i liked a pairing, it was always just platonic. Right off the bat, i liked the VMIN ship.  They were just the cutest kids/friends/siblings/soulmates. VMIN became my favorite/first BTS ship - again, it was strictly platonic shipping.  Bromance, that cute jazz and i still ship them like that. And besides, who doesn’t?!

One day, after watching a cute VMIN vid on youtube, i forgot to toggle off autoplay and a JiKook vid started playing and i...just... fell and i still haven't managed to get up yet. I tried really hard to just stan them as platonic, like i do VMIN but apparently, JJK is having none of that.  

And i really do mean that.  JJK was the person who changed my mind on their dynamics - even before the famous G.C.F. video.  He is my meme for that whole: You don't choose your ship, it chooses you dictum. After that vid, i got very interested and started re-watching their RUN eps and concert clips and boy oh boy. The amount of staring aka heart-eyes, the way JJK constantly hovers over PJM, the way he's always so attentive to ONLY PJM, the way he always strives to make Jimin laugh...i'm still dumbfounded.  I can't remember ever looking at a single man i've ever dated like that or received looks like that back.  Because trust me, if someone looked at me with the emotions of their heart spilling out of their eyes the way JJk does PJM, i would never let him go.  You know that familiar old saying of one wearing their heart on their sleeves? Well, that is not JJK at all. He is the only person i know who takes it up a notch and wears it in his gaze. And what is subtlety to this boy.

It's almost like this is a drama and i am watching it unfold in real time.  We started with the usual one-sided feelings, Jiminie who was so aggressive and open with his affections in chasing around the maknae.  I used to just brush those moments off as child's play...but they've become significant in the Jikook relationship. Stepping stones that mired what was inevitable.  It's like Jimin grew up and he turned into this beautiful swan that matched his beautiful personality and suddenly, everyone noticed - JJK first. This is where I'm really in awe...Their dynamics started shifting and as Jimin dialed back the public affections, JJK poured it on x10.  It almost seemed like the more JJK pushed Jimin for attention, the less PJM gave it and it resulted in JJK not giving a damn what anyone thought except for making PJM aware of his feelings. The hunted is now the hunter ;)

In the beginning, i tried to tell myself, hey, this is all in your imagination, quit trying to see things where they aren't!  They're just very fond group members! And as soon as i think that thought, JJK goes ahead and blows it to smithereens. He just won't let me live.  Following will be some reasons why it's so damn hard to breathe around these two:

When these two are together, they either sound like they're flirting, look like they're flirting or ARE INDEED FLIRTING. I can't shut up about this.  There's this level of intimacy that just dusts the air when these two are standing, sitting, laying next to each other.  But you know what's even more marvelous is that that air somehow gets even more intense when they are separated by other members. It's like the members become obstacles they have to overcome to let their love flourish so they amp things up even more lmao.  Off the top of my head is the moment recently in their vlive where they were toasting to their AMA performance and Yoongi was in the middle like a barrier but those two...the flirting and giggling and stuttering...I'm sure Yoongs was just like...get me the fcuk away from these lovesick fools. I know i would've been running.

They can be quite fiercely protective of one another. Jimin is affectionate with every member, true, but no one can deny that he's particularly soft for JJK, as proven in a Run ep when he gave the extra food flag to JJK and made his own teammate/soulmate V beg for his lol... There's also BV2 when he tries to win a meal for JJK with the table game, when he offers his bed space to JJK...Jimin is always trying to feed JJK when he loses in games, making sure he's comfortable when they're sleeping, encouraging him to speak up, say whats on his mind,  and JJK reciprocates in kind, albeit more quietly; waiting for PJM’s slow butt, defending PJM when others poke fun at him, complimenting him when he's unsure (especially when it's unwarranted), even going as far as defending PJM before anyone can tease him!  An example of that is during BV2 when the boys were cooking for one another and Jimin made that dish that tasted like pickled pollack roe.  I'm sure JJK didn't want the other's comments to hurt Jimin's feelings (even though it didn't come off that way) so he pepped up with the whole "I love pickled pollack roe" even though no one else cared. Thats the kind of love and devotion JJK shows to PJM - it’s quiet, uplifting, supportive and it is endearing beyond all.  And don’t forget...whenever the groups play games, JJK always finds a way to cheer on Jimin, even if they are on opposing teams. Talk about being sweet on someone. I'm actually quite jealous.

Satellite Jeon has got to be my most favorite JJK. I've, in all honesty, never seen anyone orbit before until Jungkook.  He can be at the opposite end of the stage and somehow, come hell or high water, he will make it to park beside Jimin.  Like Jimin is his security blanket and he needs that source of comfort and warmth. I am just overly fond of that one vlive for Hobi's birthday when freaking JJK worked his away behind the camera to stand right behind PJM.  As if that wasn't enough, he had to place his hands on PJM's shoulders to make it be known that "hey, I'm right here behind you."  We see you, Jeon, trust me, we do. It's really endearing to watch Jimin's personal hoverboard in action.  In interviews, during speeches...there are so many circumstances where he either moves to stand closer to Jimin or moves to stand where he can see Jimin more clearly and i haven't seen him do that with others. It's like Jimin is a magnet for his eyes.  Love songs always quote: I only have eyes for you. And Jungkook proves that quote true.

G.C.F Tokyo broke me out of my musings of them being just friends permanently.  Who does this?!  Who goes out of their way to cart around a huge camera all day and take videos/photos of someone else on a vacation?  Either a photographer who is working or a LOVER. Obviously JJK’s profession is not that of a photographer so...yeah. Listen, I love my siblings/friends but you’ll never catch me lugging that around while im on vacation, no way.  After i watched that video, i sat in silence for a good long time.  Can you imagine the planning that goes on behind something like this? It’s no overnight thought-process.  Neither is the piecing together of it.  The amount of time, dedication, love, affection JJK put into this video is heartwarming. Seeing PJM the way JJK sees him is breathtaking. While sitting there in the afterglow of that marvelous tribute, i realized that in this world, all i ever want is for someone to love me, see me, the way that JJK sees PJM.  I want that glow that PJM emitted while frolicking freely with JJK, that happiness that is threatening to burst out of both their chests, that pure, unabashed tenderness for one another.

