#i need a hashtag for my own shitposts???

[trecomics]

Mastodon is great for a quiet fandom life

Even before the buyout, Twitter has been an anxious place for a hobbyist like me.

I want to chill in my fandom bubble and find people who like the same characters I like to connect and chat maybe! I want to shitpost in peace!

Because of how twitter’s algorithm and search function works, I don’t want to force people who don’t like that sort of thing to see what I draw, so I’m careful with how I word my post. I mark the pairing name somewhere so people can mute it. (or find it) I censor full names or series titles so it ’s not found in search. I’ve been doing this for so long it shouldn’t be stressful, but getting stray comments reminds me to stay on my toes.

Mastodon, I realized, is close to perfect place for a peaceful fandom life.

Mastodon is compared to twitter a lot. That’s the wrong way of thinking about it. It’s not about trying to be “engaged” with the site 24/7. It wants to work for everyone, while keeping its focus on safety and making it harder to dogpile on others. That’s freakin’ awesome. Once you understand how it works. So how to get started?

These were my top worries while figuring out Mastodon.

There’s so many instances! What if I join the wrong one? This had me stuck deciding whether Mastodon was even viable. But there is no “wrong one.” you can join any instance, you can even make your own as the sole member. It’s simply having an address to be found.

HOWEVER

You might want to shop around first. When you sign up for an instance, their rules and which instances they don’t interact with are listed. I draw NSFW art, so I wanted to join an instance that allows that sort of thing.

AND

There’s no advantage joining a heavily populated instance. it could lag, more difficult to get into contact with the admins/support. The local timeline is a mess. Small and cozy is best. You can follow anyone, anywhere, anyway.

I don’t know how to follow others from different instances. You don't have sign up to different instances to follow others. The easiest way to do that is to copy their profile URL and paste and search into your instance’s search bar. You can also copy and search their account name, usually displayed by their username. They look like “@name@example.social”

I tried doing a search for my favorite thing but got 0 results! I’m proud of this creation, how can others find it? Mastodon’s search will only catch hashtags and URLs from all the instances. While I avoided hashtags with every fiber of my being on twitter, it’s vital to use them if you want public posts to be found by others. So don’t be shy and tag it up, use appropriate content warnings if needed on posts you want others to see! Because of these search limitations, you don’t have to censor words without fear of being found in a random search anymore. It’s great.

Best of all, you can follow hashtags! This way, any post with that hashtag will appear in your home timeline whether you follow that person or not, even from other instances. It’s great to see new stuff without manually searching. To do this, search your favorite hashtag names. Click the hashtag in the search results and in the upper right corner there’s an icon with a plus mark to click. You can remove it anytime by doing the same method.

But I want to follow others who speak different languages, twitter at least has a translate function (for now) Mastodon does too! But it’s up to each instance’s admin to implement the feature. it doesn’t hurt to politely ask them to add it. If they don’t, some apps have it built in! I know Ice Cubes for Mastodon does at least.

Quick tips: —You can change the default visibility of your posts in preferences The default is “public” but if you’re like me, you don’t want every thought out on the public/local timeline. I have mine set for “unlisted” so only followers or profile visitors can see it. The many posting options Mastodon has are almost perfect. I hope someday they adopt Twitter’s circle function.

—You can add filters to words and hashtags you don’t want to see! It just works! This is in preferences.

—No more extra work when you have to delete and repost, the “delete and re-draft” function is the best option ever.

—For the most comprehensive FAQ that answers every little thing you want to know about how Mastodon works and why, https://fedi.tips answers and then some.

I'm still a newb to Mastodon but I love being there so much. If anyone else has tips I've missed I'd love to know!

[transsexualhamlet]

Hi :)) for the fics ask - 💌📡🍭🎈🎀🍉🦋

OMG THATS SO MANY???? i love you anon

ask game

putting a readmore because um. so many questions

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

SHAKES AND WHIMPERS finally someone asks me about my wips............. oh dear oh dear oh dear. Trembling wet and pathetic awkwardly holds out 25 pages of handwritten Mairon apologism covered in blood sweat tears . This is one of those ones that I'm terrified I'm going to be dogpiled over in the fandom because. Silmarillion fandom. Intimidating. This is the first time I've read the book and these bitches are veritable scholars in Arda history and languages. Like they have damn phds. doctarates. I'm just like hi I think he did nothing wrong ever except for all the atrocities and the atrocities were fine because it's international womens day and hes like a woman to me.

Anyway I should. Actually explain them i just I have two things going on one of them is just. Six pages of independent ramblings written all at once fueled by "I just woke up with the sickest ass line of dialogue ever conceived and I need to bring it to justice Right Fucking Now" and the other is what will probably end up being a chapter fic with six or seven chapters though I haven't. Decided what point I'll end it at. I'm two chapters deep and I have tons of motivation rn so hopefully. Things will continue that way because god have I been known to abandon works of that length. (looks at the bond fic) (looks at osamu dazai is dead) (looks a-)

The first mentioned one is well. I think it's just such a funny quirky girl trait of his to have not only founded a human sacrifice death cult but to have gotten it sugar daddy funded by batting his eyelashes at the king of Numenor it's just. Truly wonderful situation and I feel it is not spoken of nearly enough. The basic concept of that snippet is "pov ur defeated enemy/prisoner/mistress/royal advisor's bedroom talk involves apocalyptic sermons dooming you to eternal suffering if you don't worship his dead ex".

The other one is pretty self explanatory and has probably been done a million times, just my take on the untold hashtag "Seduction of Sauron". Basically several chapters of Melkor convincing Mairon to seize the means of production this one is very well. It's not very favorable to the methods and ideas of Eru it is decidedly anti-Eru

📡why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

I mean that's like, half of what fandom is. It's sharing words (both fanfic and headcanons/shitposts/analysis/incorrect quotes etc) and images (art/memes/edits/screencaps etc). We wouldn't really fandom without it.

🍭why did you start writing?

It's really just how my brain works? I can communicate so much better written than out loud. I've literally been writing since before I can remember. Both my parents are writers and my parents tell me I narrated stories out loud to myself at night before I knew how to write on paper. I just. I really liked saying things and telling stories and once I started I pretty much never stopped though of course the writing I did as a first grader was not the same kind that I do now.

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

I mean, as a fanfic writer I always try to make my writing fit the mood of its source material, so there is definitely a lot of variation between say, my lotr fics and my owari no seraph fics. But I know that I do have many qualities of my writing that are recognizable throughout pretty much everything I do. I have a rather pretentious style, and I focus significantly on body language, exaggerated emotion, flowery metaphors, and internal dialogue. But my humorous work does sound pretty different, though I mostly don't do that unless it's for a general audience who I feel insecure being flowery and sincere around.

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

Aww, ok. I mean I think the best thing about my writing is that it fits my personal tastes perfectly. I write 99 percent for myself and the other 1 percent for the six people on the internet who will froth at the mouth over it. I write mostly to articulate and cement my Strong Feelings About Concepts And Ideas and writing them helps me literally understand how I feel about things and what it really is I'm trying to get at. It's an added bonus that other people also like it :)

🍉in what ways has writing helped you process trauma and/or navigate through your own life?

