#i also quit being a mod recently

[dunmeshiminimumwage]

[xavieryaa]

The Reddit Blackout, #196, And Being New to Tumblr

okay i've seen a lot of people in the past ~24 hours or so confused by everything going on with Reddit & Tumblr from both sides - people new to tumblr who don't know how to use it, and tumblr users who don't know what's going on with reddit and why many of its users have joined up here i know this isn't really related to my blog but fun fact about me: i was up until recently a very active reddit user and even mod a subreddit, but I've also been on tumblr for about 3 years now on different accounts, so I think I can see pretty well from both sides of this and explain what's going on this post will be split in 2 sections: what happened with reddit (and what #196 means), and a guide for new users

1. What The Hell Is Going On With Reddit?

The thing that's caused all this ruckus is a major change to Reddit's API, which is what Reddit provides to people so they can pull directly from Reddit to make third-party apps or tools.

The change is that Reddit is changing its previously free API to be paid. Which on its own kinda sucks for developers, but it's not unexpected. They need to make money somehow, right?

The problem is that the API pricing is WAY TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE. The developer of the most popular 3rd party Reddit app, Apollo, says it will cost him $20 million a year to continue running the app as normal.

Essentially, this pricing forces almost everything third-party to shut down, which causes 3 major problems:

Third-party apps cannot keep running, which sucks for normal users because Reddit's official app is awful. It's slow, its video player is a thing of nightmares, it doesn't have many useful features third-party developers have made.

It sucks even more for visually impaired users because they can't use the official Reddit app at all. Reddit's official app does not work with iOS's native text-to-speech function. Third party apps, on the other hand, often do. So Reddit is forcing blind users away.

Third-party moderator tools cannot keep running, which sucks for moderators because many rely on these tools to properly moderate their subreddits. And moderators are often necessary, because without them subreddits get banned and hate speech and even CSA can often run rampant.

So you see why this change is bad.

Reddit users were PISSED.

So over the past week and a half or so, they have been working on organizing a site-wide blackout. The majority of the most active subreddits have now gone private. Some are only doing it for 48 hours, others (such as r/196) are doing it indefinitely.

That's why you can't access most of Reddit right now, and that's why many users have come here.

You're probably still wondering, though - what is this #196?

Well, as you may guess, it's connected to that subreddit r/196 I just mentioned. r/196 is a subreddit which only has one rule: every time you visit, you must post before you leave.

That's it, that's the subreddit.

The thing about r/196 that set it apart from most other subreddits - and what lends the subreddit's users perfectly to Tumblr - is that it was dominated by queer and leftist users.

So now they've come here and set up shop in #196 and r/196 so they can continue their merry little shitposting.

There's a ton of lore related to r/196, actually, but this is already a long tumblr post and quite frankly I cannot be bothered to write about it at the moment.

2. I'm Here From Reddit, What Now?

Hello there, random new user. As a double-citizen of Reddit and Tumblr, let me show you around this place.

First off, there are some other people who are better at explaining that I am who have made some really helpful things. Watch this Strange Aeons video as a guide to Tumblr culture and functionality and read this post which directly compares Reddit and Tumblr.

Assuming you've done that, here's some additional advice of my own:

Do you miss sorting subreddits by top of all time/the year/the month? Well, you can do something very similar with tags! If you go to a tag at the top of the screen you can select top, and then at the dropdown that says "all time" you can select different time periods! Even 6 months, which Reddit hasn't ever had.

Tumblr has a lot of cool customization features! Even outside your icon/banner/bio, you can change you blog colors and on desktop you can have an html theme (which has its own thriving community here). That customization is part of what sets Tumblr apart from everywhere else - I think you'll enjoy playing with it.

Notes will probably confuse you at first. Unlike the different numbers for upvotes and comments, notes combines the total number of likes, reblogs, and replies into the same number.

Outside of organizing your own blog, when making your own posts tags are what help other people find your post. Use them! But don't abuse them, because then people will just block you.

There are three ways of people finding your post: if someone follows you, if someone follows the tag(s) assigned to your post, and if someone is just scrolling through the tag(s) assigned to your post (and also the secret 4th way no one uses, which is finding it on the trending page, but even if people did use it no one will find your post initially that way)

tumblr is no longer The Discourse Website. And unlike what Reddit wants you to believe for some reason, it is very much alive still. Most of the people seeking fights have moved to Twitter (though some have also moved back here again). You will not get any brownie points for being a dipshit like you do on some subreddits.

So there, welcome to the hellsite (affectionate), you'll pick up on all the in-jokes eventually, for now just try not to be a nuisance and soon enough this'll be your new internet home.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for asking my partner not to interrupt me while I'm streaming?

Asking on here because she has Reddit and I don't want to upset her further while I ask for an outside consensus.

I stream video game content as a profession. Playthroughs, mods, tutorials, reviews, ect. I found streaming to be more profitable than pre-filmed video content. I'd say on average I can "work" for 10 - 30 hours a week.

She works on an alternating schedule where she does a week of full time hours then a week of part time hours. All in all, we work pretty reasonable hours between us, I feel, and we are agreeably not lacking in spending time together.

We routinely go on dates, we more often than not have dinner together, and I typically don't stream for more than 2-4 hours consecutively, so its not as if I'm locked up in my office for the majority of the time.

However over the last few months my partner has developed the habit of simply walking in whenever I'm streaming and starting up random conversations with me, playing her own games loudly in the background, constantly interrupting me to read out chat comments or ask questions about the game, ect.

Sometimes it isn't so bad, but generally its pretty disruptive. I wouldn't mind if it was just occasionally or if she just popped in now and then, but its grown to the point where its almost every single stream and I've noticed I've lost a handful of frequent viewers over it.

It came to an unpleasant confrontation over the weekend, when I was streaming a highly requested tutorial walkthrough for a recently released game and she decided to come in, try to sit on my lap and start a conversation about a client's dogs she met today.

I was trying to figure out a polite way to ask her to give me another 40 minutes so I could finish the quest line and shut it down for the day when two people in the chat began to make jokes about how she never leaves me alone and said it 'gave cam check vibes.'