I’d have expected something like that from PJM, the open, brazen, affectionate little bean. But to have it come from JJK the introvert, shy, always in his own bubble guy... It’s baffling. I’ve always thought JJk was quite a chameleon. There's layers upon layers upon layers with this man.  If i were to compare them to food, i would say PJM is decadent mousse in a glass cup where you know and can see the layers and appreciate them thoroughly.  JJK is that delicious chocolate cake where you have to cut inside the cake to see how many layers are present.  He's an awesome anomaly. And...maybe that is why they fit together so well.  What JJK lacks, PJM makes up for and vice versa. Jimin is all things dainty and Jungkook is all things masculine.  It's a perfect fit.

None of us know them personally. We can only ship from afar so please ship respectfully.

---

damn. i didn’t think it was this long.  If you got through this, kudos to you, my friend :)

[fryderykdelicateflower]

a letter ?? thing ???/?//? i guess (i suck at titles i'm so sorry)

hi so uh i know this is probably really out of the blue but i’m so glad this blog exists ??? aAAA ????//?/? i’m so happy i’m not alone in wanting to protect and honor our beloved frycek huhu HE DESERVED BETTER

I’ve only recently started to listen to Chopin’s pieces, but to say that I’m head-over-heels for him despite the fact that he’s been dead long before I even existed is an understatement. Even before I knew him later on when I was around 4 or 5 I’d dreamed of becoming a pianist after seeing my older sister play- but when I happily exclaimed this to her piano teacher, she just laughed and pointed out that my fingers were too short to play properly. Needless to say, it broke my small heart to hear that- and when my sister ended up dropping her lessons, my parents didn’t bother to ask me because they had actually forced her to (as most stereotypical Asian parents do) and I never said anything about it, either.

Since then I had thought that my dream of becoming a pianist or even just wanting to play the piano was just another silly dream of mine (I’m currently aiming to get into law school)- but after listening to my usual lo-fi music couldn’t help me focus during my exams I resorted to classical music, expecting it would be boring and bland as everyone else had made it out to be. When autoplay played Grande Valse Brillante, though, my eyes widened the moment the music came flooding into my ears- somehow it felt like I had just reconnected with an old friend I hadn’t seen in so long, the happiness and nostalgic joy I felt familiar yet so distant at the same time.

It’s only been a few months since then, but after digging more into his works and spending long nights tapping at my desk pretending to be the virtuoso or child prodigy my 5-year-old self wanted to be, almost breaking my pelvis countless times waltzing around my room or getting back into my old habit of writing stories and poems listening to his pieces it feels like I’ve formed some sort of bond with him. It’s silly, I know, but somehow as I pretend to dance in an imaginary ballroom to Grande Valse Brillante to feeling like I’m dying in a snowstorm listening to Winter Wind (when it’s just the AC on full blast) I always envision him there at the piano; smiling, laughing as I dance and prance around.

I’m planning to start learning piano with the help of my friends and my sister’s old music sheets and booklets- how I can only hope our beloved Frycek from above won’t be disappointed since I’m a slow (and very bad) learner ; u ; to be honest, if it wasn’t for you as well and your equal passion for Chopin and his music I wouldn’t have to be slightly ashamed of the fact I’m in love with a 200-year-old dead man been as confident and excited as I am now to start learning soon. You don’t know just how happy I was indeed to know that there was someone else out there who loved him just as much and wanted to continue his legacy no matter how questionable the methods- I can only wish you the best of health, luck and happiness in your life; as just your love and support is what keeps his melancholic, lovely spirit alive in our hearts today.

Thank you so much for reading through this, I hope it wasn’t much of a bore or bothered you :(( I hope you keep up both this blog, and most certainly your love for Frederic Chopin xx

[koibitoaii]

AZALIA’S FULL MUSE LIST & THEIR STATUS.  

lets play a game where before you open this - you try to guess how many muses i have. the answer: way too many. 

kagura mikazuchi. honestly a disaster. needs so much re-doing. haven’t been active on her in so long it’s ridiculous. she’s got a lot of headcanons though tbh. mermaid heel is a good guild. kagura is a good girl. who knows when i’ll be active on her? not me. her icons are so bad i’m actually weeping.

jenny realight. not that bad tbh?? i’m planning to change her theme a bit - but all of her tags are my current system thank the gods. but jfc i hATE her icons so i’ll probably remake those which will take #time. i love her a lot though. 

sorano aguria. the bane of my existence is this fucking blog. honestly there’s a STRONG chance that whenever I bring her back to the living world i’ll move her blog all together. but it looks like a while away before i bring her back. 

irene belserion. does she even count as my muse when i barely did anything on her before setting her into a hiatus? who knows. she’s totally au tbh - needs serious revamping, but i love her icons a lot. and she’s fun for plot purposes. 

cana alberona. my first muse ever. i’ve had her for, jesus fucking christ almost five years, but been active on her for maybe two of those. but boy do i adore her. she also needs her tags fixed, her theme changed, her pages updated. but her icons are hella cute. 

sting eucliffe. my son. the light of my life. my self-indulgent masterpiece. he’s so cute. but beware bc my portrayal of him is honestly a lot softer than it should be & i’ll admit it. it’s just what happened though guys. he made it his own. probs won’t be active on him for a long time to come - but i might fill his queue here soon so there’s that. he too needs a new theme. 

 aries. more like owner of my ass. aries i love so much. would love to be active with her but it’s just?? so hard?? to do interactions that make sense with other characters in main verse. it’s painful. she needs a new theme. but i love her you guys. if you want my heart && soul make a leo to throw @ her. it’ll all be yours. please. but yes aries is. perfection. 

lisanna strauss my sweet baby girl. the purest bean to ever exist. lisanna is actually pretty active!! I’m so proud!! I need to make more icons for her in the new style - but yeah. she’s active. she’s alive &&& thriving. it’s a blessing. 

sayla. LMAO is she even a muse. haven’t touched her in....three years. maybe more. everything about her blog is a mess. she still has an autoplay bc apparently i did that three years ago. but somehow i just. can’t let go of her entirely?? who knows why?? not me. 

mirajane strauss. mira is recently revamped & i don’t know how active i’m gonna be on her if i’m being totally honest. just that i’m feeling her somewhat && have every intention of #trying. 

juvia lockser. juvia is my girl. her & lis are the loves of my life. juvia is vaguely active. meaning that if i see i have a reply due on her i’ll respond within the weekish. but there’s not a lot happening on her blog tbh. but yes. 

