#the block function is pointless

[anyroads]

Really wanted to reblog a post about about the trans sports ban in the US and info to call senators, but since the OP is one of those users who blocks everyone who so much as breathes wrong near them, I can't. So I think I've hit my limit with the culture around blocking on tumblr.

I've been annoyed with the whole "you don't need a reason to block someone just do it" attitude on tumblr for a long time but I've seen other posts talking about it get dogpiled on and I have enough chronic illness and problems in my life as it is without adding to it. But man, this situation now? It's just stupid. It's self-defeating for all of us on here.

What I've wanted to write a post about is how on a site with such a large population of neurodiverse people it's ableist and just mean to indiscriminately block people. I'm not talking about blocking people who are actively mean or harassing other users, btw. I'm talking about users who just say, "eh I don't like this person's vibe" or who assume bad faith without cause and hit block instead of just moving on or asking for clarification. The OP of the post on the trans ban that I wanted to reblog blocked me because a few years ago they posted misinformation about something minor and I offered a correction as someone with experience in that field. Instead of considering what I offered or why, they blocked me - a friend later sent me a screenshot of OP saying in the notes that they blocked me because they thought I just wanted to show off (and look, I could go into why that's not true, but it doesn't matter - we had subjective experiences of an interaction that was, ultimately, innocuous, and could easily have been resolved).

This kind of "lalala I can't hear you, gonna block you" attitude is not only hurtful to others, but is ableist on a website where so many people have NDs that make communication challenging or difficult for them. It reinforces the experiences ND people have in aggressively neurotypical spaces where they aren't given the benefit of the doubt and constantly feel misunderstood and dismissed - people for whom part of tumblr's appeal is its openness to neurodiversity, who then experience the same kind of dismissal and rejection every time someone blocks them for not being able to express themselves in exactly the right way another user wants them to.

Blocking doesn't keep them off your feed, btw - as long as someone else reblogs their content you can still see it. They just can't comment on or reblog your posts or message you. Which is useful when someone is abusive, but pointless when someone just disagreed with you innocuously and you didn't like how it made you feel. That person doesn't even get a chance to clarify their meaning - they can see your content but they're shut out from your conversation. People on this site do this to autistic people daily, and then reblog posts about autism awareness. As an example of this kind of pointless behavior: I said nothing offensive or hurtful to the OP of the post I couldn't reblog today when they blocked me, they just didn't like what I said, assumed bad faith where there was none, and instead of taking a few seconds to check if their assumption was justified, blocked me like they've done with tons of others, as their reputation attests. And while I can't say it felt nice, I also haven't cared - until now, because I don't just want to reblog their post about this trans ban, I feel it's important and urgent to do so because it was a good post, and I know that because they're a popular user who blocks others with such ease and frequency, there are probably hundreds of tumblrs out there who also can't share it. And that actually hurts all of us.

This thing today actually brought up a much more important point: if you keep blocking people just because you can, then you significantly decrease the number of people who can share your content. And that matters, especially right now when that content is important information combating fascism and important to boost. We talk about the problem of too many factions on the left, and this is an example of it: tumblr users limiting the scope of their reach when trying to resist fascism because of how little they're willing to sit with the discomfort of having to try to figure out how to understand someone else, even someone whose perspective mostly aligns with theirs. Assuming bad faith and yelling at each other helps no one except fascists, because division is their best weapon and their base is cohesive. Blocking people on tumblr for not saying exactly what you want to hear just limits who can support you on posts that matter.

It's wrong that I can't reblog this post full of useful, important information about a trans ban that's going to be voted on in Congress in the U.S., just because several years ago the OP couldn't manage their emotional response to a helpful addition on their post. It's wrong that we keep telling people to just block indiscriminately and move on, and that if anyone challenges this idea they get dogpiled on. Yes, block fascists. Yes, block people who are actively hateful and harmful. But that's it. Every time a new flood of refugees from another platform comes here, we pass around posts about how the core of this site is reblogging and adding to each other's content - the idea of blocking indiscriminately goes direcetly against that. We can't keep limiting ourselves like this.

So I guess go search for posts on US Congress SB9 because apparently I can't help you until someone else who hasn't blocked me for a pointless reason posts as comprehensive a post that I can reblog.

