#hope this helps anon!

[frownyalfred]

how do you pronounce "ra's"? as in ra's al ghul? the apostrophe always threw me off because i didnt really see why it was used in the spelling; i think i've heard it pronounced "race"/"raesh"(?) before but i have no idea where, could've hallucinated it :/ i personally always read it in my head as "ross" but a slightly more open vowel, halfway between "aw" and "ah" if that makes sense

[jorrated]

Hiya Jo, sorry to come to you for this, but your post on Maya Knuckles was so cool I had to ask. You seem good at researching stuff, do you have any tips on looking for sources on specific groups of people? I've been struggling on finding good resources on indigenous groups from brasil... (I'm brazilian myself but i dont know where to start)

I wouldn't say I'm good at research, as I think I'm more insanely curious and just lucky LOL. A lot of times when I try to search for specific things I try absolutely everything until I stumble on whatever I was looking for!

But usually I start with a quick basic skim-read on whatever google gives you when you look up whatever your looking for. Most often then not it'll probably give a wikipedia page, some related news articles and some unsourced pages. A lot of times I won't use any of these, but it's a good way to get a feel for what you'll need to keep an eye for.

What I mean is that sometimes just looking for the main subject of the research wont actually give you what you're looking for. For example, when I was looking for Mayan stuff, it kept giving me Inca and Aztec info, which is cool, but wasn't what i was looking for. But since these 3 were usually grouped together, looking for Inca and Aztec books/resources actually helped me a bunch into finding what I was looking for, and more! So keep an eye out on how the subject you're looking for is COMMONLY described, what's usually associated to it, what people talk about the subject etc.

Then you can go actually searching for thing now, I recommend using DuckDuckGo! And always check if they got a source. Plenty of articles will say things that they've seen on other articles, which maybe are true! but then you always run the risk of getting incorrect facts. So always check, if it's not sourced, run another search with the info and see if another article has a source.

When you do find an article/book with a source THEN you can fall down the rabbit hole! No joke one sourced article can lead you to 5 sources, which most probably also have sources. So from there it's pretty easy to search up on references.

If you run into a dead end and still hasn't found what you're looking for I recommend checking what the wikipedia page is citing as sources. You might not be able to access everything there, but some links should be able to redirect you to somethings.

In terms of paywalled scientific articles, disabling javascript usually works (right click on the page -> inspect element -> find the gear on the top right of the window it just showed up -> scroll down until you see a checkbox saying "disable Javascript" -> and refresh page). But if that doesn't work, Sci-Hub is fucking amazing. Just put down your ref or DOI and voilá!

For books I recommend checking the Internet Archive! They usually have what you're looking for, but also half of the time you can just type "Book name PFD" and it'll usually come up after a few search pages. Just make sure you know how to download stuff without getting a virus in you PC.

Reverse image search can also be pretty useful if you find an image related to the subject, since you can link up to other articles/blogs.

If you're STILL running in dead ends, switching up languages can help (probably not your case since your brazilian and most likely already searching in portuguese but yknow). Google translate extensions can really help looking into pages with languages you don't know! It's not perfect but it might help you get a gist of it.

And lastly if you want to know more about Indigenous people from Brazil, I got a couple of reccomendations (most in portuguese btw)!

Centro de Referência Virtual Indígena

Probably the BIGGEST resource on historical and political information on Indigenous groups. It hosts around 2,3 million documents ranging from bills passed, to personal diary entries. (aaaaand can link up to a lot of other cool resources)

Observatórios dos Direitos e Políticas Indigenistas

Translated from their website: OBIND aims to obtain and systematize quantitative and qualitative data on territorialization processes, territorial management, interethnic conflicts, human rights and quality of life of indigenous peoples and populations in reserved areas or in urban contexts, in order to enable visibility, comparability, evaluation and guidance for indigenous policies and promotion of their rights, notably those pertinent to respect for their uses, customs and traditions and the exclusive enjoyment of the lands they traditionally occupy, recognizing for this the sine qua non condition of promoting indigenous autonomy and overcoming guardianship as assimilationist legacy.

Indígenas pela Terra & Vida

Youtube playlist about many different Indigenous people recounting their experiences and narratives.

GENOCÍDIO INDÍGENA E POLÍTICAS INTEGRACIONISTAS: demarcando a escrita no campo da memória

Book titled: INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE AND INTEGRATIONIST POLICIES: demarcating writing in the field of memory

[bluemooniegif]

how to start analysing manga, such as BSD

anon asked: Do u have any tips that could help with analysing manga like bsd and such?

yes!