OTHER FANDOMS: 

bakugou katsuki my newest child. the explosion boy. the angriest dork to ever grace the world. he’s active, i’m slowly trying to build up the courage to fully expand in that fandom && actually talk to new people. very slowly. but tbh if you’re reading this you know me from the ft fandom &&& you should come harass this boy. 

dimitri irvine my original character. this man right here is a literal toddler & making him respond to things is a constant battle. that being said, he’s actually fairly active. come bother him. please. it’ll liven up everyone’s lives. 

emery mallaroy. em is yet another original character && the proof of how goddamn lazy i am. because i would be active on her - but all of her icons are on another computer &&& i still haven’t moved them. so. she’s not active. hasn’t been for a while. 

aurelia riviere the first original character i ever made. part of the same immortal squad as dimitri & emery. she’s actual sunshine. if sunshine constantly thought about her dead ex-boyfriend WHO HAS BEEN GONE FOR CENTURIES RAE LET IT GO ALREADY && was pretty much incapable of living in any one place for very long. her activity is as sporadic as lottery winners so. there’s that. 

wow you’ve reached the end of this depressing ass list. you deserve an award. it once again hits me how unactive i am. you might be wondering why i made this in the first place. mostly it’s because i have an actual fucking blog that’s supposed to be dedicated to listing my muses but that’s SO MUCH WORK TO MAINTAIN & i feel like it always ends up looking hideous so. instead. we have this. 

[leafmedic]

☆☆☆ :3

Q&A || @shadowkage

How I rate your blog:| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

How I rate your URL:| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |Love it!! Took me a bit to get used to the change -- still getting used to it sometimes -- but it fits so well!

How I rate your blog theme:| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |You know how much I curse your autoplay for getting me hooked for hours on end. Now I just use it to spur writing binges and can’t really complain. Love the colors, love the images, love everything. 

How you play your muse:Don’t know your muse | Not my cup of tea | meh | OK | good | wow | EXCELLENT | I would like to keep you forever.a;dlkfjaifip’oadkfmnjauhefijokI meant what I sent you. That I should learn from you on how to read a character and not back down from their pain. How to seek out so many different situations and not shy away from the ugliness that comes with certain character growth. 

Thoughts/opinion on the mun:Julia, I almost don’t even know what to say to you. I was brash and ignorant with our first interactions, and then unbelievably persistent when I realized how to talk to you. I’m glad it paid off, but damn, I should have made that beginning easier.And then everything just clicked. Everything. Our plotting, our conversation, our rps, our freaking muses, it all kinda fell into place because the angst I knew I needed was the same one you refused to let go of. It was wonderful and beautiful and I love what we’ve been able to build on it.Now, you’re the staple for me here. I find myself checking my drafts to reread our threads and see if I have the time and muse to reply. And sending you little things over the IM back and forth and just generally being able to talk to you is such a highlight of my entire tumblr experience. I can’t wait to see where this goes. :)

How much I ship our muses:Are you out of your mind?! | NO | prefer not to | I need some convincing | MAYBE | let’s do our best for chemistry | what a good idea | YES | I’ve been hoping for this! | oh gods yes | LETS MAKE A NEW OTP | shipping hell!!

How attractive my muse finds yours:| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

Platonic attraction:| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

Sexual attraction:| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |None of these questions are anything new.

A situation or starter sentence for our muses:UHHHH. We’ve talked about so many, though I would always love to take a crack at the aus you’ve had bouncing around over the past few months. 

A scene I would want to write with you:Meeting | Cooking | Kiss | Fight | Bed-share | Shopping | World domination | Solve crimes | Stranded | Distant friends | None of these but PM ME |Or: We have an ever evolving lists of things to do. Like them as genin, Sasuke never leaving, Sakura actually following Sasuke, Sakura as Hokage, Sakura and Sasuke leaving Konoha, Sarada dying, SO MANY. And that’s not even counting all the AU’s we’ve talked about, which I refuse to forget since you were so stubborn about stepping into an AU. :)

If we would write, my mood is:fluff | angst | horror | romance | humor | hurt / comfort | action | slice of life | crack | dark threads | light threads | any genre |

[getinthefunvee]

//how does a new writer to the roleplay community on tumblr get started? Ive sent out starters, I've replied to starters, I've answered memes, I've reblogged memes, I've made my own posts, I hardly OOC. Everyone seems so exclusive. It's not encouraging, and it seems rather cold. What advice can you give?

// Hi there, nonny! Let’s see if I can offer a little RP Ancient™ advice.

The first thing to know about the RPC is: when you start out (or reboot, or come back from a long hiatus–and boy, do I know about those) it takes a lot of time & effort before you get into a steady RP flow. It’s always been like that, so that part? Is purely about relationships, because that’s what RP is: a sort of mutual pact between two (or more) people to put in a similar amount of effort to entertain one another. Quite often, longer-term RP partners turn into IRL friends, because you spend so much time investing in one another. You help each other grow as both writers/RPers and your muses influence each others’ growth. It requires a fair amount of putting yourself out there and extroversion and, yes, rejection–just like IRL relationships.

Here are some things to consider if you’ve been at it for a couple months and still feel like you’re floundering:

1) Is your character pleasant to RP with? Okay, this isn’t an attack, but a chance to step back and consider: what would the other character(s) get out of interacting with mine? A character needs to have depth, an interesting personality, a unique voice, a fully actualised emotional range. If you write a villain, grouchy, or a superpowered person, it’s off-putting if they’re essentially a walking God-mode, all-knowing, superior, unrelentingly do nothing but maim/kill off others, or shut down every interaction with glares/bitchy comebacks. That’s no fun for anyone to interact with, so if you’ve fallen into any of those tropes, you may wish to think abound expanding on your repertoire.

