#i thought for a long time whether it was worth reblogging the post

[timeflow]

good evening reddit users, welcome to the website. not seen one of these that tells you how to make this website bearable so here goes

starting off with dashboard settings you want to turn off endless scrolling (it slows down the website after a while of scrolling), turn off shorten long posts because one of the main things about this website is the total lack of a character limit (as an alternative to this setting, you can press j to skip to the next post on the dashboard if the current one is kind of long). turning on timestamps is convenient because it allows you to check when a post was made (don't get me wrong: this website absolutely LOVES reblogging old posts, but there are times when it's worth checking if a post has very old news in it)

turn off best stuff first right away. one of the main reasons cited for joining tumblr is because "there is no algorithm". this is not entirely true, we have one but we routinely turn off anything algorithmic that staff adds. turning off best stuff first means your dashboard will be reverse chronological no matter what, and turning off based on your likes and stuff in your orbit will get rid of the rest of the algorithmically-recommended content that appears on your dashboard

following tags is nice because you will occasionally see posts with tags you follow sprinkled into your dashboard. this is considered good because it's almost always recent, I personally recommend turning on include followed tag posts and just following a bunch of random tags that you think could be interesting (characters, media, topics, whatever)

this one's a more personal thing but I would absolutely turn off any community labels because tumblr staff has recently been just putting a bunch of random posts under this despite being entirely sfw. if you ACTUALLY want to filter content, then go to filtered tags:

unlike the community labels which are put arbitrarily by staff, tags are put on by the actual users and so you can MUCH more reliably filter out content you don't want to see by putting filtered tags. this also works for any kind of content unlike the community labels, meaning you can just filter out stuff that you don't want to see (a particular character, a particular piece of media, a certain topic, anything you want really)

turn on custom theme immediately. the standard view of tumblr.com/url will give people who are not logged in a forced login wall, meanwhile url.tumblr.com will not. by doing this you also get access to your post archive at url.tumblr.com/archive, which lets you look through your posts more easily (the search function is awful). the main benefit of this, however, is that you get to have a custom look to your blog: going to edit theme brings up a menu that allows you to customize your css, add pages to your tumblr blog, etc. all very useful stuff

it's also worth taking the time to consider whether or not you leave your liked posts and list of blogs you follow public (most people have likes turned off, following is also commonly turned off but I personally don't care about others seeing who I follow)

turn off the let people blaze your posts. blaze basically allows you to pay money to show a post to a random group of people by paying money, suffices to say that allowing others to blaze your posts without your consent will inevitably lead to one of your personal posts getting blazed by some prick and now hundreds of people have seen it

asks are one of the main ways of interacting with blogs so absolutely turn them on. whether you allow anons is your choice, anonymity allows people to say nice things without feeling embarrassed about how everyone knows who said that, but it also allows people to send hateful stuff with no consequence.

submissions are like whatever. I personally leave them on but in my 5 years of having this blog I've been submitted to twice.

to close off this post I'll leave my personal thoughts on reblog etiquette:

reblogging is great. reblog the fuck out of anything. does the post amuse you slightly? reblog it. go wild

that being said please don't put anything in your reblogs unless it's like a really important comment. your comment will be immortalized forever if someone reblogs the post from you and on popular posts I have to constantly go back a couple years to get rid of an annoying comment like "LOL THIS IS SO FUNNY" because that person didn't realize that their addition was wholly unnecessary

if you DO want to add something to say your thoughts on the post in a quiet voice that doesn't get permanently added onto the original, consider talking in the tags of your reblog. this is considered nicer since when the post is reblogged from you your tags are not going to stick around. there is also this process known as "peer review" in which if your tags are sufficiently funny one of your followers (or sometimes a random person browsing the notes of the post) will screenshot/copy and paste your tags into a reblog, which is a much more natural way of having your comment added into the post

tags are also nice to use or organizational purposes. clicking on a post with a certain tag on your blog will show you every post with that tag on your blog allowing you to find posts later, alternatively you can go to url.tumblr.com/archive/tagged/[insert tag here] to a similar effect.

that's all I have to say on this subject. have fun on our glorious website

edit: oh yeah also unfollow staff. it will make you look normal 👍

[therecordconnection]

Some Thoughts Regarding James Somerton

I know I'm rather late to the conversation and some of these points may have already been talked about in some form elsewhere on the site, but if you don't mind, I have some thoughts of my own regarding the subject of hbomberguy's latest video and I would like to take time to voice. This blog is normally dedicated to music and music writing, not posts about disgraced Youtubers, so I apologize for the detour in regularly scheduled programming.

First, I think it's important to make the distinction that Somerton isn't just a case of "problematic Youtube guy got owned... twice" but rather a genuine case of academic dishonesty, which is several grades above youtuber drama. This isn't something like Tati Westbrook getting angry at James Charles for sucking dick and cock at a birthday dinner. This isn't Ethan Klein and Trisha Paytas or whomever having beef. It's not Charlie Critikal talking about some stupid drama of the day or someone just using Youtube videos to say a bunch of gross and problematic stuff. No. This is a fucking grifter who not only lied, cheated, and stole his way to the top, but also did it by using a vulnerable community that has long had their voices snuffed out and their history completely rewritten or wiped from existence altogether. What history he didn't plagiarize, he twisted and outright lied about. He just made shit up to suit his own gross agenda.

A lot of things about James Somerton left me absolutely livid, and I admit that I didn't even know who he was until hbomberguy's video. I think what makes me the most mad is that I went to undergrad and grad school with a number of jackoffs that were just like him. People that didn't give a shit about the art of writing and research and just treated academia and the pursuit of knowledge and how to critically engage with art and media into a stupid game that only chumps take seriously. Somerton pisses me off because I AM a writer. When I write the Ranting and Raving series of posts on here, that stuff doesn't just fly out of my ass. I have to sit with a song, study it, research it, and make sure I know what I'm talking about so I don't look like a clown. I also have to make sure that I link and credit where I'm getting information from. It's not just important for my own satisfaction, but it's important for anyone who stumbles upon a post on this blog and takes time out of their day to read it and/or reblog it.

I think that's the part that makes me the most mad. That he and Nick Hergott have so little respect for the work that goes into researching and writing about a topic that other people are really passionate about. Spending time with something, studying it, and figuring out an interesting and unique perspective on it is a great feeling. Sharing what you find or how you see something with others and having them either like or reblog your work is an even greater feeling. That's my writing that somebody enjoyed and thought was worth sharing with others. Fuck fuck fuck Somerton for thinking you can take a million little shortcuts to get to that result.

While I'm on the topic, I don't think Hergott gets a pass for Somerton's actions. I've seen some people make the argument that he isn't complicit and there's a chance that he genuinely had no clue that Somerton was doing this... but I don't buy it. There's no way he didn't know and wasn't in on it in some capacity. Even if he wasn't, as Todd in the Shadows pointed out in his video on this situation, Nick is, whether you like it or not, an accomplice to Somerton's lies and he is complicit in the blame, due to his name being included in the "Written By" credit of a lot of those videos with Somerton. The way I see it, I find it hard to believe that he couldn't have known. I imagine part of Hergott's signing on with Somerton was that in the event that shit hits the fan, Hergott would be used as a fall guy to help deflect accusations of plagiarism.

To return to Somerton, in a way, he's almost worse than AI/Chat-GPT because, really, an AI has no morals. It can only do what someone punches in and tells it to do. Somerton is a guy who does have genuinely insidious ambitions and knows fully what he's doing. That shit about "only the boring gays who didn't mess around in the eighties survived the aids crisis" is the wildest and grossest accusation I've seen about gay people in some time. The wild takes about the Nazis (especially all the wrong things he said about fitness relating to Nazis) should also raise a lot of red flags. I'll say this though, I don't blame anybody in the slightest for not fully realizing Somerton was saying shit like that or doing all of what he was doing until hbomberguy and Todd presented it a certain way and made it all very clear. It's easy to not notice it when Somerton buries it by ripping stuff off from other, better writers. So, if you were someone who was a big fan and was genuinely shocked by the things Todd had to fact-check and debunk and worried that you're a bad person for having not caught any of them, trust me, you're not. Nobody should blame you for not catching it. <3

While I'm ranting about this, I want to say that Somerton's patreon grift was really gross to see exposed as well (through Dan Olson's really great thread, which can be read here). I understand the allure of wanting to buy expensive gear and thinking that's somehow needed in order to make Good Content™️, but there's a stark difference between someone saying "I think I need to shell out a little money in order to get something of higher quality" and "I need to have the appearance of looking like my stuff is being made with high quality stuff." As someone who has been experimenting with trying to turn his writing into video, I did some audio tests this weekend and realized that maybe (just maybe) the old Turtle Beach microphone my brother left behind when he moved out isn't going to cut it. If I want to record something I can be happy with, I'm gonna have to bite it and look at getting something decent, but somewhat affordable from a Best Buy or something. You don't need the best tech in order to make something great, but you can't use copper tools forever if you have the means to be able to enjoy using iron ones, you know?

Somerton's grift reminded me of guys like Onision and Spoony. Grifters who looked to Patreon and other creator donation sites for an easy pay day and would bitch and cry and complain that it's your fault when they don't get it. Somerton making poor financial choices ON TOP of it being money that he scammed from a community of people that were looking to invest in a voice that they genuinely thought was speaking for them in a meaningful way, only makes the grift more disgusting and foul. Even if he's just "some Youtuber," Somerton still had a responsibility to his audience to present queer topics in an ACCURATE manner. He didn't and we all have the right to be angry with him about it. This isn't just silly youtuber controversy, this is academic dishonesty in it's purest form and if it gets you expelled from any college program, it should get you expelled from being able to show your face on Youtube as well, which is how Somerton's story will end.