I can't really say I'm a super trauma-ridden individual, though I guess I've had my moments. Mainly writing does for me what I said above. I turn to it to have peace of mind and delve into the concepts that thrill and move me. When I feel overwhelmed and empty and unsatisfied and confused I know it's because I haven't written recently. Maybe thats the autism

🦋what are you most insecure about when you post a fic?

There's always just the general anxiety that it will be seen by the general fandom as uncalled for and cringe. I'm always worried I will be seen as a Fake Intellectual for my pretentious style and often limited knowledge on the source material and I'm worried especially when I enter a new fandom that I'll just be completely off and get 80 billion things wrong. The more I interact with, know about and post for a fandom, the less anxious I get because it's been established people like it and aren't gonna kill me.

[questioninglifern]

desi dad's show love by scolding saying "aaj hi yaad aya kal submission hai?? tabse kya kar rhi thi tu??" and then getting you stressed bcz who will get it but then at last minute take you to the stores and get it for you.

[nom-de-plume-system]

i forgot dream had his shirt changed to brown tbh he looks like a fancy ink because of it hashtag bring back the blue

[relaxxattack]

I'm from twitter but I'm now gonna make an effort to main tumblr instead for my own mental health.

I was wondering if there are any norms on tumblr that we should know about? like how twitter has TW and CW at the beginning of each tweet (if needed)? or tone indicators? idk how familiar you are with how we do it on twt but is it any different? is there anything else?

thank you for being so welcoming to us refugees lol I think if it was the opposite where tumblr was moving to twt (for being toxic) idk how welcoming people would have been, so this is big, at least in my eyes :) <3

aww you’re so very welcome.  we do definitely have etiquette here, the biggest being tags. at the bottom of the post you reblog you can put hashtags— they can be specific to help sort the content you reblog so you can find it easier later, or it can be nice little comments for your followers or for the post author. but most importantly, there’s an option on tumblr to filter specific tags. this is extremely helpful to people with triggers.  for example, the art you’ve just made or reblogged has blood in it— instead of having to put a big “TW BLOOD” over the top of your post, just add in with the other tags, “blood”, “tw blood”, or “blood tw”. someone who doesn’t want to see blood is going to have that tag blocked, meaning it’ll be covered up on their dash and they can choose to see it or not. very helpful!

this system can be used for almost anything you could think of. so generally just remember to properly tag your posts!

another etiquette here specific to the dream smp tumblr community is do NOT tag the word minecraft. not “philza minecraft” or “minecraft youtubers” even. the reason for this is that tumblr doesn’t have specific solo tags, instead it groups tags together with the same word in. so the poor minecraft building community is often forced to sift through dsmp fanart instead of the build inspiration they’re looking for. 

basically: don’t tag with the words “minecraft” or “mineblr”

you asked about tone indicators: we do use those here! :] it works pretty much the same as on twitter, except it’s less often in our posts (because we tend to only write long essays or obvious shitposts) and more useful in the tags, comments, or asks you send.

and the final and most important: the reason tumblr is so tolerable lately is that we don’t have an algorithm. you’re not going to see posts people liked, or things that went viral, or things the website thinks is about your interest. you will ONLY see posts from people you follow.

however this makes reblogs very important, because without an algorithm, art isn’t going to be spread unless it gets reblogged. if you see a post you like, you reblog it to help spread it. it’s very important here and often most people’s blogs contain three fourths reblogs and only a quarter original posts.

this got kind of long and i’m sorry about that, but that’s all that i could think of you may need to know! here in dsmpblr we tend to write a lot of long posts about character analysis so don’t be scared by that when you see it :] it’s all in good fun

welcome to tumblr <3 

[whumpberry-cookie]

Whump blog intro

||Wait, what actually is Whump?||

Berry/ Cookie. 22 (she/her).

I write the most: whump prompts. Comfort, emotional, torture, aftermath, comic reliefs, caretaker-whumpee dinamics.

Sometimes I draw stuff too

The whump I don't write (no-no): - irl (dni), nsfw, minor, extreme gore.

(My shitpost account - whumpberry-foodfight)

(My reading list)

===============

Masterpost:

If you're interested in any cathegory from below, let me know!

SERIES:

Forced to dance (1) (2) (3)

There is no way out. Whumpee can't reach out for help. All they can do is to dance with Whumper on the ball and play pretend.

Your poor wrists (1) (2) (3) (4)

Caretaker, old friend of Whumpee helps him deal with all the pain he suffers during their abduction. The pain that Caretaker causes himself.

SHORT/PROMPTS:

Comic reliefs:

Comic reliefs (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Caretaker spent so much time with Whumpee that their symptoms aren’t surprising anymore. Also Whumpee wants to be treated normally. So sometimes it even becomes a comedic relief.

Ridiculous Whump Idea

Awkward Villain tries to do comfort

Whumpee believes there is good in everyone 💖And it wakes Caretaker's violent side.

Whumper is NOT good at being evil yet

Height problem

Comfort:

Fluff scenes: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)

Awkward Caretaker with Mute Whumpee

The 5 love languages by Caretaker

Night shift

Happy ending

Stoic Caretaker

Emotional/angst:

Heartbreaking things Whumpee can overhear

Afterwhump realisation

Winter escape

Hurtful things Caretaker can say

Caretaker at his breaking point

Caretaker needs some comfort too

Social anxiety

Caretaker who just doesn't know what to do

Whumpee realises the truth about their own intentions

Torture/abduction:

Two Whumpers

Interrogation of the stoic leader

Don't hold your breath (Merry Whump of May)

Tiny whumpee

The choice game (whipping, betrayal)

Push your boundaries (forced participation)

Team watching the tape (Whumpee's interrogation)

Whumpee trying to bargain

Plot prompts:

"Don't... move"

Motives for Whumper to Whump

The Sidekick is a dedicated lover of the Villain

Caretaker is getting possesive

Caretaker blames leader for Whumpee's death

Morally gray Caretaker

Face paints

_________________________

Fav tropes:

Military/Underground/XIX, XX centuries

Aftercare / healing / Fluff (Caretaker x Whumpee dynamics)

Interrogation (hand whump, electrocution, whipping, drowning, breaking bones) (innocent / stoic / unprepared whumpee)

Touch starved / guilt tripped / traumatised Whumpee

Leader as a parental figure; team frienship

Changing sides (Sidekick -> Teammate, Villain -> Caretaker etc.)

___________________________

Thank you for reading! Enjoy!

=================

=================

Notice about trigger warnings:

For now: I add trigger warnings in the hashtags (eg. #tw torture). And if it's a longer post or containing any sensitive subjects, I add also trigger/content warnings on the beggining of the post.