2) Are you putting in as much effort as your partners or prospective partners? We’re all different. Effort is relative, and everyone looks for something a little different, but essentially when you get a reply, you want to feel as though the other person is as invested as you are. That means matching length (it never has to be line-for-line, but if someone’s written 6 paragraphs and you only have 2 lines of reply, please talk to them: they’ll want to know why their reply only stimulated 2 lines of response from your muse, or to know that you’re only comfortable writing shorter things; otherwise, you’re not likely to get another reply), driving plot forward (I can’t tell you how many RPs I’ve had fizzle because someone’s several-paragraphs-long replies only at core yield ‘and they nodded’, forcing me to consistently develop all action/development–we’re not always ‘on’ and not every post is a ‘masterpiece’, nor should it have to be, but if one person is doing 100% of the leg work on this every single time, it’s not going to end well), and developing character relationships (be they platonic or otherwise) in an engaging, satisfying way. Also, each RPC has its own conventions, so you may wish to check that you’re ‘conforming’ to those, at least broadly–ie, if the Marvel RPC convention for short replies is 100x100 or smaller static icons and you’re using 300x150 GIFs and large font, people may find it off-putting. 

3) How many muns have you spoken to? This is part of putting yourself out there. Sometimes the person is a mutual, sometimes they’re not. Do always read people’s rules (I presume everyone would already do this) just to make sure they’re comfortable being contacted by ask vs IM. Don’t leap in with ‘hi wanna plot’; do introduce yourself, say hello, tell them what you enjoy about their characterisation, and suggest that if they were open to the idea of RPing, here are a few suggestions for possible plots you’ve considered with their character in mind. Not all of that has to be in one message, but when someone approaches me like this I’m almost uniformly thrilled to play with them.

4) Are you being too limited in your focus? You’re starting out, and maybe you like to write novella plots and/or huge world-building AUs. Awesome! However, you need to develop relationships for those to take off. Many people just getting the hang of RPing do short-form threads. This does three things: 1) helps you establish your character’s voice, 2) offers content/’samples’ for people browsing your blog to view, and 3) gets your URL out there on other people’s dashes. (I meet the vast majority of my RP partners because I loved how they wrote with someone I already RP with, or they saw me on their dash and liked what I did. I cannot overstate the importance of this!)

5) How accessible is your content? This may be just me, but is your blog at least somewhat legible? I’ll be the first to say, hey, my blog font: not super comfy to read! I use ‘read on dash’ for my own posts! I am a fucking sham!! (ie your theme means I can’t scroll to the end of your rules because the ~smoky shadows~ fully obscure the last paragraph; your text scrolls out of the box, onto your background art, rendering it unreadable; broken links!); 3) difficult/obscure navigation (if I have to wave my cursor around your page for 5min before I can find a link, I’m mad); 4) okay this is probably just me, because it’s super popular, but: autoplay, some of us get easily overwhelmed by sensory input and if I have my noise-isolating earphones on and I tab over to your blog and suddenly it’s SUPER LOUD ASSAULT, it’s really jarring.

6) Are you exploring other RPCs? Some communities are much more welcoming to new/inexperienced RPers than others. That’s definitely sad, but it’s a good thing to know. I love the Marvel RPC because of the friends I’ve met through it, but it’s one of the more clique-y and exclusive-focused RPCs I’ve ever been in. By contrast, DARP (Dragon Age, ayy) is very welcoming–and, for me, often a little *too* chipper and extroverted. I’m not saying this to call one better than another, but just to illustrate that RPCs can be very different from one another. If you’re having a hard time in one, consider expanding out to another–it doesn’t mean you have to ditch your character or your desire to be in another RPC, but it may give you the experience and confidence to tackle some of the harder-to-access RPCs on Tumblr.

I don’t want to overwhelm you, and I can only speak from my own experience, but hopefully that gives you something to start with, nonnie! If anyone wants to pitch in, please do feel free to comment.

[otoroll]

New Year’s means all the New Year’s events and special gacha has started and hey, if this were a news blog there would be so much to post!!!!

Also it’s a new month and that means new games to be trying, especially now that LIVE on ST@GE! has forcefully removed itself from my rotation well crap the games are racking up.

But first, it’s been a crazy half year so I wanted to take a quick look over my current games.

A3!: I started this up in July after being sucked back into the gacha craze by Million Live! Theater Days. I fell in love and have never looked back. It’s got a feature where you can have rehearsals auto-continue without requiring you to mash your finger against the screen, which is a quality-of-life thing I greatly appreciate from OG Million Live! and which no other game replicates, and that is to say no other game will ever capture my heart quite the way A3! does until that happens. There’s outside supplements to A3! that I haven’t even looked into, like the voice dramas/character song CDs, or the official fanbook. Rank 134 (!!), featuring Fushimi Omi.

Cocktail Prince: Probably my second great love, if you go by number of posts on this tumblr alone. The timing and memory minigame are not faves, it’s true, but the event minigame certainly is. But most importantly, Kakupuri also gives you the option to autoplay its minigames a limited-but-rechargeable amount of times, and I’d dare say that actually of all the games I’ve played, it hits the widest variety of otome types with some beautifully HQ art. Rank 82, featuring Kiss in the Dark.

Stand My Heroes: I give Sutamai so much grief about making generic love interests, but I do think I also give lots of love for what it does excellently with its Match-3 gameplay. Featuring Arakida Sosei.

THE iDOLM@STER SideM LIVE on ST@GE!: Friends, it was a hectic 24 hours there when I thought LoS! was a game I might never play again. I redownloaded OG SideM, y’all, and we had issues. So it was a happy happy moment when I realized what my data transfer issue was and got it all back. I still hate rhythm games, but I love my 315 babies. P-Level 14, featuring Fuyumi Jun.

Tsukino Paradise.: Speaking of “I hate rhythm games,” LoS! has gameplay sections where I don’t have to do lives/the music game part, but Tsukipara’s core gameplay is all rhythm. It is super good for it that I’m so in love with End of Night that I forgive everything else. Rank 17, featuring Murase Dai & Haduki You.

Hiragana Danshi: Poor poor Hiradan. I was supposed to be giving you a try in December, but my curiosity got the better of me with TsukiPara and then add in Otome Yusha coming out and you just got shunted to the side after the Mikan event. To be honest, I prefer even the mindless gameplay of rhythm games to the word-forming of Hiradan, and also I’m just straight miffed that I have to play events enough times to be able to unlock Ba and then again to be able to use my 4-star Ne. But mostly about Ba. Level 13, featuring No.

Otome Yusha: And the newcomer of the bunch, Otome Yusha, has all of otome mobage a-twitter. It’s pretty unique gameplay for its specific demographic, and some very nice production quality. I’m working on getting over my aversion to babysitting phone games, and this is a pretty good start. Rank 18, featuring Ixa.

