#it honestly scares me how some people are actually productive with their time

[miloformula123fan]

Could you do fic for James Vowles with wife author!reader? ( He's at Williams ) He always goes to her events even though he's busy but he still makes time just to support her. And vice versa. Just something fluff and cute. Thanks!! :))

this is definitely not amazing, but im secretly quite happy with it

(also updates are gonna slow the fuck down because i have assessments and exams this term yay /s)

Please keep requesting - y'all have awesome ideas we agree on a lot of stuff :) - my guidelines are here, and if you want some prompts, they are here.

also feel free to come in and start chatting to me in my asks, would love to get to know y'all better

and if you want to be added to my taglist lmk :)

james vowles x wife!author!reader

---

book talk:

Y/N watched as a teenage girl walked up to the microphone. She clearly looked nervous, as had many other people coming up, but Y/N tried to make her feel as at ease as possible.

“Um…hey Y/N, my name is Elodie, and I just wanted to say how much I love your writing…” - Elodie

James quietly shut the door, once Logan and Alex were through, and didn’t try and push through the crowded room, they instead settled for a spot near the back where they could still see Y/N. They were sure that if people recognised them, they would be shunted towards the front or ushered backstage. They didn’t want that, they just wanted to stay inconspicuous at the back.

“Aww thank you Elodie, what was your question?” Y/N smiled reassuringly

“Um…well, for your book, ‘a sweet sting of salt’, I was just wondering if you had any inspiration for the character Tobias. While he isn’t the best character in the story, you said he was one of your favourite characters to write, and I was just wondering why?” Eloise asked

“Oh, that is a good question, thank you Elodie. Um… while the actions are obviously not based on him, a lot of Tobias’ so-called ‘good’ elements are actually based on my husband. So…okay I’m gonna hope that everyone has read the book, so I don’t spoil it,” she smiled “Um, so for those of you who are unaware, my husband is James Vowles, and he is the Team Principal of Williams, which is a motorsport for those who are very out of the loop. So I guess the main words I would use to describe both Tobias and James, other than loving because Tobias is definitely not, are logical, quiet, grounded, organised and productive.”

James smiles, watching his wife talk about something she was so passionate about.

“So for example, for logical qualities for Tobias and James in chapter 10, Tobias uses deductive reasoning, which I would like to say is James’ strong suit, however he sometimes misuses it, like deducing who ate the chocolate, the wife or the dog. Tobias uses it for more evil, using it for working out how to do the things he does. Maybe they are more evil and similar and similar.” Y/N pondered, garnering a small laugh from the audience

James stopped smiling, as he listened to his wife compare him to a literal murderer in her book. Logan and Alex were standing next to him, trying to avoid their laughs.

“Then for quiet, in chapter 16, James likes sneaking around and scaring the shit out of me when he gets back from the factory and from races to scare the shit out of me, and Tobias uses it for murder. Huh, maybe these 2 characters are closer together than I thought.” Y/N pondered, laughing as she saw her husband’s face

“Darling, I’m not a thief and a murderer. I honestly don’t know why you based Tobias off of me.” James tried to mediate.

However it was enough for Alex and Logan to burst out laughing, joining in with the rest of the crowd, who had discovered that James was there and found it very funny.

“I’m just saying you share similar qualities, more than I initially insisted. Are you sure you didn’t secretly murder someone?” Y/N tilted her head, as if genuinely thinking about the question

“Darling…” James tried to plead again

“ANYWAY - Then for grounded, in chapter 18…” - Y/N, moved on, continuing with her ideas.

---

garage:

“And during this safety car period, Alex, our camera man has gone for a wander and he has gone down to the Williams garage, and while we’re normally looking at the team principal or other important people, we have instead zoomed in on Y/N Vowles. Now for those who don’t know, she is a writer, and she seems pretty hard at work at this book on her laptop. Now that will be good news for anyone who reads her books, including me, she writes very good books, available at all the awesome book stores, and no she hasn’t paid us for that, we just think her books are amazing. Oh and she waved at us. Hi Y/N!” - Jolyon said from the commentary box

James smiled at the sight of Y/N on his screen. While this weekend had been very stressful, it was very nice having his wife be there for him in the garage and then back at the hotel rooms, even after all the late meetings. He watched as she smiled and waved at the screen, and he was unable to resist the temptation as he smiled at the picture and waved back, earning another laugh from the commentators.

---

book talk part 2:

“Sorry Y/N, my name is Leo, this is a bit of a personal question…” a teenage boy asked

“...as long as it’s not when I’m having a baby, or where I live, it should be okay, hit me!”  Y/N tried to put him at ease.

“Your schedule for this book tour is a little all over the place, if you don’t mind me saying, it was basically like the first 2 months of the year, and now there’s just kinda weeks off or even months off, and I was just wondering if there was any sense to the schedule.” Leo shuffled awkwardly, unsure of how she would react to the question.

“Ah, well there actually is. First off, I cannot tour every week of the year, because I think I would just simply die. But the reason I picked those weeks off is because if my husband again. Are you guys sensing a pattern here? I love James, and I really want to support him at all the f1 races. So those are the weeks I took off, basically. And second, Baby Vowles is due in 6 months, thanks guys!” Y/N laughed as she put down the microphone and walked off stage, laughing as the cheers from the crowd grew louder.

---

taglist: @leosxrealm, @tallrock35, @wolf-knights, @janeholt3, @pear-1206

[gaiuskamilah]

why do you think that confession was "eww sex so gross porn is sinful" and not "pb is gonna keep making crappy porn books with sex every chapter bc it what makes them money instead making stories with substance"

like. have you seen the vip books.

i know this ask is rhetorical and you're not looking for an actual answer but i'm going to take this as an opportunity to vocalize all my thoughts regarding the trend anyway.

for the record, no, i don't play the smut books. i'm more interested in PB's adventure and horror books, and thus those are the ones i actually invest myself in most. if i wanted to consume porn i would look for it elsewhere because choices' smut books don't interest me for a number of reasons. i also don't play or pay for VIP. however, i know enough about the vip and smut books to know enough about them they cater to a very specific audience: older women interested in escapist, arguably "taboo" sexual fantasies who are willing and have the means to spend money on the sex stories they like.

i have no idea if anyone in this fandom has actually bothered to understand economics or even recognize that we live under a capitalist system, but the way a good number of people and career complainers take it out on the writers and how PB just "chose" to make porn never sat right with me. especially since most of these people, again, do not take into account or even vehemently refuse to consider the context and circumstances of the production behind the games. the writers have time and time again been open regarding the circumstances behind book production, and they have always mentioned that economic factors play a large part in it because they work within a capitalist market. here are some times they've spoken about it, particularly andrew in 2019 (writer for blades, bloodbound, endless summer, crimes, etc.) and kara in 2023 (TRR, TCATF):

the trend of smut and single LI books started in 2020 with the release of books like the nanny affair, queen b, and wolf bride. if you check the top 10 category on the app, TNA and WB are both in it — an indication that they do well revenue-wise. companies are driven by data and when they're successful, in kara's words, "it's easier to make a case for making more like them." also please remember that 2020 was the year covid broke out and no doubt affected the production in pixelberry in a negative way the way it did other industries. it's no wonder then that they've since resorted to making smut books since they need to make up for the losses in 2020 as well as keep up with global inflation (this is my own hypothesis— i haven't had the time to check pb's reports, but they are public for anyone who wants to look them up. i have seen a post detailing that PB's revenue has been declining in the past year or so).

it's easy for people to just say and complain "pb is gonna keep making crappy porn books with sex every chapter bc it what makes them money instead making stories with substance" and to an extent i agree. they are going to make "crappy porn books" because it's what makes them money. but they aren't greedy assholes and even your beloved andrew shvarts has asked fans to not portray them that way.

i found that confession dramatic because i think it exemplifies two trends that i've seen in the choices fandom in the past few years i've been here: the tendency to regard the writers as money-hungry cunts without understanding the capitalist circumstances and the liberal "everything must be pure and wholesome and respectable" push back against anything that isn't god-revering missionary sex.

"Honestly the fact that choices' porn-masquerading-as-plot books makes the most money for them scares me. A lot." please ask yourself why that scares you. aside from the obvious fact that people don't seem to or just refuse to understand the economic reason for creating these books, please ask yourself why choices' mediocre porn "scares you". these stories cater to a specific audience as i mentioned before: older women interested in escapist and "taboo" sex fantasies. having these fantasies aren't bad and we really do not need people acting like entertaining them through a self-insert app game (with warnings holding your fucking hand and telling you this isn't necessarily good and giving you the chance to opt out should you please) is akin to being a sex offender. the only thing you're doing is reinventing thoughtcrimes.

sex is one of the most normal things in the world. whether or not you personally have sex you can't deny that it's been a factor in the lives of many and frankly you wouldn't even be alive if your parents didn't decide to suck and fuck. in a world where women's desires are suppressed and aren't taken seriously, why do so-called "progressive" fans find it disgusting that some women might want to spend some money to safely explore their sexual fantasies? enough to be disgusted by it that they say they are "scared" by it? it's trashy, it's stupid, it lacks substance, and who the fuck cares? you are not inherently better than these women, and 95% of the time all i see in the tags are people focusing on the romance aspect of these "substantial" books anyway. if you seriously think that an app game like choices can magically make cheating and having affairs a "normal and good" thing irl then you're just a fucking idiot. if game of thrones and house of the dragon didn't make siblings worldwide suck and fuck then what makes you think that choices can abolish the western institution of monogamy overnight?

at some point some people just have to realize that they have the choice (lmao) to close the app and delete it if they aren't happy with it. if you don't like their porn books then go play something else, they have an expansive library and beyond that there are tons of interactive fiction games, dating sims, and visual novels to explore. that's not even touching the fact that you can, i don't know, read an actual fucking book if you want. i see no point in consciously sitting and tapping through these books when you know they just make you miserable and add to the statistics of people playing it. you can't dismantle the capitalist system overnight but you can choose to just not play an app game if it makes you want to peel your skin off.

[rainbow-starlight]

time for EVEN MORE CHARACTER ANALYSIS 🎉

(this time, with enneagrams!)

So, I love a good personality test, as I know many Tumblr users do. I’m particularly fond of Enneagram, because I feel like it gives a lot more insight into someone compared to, say, MBTI.

So, of course, I sat down and took the test twice: Once for canon Sun, once for canon Moon. A lot (and I do mean a lot) of this is based on speculation, so if you disagree, please let me know why!

I mostly did this because, y’know, there isn’t a lot of characterization for these two, and I wanted to see if I could gain any new knowledge from this. (Which, yep, it absolutely worked.) Hopefully this can be useful for anyone who wants more perspective on writing these two in a more day-to-day sort of setting. It’s almost all speculation, but I found it really interesting.

So, drumroll please… 🥁🥁🥁

Sun is a 2w1, and Moon is a 8w7!