1. it's okay to start with a surface level assumption and then dig deeper. say something like "dazai's costume changed when he joined the ADA" and then ask yourself "why?" and you'll end up falling down a rabbit hole about costume design

2. choose one theme and stick with it. you can always go back later with a different theme, but it's much easier if you're only focusing on a few things at a time.

3. annotate! have a system, and if it makes you happy to make it look aesthetically pleasing, make it aesthetically pleasing!

4. talk to other people. share your ideas and questions and there will always be another person in this fandom who has the same question, or maybe even an answer!

[Smile or comment on the answer here](https://retrospring.net/@bluemoonasks/a/112194601113295482)

[mrsaltieri-real]

who do u think killed cici in scream? people say it was mrs loomis

Oh absolutely Mickey

Mrs Loomis’ only kill was Randy because he was talking negatively about Billy. She had no reason to kill Cici as she wasn’t a Woodsbro survivor and that’s who Mrs Loomis herself was targeting.

She essentially hired Mickey as a contract killer after finding him in a serial killer website. The whole point was everything to be traced back to him, so she didn’t get her hands dirty unless she felt she had to.

Mickey killed all of the victims in Scream 2 except Randy and it is CONFIRMED.

Also, Mrs Loomis would not have been able to lift and through Cici off of that balcony like that. Old gal would’ve thrown her back out fr.

[bbygirl-aemond]

i want to write an hotd fanfic so bad… i’m watching the early GOT show too as well to try and wrap my head around the lore but i fear that my fic will still be very amateur and show that i don’t really have that big of a grasp on the lore and worldbuilding and language around me.. can you give any advice onto how to tackle this? any specific ways i should research or how to remember every little thing to make the story as accurate and correct as possible?

hi and welcome! don't worry, i have been through this exact process within this fandom haha. i was the queen of sparknoting my way through my lit classes in college when i didn't have other time, so i think i've kind of perfected the art of making it seem like you've deeply read something, even if you haven't.

let me give my usual disclaimer that i don't recommend reading fanfic to get a sense of characters or worldbuilding in a new fandom. that's because to a fresh eye, it's impossible to tell what is the author's invention/headcanon (which may be incorrect/ooc) and what is actual canon. fanfic writing should be about indulging yourself and your creativity, not about trying to cater to the most popular opinions even if you don't agree with them. so i really do recommend sticking to canon as much as possible, and being very deliberate about where and when you use fanon as a reference.

i create a tumblr blog for every fandom that i'm planning to write in to serve as a repository for my research and notes. this blog is unusual in that i forgot to make it private and then had too much fun engaging with y'all to go back. but my first posts were all specifically for stormbreak purposes. if you're nervous about putting things out there, you can password-lock your blog, so you're the only one with access. being able to sort with tags for characters, houses, etc. will be super helpful. another good idea is to take notes in google drive, since you can also search for things there and use the outline feature to navigate. the goal is to have one or two places where you compile all of your work that are easily navigable.

a really good starting place for research is this particular asoiaf wiki. i do not recommend any of the others, especially the ones based on individual shows, because those often do not include details that are in the books. i genuinely cannot tell you how many hours i've spent on this wiki. start your research here- look for dates, places, events, houses, relationships, appearances, etc.

meta analysis is also a really good idea to gain knowledge. tumblr or reddit are the places to go for this. it's really important to seek out posts that are both sympathetic and unsympathetic towards characters or houses. the goal is to get a sense of the different opinions within fandom, and decide which ones make sense to you. on tumblr, you can search a term, select for text posts, and scroll until you find big walls of text. (as an aside: if you're doing this, blocking tags related to fanfiction, imagines, xreader, etc. will help streamline your search and filter out headcanons in favor of meta)

lastly, and be careful with this one since it is fanon but not canon: memes! twitter and tiktok are great for these. they're great for getting a sense of vibes, but not for actual canon facts about a character. remember, fanon can sometimes be very distant from or even contradictory with canon, so take these with a grain of salt. i do still find them useful for forming opinions about personalities, mannerisms, and attitudes of different characters.

if you want more info about how i actually planned out stormbreak, i've answered an ask about it here!