My priority is to make a safe space for everyone here, so If I can improve anyhow, let me know! (But please be gentle I'm a meltdown crybaby XD ) If I miss some trigger warnings I didn't think of, or add something that shouldn't be there. Or any other mistake I make because of my level of Language or simply because of my lack of understanding on subject, I apologise in advance, it was not intentional and I'll learn from it for the future writing.

Thank you for understanding and I'm hoping to provide you with correctly marked content.

----------------------

⚠ DISCLAIMER! ⚠

This blog is dedicated to writing FICTIONAL scenarios and story ideas. None of the situations depicted are meant to relate to reality and are in no way meant to encourage any violence in real life.

[lacebird]

An ad for George Harrison’s single You (b-side World Of Stone). The single was released to promote his album Extra Texture (Read All About It), which was released on September 22, 1975. [x]

[daiken-miracles]

Daiken Valentine’s Day & White Day Drabble Exchange

Modeled after the Japanese tradition where one party confesses on Valentine’s Day and the other responds to the confession on White Day, this interactive Daiken event will work as a sort of give-and-respond exchange.

How to Participate

Valentine's Day

Participants can submit an unlimited number of short works for Valentine’s Day, to be emailed directly to Daiken Miracles at miracles.kindness@gmail.com any time before February 15th (feel free to use your own time zone as a gauge). These works will be anonymously displayed here for everyone to enjoy and react to.

White Day

Participants then have a month to pick and respond to any of the Valentine’s submissions. Participants can respond to an unlimited number of submissions, and multiple participants can respond to the same submission.

Participating in the Valentine’s half of the exchange is not required to participate in the White Day half and vice versa.

FAQs

What can I submit?

Submissions should be short, small, and simple so that they can be easily consumed and responded to.

Fics should have a minimum of 100 words; there is no maximum word count. Art/comics can be sketches, line art, or loosely colored drawings, either digital or scanned traditional artwork, but it does not need to be “finished.” Playlists, GIF sets, AMVs, graphics sets, edits, memes/shitposts, etc., are all acceptable submissions as well.

Does my submission have to be Valentine's and/or White Day-related?

Submissions do not have to be directly related to Valentine’s Day or White Day, but it is strongly encouraged, as we would like the majority be related to the holiday.

Can I submit anything NSFW?

All variation of submissions are accepted, but NSFW submissions will be posted in an explicitly labeled separate section.

Is there a form I need to fill out?

No, all you need to do is make your submission(s) and email them directly to Daiken Miracles.

How do I send in my submission for Valentine's Day?

Sometime before February 15th, 2022, email Daiken Miracles at miracles.kindness@gmail.com with your submission included either via email attachment or link. If you are submitting multiple works, you can include them all on the same email or on separate emails. Please also make sure to include a title for each individual submission so we can easily distinguish them on our website.

What do I do next?

We will post all the submissions anonymously on our website here. Each submission will be preceded by its title and any pertinent warnings/tags.

Your job is to read all the Valentine’s submissions and respond to any that stand out to you. Your response can be in the same medium as the submission (writing a fic in response to a fic) or different (drawing art for a fic, making a playlist for a fic, writing a fic for an AMV, etc.).

How do I send in my submission for White Day?

The submissions for White Day follow the same setup as for Valentine’s Day. Sometime before March 15th, 2022, email your White Day submission to Daiken Miracles at miracles.kindness@gmail.com. Make sure your submission or the body of your email includes the title of the Valentine’s submission you are responding to.

What happens after the exchange is over?

After White Day, we will post the responses on our website here. Each response will link back to the Valentine’s work it is in response to, and each Valentine’s work will link to the response(s).

A week after White Day, on March 21st, all participants are encouraged to post their submissions on their platform(s) of choice (AO3, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.) and link back to the main gift exchange website. Those posting on Twitter are encouraged to tag our account @DaikenMiracles, those on Tumblr can tag us at @daiken-miracles, and when posting anywhere that uses hashtags, please tag your work with #DaikenValentinesExchange and/or #DaikenWhiteDayExchange.

How do I contact the mods for further questions?

Email us at miracles.kindness@gmail.com or talk to us directly on the Daiken Discord server.

[herotome]

Taglist & FAQ

Moving this into a post because the old FAQ page was built-in to the blog template - which I don't think is mobile accessible.

I'll try to keep this up-to-date!

Taglist

These links only work on desktop. For mobile-users, please scroll all the way down to click the actual hashtags on the post.

#herotome highlights: - in which you will find VERY COOL images and videos I've posted to introduce you to the game! Highly recommended you check it out if you're new to the blog. :)

#herotome update: in which you will find devlogs, which often contain progress art and development screenshots/gifs; also known as the Latest Weekly Update.

#herotome ask: in which you may find character, story, and development text answers related to the game.

#content warning: for asks concerning specific phobias and triggers, and whether or not they will come up in the game. (Answer: it's not a horror game so probably not, but I'm happy to assuage any fears.)

#herotome spicy margaritas: for written answers that are not explicit but do contain frank allusions to sensuality and/or sexual activity. Not quite NSFW, but leans on it.

#RO: everyone: for scenario/prompt asks that include the entire cast of love interests. Usually "How would the LIs react to--?"

Character Tags

#RO: warden (he/him: the reluctant leader and local rough boy)

#RO: griffin (he/she: the charming "executive" secretary)

Note: Griffin uses both pronouns and is NOT a gender-selectable character.

#RO: mia (she/her: the new hire who's mad about you being a newer hire)

#RO: dart (he/him: the straight-edge night shift motorcyclist)

#RO: jade (she/her: the telekinetic superstar with severe anxiety)

#katie cat (she/her: your cat)

#basketball boy (he/him: your cigar-smoking landlord whose number you can block; all his excuses involve talking about basketball for some reason)

#alcoholic sniper (he/him: one of your antagonists; boozer eggplant mummy)

Actual FAQ under the cut. :) If you don't see the cut, please click on the post to view it in full.

Index: General FAQ | The Love Interests | The Heroine

General FAQ

But what is Herotome?

Herotome is a visual novel and dating sim with a superhero theme.

This game was initially conceived on February 17th, 2017. I released text-based alpha sometime around late December of the same year, and started coding in Renpy shortly after that. I released a prologue demo on itch in 2021, and am working on the next installment.

Cool! Where can I play it when it’s done?

Thhheeee above link should still work, if you wanna bookmark it or follow me on itch.io. I might try to release the game on steam in the distant future, but you might have to wait a while.

Why a while? :(  Why do I have to wait?

Because… I’m funding the project out of my own pocket, and on top of that I have to fight my perfectionism and my anxiety in unarmed mud wrestling every single day in order to write, draw and program everything.

Can I help with funding the game? Would that make it go faster?

Yeah! Here’s my Ko-Fi. Every little bit helps me secure assets, authenticity readers, and improve the game's polish. :)

You mention that someday you might run an Indiegogo, but why not Kickstarter?

Kickstarter doesn't support my country, Indiegogo does.

My anti-virus says your demo/game is a security risk!