Pretty different from what I found for them online (Sun as a 7w6, Moon as a 1w2). Thoughts on what these mean under the cut.

Most of my information comes from here! Some paraphrasing, some direct quotes. I won’t be directly citing everything because this isn’t an essay.

Sunny

The biggest and most interesting takeaway from Enneagram, to me, is the core hopes and fears.

Sun’s primary hope is to feel loved, and his secondary hope is to be good, have integrity, and be balanced.

Sun’s primary fear is of being unwanted and unworthy of being loved. His secondary fear of being corrupt, evil, or defective.

This is really interesting to think about in the context of the virus. He’s scared of being left behind, maybe doesn’t even understand why Moon is acting the way that he is and is terrified something’s just wrong with them. This could even apply in regards to being moved from the stage to the daycare, in a way.

His main motivations are to express his feelings for others and be needed and appreciated. His secondary motivations are to improve everything and be beyond criticism so nobody can say anything bad about him.

When going through a period of stress, Sun would become more like Moon’s worst traits. He’d be more proud, egocentric, confrontational, aggressive, dominating, vengeful, and demanding of obedience. If he were in danger during this period of time, he’d likely become destructive in his attempts to get out of it, even if that’s not the best way to handle it. He’d also likely become depressed, moody, irrational, hopeless, and ashamed of himself, more prone to self-destruction. He’d probably chase away people who try to help him and self-isolate.

I think that can definitely be seen in the ruin part of HW2 with Sun’s voice lines to the player, as well as how harsh he is on the player during arts & crafts.

When going through a period of growth, Sun would be creative, self-aware, introspective, gentle, compassionate, excitable, spontaneous, cheerful, and productive. He’d be able to be vulnerable yet emotionally strong, grateful for what he has, and excited about just existing. Very much like fanon Sun, honestly.

An unhealthy Sun would likely be manipulative, inflexible, self-serving, and domineering, able to excuse and rationalize his behavior because he sees himself as a victim. He’d likely be obsessive about others’ imperfections and wrongdoings, perhaps to the point of cruelty. He’d be prone to nervous breakdowns.

An average Sun (closest to what we’ve seen so far) would be people-pleasing, orderly, abrasive, overbearing, impatient, self-sacrificial, and codependent. Full of approval and flattery for others. He’d likely hover and mettle in others’ business and scold others for anything done not to his exact specifications.

A healthy Sun (unheard of so far in the games lmao) would be unselfish, compassionate, caring, hopeful, warm-hearted, forgiving, encouraging, and appreciative. He’d actually take care of himself, too.

To help Sun grow into that healthy category, here’s some stuff that would help…

Addressing his own needs before others’.

Not expecting appreciation for the good things he does.

Asking people what they need from him instead of just assuming and trying to help, and accepting that sometimes people don’t want his help without assuming that they dislike him or are rejecting him.

Not trying to call attention to his own hard work.

Learning to recognize the affection and good wishes of others, even if those things take a different shape than he’s familiar with.

Learning to relax and take time for himself, without feeling like this will lead to chaos and disaster.

Not expecting others to change immediately when he explains something, because what’s obvious to him isn’t always obvious to others and people just don’t typically change right away.

Not getting worked up about others’ (or his own) shortcomings, because frustrated with others gets him nowhere and harsh self-criticism just makes him feel worse.

Getting in touch with his own feelings and needs.

Moon

Now, this one was definitely harder. We get so little characterization for him. And yet…

Moon’s primary hope is to protect himself and be in control of his own life and destiny. His secondary hope is to be satisfied and content, and have his needs fulfilled.

Moon’s primary fear is of being harmed or controlled by others, and his secondary fear is of being deprived and in pain.

This is really telling compared to Sun’s. Moon isn’t scared of some sort of fundamental flaw within himself. He also cares much less about what others think of him, and just wants to be happy and safe.

His main motivations are self-reliance, to prove his strength, and to be important and in control of his environment and situation. His secondary motivations are to maintain his freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out, to keep himself excited and occupied, and to avoid pain.

I feel like this definitely tracks. He’s a gremlin that makes a hobby out of bothering the staff by pretending to be a boogeyman. That’s not “security” work (sorry, Moon).

When going through a period of stress, Moon becomes secretive, fearful, perfectionistic, and critical. He’d be reclusive and out of touch with reality, obsessed with yet frightened by his violent thoughts, and incredibly self-destructive. He’d judge others harshly while rationalizing his own actions and wouldn’t hesitate to punish others to get rid of perceived ‘wrongdoers’.

This aligns pretty well with what we’ve seen of Moon with the virus.

When going through a period of growth, Moon picks up some of Sun’s best traits. He becomes open-hearted, caring, focused, compassionate, encouraging, nurturing, loving, perceptive, curious, independent, innovative, and whimsical.

We haven’t really had a chance to see anything like this with Moon, but it feels closer to popular fanon perceptions as well.

An unhealthy Moon would be ruthless and violent. He’d be reckless about his own safety and straight-up murderous. He’d be impulsive and never know when to stop or when he’s taking things too far, and eventually run out of energy or get too broken-down and just give up on himself.

An average Moon would be self-sufficient, hardworking, hyperactive, self-centered, and proud. He wouldn’t pay much attention to his own emotional needs. He’d be combative and intimidating to get his way, and not shy away from threats to get obedience. He’d always be doing things to avoid boredom and have a larger-than-life persona just for the fun of it.

A healthy Moon (at long last…) would be brave, confident, resourceful, decisive, cheerful, passionate, and assertive. He’d actually be very extroverted and easily excited, which goes against a lot of popular headcanons for him, but then again this is the guy whose entire characterization is one long performance of hide-and-seek/tag with the monster under your bed. I feel like it makes sense that he’d be more social when the threat of his worst fears coming true isn’t looming over his head.

How would Moon reach that healthy category?

Recognizing that he’s at his best when he does things like take charge or help people through a crisis. He needs to use some self-restraint and try to inspire others to do what he wants instead of just forcing them.

Learning to let others have their way sometimes, and recognizing that doing this usually won’t mean sacrificing his power or his real needs.

Recognizing that the world is not against him and letting in the affection that’s available.

Accepting that he depends on others and not alienating them.

Not overvaluing being feared/obeyed, and recognizing that those things are not a stand-in for love.

Learning to be less impulsive.

Learning to listen to others, as well as learning to be comfortable without constant stimulation.

Accepting that he doesn’t have to have everything immediately.

Choosing quality over quantity in experiences.

Making sure that what he wants will really be good for him in the long run.

What do these types mean for their relationship and how they’d interact with each other?

They’re more alike than they initially appear!

Both are action-oriented and want to have a personal impact on their environment.

Both can be sentimental and deeply feeling, with a soft side that isn’t as apparent.

Both can play the roles of provider, protector, caretaker, and nurturer while avoiding or even denying their own needs.

Both tend to overwork themselves and be the ‘strong one’ in relationships, although Sun’s type is more likely to be the power behind the throne whereas Moon’s type is more likely to be the one on the throne, which I found really interesting.

Both are passionate, generous, and have good people skills.

Both are strong-willed and like taking on responsibility, as long as they choose it themselves.

Both easily play the roles that the other needs and wants. They see each other’s best qualities and can be the other’s strongest supporter and admirer. They also have clearly-defined roles, so they tend to not get in each other’s way. They make powerful allies who complement each other’s strengths, particularly the good effects they have on others.

However, they have very different values: Sun’s type is more person-oriented, and Moon’s type is more practical. Sun’s type also tends to be more indirect, whereas Moon’s type tends to be more direct. Sun’s type is much more likely to get attached to people and see things from their point of view, whereas Moon’s type does not.

When they’re not doing so good, they may be prone to arguments over whose views are correct: Moon’s confrontational attitude and tendency to shut others out, or Sun’s possessive and self-sacrificial behaviors. Sun’s type is more likely to get caught in a codependent relationship with Moon’s, becoming an apologist and enabler for his bad behavior.

The breakdown in mutual communication/respect/trust would involve Moon seeing Sun as insincere and manipulative, and Sun seeing Moon as cruel and domineering. They’d both become more controlling and harsh with each other, both prone to paranoia and fear of betrayal.

I feel like that’s kind of where we’re at in the games. Sun chooses not to outright warn people about Moon a lot of the time, and they both try to gain total control of their shared body and shut the other out.

AAAAND… DONE!

I hope this was at least an interesting read for you guys, and offered a new perspective on these characters! I recommend checking out the link for further insights into the personality types, because I tried to just limit it to character motivations and interactions and that alone has been ridiculously long.

hey, sunnie, why’d you do this?

neurodivergency. next question.

[hibernationsuit]

5 Songs, 3 Outfits

Thanks for tagging me @spaceratprodigy aaaaa this is so fun <3

Rules: Post 5 songs associated with your OC, followed by 3 outfits they would wear

Tagging @vvanessaives @elvves @yrlietlanaevyss @cilantlis @quickhacked @reaperkiller @velocitic @dickytwister @katsigian @edgepunk @devilbrakers @babylon5 @ncytiri and everyone else who wants to do this 🤍 (+ no pressure to do this obviously hehe)

picked toby for this hehe :3 also switching it to be outfits first, songs later bc i added commentary for the songs and they're under read more. hehe. i also added a bonus song there.

Outfits

sources: one / two / three

Tobias likes comfortable clothes and has a high preference for oversized sweaters and shirts. He also likes wearing flannel shirts or soft warm jackets <3 He likes somewhat neutral, earthly tones, but isn't afraid to use funny patterns either :)

Songs:

Firestorm - Siamés: Toby's a guy who easily goes to do something he really wants, especially when highly motivated, and has accepted the fact that this road can and will have lots of "falls" and problems for him. He's still going forward :) idk man this whole song just reminds me of him <3 also, these lyrics: "to be in the glory, you'll have to survive to your falls"

Black Mambo - Glass Animals: I think going against the higher-ups is a big part of Toby's story and personality tbh. This man has many opinions and he is not afraid to say them. Or blow a whistle or two. Also can be seen as the whole "some guy goes against the Halcyon Board" song.

So Much Love - Depeche Mode: I remember this one uquiz calling Toby sooooo much. This guy has so much love to give and does that all the time, he wants people to feel good, feel loved. Something something, also Dave Gahan saying this about the song: "It's like we have so much love here, we really do, but we're afraid to use it and access it." Based on what we know abt tow universe, I doubt it's better there, so showing vulnerability or doing something nice might indeed look "weird"/"unusual"/"not productive" and thus may even be looked down upon?? idk man.

