#i know this is fixable because I've been through this multiple times

[arrgh-even-more-whatever]

the day I'll sleep at least six hours I'll throw a celebration. slept for two hours yesterday and for four hours the day before that, thought it means that today my brain will finally shut down. nothing. couldn't fall asleep at all and only got a migraine

[corrodedbisexual]

The ultimate shadow ban survivor guide

I've seen multiple people I follow, or their mutuals affected by shadow bans lately (makes me wonder if it's @staff's attempts to fight bots going totally haywire). As someone who survived a 2-month-long shadow ban on my main this winter, I thought I'd make a post.

First step of being shadow banned: calm down and take a breath. A shadow ban is just a stupid glitch in tumblr's anti-spam system. You're not losing your blog. You're gonna need a whole lot of patience, and deal with inconveniences, but it's fixable.

Read the incredibly useful post All About Shadowban by @that-damn-girl. It outlines the symptoms quite well. The only thing I'd point out is "your original posts won’t be visible to your followers either" - afaik that doesn't happen. Everything you post and reblog will still be visible to your followers, and also they can interact with your posts - like them, reblog them, reply to them.

Just like the post says, contact support. I recommend using a different email than what your banned blog is registered to; not because your ticket won't go through (mine actually did, as I found out when they finally replied), but because you might not receive an email confirmation for your ticket (it's somehow tied to the anti-spam thing, I think), and you're going to worry and try to send more tickets, like I did.

Now wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. They are SLOW. I've seen some miraculous 1-day unbans in the #shadow ban tag, but most people, like me, wait around a month for support to reply. Those are the same guys going through thousands of bot reports every day in addition to user tickets.

If you're going to wait, might as well keep blogging. Now if this is your sideblog that's shadow banned, consider yourself lucky. Make a new temporary sideblog, use it to post your original stuff so it goes into tags (mind that it might take a few days for a new blog to start showing up in tags). Reblog everything to your shadow banned blog so you still have all content in one place and your followers see it. If it's your main that's banned, you can still do that, but there's the extra pain of not being able to reply to posts or send non-anon Asks, since that is only done from main. Might need to register a separate account for that.

Some more fun facts under readmore.

Fun fact #1

Trying to send support follow-up emails in the request confirmation email isn't going to do anything to speed up the process. But I did tweet at them using this tumblr support summoning picture by @cornmayor and offered a raccoon blood sacrifice to resolve my issue when it was like a month with no response. This is what they replied.

3 hours later I got an email that my shadowban was lifted. I honestly don't know if it was a coincidence, but I mean, this is tumblr staff. Maybe they do accept blood sacrifices.

Fun fact #2

If you're wondering why my shadow ban lasted 2 months if I got a support reply after 1 month, well. It's hard to say exactly how their ban/unban system works bc support replies exclusively with pre-written template sentences, but basically they fucked up. The first time they told me my blog has been restored, I gained pretty much all functions back, except that my posts were still not appearing in tags. Which means probably that being hidden from tags is some kind of different flag on your blog that they forgot to remove. So I had to send a follow-up ticket and wait another month.

My advice is, when they tell you it's fixed, don't take that at face value, go and check all the functions you'd lost (replies, messaging, asks, tagging, appearing in notes, getting mentioned by others).

[keeperofthesunandmoon]

Hey, anon who was asking about sending feedback here. Doing it not anon this time just to make any replies needed easier. Apologies in advance for the wall of text, I've tried to condense it, but I'm not the best at being concise. Also sorry if any of this has been brought up before.

First a couple technical issues I encountered. In chapter 7 I got the part about my mom taking care of me while sick, even though my parents were killed last chapter, then inversely when I went through again and saved them the dialogue option "“All my goodness died when he took my parents.” was available to choose.

Anyway onto the juicy stuff. So for the most part, I really liked the game so far, I thought it is a really good continuation of the story, and I'm definitely excited for more. But I obviously do have some notes, so here they are.

1) Being able to detect heartbeats isn't actually an accurate way of detecting bluffs (or lies in general). Heartrate raises if a person is excited or scared, and a good liar would be calm while lying. Plus with poker specifically, knowing your opponent is bluffing is only part of the equation, you still have to have a good hand, or be able to bluff yourself.

2) I feel like there should be the option to be opposed to control magic due to trauma rather than just general moral opposition, depending on the choices made. Like, at the very least, any MC unfortunate enough to have Julian Anderson as their birth father, probably has more reason to be averse to control magic than just "mind control bad cause it takes away free will".

On the same note, there are multiple instances where without player input, your character either uses control magic, considers using it, or sits there while someone else casually uses it. Which like, even trauma aside, if I’ve been picking all the “I think control magic is morally evil” options it seems weird my character would just casually use it to make someone forget a conversation, or be fine with their friends using it to get past airport security.

It also kinda sucks, for the above reasons, that in regards to the screening, your only options are let someone use control magic on you (whether or not you resist) or compel them first. Like I said, I feel like my MC would be very traumatized by the whole concept of control magic, and would very much not be on board with either of these options.

3) The jar of holy oil felt a bit like it came out of nowhere. Like I previously got the impression that holy oil was pretty hard to get your hands on, even for someone with the MCs connections, but then you just like have a jar of it in your bag I guess, no real explanation as to how it got there. Also IDK if this was intentional misdirection or not, so sorry in advance if it is, but because it’s first mentioned as an “unbreakable jam jar” directly after talking about the homemade snow globes (which are often made from jars), I thought the jam jar was the snow globe, up until you actually use it.