I'm not surprised because this has happened to a lot of renpy games that have custom windows/mac icons. I promise I do not have enough knowledge or evil energy to create and distribute malware. I need to preserve my evil energy for fun things, like writing bad dialogue choices and shitposting.

.

The Love Interests

Who are the love interests?

Scroll down this page to find the characters. They’d love to meet you!

Sexualities? 👀

Alright I caved, here you go. Please play nice!

And you said they're ace-aro friendly? How so?

They are. You will be able choose in-game whether you will remain platonic coworkers or start a romantic relationship. The characters won't get mad if you turn down their advances.

Please refer to this post for specifics.

And… how tall are they?

Here you go!

MBTI types?

Mmhm! Answered here.

.

The Heroine

Can I change the MC's pronouns?

2023 Update: Yes.

However, please keep in mind that game is currently written from the perspective of a female protagonist. Characters in the game will occasionally perceive and refer to the protagonist as a woman, regardless of pronouns chosen.

Can you tell me more about the MC's powers?

No, but I can show you an excerpt from my writing. Answered here.

Okay… so what CAN I customize?

This game is vastly more about choices than protagonist customization.

There are 3-5 dialogue choices displayed at a time. The idea is for the game to feel like you’re having a real conversation with the characters; for you to be able to choose what you want to say, not just picking between the “correct” answer and the “wrong” answer.

You will organically choose your love interest by getting to know them and letting them get to know you, rather than choosing their name from a list.

… To answer the question though, you’ll be able to change the player character’s name and profile picture (a la Mystic Messenger). Given more time and resources, I hope to work with more customization features in future games. <3

With more time and resources, what customization features would you put into THIS game?

I’m glad you asked!!!! I’d love to work with character stats, an in-game social media page, a customizable bedroom and dress-up games – all the things that are definitely out of scope for the upcoming demo.

Although I really, really, really want to have a customizable bedroom in particular. I have a soft spot for it from Pokemon: Crystal.

Right now I’m working on a cookie clicker minigame and a chatroom feature. Not customization, necessarily, but hopefully a lot of fun regardless.

Who’s working on this game?

Actively working on it? Toiling and slaving over it day and night? Just me, Wudge. (Hi!) I credit myself as the art director, executive editor and founder of the project, but tbh I’m doing a lot of the menial labor, too. Hahah. Most notably, I write the script, I design the assets (characters, backgrounds, aesthetic), I code, I playtest aggressively to ensure the code works, and I coordinate everything to keep it moving and balanced.

I do work with some very talented freelancers for the more specialized odds and ends (sprite coloring, GUI, backgrounds, editing, music, programming, etc), and you’ll see mentions of these radical people in the devlogs. :)

.

... Eh, no one's asked this yet, but here's one more for kicks:

Why haven't you answered my ask? :(

If you sent some love and attention my way, don't fret, I have surely received it and it nourishes my heart. <3

In regards to the non-spiritual, physical act of actually answering an ask/message, here are some situations where I might not respond at all:

if the ask concerns heavy details that would be more appropriately revealed alongside in-game context (such as mental health issues and backstory trauma). I probably won’t reply to an ask about how Griffin feels about being in a wheelchair or how it happened, for example.

if the ask contains a topic that I’m actively researching, wherein I’d want to represent these topics with adequate respect and responsibility after consulting with my authenticity readers.

if I genuinely don’t know the answer and need to take a hot minute to think about it.

if the ask concerns or straight up predicts a plot point that may or may not 100% happen in the game, you naughty little soothsayer.

if the ask uses strong language and name-calling (even playfully well-intentioned ones like “I fucking love these dumbasses”)- not because I get offended, but because I get startled! I have nothing against cursing - I do it a lot myself - but it can take me a while to discern the tone if it’s directed at me.

You have to consider the possibility that maybe I'm hanging upside down by my ankle. Everybody has their own schedule, you know? And sometimes people spend time away from their phone or computer because they are currently suspended from a tree branch by a rope tied around their ankle.

NSFW asks will be hit or miss - mostly because I’m at a bit of a crossroads on whether I’m going to make the game 100% SFW, or add in NSFW premium content later, or have NSFW content in the game (which can be turned off and on). I think people vastly prefer that last one, and I personally enjoy it in the games I play; I just need time to decide if it feels right for Herotome as a whole.

I do still welcome all questions, I just ask that people understand if I take a while or choose not to reply for my own reasons. (:

[misha-moose-dean-burger-lover]

tagged by @kermitdrinkingteadotjpg! thank you eth <3

1. why did you choose your url?

well i was bad at making choices back when i joined tumblr too, so i asked my sister what my url should be and she very wisely said that it should represent who i was so i went with the obvious and have never looked back since*

*except for the two week period in march 2021 when i was rainbowsam hashtag goodtimes

2. any side blogs?

yeah, a lot. way too many actually. but most used currently are the-messedup-priorities-so-far (reblog blog for general stuff) and oi-oi-oi-oi-erwin (aot blog bc i'm newly ✨ obsessed ✨)

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

i complete five years in jan <3

4. do you have a queue tag?

yes, it's 'queueueueueueueueueueue' but the number of ue's vary with the weather. also i don't always tag the queued stuff as queue since tumblr has a fast-queue button now so most of the time, you won't really know. (like right now actually, cause 80% of the stuff on my blog is queued *mysterious laughter*)

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

pinterest showed me the way and then my sister diagnosed me with tumblr material :')

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

it's a closeup of bangs!sam eating a rainbow. how could i ever resist? (also: icon credit to @xojo for stilling and magnifying the gif <3)

7. why did you choose your header?

i was going through my picsart phase and editing dozens of spn screencaps a day when i stumbled across purple dog shirt sammy on a bed with a laptop and felt, what the kids these days call, recognition of the self through the other <3

8. what's your post with the most notes?

a "list" of things spn taught us, posted on november 19th, that just has 'get vaccinated' written on it. there's way funnier "lessons" in the notes though

9. how many mutuals do you have?

how...am i supposed to know? (no, genuinely. where do i find out?)

10. how many followers do you have?

4793. and no, i also have no idea where they're coming from. i love them tho 💖💖💖

11. how many people do you follow?

spanning over a multitude of fandoms, over a thousand :)

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

bold of you to assume i don't have entire tags dedicated to them

13. how often do you use tumblr a day?

it's gone down recently because I've got some exams and other real life stuff coming up but it's still an easy couple of hours. more, probably :D

14. did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog?

yeah, a few times, i think? there's been the usual stuff with w*ncesties on my own posts but that's practically a rite of passage. and there were a couple of times somebody was mean to my friends. but it's been a very long time since either of those things so yay!