Dying to Live - Poets of the Fall: honestly no matter what i said above?? toby doesn't like showing his true self to other people and gets, well, ashamed? scared? when forced to talk about himself or explain why he did something and all. He also tends to overthink everything so much :/ Which then has kinda lead to also kinda missing out on many things in fear sjfkkfkgnfkfn

Shine - Dave Gahan & Soulsavers: honestly just toby vibed song. also somehow relates to toby's optimism <3

BONUS SONG which is strongly related to young long hair Toby

Fear of a Blank Planet - Porcupine Tree: i was listening to songs that were in control at some point and idk why but the moment this was on i suddenly got?? so many long hair toby thoughts??? very fitting for him honestly. Obviously only some parts of the lyrics are fitting (which seems to be the case for most songs) but um. yeah. thank my obsession with control soundtrack for accidentally creating long hair toby. After leaving the family he kinda got into this very...unhealthy kind of behavior in which he basically either spent his time working A Lot (or doing some side gigs bc no matter how smart you are i doubt a junior chemist's salary in udl would let you pay for your rent and necessities properly) or spent in clubs or sitting all alone at his apartment doing something or having sex. Additionally I'd mention how his substance use got v high, specifically smoking and drugs. I'm pretty sure corporations actually encouraged their workers to use them to get better productivity and all even on Earth, and while Toby didn't really care abt the whole 'be profuctive' thing, boy did he enjoy getting rid of feelings and having more focus.

[silkythewriter]

Could I request zim x reader where the reader really loves horror?

We've all seen how not well zim handles horror and I think some comfort fluff after a horror movie would be cute!

Zim with a S/O who loves watching horror movies

꧁𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬꧂

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐲: silkythewriter, formally known as weirdowithahat

𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐛𝐲/𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲: Nickelodeon Animation Studios

𝐁𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝/𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲: sublieu

𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲: Production companies Wumberlog Productions (pilot), Nickelodeon Animation Studio, MTV Networks, and Jhonen C.

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: a bit or gore only if you squint

𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝:

💫👽Zim👽💫

“Why do you humans torture yourselves with these disgusting visuals!” Is most likely the first thing he says/ask. He honestly doesn’t understand the concept of it

The minute you express your love for the genre he tries liking it too (he’s a people pleaser to those he cares about) but ends up shaking himself up and just staring at it in disgust and horror, he probably can’t last for the whole movie 💀

He tries to hide his fear and just act like he doesn’t care, but it’s like putting a bandage on a split bridge and hoping it stays together. So it doesn’t last long when he sees the horror character wilding a chain saw and slicing people into dices. That scene itself sent shivers down his spine and activated his flight or fight response, so he ends up clinging to you or Gir without realizing

Oh and don’t get me started on jump scares!, he gets startled easily so any jump scares he ends up yelling his head off while jumpy back 20 feet, it tariffed him. His heart was beating faster then drums in a band, he honestly thought he would die there then. But once he heard you giggling he just pouted while screaming that he isn’t scared at all. But you could tell easily by how bad his body was shaking

He never lets you or gir pick out a movie to watch ever again. The many times this man literally almost died of a sudden jump scare is unreal so he doesn’t trust you with the remote anymore 💀

Even though he hates to ambit it, when you pull him closer to comfort him after a scary scene it helps tremendously. After a while of trying to pull away and scream some vengeance esk things he finally gives in and just goes lump in your arms while sighing and just hugging back. It does help calm down his heart beat when you do this so he is thankful just never expect him to ambit it

After any horror movie he some how ends up in your arms as he nuzzles his face into you, but he mostly prefers nuzzling your stomach or arms. Only time he does this is when he falls asleep on you because lord knows how this guy love putting a tough guy per-sod

Fun fact: he actually thought those horror movies where true actions being filmed till you explained to him what acting and actors are so yea his first horror movie experience was filled with horror 💀

He’s a bit iffy on gore, I feel like he can kinda handle it but at the same time not? He just feels weird when blood splatters on the screen or when heads roll off the body. I mean he can handle it but at the same time is confused on why you like seeing your own race get slaughtered

He definitely questions your sanity with each horror movie you make him watch.

Only thing that can comfort him after a horror movie is probably you, maybe cuddling with him or staying up a bit later to watch over him as he sleeps cause if not he’ll be awake for a year 😭

Gir loves watching horror movies depending on how much horror is involved, he usually takes a spot next to you and cuddles up to you. Which annoys Zim but he can’t really say anything without being called out so he just watches from the side while crossing his arms

Overall this man is not good with horror and is so confused about it but if your like it then he guesses he can try it out, just don’t expect him to last long (￣^￣)💧

♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎

AHHHH I love Zim so much I really in joy this show still it’s truly an awesome and hilarious show!!(>_<)!!!!!!

[teaboot]

15 Questions 15 Mutuals

Tagged by @lost-and-cused 💛

Are you named after anyone? Yes, a musician my mother met in Russia!

When was the last time you cried? Huh. I think like, two months back? Trigun '98 episode 23. If you know you know. (I am wrapping u up in a blanket.)

Do you have kids?  Nope! I think I might like to be a foster parent someday, though, once I have the money and the time do it properly.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? I- huh. I was gonna say yes, but honestly, not much in the last few years? I used to be so snarky and biting, like, all the time. It must have been really exhausting for the people around me. Now I think mostly it's just when I'm venting. Wild!

What sports do you play/have played?  I dunno if it's a sport if I don't compete but I enjoy martial arts! I do BJJ sometimes but I'm not very good at it, it's just for fun. Oh, and I was on a basketball team for a couple years, but I'm 5'3" and still don't know the rules so I think I was mostly just just for the body count, lol

What's the first thing you notice about other people?  Demeanor. Are you calm or tense? Loose or tightly-wound? Are you likely to explode if you encounter a perceived obstacle? Are you agreeable and easygoing? Or are you pent-up and raw and itching for a fight?

God, I don't think people realize how visibly LOUD they are when they're unhappy.

Some people are like music, moving along to their own little beat or tune, and then a heavy, harsh note walks in and you just KNOW they'll fuck up the rhythm if you brush too close. It's wild. Are they aware of it? Do they care? Who knows.

What's your eye colour?  Brown! Sorta like.... hmmmm. #622a0f in the middle, with a darker ring around the outside. (Never did relate to the 'brown eyes are boring' gang, always liked mine too much. Then again, I was the only one in my family with brown eyes, so maybe it was that.)

Scary movies or happy endings? Scary movies WITH happy endings? But no, actually, I hate watching horror movies. I LIKE them, I think a lot of them are very good and it's an underrated genre, I just. Don't enjoy being scared. Or sad.

Any special talents?  I'm an artist- I enjoy watercolor, acrylic, and India ink as painting mediums, I'm rather good at realistic stippling, I'm decent at identifying animal bones, I enjoy sculpting and sewing and needle-felting, I'm finally at a point where I like to read my own writing, I enjoy interior design and have been told I'm good at it, I'm a pretty good cook, and I've been told I'm a decent singer! I can also fold incredibly tiny origami cranes, and pick up on new languages well enough for simple use.

And I be far more proud of any number of these things if I did them a little more often.

As it is, I sleep a lot.

Where were you born? British Columbia, Canada!

What are your hobbies? Lord, too many. I'm actually sewing a new battle jacket right now, and animating a short video. Also writing fan fiction. And reading! And I like to collect antique books and handmade ceramics and theater masks. And go antiquing. And I'm still learning to knit? Hhhhhhhhrrrrnnggfn I wish I could have a year off to just. Do things. I wanna take a pottery class! And do metalwork again!! I used to love making chain jewelry. Oh, I do beadwork sometimes! And paint! And I'm sloooooowly designing a guest room. Bfyvxuhfhgtjggjhgyu

Do you have any pets? Yes! Big baby bird cat. He lives out of the country now, though.

How tall are you? 160cm!

Favourite subject at school?  Art. And Metalwork. And Psychology. And Literary Analysis. (And lunch break.)

Dream job?  Okay so imagine this: There's a VERY rich eccentric hell-bent on accumulating strange art, and by some miracle they are both mentally stable and not a gigantic dickhead. They travel a lot and don't really enjoy socializing so I don't have to kiss their ass.

Twice a month I receive an automatic deposit into my bank account and in return, all they want is a reasonably steady continued production of literally whatever art. Portraits, statues, robotics, ceramics, conceptual shit, costumes, carvings, literally whatever.

And they'll cover educational expenses for it all so I can go back to college and learn screen printing and 3D animation and use the kiln and shit forever and ever, and take up apprenticeships at tattoo parlors and volunteer as a face painter and pick up photography, and just create as much beauty and love and confusion and joy as I possibly can forever and ever and ever until I die.

And I'll have enough money to own my own apartment that I'll paint in all my favourite colors, with murals and everything, and have a cat who I will of course spoil rotten, and maybe adopt a few weird and goofy kids who'll have sleepovers with their friends in the living room and play new bad music that I pretend to hate, and when they fuck up and do stupid shit like kids do, maybe I'll handle it better than my adults did.

And maybe if they like making stuff too, I can make stuff with them. And maybe I'll get to see them do it better than me. And maybe I'll get to see them do everything better than me. And maybe they'll be happier, too.

So, uh. I guess I'd like to be an artist. A sugar baby-artist? Sugar baby artist combo. I'd like to have a patron is what I mean. A sponsor. Yeah

Fifteen Mutuals*: @Melancholysage @Genderfuckedpigeon @Raspbrrytea @Qthewhatever @Sternenhimmel-mond @Mythosandsuch @Anunholymessofagirl @Ifitistobeitisuptous @Here-you-can-read-my-feelings @Meat-puddle @Catgirlwarrior @Rodeokid @Not-fae-no-sir @Inbox847 @Pip-53

*I have no idea if we're all mutuals but take this anyways

[dross-the-fish]

Thoughts on AI I was talking to some people about AI and generally I've been pretty neutral on AI as a tool. I've seen people bring up that it could be used as a good way for disabled people or people who generally aren't good at art to bring their ideas to life and honestly I'm pretty ok with that on principle. I am pretty firmly against AI being allowed to indiscriminately scrape the work of artists without their input or say so and I'm against Ai being used by the entertainment industry as a replacement for actual artists and writers. However what I really want to talk about is the use of AI as a tool, assuming it can be used ethically. I really hate the argument of "It's soulless," or "It's cheating" (used ethically it's just anther medium like photography or collages. Art is not measured by the amount of effort or the tools used. I am really tired of that take) and a particular scaremongering argument I've had directed at myself "It will replace you."

Because I do draw that's the one I get leveled at me the most. That AI will do what I do and do it better so there will be no point to me or what I make. They like to paint artists vs AI as John Henry vs The Machine and I just do not care for it. I think it's reductive to art and to artists to frame the value of art as a matter of effort vs quality of product. AI cannot make what I make because it's not me. It won't create my characters, it can only output what it's fed. The work it creates may be of better quality, more complex in texture and composition, more precise or more detailed but it can never build my characters because it doesn't know my characters like I do. I got curious and tried to use an AI image generator to see if I could make art with it and I could not. I have no idea how to input the fucking prompts in a way that makes something worth looking at and I lost the motivation to learn how to do so very quickly. As a creative outlet there was something so joyless about it. I felt like I was doing paperwork or coding and that's the shit I regularly get paid to do at my soul killing day job. I don't want to do it for fun. Also the intimacy was gone? I didn't feel like I was spending time with my creation and there was no sense of bringing something to life. None of the pleasure of watching a face take shape line by line and filling in the details until my character was looking back at me, imperfect due to the limitations of my skills but still fully realized and in some strange way "alive". Working with an AI generator felt so tedious. Even if I could learn how to use this tool and do it properly so that I get "better" looking results I don't want to. I feel so disconnected from the end product that I can't envision it ever bringing me any kind of fulfillment to make use of this tool. But I think, again, assuming it can be used ethically, as just another tool for making art it deserves to exist and be accessible to people who might enjoy using it to be creative. It's not the process or the software that's the issue, it's the way it's being abused and no amount of people trying to scare me with "AI could do it better than you" is going to frighten me away from preferring to draw by hand.