[starpros-sunshine]

"Dni if you enjoy X" is such a funny dni to me because, well, correct me if I'm wrong here but usually there's point a) usually what you enjoy doesn't determine how you are as a person; and point b) if there's that much of a difference of interest then I doubt the interaction would even have come to be anyways. It's just such a seemingly obsolete thing to do in my mind you know how I mean? I mean all dnis are I think they're a terribly online phenomenon just use the block button like the universe intended it's there for a reason.

[dragongirlsnout]

Go Badge-Free: Tumblr is a multimillion dollar company that doesn't need your loyalty!

Some users ("many" by Tumblr's own unsourced metrics) might want to support Tumblr with something similar to regular donations. Great news! You don't need to, it's a multimillion dollar company, and its parent company, Automattic, was valued at around 7.5 billion dollars in 2021 as stated by none other than Tumblr's Elon-Musk-wannabe CEO himself! Tumblr isn't going to go broke any time soon, and any money you waste on it will just convince staff that the garbage fire they're currently tossing the site into is profitable!

Enter the power of not giving a fuck about useless badges and shitty merch of stolen memes. Everyone with a brain knows auto-renewable subscriptions aren't the way to a "user-led business model", and again, you don't need to show your support for a massive multimedia platform despite whatever their embarrassing ad campaigns that just want money may tell you!

How it works—or doesn't:

Tumblr doesn't care about the users, whether you're giving them money for nothing or not! So take the initiative yourself. Send them negative feedback about the pointless UI updates. Give Tumblr a 1-star rating on the app store or play store. Disable your badges. Block intrusive ads (and potentially dangerous flashing ones). Style the dashboard to look less like a 1 : 1 clone of Twitter. Install additions to fix basic site functionality.

Seriously, who is buying subscriptions besides staff:

The subscription badges do nothing. Nada. Zero. That is, unless staff decides to lock basic functionality behind a subscription in the future, so make so to make it flop before then.

Pricing:

A year's subscription for a useless cosmetic badge costs you $30 USD. Cheaper than Twitter Blue, sure, but it sure does a whole lot less! Meanwhile, fixing your own user experience and complaining to staff is permanently on sale for the low, low price of free. Spend your money on a nice treat instead!

More details:

I don't know how else to put it. This subscription service sucks ass.

That's all for now. No idea who exactly would buy a badge subscription of all things in the first place that staff probably designed in 5 minutes. Maybe someday Tumblr's will figure out how to interpret actual human behavior and user desires, but that day has yet to come. Stay weird, and Tumblr is not your quirky friendly hellsite company <3

[jaggedamethyst]

when matt murdock has allergies…

pairing: matt murdock x reader (not gender specific in this one)

content: matt has allergies and has to tackle every day life without his senses. one shot, angst (i guess)

notes: this is my first official post (omg?) it may not be great, but i hope to get better as i post more. this one is a bit dramatic but i mostly read angst to feel something so it had to be done. 💋 also i have sinus issues and cannot function so he’s a direct representation of me ty. 🥹

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Matt has allergies. He figured that on top of balancing his firm, relationships, and his night time activities, that telling people he had the occasional sniffle was just juvenile.

Trivial, meaningless, and stupid. Whatever negative adjective he could muster up wasn’t enough to describe how pointless it felt to explain himself to everyone he came in contact with.

Having become reliant on other senses to become his sight, the “occasional sniffle” was anything short of minor. As mucus filled his sinuses and blocked his ears—sound became substantially more quiet. Distance was hard to measure. The inevitable fatigue he felt increased all sensations Matt felt—skewing his perception of the everyday item. Usually perfectly tempered coffee now left blisters on his tongue. His soft bed sheets feeling like sandpaper. His nose constantly swollen and red with the many smells of New York streets. His respiratory problems became eras of overcompensation—using one sense here, another there, and none working.

He was always willing to put in the work, to compensate, until it came to you. An immediate wave of defeat washed over him when he couldn’t sense you.

You with an amazing smile he loved to illicit.

You with a laugh so sweet he could almost taste the hint of saccharine.

You with the soft skin, riddled with divots and creases he’d long committed to memory.

When Matt couldn’t sense you, couldn’t compensate and make you smile, hear you laugh, or feel your skin…he wasn’t himself. It seemed counterintuitive to give up, when in all other areas he’d worked so hard to keep up. But with you, the current came. Tides of disappointment and anger continued to sink him further.

When you eventually arrived to his apartment, Matt remained motionless. You both knew that was unlike himself.

It was easy to let your empathy wash over you, to let the tears come knowing someone you love is suffering. But to let that feeling grasp you was to drown, and what good is that to someone already fighting the tides?