I pretended not to notice, but she did, and clearly it hurt her feelings and she mumbled about having some things to do and left. I felt awful that her feelings were hurt so I closed the stream early and went to find her.

She was pretty upset about the comments and tried to get me to validate that she wasn't disruptive or unwelcome. I assured her that I don't mind the occasional visit or if she wants to play her own games in the background on mute/low volume/with earphones in, but that I have actually been meaning to ask her to give me a little more curtesy when I'm streaming because its hard to have dynamic engagement when I can't actually talk to anyone because she's talking non-stop or her own game volume is distorting the sound.

I tried to say it as gently as possible but it was clear that the more we discussed it, the more upsetting it was for her. She called time on the conversation by abruptly saying she'll just 'never so much as walk past the door' when I'm streaming, and that she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

She was only working a half-day today and I was streaming between mid-day and the early afternoon. When I said goodbye to her this morning she made sure to somewhat sarcastically assure me that she wouldn't dare interrupt my stream today, and she hoped it went well.

She refused to discuss it further when she came home, or over dinner, and since dinner she's shut herself in the conservatory and has been on the phone to a friend.

I'd like to discuss it further because I'm discontent with her being upset about it, but I'm also not particularly agreeable with me being in the wrong here. Streaming is my job. We pay equal expenses, so its not as if this is just a silly little fake job or hobby for me while she foots the bills. I rely on viewers to get paid, and when quite a few of them leave because I've had to stop playing for 20 minutes to listen to her chat, it could negatively impact my ability to bring home a reasonable contribution.

Ordinarily we can resolve any conflicts or disagreements quickly and fairly. We've never been the sort of couple to spend days being passive aggressive or refusing to talk.

With her being so resolute in being upset and not communicating, I'm at a loss for if I'm actually in the wrong or not for asking her to be more mindful of interrupting me and causing disruptions while I'm working.

What are these acronyms?

[cripplecharacters]

Hello, I hope you are all having a nice day wherever you are.

So I have this side character in my story, Charlie. They're genderfluid and have ADHD. Recently, I've been toying with the idea of giving them or their partner hearing aids, but I'm scared it might be too much.

Like, maybe people will think Charlie is my 'token diversity character' when that's not my intention at all. My characters are quite diverse gender and sexuality wise, and my main character is autistic. I don't have any other disabled character yet, tho I've been thinking of adding a background character with a leg brace.

I don't really have a reason to give them hearing aids other than... why not? I've read a lot of stories where hard of hearing and deaf characters are portrayed (most of the time by Hoh/deaf writers), and despite myself not being either of those, I would like to represent that in my story.

So would it be too much to give Charlie hearing aids? Should I give them to their partner instead? Are my reasons enough? I'm really concerned about this and would appreciate any advice you could give me. Thank you in advance.

Hi!

Having a genderfluid adhd character who wears hearing aids is totally not a problem. (That’s basically me!) And I also see no problem in adding more disabled characters. :) [smile face]

But do make sure you don’t treat hearing aids as just some extra accessory. Hearing aids are not perfect; you can’t treat Charlie as if they’re hearing but with some little bits of tech in their ears. If you’re writing a deaf or hard of hearing character, you have to actually commit to writing a deaf or hard of hearing character.

Check out this post, this post, and this post for some starting points for writing a d/Deaf/hoh character, and feel free to ask more questions!

Mod Rock

[neressma]

Palworld arguments and how to deconstruct them (+ common misconceptions)

Instead of making call-out posts targeting specific people like an SJW tumblrina in need of attention, I will provide general counter-arguments everybody can use within the Palworld discourse. I am sick and tired of AI-art getting normalized, this issue is getting out of hand and we must spread awareness for the sake of artists everywhere.

YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO EDUCATE PALWORLD DEFENDERS, BUT DON'T ATTACK THEM PLEASE!

Without further ado, here common arguments by Palworld fans and how you can deconstruct them.

1. "So you're defending a multibill. corp?!"

This is a common argument used by Palworld defenders. Within their narrative, Pokemon designs are a direct product of their Nintendo (the multibillion dollar company in question) and you're totally bootlicking them if you're pointing out the obvious plagiarism - as if the very heads of Nintendo were the ones creating the Pokemon designs... The truth, of course, is that individual artists provide these designs FOR Nintendo. Instead of "taking from the rich" like Palworld fans claim, their game actually steals from these artists. Hence, those who call out Palworld aren't die-hard Nintendo fans as much as they are people who simply call out plagiarism in defense of artists. I would even go as far as to add that people who defend PocketPair (the developers of Palworld) and those who buy the game just for the sake of controversy (yes, it's been done) are themselves adamant defenders of a corporation. Since they imagine others to be blindly defending Nintendo, it's bordering hypocrisy.

2. "It's not plagiarism"

If you show a Palworld defender one of Palworld's character designs and the Pokemon it's based on, they will in some cases start pointing out the differences between the two in order to claim there's no plagiarism involved. This is easy for them to do because the Palworld design you showed them isn't quite a rip-off of a Pokemon, no. It's actually the rip-off of TWO Pokemon. In fact, most Palworld designs tend to use the model of one Pokemon and some features of a other, along with some final alterations that are unique. Once you point this out, it's easy to notice on most if not nearly all Palworld designs. Here is an example that comes with a visual analysis, provided by @RaphDesLandes (a gamedev!) on X:

3. "There's no proof of PocketPair using AI!"

Not only is there proof of it, but that same proof shows that the devs run servers for AI programs, the same which they use for their game "AI Impostor", a game in which the core mechanic is the use of an AI-image generator. Here is the most flagrant example (I hid the developer's name because I'm not that kinda guy).

Of course, I don't blame people who didn't know this. It's far from being common knowledge amongst Palworld fans, after all. That's why it's important to spread the word though.

4. "Gamefreak should'a made better games!"