The point of art is not to be good, it's to create, it's to make something and to bring ideas to life. As much as I have my criticisms about AI I feel like a lot of the language used to condemn it presents a narrow view of what makes art "worthy" and it sets a goal post where none should exist.

Everyone should be allowed to create, and they should have access to whatever tools they are comfortable using and when we talk about AI vs Artists we should focus less on the quality and ease of use and more on the dilemma of using other people's work without consent and the potential for mass production of cheap and lazy products for profit from the entertainment industry at the expense of employing writers and artists.

[keganexe]

D&D, The OGL, and a Better Future for Actual Play Content

So this is spinning out of a post I made on twitter about how I legitimately believe the future of Actual Play (or AP for short) is in working alongside indie rpg folks

You can see that thread here, but I'm gonna recap anyway

Lets talk about the OGL and D&D first

Thanks to some great reporting from journalist Linda Codega (@lincodega), we know the general shape of the new Open Gaming License (or OGL) that WotC is running for Dungeons & Dragons moving forward. In short it sucks, I am not super interested in getting into it here, especially because Linda (once again) did really solid reporting here. Generally this spells a very bad time for a number of bigger third party creators (Green Ronin, Paizo, Kobold Press, probably Critical Role if we assume they aren't in on it which I would not assume tbh), and it also spells out specifically that Hasbro's desire to monetize even harder is in full swing.

One of the more interesting bits to this whole thing to me though, is how Wizards is looking at Fan Content, and I think its very likely this is going to be a major rub for AP Producers in the future. The OGL is now much clearer that AP work needs to fall under the Fan Content Policy, which means in broad strokes there is to be no monetization of your content. This is an old policy, but one I think a lot of folks are blithely unaware of. Specifically

You can't require payments, downloads, subscriptions, or email registration to access your content

You can't sell or license this content to a third party

Your content must be free for others to view, access, share, and use without paying you anything, obtaining approval, or giving credit.

You specifically can run things like a Ko-Fi or a Patreon, but you can't hide content behind a paywall. It also is... unclear on the ability to do things like live shows for money? I'm not a lawyer.

Regardless I think its high time people left, and that brings me to part 2 here

D&D and APs

Fundamentally D&D has always been bad for Actual Play. It's a quagmire of conflicting rules and bubblegum fixes, it crunches in weird spots, it doesn't do half the things people play it for, and its expensive to get into. Furthermore, it requires a lot of prep, it doesn't adapt well, and fundamentally it makes bad radio.

Where we see the most successes in the niche of D&D APs is hyper edited, super slick, and wildly unachievable setups; with major changes in rules, players who can make a living doing it, and entire production studios working on them (looking at you Critical Role, Dimension 20, etc). Within these (and within a ton of other APs) we also see a wild amount of homebrew to bend an inflexible and inelegant system into something that tells the stories we're interested in telling in games. Be this the wild changes to death in Dimension 20's Neverafter, full new classes and mechanics across Critical Role, magic items and homebrew in every AP I can think of, etc.

Generally also D&D is bad radio. The exacting measurements on battle maps don't make great Theatre of the Mind (certainly not as well as games designed for it), the rolls + stat modifiers + misc. shit on your sheet requires a lot of boring and frequently had to follow math*, etc.

Point here being, when we see it done well** it's less on the hands of D&D being good at these things, and more because production is changing major aspects of gameplay to make a game make good radio.

We should also talk about the messy legacy of D&D, but honestly that would be a few thousand extra words from me, and I don't have it in me. If the OGL doesn't scare you, it's worth thinking about what you're cosigning by staying around. Here's some extra articles if this is the first you're hearing about Wizards having major problems tho

Why Race is Still a Problem by Linda Codega gets into a lot of it

Wizards is still making money off of Oriental Adventures (and an article on that)

Mike Mearls still works there, this was weirdly hard to find a good article on, but here's a reddit post where its discussed

A Better Future for Actual Plays

This brings me to the point of this thread, which is that I don't think the future of Actual Plays has ever... actually been in making 5e content. This is a thing I feel pretty strongly about as a person who makes non-5e ap content (and this is a bias, sure). To me a better future has always been in indie rpgs, and in making content hand in hand with designers and producers working together.

What does this look like though? In short it rocks, and it's a thing bigger folks in the AP sphere are clearly already looking it. I'll list some examples below, and then I'll talk more about what it looks like on smaller scale, and what my experience with that has been like

So first off here's a few examples of what this looks like on the higher production end of the scale. I'm specifically looking at examples of campaign APs, working with the designer of the system, and not one shots which are doing this a bunch already.

Dimension 20's Shriek Week with Gabe Hick's Mythic System

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast Podcast getting made alongside Possum Creek (it is a series of one shots, but also a shared universe, so I'm counting it here)

Into the Motherlands moving to their own system eventually

Iron Edda: Puppet Strings with Tracy Hicks on the One Shot Podcasting Network (edited to add this example)

On the smaller end this is something I legitimately have some experience with, and this is where the thread was always heading. Let's talk about Renegade Racers, the game I made specifically for one person, what that has looked like for me, and why I think it's the future of APs to make content this way.

So a while ago I got on a Fast & Furious bend and watched all the movies. Not content to just watch movies though, I talked to some folks about if they had seen games based on it, and got linked to a video of @0sarahxfrank0 running a F&F inspired honey heist hack (I'm not gonna link it because the community it spun out of has had a lot happen and I don't wanna give them clicks tbh).

The short version of this is that I watched the game, built a system to better handle what folks were trying to do, and then sent it back to Sarah. She loved it. We made some changes, we rebuilt around the players and stories people wanted to tell, we released the game and the first AP together afterwards. Now Sarah and I do a lot of work together, we're planning bigger things like this for the future, and it's so far been a lot of fun and super rewarding for everyone involved.

We've seen some other stuff like this as well, even if not in campaign play. Offhand, Plus One Exp's home Down We Go system is a great example of working with a designer to stamp a system as the home system, and find community within it. We've been able to watch sorta in slow motion as DWG moved from a little one page OSR hack that potentially gets lost in the shuffle, to something big and exciting that both parties are happy to put a stamp on.

This is the exact future I see for AP campaign play, and not a wild dream I don't think.

What does Actual Play look like when it's tied to designers who want to help you tell your stories in the ways you want to tell them? What would it look like for a community to say "actually we've had enough"? What happens when we work with people who give a shit instead of faceless megacorps? What does it look like when we invest in people willing to invest in us?

I've seen the future and it's golden, we just have to reach for it.

*hard to follow in that if the players aren't saying out loud what exactly they're adding the numbers are nonsense **by well here I do mean "expensive and award winning" I do not mean I think they're particularly master classes in game running or production, but that's a whole separate topic

[silverus-kvassus]

I was a big fan of Soviet cartoons for a while before Treasure Island got popular and I remember being sad because it was quite a niche interest so when it starting gaining attention I was excited even though I hadn't seen it yet because I was happy that outsiders were finally watching and liking a Soviet cartoon even if it was one I didn't know much about... but I found out about the fandom and how bad it was it honestly made me sad as I thought people actually cared about the cartoon and Soviet animation and the fact that it seemed like they were just joining the fandom so they could just make weird headcanons, pairings, simp for the characters and make NSFW of them made me really upset especially with many of them being English speakers or Americans as it seemed like they didn't actually care about Treasure Island or Soviet animation and only got into the fandom because of a meme...

I have sadly seen this with other foreign cartoons and animation gaining outside fandoms especially ones I like and I don't understand this fascination but with Americans especially taking obscure franchises and turning them into the next garbage animation fandom... especially with how many bad western animation fandoms there are I guess the toxic ones especially have to get their grubby hands on franchises just to ruin them.

I also have noticed some of these American fans can be rather discriminatory towards the countries these animations come from and often judge them by American standards and often try to criticise or misinterept them because they are very misinformed or have some stupid standards and even try to call some of these franchises problematic just because they come from certain countries or come from different times where they would be products of them and even judge them based on their own modern standards and try to project modern ideals onto them even when they don't fit and have nothing to do with the original premise... they also can be quite toxic and try to force their ideals onto a franchise or fandom even when it has nothing to do with it and many of them only care about surface level stuff and don't seem to care about the creators who made it or the country it came from.

I'm not exculsionist or a gatekeeper as I usually don't care what people do in fandoms but I do draw a line when I feel like there's an issue as I hate people who just join fandoms just because they are popular and don't actually give a crap about the actual work in question and just use it as a way to be toxic and I have even seen people go as far as to disrespect the creators of said works and only join a fandom to criticise how bad the work is... like why are you even here then? And as someone who really loves animation and appreciates it, it saddens me to see people treat such works like this especially with how little attention foreign animation gets in the western world. Do we really need awful fandoms ruining them?

I'm not saying all people are like this and that we should force people to enjoy things a certain way but is it too much to ask to try and be respectful to some of these works especially when they hold so much value to other people and countries? Can't you just stick to your regular awful fandoms and not bring other works into this? And while I know people say that these fandoms after often the minority this really isn't the case for the obscure ones that get popular especially due to these toxic people.

It especially saddens me as there are some obscure things I've wanted to share and make art of but I'm scared of people getting their hands on it and ruining people's exposure to these works and while it may seem like I'm being negative that isn't to say that all obscure fandoms are like this as there are a lot of good fandoms that even if they are small don't have the same level of toxicity and plenty of people who do legitmately like these works and not for superficial reasons.

I'm sorry if it seems like I was ranting but I've seen this for a while and I wanted to vent about it but I'm sorry if this isn't a appropriate place to do so and if I'm being rude.

I agree with you in everything here. The hypocrisy of many really amazes me, because it is a living phenomenon and an indicator of the stupidity of some people. It's a shame that this happens.

[ijustreallylovethem]

being a super famous popstar and writing an album about luke or jack

i wrote this as reader in an interview about a week after dropping the album

“so this album is packed full of love songs… is there a certain someone they’re about?” you smiled, reaching up to play with the necklace you wore.

“yeah, actually. i started writing songs about our relationship around the time that i was finishing up my last album but it was still so new that i decided to leave them for myself for a bit. and they didn’t really fit the vibe of my last album. then i got back in the studio and i was working on this albums and originally, i was taking it in a whole different direction.”