I've been on the internet for many years. I've seen some of the worst, most problematic creators of all time find a way to bounce back from all kinds of controversy and find some kind of success again. I don't think that will happen for Somerton. Not one bit. What he's done is something you can never come back from, no matter how much you try to reform. If two different youtubers can make two completely different videos about why you suck, I don't think there's any recovery. What happened this weekend is a now classic episode of World's Most One Sided Fist Fights Caught on Film.

This post has gone on for a while, so let me wrap it up. I mean this without hyperbole and without exaggeration: James Somerton is a disgrace to both media criticism and the art of video creation. I genuinely hope he remains propped up as a cautionary tale of what can happen when you fully decide you have absolutely no respect for the Humanities and decide that lying, cheating, and stealing your way to the top, all while scamming and being incredibly shitty towards a community that has long suffered and is STILL suffering greatly to this day, is better than any kind of academic honesty. I understand that Somerton is just "some youtube fraud" to some people, but the problem lies more in what Somerton's actions and motivations represent. I really think hbomberguy's video on plagiarism is going to do a lot of good. It's going to help a lot of people avoid doing it as well as help people become more aware of what it really looks like and all the damage it can do.

Thank you for your time.

P.S. It doesn't really need to be said at this point, but make sure you support the queer voices and writers that did the work Somerton thought was good enough to just copy and paste into a video. They're the ones that suffered the most through all of this and my heart goes out to them, from one writer to another. <3

[rayofdawnworld]

Too Late part 3

Here is part 3 of Too Late a fic that was inspired by this board done by the brilliant @darkficsyouneveraskedfor, please check out her page if you don't already know her and @thezombieprostitute also a brilliant writer that you look in too in case you don't already know her either.

This is a work of Dark Fiction. It WILL contain dark themes. I will post the appropriate tags as they become relevant.

You are responsible for your own media consumption. Don't Like? DON'T READ!

I do not consent to ANY of my works to be posted for profit. I do not consent to ANY of my works to be posted on to third-party sites. I only have ONE AO3 page and I post what I want on it.

MINORS ARE NOT ALLOWED ON MY BLOG! DO NOT INTERACT! MDI

Please tell me your thoughts, this is my first Reader insert so I'm still a bit unsure if I'm doing a good job. I love constructive criticism.

Will tag you if you ask.

Tags based on Reblogs, Tag requests and likes: @roni-not-tyler @rosecentury @raritygold @fidrygalk @leonaax @severussnapesimp @lov4gor3 @kjah97 @silelda @thedragonlab @hopeasan

Part One, Part Two

Mr. Beckwourth was a kind soul. You came across him one early morning on your way to the university, six months into your escape, unconscious by the sidewalk. You didn’t know how long he had been there, but he did have a wicked gush on his forehead. Luckily for you and him, the milk lad was passing by on his way to deliveries when he spotted the two of you and recognised the old man instantly. Telling you to wait with him, the young man sprinted in a direction and came back with the man's neighbours, a foreign middle-aged couple. After telling them where you worked and asking them to send any news, you collected yourself and made your way to work. 

You received news about him a week later. The poor man was robbed; yes, he was fine; no, he didn't see who did it. After some visits and friendly banter, you became friends and had a standing agreement that every Saturday morning, you would go out to the docks with Mr. Beckwourth to get his supply of fish and then help him sell it in the market.

You were busily accepting an order of salmon and herring when your stomach lurched. Surely you were mistaken. 

Ever since you ran away from your previous life, you have lived in fear of a tall figure with broad shoulders finding you and dragging you back to those horrid people you called family. They would kill you if you ever went back home before you came of age, after what became of Darling Anne. 

There was no way that a man like Sherlock Holmes would come to the market to buy his food. Unless he was in one of his cases, why would it bring him here? You had no clue; you just hoped that whatever it was didn't bring him to this point.

Oh, yes, you had followed the news discreetly (no point in letting those around you know you were literate.), but diligently. You knew all about him and his service to the crown and its citizens. Best not to test fate. I’ve come too far. Your thought was desperate as you dove below the stall and rubbed some fish guts on your cheek and head. I’ll have to spend some money in one of the washhouses with warm water then. Mrs. Acker will have a fit if I show up soiled again. You rose again with a cheery smile, despite your fear about whether you may or may not have been seen.

You were hyper-aware of yourself leaving the market. Once, twice, three times you could have sworn you were being followed, but when you stopped in front of a shop or pretended to turn in the wrong street, with a piece of paper in your hand to make it believable, you had either come across a vagrant or no one at all. It took you longer than normal to get to the washhouse, but it was worth the coin and your time. You didn't afford yourself many luxuries, but good ointments and oils for your skin, courtesy of the two nurses, who were just old school mates and the young governess who took care of some lonely boys on the other side of London at night, and a weekly wash—a habit picked up by your mother and father's stay in their respective corners of the east—were a must. It was, in part, also why you decided to help Mr. Beckwourth. Not only did you like the old man, it also gave you a reason to visit the washhouses once a week. The ones with warm and hot water were cheaper than the tepid tub that Mrs. Acker managed. Having one last look around, you quickly dogged into the washhouse.

It was closer to evening when you finally made it to the house. Exsusted, not only from the week of labour you had but from walking up and down the streets of London just in case your follower from last night or that nuisance Sherlock Holmes had seen you or at least suspected it was you and tried to follow you back to your residence. 

Thanking Mrs. Acker for allowing you to take your supper in your room, you made your way up to what once had been a small attic workshop with a partial glass roof but was now a small room. You didn't mind it. The glass part of the roof had a hatch you could open in the summer, keeping the room cool. After all, who would climb to the roof to steal steel from a humble boarding house? And since the fireplace chimney ran through your room, it kept the winter chill out, despite part of the roof being made of glass. You liked the roof like this. It saved you on candles and gas for the lantern; it provided you with lots of natural light for you to read when you were in your room. And you always did love the sound of the rain. 

All in all, it was a quiet place with its share of whimsy. You had fallen in love with it the moment you saw it. Yes, it was a hassle to go down a flight of stairs every time you needed to go to the washroom, but since it was on the smaller side and was in the attic, it did come in cheaper than the other rooms, which suited you nicely. After eating, you settled down for some well-earned rest.

You didn't know that on the other side of London, in an apartment on Baker Street, a tall man with wide shoulders and dark blue eyes seethed in anger.

It had been by sheer coincidence that he found you at the market. Watson had to do some hours at the hospital, and Mary, being heavily pregnant, asked him to help her with her errands at the market. He stood silent as you helped an older man behind the fishmonger's stand. You couldn't help but notice your still-smooth hands. They had thickened with what he deduced was years of hard work, but they were still fine with smooth skin. On the subject of your skin, that too was fine, smooth, and quite clean. It didn't have any of the telltale muck common among the more impoverished folk. He didn't see how you could afford the cost of regular baths in a boarding house, so it could only be through the use of the washhouses that you could keep so clean. It still didn't explain the softness of your skin and healthy glow. Sherlock only had time to quickly turn around before you raised your eyes in his direction. He was going to take advantage of his luck. It seemed that he would move his plans forward by a whole day and a half. Making sure that Mary was alright and excusing himself, he made his way to the first beggar he found near the steps of the market. 

He was going to put his homeless network to good use. He would know where you lived by nightfall. 

Nightfall provided him with nothing. Despite no less than fifteen of his best in the Homeless Network having followed you discreetly, you still managed to give them the slip, more or less where he had followed you last night. He grabbed the skull on the fire mantle and threw it angrily at the wall. He then shot the wall for good measure. 

That sent Mr. Hudson into hysteria, threatening him about calling the Yard. No doubt Watson would have some choice words come Monday morning if previous fits of rage had taught him anything. He growled and threw more things at the wall opposite him. 

Pussycat was in for a right spanking when he finally got his hands on her.

Pussycat was in for a whole lot more when he got his hands on her. A lot more. 

Sherlock smiled in the darkness, clutching his violin bow in his hands.

[schizowitchic]

Hey, could you explain the whole NPD devaluing to me? What causes it and what does it look like? (What thoughts do you have etc.)

I’m trying to figure out if that’s what’s going on with me.

finally answering this!! putting it under the cut because it got kind of long

(sidenote before we begin - I don't know if devaluing is the most commonly used term for this experience in the npd community, i know there have been some debates over which terms to use as some originated with people who believe in narc abuse, and I don't know if devaluing is one of them, I know discarding has been renamed but unsure if devaluing also has) (Other sidenote - when I say "you" in this post I mean it in the general sense)

So as I understand it, devaluing in NPD is similar to the concept of splitting in BPD. It comes from that sort of black-and-white thinking common in Cluster B personality disorders, and since a lot of NPD symptoms are based around "worth", such as self-worth, quite a common example of black-and-white thinking towards people in NPD could be something like:

"You are worth everything to me" vs. "You are worth nothing to me",

"You are above me" vs. "You are equal to me" vs. "You are beneath me".

Then the process of devaluing would be something like having Person Y be a close friend, valuing Person Y pretty highly in your eyes - and then Person Y does something you don't like (Most likely something that damages the ego in some way - as NPD is an ego-related disorder) and suddenly Person Y is not equal to you, why would you ever like Person Y, Person Y is worth nothing, etc. etc.