15. how do you feel about the you need to reblog posts?

at this point, i'm immune to both the "need" to reblog and the annoyance caused by somebody pointing it out, so whether i reblog or not really just depends on the post :)

16. do you like tag games?

very much! the joy of being thought about outside of my direct sphere of existence my beloved <333

17. do you like ask games?

absofruitly, but i'm phenomenally bad at completing them :< doesn't stop me from starting new ones like every other week though. thank you for bearing with me :')

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

a lot of them actually? can't blame them for being so perfect, ngl 🤷🏻‍♀️ but anyway here's two famouse friends: @super-sootica and @queer-as-frikc :3

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

well, i DO end up asking @paper-lilypie to marry me every now and then. might just be a coincidence tho :/

tagging everyone who's already been tagged up there and @3dg310rdsupreme @irrlicht-ghostfront @bluefirecas and @sherlockisactuallyagaysname if you wanna <3

[joanofarchetype]

A Connecticut Yankee...a kid...that's all well and good but we really don't talk enough about the werewolf in King Arthur's court

This is not a shitpost — in Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory makes mention of "Sir Marrok, the good knight that was betrayed with his wyf, for she made hym seven yere a wer-wolf". Of course, Malory lifted the tale of the werewolf knight straight outta "Bisclavret," which is one of the Twelve Lais of Marie de France. And it is...wild. There's also "Melion," an anonymous Breton lai which along with "Biclarel" is believed to have evolved from the same source as "Bisclavret". In this post we're gonna refer to the protagonist as the "knight" or the "wolf-knight" and tell a somewhat composite tale.

(A note: this takes place well before commonly established werewolf lore, which crystallized thanks to Universal's The Wolf Man. Curt Siodmak wrote all that stuff about the full moon and silver bullets in 1941 so well that our common imagination accepted it as ancient fact.)

So anyway our guy is a knight who disappears for a couple nights a week and his wife is like ?????? dude ??????? where ??? do you ???? go ??????

And my dude is like "babe I love you but I can't tell you because you won't look at me the same" and she's like "I am your wIFE you better tell me right quick or otherwise have a good nose for almonds in your oatmeal" (jk she doesn't say that because if she did he might've gotten a little foreshadowing of her treachery, but alas, our man was a sucker)

So the knight tells her he's a werewolf, and on the nights he disappears he's wolfing around the countryside and his wife is like !!!!!!!!!! on the inside but makes sure her face is only 🤔 on the outside

(Mind you, Marie de France goes into how the wife is grossed out because she shared her marriage bed with a beast, which has some interesting implications but we'll get to those later)

She starts digging about his transformation until he explains how in order to return to his human shape, he *needs* to put his human clothes back on or else he'll be stuck as a wolf, at which point wifey is 👀👀👀👀

Wifey's like, "but if ur in wolf form, how do u remember where u put ur clothes lol" and the knight's like, "no no, I retain my human mind even in wolf form and besides, I always put them under this one rock outside this cave"

now bear in mind he's never been able to talk about this to anyone so he's pouring his heart out about his deepest secret which he kept even from his wife & I know we're all pretty used to medieval repression but imagine how it must have felt to share this secret at long last 😥

So to recap:

knight: 🤵🏻🛡🐾🌕🐺🤫😅😍♥️💐 wifey: 👰🏼💭🤢🤔👀🧐💡💡👔💍🔪🔪🔪

Our knight is like "yeah so I was born this way and it's just a part of who I am and whew it's kind of a relief to finally be talking about it with someone"

Wifey nods along 🤔🤔🤔 because she's had a💡moment and is 🍳 up a plan...

so the knight has unleashed (pun intended) his secret for the first time in this life and is feeling just dandy, but what he doesn't know is his wife is already plotting his downfall with her...LOVER (dun dun dunnn)

wifey & her secret lover steal the knight's clothes when he's transformed, essentially trapping him in wolf form, get him declared dead in absentia, marry each other & take over his lands

and the royal court goes for this because at this point the whole kingdom knows about the knight's habit of disappearing for days at a time (because medieval nobles are messy gossipy bitches who live for that drama) so they just assume he abandoned her

*~*ONE YEAR LATER*~* (or if you're Malory, *~*SEVEN YEARS LATER*~*)

the king & hunting party corner the wolf-knight in the woods. knight is overwhelmed at the sight of his monarch & runs up to what for all he knows might be his oblivion to kiss king's feet at which point king's like, "THAT'S NO ORDINARY WOLF. HE SHALL JOIN MY COURT IMMEDIATELY."

the wolf-knight goes to live at court where he's basically regarded as a knight (so the takeaway from this part of the lai is that a literal wild animal had a better chance of becoming a knight in ye olden days than a peasant or a woman but I digress)

anyway so there's a celebration at court and who comes to the party but the ex-wifey's new husband, now a baron. understandably, the wolf-knight does NOT react well and attacks him, and the reaction of everyone at court at this near-mauling isn't to say "whoa whoa maybe bringing a wolf to court was a bad idea" but rather "huh, this wolf has never been hostile towards a human before so obviously this guy must've personally wronged him." which is...progressive.

so the new husband/baron/co-conspirator is all "wtf keep it away from me" and the king is like "idk man, what were you wearing? maybe you smelled like royal beef jerky at the time. seems like you were asking for it"

king & the other barons take wolf-knight to the new baron's property. they just need to figure out what's going on because they're not ready to take sir wolf to his final veterinary visit, u feel? they're attached. now get ready for this next part because it's a doozy.

ex-wifey hears about the king's visit so she's waiting with gifts & cakes & shit. the wolf-knight sees her & immediately BITES OFF HER NOSE & he bites it so good her progeny can feel it & henceforth all her descendants are — I SHIT YOU NOT — born noseless. talk about losing face.

under questioning (*cough cough* torture *cough*) the wife admits to her crimes & yields the stolen clothing, which they put in front of the wolf & he just stares at them until they realize "wow yeah sorry dude our bad" and leave the room to give him privacy

when they see the wolf-knight again he's in his human form and in Marie de France's "Bisclavret" it's expressly written that the king embraces him in the bedchamber and gives him "many kisses" (hashtag heterosexual friends doing heterosexual things)

the king restores the wolf-knight's lands and ex-wifey has to live with her ex-baron in exile, forever marked for her betrayal. some real Mark of Cain shit. (obviously this lai has a lot to say about spousal dissatisfaction but that’s another day’s dissertation)

the wolf-knight (Bisclavret, or Melion, or Marrok, or Sir Wolf or whatever you fancy calling him) not only regains his good name, but also the support of a court which now knows his secret dual nature.

something to be hated or feared, only understood and accepted. no one at court shuns him once the secret's out & no one tries to change or "heal" him of his lycanthropy.

remember when I said we'd come back to the wife's reaction? in "Bisclavret" Marie de France specifically states that upon finding out his secret, the wife no longer wishes to "lie beside him." let's unpack that a bit by exploring similar themes across folklore.

the marriage bed serves as a common motif in tales of animal transformation. ex: in "Beauty and the Beast," the protagonist has to overcome her revulsion towards her suitor's ostensible monstrosity before she can accept his marriage proposal. traditionally these stories with mysterious, beastly husbands who are secretly a true catch serve as an allegory for arranged marriage, designed to help young women process their anxieties about being passed from their father's house to that of a strange new husband.