“so what changed your mind? why did you decided to completely flip the switch?”

“to be honest, it seemed like the only thing i could write was love songs. i actually ended up moving in with the person i was writing about and being around him so much was just so inspiring.”

“now, i’ve done my research, and i listened to the whole album since it was released last week. you haven’t confirmed a relationship with anyone specific but you’ve dropped a lot of context clues in your songs.”

“oh yeah, there’s definitely been a lot of speculation about me having a boyfriend lately but if you really listen to the songs it’s so painfully obvious who i’m writing about.”

“can i name some that i noticed?” you nodded, giving her a smile and a motion telling her to go ahead. “so i just did a quick listen but in our song movin’ on, you talk about moving in with your boyfriend and mention that you’re in jersey.” you nod. “in lucky number you say that 43 must be your lucky number.”

“those two alone might be enough to figure it out, honestly.”

“but i picked up a third thing which i really think gives it away. i won’t point it out, because i know some fans love to put the pieces together themselves, but i’ll give a hint. you should definitely be looking in the lyrics of eyes of a devil.” you smiled, giving he interviewer a wink to show that she figured it out.

“that’s definitely some good advice.”

“did you show the songs to this special someone before they were released?”

“i did. at first i was scared to show him just because i had written so many but once i realized that i really wanted to use music tell everyone how i felt about him, i knew i wanted his input on what was included on the album. i let him look at all of my mostly finished products and he helped me pick some that he liked, and i picked a few more that he didn’t say anything about but i could tell he liked. eyes of a devil was definitely one of those considering it is a little bit different from the rest lyric-wise. once i had everything recorded and the track list together, i played it for him and asked if he was okay with me releasing that as my album. he’s a very private person so i wanted to make sure that he was okay with people essentially knowing that we were together.”

“so not only did he hear the album…”

“he had a big say in it. if he would’ve told me not to release it, or that he didn’t want anyone to know about us being together, the album would look a lot different.”

“well let’s hope the next one isn’t full of angsty break up songs,” she joked, and you let out a slight laugh.

“oh yeah. i don’t know that i could handle having a whole album of love songs to sing if i wasn’t with him anymore. but it was definitely a well thought out decision and i feel secure enough in our relationship to say that i don’t think there will be any break up songs written about him.”

“in time of my life you said you’ve been together four years, right?”

“i did. it’s closer to five now, i wrote that actually about a year ago because it wasn’t quite four but that sounded better than three,” you laughed and the interviewer joined in.

“well it’s been such a pleasure talking to you and hopefully we get to meet again sometime in the future!”

“yes, i’ve had such a good time!” the interviewer turned to talk directly to the camera to end the interview.

“make sure you guys go listen to y/n’s new album all my love is yours and let us know who you think she’s writing about!”

[supersoakerfullofblood]

hi!!! hopefully you are having a good day!!! but a quick question-

how can i give insight to a character's backstory without it look liking a word-dump?? especially if the whole story have a diary entry format.

Very good question that honestly really depends on your personal style, but here's what's worked for me.

The best advice I can give is to stop thinking of your character's history as "backstory." That's one of the words that's become so loaded in popular writing discourse as to not mean anything solid anymore, like "worldbuilding," "theme," "protagonist," etc. Words like that are helpful once you've made your own definition for them, but with so many voices in Youtube tutorials and social media posts all saying similar but different things for what these mean, it's best to find a word that better suits how you view the concept. For me, that word is "history," because like how the present is founded on actual history, our characters are only the product of their history. Characters, like people, rarely if ever operate in the present tense.

So--revealing history without the dreaded expository dump. To answer this, we first have to look at why expository dumps are so uninviting. Here's an example of it done poorly (I'm writing this as an example, not taking someone's writing to like, diss on them hah):

Cheryl took the elevator up all five floors of the haunted house, which groaned as she went, the elevator left untouched since the house's last occupants moved out. When they arrived at the penthouse suite, Doctor Gastor explained that the last residents here thought they were wizards and practiced daily at arcana. Their names were Abigail and Horace--he had renamed himself after a demon had told him his true name, so he claimed--and they wintered in this remote, northern sphere to avoid Italian summers. Horace was wealthy, Abigail poor, but he had found her in poverty and saw something of the occult in her movements, so he stole her away one summer, and the two found more in common than they would've thought, for they married the next year. Cheryl paced the floor, picked up and dusted off a book titled in runic chicken scratch, and opened the cover."

This isn't the worst example I could think of, but it has the hallmarks I'm looking for. The first issue with this expository dump ("Doctor Gaston explained... next year") is that it shatters the flow of the passage. As a writer of narrative fiction, the goal of every sentence is to lead smoothly to the next sentence. To do this, we always have to be thinking of what the reader wants to read after a given sentence. If one sentence is about an elevator groaning in a haunted house, the reader probably wants to know how Cheryl reacts to it! Is she scared of ghosts? Does she believe in ghosts? Is she scared of elevators? If so, what does she do? Move to hit a button on the elevator to stop it? If scared of ghosts, how does she internalize this? If not scared, how does she internalize perhaps how Doctor Gaston is shivering? (Is he shivering?) These are all places the reader's mind wants to go to after that sentence. Instead, we get this history about some old wizards (if I had the patience, I would've made it longer to really make it intrude on the narrative, but I don't have the patience). If this is the first time the reader's hearing about the wizards, they probably won't care about them. This synopsis of their story interrupts what the reader actually cares about, which is whatever Cheryl cares about in the moment. To fix this interruption, Cheryl could find the book of runes maybe in the chapter before this, because that gets the reader invested. The reader, just like Cheryl, wants to know why there's a book of runes in the haunted house. So Cheryl asks Doctor Gaston about it, which legitimizes this exposition, because it's also what the reader wants to know.

Another major fault of info dumps is when they don't relate to the character at all. Cheryl's history (let's say she's a girl from the country who wandered into the house on accident) has nothing to do with wizards. Maybe in the narrative, she learns to cast some spells, which makes her care about wizards, but at this point, she doesn't. If Cheryl has nothing to do with wizards, or little to do with them, then why should the audience care? When writing a character's history, you should only include the parts that matter to the character. And this written history should never be too long, because you never want to stunt the flow of the piece (what "too long" means is up to debate and your discretion and style).

Also, exposition only works when it feels genuinely embodied by the character speaking. Is Doctor Gastor explaining the wizard history, or is that the author talking? Some of it sounds like Gastor (the bit between the em dashes sounds like what he would say), but the rest sounds like Gastor is only a mouthpiece for the information I want to put out.

So, solving it. One trick I like to do when giving exposition is to make the exposition into its own mini-scene. You don't want to write, "Carmen was friends with Piper, and they went to the dance once as friends." Instead, give it some space on the page:

She and Piper were the only girls in their group who had gone quiet at curfew. Beatrice’s only crime was in whispering comments in the early hours, short things to guide the group’s banter, never loud enough to warrant arrest. “Not really, no.” “That’s nice.” Carmen nodded and drew his eyes across the crowd. “Did she sleep well?” “Beatrice?” “Yeah.” “I guess.” The path turned up the steep hill on which the dining hall was built. “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really slept well.” “Oh.” “It’s just uncomfortable, you know?” “The girls?” She raised an eyebrow. “And the boys aren’t?” “No, they are.” He laughed, and Piper was dragged to the same laugh at Homecoming three months ago. She had requested for the Melpomene band’s recent concert recording to be played after the next pop song, and surprisingly, her request was approved. Carmen laughed as their poor performance boomed from the speakers, laughed at the disruption of a dance, and Piper laughed too. But within the minute, the concert’s strident ballad was supplanted by another chart-topping pop song. But for those forty seconds, music was displaced, and the dancers stopped; city walls fell; Piper had broken something for forty seconds, held power for forty seconds. She said now, “It’s just weird, being here. It’s all too happy. Too clean.”

Exposition can work really well in brief flashbacks. And note how the exposition starts: a mirroring of "laugh" because the image is fresh in the reader's mind, so I take them on a sort of dream logic to the past. Note also that this is planting the seeds for some relevant character-building: Piper's growth into an independent woman--"Piper had broken something for forty seconds, held power for forty seconds." Here's another example from my current WIP:

He thought of Brynjar the day he had given him the knot. It was the spring of Óskar’s sixth year, and Brynjar had taken him to the docks one morning to watch sailing men fix fresh ropes on their karves and clip pulleys to sails to tie them to the boats’ sides. “Never doubt a weaver woman,” Brynjar said, annunciating each word. “They keep everything afloat.” “‘Floating,” repeated the young Óskar. “If the ropes aren’t strong, a boat’ll flip and spin. Like this!” He lifted Óskar above his head and spun on his heels, and Óskar cackled. The father set the son on his shoulders and smiled. “Yes, we need those ladies.” Óskar felt his father’s shoulders raise, and he knew the man forged something witty in his mind. “It means, Óssie, a man is only as good as his woman. And you can tell your mother I said that.” Eldrid, Óskar’s mother, would leave in her sleep later that year, and the witches would say she was sick, and Brynjar would spend some nights looking through the cracks in his home, remembering the gray wife he woke to that morning. In his memory, Óskar did not know whether this new recollection of his mother’s passing tainted his father’s speech or if he really did turn somber, but all the same, a short silence paused the scene at the dock, and Brynjar coughed to break it. His voice was low now. “Dangerous,” he said, looking with eyes like the beads of a raspberry at the men on the dock, looking through them. His jowls lowered like curtains, forced low with the hill of a frown, and in the memory, his skin blued and bloated. “It’s dangerous out there, Óssie. Be safe.” He sniffed. “Be well.” “Óskar?” Ingrid stole him. He breathed back into the world and saw now that the road had turned down and the rock wall had turned in, and they approached a strip of sea.

In addition to providing a character's history, this also fleshes out the world: the importance of women and boats, the dangers of the sea. Before the flashback, Oskar is thinking about a knot, so he thinks about the day he got the knot, which makes him think about sailing boats. At the end of the flashback, he thinks about the ocean ("looking through [the sailors]," so probably at the ocean), thinks about his father's skin if he drowned, and back in the present-tense, uh oh, Oskar is nearing the ocean. It all flows together; we're guiding our reader.