Many things could cause a person to become devalued, it really depends on the presentation of NPD/the relationship itself - for me I often find expressing an opinion I really don't agree with, doing something that affects me negatively, or annoying me often in general will probably trigger thoughts associated with devaluing.

I wouldn't say that devaluing is necessarily permanent - people can go up and down in the sort of hierarchy that I have of them, which would obviously be dependent on what they have done/why I started to devalue them.

Devaluing is sort of a defense mechanism - if someone has been devalued then their opinion is less likely to matter to you (Thoughts such as "why would I care about the opinion of a person so obviously beneath me") and then your ego can't get hurt by that person.

What devaluing looks like would probably be highly dependent on the specific presentation of NPD - whether the thoughts stay internalised, or become externalised through self-destructive behaviour, or are externalised through hostility towards whoever is being devalued.

Devaluing can also lead to what is called "discarding" or "Relationship burn-out", where perhaps the thoughts surrounding a person primarily become negative/you no longer see the person as worth your time/you find you aren't getting enough supply from a person, and you let the relationship go or distance yourself.

To finish up, I would say that obviously, viewing people in a hierarchy based on their worth, and having black-and-white thinking surrounding relationships with people is clearly not healthy, but I tend to focus more on controlling my reaction to those thoughts rather than controlling the thoughts themselves. (e.g. instead of straight away dropping contact with the person, taking some time to reflect on what happened - why did I devalue them, is it salvageable, am I overreacting etc.)

Anyway, I hope this helps you anon, and if anyone has anything else to say please do!! I am not an expert and any input/clarifications are welcome in replies or reblogs!!

[roxtron]

Pinned post/About me thing

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you can call me whatever, i usually go by some variation of my username but i don't mind nicknames and stuff

he/they

i'm autistic so my posts will probably vary by whatever/whenever certain special interests/hyperfixations are stronger at the time

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A bit of info about what I post/reblog

i make original art sometimes but art block has been really tough so unfortunately i don't have a lot to post lately :(

besides that I'll usually make either rambling or analysis posts on whatever subject I'm posting about, usually fandom related. occasionally theories but that depends on if what I'm posting about really leaves room for theorizing.

I reblog pretty casually on here so it can range from stuff i find funny to stuff i think could use awareness, fandom-wise this blog somehow became pretty fnaf centered lol, not quite sure how that happened but i still consider it my main.

if i reblog other people's art or analysis I usually try to leave my thoughts in the tags, but sometimes I have a hard time thinking of what to say so sorry if I reblog your work and don't say anything/don't seem enthusiastic about it, if I reblog something it's because I adore it lol, I just don't always know how to put thoughts into words. <3

and as a side note, while I do try to check blogs of people I reblog in case it's a terf or whatever, sometimes you never know, so if I do reblog something from someone who's done something shitty don't hesitate to let me know with an ask or something because chances are I probably don't know lol.

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Boundaries stuff I guess.

I know DNI lists are annoying and pointless but whatever, if there's a chance it'll get people to leave me alone it's worth it. I shouldn't need to list obvious ones like terfs, transphobes, homophobes, all those assholes. But also, if you don't like one of my posts, I'd rather you block me and move on than hate reblog it. It's immature and annoying, and I won't hesitate to block people that do it.

Obviously I don't just mean "if you criticize something I post you're bad," I'm alright with criticism as long as it's respectful, but if you're gonna reblog just to say "look at this idiot" then fuck off.

Sorry about how aggressive that may have been but I don't wanna deal with stuff like that. I've dealt with it in the past and it sucks, if you don't like me, that's perfectly fine, but just block me and move on. Onto a more positive topic.. If you wanna use my art for pfps or anything that's really cool actually!! Ofc I'd ask for credit but if anyone did want a pfp of something I've drawn you can always send me an ask and I'll post a zoomed in version or something or make whatever edit you wanted so you don't need to worry about it lol Besides all that you don't have to worry about interacting with me, if you've got any questions whether that's related to me or my blog you don't have to hesitate to send an ask if you want :)

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Sideblogs

I've recently made sideblogs for other fandoms people don't follow me for here. I figured it'd be easier to separate them but mostly for spoilers' sake. Sure I try to spoiler tag but people aren't gonna block spoiler tags for fandoms they're not in if they see it and I'd hate to spoil someone for a series they could've had the chance to go into blind. That being said, please don't follow my other blogs unless you already know the spoilers for whatever fandom the blog's centered around. As much as I appreciate support I'd hate for you to get spoiled and I'd much rather wait for you to play the game yourself <3 (since as of now they're both video game fandoms..) @roxtron-kh (Kingdom Hearts)

@roxtron-gt (Ghost Trick)

----------------------------------------------------------- Woo I think that's everything! Finally I can get to the tags section of this long-ass post.. I wanna try to tag things more properly in the future, even if I'm not really big enough to warrant it, I still wanna be able to find my own stuff easier at least through the sea of reblogs, so if you're curious about any of my posts, here's a list of tags you can look through! I'm currently trying to update some of my old posts with tags so they can be added to the list.

[lokavisi]

Hail and welcome!

Hello! My name is Rory, aka Lokavísi. From what I can tell, Lokavísi is Old Icelandic for "Loki's prince." (Explanation for this name choice is here.) I've been working with Loki since 2020, and shortly thereafter He welcomed me into his family. I've done the most work with His Jotun family, but am feeling a growing connection to Sigyn and their children. Both are lovely families with much to teach us. I also practice rune readings and am spending more and more time learning tarot. I love using these tools to communicate with Deities and just generally seek guidance along my journey. (If you would like a reading' that also would support my wife and I through her gender affirmation surgery process, click here!)

As you may have noticed, I tend to refer to Loki with he/they pronouns. This is just based on how He tends to appear to me, but I fully understand and respect anyone else using any other pronouns to refer to Them. Loki is most definitely one to challenge gender norms and we all have our own experiences with Them. Whatever is right for you in your relationship to Loki is valid and awesome.

Other useful disclaimers:

- Any original posts of mine are my own thoughts and UPG stories. It's absolutely ok if your UPG or opinions are different from mine. I love to hear about other people's experiences with Loki, His family, or any other Norse deities. My experience, or your own, is no more or less "correct" than anyone else's.

- I may make or reblog posts about deities outside of the Norse pantheon. I am a Unitarian Universalist, in addition to being Heathen/Pagan, and have a deep love for pluralism. I am also looking to "shake hands," so to speak, with more deities from other pantheons for this reason. (And because I want to expand my oracular practice. I feel like getting to know the people you'll essentially be a mouthpiece for at times is just good practice lol.) This blog will largely focus on the Norse pantheon, but don't be surprised if you see or hear any UPG about others!

- I think it's also worth noting that I did find my way to this path through my interest in the Marvel characterizations of the gods. Personally, I don't think the Gods mind this too much as long as people are willing and able to move beyond the Marvel interpretations of Them. I also think the Gods can find Their ways into those stories whether the writers/performers even believe in them or not. I am in no way equating Marvel's versions of the gods to the Gods, or Tom Hiddleston to Loki here on this blog. That is simply just not a thing and I will not indulge that idea. We are, however, going to be respectful of people who engage with and enjoy Marvel content, and affirm that said content can still be a part of some people's practice. I sometimes use gifs of Tom-Loki. Just accept that and move on.

- I identify as Lokean and Heathen. As a neurodivergent queer person, I am all about making Heathenry inclusive. Gods call to who They call to, regardless of one's origins, abilities, or personal identity. You are welcome in this space. I will do everything I can to make my little corner of the internet here as safe a space as possible. I understand Loki to care so deeply for humanity, especially the most marginalized of us. If there is anything I post that is problematic or rubs you the wrong way, do not hesitate to message me and talk about it. I want to grow in my understanding and foster community. I take such call outs in good faith, and trust that my posts and responses will be taken in good faith, too. I'm not going to engage with personal attacks or attempts to discredit my personal spiritual experiences. Nazi punks fuck off. ✌️

Thanks for reading this novel of an introduction. Enjoy the blog!

[sgt-seabass]

I didn’t want to make this post. In fact, I’m kind of nervous to. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, because I am incredibly appreciate for those who have supported me. But there’s been something on my mind.

My most recent fic, ‘I don’t even care about you’, currently has a reblog rate of 14.39%.

The reblogs I have got are phenomenal. And warm my heart. But it can be so demotivating to have likes coming in with no reblogs attached. I understand the fic is long, and it takes time for people to read it. But I know people are reading it and just moving along.

Please, engage with creators media. Feedback and reblogs are so important for morale. I want to hear your thoughts, feelings, and everything attached. Whether it’s just a meme or a review. Every reblog counts, and helps not just with boosting my spirit, but also helps me get my work out there.

I have lots of ideas I want to share. But I guess I don’t know if it’s worth it if people don’t engage.

[xenascribbles]

my personal thoughts on the blaze campaign bc it kind of turned into a fun experiment for me to see what came of it!

1. most of my engagement on that post still came from my organic presence on tumblr. meaning my mutuals and followers seeing it on their dash naturally or from someone that reblogged it.

2. people don’t interact much. 4000+ people saw it. 32 gave it a like, and 2 reblogged it. whether the other 3968 people just genuinely didn’t like it, simply scrolled by without actually looking at it, liked it but didn’t interact, i’ll never know.