It's not a secret: Nintendo and GameFreak have been letting us down with the recent Pokemon games on the Nintendo Switch. From poor writing to bad graphics, many fans (myself included) are unsatisfied. Palworld players praise the games' quality, claiming that it's existance is justified by the fact it's programmed better than recent Pokemon games. While it's understandable that one would want to play games with superior programming, it doesn't justify plagiarism (they could've just made a Pokemon fangame or a mod), and, well... it's simply false and doesn't apply.

Here is a link to a tweet showing one of Palworld's game-breaking glitches.

Not only that, but Palworld is mostly made up of Unity Engine assets, and it's controls are wonky. They're reminiscent of Garry's mod, which came out in 2006, except Gmod is faster.

5. Bonuses

-evidence of PocketPair using Pokemon fans' art to model their characters after (post by @onion_mu on X)

-every Palworld-Pokemon lookalike (source unknown but reposted by @hejibits on X)

-and also: deconstructing the (partial) myth around Palworld's success on Steam

Lastly, it's important that I point this out, even if it's unrelated: Pocket Pair devs have received death threats. This is unacceptable. I encourage everyone reading this to create an online-environment where people discuss and debate with rationality, rather than such shameful behaviour. To me, people who send others death threats are no better than thieves, so please stay respectful!

Thank you for reading 🖤 Please let me know if the link on 4. doesn't work or the post got taken down!

[rebuilding-the-garg]

The Gargantuan Fossil

This post was from the beginning of my project, thus some information I’ve written here is outdated. Please read my recent posts to see up to date information.

The Gargantuan Fossil is one of the most recognizable parts of the mid-portion of Subnautica’s gameplay. Its sheer size strikes both terror and awe into the hearts of players who stumble upon it. It’s unfortunate that only a third of the creature’s fossilized remains can be seen. Even using the Freecam command to check under the map reveals that the rest of the skeleton remains unmodeled. This is all we have of the Leviathan.

“Gargantuan Fossil” is quite the accurate name, considering just a third of this creature’s skeleton measures 402 meters in length, with the creature’s total size being an estimated 1,100-1,500 meters. Just the skull itself is under 100 meters, and our human player character can nestle comfortably in even its smallest eye socket. I would’ve tried to show our human character’s model for a size comparison, but this thing is so large you wouldn’t even be able to see him.

There have been many different reconstructions of this behemoth of a fossil, the most popular being this commission piece made by Tapwing, for the YouTuber Anthomnia, shown below. And while it’s cool, it’s... not all that accurate.

In the past, I actually helped create a Gargantuan Leviathan mod based off Tapwing’s concept, working alongside other incredibly talented artists (who will remain anonymous, they can talk about their experiences as they please) and some... not so savory individuals. I don’t want to be associated with that old Garg. This reconstruction project is both a way for me to move on and make something better than what I had in the past, and to test my skills and knowledge in the various natural sciences.

Although there is a second specimen, the skull of a younger instance, this fossil holds no significant data outside of showing just how small these creatures start out as. As shown in the image below, despite being a much younger instance, our player character could still fit inside the Leviathan’s smallest eye socket, although it wouldn’t be as spacious as its adult counterpart.

The game’s PDA (Personal Data Assistant) states that the Gargantuan Fossil is approximately 3 million years old, which is INCREDIBLY RECENT. For reference, 3 million years ago we still shared the planet with multiple other hominid species like Australopithecus afarensis back in the mid Pliocene. The Subnautica we know today is a byproduct of a mass-extinction of megafauna, such as Leviathans. My guess as to how the Gargantuan got this big is a combination of deep-sea gigantism and an evolutionary arms race against the other megafauna alive during its time, with prey attempting to become larger than its predator to avoid predation, and the predator growing to continue this cycle. When this ancient ecosystem of leviathan-class super predators collapsed, likely because of the meteor that struck Planet 4546B, the Gargantuan Leviathan was out of a substantial food source and went extinct. It could be possible that these creatures even gave live birth due to their serpentine body and massive size, making them too large for life in the shallows, where laying eggs is easiest.

NOW. LET’S TALK ABOUT THE BONES!! It’s important to figure out if the Gargantuan Leviathan had a cartilaginous skeleton or a bony one, so let’s count the bones!!

There’s TWO WHOLE BONES!!! AND IF YOU LOOK NEXT TO IT!! THOSE RIBS ARE BONES TOO!!!! UWAA!!! SO MANY BONES!!!! How can we tell this is bones? It’s simple! Cartilage is rubbery and flexible, so it doesn't fossilize well, while bone is hard and rigid, perfect fossil material!! Cartilaginous skulls also tend to be made up of many little interlocking bones, with bony skulls being made up of only a small handful! 

Another thing I found interesting about the Gargantuan Skull is that it seems to have a ball and socket joint? This could have just been a similar mishap to the top and bottom jaws being fused in the skull’s model, but I’m trying to keep things as close to the original anatomy as possible. The ball and socket joint probably evolved to help with the burden of such a massive and heavy skull and allowing for greater speed and range of motion. In a world full of Leviathan-class predators, being able to have a wide range of motion would be extremely beneficial in locating both potential predators and prey.

Despite its immense size pushing the claim this Leviathan was an apex predator, it sports a small pair of horns, which is unheard of in large apex predators here on Earth. The darker coloration leads me to believe that these aren’t just horn cores, but the entire horn. These horns were most likely used to assist in defending itself against predators while it’s still small and vulnerable. It could also be a possibility they were used for threat displays and territory fights though it seems unlikely due to their small size. Sexual displays are also unlikely since just about every creature in Subnautica seems capable of asexual reproduction, as noted in the PDA entry for eggs. Asexual reproduction seems to be a very ancient basal trait in Planet 4546B’s evolutionary lineage and was most likely evolved to help species persevere even with low numbers and harsh conditions, preventing the dangers of inbreeding.

Overall, the skull’s shape and tooth structure suggest a piscivorous diet (of course it eats fish, the planet’s 99% water), and its shape specifically is reminiscent of an Orca and Redondasaurus. The lack of nostrils stumps me, there’s no openings in the skull aside from its eye sockets, however there’s also no evidence for a gill apparatus. I’m... going to have to come back to that at a later date. Though I personally believe the Gargantuan Leviathan was an air breather due to the lack of evidence for gills.