But these are only small exposition dumps, and sometimes, we need to convey much more information. You can subtly convey much more information than you realize through dialogue and description, because how a character talks and acts is guided by their histories. If a character is short-spoken, they may have had some interpersonal trauma that you can flesh out more when the time is right:

“No,” Sylvia whispered, trapping Chloe again with her stare, desperate. “I can’t sleep over.” “Why not?” Jane asked. “Mom says I have to be home by seven.” She looked down at her empty plate, at the crumbs from one slice of pizza. “But you haven’t asked her,” Jane prodded. She shook her head. “I did before.” Still in disbelief, Jane asked, “What did she say?” “She said I have to be home by seven.” She blushed. “And I can do whatever till then.” “Oh,” Jane said. She slunk back in her chair. Chloe turned back to her parents. “Can you call Jane’s mom?” “Sure thing.” “Thanks!” She swiveled back and, fingering the fruit Phoebe scrambled on her plate, decided to eat it later. She grabbed a second slice from the box. Moments passed as they ate in silence, Sylvia watching her plate, and the muffled television played something in the living room. Mom and dad laughed. “I should go,” Sylvia said. She bumped the table as she stood, reciting, “Thank you for having me.” Jane looked at the clock hovering above the front door. “It’s only six-twenty.” “I need to go home.” “Oh.” Jane stuttered. “I’ll see you next week!” Chloe said the same. “Thank you. See you.” She opened the door and slipped through. It clicked behind her. Chloe and Jane paused their gnawing and looked up at each other, sharing a thought. They hadn’t heard a car grumble on the gravel, didn’t hear anything drive by at all, and neither of them knew how close she lived. They scraped their chairs from the table and crept to the dining room window like characters in a Jones Bones movie, Jane thought. But when they pulled back the curtain, she was gone. No cars drove on the street, and the sidewalk was empty. A golden glare shrouded the street and surrounding houses as the sun lowered behind a roof.

Throughout this book (The Ghosts of Glass Lake, available now ;)), it's implied that Sylvia has a controlling and/or abusive mother. In this scene, Sylvia is curt and direct. You can almost feel the urgency behind her words, how she bumps the table as she stands, and how it almost sounds like she's rehearsed this exit. It's also implied that no one came to pick her up--she walked home, but neither Jane nor Chloe know where she lives, and neither does the reader. Maybe she walked home for miles because her mother didn't pick her up. You can get a lot of meat from implications!

But still, there are times when you just need a lot of dense exposition, usually near the beginning of a book when you need to describe the setting. My best advice, if you ever need to do this, is to keep it as brief as possible, and to pay extra attention to pacing/flow/tempo/whatever-you-want-to-call-it so it doesn't distract, doesn't feel like a chore:

The seventh and eighth graders of Carmen’s church spent one Saturday every winter at Camp Catechism. The campus set its roots in northern Michigan, breathed easterly winds from Lake Huron, and sparked to life as batches of middle schoolers arrived on midnight buses. Cabins formed a bivouac in a birch forest, and one mile to the east lay the lake and the curve of its horizon. It was frozen now, and the limbs of trees wavered slowly under snow, ice eating at chipped, white bark. The chapel the middle schoolers sang in now was a wide A-frame built and reeking of old wood. A low stage headed the room from which stood a pianist, a drummer, and a guitarist, a stage from which Roman Richards would soon discuss Ephesians. The dining hall was a short walk from everywhere and displayed from a wide window the canopy of the burdened forest, ossified waves, and the sun glinting unbearably against it all. Cups of hot chocolate were filled and refilled on a counter at the entrance of the dining hall, and campers drank these violently, abrading their throats as adolescent drunks. Boys and girls separated into two large halls subdivided into tight rooms for each youth group, everything barred entrance from the other sex. As a general rule, phones were banned, as were drugs, candles, and cursing, though the popular boys forged unique methods to circumvent these restrictions, and anyone caught with contraband was witnessed a martyr for a greater sense of vagrancy. Still, most campers lived within their rules, their obligations, just as they always had at church, and any rule breaking (“sin,” as Roman Richards claimed) was relegated quickly to myth, to rumors spread away from pious ears. As such, Carmen and his contemporaries were only loud ostensibly, never committing to a biblical criminal record. This was not to say that anyone at Camp Catechism was reserved—they spilled everything about their lives to their youth group leaders, but no one yet could articulate exactly what they meant, exactly what they felt, and scantily of dreams, ambitions, or desires.

And as all good exposition does, it flows well back into the narrative. The last paragraph above is a bridge between the camp description and a look into Carmen's inner life.

You may also find halfway through your narrative that you need to dump a bunch of character exposition, and you need to do it urgently. My trick for this is to make chapter A flow into the exposition, chapter B be an extended flashback scene, and chapter C to pick up where A left off. For example, if you need to talk about a character's relationship with his father but haven't done that yet in depth, find an easy way to transition into a flashback chapter that does just that. It's an enlarged version of the flashback tool I talked about above!

Now, all of this is what's worked for me, and I write third person distant POV narratives. It sounds like you're writing first person close POV haha. So I don't really have any examples to help with, but the general advice to 1. Keep the pacing/flow/tempo/etc. so exposition doesn't distract, and 2. Write exposition only about what matters to the character, preferably only what matters to the character in that moment, then you should be a-okay. Exposition is only as bad as it distracts, and these are the strategies I've found to distract as little as possible and to use the exposition to meaningfully build my characters as much as possible.

And again, this exposition dump problem doesn't have hard and fast solutions. Every author deals with it in their own way, and I'm sure with practice, you'll find what works best for you and what comes naturally to you, just as I'm always discovering and refining what works for me. The advice in this post is, I think, a solid place to start from :)

[dio-the-thot-exterminator]

Can I have a list of some of your favorite obscure horror movies so I can watch them at some point?

Of course! hehe not sure how obscure these films actually are, but I like them, and people don’t talk about them enough 😞

Housebound (2014) [so fun, so silly!]

Die Säge des Todes (1981)

Ticks (1993) [YEEEAH buggies]

Starry Eyes (2014) [god tier blood, grime, and UNEASE]

The Suckling (1990) [yummy creature design]

Broken (2006)

The Initiation of Sarah (1978)

The Beast Within (1982)

Terror Train (1980) [i like miss jamie <3]

The Premonition (1976)

The Unborn (1991)

Squirm (1976) [more bugs! cute lil worms]

Don't Go In The House (1979)

Satan’s Little Helper (2004)

Prophecy (1979)

We Are What We Are (2013)

Don’t Go Into The Woods (1981)

Graduation Day (1981)

The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

Jason X (2001) [This movie is solid! Everyone’s such a hater 😡]

—

Oh! Then I have some films that are more popular.

The Brood (1979)

Tokyo Gore Police (2008) [mouth watering practical effects!!!]

A Reflection Of Fear (1973)

Trouble Every Day (2001) [This actress man, just WOW]

Repulsion (1965)

Pieces (1982)

Triangle (2009)

—

Now I wouldn't call these obscure but i like them so much, and any chance I get, I will tell people to watch them 🥺🥺

Possession (1981) [One of my favourite movies of all time! The story, the acting, the effects UGH. Gagged me for sure.]

Dead Alive/Braindead (1992) [Honestly up there with Possession. So good but in a completely different way. It’s high camp, high gore, and it felt like i was high while watching it]

Lake Mungo (2008) [A movie that actually scared me while i was watching it, and stuck with me for a good week. Triggered my fight or flight like no other. rawr]

No One Lives (2012) [This would run all the time when I had cable. And I'd sit and watch it every time this came on. There are...certain scenes that are just burned into my mind]

The Cell (2000) [I don’t even know what to say. The visuals in this movie are just SO GOOD. I want to tongue kiss the entire art direction team. The costumes, the cinematography, it’s so creative and so lovely]

—

I have to give a mini shout out to Lucio Fulci, he is my favourite director. Period. If you’re interested in his movies [some focus on zombie, slasher, Giallo] his Gates of Hell Trilogy is always a good start!

—

Ah alright now onto production companies [yay? Woohoooo??]

Troma. Fucking Troma, a lot of the movies they make are gross, stupid and cheap. So if you want something that’s absurd but still strangely entertaining. I’d recommend looking through their catalog of movies, picking a random one and seeing what happens.

Full Moon Features <3 If you want some film series, I’d recommend Puppet Master and Subspecies! [I’ve seen every Subspecies]. Full Moon has a lot of killer doll and toy films. But they do branch out. Castle Freak kinda wild though.

—

Ok i'm done now.

If you have any movie recs for me, send them my way :D

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

New research shows that Gen Z are more risk-averse than previous generations. Apparently we perceive more dangers in life, are more likely to see situations as “black and white”, and see spaces as either safe or dangerous.

Of course this isn’t surprising. I get tired of the whole snowflake trope being tacked onto everyone in Gen Z, but it’s also difficult to deny that we’re generally much more fearful than previous generations. Much of the attention on this goes to those calling for trigger warnings and safe spaces—which I’d say are an important but very vocal minority—but what’s actually endemic, something I see constantly among my generation, is a subtler form of safetyism, a reluctance to take risks in our everyday lives. Being terrified to talk on the phone. Being scared to order in a restaurant. And somewhere I think it’s really starting to affect us is being risk-averse about relationships.

Gen Z are dating less. Having less sex. Settling for situationships that are empty and meaningless. And I think a major part of this is that human connection comes with a high level of risk. Among young men, for example, I’d say this risk-aversion is most obvious in fear of rejection. A recent survey found that almost 45% of men aged 18 to 25 have never approached a woman in person. Another Pew Survey found that half of single men between 18 and 30 are voluntarily single, which some suggest is in part because of fear.

But I think young women are also risk-averse about relationships. We are naturally more risk-averse, for a start, and an even higher number of women are voluntarily single. But our risk-aversion plays out differently. Most obvious to me is the way we talk about relationships, the advice young women give each other, the therapy-speak and feminist clichés that I think often cloak a deep fear of hurt and vulnerability.

Honestly, this kind of thing is everywhere. Social media is full of young women warning each other and listing out red flags and reasons why you should dump him or dodge commitment. He compliments you a lot? Love-bombing. Says I miss you too soon? Run. Approaches you in person? Predator. It’s all so cynical. It’s all about how not to catch feelings; ways not to get attached; how “you’re not gonna get hurt if you have another man waiting”! We blunt romance and passion with this constant calculation of risk, this paranoid scanning for threats, and by holding back to avoid being hurt. We encourage each other to be emotionally absent, unfazed, uncaring. We even call it empowerment! It’s not. It’s neuroticism. I think we are a generation absolutely terrified of getting hurt and doing all we can to avoid it. [...]

Then, of course, there’s social media, dating apps—these mechanical ways we meet and find love. Fake spaces where we can avoid any form of discomfort. Where we swipe through people like products instead of approaching them with a pounding heart; where we ghost and block instead of learning how to have difficult conversations; where we start relationships without real risk, without intense chemistry, with no feeling at all. Now we get together not from passion or thrill but after analysing profiles, reviewing selfies, rehearsing DMs. It’s all so safe; it’s all so calculated.

My other suspicion is that this has to do with changing cultural and sexual mores. Family breakdown, for example. In the UK, a third of Gen Z now see their parents split by the time they are 16. Try not being risk-averse when those are your templates for love. Also, too, the sexual revolution, where the liberalising of sexual norms have made dating extremely confusing. Where casual sex has become the default, where we’ve lost the guardrails of custom and chivalry, and nobody wants to put themselves on the line. Sometimes it seems to me we’ve become so suspicious of each other’s intentions that we pathologise romance and commitment, and end up psychoanalysing to death behaviour that’s actually decent. Now we take everything that comes with real love—being affected by someone else’s emotions, putting your partner’s needs first, depending on them—and call it damage or anxious attachment or trauma. No! It’s called deep connection! And God, yes, wouldn’t it be much easier if it was a pathology, a disease, one we could diagnose and solve because it’s scary and it comes without guarantees. But it isn’t.