3. maybe i don’t want to know. i will choose to believe that people liked it and just don’t interact a lot. if i let myself think that all those people just didn’t like it, i will be in a bad spot.

4. not worth it, over all, to have blazed it. it was fun and i don’t regret it, but i wouldn’t do it again. any genuine interaction with my writing came from people that already know and follow me.

5. interact with your fellow writers more <3 a little reblog once in a while. a “this was good” comment here or there. and this goes for me too. i need to interact more as well.

6. and most importantly, to everyone that said such nice things about my writing, whether you felt obligated to bc i said it was my birthday or not, whether you saw it due to the blaze or just on your dash, thank you. truly and forever. thank you. i truly felt so loved yesterday. it’s been a long time since people have showed interest in my writing like that <3

[kenjakusbrainstem]

Competitive Nature (Kenjaku x Geto Suguru)

Contains: AU - Twins, twincest, frottage, handjobs, snowballing, Kenjaku being sexually manipulative.

Hello~ this was originally supposed to be a KenjakuxReaderxSuguru sandwich, but I got way too into them together to keep going. Just something about it distracted me. If people enjoy this and want more however, I'll gladly get to writing a second part and fulfill my original thought! Comment / reblog if you enjoy, cross-posted to Ao3 under the same name and shared to twitter as kenjakusbrain. Thank you for reading!

Suguru had never been one to prioritize romance, he always found himself with something more important to do. Whether that ‘something important’ was related to work or his attention demanding friend Gojo was always up in the air; Suguru just always happened to find himself too busy for any kind of dating. Strange for a handsome young man his age, but he settled with politely turning down requests for dates with any woman brave enough to approach him.

That is, until he noticed one of the newer members of the gym he frequented. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but seeing her up so early in the morning working out like he often was did interest him. Her motivation to work on herself more attractive than any physical features, it didn’t take long before Suguru had developed some small crush on her. Despite rarely sharing any words, he found himself lingering in the gym some mornings in the hope that she’d show up. 

This behavior wasn’t noticed by many, other than his twin brother, Kenjaku. The two men lived together, as the cost of living made renting a bit too expensive to do alone. Plus what better roommate than one you’ve roomed with nearly your whole life? Even if the two rarely got along, mostly coexisting in a comfortable silence unless Kenjaku decided to break it by pestering his little brother. Kenjaku being older by a few scant minutes and less than an inch taller was something he held over Suguru’s head like a trophy any time he felt like it.

By the time Kenjaku had noticed a change in his brother's routine, Suguru had already developed his small crush on the woman at the gym. They used the same gym after all, a shared interest in fitness something they had bonded over in their teenage years, but their schedules generally led to them passing each other on the way in or out. Kenjaku consistently arriving as Suguru was on his way out. 

Until Suguru began lingering. Once or twice wouldn’t have been worth noting for Kenjaku, but the frequency was ramping up at a rate that couldn’t just be attributed to sleeping in once or twice. Ever observant, it didn’t take long for Kenjaku to notice his twin brother's gaze always falling on the girl as she worked out. 

If Suguru hadn’t been so conventionally attractive, Kenjaku was sure he would have been labeled a creep already. 

Kenjaku knew however, that Suguru’s reluctance to speak with her was less likely to be out of anxiety and more likely attributed to the fact that he had never asked someone out before. His constant turning down of dates had made for a strange issue in his uncertainty on how to approach someone he found attractive. It was funny to Kenjaku, who had very little issue convincing just about any woman or man he desired to at the very least go on a date, if not fuck him. They were so similar yet so very different.

After one too many days of watching his poor little brother stare at this mystery woman, Kenjaku decided to take matters into his own hands. He would approach her himself, perhaps to inquire about a date or to just leave his number. If she found him attractive, then she would likely find Suguru attractive enough to date. They weren’t too different in appearance, Kenjaku’s hair being longer and down more often than Suguru’s which was usually firmly tied into a messy bun. The obvious difference between the two was a large, faded scar on Kenjaku’s forehead. An injury from their teenage years that only served now to make him look more mysterious to suitors.

The morning Kenjaku decided to approach Suguru’s gym crush was the same as any other morning in recent weeks. Kenjaku had entered the gym, seeing his brother jogging on the treadmill that was so conveniently in view of the cable machine she was working out on. As he walked up to her, Kenjaku noted how her plush breasts squished together nicely with every rep of her upper body workout. His brother's taste in women wasn’t so bad after all. 

A polite compliment was all it took to bring her already flushed cheeks to a darker shade of red, it seemed she wasn’t used to receiving attention like this in the gym. Kenjaku couldn’t fully understand why, her plush body looked very inviting with sweat beading on her soft skin, but he supposed it helped him in this moment so there was no reason to dwell on it. 

One smooth comment about how he was in a bit of a hurry this morning but couldn’t leave until he left his number with her was all it took to have her reaching into her pocket for a phone. Kenjaku promised he would message her at some point over the next few days so they could try and set something up soon. Her excitement wasn’t missed as he bid her farewell, turning around to leave.

He could feel the daggers from his brother’s eyes without even looking in the other man's direction. This didn’t bother Kenjaku though, seeing Suguru frustrated at him was one of his favorite things. Making eye contact with Suguru, who had sped up on the treadmill and was now fully running, Kenjaku could feel a smirk creep up onto his face. Winking at Suguru, Kenjaku continued out of the gym and back to their shared apartment. 

While he did work, today was his day off, that was just a lie that he needed to use to leave before Suguru. Kenjaku knew Suguru’s routine enough to know that on days like this, he showered at the gym before heading into work. So the two wouldn’t be seeing each other again until that night. A confrontation Kenjaku found himself excitedly awaiting.

-

As he’d expected, the text tone on Kenjaku’s phone continued to sound throughout the day. He didn’t need to check it to know that they were all likely from his brother. Each ‘ping’ sound his phone made coincided with when he knew Suguru took his breaks. There was no reason to let Suguru’s frustration distract him from spending the day to himself. His brother wasn’t as fun to tease if Kenjaku couldn’t see the look on his face. 

When he heard their front door open and then slam shut, Kenjaku was lounging on his bed reading. It seemed Suguru hadn’t had a chance to cool off while working. Kenjaku smiled to himself as he heard his brother’s stomping footsteps make their way to his door. 

Suguru didn’t knock, opening the door so quickly it would have slammed into the wall had Kenjaku’s gym bag not been in the way. Unphased by the aggressive behavior, Kenjaku smiled at his guest.

“Good afternoon, sounds like you’ve had a rough day at work with all that stomping,” Kenjaku said, voice dripping with feigned concern. Anything to get under Suguru’s skin further.

“Cut the bullshit Kenjaku, what the fuck is your problem?” Suguru was normally the more passive twin, so the bite in his question felt out of place as it left his lips.

Suguru’s reaction was overblown, he knew that, but he had been stewing all day with his thoughts. They weren’t as close as most identical twins, but they at least respected each other, or so he thought. Kenjaku knew he wasn’t one to approach women, so to watch him go after the girl he’d developed a crush on pissed him off. 

Normally, Kenjaku’s serial flings didn’t bother him. Suguru had seen many people rotate in and out of his twin’s bedroom. It was like he could have anyone he wanted, so why the hell was he going after the one person Suguru had set his sights on?

“I didn’t realize reading was such a hot button issue. What problem are you talking about?” Kenjaku spoke, sarcasm dripping from his words in a way that somehow made Suguru even more angry.

“This morning was the problem. What was that all about?”

Kenjaku closed the book he was reading and placed it on his nightstand. Though he had been thinking about this interaction for the better part of the day, he wasn’t sure what to expect from Suguru. Anger wasn’t surprising, but he hadn’t seen his brother this pissed off in a long time. On the plus side, the more emotional Suguru was, the easier he was to manipulate. A downside to being more emotional, Kenjaku thought to himself.

“You mean when I asked for that girl’s number? I’ve forgotten her name already but I’m sure she’d love to remind me,” Kenjaku said as he moved, placing his feet on the ground instead of having his legs stretched out on the bed. He remained seated, hoping that his passivity on the topic annoyed Suguru more. “I’m surprised you’re this upset, Mr. Turns-Down-Every-Date.”

Suguru’s fists clenched at his sides, he didn’t expect anything less from Kenjaku as far as knowing the woman, and he couldn’t entirely blame him for having no idea he was interested. It didn’t change the fact that he was still angry, but Kenjaku was right. He could feel the guilt of being so angry beginning to sink in, however. Though they did argue regularly it normally had the veneer of sibling’s picking at one another. They had always teased each other about things, so for him to get so upset that he wanted to lay hands on Kenjaku was shocking to Suguru in a way. It isn’t like his brother would knowingly hurt him like this, would he?

“Yes it's about her. You’re so frustrating sometimes but I suppose you’d have no way of knowing. I was trying to figure out the best way to ask for her number,” Suguru could feel the boiling in his blood subside, though the situation annoyed him.

Kenjaku tilted his head to the side, looking up at Suguru. His face was still flush with anger, but the look in his eyes seemed regretful, like he had just realized something. Kenjaku smiled, he hoped that the smile looked sympathetic to his brother. He didn’t need Suguru noticing that he was being toyed with and falling right into Kenjaku’s little plan.

“Oh? My darling little brother is finally trying to branch out and find someone to get with? How sweet, but are you sure you’re ready for that? You don’t even know if you’d be able to please her, don’t you want to make sure someone as cute as she is will be properly satisfied?” Though he was trying to feign sympathy with his expression, Kenjaku couldn’t help but tease Suguru. 