What’s coming next for January? Well I actually do have a small idea. But I have all the New Year’s events to start and finish first!

[osetljiv]

(via https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2odvuQkrlARSSv6Pvm41GM?si=sjzD66aFTGa5TkMfcIurtQ)

hi i am doing this solely for myself/my own records so please feel free to ignore!!!!!! i wanted to challenge myself by making a top 10 albums list from the last decade - it was rly difficult because my ass truly cannot cut things down and be decisive, but here it is! 

i know many ppl r not into this kinda thing, but i really really love symbolic gestures - i love the idea that a new year (or a new decade!) can wipe ur slate clean, can give u a chance to be hopeful and excited and look forward to things - i hate change and i hate endings but the one good thing to come of them are beginnings! i love new starts, i love freshness, i love blank slates. i know that the end of the year/decade is arbitrary and doesn’t rly mean anything in the long run but....... it is important and super special to me!!!

i’m really not good with words/proper descriptions of the music itself, so i mainly just describe memories/associations i make to the albums, so don’t expect a proper music critic’s review or anything LOL… i am also not ranking by objective quality, but influence - these r the albums that personally made the biggest impact on me since 2010. i started off the decade age 13 and finished it in 2019 at age 23..... so clearly that is a very big difference in stages of life!!! i completed my teenage years, graduated from elementary school, high school & university.... i went thru many different friend groups, many different personality changes...... several big life events occurred…. many many hours were spent listening to music. and now i’m here! 

my only rules were 1. had to be on repeat for a significant amount of time, 2. preferably only one album per artist (to force me to pick between them), and 3. i had to consistently listen to the album as a whole (as opposed to just a few songs out of it)...... some of my fav songs in the world aren’t on these albums bc they were either released before 2010 or i didn’t listen to the rest of the album except for a handful of songs (as is usually the case for me). so the albums on this list are markers in my life, and i could (and did!) listen to them front and back. and ALSO they are not ranked from 1-10...... it was literally difficult enough choosing just 10 and i truly would not survive having to rank them as well. in release date order, here they are!!!!!

 owen pallett - heartland (jan 12th, 2010)

okay i know i just said i wouldn’t rank these but........... well this one is #1 regardless lol!!! the rest are not in any sort of order but this one has to be first (and how lucky that it was released first too!!!) this is the most important/special album to me in the world - it’s the first album released by my favourite musician under his real name, it has some of my most favourite songs of all time on it - it’s probably the first album in my life that i loved and listened to as a whole! when I was younger i never used to have favourite singers or favourite writers or favourite artists - i would have one favourite song/book/painting but never look into the creator’s other work, never had any interest in organizing things that way. but this is the first time i thought - “i adore this song..... and i adore all the other songs this person makes.... so i guess i like this whole album?” not to mention it’s a whole story and world - heartland tells a whole fable and sounds so beautiful doing so. owen was also the first concert i’ve ever been to! he is so beautiful and wonderful and this album is perfect and has my heart and can do no wrong! and as a plus it was released right at the beginning of 2010 so it truly started off the decade and set the pace. i really don’t know what else to say! heartland was a constant throughout the last ten years - i can’t tie it to one specific moment or feeling the way i can with the other albums. this one was really just the background of my whole adolescence, i guess, and i’ll love owen and this album forever!!!! love love love

 gorillaz - plastic beach (march 3, 2010)

i honestly didn’t listen to this album as a whole until the summer after grade 11/before grade 12 when i had to take summer school for math bc i failed (first class i had ever failed :’)!!) and needed the credit for my grade 12 courses (many of which i ended up failing anyway lol) BUT i still had hope at this point so this summer wasn’t that bad..... i remember i had to buy my own bus pass for the summer w my own work money for the first time and walk to the mall bus stop every day all summer to take the city bus downtown to the highschool that used to b a prison (RIP, it got torn down this year) to take summer math from 8-3, 5 days a wk. i loved those classes surprisingly? i remember that summer i dressed so cute every day, i would wear my extra ass dresses and knee high socks and do my hair all cute...... i’d steal my mom’s old lady sweaters w mini skirts and make my own coffee to bring w me and felt so adult..... i didn’t make any friends bc i thought they were all too cool but later learned that the girls in class rly liked me and remembered me the next year when i’d see them at their highschool when visiting for a trivia tournament (don’t judge!!!!) also the first time i got hit on bc a 30 yr old man in my class somehow got my email from the teacher and sent me a creepy email asking me out and i was too scared to go to school the next day lol..... truly feels surreal. but yes i would listen to this album (and demon dayz!) on repeat cuz i found the full albums uploaded to youtube so i remember i would just listen to the entire album all the way thru for the duration of the bus ride while looking out the window and daydreaming bc i couldn’t skip any songs and I couldn’t go on my phone bc the music only plays if u keep the youtube app open…. so it’s hard to listen to the songs individually now because i just picture the transitions every time!

 caribou - swim (april 20, 2010)

this was my summer between grade 8 - grade 9! up until this point i only had a handful of western artists that i listened to (before highschool i listened almost exclusively to Japanese doujin groups that remixed video game music…. do NOT judge!!!) and i felt soooo cool when i started listening to this album/others like it… had odessa downloaded on my zen creative mp3.... so freaking good!! got so embarrassed of my music taste after this LOL cuz my brother saw the album cover on my phone in highschool and asked what hipster shit i was listening to. little did he know.... its GOOD!!!! such a great album to just listen to all the way through. perfect background music for studying/ /walking/smoking/literally doing anything to! i can still listen to it and pinpoint different/new melodies in the back in certain songs. so good!!!

 crystal castles - (II) (april 23, 2010)

so many 2010 albums wow but LISTEN....... i first heard crystal castles in either 2010 or 2011, immediately after i first made a tumblr in grade 9.... this was the era when offensive bloggers and hipster british bloggers were like the only 2 sections of tumblr...... one of the first ppl i followed was this one super popular british blogger, this kid from london who was probs 15 and he had like, a pale grunge aesthetic and rly long bangs that covered his eyes.... i forget his name omg i wish i could see what he was doing now! but ya i loved him i thought he was the coolest thing ever, i went on his blog and he had autoplay and pap smear was the first song that started playing...... i remember being like wtf is this??? first time i heard music like that, with the video game sounds mixed in and the vocals so distorted. i literally was enamoured like i remember thinking i should hate it and wtf r these british freaks listening to but like..... i could NOTTTT STOP and i remember i wouldn’t even bother looking up the song on youtube or anything, when i wanted to listen to the song i would just go to this guy’s tumblr LOOOOOL god!!!! on the outside i was a cutesy girly girl but on the inside i was a pale grunge hipster british tumblr user!