OKOK, ENOUGH ABOUT THE SKULL ASRIEL, WHAT ABOUT THE RIBS?

WELL... THE RIBS ARE... SOMETHING.

Behold! My very poor photomash of the same two images to show the total approximate length of the Gargantuan Leviathan, and a bad edit to show off what I believe the whole skeletal system would look like! (skeleton image credit)

Despite the game’s PDA describing the Gargantuan Leviathan’s body as “eel-like,” its skeletal structure is more reminiscent of a snake. The ribs show no indication of limbs, so it probably had a dorsal fin similar to eels or sea kraits.

One thing I’ve noticed about the Gargantuan’s ribcage is the existence of what appear to be bony, avian-like uncinate processes, which help the trunk’s muscles pump in and air out of the body, adding onto the idea that this leviathan breathed air. These uncinate processes in diving birds are especially long, which help reinforce the body and musculature, allowing the animal to stay underwater for longer periods of time.

My hypothesis for the role the Gargantuan Leviathan played in its ecosystem is similar to the Sperm Whales of our world, taking in large amounts of air before diving into the depths to fetch their food.

Next week, I’ll be doing more research into the skeleton and possibly beginning work on fleshing the Garg out! If there are any sciencey folks out on Tumblr who want to add their own input, feel free!! I want information!! Correct me if I got anything wrong!!

[olderthannetfic]

Hi! May I rant in your inbox? (Wanted to send a short ask and then there suddenly were more and more words, oops.)

People get riled up over the strangest things. There's a Stardew Valley mod which lets you marry Morris (IIRC it's even called "Marry Morris," but sadly I think it hasn't been updated in a while and is incompatible with the newest version), and I recently looked at Stardew Valley's reddit (I know - terrible mistake), and someone there said they find Morris hot and wanted to have him as an elligible bachelor and people really got upset over that. Oof. I mean some of us like that pretty design of his... If he's busy wooing and doing the farmer, he can't be a dick to his employees, so it's totally beneficial for everybody! :P

Also, whenever someone posts about Xtardew (NSFW sex mod for male farmer and bachelorettes), there will 100% be someone judging them for it in the comments, making weird assumptions about that person's social life, sexual preferences, personality, and sexual proficiency. Such invasive bullshit, ugh.

It's so silly and annoying (but not remotely surprising) that this community for a "wholesome" game that some like to think of as ~cutesy uwu~ is full of purity police officers who will have a breakdown in some youtuber's comments if that gamer plays the game for the first time and doesn't "optimize" everything immediately. (I have actually recently seen that because I discovered that Contrapoints has a livechannel on youtube and watched her first ever attempt at Stardew while she seemed absolutely high, and it was a blast! :D)

Sorry for the rant. I know I'm being harsh and probably quite unfair, but oof! Every time I lurk in that fandom, it makes me not want to engage with it at all, although I'd love to learn how to code and make my own Stardew mods and maybe even share them. Maybe I should just write raunchy hot smutty fanfics of my favourite characters (especially Morris, ha!) instead lol.

--

[dirtybg3confessions]

Blog Moderation FAQs

Hi everyone!

Every time we answer an ask about the queue/inbox situation we get several of the same suggestions in our inbox. While we truly appreciate those of you trying to be helpful, I wanted to take some time to address some of the suggestions and the reasons behind our position on said suggestions.

Have you considered closing the ask box for a while until you work through what you have?

No. With as many asks as there are in the box, it would result in the ask box being closed for quite some time, which we don't think is really what anyone wants!

Closing the box would allow for us to "catch up", but it also would mean potential dry periods of content.

Keeping the ask box open means we need to scroll forever to reach the old asks, but it also means that we are set to deliver consistent content for a while, and are never at risk for an empty queue when the inevitable drop in fandom interest hits.

Why don't you post more frequently?

Actually, we do! We've exploded recently, so many of you may not remember ye olden days of our blog's founder doing their best as a one person show and we got one post a day... ish. Then, when the ask box exploded to 100 asks (haha) they brought in the first round of new mods (including me!). During this time, we were able to build a solid queue. We were then able to post 5-6 times a day.

With a healthy queue and a healthy ask box, we were able to bump the post frequency to 12 times a day. Most of the first wave of mods worked through some asks and then largely went inactive. This is fine, it happens. After struggling to keep up a frequency of 12/day as a one person show once again, we recruited new mods with some activity guidelines.

To maintain a posting frequency of 12 times a day, each mod needs to add 3 posts to the queue a day, or 21 posts to the queue a week. We ask that every mod contributes 30 times a week, that way we have a healthy buffer of content for holidays, emergencies, and just general time away from the internet.

While the confessions are sent in by y'all and editing them in photoshop is a generally simple process, it still does take time. Time in the game to find and take the screenshots, time in the editing software to create the image, then posting and tagging appropriately. Those cursed edits y'all love so much take even more time.

We're all adults here. And your mods are too. They have lives off of tumblr, often complete with bills and day jobs. Honestly, less fun than the little horny blog, but *vague gestures towards capitalist hellscape*

For these reasons, posting 12 times a day is going to be a hard cap for the foreseeable future. In the most loving way possible: If you are submitting an ask now and expecting to see it a week or even a month from now, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Submit your ask and know that it will be appreciated by the community when its time comes.

"A confession is never late, nor is it early. A confession arrives precisely when it means to." - Elminster (probably)

Why don't you just get more mods?

Have you heard the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen"? Every person added to a process adds another variable, and the more variables, the harder it is to deliver a consistent experience. Additionally, the goal is to find people who can stay pretty consistently active, which can be a hard ask for a lot of people. We're very grateful for the team that we have now, and we aren't seeking new mods at this time.

Why don't you post more confessions about (character/female/etc)?