(we should differentiate these tales from those of an ostensibly appropriate groom who turns out to be a monster in disguise such as "Bluebeard," "Mr. Fox," and "The Robber-Bridegroom," as those deserve a detailed thread of their own but also provide good thematic contrast here)

more often the Beast is kind, patient & gives Beauty the time she needs to the detriment of his own freedom from the curse. once the protagonist gets over her anxiety, she ceases to perceive her groom as just a hulking hairy beast and he can take the shape of a prince at last.

circling back to wolves! in most lore both ancient and modern, werewolves represent something uncontrollable; an animalistic second nature which threatens to literally tear through our well-mannered social façade. "Bisclavret" and its various incarnations don't do that.

if you read "Bisclavret" under a queer critical lens, you can interpret the knight as bisexual; a husband has a secret duality to his nature which he is unable to express in their current social order. significantly, he is born with his lycanthropy rather than being afflicted by the sudden, violent means through which most fictional werewolves are afflicted. it's a part of who he is, and it requires no further explanation or cure.

the wolf-knight finds freedom rather than shame in his lycanthropy, and as a result maintains both honor and control while in wolf form. unlike other famous werewolves, he doesn't function as an expression of tension between the id and the superego.

considering how often wolves are used to imply sexual violence (see also: "Little Red Riding Hood" or its medieval predecessor, "The Grandmother's Tale") this would be a fairly positive portrayal of a bisexual man.

however, his wife doesn't see it that way and is repulsed at the thought of sleeping with him again, so she commits adultery and conspires against him. so really, the crimes in "Bisclavret" have a lot to do with sex, just not sexual violence.

the king's attachment to the wolf & the way he embraces the knight can easily be read as homoerotic. there's absolutely an argument to be made about the normalization of homosocial behavior & male kinship across eras but...two things can be true. either interpretation is valid.

so what we have is a werewolf protagonist — not a villain or tortured anti-hero but an honorable man who isn't made to shed his lycanthropy at the end of the tale (tail). rather, he is accepted by his contemporaries and given a place in society to live as he truly is/ROLL CREDITS

[syndullastars]

tagged by @brontes thank you !! ♡

on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now? like a 5.5 maybe

describe yourself in a hashtag? #AHHHHHHHH

if you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be? does anyone actually like to do love scenes cause it seems like it’d be pretty uncomfortable to me

if your life was a musical, what would the marquee say? rolling with the punches

what’s one thing people don’t know about you? probably that i’m actually a mess hahaha

what’s your wake up ritual? bathroom, brush teeth, wash face, contacts, breakfast and then get dressed

what’s your go to bed ritual? bathroom, brush teeth, contacts out, read until i’m ready to sleep

what’s your favorite time of day? depends on the season, but since we’re coming up on summer i’ll go with that twilight time of the evening between like 7 and 9 when the sun is setting and you can hear all the crickets and other insects singing and everything seems blanketed in this otherworldly glow

your go to for having a good laugh? old messages/videos/photos, cracky memes and shitposts

dream country to visit? new zealand

what’s the biggest surprise you’ve ever had? my parents surprised us with a trip to disney once! my sister and i literally cried lmao

heels or flats/sneakers? sneakers

vintage or new? depends, but usually new

who do you want to write your obituary? whoever wants to i guess

style icon? padme amidala (yes a fictional character)

what are three things you cannot live without? family, friends, and good stories

what’s one ingredient you put in everything? i use red pepper a lot, but not in everything. so probably too much salt

what 3 people living or dead would you want to make dinner for? my best friend, my sister, my mom

what’s your biggest fear in life? failing / not living up to my family’s expectations of me

window or aisle seat? window, but only if i know the people next to me. i get up way too many times to bother them if i don’t lol

what’s your current tv obsession? the clone wars :(

favorite app? apple music or messages, bc those are the ones i use most

secret talent? all my talents have long been put on display and used to give me stress lol

most adventurous thing you’ve ever done in your life? moving across the country for school probably

how would you define yourself in three words? perceptive, self-aware, empathetic

favorite piece of clothing you own? maybe my fila disruptors? basic i know but they're very stompy

a must have clothing item that everyone should have? a nice pair of jeans i think

a superpower you would want? telepathy

what’s inspiring you in life right now? art and the people who make it

best piece of advice you’ve received? forgive and let go (but don’t forget)

best advice you’d give your teenage self? stop worrying so much about being well-behaved and fight back. tell people what you think even if they don’t want to hear it

a book everyone should read? everyone has different values and interests so i don’t think i can recommend one book that everyone should read

what would you like to be remembered for? being a good friend

how do you define beauty? beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it’s whatever i think is beautiful, and also whatever anyone else thinks is beautiful

what do you love most about your body? if we’re talking about features then my eyes, but overall i’ve worked hard to get strong and i love how effortless everything feels now

best way to take a rest/decompress? lounging around and watching something, maybe with friends depending on my mood

favorite place to view art? i guess it depends on what type of art

if your life was a song, what would the title be? keep on

if you could master one instrument, what would it be? piano or saxophone

if you had a tattoo, where would it be? it would be small, just under my hairline on the back of my neck. but i would never get a tattoo anyway

dolphins or koalas? dolphins !!

what’s your spirit animal? i don’t think so

best gift you’ve ever received? probably books that i asked for

best gift you’ve given? i design a themed calendar for my best friend every year and she always really loves that, but also i did something very elaborate for my sister last christmas and she was laughing about it for weeks. the pieces are still arranged in a shrine in her room lol

what’s your favorite board game? clue, or trivial pursuit but only if it has a fun theme

what’s your favorite color? all of them!

least favorite color? there are no bad colors

diamond or pearls? pearls

drugstore makeup or designer? you could hand me one of each and i wouldn’t even know the difference

pilates or yoga? i’ve never done either so idk

coffee or tea? coffee but i like both

what’s the weirdest word in the english language? discombobulate, canoodle, phlegm

dark chocolate or milk chocolate? dark for sure

stairs or elevators? stairs, i hate elevators

summer or winter? both

you are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat? just the thought of that makes me tired of every single food in existence lol

a dessert you don’t like? anything fancy

a skill you’re working on mastering? life drawing and general storyboarding stuff, for school and career purposes

best thing to happen to you today? the clone wars finale :((((

worst thing to happen to you today? also the clone wars finale :((((

best compliment you’ve ever received? a few of my friends have told me that i always know exactly what to say, and that makes me happy bc i try very hard to understand them and be what they need so i’m glad it pays off

favorite smell? pine trees and snow on the air, but also sunscreen and the sea

hugs or kisses? hugs

if you made a documentary, what would it be about? honestly it would be about star wars, but specifically george lucas and his vision and how the unique position the franchise is in, where multiple authors and creators are contributing to it at any given time + the disney rebranding + the fact that star wars fans have always seemed to adamantly want to discard lucas’ original intent has led to the way fan circles view star wars now and how wildly different those views can be from what lucas intended

last piece of content you consumed that made you cry? the clone wars finale lol

lipstick or lipgloss? lipgloss

sweet or savory? savory

girl crush? natalie portman

how do you know you’re in love? i��ve only been in love once and it was a very fledgling thing but it was like, they’re always on your mind, seeing them is simultaneously like there’s no ground under your feet and also like there’s no oxygen in the room, and being with them makes you insane just the same as not being with them makes you insane

a song you can listen to on repeat? right now, youth by glass animals, but it always changes

if you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be? definitely no one! my life is like a well organized library (even if maybe some books are missing or damaged lol) and i would hate to be dropped into an unsorted pile of books and have to organize all over again

what are you most excited for/about this time in your life? well real life is kind of on hold but my cousins and i just merged our quarantine circles which is a lot of fun so there’s that lol

this is long so i’ll just tag a few: @yensofrivia @daenerystargaryes @elizabethswcnn @kristnbell ( feel free to ignore ofc ♡ )