“Don’t be a pervert, I just wanted to ask her on a date. Besides you and I are the same, if you can please her I’m sure I can too,” Suguru could feel a deeper flush setting in on his cheeks as he spoke. His crush wasn’t motivated by lust entirely, but he was attracted to her. His lack of experience didn’t mean he wasn’t capable, right?

Kenjaku laughed, a light sound that almost brought Suguru back to the same level of anger from moments ago. 

“I don’t think being twins means you’re guaranteed to share the same ability to get someone off. Plus, I’m taller than you, who says that isn’t the only size difference we have? Maybe you keep turning down dates because you think you’re too small to please someone,” Kenjaku said, his words perhaps a bit more taunting than they needed to be. 

Kenjaku hadn’t intended to steer the conversation in this direction, but he was curious where it would lead. If it would just piss Suguru off more or lead to something stranger.

Suguru wasn’t sure how to respond, he hadn’t expected this kind of teasing from Kenjaku. He hadn’t received this kind of teasing from anyone else either, however. Since his dating life was nonexistent he hadn’t shared his size with anyone before, it wasn’t something he’d ever really given much thought to. It was as if he could feel the energy in the room shift, Suguru wasn’t quite sure where Kenjaku was going with this.

“Shut up, I don’t need to show people my cock to know that it’s enough to satisfy someone. What do you know anyway? I’m sure I could fuck someone better, you’re just easy,” Suguru grew more frustrated as he spoke. Kenjaku always knew just how to get under his skin and piss him off, but he knew that sex was something Suguru just hadn’t been interested in.

The smile on Kenjaku’s face changed into a smirk, something about being able to see his brother all worked up amused him more than usual. Things had always been somewhat of a competition between them, though Kenjaku supposed that was the case with most twins. The idea of turning which one of them was better at sex into a competition seemed too absurd even for him to consider, and yet Kenjaku could feel the excitement throbbing inside him at the thought. He knew he was more experienced than Suguru, so to be able to show that he was better enticed him.

“Prove it then,” Kenjaku said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Of course they would get here, of course it would become him goading Suguru into doing something they shouldn’t be doing. He’d been the instigator throughout  most of their lives, so why was this moment any different?

Suguru could feel the visible shock on his face. His eyebrows reaching up toward his hairline and his mouth agape in genuine surprise. He hadn’t expected his bursting into Kenjaku’s room to lead to this, but he supposed this shouldn’t have surprised him as much as it did. His twin always made things a competition, but more often than not Suguru found himself coming out on top. 

Against all better judgement, Suguru’s hands immediately flew to his pants, lifting up his shirt to undo the buttons on his high waisted slacks. He’d learned over years of putting up with Kenjaku that the best way to deal with one of his insane ideas was to simply humor him and get it over with. Even if this crossed more lines than Suguru had the time to think about, he felt confident that he could prove his brother wrong easily.

Kenjaku tried not to let the eagerness show on his face, though the nature of the situation they’d gotten themselves into led him to feeling eager elsewhere. He could feel himself growing slightly hard at the sight of his twin unbuttoning his pants. It was as if he were looking into a mirror, and he had to admit he did find himself sexy.

Suguru’s hands quickly unzipped his pants and reached into his boxers to pull out his soft cock. The whole situation was strange, he hadn’t expected the first person to see him like this would be his twin, or that he would be soft. He tried not to stroke himself too much as he held his cock, not wanting to get aroused accidentally in front of Kenjaku.

“A-are you going to just sit there? Too afraid to put your money where your mouth is?” Suguru stuttered as he started to speak, his attempt at taunting Kenjaku just a screen to try and keep his mind off of the absurdity of the situation. Standing in his twin brother’s bedroom with his cock in his hand.

Kenjaku chuckled to himself, it was surprisingly cute to see Suguru flustered. He stood, unsure if he was simply humoring Suguru or if this was a part of his plan all along. His sweatpants easily slipped down as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband, adjusting them enough to expose him. Kenjaku’s half hard cock hanging between the two of them, he brought his hand closer, wrapping his fingers around it.

Closing the space between them, Kenjaku stepped into Suguru’s personal space. Despite his earlier reference to being slightly taller, their hips lined up perfectly. Suguru barely had time to react to Kenjaku’s sudden closeness before the older twin crossed more boundaries than he had anticipated.

Reaching down, Kenjaku quickly took Suguru’s cock into his hand, pressing the soft flesh up against his own. If Kenjaku hadn’t already been semi erect, they would have been about the same size. 

Suguru gasped as he felt Kenjaku’s hand wrap around him, his head swimming with uncertainty and arousal all the same. He had touched himself before, but the feeling of having someone else’s hand around him made the hair on the back of Suguru’s neck stand up. Part of him wanted to step back, they’d crossed a line, but Kenjaku’s hand felt so warm. 

“Would you look at that, not quite as big as your older brother,” Kenjaku teased. Despite seeing that it was only due to arousal that he was larger, he was curious about what Suguru would say. Would he call him out? Or would he be too embarrassed to say anything? Either way Kenjaku was enjoying the rush he was getting from tormenting his brother like this.

Suguru could barely focus on what Kenjaku was saying, the blood rushing through his ears as his face flush crimson was the only sound he could hear. It was taking all of his willpower not to thrust into Kenjaku’s hand, he didn’t care about the morality of the situation anymore, that flew out the window the moment he unbuttoned his pants. He was just frozen with uncertainty, Suguru wanted to do anything that would keep Kenjaku’s hand on him for longer.

“N-not my fault you’re hard and I’m not. Doesn’t count,” Suguru choked out. Speaking harder than it should have been, with all his focus on not getting turned on right now. 

A smug grin split Kenjaku’s face, if Suguru wasn’t pulling away and slamming the door behind him on his way out, this must be an invitation. He’d stop the moment his poor little brother said no of course, as much as he loved to tease Kenjaku did want to remain as roommates with him. Suguru wasn’t wrong with his earlier words though, he wasn’t one to turn down a chance to have some fun.

“Then get hard,” Kenjaku whispered before slowly starting to stroke their cocks together. Both rested in the palm of his hand, his long fingers wrapping around Suguru’s cock while his own rubbed up against the other side.

A desperate moan slipped out of Suguru, his head falling down to rest his face on Kenjaku’s shoulder. He hadn’t thought the feeling of having another hand on his cock would be this different from stroking himself. Suguru could feel himself getting harder, he couldn’t fight it at this point. The feeling of Kenjaku’s throbbing cock next to his was exhilarating.

Kenjaku kept his pace slow, not wanting to push Suguru over the edge too quickly. He knew with lack of experience, so much at once could be overwhelming and he wanted to see how long he could drag this out for. 

The tickle of Suguru’s hair on his cheek was almost as distracting as the whimpers being muffled by his shoulder. He hadn’t expected Suguru to be so reactive, the sounds making Kenjaku harder than the sensation on his cock. Kenjaku wanted to hear what Suguru sounded like when he was pushed over the edge.

Looking between them, Kenjaku could see just how much he was affecting Suguru. His cock was fully erect, tip flushed and leaking as it rubbed up against Kenjaku’s sweatpants. 

The thought of comparing sizes had been sucked out of the room as soon as Kenjaku heard Suguru whimper, but he could easily see now that there was no contest to be had. Suguru’s thick cock twitched in his hand, next to an identically thick, leaky cock. The only difference was how much more flushed Suguru’s was, as if it matched how red Kenjaku knew his cheeks were. 

Suguru was so focused on how good this felt that he barely registered Kenjaku walking them back to his bed until Kenjaku stopped stroking him. Lifting his head from his twin’s shoulder, Suguru met Kenjaku’s eyes. He’d never seen such a lustful gaze, hungry even, and to have it directed at him made his cock throb in anticipation. Kenjaku leaned his head in, lips grazing against Suguru’s ear as he spoke.

“Let’s get more comfortable, take these off and come here,” Kenjaku whispered before letting go of their cocks.

Suguru whined as the warmth left, he couldn’t stop now when everything Kenjaku was doing felt so good. Nodding his head slowly, he pushed his slacks down to his ankles before stepping out of them. Kenjaku did the same with his own sweats before laying down on the bed. Suguru quickly followed, now eager to see where this would take them.

Not wanting to waste any time, Kenjaku grabbed Suguru by the hips and pulled him impossibly close. The friction of grinding up against one another was more intense than just resting in Kenjaku’s hand. Suguru felt himself wanting to thrust blindly against his twin but Kenjaku’s hands held him in place.

Holding Suguru still with one hand, Kenjaku slipped the arm he was laying on up in between them, wrapping his hand around their thick cocks as much as he could. Now that they weren’t standing, it was easier for Kenjaku to take both cocks into his hand, the angle trapped them against both of their stomachs. He wanted to make sure Suguru was getting more attention, so he left himself more exposed as he started to stroke them together.

Whether it was the angle or their body heat that made this position feel better Suguru didn’t know, but the way Kenjaku’s hand felt moving up and down his sensitive cock made him want to come instantly. He knew he had to keep it in though, wanting this to last longer. Suguru’s hand came up to clutch at Kenjaku’s bicep, he felt helplessly lost in the feeling of their cocks throbbing against one another.

It was easy for Kenjaku to reduce Suguru to a moaning mess from this angle, thumb pressing into the vein on the underside of his cock as he stroked them together. He could feel Suguru’s body twitch as he lingered around the head, lavashing it with attention. 