We are a submissions blog. We work with the content we are given. You need to be the horny you wish to see in the world. I know in general there's a lack of confessions for female characters, and there's an analysis to be made about how different gender/sexual identities interact with fandom and how that affects the content available in communities for consumption, but I'm not the person to make it.

Thank you all for continuing to be amazing, it is truly an honor to serve 🫡

[findmeabowloftrash-blog]

okay so. I am very very recently into The Property of Hate. I am caught up, and rereading bits and parts, while attempting to find blogs that still actively talk about/post about it. I'm quite new, so there's a good chance I have just missed it, but these are some things I have noticed/wondered that I haven't seen talked about.

1) Theory: The eyes on (the top half of) the butterfly's wings are RGB's eyes. Reasoning: In "Iris," on pages 455 and 456, we see the butterfly glare at RGB while asking if he cares who they (the butterfly) once was, and he says no. It then cuts him, and we get a brief flashback of, presumably, human RGB telling someone (whoever the butterfly used to be? Or his reflection, perhaps?) that he hates them, with the same glare. This is also, I believe, the only time we ever see his eyes in a flashback. Further, the butterfly is widely believed to be Hate, and it would make sense that his own hatred (of this other person? of himself?) is what "blinded" him. ESPECIALLY if it blinded him to his own potential. More on that later.

2) Observation: Negative seems to wear actual spats, as opposed to having them be part of his shoes. Relevance: Mod once said in answer to an ask about RGB's suspenders that nothing about him is genuine, it's only meant to appear that way, and cited his not-actually-spats as one example. If Negative does indeed wear real spats, does that make at least part of him more "genuine" than RGB?

3) Theory(?): Negative means no harm to Hero, and in fact cares a great deal about her. Reasoning: He's clearly intelligent, not just violent toward whatever is closest, because in his first appearance he protects Hero, rather than going after her himself. If the Fears were no match for him, why waste time fighting them if he wanted to hurt her? She would have been the weakest target, not the Fears. Then, in the desert, after creating the giant rose to protect himself and Hero, once he looks up and notices her, the eye on his screen looks teary, like it's watering up. (Pg 355) And wouldn't you cry if a child you wanted to protect came back into a deadly storm for you? In addition, I saw a post somewhere reasoning that the House of Lead belongs to Negative, and in that post the OP theorized that Negative wanted Hero to tell RGB about him. If he were antagonistic, or had literally any ill will toward Hero, that wouldn't make any sense.

Miscellaneous thoughts and rambling:

RGB calls himself "an unreliable narrator at best" during the same conversation/monologue/story he says that he is a failure, that the only thing he ever does is fail. ("After all, I died, didn't I?" -pg 472) And it seems that way, based on his history with heroes, sure. He fails pretty much all of his goals in the story (even ones like "don't get attached"). But if we go based on a number of meta things, we can easily reason that that isn't true, and he is, in fact, an unreliable narrator of his own life. For one, he was almost certainly an actor or entertainer of some sort. That in and of itself is a form of success. But beyond that, we have Mod's "The Face of Television" art, which implies he was VERY successful. There is also the "I was in Brooklyn when I found out" art of Dial looking at obituaries in the newspaper. Why would the obituary of a failed British actor be in an American newspaper? He had to have been someone well-known. Finally, on page 433, all the way to the left, among the static, you can see, "-reaking news tonight --as famed --tertainer". All of this heavily points toward RGB being, not a failure, but instead highly successful when he was human. Rather, I think the "failure" part comes from how he viewed himself. Unable to look in the mirror, to stand himself at all, to think of himself as anything more than a projection-- empty, hollow. And isn't that exactly how he ended up? I think that he played into Hate's hand because he did, in fact, have hatred-- but it wasn't the kind she could use against others directly, because he doesn't hate others; He hates himself. He hates himself so strongly that, even after selling his memories, he still truly believes that he is, at his very core, a failure.

Maybe Negative is the part of him that believes in himself??

Also:

I never see anyone talk about the recurring shapes/symbols in RGB's flashbacks/dreams. I'm mentally calling them: Box (or possibly Casket), Hands, Iron, Teardrop, Rectangles. They appear on pages 335 and 456, at least. Possibly others. Really really curious what they represent.

Anyway I'm sure I'm missing a lot of well-known fandom stuff but. I just needed to put my thoughts together and dump them into a public space.

[go-learn-esperanto]

Considering the recent situation relating to Shelby's abuse story I will take some actions that sadden me but are, unfortunately, necessary for my peace of mind.

I will shut down my @socket-duo blog. If you want to reblog something from there for archival purposes please do so until tomorrow.

Same for @sootings-fuck-you. Even though I don't think there's much to get from there as it was a joke blog.

I will discuss how to proceed with the Crimeboys Ao3 Feed (@ao3feed-crimeboys) with the other mod.

I might not have the time to take a lot of things related to Wilbur from my pinned for some time, so be aware that's not because I'm taking his side on this. I will also probably not remove all posts related to Wilbur from my blog as there are most likely thousands of them.

I may also not remove posts related to Wilbur from the cursed and iconic masterposts however, as those posts were intended to be an archive of the fandom. I'm still considering what to do about this. They'll stay for now.

I will change my blog theme when I have the time. I will keep talking about Hermitcraft as I've done in the past few months however I may start posting about something that isn't MCYT too. If any you likes to talk about Honkai Star Rail you are encouraged to ramble about it on my asks ^^

To end, the MCYT fandom, even the late Dream SMP fandom, here on Tumblr was amazing. You were the biggest community I was a part of and so many of you I love and have been friends with. I don't regret joining it all as I got to see such cool art, stories, theories and more from everyone. You all are amazing, and having been a fan of someone who turned out to be shitty doesn't mean you're shitty.

Support Shelby if you can as all of this must be taking quite a lot from her. This has such a big impact and she's a queer woman revealing something personal about herself when her (very plausible alleged) abuser has so many fans. And while I'd like to believe most of us that were his fans can think for ourselves and recognise when we should say "fuck you" to someone who we enjoyed I know that's almost certainly not the case for everyone.