[ark-of-eden]

R is drunk and raving (not in the party way).

(R:) Additionally, I’m procrastinating like a fucking champion at working on fic construction, so you know the best use of my time is going off about random social media crap on the internet.

tl;dr: Putting all commentary in tags on Tumblr makes R cry and shit thousands of words into the Internet.

Every social media site inevitably develops sets of unwritten social conventions. Some of them actually make sense as being derived from meatspace etiquette and therefore you don’t really have to stress about remembering them as long as you play nice like a decent creature.

And some of them just don’t make any fucking sense that I can see. Folks on Twitter using a deliberately space-limited form of media to write a page’s worth or more in a string of 30+ rapidfire tweets? This is just how it’s done over there? (Tweetlonger exists but for some reason these massive chain-tweeters never seem to use it. Same with posting the whole thing in a long-form site like LJ/DW/Tumblr and just linking it to a tweet.)

And Tumblr has things that I literally had to put effort into learning after I migrated here, and after I learned about them I frankly decided to ignore them because I couldn’t see the point in them. Tumblr has this bizarre allergy to commentary and, likely derived from that, the practice of instead commenting by putting it all in awkward tags that render the tagging system not especially useful and are harder to get to if you’re actually interested in an individual’s thoughts about a thing and not just the twelfth instance of the same post crossing your dash in a day or two. It’s not like you can’t engage with people, because asks and messaging and such exist, but like...there’s this strong sense that it’s Terribly Ill-Mannered to weigh in with your own impressions right there, in the body of the post, typing your own words in that seductive, wide-open text box that appears all on its own when you go to reblog something. The properly-socialized Tumblrite eschews that tempting text field and instead posts weird sentence fragments in tag form (interspersed with actual tags that might serve to usefully categorize the post’s content), to the extent that some people can add on a good couple paragraphs of material down among the hashtags where others need to go looking for it on purpose if they want it. (I, at least, haven’t been able to find a plugin or something that automatically expands full tags on all posts so that I don’t have to fuck around with extra interface elements to get to them. I admit that I haven’t looked super hard, though.)

Preserving the original form of the OP’s post is a noble practice that I heartily support, but how is adding commentary a problem if you’re only adding a separate thing, not taking away or altering anything in the original...? This was already a practice/convention/code of social interaction on Tumblr when I got here, so I was never in the front row to witness this element taking shape. I suppose it must have made good sense at the time, but every time I see ten people reblogging the same post with no additions and a paragraph of tags appended to it, it’s like a splinter in my brain that has been digging into me for years now.

And I’m not hating on people who do that! I get that that’s The Way It’s Done Here and I am the deviant weirdo for continually adding comments directly onto things that I reblog. Tags are where individuality lives here, unless you’re producing your own original posts, which I guess other people are then supposed to reblog without commentary so that you have to go hunting after all the reblogs individually if you want to get an actual sense of what these people were all thinking when they reblogged your thing. It all just seems...so...WORK INTENSIVE, refusing to use site functions as they were intended??

Look, I absolutely know that my commentary is not the work of incisive genius that unfailingly adds value to every post I find worthy of my attention. We’re pretty much solid shitposting on this blog. Because I’m a little loaded at the moment and that gives me a handy excuse to run my fingers like an idiot (plus I put that readmore up there, so if your eyes are actually consuming these words, you have only yourself to blame for being here), let me run down relevant history of how we got here.

LJ was home for a good long while. Then shit got seriously messed up and Dreamwidth was created as a better LJ, so we migrated all our stuff over there. And journaling sites along those lines still feel like a native environment. I, in particular, am the most long-winded piece of shit we know and I am honestly incapable of talking about anything of worth in short form. It’s a sickness and I just sort of have to own it. :/ But that’s why journaling sites are a good place for me to live, because that’s where people go when they have the inclination to read meandering scrawls about the depths of other people’s lives or whatever.

We went to Twitter for a good while because all the cool people we knew from LJ were going there for some unfathomable reason. These people wrote things that were complex and fascinating to read, so all of them jumping ship to a place that limited them to 140-character chunks made no damn sense, but we loved those people and wanted to trust that they knew what the hell they were doing. And they probably did, and a couple of us were actually okay with Twitter, but I, being the long-winded shitpiece, spent a lot of time frustrated and kind of overstimulated.

Then things started going to hell more and more consistently for me personally (and us generally by extension, but that’s unnecessary detail). Bunkering down specifically to protect people that you care about from the fallout of your crazy is a fairly common thing for mentally-ill people to do, I think. So I’d shut up online until I felt stable enough to talk to people again. Those periods lasted a few days, then a week or more, then a month, then eventually I stopped talking entirely. I missed the LJ/DW format, but in the past I’d written about life events and things I was thinking about and such, so...at the time, all I really had to write about was the bad stuff. So LJ/DW was basically unusable as well.

I literally came here to be as shallow as I could possibly manage. Tumblr had a rapid, chaotic flow similar to Twitter, but could hold longer content like LJ/DW. We’ve never really used the site’s full functionality at any point, though. For at least a year, all we were following was the most lightweight, zero-calorie entertainment that we could find. (We actually came here for Flight Rising content, so there was a lot of that.) Being engaged with fandom in any consistent respect is an extremely recent thing.

And I’m not saying that fandom hasn’t got depth and complexity because it absolutely does and that’s one of the beautiful things about shared fan experiences. I kind of got into that sort of fandom by accident after getting here and rediscovering Transformers. But the unvoiced policy that I’ve always had here is to avoid the Too Real and dodge serious topics whenever possible. Thus, no gender theory, no neurodivergence or multiplicity, no nonhumanity, no religion or UPG, nothing with real substance behind it that bared real vulnerabilities. (Apparently this was a good move anyway because the nonhuman and multiplicity situation here on Tumblr is a bit of a clusterfuck? I honestly wouldn’t know, as I haven’t made a lot of effort to link up with those folks.) That’s still the policy. That might remain the policy forever until I reach some vaguely-defined threshold of sanity that makes me worthy of talking about those things in places and formats that other people can interact with.