Suguru pressed his forehead against Kenjaku’s, moaning helplessly as Kenjaku toyed with his cock. It was too much for him, he felt dizzy, drunk on the feeling of his twin’s hand wrapped around them. 

Kenjaku could tell Suguru was close from the way he trembled, cock throbbing as he teased it with his hand. He wanted them to come together, or as close as he could manage. Reducing his innocent twin brother to a moaning mess was more than enough to bring Kenjaku close, but he needed something more to push himself over. Grinding against Suguru’s cock, Kenjaku moaned at the velvety soft skin of Suguru’s cock rubbing against his cock directly.

Choking on a moan, Suguru found himself unable to keep it in any longer. The added friction of Kenjaku grinding against him was too much. His grip on Kenjaku’s arm tightened as he felt himself release on Kenjaku’s hand. His hot release splashed against Kenjaku’s hand as he continued to stroke their cocks, the slick sensation making it easier for him to grind against Suguru. 

Suguru’s orgasm didn’t stop Kenjaku though, he stroked their cocks faster, knowing that he was close too. Suguru’s moans turning more desperate as Kenjaku’s pace increased. He could hear himself babbling, begging Kenjaku to slow down, all this pleasure was too much for him. 

The hand on Suguru’s hip found its way into his hair, quickly pulling his head back and exposing his neck to Kenjaku’s lips. Kenjaku sucked and nipped at the hot flesh as he felt himself follow Suguru over the edge, coating their cocks and stomachs in even more sticky fluid. 

As they both came down from their orgasm, Kenjaku’s hand finally slowed, letting go of their spent cocks. Pulling his mouth away from Suguru’s neck, Kenjaku quickly lifted his come-covered hand to his lips, licking some of their mixed fluids into his mouth. 

Suguru watched, eyes dilated with pleasure still as his twin diligently sucked their release off his fingers. It was something he wouldn’t have thought of, had he not been watching Kenjaku do it right in front of him. Curious, Suguru leaned forward and licked the back of Kenjaku’s hand to get a taste for himself. Before the taste could even register on his tongue though, the hand was ripped out from between them.

Leaning in, Kenjaku pressed his lips to Suguru’s in a sloppy kiss. Tongue slipping into Suguru’s mouth to share the flavor of their come. Even though the kiss was messy it was slow and soft, not like the competition that led them here. When the taste of their release was gone, Kenjaku pulled away, admiring the flushed look on his twin's face.

“Maybe after some more practice, you’ll be ready to start finding someone,” Kenjaku teased, mind already filling with thoughts of guiding Suguru through fucking someone, perhaps the woman from the gym that had started this thing. He was eager for whatever experiences their future held.

[freakblrbookkeeperofficial]

Blog Name: Tmf Confessions Blog

Username: @tmf-confessions

Aliases: Freakblrs Beloved Canon Event

Type of Blog: Confessions Blog/Gimmick Blog

Date created: July/August of 2023

Reason Created: To give people a space to share their opinions of the show and the fandom

Last Active: 5/4/2024; still currently active

Identity: @strawberry-pretzels

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

The Tmf-Confessions blog is one of the more iconic blogs on Freakblr. It has been used by almost everyone at least once and has remained very neutral in any instances of infighting on Freakblr.

It is, after all, a convenient way to politely air grievances and spread opinions. It is the first place many people in this fandom think to go to with their hot, cold, and luke-warm takes.

Over it's lengthy existence, people submitting confessions have sparked many inter-fandom controversies. Nothing so severe though, that it is worth making note. Most fighting was shut down through calm conversation and back-and-forth's on the confessions blog.

When asked about enemies, the confession blog simply responded, "i don't think this blog has any enemies cause it's a welcoming space for everyone frl."

A huge running joke of the confession blog is the idea of, "Rat's Laying Eggs." This begun when the Confession blog came back from a semi-long hiatus. They posted the following: "yall i died my bad. sorry guys my rat gave birth and laid two or three eggs."

This post sparked outrage amongst many of the confession blog followers. Freakblr Original user @creelby reblogged saying, "IM???????" Another Freakblr Original user, @cringelordofchaos similarly stated, "YOU'RE???????" Finally, Freakblr Original user @rextile sums up everyone's thoughts on the situation. Asking the important question of, "rats lay eggs????"

This one post led to several asks wondering about the state of the confession blog's rats. Led to multiple google searches about whether or not rat's can actually lay eggs. In the end it was determined that no. No they cannot. And the confession blog had been eating eggs from what they thought was a rat for months.

Eventually Freakblr Original user @sobeksewerrat posted this on their other alternate account, @andrew-the-drew-defender: "rat eggs should become a new inside joke on freakblr. We should make it a password or a secret code of sorts so we know who to gatekeep"

While many agreed and liked this idea, it never actually became a secret code. It did however remain an inside joke and led to the creation of the Freakblr discord server.

The confession blog's main account is @strawberry-pretzels. A Freakblr Original user. They post a wide variety of content there, including Music Freaks content.

When asked about blogs of note, they mentioned The Original Freakblr Seven, as well as any other blogs who'd submitted asks. Continuing their pattern of being a safe space for all on Freakblr.

The Tmf Confessions blog continues to post and be active, a bright spot in the lives of many Freakblr users. It inspires discourse and thoughtful discussion of the show. It keeps us entertained in the wait for new content. A pioneer of Freakblr, in my opinion.

And, when asked to sum up their time on Freakblr, this is what they had to say:

"Freakblr is many things. It's a group of 20 people joking around and telling stories. It's a space for so much interesting lore and fandom icebergs. It's a place where creativity and roleplay runs rampant. But above all, it is an amazing home with many memories, that I hope will be remembered even years later."

[thatswhatsushesaid]

kicking around some thoughts this morning, this is extremely disorganized but here are the key ingredients in this meta smoothie:

jin guangyao +

the bad things that he does (both of his own free will and under duress for wrh and/or jgs) +

textual evidence presented to the reader indicating that jgy is aware of the awfulness of these things +

reader interpretation of what jgy's understanding of that awfulness means about his personal feelings about his own actions (i.e., he is perfectly okay with them, or he is absolutely fucked up by them, or something in between)

= two* contradictory versions of jgy in fic and/or the neverending game of mdzs fandom discourse

(*yes i know there are more than two contradictory interpretations of his character, but by and large the majority these interpretations can be filed into two categories: he's Evil or he's Not Evil.)

the more i mull it over, the more i think it's at this specific intersection (of jin guangyao as a character, the actions he takes in the story, his understanding of these actions as being terrible, and reader response to his understanding) where the disconnect happens between fans who consider themselves jgy stans, and fans who either don't like jgy or don't have much of an opinion on him either way.

i think it's clear where i stand on the issue (jgy is NOT unaffected by the terrible things he has done, even in those instances where he believed his actions to be unavoidable or necessary), but i also want to provide clear textual evidence for why i stand by this interpretation. since i don't have the time today to go through the whole book and draw out the specific passages i have in mind, i'll just pull this one quote from the guanyin temple sequence for now and come back to this post with additional quotes as reblogs later:

Only after the word came out did [Lan Xichen] remember that he’d already one-sidedly broke off with Jin GuangYao, and thus he shouldn’t call him [A-Yao]. However, Jin GuangYao seemed as if he didn’t notice it, his expression collected, “Brother, don’t be surprised that I can call him such dirty things. To this father of mine, I once had hopes as well. In the past, as long as it was his command, whether it be to betray Sect Leader Wen or protect Xue Yang or remove anyone who disagreed, no matter how foolish it was, how hated I’d be, I’d obey regardlessly. But do you know what it was that made me lose hope completely? I’ll answer your first question now. It wasn’t that I’d never be worth a single hair on Jin ZiXuan or one of the holes in Jin ZiXun, it wasn’t that he took back Mo XuanYu, it wasn’t that he tried every possible way to make me a mere figurehead either. It was the truth he once told the maid beside me when he was out indulging himself again [...]" -EXR translation, pg 984

bolded emphasis is mine because i think these textual context clues provide insight into jgy's state of mind, both in this moment where he is struggling to maintain his composure (and will later fail to maintain it), as well as in the past when he was carrying out these actions for jgs. i think we have every reason to believe that jgy is being honest when he says that he once had hope of receiving his father's affection, recognition, and respect, given what we have seen of his past actions prior to his legitimization. i also think he's being honest when he describes the actions he takes for jgs as being foolish, or certain to make people hate him, because... well, that's precisely what happens in the text, isn't it? his word choice is deliberate when he describes his own actions: they were foolish, and he knew that he would be hated for doing them, but even while doing them, he held out hope that perhaps one day, he would have done enough to earn the thing that jgs gave freely and unconditionally to his other children. one day, he would not have to do these terrible things that jgs never, ever asked of jzx, or jzn, or mxy, ever again.

and then. and then.

anywho. /sticks a bookmark on this post, i will come back to this, probably.

[starburst2000]

I cannot reblog the post, so I'll copy-paste it here

I asked @discowormfan: "Everyone in the StEx fandom likes to shit on Pearl, while forgetting that the World Championship Railroad Race practically brought out the worst in mostly everyone. GB and eElectra were fixated on winning by any means possible, CB derailed Rusty in front of everyone, even Rusty himself finally decided to race after seeing Poppa almost killing himself by stressing himself out despite his old age.