... I also please ask you all to stop fighting eachother. This is all quite recent and there's probably people who aren't really aware of the whole situation or aware of it at all. Please have some patience before starting call out posts. If someone is being stupid just block them.

[romaine2424]

For the Love of WIPs (Drarry style)

There's a lot of things I miss about LJ, but right up there was the weekly posting of the H/D Prophet run by @sassy-cissa and groovelover at the conclusion. It began posting in 2005 and It stopped posting in 2021. I know it was a ton of work for the mods to run it, but it truly kept Drarry fandom informed of all the one-shot fics, art released that week, and chapter updates for current Drarry WIPs, recs, etc... Also listed were the fests and what state they were in. Take a look at the links I posted above and see all the goodness. It was very centralized. *sigh happy times*

What made me think of this was I love reading Drarry WIPs but keep finding recent chapter fics that I missed while being posted and only found them completed and others that I'm currently reading but found by chance.

So, I thought I'd share the WIPs I'm keeping track of and those that have been completed recently that I've read.

Notes: Most WIPs (chapter fics) are long fics (over 50K and up to 1M). There are readers that see some lengths of completed fics and wince. That is one reason why chapters are often released weekly or whenever, so you have digestible amounts (5-15K). Sometimes as an author I feel in a Catch 22, readers don't have time to read long fics, but then won't read a WIP until completed. LOL

Below the cut are WIPs that I've read and that have been recently completed. I'll post ongoing WIPs that I'm reading tomorrow! I'm not listing the Warning and Tags for these fics as I'll leave that up for you to decide on what to read or not. But, there are a few here that do have strong warnings in the tags and/or Author Notes. One final note: I'm listing WIPs (chapter fics) that were posted over a time period, not completed chapter fics that were listed on one date as a whole. OMG this is a long post!

Recently completed Drarry WIPs

Passing Stranger (53K) by @lettersbyelise This just completed yesterday! I have 2 chapters left to read. :) Summary: Five years after the war, Harry, listless and depressed, stumbles upon Draco Malfoy playing the violin in an underground bar in Muggle London. The catch? Draco lost his memories five years ago. Ignoring his friends’ advice, Harry befriends an unwitting Draco, overlooking the fact that their mutual attraction might not survive if Draco’s memories return. Comment: Haven't quite finished but I love, love, the Draco in this fic. You could feel that this is Draco stripped of all the heavy responsibilities he grew up with including having a bigoted father. The tension is palpable with Harry being attracted to this Draco but feeling that Draco needs to be Draco Malfoy to move forward. *ugh*. 2. The Boy from the Piano Shop (90.5K) by @soliblomst completed 2/25/24. Summary: After going blind in a reckless attempt to avenge Ginny's death, Harry battles with severe depression. One day, he stumbles upon a quaint piano restoration shop in the heart of London and meets the owner, a kindly old man, and his introverted young apprentice, whose voice sounds strangely familiar. As Harry and Draco slowly reconnect through private piano lessons, the small workshop becomes Harry's refuge, offering him a glimmer of hope in a world without eyes. Set five years after the Battle of Hogwarts. Comment: I binged this fic bad!!! There is so much to love in this fic but one of the standouts is the OC Richard. You will love him, too. The gradual build up of Drarry is so well done. The dealing with Harry's depression is so raw and real. No cutting of corners. The ending was one of the best I've read in celebrating what is to come for Harry and Draco. And Draco, in the final scene will make you cry *happy tears*. 3. The Star Splitter (219K) by @oflights completed 3/22/24. Summary: On a routine time travel assignment to the past, Draco stumbles upon 7-year-old Harry Potter and witnesses his neglect and mistreatment by the Dursleys. In the moment, there is only one solution, even if it goes against all his training as a Time Agent: he has to bring Harry back to the future with him. In which Draco burns his life down for the sake of his former school rival. Comment: I think I followed this one from the start as I do everything @oflights! OMG the action, the tenseness, the magical lore, the worldbuilding, and the sweetness of Draco raising young Harry will have you banging that "next chapter" button. The Drarry in this happens slowly and has its ups and downs but so so worth the wait. The bond is strong and at the end and you will recognize and cheer for this Harry who says Fuck it all, I ain't letting this go.

4. Spotlight (All Eyes on Us) (58K) by @pixiedunhoff completed 3/15/24. This is the 5th and final installment of the Dark Arts to Dance Floor Series (317K) which began posting in July '23. Spotlight Summary: The spotlight can scorch.

“Has the wizarding world ever seen a couple quite like Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter? Though the pair remain frustratingly private and out of the spotlight, hardly ever seen in public together, our readers understandably demand to know more.

‘They’re happy together,’ Minister of Magic Hermione Granger exclusively tells the Prophet, before quickly ducking into a meeting for Squib Rights. ‘They’re so very happy.’”

- Daily Prophet, 2 February 2018 Comment: Pixie says in the notes, you may only need to read the 4th installment to completely get this fic, but hell, I say read them all. Pixie is newer to Drarry writing (longtime reader). I love the casualness and realness of the characters and how they interact. In Spotlight they so capture the feel of being backstage to a 'music rock star' (in the Muggle world) and on the rise in the magical one. As you're reading this fic, it might come across as being a lighter AU type fic, but don't be fooled there is much depth and layers upon layers to both Harry and Draco. Pixie just eases you into it. There were points that I just had to stop reading for a moment and digest exactly what was going on. Pixie will be on my Current WIP list, too! 5. Skybound (61K) by @xanthippe74 Summary: No matter how much Harry Potter wanted to believe he’d left danger behind when the war ended, it found him again anyway. All he had to do was step out his own front door on a Tuesday morning. A Drarry re-imagining of Howl’s Moving Castle.

Comment: I haven't finished this one, yet, but wanted to list it here. It's 6 chapters and I'm only 2 chapters in, but holy hell what world building and magical lore (and one very nasty curse). I'm not familiar with the original source, but that's okay. I'm very happy being carried along in one floating house! I'm a big fan of @xanthippe74 and am fully confident I'll love this as much as the author's other stories. Okay, I'll be back tomorrow with a list of currently posting Drarry WIPs, including two stinging hot A/B/Os, but in very different ways.