4)This one’s kind of a legacy issue from the previous games, so IDK how fixable it is at this point, but basically the game feels like it's in an odd situation when it comes to the MC, that I can best describe as being nonbinary inclusive, but trans exclusive. The game lets you choose the name/pronouns you want, but then the flashbacks just assume your character was still using the same ones back when they were a toddler (obviously there are people irl who do come out at a pretty young age, but, at least in my experience, that's the exception rather than the rule). Like obviously something to account for that could be added, but IDK if you can like update already published games, and if not adding it to the third game would probably introduce some weirdness, so IDK.

5) I’m confused as to what a “stereotypical drakaina” would be cause like a drakaina isn’t really like a thing in pop culture the same way something like angels and demons are, and the word itself is literally just the feminine form of the Ancient Greek word for dragon or serpent. Would it just be dressing up as a dragon? I realize this one's pretty nitpicky, I’m just confused.

6) In the dream sequence in chapter 8, the game seems to just like assume the MC and RO are able to have a biological kid together. I know that both it’s a dream sequence and also a setting with magic, so it’s not really a plot hole or anything per say, but I think taking that into mind, and maybe adding some text for situations where that might be in question, to explain that would be a good idea.

7) "…for the fact that the worst crime they’ve ever committed is jaywalking." I’m fairly certain forging a birth certificate is also a crime. /s

Thank you for the feedback! I've made some edits to earlier chapters based on it for next update

[bigbroadvice]

Just a warning there are a few sensitive topics in this

I really need to talk to someone about this but I'm too scared/embarrassed to talk to someone irl and I just suck at talking to people in general.

For years I've been having frequent suicidal thoughts and have been self harming but I didn't really do much about it. Now though, things have gotten a lot worse. I've attempted a couple of times just in the past month and my self harming has gotten really bad/frequent and I think it's becoming more noticeable (I always wear a jacket now to hide my scars).

I just don't feel like anything is worth it anymore and no one that I know irl would care if I was gone. Sometimes I make subtle mentions about my thoughts when I'm talking to online friends and they all tell me that they would miss me and that they care about me and when they do it makes me feel better but it still doesn't change my mind about wanting to die.

I feel like maybe if I really did talk to someone irl about it though, they would ask why I feel like this and tbh, I'm not quite sure. I guess it's just everything? But honestly my life isn't terrible, I have a few close friends and I have things that I enjoy, but inside I just can't convince myself that anything is worth it.

I feel like maybe its could be because of my mental state possibly. I have really bad anxiety/depression (undiagnosed but I'm positive there's something going on) and I have panic attacks every day and sometimes multiple times a day. That could be a contributing factor but I also don't know why any of that happens either. It's like I'm living a whole other life in my brain that makes everything just awful.

Anyway, I'm sorry this was so long but I really felt like I needed to explain this and maybe ask for some advice or help? I really just don't know what else to do anymore.

Hey friend, I’ve been where you’re at and I know it sucks. Sometimes brain chemistry just gets a bit wonky and makes you feel down no matter what’s going on in your life. The feelings are still very real and can hurt just as bad though.

I know it will be hard, but you need to let some people in real life know what’s going on, people you can depend on to look out for you. Trying to find the words when you’re talking face to face can be really difficult so it might be helpful to write it down to give to them instead (either a letter or a text works just fine).

The good thing about wonky brain chemistry is that it’s fixable. I’ve personally never been on any antidepressants, mostly because I never had access to them as a kid when I really needed them, but I’ve known people that they’ve been really helpful for. It’s just like any illness where your body isn’t producing enough of the chemicals you need so you take medicine to make up the difference.

Again, I am not a mental health professional, but I’d highly reccomend you see one. In general, they’re very lovely people and can be so tremendously helpful. Look up your local suicide helplines and they can help you get connected from there.

I spent most of my formative years where you’re at and I remember how bleak everything felt. It was like the whole world was painted in gray and I couldn’t imagine how anything could make all the hard things worth it. But then one day it was like a veil was lifted and I looked around me and saw the colors, and it was beautiful. I still don’t really understand what happened, weather it was something different happening in my life or the brain chemicals finally evening out, but I’m so glad I made it through to that day. I had no idea this whole other world of colors and feelings and dreams was out there waiting for me, but it was, and I’m so glad I made it through to see it. It’s waiting for you too. Don’t give up before you’ve had the chance to see what it really means to be alive.

[party-gilmore]

It still breaks my heart that there is LITERALLY no way to (for sure) save John Doe.

I've done multiple runs now, a brutal!Bruce, a gentle!Bruce, and an "Organic" (i.e., more of a middle ground, soft hearted but still carefully toeing the line of when he needs each mask, Greater Good focused but wishing he didn't have to be and keeping by his code) version and I tell you hwat?

That last organic run. That was the hardest choice. Because on the one hand trusting John saves a LOT of lives. Including his own. And it for sure the best outcome at the end. The thing is, Bruce wouldn't know that, until it was over. And keeping to his code as Batman... there's no WAY he could actually believe that was self defense, or be okay with that carnage.

I know there not being a middle ground between the two decisions and that being the ultimate decider is the POINT of the "hard choice" storytelling TTG did so well, but I would give almost ANYTHING to have like. An option to convince him based on prior interactions.

Like if you were mostly honest and open and kind, you could say no you don't believe him but it's fixable and he just needs help/a mentor (like with Tiffany) and get the vigilante chapter, or if you were cold and manipulative through the other chapters you could say you do believe him, but he doesn't actually believe you, and ultimately betrays you on the bridge and you get the villain chapter...

But i get it. Like that fantastic critique/review video said. It's a very "Batman" kind of choice. Measure what's more in line with his code at the time, based on the information he has... I just. Wish there was more I could've done, more nuance to be found in that particular decision, so i could play a Bruce that was truer to/didn't feel out of character to how I'd been playing him so far.

Just like the Alfred choice at the end.