[thebiggestmenace]

Do you have any fanfic recommendations?

hi, anon! I do! I read a little fic every night as ✨️enrichment time✨️ so there's gonna be a lot. all of these are on ao3 :)

"I think I saved myself by saving you" by @not-so-mundane-after-all was actually my first tlou fic that I read! it's a sickfic where Ellie gets sick before leaving Jackson

"violent heart" by @timelesslords is another good one! it's ep8 aftercare, but with aspects from the game and the show. she also has one from Joel's perspective called "never let you down again"

"never let me down again" by tayyys (I'm not sure what their tumblr is) is a good one! it's a rewrite of ep6 and on, where Ellie leaves after having overheard Tommy and Joel's conversation

"miller lite" by captainredspade (CodeNameArtemis) is also good! this one has a lot of Tommy and Ellie bonding, but it's angst cause Ellie got hurt on a day trip with him

"irreplacable" by captainredspade (CodeNameArtemis) is one where Ellie takes a bite for Tommy and there's more bonding between them

"heaven doesn't want me now" by @lkay-09 is one where Ellie (sort of) gets a choice at the hospital. some of the lines in there are just *chefs kiss*

"come tomorrow this will all be in our past" also by @lkay-09 is one where Tommy goes with Ellie, instead of Joel, in ep6

"triplicate" by @penandinkprincess is a very angsty one where Joel finds Ellie's file at the hospital in Salt Lake!

"a half-step to the left" also by @penandinkprincess is the Tess lives au we all asked for hehe :)

"glimpses unseen" by flannelfeelings (@boopernatural here :)) is one where we see Tommy's trauma of losing Sarah when Ellie gets hurt outside the walls

I shall stop listing them now as there are A Lot, but I recomend lkay, pen, and flannelfeelings' fics a lot :) there's a lot of fics between them all and they're all so good :)

[bulldog-butch]

Can you reblog your posts of butches and femmes you follow, just started a new blog and want ppl to follow!

i’m not sure which post you’re referring to but i’m happy to just throw out some names for you to go follow right now! this isn’t nearly gonna be all the butches and femmes i follow but i’ll try and hit a lot that i always smile when they pop up on my dash (and once again my memory is fallible and i am bound to forget people, i apologize in advance). if i tag you and you would rather i didn’t just let me know!

first the babes and the besties: @meleninnnn, @a-demon-femme, @trixic-frankenman, @butchofthemoon

@uninspiringdyke , @femmeidiot, @considerate-and-butch , @housebutch, @brxttyprxncxss, @dykexsh @keybutliterally, @casualbutch, @gncsjesus, @omiited, @high-butch, @femme-bo, @sleepysarcasticswitch, @peachdykes, @blackwolfff, @yearning-butch, @glitterock, @bunnygrl-femme, @lavender-femme, @well-scumbled-savvy, @strawbebbie-dyke, @wlw-cryptid, @forestgreenfemme

[realbeefman]

what episode is your header image from? I need to know bc I need to watch (and if it's not from an episode then like, where did you find it?)

unfortunately i don’t know where the pic comes from or where i found it, i believe it’s from a photoshoot for a magazine from around s6?? i have absolutely NO source on that though. it’s only my header because i think it’s outrageously hot. here’s the full picture without mac cropped out in compensation for my lack of sources

[disabledstraydogs]

CRACKING TOUR KNUCKLES IS A STIM⁉️⁉️⁉️ I THOUGHT I WAS JUST BEING ANNOYING AND SHIT LIKE PEOPLE ASK ME TO STOP BUT LIKE I JUST NEED TO

can cracking knuckles be a tic as well??????

Yeah! Anything can be a stim, I've known people who stim in this way.

As for it being a tic I am not an expert on tics. However I did look it up and according to healthychildren.org, yes! It's a motor tic.

[saintxgerard]

Hi I'm new to the MCR fandom so could you maybe tell me who worm is I keep seeing that name pop up and I'm really confused 🙏

Hello! Of course I can :D Worm (also known as Big Worm and Wormser) is a part of MCR’s crew, he is security and he as been since around revenge era (possibly a little longer?) He’s really close with the guys given that he’s been with them for so long and so comes up pretty often since they’ve been more active!

[frownyalfred]

in bloodletting, is there a specific (watsonian) reason why jason's the successor and not dick? or is it just something like "dick didn't want to" lmao

also I love the concept so much! mandalore and the bats really are perfect for each other lol

Hi anon! The Watsonian answer would be that Jason was chosen by the Manda, and that the position of Mand'alor technically -- technically -- isn't hereditary in this verse.

If you're in the Star Wars fandom, you might have caught that I'm sort of modelling Jason and Bruce's relationship off of Jaster and Jango in (ex?) canon.

Essentially, the position of Mand'alor isn't hereditary -- it's a position that in canon was elected by the Mandalorian clans. In my AU, and in many Star Wars fics, it's also passed along based on other factors (the Darksaber, the Manda, the Force) indicating who is worthy.