Enjoy!

Rom

[dawnsiren]

Watch my account get nuked for this

So recently I reblogged this post about documenting discriminatorily banned accounts for the inevitable human rights lawsuit, and that is INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, but I also thought of something else that documentation could be used for.

Not QUITE what they intended this function for I’m sure, but the ‘report harassment’ option is (I’m sure) intentionally designed in such a way that only the person being harassed can functionally report the harassment, and the little message when you say the user is harassing someone else amounts to ‘*shrug* sorry, doesn’t count if the victim doesn’t report it themselves’ which obviously doesn’t work when the form that harassment takes is that the actual victims are banned from the site. Harassment under Tumblr’s terms of service is defined as

Which present behavior by @staff definitely counts as. ‘Targeted abuse’ is the dictionary-perfect term for ‘systematically banning trans people, especially trans women, from the site for having the AUDACITY (/s) to be trans publically’

Considering there’s no ability to use that appeal process on a banned blog, such reports will be best aimed at staff- and mod-affiliated blogs, aka the people doing the harassment (again, as defined by this hellsite (derogatory)’s actual terms of service).

What are they going to do, ban all of us? The only thing Tumblr staff gives a flying fuck about is money, it’s not like they can purge half their userbase without financial consequences.

Let’s give em hell.

(Post Date: Thurs June 13 2024, 9:20PM MST)

[that-one-paintbrush]

Hey, Paintbrush here!

Recently noticed that a few others at Hotel OJ have made some tumblr blogs, so I decided to as well! Welcome to my blog, all :)

I'm Paintbrush (they/them) and I've competed on three seasons of Inanimate Insanity! Season three just ended and I've just been chilling at Hotel OJ for a while. Not doing much else, so I'll probably be answering asks frequently.

Tags of interest:

#painty yapping: Paintbrush answering asks, sometimes used for reblog convos

#painty posting: explained here!

#misc asks: Asks that don't particularly have anything to do with a plot line

#bristle blather: Asks or convos specifically related to Paintbrush's bristles

#burnt-out brush: Posts where Paintbrush aint doing so hot... also includes the mini arc where Painty ran away and Backgroundy temporarily took over answering

#magic anon: Temporary events that can be applied on the blog

#rough sketch duo: Posts that feature both Paintbrush and Animatic (from Animatic Battle), Animatic usually played by @animaticaskblog

#backgroundy: A character introduced through a magic anon event, backgroundy is a friendly face on the wall that occasionally shows up on this blog. ....or are they? friendly i mean. backgroundy clearly has a lot to hide, and becomes quite defensive upon being asked about their past

#torch/inner flame: angry paintbrush? wrong! a completely separate character!! torch is a secretive and smooth-talking individual that possesses paintbrush at seemingly random times. also narrates paintbrush's actions

#flooding memories chronicles: Posts taking a dive into Backgroundy's obscure past!

#rediscovering fire chronicles: Paintbrush has an inner flame now. WHAT!!!

#false contract chronicles: AAAAAA SPRINGYS HERE HES GONNA HIRE US ALL AAAA

#painty yapping and yapping: posts where Paintbrush rambles for an extended amount of time, usually not dialogue

#animaticified saga: paintbrush gets ab animaticified. that's it

#life imitates art chronicles: paintbrushs past wasnt ALL sunshine and rainbows... if only they knew what happened!

#backfire arc: paintbrush makes a terrible no good absolutely horrible bad decision. they suffer the consequences accordingly!

#mod kit: Posts from the mod! me!!

hey, mod here! (kit, she/any)

there are a few things id like to mention:

this is my first ask blog. in the history of EVER!! so pls be patient with me

dont plan on including ships on this blog! but i dont mind ship-related asks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ please just dont be weird or mention proships

like i said, dont be weird in the asks! please no nsfw or fetish-y asks either

dont be an asshole pretty please- i dont mind jokes and sarcasm but if ur only here to be a haterade pls leave 🥺

yall can do magic anons if you want! please try not to send too many tho 😁

i made the paintbrush asset myself! pls dont use it or steal it :')

i may not answer asks immediately so please be patient and dont spam or pressure me into answering! i may ignore and refuse to answer any asks if im uncomfortable as well

keep in mind some of what i say may be personal headcanons or made up on the spot! ill stick to canon as much as possible but if theres an opportunity to add a headcanon, ill likely do so

thanks for reading!

[faruzxn]

a teeeeeeny little notice

Hello! Faruzan mod here.

If you've noticed, most of the accounts that I run (known to the public) have not been very active recently. After I dropped uhm my last Steambird issue I was VERY burnt out, HAHA. It was very taxing on my energy and motivation and I didn't really feel in the mood to rp or write for the Steambird or anything.

While I still feel a tad burnt out, I'm going to try to return back to my normal activeness!! For the time being, though, I'll probably stick to replying to any asks that pop into my inbox(es).

I'm also going to officially be putting the Steambird on a hiatus, and until I see anything really silly I can write about.

to explain about the Steambird, its just that as of late and for the past few months, Genshin-official hasn't been as silly as it had been back in July of 2023. I joined this community because of how silly it was and I love being apart of it. And while I love all the multipara roleplay and serious worldbuilding and character development of all these accounts, it just feels so foreign to me.

I think when I feel better I'll try to interact with more accounts and be really silly! but despite still being a minor, i do still have to juggle my own life. (Okay, well, there's nothing really to juggle im just really unmotivated.)

And to be so honest, writing about the serious occurrences in the community just does not bring me any joy. It's interesting, sure, but writing the Steambird has just lost its spark for me. I'm basically a one man show too HAHA. Not to discredit my amazing link finder Minie. But I just don't think I feel up to the task and I'm sorry to anybody who enjoyed my issues. I want be able to give the same silly quality of issues like I did in my first two Steambird specials. People liked that and I felt so happy that they did and now reading back on my articles they just feel so bland and unexcited. I want to bring back that silly quality for my readers.