 beach house - bloom (may 15, 2012)

this album is just the sweetest, prettiest memory…. it’s so.. crisp? and clear and pure and loving! beach house was (unsurprisingly) my spotify artist of the decade and i don’t care what rep they get or how similar their music may sound i love them with my entire heart! discovered them from tumblr (as i did most of my fav highschool albums) - first beach house song i ever heard was wild - i remember the first time i started being (SLIGHTLY) less mortified of talking about my music taste to other people, it was maybe in first year? i had gotten into my friend’s car, before we got super close, and she was playing a song off of bloom i think! and i remember my heart just stopped!!!! and i was so absolutely terrified of saying anything, but even moreso excited to see someone whose opinion i cared about who was listening to music that i liked, and so i gathered all my strength and tried to be super casual and say something like “oh, you like beach house, too?” (meanwhile i was literally shaking with nerves…..) and she just so easily said “yeah, i love this song!” and it was the most validating, comforting thing! and a while after that, one of my favourite memories: my other friend got hired at a local café/tea shop, the teeniest little place – it was like 3x4 metres, max – and she would close the store alone, and it was always completely dead, so the group of us would go and sit with her for her entire shift in this sweet warm little store – we’d have tea and coffee and scones – and over the store speakers, she would play whatever we wanted – and for a while i didn’t make suggestions, let everyone else choose, but! i worked my way up to suggesting she play bloom – and she would play the album all the way through, and she surprisingly really liked it?? and then it became the default soundtrack to our tiny hangouts in the tiny café :’)

 toro y moi - anything in return (jan 16, 2013)

WOWWWW truly such a throwback....... this is the first time i felt cool, TRULY cool listening to music LMAOOOO SO EMBARRASSING!!! i remember the day it came out, grade 11 i guess??? but i swear it must have leaked way earlier cuz i remember listening to this way before.... my fav tumblr user at the time (kiki deerhoof LMFAO now THAT is a throwback!!!!) was always posting abt toro y moi and made a mixtape w his music on it and i fell in love..... and i wanted to be cool too! so i would obsessively listen to this album when it dropped. the album drop also overlapped w the moment my grades/effort in school went on a steep decline (not that it caused it ofc but this was like…. the background music to my demise, in a way!) i’ll never forget listening to so many details on my chilly walk past my old elementary school at 6am to get to my bus stop - way too cool for school

 mac demarco - salad days (apr 1, 2014)

how fitting that chamber of reflection is playing in the coffee shop as i type this :’) this album was the soundtrack to my late grade 12/entire grade 13 experience. i was SO thoroughly and unbearably depressed LOOOOL it was really awful… i’m laughing now thinking back at it but honestly the feeling of being left behind by all of your friends and having to come to terms with not meeting ur own expectations of urself… having to repeat a year and being the oldest one in ur classes…… SO AWFUL!!!! really truly idk how i did it! but the whole time, all year, i would listen to this album. i would always play it on my walk to the city bus (in grade 13 i never made the actual school bus and i don’t even know how much money i must have paid taking the city bus every day bc i truly could not get out of bed early enough to take the free school bus but ALAS……) and i swear to you that entire year was grey and foggy and cold and damp… and i would play salad days (the song itself) and my emo ass would associate 100% with mac singing “oh mama, acting like my life’s already over….. oh dear, act your age and try another year,” and i swear he was singing it just for me, trying to slap me out of my stupor by saying “calm down, ur fine, ur life isn’t over, it’s just one year and you’ll be back on track!” and sometimes, SOMETIMES!! it worked!

 azealia banks - broke with expensive taste (nov 7, 2014)

i know i know..... i’m aware how we feel about azealia now....... and i know how overstated it is when ppl say “she may be problematic but she was an artistic GENIUS!!!” so i will not add more to the conversation but....... is this album not pristine? like what a masterpiece????? this album straight up defined my highschool experience even tho it was released at the beginning of grade 12..... all of grade 12/13 i was blasting this album while walking down the hallway hating literally everything! i grew up idolizing my bro and all he listened to (techno/house/etc) and loving it but being too embarrassed of copying him to get too into it, but then hearing azealia sound cute and sexy and scary while interpolating all these house beats. LITERALLY chicken soup for the soul… it felt like she made it just for me!! and even before bwet actually dropped, listening to 212 and all of her other singles waiting for her to finally drop the album she was tweeting about for years, like i don’t remember the last time i anticipated an album for soooo long? and she dropped it days after my 17th bday which really was such a perfect gift. listening to this w my friend who also loved azealia, pretending we were cool as SHIT and so grown up...... beyond influential

 frank ocean - blonde (aug 20, 2016)

ur lying if this album wasn’t a pivotal moment for u......... blonde is the sole reason summer 16 is viewed as a cultural landmark. i SWEAR!!!! i may have spent 8 hours a day on tumblr in 2016 but my ass was NOT cool enough to have been listening to frank ocean prior to blonde..... no i never listened to channel orange before this, yes i know i was behind the times! 2016 was the summer after my 1st year of uni, august i had just finished my summer school course so my summer was just starting (i was re-taking 1st year math bc i failed..... some things never change huh!!!! lied to my dad and told him i was tryna get ahead by taking bio in summer school... he believed me till he caught me in a lie by chatting w my friend he bumped into at walmart LOL.... and yet he never said a word :’) an angel) this was also the summer my dad left for a few months to go travelling across canada, he was gone all summer and my bro was busy working and so was my mom and i had the car all to myself for the first time. went on SOOO many drives this summer blasting this album. not to mention that since my dad wasn’t home the responsibility to drive my mom to work fell on me and wow i LOVED it? i realized i love having little responsibilities and having ppl rely on me in little ways like this..... i loved going to bed at 3am and having my mom gently wake me up at 5:30am, having a coffee with her before leaving in my ratty pajamas to drive her to work, the sun was just rising but it was already sooo hot, that summer i remember i couldn’t even hold the steering wheel cuz it was burning and my car didn’t (still doesn’t!) have AC, i’d drop her off to work up on the mountain and as i drove down the escarpment i would roll down the windows and blast pink + white right as the sun began to peek over the clouds and i would take a pretty sunrise pic every time before driving around for a bit, listening to this album, going home, and going back to sleep till 2pm