Let's not even count the fact that the Rockies decided to remind Rusty to "stay in his place" after getting derailed by CB and beaten up by the other Diesels, instead of getting conforted in any way. After "Right Palce, Right Time", it almost seemed like Rusty was on the verge of giving up on even his whole life, and he would have done so, hadn't the Starlight Express itself interviened.

As for Pearl, she's firstly captured by Electra's magnetism, and then got with GB because she thought that he wanted her to have "just some fun", and only the aftermath of the Uphill Final helped her to open her eyes about the whole situation. She even blames herself during "Only You", thinking that Rusty lost because of her. This is some big ass MATURITY, coming from her.

But NO. Let's all get angry at this one specific character, just because she has trouble understanding others' feelings.

Any opinions?"

She answered:"there are a multitude of reasons why i think that pearl is a flawed but good person at heart, basically for all the reasons you stated. regardless on whether they act like this extreme in day to day life, gb, slick, cb and electra all do arguably worse things than pearl. they lie, cheat, betray, mistreat and bully all throughout the show, and pearl’s worst sin is having really low awareness of the feelings of the people around her. even if electra didn’t entice her, i can see why she didn’t want to couple up with rusty for a few good reasons.

1. he simply just isn’t what she’s looking for in a partner. that’s fine! she doesn’t owe a relationship to him just because he’s nice to her. also good on her for knowing what she wants in a partner!

2. (assuming they’ve known each other for a long time and are friends) pearl likes rusty platonically and wishes to remain just friends, because she doesn’t want their dynamic to change. also fine!!! i’ve had countless friendships where, while we were very close, they didn’t go romantic because we simply just didn’t want to alter our relationship and were fine being just friends.

3. (assuming the events of the show are when they first met) pearl literally met rusty like 5 minutes ago and doesn’t feel comfortable getting with someone who she just met, who is also REALLY insistent that he race with her. i’d be pretty apprehensive to get with that guy too.

she wasn’t even that mean to rusty when she rejected him, she didn���t go “EW NO GET AWAY FROM ME FREAK” and like spit on his face, she gently said “i’m sorry rusty, i know you have good intentions but you just aren’t what i’m looking for” yes it hurts, and sucks for rusty, but pearl is being very clear and kind to rusty while she friendzoning him. she was being VERY nice i think.

as you said, pearl wasn’t even aware that dinah and greaseball had broken up at that point, she even says “it’s only fun” implying that she only saw getting with gb as a temporary thing before moving onto another engine. could she have been a bit NICER to dinah rather than saying “STOP FUCKIN CRYIN BITCH WAH WAH WAH I DONT WANNA FUCKIN HEAR IT” yeah. could she have maybe ASKED why dinah was so upset at this? yes? was it still really messed up she hooked up with dinah’s boyfriend/girlfriend RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER AFTER THEY BROKE UP? yes very much so. pretty messed up of pearl, not cool. but is it THAT WORTH LOATHING her for? compared to how literally everyone else acts in this show, i’d say it isn’t.

hell, if you look at it from the perspective of her being a newly built coach, it gives a lot more understandability to why she acts the way she does. she was literally born yesterday and is still figuring out how the world works, and people are already pushing her around and trying to kiss her. i wouldn’t have the best sense of what’s right and wrong and identifying people’s emotions and seeing things from their perspective either if i was immediately thrust into an unfamiliar world just YESTERDAY and people are acting all crazy banana cuckoo around me either.

even if you don’t see pearl is a newly built coach and she’s been around longer than just like a day, i still wouldn’t hate her for being flawed??? because flaws are what make characters interesting!!! even people who’ve been around for a long time are flawed, it’s not just a young person thing. and it’s satisfying seeing someone recognize their own flaws and try to atone and grow from them, which pearl does!

she realizes that her unawareness of other people’s feelings resulted in her friend getting beat up, and she even says that “this wasn’t how i wanted it” her intent was to find love, but her selfishness only resulted in people getting hurt, and she recognizes that. she laments why she let greaseball blackmail her into staying silent about rusty’s crash (“whyyyy did iiiii, haaaaave to liiieeee?”) she feels remorse for seemingly costing rusty’s victory in the race, and ultimately becomes better because of it.

hell, even rusty is flawed! he’s stubborn, insecure, dependent, easy to give in, and i’d argue at the beginning of the show, he and pearl have the same flaw of being selfish in that they fail to consider other people’s feelings in spite of what THEY want (rusty doesn’t understand why pearl wouldn’t want to race with him, and is rather pushy when offering to race with her, and pearl wants to find her “dream train” and doesn’t understand how rejecting rusty, and getting with dinah’s significant other might make them upset), it’s just that rusty completes his half of the arc before pearl completes her’s.

might i reiterate, pearl’s biggest sins were having extremely low self awareness, and getting with dinah’s bf/gf. compared to greaseball’s cheating, mistreatment, bullying, beating up of racers, and cb’s everything, and electra’s cheating, pearl’s crimes are literally NOTHING when you put her against them.

now if you want to criticize how pearl is written that’s another thing, which i actually can agree with since i don’t really think of this show when it comes to “really great character writing, especially for the girlies,” i think there is a lot to criticize on that front, but saying pearl is this mean, vindictive bitch for the crimes of being really not self aware is complete poppycock.

anyways to answer your question yeah i agree pearl is pretty cool"

[sophoscorner]

As long as I’ve been on Tumblr I have seen posts talking about how undervalued women are in fandom, and I’ve nodded along, reblogged and moved on with my life. Occasionally I’ve tried to figure out how one would solve this problem at least in their own fandom experiences, and I’ve never had an answer, but today I am here to tell you: the answer is Mei. 

I’m 100% joking, but also so serious. Mei is the most undervalued character in lmk and she deserves so much more love. She is the only girl in the main cast (I’m counting red son as a boy because that’s what he is in cannon) and she has so many cool things about her. She’s literally descended from dragons, she has a complex relationship with her parents, trouble sharing her feelings and asking for help, and she HOSTED LITERAL WORLD ENDING FLAMES, but when you look at her followers on tumblr you’d think she doesn’t do much.

(Pigsy did not make it on this graph because he doesn’t have his followers listed on his tag page)

Before I carry on with all this data analysis I want to say that I’m not shaming any specific people for not being particularly interested in Mei. The important thing when it comes to biases isn’t one specific case it’s trends, so it’s not about whether you like Mei, it's about whether you have a tendency to think guy characters are more interesting to talk about them more. 

Anyways, when you look at Ao3 tags you may think that Mei has just as many fics about her as a lot of the main cast (minus the main character and the gay monkeys of course), but when you filter for fics tagged with Mei in them you’ll find a frustrating amount that have her as a supporting character or worse mentioned that one time. The thing about tagging characters is you’re not saying the fic is about them you’re saying the fic has them as part of the plot, and so most of her popularity comes from being an amazing best friend, matchmaker and a party animal instead of any of her internal conflicts.

To find fics that were actually about Mei (to some degree) I filtered for the tags Mei-centric and Mei Needs a Hug,and the results were much different. Mei’s number of fics is around how many Tang has. She has 10 more Needs a Hug fics than him, and he has 10 more -centric fics than her. The only character she’s beating out is Pigsy whose -centric tag doesn’t even have it’s own page yet.

Probably the most popular aspect of fandom (for better or worse) is shipping, and there’s a surprising lack of shippable characters in lmk. With the brotherhood and older demons there’s some variation, but for the stoplight trio they really only have each other (at least from what I’ve seen), and when you look at the popularity (on Ao3) of the different ships the results are… decisive. The most popular ship in the trio is MK/Red Son and the runner up Mei/Red Son has only 1/5 of the fics. I personally only really like MK/Red SOn and the whole trio shipped together (poly ships aren’t as popular), but I’m still surprised that Mei/Red Son, which is the one most supported by cannon in my opinion, is so much less popular. 

Unlike the others this isn’t really me saying Mei absolutely should be shipped more, but shipping is pretty much always correlated to how popular a character is in fandom so I thought it was worth mentioning.

I don’t really know what to say at the end of this. I’m not much of a analyzer or a headcanoner. I don’t know how to delta every interesting thing I love about her. Please just take a second to appreciate Mei and all that she’s been through. Maybe partake in Mei thursday every once and awhile or just talk about her more. I don’t know, I just wanted to make a bunch of graphs about it. (Thank you @mythicalmagical-monkeyman for inspiring this <3)

Also this started as a fic rec list (that’s why Ao3 comes up so much), so if you have any Mei fics you like pls send em on over.

[obsessionnostalgia]

Claire Novak fic recs: yeah, I was trying to reblog something every time I found a new one but its too disorganized so now it lives here. You have a Claire Novak rec? i want to read it.

Where the Heart Is by goldenraeofsun

Features a time-traveling Claire hanging out with Sam and Dean circa season 7. There's angst. There's Claire hooking up with a diner waitress. There's Claire having self-worth issues. There's Claire making fun of Dean to his face. All the good stuff.

Like a Duck, He Fits the Bill by golbygloom

Claire Novak and her budding attachment to the guy who isn't her dad but wears his face. The angst of having to get out of your own way to make connections with others.

Let Me Come Home by prosopopeya

Deancas-centric but Claire Novak is a POV character, struggling in foster care and the uncertainty of whether her uncle (Cas) will get his shit together in order to take her in. The Claire and Dean parallels are strong.