And with this hiatus, I think I may consider deleting or repurposing several accounts to characters that I truly love and enjoy and whatever. Because honestly despite being an ongoing inside joke between the early members of the Genshin-official community, having 22 roleplay accounts is A LOT.

And I also recognize that with the Dragonspine RP threads most of the halt in finishing it is.. my fault, actually. But I intend to get back in on it so we can finally put a finish to the narrative we as a community have scripted together!! (The Mondstadt portion, anyway.)

Uhm... I dont think i have anything else to say, but thank you to everyone who has followed and laughed and smiled at my accounts because you truly all brighten up my days.

Thank you.

that sounded so depressing i swear im not quitting

[snug-gyu]

so another year is coming to an end, and i feel like a lot has happened to me this year that i should do a little post so i can remember everything i went through and the good things that came from it. under the cut cause this will probably get long

so this year i moved back in with my parents for mental health reasons. i left behind a good job, great coworkers and a place i had just recently finally got to myself. even though i had all that, i was still feeling so bad with myself i realized i needed the support to get back to my feet.

i lost my most precious baby in the process to a horrible desease that took him from me in a matter of days, and i had to watch him suffer through it all while not being able to do anything besides make him as comfortable as i could.

with all that, i also got myself into a terrible job that was so taxing on me i feel like i deleted most of those months from my mind as a defense mechanism, to the point i broke down one day after being humiliated by my asshole boss and finally quit.

all of this happened while i changed psychiatrists and treatment at least twice, so the weeks following me quitting my job were very important to finally give my mind some rest and now i'm in a job that is a lot more considerate and less taxing on my mental health.

now on for the good things.

this year i managed to see two of my faves live, nct 127 in january and ateez in august. i haven't been to concerts in so long and now i'm completely addicted. i can't wait to see what 2024 has in store (hopefully skz?)

through all of that, some friends have been soooo important to me. you guys were there for me in my darkest hours and for the happy times as well.

@secretdiaryofanawkward my bestie, i love you. thanks for being there every day with your memes, rants and cat pics. i cherish our memories together even if it's just laying down in silence while we do our own thing. thanks for helping me while i was on my lowest and i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be where i am now mentally without your help

@hongamon , @changbeens and @cryiingemoji . you guys have been with me since last year and i know i can count on you being there to cheer me up with blorbo pics or to talk shit about people. thanks for your friendship and i hope you know i'll always be there if you need me

@ggthydrangea and @winterfloral , your words (or gifs) of reassurance mean the world to me. also @juiceofmoons and @missyedits , even though we didn't talk much i'll always have you in my heart. i know y'all been busy this year with work and uni, but i'm glad we finally managed our mb babes' call

@chanrizard my beloved wife, @decembermoonskz by sweetheart, @agibbangs my spiritual neighbor and the whole of lix jail @leenope @jinniebit @lixence @thnx4thefish @wisteriya @happysmilebtr @babebatter @haenglixie thanks for the chaos and the laughs and even if we don't talk much y'all are very special to me.

all my beloved moots, i love you guys very much and it's lovely to interact with you even if it's just through tags sometimes. you have a special place in my heart and know that if we're moots you're automatically all my friends

@hanjesungs thanks for caring the burden of modding the stayblr server since it's begging and for being the voice of reason when we need it

to all of the people on the stayblr discord server, know that i consider you all my family and going there is like coming home, so thanks for always being so warming and nice to hang around. @hongjoongpresent @brightermorepls @astraykidz @noonaracha

sorry if i forgot anyone, just know that i'm very grateful for all the friends i've made along the way. my ask box and dms are always open 💜💜 thanks and i love y'all

[cxl0verh0ard3rxxx]

Love your content <3 may I request some Shin fluff relationship headcanons?

A/N: Yes you may Anon! Sorry for being so inactive. I will try my best to write some more, I also have some planes for my next post. Thank you for requesting.

-He fell for you first. You both spent the day hanging out inside and watching movies, overall a pretty relaxed day. However you both ended up getting snowed in. He helped you shovel your driveway once you could finally leave the house. That's when he realized how hard he's fallen for you. -Whenever he has spare money after rent, he always tries to do something for you, whether it be a date or buying you something that you have been eying recently. One of his love languages is gift giving. -Speaking love languages.. I think his other love language is quality time. He loves spending time with you and listening to you talk about your day. He enjoys late night drives with you in his semi dinged up car. It's pretty small but gets him around. -He gets flustered with physical affection however is never opposed to it. He just does not know how to react. It may take him a bit, but he will soon initiate it as much as you do. He also struggles with putting his feelings into words. Now if you tell him these things, he becomes a mess. He's always appreciative and wonders how he got so lucky to have you in his life. -When it's autumn/windy or even slightly cold he definitely lends you his scarf! He doesn't want you to be cold, plus he quite enjoys the cool wind. -He gets flustered easily, he tries to hide it but usually fails.Typically with physical contact. If you try to hug him he will pause and his eyes get a bit wide but will reciprocate. With cuddling he's usually stiff at first but then loosens up. Shin prefers to be the big spoon so he can make sure you are safe but occasionally will be the little spoon. He's afraid of hurting you so he tries to be careful. -Shin is definitely the type to get jealous but never show it. He may be passive aggressive towards the person or stare at them and not break eye contact. If the person is bothering you and does not leave you alone or end the conversation then he will pull you away. He gets jealous somewhat easily. This is also when he can become more touchy. -He’s pretty chill with PDA, typically hand holding is his go to. He does not mind cheek kisses in public but he prefers them to be quick since he gets embarrassed easily. However he tends to stand awfully close to you, he wants to be close with you but doesn't know how to put that into words. He also is very observant with what you do and your reactions to certain things. Shin has also fallen asleep on your shoulder multiple times in public because he barely gets sleep with all the jobs he has. 

A/N: I apologize if this is short/seems rushed. I wanted to get this published. If something doesn't make sense I am sorry, english is not my first.

-Mod Kaito