 blood orange - negro swan (aug 24, 2018)

i fully expected this list to be mainly albums released earlier in the decade, which makes sense – they would’ve had more time to have an effect on me – but as the final/most recent entry on my list, this album was beautiful enough to be a consistent part of the most recent year-and-a-half of my life!!! it’s also unique in that it’s one of the only albums on this list, i think, where i had already been a big fan of the artist’s previous work and was waiting for the album to drop. not 2 sound like one of THOSE people but i often find myself liking the first albums i heard from an artist/their older music better than newer work they release (not always!!! but often!), not from any kind of elitism or anything but honestly probably just nostalgia fogging my taste? especially for my first listen of a new album – it usually takes some time and a few re-listens before i really enjoy a newer release – BUT! from the moment dev released the album cover (which is so beautiful? one of my fav album covers off the top of my head) and dropped the first 2 singles, ESPECIALLY charcoal baby, i was so so enamoured with the album, right from the start. that whole summer i had it on repeat – early the next year i saw dev play in Toronto, and it was one of the best concerts i’ve ever been to – the lighting and colours and his dancing and demeanour, the other vocalists, plus we were right up at the stage, it was so stunning!!!!! this album has consistently appeared on all of my various spotify playlists, it rly can suit all moods and occasions, i love it very much and it’s the perfect album to round out my past decade in music!

 honourable mentions: SPEED ROUND

yes i’m a CHILD that cannot commit to cutting things down...... but tbh i’m surprised enough that i was able to preen my list into a top 10 anyway. so these r the honourable mentions that i couldn’t live with myself if i didn’t mention in some way!!!! all also very good and important and special to me, in no particular order!

mount kimbie - love what survives: i won’t lie this one hurt to not include on my top 10 :( i’m surprised too.... my friend rly fought for this to be included but i had to listen to my heart!!! however ofc i HAD to include it here at the very least. i was so shocked when it dropped, it was nothing like the rest of mount kimbie’s stuff i had previously heard.... i discovered them randomly when i was studying and spotify did that annoying thing where it plays “artist radio” or whatever so one of their older songs came on shuffle and WOW it was so good! and then i properly listened to them after hearing their songs with king krule... anyway this album is stunning and i am SO sad i didn’t get to see them when they came to toronto but i promise myself (and u!) that i will go the next time they come by!!!! u have my word!

foals - holy fire: this one also hurts a lot to not include :((( a LOT a lot! this one i’m really fond of, my fav foals album and one of the main albums i associate with highschool! so pretty, i’ll never forget hearing holy fire (the song itself) for the first time, so angry and satisfying and GOOD!!!

king krule - 6ft beneath the moon/the ooz: love both these albums soooo so much, i think 6fbtm came closer to almost being in the top 10 but others had it beat juuust slightly - these albums defined the beginning/end of my uni career, respectively, and i’ll cherish them forever! love archie’s ugly ginger ass with my whole heart

james blake - the colour in anything: was such a fan of james and was so excited when this album dropped - it was the start of summer i think? and i would always play it when i went for bike rides to the beach with my dad! such pretty music to drive ur bike to beside the water, all the way down the waterfront until we got to the next city over, riding past all the rich ppl’s mansions and trying to sneak a glance into their windows as we rode by

beyonce - self-titled: obviously the day this dropped - w no promo whatsoever - was a critical moment in music history!! we played this obsessively in high school, blasted this album the entire Europe trip in grade 12 and it just reminds me of travelling and planes and France…. so sexy!

solange - a seat at the table: rly truly a gorgeous album!! we played this in the car when my friends and i trekked to Toronto early one fall morning right after it dropped, we skipped school to go to some event at a café, and we had to wake up DUMB early, like 4:30AM, and i went to go pick them up and we were all way too tired to talk to eachother and stressed cuz we absolutely COULDN’T miss the train so i played this album the whole drive there while the sun was rising and it was so calming and pretty and special

[siirensung]

Hello :) My name is Dani and first of all let me tell you that I LOVE your writing. I literally sit and read how you interact with others for HOURS and seeing you and a couple of the people you write with gave me the inspiration to create an indie blog for my bb Reyes. That being said, I've never had an indie rp before but I've figured the basics with the rules, verses, etc. Could you please give me some suggestions on how to approach people or get this thing started? I'd thank you forever

asldkfh that’s so sweet of you omg what the fuck

HELL YEAH OKIE DOKIE first thing first: the best way to learn how to indie rp is just to follow a bunch of people and sort of pick and choose the different techniques you like to resemble. that what i did. i came from a long experience of closed group rping with no formatting, and just sort of floated with the indie trends that came and out, and kept the ones i like. i’m gonna tell you how I consider indie rping, which isn’t law or bible or anything, but this is what i look for when i’m looking to follow people!

first, the technical shit

RULES. i’m gonna go over things you say you already know, because there are some. hidden things that people sort of silently expect. in your rules, you must have your name/alias, your pronouns, your age (the terms ‘minor’ or ‘18+’ are sufficient, you don’t need to give your exact age but you NEED to tell people if you’re a minor or not), and your triggers (again, no detail necessary, just tell us what we should tag for you). these are the necessities and the rest is up to you. make your rules clear and concise, and on the short side. it helps to bold important things so people can skim and find them easily. personally, i like seeing people’s shipping policies. bc i’m a shipping slut. are you single ship? multiship? do you prefer not to ship? are you exclusive?

SELECTIVITY. on that note. let people know about your selectivity. do you want to play with anyone who follows you? do you only want to play with mutual followers (people you follow who follow you back)? i, as well as (almost) everyone i follow, are mutuals only. don’t feel guilty if you want to follow this route, and don’t let people talk you into playing with people you don’t want to play with. this blog is yours and your time is yours. spend it how you choose.