It’s tragic, all of this. Tragic because it’s putting us on a trajectory to miss out on what’s actually meaningful. There’s no love without vulnerability. There’s no life without fear. And you will no doubt derail romance if you are too risk-averse. I’ve written elsewhere about how I think this fear of discomfort is in part why young people are putting off major life decisions like marriage and having children. What’s interesting to me about all these #childfree TikToks everyone likes to dunk on isn’t that people don’t want kids—I don’t think everyone should—it’s that they often don’t want them out of fear. Like that TikToker who created “The List”—a crowdsourced list of reasons not to have children that’s been seen by millions—which includes every possible risk from swollen ankles to rashes to bloating to muscle cramps. Really? We’re willing to miss out on the richest and most beautiful moments of being human—what actually makes life worth living—because it comes with risk?

I could put a caveat here and say of course, be cautious of these relationships, be wary in these situations, etc, etc, but I won’t. Because that’s all we ever hear. So I’ll just say stop being so cautious. Stop overanalysing it. Don’t sit inside dwelling on what could go wrong. Don’t psychoanalyse everything to the point you deaden something real. You’ve been duped into thinking you can create a life without danger, one liberated from constraints and uncomfortable emotions, and that such a life is desirable. But you can’t, and it’s not. If you connect with someone and it comes with the risk of losing something, good. You’re alive!

Otherwise what’s the alternative? Some soulless life of safety and consumption? Purging your own life of meaning because things might possibly go wrong? Sitting safely inside staring at screens, watching simulations of strangers live their lives? And staying anxious and alone and never seeing that as the ultimate risk? Never seeing that maybe the most dangerous life is one that demands nothing of you?

Screw that! Take a chance! Trust someone! Fall in love! Feel something! Build something meaningful and scary and try your best not to blow it up. Because looking at how many of us feel anxious, depressed, hopeless, nihilistic, fragile and alone, the last thing this generation needs is to take less risks. The last thing we need is another reason to kill off connection. What we need is to create lives for ourselves that threaten us with their terrifying potential for pain and rejection and hurt. Because that’s living. It’s scary; it really is. But we should risk it.

[nothinggold13]

Dunno iffen you've commented on this yet but: what, if any, are your thoughts surrounding Netflix's Narnia?

I have dropped a few thoughts here and there since it was announced, but I'm not sure I ever gathered the entirety of my thoughts into one place.

The short of it is that I am both scared and hopeful.

I am extremely defensive of Narnia, and have been since the moment it caught hold of my heart; there are a million things that could go wrong, and I'm never unaware of them. The sanctity of Lewis' world and vision is extremely important to me, and I'd be both heartbroken and furious if Netflix produced the series in a way that directly dishonoured it. And, if that happens, I will be first in line to complain.

But I also hate how dismissive and unhopeful everyone is being at the mere concept. Since Greta Gerwig was officially announced as a writer/director, there's been even more complaints of "how about Netflix just keeps their hands off???" and I honestly find it exhausting to read that much negativity. Personally, I've never seen anything Greta's directed. I know some people love how she did Little Women, and other people hate it; I know that I'm feeling cautious about the new Barbie movie, but I also admire the care she put into making it real with practical effects rather than CGI everything. I think there's potential in that kind of vision, especially as long as Douglas Gresham retains an important role in production, and if there's other varied creative minds behind the project as well. Right now, there's still more we don't know than there are things we do. I think a lot of us could afford to take a step back and save complaining for when Netflix has actually done something inarguably wrong with the series, and instead spend our time trying to make sure Netflix hears what the books are valued FOR, so they know what we want.

It's easy to be scared. But you know what else? I LOVE visual media. As a Narnia editor, I love the idea of having canon images to use to edit books and characters we've never seen on screen before. I love the hope that maybe we could get a more accurate production timeline this time around. I love the mere thought that maybe this time they could give us a golden-haired Lucy. And I am OBSESSED with the idea that we might finally get ALL SEVEN BOOKS ADAPTED.

I have been dreaming about seeing The Last Battle on screen for years. I have been dreaming about the design, and the colours, and the music, and the moment that all the faces we have known and loved since the series began appear before us again, all sparkling with joy and eternity, because we have reached chapter one, and for us its the end, but for them it's the beginning. I love reading those final chapters. But I am aching to see them brought to life. Can't you just IMAGINE IT? Dreaming of the soundtrack alone gives me butterflies. It could be. so. good.

And if Netflix fails to deliver, I still won't be giving up on that hope. I'll just be crossing my fingers and praying that the next company that purchases the rights to adapt the series finally sees it through. (Or that, by some bizarre opportunity, I will be able to adapt it myself. Honestly, Netflix, just hire me already.)

Again: I am scared. There is so much they could do wrong, and if they do anything directly disrespectful to the books and their role in Lewis' legacy, I will be picking up my torches and pitchforks with everybody else. I've got plenty of anger. I will direct it that way if they deserve it.

But right now, we can still have hope. And I am clinging to it until it is no longer deserved.

[dangerous-advantage]

concerning the new changes (07.10.23)

all right fuck it i wasn't gonna do this but then i ended up filling the tags on the post i reblogged.

so here's my thoughts on staff's 'Tumblr's Core Product Strategy" post and the things that i think could actually be good!... if staff respects tumblr's culture in implementing them.

to note, i am referring to this post. for better context, please go read the whole thing and try not to skip details, since i think it's important to understand the post through your own perspective if you want to participate in the conversation.

this post worried me at first, both because changes in the tumblr ecosystem with as much weight as this post carries have, historically, been pretty bad for the userbase.

starting off with a focus on creating a larger user base and inviting more, new creators rather than with a strong plan to focus on improving the current state of tumblr sets off alarm bells.

reading through the rest of it leaves me with... mixed thoughts. while it honestly does seem like they've heard a lot of the things we've been screaming at them about and might actually take steps to make things improve, i'm still wary.

this isn't a post explaining specific changes tumblr plans to implement. in fact, there are relatively few examples of actual strategies being communicated. it's just an overview with a lot of implications for the future.

i mean, not even the new tumblr labs group has any idea what the exact changes are going to be. just look at this:

[ID: A screenshot containing text from a post made by the aforementioned account. It reads, "But we're not sure exactly what that change looks like, so we've assembled a new team, called Tumblr Labs, to figure it out as quickly..." It cuts off here. /End ID]

and i think that's the problem.

so, the post. staff explains that the issue, as they see it, is that the platform is fundamentally flawed-- i.e., because tumblr is difficult to use if you don't have an understanding of the site before, it tends to scare off new users rather than encourage engagement.

this isn't untrue. however, it should be noted, the tumblr userbase has cultivated a culture of teaching newcomers how the website and the website's culture functions. (see: the many posts made as 'guides' in the wake of the twitter and reddit fiascos, as well as @/strange-aeon's video on the topic.)

(not to say that this system isn't imperfect and could be improved by directing new users to the these posts, buuuuuuut i'll get into that later.)

now: i (and i think most of the userbase) agree with staff on the main point-- tumblr, as a platform, is broken. we have long complained about the bugs and the messy reblog chains and the notifications overwhelming you if a post gains traction.

(though, we've also just integrated that into tumblr culture, but that's a tangent for a different time.)

here's the thing: staff does mention these things as problems they want to fix.

here's a short list of some things the post mentions that i honestly agree are a problem, and that a lot of people have wanted to see change!

[ID: Screenshots of items taken from the bulleted lists on staff's post. These read as follows: "Improving Tumblr's search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards." "Making it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread." "Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral." "Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.""Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users." /End ID]

again, these are things that i agree are issues and would be cool to see improved upon. but staff doesn't tell us how they plan to do this.

in staff's response to the userbases' assumption that they're going to remove the reverse-chronological dashboard, they state they're 'surprised' users came away with this assumption.

i, for one, am not.

the relationship between tumblr staff and the tumblr collective has been strained for a long time. mounting frustrations about users' actual issues with the website being ignored while new features are implemented that are almost unanimously disliked doesn't help.

and don't forget, the last time a change as drastic as this post is making it seem came into action, the porn ban was implemented. a change that had an overall negative effect on the community and tumblr's culture at large. it tore away crucial aspects of tumblr's identity that we'll probably never get back.

so while this post does address issues users have wanted to see fixed, of course we're still going to be wary.

the bottom line is, users don't trust staff to implement changes that will be beneficial to improving the platform for the tumblr userbase. (the recent reddit and twitter debacles don't help things much, either.)

i think staff needs to realize, as the final poster put it, tumblr already has innate value. value created by the community.

if staff focuses on improving tumblr to be easier to use-- in accordance with elevating tumblr's culture-- it will attract more people, simply by being less broken all the time.

this brings me to the other (main) issue i have: putting new users first over the current userbase.

this may not have been what staff meant to imply, but the emphasis seems to be on improving the userbase for incoming users, rather than those of us who are already here.

to be clear, i don't think that making tumblr easier to navigate for new users is bad. i mean, there's a reason we were writing guides. joining tumblr if you aren't already exposed to it can be daunting.

allowing new users to rely on an actual, working algorithm (although i think a user-driven algorithim is possibly one of the best parts of tumblr) isn't inherently bad. using that algorithim to elevate new creators isn't bad, either.

it's the way they choose to do this that makes us wary. like i mentioned before, we already have somewhat of a system for on-boarding new users to the site: word of mouth from more experienced users. this helps with both learning how to navigate tumblr and introducing new users to tumblr culture.

with all this in mind: where do we go from here?

in my mind, the solution for these problems comes down to communication. if staff wants more trust from the tumblr userbase, they need to show they are willing to listen to feedback from the tumblr collective.

when implementing changes, a great way to avoid the immediate backlash and distrust of tumblr users is by clearly outlining the changes they plan to make and the strategies by which they will be carried out.

another user made the analogy that websites should be like cities, where the users have a say in (as staff puts it) the 'evolution of tumblr.'