And I’m sorry for all this talk about mental illness, but it’s simpler just to explain things clearly. I likely won’t go into any more detail about it on Tumblr. Or anywhere else, because I care about people even if I’ve never met them or talked to them at all and I still want to keep it all in the bunker to protect good people from the crazy. Sometimes, all you can do is just prevent the damage from spilling out into other people’s lives, and that’s the place that I usually operate from.

I’m still pretty drunk, so I’m allowed to ramble from too much truth serum, but all of that explanation was to get around to saying that the format of online communication that is most intuitive to me is the long, oversharing gut-spill of random people talking about things that are really meaningful to them - not in the sense of elaborate philosophy or artsy epistles to the cosmos, but just people being super real about things that are meaningful to them and going into lots of detail about them because gushing about things you love is great. And it’s possible to get that sort of discussion and gushing in Tumblr fandom, and I love it because it reminds me of better times, and the fact that I love it is WHY IT MAKES ME SO GODDAMN FRUSTRATED that Tumblr culture is basically stifling discussion and feedback and RESPONSE to things that people find interesting!!

Like, here’s how I see it. Unlike on LJ/DW, where you were limited to hyperlinking to a cool post in one of your own posts if you wanted your readers to go check it out, on Tumblr, if you find a super cool thing, you can pull it directly into your space and let other people experience it directly, exactly as you experienced it. But the thing is, I also subscribe to the My Blog My House concept. If I pull a thing into my “home,” I do it because there’s something homelike about it; it belongs in my home for some specific reason. I don’t take “ownership” of an item in the sense that I’m claiming it in place of its creator, but I’m taking ownership of it in the sense that it’s part of my Stuff now and it’ll get my fingerprints all over it and be blended into the general morass of Stuff that I recognize as my home. I don’t just pull random crap into my home for no reason at all.

And I just figure that other people are similar in the sense that they reblog things for distinct, unique reasons, not in the sense that they have some master plan for their blog content (some do, but it’s not necessary), but just that they have compelling reasons why they pick certain bits of content out of the larger river of their dashboard and put it in their own space for people to experience with them. I follow people based on the interesting things that they find interesting. I’m interested in why they’re interested in those things. They seem like interesting people to me because they’re interested in what they’re interested in.

But the WHY is a really important part of the equation for me. Did this person reblog that photo because they’ve been to that place themselves, because they like that kind of tree, because they reblog photos with that color scheme every Thursday? Did that person reblog that piece of art because they love that character, because they’re studying that art medium, because it reminded them of something funny they saw somewhere else? People attach their own context to things that they latch onto. It’s so freaking weird to me that people have to hide their interpretations or impressions in tags here on Tumblr, making them unimportant and optional in the process of sharing things they like with others. (Okay, people also share a lot of things they hate, but reasons for outrage are still part of the context that one adds to content.)

I WANT TO KNOW WHY YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING ME. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT TO YOU. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT MAKES YOU THINK AND FEEL. Even if it’s a blurb about how giant robots fuck or a cute kitten video, I NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS.

Not in excruciating detail or with insightful analysis or even a lot of text at all. Mostly, the things that people put in tags are things that, to me, are a really crucial part of the experience of being able to go into someone’s “home” and see the Stuff that they chose to put in it. Reducing oneself to a glorified signal repeater is...okay, I guess, though it turns a Tumblr blog into a kind of faceless stream of other people’s material a lot of the time. The personal touch is what makes it all interesting. And I’m just unutterably frustrated that, somewhere along the line, it was decided that personalizing an experience by sharing one’s own impressions of it became rude enough that polite society decided that it had to be hidden away in tags. I want all of it, so I do go looking for it, but omg it requires MORE EFFORT and BURNING CALORIES and BODILY MOVEMENT and WAAAAH, you know what I mean. :P

And possibly Tumblr society is right and it’s done for a good, decent purpose and I’m being pigheaded and uncool by insisting on doing things my way without bothering to try and understand the local customs. I’m not usually that much of an asshole, but I am about this, for some reason. And I admit that my craving for those personal touches could very well spring from how utterly isolated and lonely I am, so maybe normal people really don’t need all the extra info and actually do just want mostly-impersonal streams of content. And that’s fine, since I know I’m kind of a weirdo even on my best days.

I’m pretty sure that that was all that I really wanted to say. I’m probably overreacting about the whole comments-in-tags thing. Like I said, it’s kind of an irrational irritation. Also, I need to stop before I write myself sober and no longer have an excuse for all of this. If you actually read all of that, you are an awesome, generous person and I’m pretty damn certain that I love you even though I have no idea who you are.

[shadyparade]

i was tagged by @fennekiin to do this cute little tag game! thank you very much <3

i dont think im gonna tag anyone this time but obviously if you wanna do this, go ahead! it was pretty fun :)

why did you choose your url?

i actually got it from a random generator! lmao im not very creative... its a nice username though i think! i really like being called shady :)

any side blogs? if you have them: name them and why you have them

i have a few haha, theyre all private though. i used to use them to reblog various hyperfixations that i didnt want to spam my main blog with, and also to save some usernames that i liked. i wont name them though because theyre all private so you wouldnt be able to see them anyway lmao

how long you've been on tumblr?

its been so long that i dont even know anymore lmao. my current account was made in 2016, but ive been around longer than that.

do you have a queue tag?

i dont really know why anyone would tag a queue tbh... maybe to let people know that you arent actually online? anyway, i dont queue so no lol

why did you start your blog in the first place?

i like that tumblr is very gay and focused on fandom so i wanted to be a part of that lol

why did you choose your icon?

i really like persona 5! and i really like akira/ren/joker :)

why did you choose your header?

i dont have a header lmao and thats because i like how my blog looks without one better. hashtag minimalism or whatever lol

what's your post with the most notes?

i basically only reblog posts and dont really post much of my own stuff. probably if i had to guess though, it might be one post i made which was just a picture of my bird lmao

how many mutuals do you have?

46! wow, thats more than i would have thought lol

how many followers do you have?

292 ^_^

how many people do you follow?

978....... is that too much? lmao

have you ever made a shitpost?

not really lol

how often do you use tumblr each day?

a lot probably! its easy to use when im bored lol

did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

ive never really had anything like that! i mostly just reblog funny memes and stuff so i dont really see a lot of discourse or whatever

how do you feel about "you need to reblog this" posts?

i dont really like stuff like that but ill probably still reblog a post with that on it if i really agree with the rest of it

do you like tag games?

i like filling them out! its nice sometimes to just answer a bunch of questions from a list lol. i always feel weird tagging people in return though haha

do you like ask games?

i dont really do ask games tbh. idk why really but i just like them less than tag games

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

im not gonna name them but im pretty sure at least 3 of them are tumblr famous. but who knows really! maybe all of them are :o

do you have a crush on a mutual?

no hahaha, though i always like seeing them on my dash :)