EXCLUSIVITY. along the same vein, let people know about your policy on exclusivity – which basically means that there are certain blogs of characters and theirs is the only blog of that character with whom you will play. this is entirely up to you. personally, i don’t do it and i never will. but be sure to let people know if you do! make sure to be honest. make sure you’re comfortable with your rules.

then, the aesthetic shit

REPRESENTATION. the first glance. the first eye contact. generally, this is the mobile preview. have a cool looking mobile banner! it attracts the eye! you don’t need to be a photoshop god for this, either. minimalism is in. a dark screenshot of your character that blends in with the color of your mobile background is hella neat. make sure the color is eye-friendly. black, white, cream, soft tones. if a mobile preview is lime green or shocking blue, i won’t give it a second look. My Eyes, They Bleed. then make sure you have SOMEWHERE on your mobile preview the bare minimum of your blog’s explanation. it doesn’t need to be long. in fact, i tend to like short ones. minimalism, man. for example, mine: ‘multimuse rp blog: dragon age and mass effect canon and ocs’. i’m saying what this blog is: an rp blog. i’m saying what KIND of rp blog: a multimuse. what fandoms i cater to: dragon age and mass effect. what characters you expect to find here: canon and ocs. sometimes people will put their name, too. (also, warn people if you have an autoplay. just write ‘ap’ or ‘autoplay’. people know.)

REPRESENTATION PART 2. piggybacking on all that: promos. gotta have a promo. this is how people find you, and how you can spread the word about your cool new blog. (tag it with the audiences you want to attract. such as: mass effect rp, mass effect roleplay, bioware rp, bioware roleplay, star wars rp, etc etc. the mass effect fandom isn’t all that huge. consider expanding with crossovers to other space fandoms, such as star wars and star trek. we’re buddies.) it can be as simple as the icon promo trend, where you have a horizontal line of icons of your character followed by ‘like/reblog if you’re interested in playing with (character name)! written by (your name).’ it can be that chill. sometimes it can be dramatic. just make sure it’s tasteful. try to avoid gaudy. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS (this is my pet peeve) INCLUDE YOUR CHARACTER’S NAME AND THE FANDOM NAME. i die inside every time i have no idea who this promo is for.

THEME. the second glance. your blog’s handshake. first – and sometimes last – impression. same rules as the preview and the promo, make it tasteful or make it minimalist. make it easy to follow. if you’re not confident in your aesthetic or ps skills, the white blogs with a simple pic of your character in the sidebar is in right now. leave it open to interpretation. theme-hunter is where i get all my themes, for the most part. if you want some cool theme suggestions, let me know! you may end up interested in html through theme aesthetic and wANTING IT TO BE PERFECT. like me. hehe. anywho – you’ll see a lot of Hyper Aesthetic Themes. try not to get worried about them. the most important thing is that your links to your rules, verses, dossier (if you have one), and ask are clear. the writing is easy to read.

also, the replying shit

FORMATTING. okay so formatting is a Minefield right now. personally, i really enjoy formatting! my formatting trick is: twenty spaces before each paragraph to simulate tabs, bolding quotation marks and putting a space between the marks and the dialogue, ( doing this to parentheses and quite frankly using Way too many parentheses ), BOLDING AND CAPSING emotive words or phrases, italicizing things for emphasis, using small font (and sometimes tiny font). but DON’T overdo it. still, the point is legibility. it’s your choice to use formatting at all. i like it a lot, it helps me Feel the writing and reply. it’s also your choice to use small or tiny font, but… i’ma be honest. i really really do prefer when people use small or tiny font. people are pushing back against tiny font bc it can be really hard to read, so i tend to just use small font (unless my partner uses tiny font). to small font (on pc): select all the text, ctrl shift minus sign. to use tiny font: use small font, then ctrl comma. 

ICONNING. again, another minefield. as we speak, rp icons are getting smaller and smaller. my icons at 80x80 with a 2px border, and i often times use a psd. if you get your icons from somewhere, credit that place. i frequently make my own, but not always. as a personal favor, don’t go smaller than 75px… the icons… they’re shrinking…

SPEED. go at your own speed! i cannot stress the importance of this. i’m currently suffering from depression and some Shit, so i may be on the dash a lot, but my reply speed is frequently outstripped by passing snails. don’t write if you’re not feeling it. don’t feel pressured to do it. personally, the majority of the fun of rping is plotting with your partner and obsessing over your character. people love to see people enthusiastic about their kid. that’s why they followed you. bc they love your kid, too. if you have a thread you’re not feeling, be honest! TALK TO YOUR PARTNER.

COMMUNICATION. on that note! get to know your rp partners. love them. cherish them. tell them they’re wonderful. tell them when you’re not feeling a thread. don’t suffer in silence. drop threads. treat yoself. also, follow ALL THE PEOPLE. they may not follow you back. don’t tug at them if they don’t. follow people and make sure you have examples of your writing on your page, even if it’s just a long headcanon or drabble. like a cover letter. 

WRITING. third person. i think i can be pretty confident about this: only third person. i use present tense for the most part, but present or past tense. sometimes there are oneliners (replies that are usually just dialogue, maybe with a lil but of narrative for actions, usually spur of the moment and dropped after the moment is gone). there are short paras (generally 1-3 paragraphs of varying sizes). there are long paras (4-6 paras, usually for plotting). there are Novella (6+ for the Intense Future Tolkiens i can’t do this i’m a dr seuss). 

TAGGING. can be pretty simple. as a multi, i have too many characters to have thorough tagging systems. a lot of people have different tags for like. aesthetic, musing, visage, headcanons, etc. mine is simple. each character has an in character thread tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ character: scott. ⦆. also, a musing tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ musing: scott. ⦆. a headcanon tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ headcanon: scott. ⦆. sometimes a ship tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ scott & liam: just frame the halves and call them brothers. ⦆. and you MUST have an out of character tag, where it’s just you talking, and you must tag every post of just you talking with it: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ out of character. ⦆. it must be clear. you can make them fancy and pretty like this. i like them. it’s not necessary. also: tag any triggers. important. search your partners’ rules for their triggers. if someone asks you to tag a trigger, do it without a second thought.

lastly, the important shit

HAVE FUN! we’re all here for the same reason. we love mass effect. WE LOVE SPACE. there will always be aggression and elitism and hurt feelings in the indie rp community. always. try not to let it bring you down. play nice. kindergarten rules. enjoy!

let me know if you have more questions/want more detail!

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