(mmmmmaybe we could use that spiffy new poll feature, too? everybody loves polls!)

for on-boarding new users, staff could take inspiration from the userbase in implementing a system by which new users are given the information needed to navigate tumblr. tidy up the site, remove bugs, and make it easier to use, and a lot of problems will sort themselves out.

then, we can go from there.

regarding the rest of the stuff i brushed over, i don't feel i can really say much without knowing what they actually plan to do, or where they plan to go with these things.

for example, here's another list of images of things from the post that i am cautiously intrigued by, but am worried will be improved for the worse:

[ID: Another series of images, showing more of the items listed in staff's post. They read as follows: "Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs." "Get creators' new content in front of people who are interested in it." "Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting." "Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs." "Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds." /End ID.]

the bottom line is this: if staff wants the support of the userbase in upcoming changes, they need to show that they respect and value us and the culture at large. in my opinion, staff has made strides in embracing tumblr culture, but we need to know these changes are not just motivated by profit.

if staff intends to keep it's current users, they need to to recognize that we deserve a say in this, too.

without the userbase, tumblr wouldn't exist. end of story. we are what keep tumblr alive. as stated before, expanding the userbase is not a bad thing. but doing so to the detriment of tumblr's culture is.

in this regard, i do truly hope that staff means what they said in the conclusion of their original post:

[ID: An image of the conclusion of staff's post. It reads: "Our mission has always been to empower the world's creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that priotitizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we--" The words then cut off. /End ID]

so, @staff. if you really do believe this: prove it.

[idwisp]

hihi I'm new to posting on Tumblr (I've always just used this site to read good fics 😭 so I'm sorry if it's not formatted well)

anyways!! yummy angsty Scaramouche fic I made during work bc it was a slow day (it was meant to be a drabble,, but it just kept growing over the day)

Kind of imagined the reader being an isekaid genshin player who is a giant simp 🧍‍♂️bc that is 100% how I felt when writing this after watching that one Catch Me animatic abt Scara (u know the one)

this is mainly from Scara's POV! (3rd person)

From Heaven to Hell

Fatui Reader × Scaramouche

TW: gender neutral reader (they/it used throughout), mentioned gore/pain, Dottore shenanigans (canon stuff/not the good kind), body modification (horror kind), monsterification (horror kind)

Words: 2,043 • Pages: 8.1

The newest batch of recruits seemed less than ideal, at least to the majority of the Harbingers, and Scaramouche was no exception. They were weak in spirit and bland in style, with none more varied in combat or writing than the recruits from the years prior. It make him shuffle in his seat and glare at every single one that so much as glanced at him during their welcoming ceremony into the Fatui. He left the grand hall of the almighty Tsaritsa's castle the moment he could; it would be a waste of his precious time to loiter around such a worthless cast of new soldiers. He brushed past many on his way out, and only stopped to say farewell to the Tsaritsa herself.

  A week later and he found himself appalled when some of said new recruits were assigned to his sector for further training (aka, the mind-numbing paperwork that comes with being a giant organization.) He kept a keen eye on the additions to his team, yelling at them all for every minor mistake. Almost all of those soldiers quit before the next week, which gave him a sense of relief and hard-earned satisfaction to know he chased off the lowlives. However, he was a bit ticked that he couldn't shake the last one off. They took all his vicious words and harsh tasks at full force, and yet never disappointed with their work. They were the only recruit under him that had yet to make a mistake that he could use against them. He was almost impressed.

  One day, he actually got a clear look at them. The Fatui had a strict uniform for underlings, especially in his sector, so it was rare to see what one of them actually looked like under the mask and hood. They stood out enough that he was taken aback, not because they were particularly good looking (they were above average, but not really the model-type pretty that was honestly rather common with vision-bearers--It makes him wonder if Celestia has a type,) but because he didn't expect it. They were quiet, followed his orders to a T, and only ever spoke to relay information or ask a work-related question. He knew humans didn't always look as they actually were, but that often was the overly sweet people who would pull a knife the moment they found it safe to attack. This last member wasn't like that, and Scaramouche has gotten curious.

  Months later, they fell into a comfortable routine. Scaramouche gives them work, the recruit finishes it flawlessly and in record time, and they spend the rest of the day together. Of course, pseudo-unwillingly on Scaramouche's part, as the recruit follows him around like a lost puppy that's eager to please, but it's gotten him more productive lately so he hasn't told them off just yet. The recruit accompanies him like a bodyguard (it makes him laugh, as they are so, so much weaker than him,) to all his missions and tasks, including his games of death with certain traitors of the Fatui. They aren't very scary, but the obvious uniform paired with Scaramouche's nigh-iconic attire easily scares most of the unnecessary people away from their targets. It's efficient.

  In one assignment, he actually got to see them fight. It was a wonder that they weren't promoted sooner, from how they stripped the enemy of their advantage and turned it on them. They took the traitor's weapon and killed the bastard with it in one swift move, almost like a practiced dance. He was enamored with the sight, if just for a moment, watching as they kneeled before his feet with the bloody tool sat to their side like an afterthought.

"Sir," They had muttered, facing the ground.

"How far are you planning to go for me?" He couldn't help but bark out the question--even the combat-focused footsoldiers hesitate to kill, yet this one did so without warning.

"From Celestia to the Abyss, I will follow you, my lord." They did not move or stutter, and Scaramouche didn't say anything after.

  A while later and he notices a vision on their hip, dangling like a precious gem that taunts him. When he asked the recruit about it, they merely shrugged and said they got it one night before bed. He couldn't read their expression (that mask was starting to irritate him, for reasons he couldn't understand,) and clenched his fists as they wandered off with their daily dose of paperwork, intent to finish their work quickly. He doesn't speak about the vision again, and neither does the recruit, both content to ignore the divine gift of elemental power. He catches them looking at it every now and then, examining it like an infant does with a new toy, before letting go of it and turning away as if embarrassed. He catches himself smiling in those moments.

  Shortly after, he gets tasked with something in the Abyss (likely just collecting samples for Dottore's disgusting experiments, or trying to figure out something about the stars,) and the recruit dumbly follows him. They almost begged to come with him, repeatedly asking until he caved. In the Abyss, they didn't show their suffering. They were only human, not to mention the vision on their side reacted violently to all things Abyssal (sometimes it would scare the warped creatures off, but most of the time it would backfire on them and unleash bursts of elemental energy through their body--he doesn't blame them for biting their lip open in their attempts to swallow the screams,) and the Abyss slowly seeped into their skin. When the group got back to Teyvat, the recruit wasn't the same.

  Dottore appeared on Scaramouche's doorstep one day, grinning like a shark and with a proposition on his tongue. His recruit was suffering from side effects and the taller man wanted to try an experimental treatment on them. If it worked, the soldier would be good as new, if not better, and could continue to serve. Scaramouche pondered for a second, faintly remembering how all the other experiments of Dottore's ended up, before shaking the thought and agreeing to hand the recruit over to the doctor. The recruit was useful, sure, but he had plenty of other subordinates like that. They weren't special. They cast him one last glance before following the doctor into his lab. In the time they were gone, something felt hollow in Scaramouche. He found himself looking to his side, where they'd stand, only to find it empty.

  Years passed and they never returned, and he slowly got used to the absence. He once asked Dottore about the progress, but the doctor merely showed his sharp teeth and chuckled, saying something about serums taking time to work. Scaramouche didn't believe him, but he didn't care enough to chase the absolute folly in that logic (or, maybe he did care? He doesn't know why he would've asked otherwise, his recruits go missing all the time and he's never batted an eye before.) He didn't ask again and eventually went out of his way to start ignoring the doctor. He only began to listen to Dottore again when the blue-haired menace began talking about rebuilding Scaramouche as a god, just as he was meant to be. He hasn't been this excited in a long time (something still feels off, like he's missing something important.)

  In Dottore's Sumeru lab, during the time he spent fixing his body to ready it for divinity, Scaramouche wandered into a giant room filled with tubes glowing a sickly gold. Monsters were trapped inside every one, each with horrific disfigurations in their bodies. They didn't look like anything he came across in the Abyss, but some seemed similar. He glanced at all the ones he came across, only stopping when he saw a familiar name on one of the tanks. A beast, far more coherent and humane than the rest, floated idly inside the large tube. Dottore's awful grin grew larger at the pit stop, also gazing at the creature caught in the ugly liquid. The doctor rattled on about how this ex-recruit is the best experiment he's had so far, but he's been unable to replicate such a perfect result since. Something in Scaramouche shifted, akin to fear.

  He visited that specific test tube often, often pressing his hand against the glass and taking in the sight of the monster. It was distorted, too warped to properly be called ex-human and still sound sensible, with claws and teeth to maim, its inhuman feet inches above the tube's flooring, and its old vision glowing brightly from under its skin as the element curls around them. It never responded to him or his words, sitting in the fluid like a corpse that was put on display. He eventually had to leave, he always did, but he would always come back. Meeting with the slumbering beast kept him rushing through the experiment as the doctor's painful procedures rung through him day after day. Dottore took notice of Scaramouche's fascination, and offered to let him have it as a pet once he arose again as a god. Scaramouche didn't think twice.

  The day before his ascension, the beast finally responded to his prodding from beyond the tube's barrier. It opened its eyes and acknowledged him (it looked at him, and he felt like it knew the secrets of the universe--they were just as mysterious as he remembers them to be. He never smiled wider, nor did he cry so much.) Dottore had come soon after to check on the tube, making sure the beast wasn't violent and was strong enough to exit the tube soon. He prattled off about perhaps easing it out of the liquid so it could learn to walk properly, but Scaramouche was too busy pressing his hands against the glass to pay attention (and their distorted hands pressed back.) He had to leave eventually to be set up for his day of divinity, but he kept his eyes on the beast as it watched him exit.

  When he properly ascended, he didn't expect the beast to be there, waiting for him on the sidelines of his grand arena within its great tube. The traveler appeared and wholly ignored them, and they merely kept watch as the blond outlander fought him. When the traveler triumphed, he fell out of the mecha holding him, his eyes wide open as he reached for his heart that had been stolen from him once again. He expected to die like that--to crack his head open on the ground and nobody in the vicinity to care as he bleeds his non-human yet non-divine blood. However, the shattering of glass filled the room and the beast leaped at him. A flurry of panic filled him, worried he also angered whatever they were to him anymore. That one damn recruit, that one almost-friend, that one sacrifice.

  The beast took him in their arms and landed nearby, cradling him comfortably as they slowly lowered him to the ground. He stared at them blankly, almost shocked that they didn't take this chance to betray him as well. He expected them to open those monstrous jaws and bite his head off as mercilessly as they used to kill other traitors, or at least just calmly watch as he fell to his death just like they used to with his other subordinates that disobeyed. But, they caught him. Held him and admired him the same way they used to do with their vision--a shiny, beautiful gift from powers far beyond them. Their element pricks and bites at his skin as he embraces the creature's touch, wrapping his arms around their neck and hugging them. The beast freezes, only to let out what sounds like a sigh and hug him back. He doesn't hold back the tears.

"Why? Why did you save me?" Scaramouche wept as he clung to them, burying his face in whatever mess of a neck they had left.

"From Celestia to the Abyss," They began, the sound of their voice wholly unknown but deeply familiar, "I will follow you, my lord."

He hiccupped and held onto them tighter. For a second time, Scaramouche did not say anything after.

pls help I am so not used to making things fit the Tumblr style 😭 anyways sorry if there's any errors or dramatic drop in quality near the end, I was literally fighting to stay awake in the second half of my shift when I was making this