My backstory is that Bruce inherited the position from his father because, as noted in the fic, he was the rightful Mand'alor in the eyes of the Manda. He likely never intended to pass it along to his children until he adopted Jason, and the Manda indicated that Jason would be the next Mand'alor after him.

Dick is absolutely content with this because he never expected the position to be passed down to him. He also has his hands full being the Aran'alor, which is no small feat :)

I think Jason deals with a lot of imposter syndrome, since he largely just has to take Bruce's word for it that he's worthy. But he's a formidable squad leader and cares for his verde. Once the Manda embraces him entirely, he'll see what Bruce has been telling him for years -- just like Bruce did when he held the Darksaber for the first time on Galidraan.

[candyheartedchy]

hello! i’m new to the self shipping community, and i’d love to start an account. You’ve really inspired me to feel comfortable with my f/os and i want to thank you so much for that and being an inspiration to me? If i could ask, do you have any tips for newcommers, or how to make new mutuals and friends in the self shipping community? Sorry for asking you this, im quite shy 😭😭 Its okay if you dont wanna answer this, but if you do answer, i wanna thank you so much for it!!

I love you chy 💗

Hello! And it’s okay, I don’t mind answering this!

My first tip would be interacting with other self shippers and reblogging or leaving replies on their posts that you like. We always see these and it makes our day and we’ll remember certain followers and mutuals that way. Or just dm’ing someone helps as well to start a friendship (I’m met many great people who dm me first, mostly because I’m shy to dm them lol). Basically some people click better then others, and there will be times were you’ll feel isolated in the community, but that’s okay, those who are meant to be your friends will find you! People usually bond over the same interests so just keep sharing what you love and remember to be yourself!!

[squadrah]

I have a question, I hope I don't sound rude. But why do people hc Melone has being sick (having a illness)? Is there something I missed in the Manga or is that something we've come as a collective to agree on?

No worries, you're not being rude I think!

It is the latter - there is no hard evidence of Melone having any particular condition in the manga or in the anime. However, there are some factors that invited speculation from fans:

1) He has a unique eye patch, but his clothing is already such an asymmetrical mess that it honestly doesn't stand out as much as it might on a less eccentric looking character, and there is nothing to indicate the reason one eye is covered (albeit with see-through material) while the other is unobstructed.

2) His Stand works remotely in a different way from other remote Stands we have seen so far. Usually remote Stands still end up doing the work, just further away from the User than your typical humanoid fighting Stand could, while Baby Face laptop's primary purpose seems to be to create a whole other secondary Stand that can travel even further than most remote Stands can, is fully autonomous despite online communication and guidance being a built-in feature, and Melone has to use someone to give life to this secondary Stand. Sure, he has to get close in a sense to get a DNA sample and to plant a homunculus, but he is otherwise so removed from any real fighting that had it not been for Giorno's bullshit ability, Melone might have never been found because he is just that level of unaffected. The secondary Stand doesn't seem to be consuming his stamina either because other Stand users will remark on exhausting themselves.

These two factors combined have led to speculations that a) he has at the very least some sort of eye condition, and b) he might not be in good enough health if he has to outsource his ability to this extent. He is the only character in Vento Aureo who needs someone else's contribution to activate his ability and then suffers no consequences for his "Stand" actually getting hurt destroyed (Carne is a unique case since he was dead by the time his Stand came online). It's something that sets him apart and for which there is no canon explanation, so it's a niche fans explored.

Also, this is just some additional, do what you will with type of information, but I've met Melone fans online who are chronically ill and to whom Melone was a comfort character in this regard - his unique set up lends him more easily to disability headcanons than most, so he is easier to project onto in this sense. I am not chronically ill, but I also find this a reasonable characterization after so many conversations with friends and fellow fans, and I enjoyed exploring it in my own way. To each their own of course, fans are allowed to headcanon him as a regular healthy dude, but from my own experience, the chronic illness or disability headcanons are their own very interesting and rich avenue to explore! I for one will never go back to headcanoning him as a regular healthy dude just because the picture I ended up painting with chronically ill Melone is so fascinating and fun to me - ER selfies and all!

[bisexual-horror-fan]

How do you get your readers to interact with you? Like, talk to you. I run a smaller blog with less than a hundred followers, and I just can't get any interaction from my readers. It's really disheartening, not because I write for others approval but because I feel like I'm throwing something I love into the void and not even getting a whisper back. If I try and post anything other than a oneshot it gets nothing, not even a note. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong, do people think I'm scary or intimidating? Please help me and give me some advice on how to get interaction from my followers.