Rec from kerryweaverlesbian:

no such thing as a unique experience by @astralpenguin

A 15 year old Claire meets the (now older) little girl who was possessed by Lilith for a long time. Neither of them realise this element of connection for quite some time. Tons of empathy and understanding. These two feel so much like complex teenage girls, and also the dramatic irony is incredibly fun. One of the best fics I've read all year

Rec from carhengeapocalypse:

Another rhinestoneangels (@pinknatural ) fic fatherisms

Claire is a baby when Jimmy agreed to be Castiel's vessel and Dean steps in to help take care of her. The timeline jumps around and the story is told in snippets and it's very good

as if death itself was undone by microcomets

Claire confronts a human Castiel in a grocery store.

Claire heaves a deep, bone-weary sigh. “Here I am, consoling an ex-angel using my dead father as a meat-puppet on his self-esteem issues. I should write a book or something.”

everlasting by entropic_saudade

Claire wants to have a permanent mark of her and Kaia’s love. In order to do the stabbing safely, she helps Dean bring Cas back from the Empty so he can heal her.

gifts given & words unspoken by rhinestoneangels

Short: Dean and Claire make cookies after Castiel brings her back to the bunker, injured. Some implications at this point, Claire is more family to Dean than Mary. Set in season 12.

coming out by dicklessthewonderclown

Short, Dean POV conversation on a drive with Claire where she comes out as wanting to date Kaia and also admits (by accident) that Dean is a kind of sort of maybe father figure to her.

A Christmas Miracle (for someone else) by bitterred

Set post-canon, mirroring all the "Cas is dead and Dean is depressed" fics, Claire Novak finds a cat during the holiday season.

i'm sorry i'm the one you love (no one will ever love me like you again) by monsterfatigue

Kind of weird that Claire decided she was in love with Kaia even though they had barely known each other. After Kaia comes back from the Bad Place, nothing is simple. Claire isn't sure why she thought it would be.

This Is A Love That Lasts Forever by HeddersTheOwl

Another fic where Claire being friendly with the angel that wears her dad's face is complicated.

"You look too much like him. It's not fair. You're not him." 

meteor site (our hearts collision) by sobsicles

Claire has religious trauma laced with homophobia. Kaia doesn't want to be anyone's nightmare.

the way a dad should by fleeceframe

Dean and Claire are driving back to Jody's when Claire needs to stop because her period has started. (Side note: i was SURE that part of the reasoning for carrying tampons/pads in the impala was going to be partially related to the fact that they're sometimes good for wound care, in that the products are designed not to grow bacteria.)

i don’t know nothing (and that’s fine) by halfwheeze

Claire Novak meets Magda Peterson, the psychic girl from 12.4 American Nightmare, and likes her so much it makes Claire look stupid. Look at that, they have matching religious trauma: "When Castiel-" she pauses, remembering that his name isn't carved into the internal dialogue of every girl with religious trauma from here to Texas, "the Winchesters' angel, I don't know if he was with them when they got you- when he came to Earth, he needed a vessel. A human strong enough to hold an angel, with strong enough faith to allow them in and allow them to stay." That's what the Winchester Gospels said about them anyway. Castiel just said that they needed to believe. They were special. Believers. Bullshit. "When Castiel came to Earth, he took my father. And then, when my father told him he couldn't stay anymore, Castiel approached me. Being a vessel, it's passed down in the family line. The blood. The body. All they need is the body. And I was a kid. He might as well have been God. So I said yes. And my father took him back. If you think about it, it's my fault that my dad is dead."

Bartenders Love Me by clusterjam

Claire Novak doing her Dean-coded thing: hustling in a bar, flirting with the bartender, and oh yeah: angst about whether her dad would approve of her.

Subject: Dean Winchester Is Dead by angelszn

There aren't enough fics about Claire finding out Dean (or Cas) are dead. Dean Winchester is dead. Dean Winchester is dead, and Claire got the news in an email of all things. As if the gravity can be contained in the tiny black letters on the screen. It didn’t even seem possible. 

patricide of the lowest order by angelszn

This one's dark (Major Character Death tagged) -- Castiel killed Claire's father, after all, and what is Supernatural but a series of revenge plots?

two steps on the water by orpheuscas

Claire in the aftermath of being cured of werewolfism. Heavy dose of "Dean is basically Claire's dad now" included.

she'll say she got the map from me by 13zepptraxx

Hey you know that episode where Dean goes back in time and hangs out with his mom? He tells her, "No matter what you hear, or what you see. Promise me you won’t get out of bed." but then an angel wipes her memory? What if Claire went back in time after Dean died because she was sick with grief and basically did the same thing?

[autistichalsin]

I understand what you mean. There's no strict answer.

If it is a stranger, maybe no more than a couple hundred words? If you cannot express all of your meaning in a couple hundred words, it might be worth re-evaluating whether it's better take the time on your own blog to talk about the topic, rather than engaging in a dialogue with a stranger!

When I read your reblog, I thought to myself, "This wouldn't have come across as aggressive if they had collected their thoughts and written a separate essay on how they feel about different means of consuming media."

You raised interesting questions, and have a valid point of view, but you framed your perspective as antagonistic to the other person's post.

(Tone: still confused)

I don't know, I get what you're saying, but there's been Twitter threads with people I didn't know who disagreed with me and made a thread quite a few tweets long. And it never felt like an attack, it felt like their opinion needed a lot of words for it. And I mean... I don't really use few words for anything, whether I'm agreeing or disagreeing with someone.

I guess I'm just having a hard time understanding what quality it is that a long reply has that makes it more threatening than a short one. I can't really think of any fundamental differences. At least with tone it's like, yeah, a perceived angry tone is in some way different than a perceived neutral tone. I just can't conceptualize what's different about "no" versus "no, I absolutely will not be doing this." Both are giving a no answer.

[hetchdrive]

I think we’re reading May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth at roughly the same time and are currently at roughly the same parts. I just wanted to say I think that’s very cool of us 😌 Do you have any favorite letters so far?

You're right that is very cool of us! Let me just uhhh look through my notes...

So far my favorite letters have been Goodsir's letter to his dad which I reblogged from you, for the reasons in the post. Goodsir is so bluntly endearing, somehow. He seems very young. Oh I've just looked up how old Goodsir was when the expedition vanished and he was 28. Oh alright then. I'm emotional about this.

Other favorite letter so far was unexpectedly one of John Irving's, to his sister-in-law Catherine. This paragraph really hit me as like, a premonition of the upcoming disaster:

"I intended to write something to amuse you, but I find I cannot help being serious. Everything around me, and every duty I am engaged in, tend at present to make me so-- I mean all keep me so much alive the feeling of a long separation from those near and dear to me. Even in writing I am reminded that a terrible long pause of anxious suspense is before me, when I can only hope, without the prospect of tidings of good or ill. So, my dear Katie, do not blame me that you should have been, whilst reading the mass of scribbling, obliged to banish your usual smiles. I will write you yet again, so I shall not take a very formal farewell of you at this time. My most brotherly love to my dear Lewis. --Yours very affectionately, John Irving."

Irving also sent back to England a number of drawings. Several men did but Irving's seem to be the best of the ones included in the book. Also, of two skeletons returned to England at the time of the McClintock expedition, one of them was identified as Irving by the presence of a maths medal next to the body, which I find deeply endearing. This book has made me a big Irving fan, honestly. Didn't have any strong feelings about him before starting reading this and now I'm like ough... my guy.

My other observation so far is that it seems like Franklin was unfairly characterized in the show, as his letters so far paint a picture of a fairly cautious man.

It is Fitzjames who is the king of hubris.

There are multiple letters where the endnotes make note of how the things he is saying shows he does not have a good understanding of the Arctic and that's really interesting to me from the perspective of seeing show!Crozier and Fitzjames' relationship conflict early on as coming from a place of Crozier's experience vs Fitzjames' support of Franklin's dismissal of him, with the idea (I had always thought) being that Franklin thinks his feelings of optimism and belief God will see them through are substitutes for dealing with the material realities of that place. And like, no! Actually that should have been Fitzjames, going off these letters! But it makes sense from a character writing perspective. Foolish, foolish man. Excited to see how my opinion of this evolves as I continue to read.

Also, Fitzjames' aggressive confidence in repeatedly pestering John Barrow Jr. about whether he's gotten the position or not is honestly kind of inspiring in a "if this man from the 1840s can speak like he knows anything when he clearly doesn't I myself should step up game in these job interviews". There's one particular letter that absolutely floored me, and it was the 11th of February one:

"In case of Crozier's appointment I send you a letter to Beaufort asking him to try for Le Vesconte which pray send at once as soon as you know I am not to go-- if I am appointed tear it up-- .... Mind I am in confident expectations of the Second Ship in Franklin's expedition nothing else is worth having." [I have used italics where there were underlines]

Nothing else is worth having. Absolutely awful, vainglorious man. This has made me dearly want to write my own version of my headcanon first meeting of "Fitzjames puffs himself up, fails to impress Crozier, feels rejected about it and forms a grudge" because holy shit, he is actually so much worse than I already thought. Also because "nothing else is worth having" would be a banger title.

I do appreciate that Fitzjames seems to have been a man who is eager to lift other men up, as this is not the only time he makes suggestions to Barrow Jr. about appointments and promotions-- if he was obsessed with status for himself he was at least trying to lift his friends up, as well. Pity this doesn't extend to Crozier! Would have been a very different expedition if it did!

Wow, long post which I took so long to write, my bad. What are your own favorite letters so far?