Well hey Anon! You seem frustrated and I can totally understand that frustration! Putting lots of time and love into something to get nothing back can really get you down after a while. So allow me to give some advice on what worked for me. I really want to help but keep in mind that it might not shake out for you the same way, basically your mileage may vary. 

You should ask yourself some questions first and foremost. How sociable are you? How often are you engaging with other writers and reblogging their work and talking to them, giving feedback and comments to them and starting conversations with other users first? A lot of my early interaction was me reaching out to regular people in my notes and to writers I liked and talking and engaging with them and their work as a whole. 

Are you encouraging people to talk to you? Ask games? Calls to action? 

Tumblr and writing communities are very sociable places and having fellow writers, friends and moots will do wonders, not just for engagement and your stuff getting passed around but also for your mood and mental state! Having like minded friends and people who get hyped about your stuff will feed into your mood and make you want to create more and on the cycle goes! Just make sure that you are giving back, if you see something you like from someone else? Tell them! Loudly and proudly, don’t be scared of it! Be unapologetic in what you love, it can be scary but be brave and it will encourage and inspo others to do the same, people have told me so themselves and also, how can you expect people to do that for YOU when they love your stuff if they don’t see you doing it too? You know what I mean?

Part of why I have so many people reaching out, other than the sheer amount I write, fics I post and characters I love, is that I foster a warm and welcoming community space. People tell me they feel safe here, comfortable, like they can talk to me and I do my best to make people feel heard and that they won’t be judged. Kindness goes a long way. 

And adding onto allll of this. Look at what you see in the community? Does anything seem like it is missing to you? I started by writing more of what I wanted to see and turns out a lot of other people wanted to see that too! Or even look at the trends of what people do like, does any of it inspire you? If so, writing it might do you some good because if those things were well liked, people would probably like more! Like that post that goes around about the two cakes, people always like more options!

Also think about your place in the fandom space. What do you provide? For me I think other than the warm and kind space with no judgement the biggest and most obvious is porn, tons of filthy smut. Do your best to make sure what you are making is reaching those who might like it. Tag, tag, tag super well. Also, consider cross posting. I post all my stuff to ao3 and HEAVILY promoted my tumblr blog and tons of people told me they read me there and eventually jumped to my blog after seeing me talk about it so much and THEN we started talking and became friends or moots. 

Do your best to relate to and engage with your fellow writers, get yourself some colleagues, have fun, post and shamelessly reblog and promote your own shit. You gotta be confident in yourself! No one really wants to read a post that starts with “-I know this isn’t good but-”

But many more people wanna read something that starts with, “I had so much fun writing this and I am so into this idea!” 

I know this is a lot but hey, I think that it all counts and stacks, getting engagement like you want is a multifaceted endeavour.  The more people are invested in you, the more they might wanna invest in your writing, also nature of the beast, one-shots are easily consumable and until a more stable base is built getting people into other stuff might be tricky, especially OG writing, just keep talking about it with enthusiasm and be persistent.

Lastly, don’t beat yourself up or compare yourself to others. It’s important to remember I have been doing this for nearly two and a half years, that is a lot of time and I have posted almost 900k+ of writing in that time. A lot of what I see is a sheer numbers game, the amount of time I have been here and the massive amount I have posted. 

Don’t get discouraged Anon! You got this! Also feel free to reach out in DMs if you are comfortable and want more advice or to share your writing.

[thcscus]

I'm currently trying to write a character study on pass/shrike!dream and the struggle is real. are there any facts that i should be aware of or headcannons you can share

I hope this will be helpful, but here's a list of songs that I listened to every time I wrote shrike! Every time I wanted to get into shrike!drm's headspace or add another layer to his relationship with george and sapnap, I listened to these:

Hozier - Shrike (a crucial song imho)

To Kill A King - Bloody Shirt

Tangled OST - Mother Knows Best (Reprise) (also very crucial)

And this is George's perspective on Drm:

Sleeping At Last - Neptune

Taylor Swift - My Tears Ricochet

Keaton Henson - Corpse Roads

Sleeping At Last - Earth

AURORA - A Dangerous Thing (most crucial one of all)

[theloveinc]

To that anon who wasn’t sure how to get leaks on bnha chapters! The leaks post on tumblr every Thursday, easiest way to find them is by just going on tumblr search and search ie “bnha 387” and any posts with that tag automatically show up

ai, thank you!! i didn't know they were on tumblr, too! probably easier for some people hehehe (maybe even including me)... tho it seems like the days come out always switch... it used to be tuesdays LOL!