You quickly sprang into action, looking for the medication you knew worked best for him. He didn’t take it yet, you knew. Matt was in self destruct mode.

As you softly approached the couch, hand outstretched, his lack of reaction struck you. To Matt, the cushion beside him dipped, the filling scratching at his ear drums like the incessant rats that ran the street. Your hands, enveloping his cheeks with an otherwise soothing touch, felt like two ice packs—endlessly cold from the harsh weather outside.

The chill traveled to his own hands. Then, a slight sensation he could only assume was an affirming squeeze. The frost of your hands subsequently moving up to his mouth, giving him something. He couldn’t care enough to resist if he wanted.

Matt let the idea of you be his Moon—controlling his ocean of emotion and pulling the tides back slightly. Hearing you continue to mumble to him was a tranquility that saved him time and time again.

Matthew couldn’t hear you, but he knew that everything would be alright. The bliss of rest quickly approach and with it, a prayer to God that he would be reunited with his love again.

[quinloki]

So hey, look.

I'm off to bed, but I gotta stay up and address this. Because I'm not a big fan of abusing the anon function.

I'm not quiet about that either, so I imagine that's at least half of why you went to a friend of mine, and didn't come into MY inbox with this. Or maybe you're intimidated by me, which, hey - in this case - Fair.

And this isn't using it to send anon hate, which is by far the most cowardly and pointless thing anyone can do, but this is still hiding behind it for the wrong reasons.

Nonnie. Baby. Darling.

Side Quests.

I'll give you points for that one, as an old school RPG/D&D person I actually kind of like that reference, but let me be clear on a couple things:

I follow like 7 fics I am *dying* for updates on. I get where you're coming from. Heck, I'm chomping at the bit for updates to like 4 of my OWN fics. I appreciate your underlying sentiment here.

That does not validate it ^_^

Second, burn out is legit, kiddo. Between dumb fucks running people's works through AI like it isn't the biggest slap in the face possible, and bot scrapers and piss bags that lift whole fics off others and pass them off as their own - There's a LOT of stuff out there that can make an author give up.

Interestingly, Side Quests - shaking it up with drabbles, ask events, head canons, extra wips, etc. go a really long way to stave off burn out.

Love the side quests, bebe. Embrace them. Support your local author working 1-2 jobs, raising 1-2 kids, cleaning a house, and still finding time to write smut. Have the respect to at least air your frustrations with your face - and if you don't because you realize it will get you blocked then marinate on that.

Consider why, and maybe how you should come at things a little differently. Anon is for shy and embarrassed, not because you shit on the carpet and don't want to clean it up.

And this is more a personal gripe than anything else, but if you're going to put my name in your mouth, put an @ in front of it. Don't go into my friend @hannahbarberra162's inbox and bring me up half-heartedly. The demand for content - and specifically the content YOU want, not the content WE'RE ENJOYING MAKING - is bad enough, but bringing me up like that just feels icky.

[delayed-affection]

if u feel comfortable writing about it could you maybe write and imagine about joe burrow and him being their for his girlfriend whiles she’s struggling with a depressive episode thank u in advance 🤍

Help

Oneshots Navigation

Joe Burrow x reader

Warnings: depression

Word count: 1.1k

It comes in waves, one day you’re fine and happy but the next you want nothing more than to just be gone.

You’ve done everything that they’ve said to do; you’ve gone to therapy, taken the pills they’ve prescribed you, tried to get back into the things you’ve loved before but nothing has worked.

You’ve managed to live life without breaking down in front of everyone, in front of Joe.

He knows about your struggles with your mental health but there’s only so much that he can do for something he can’t control and knows so little about.

He’s seen the days where you struggle to get up and do the simple things in life and it kills him to see you like that. He just doesn’t know what to do when it gets like that.

And today was one of those days, you managed to pull yourself out of bed and to work but it was the hardest thing to do.

All you wanted to do was go home and rot away, hoping that tomorrow will be better, that you won’t have to bully and force yourself out of bed.

But it wasn’t, it was worse.

You woke up today feeling like absolute shit. A wave of fatigue and exhaustion hit upon waking, washing over you like a cold and heavy blanket as your eyes open.

The mere thought of getting out of bed is almost too much to bare right now, every muscle in your body feeling like a lead weight.

There's no motivation here, just a deep-rooted desire to fall back asleep and go back to the peace and comfort of dreams.

You wrap yourself up in the blanket lying in bed, the room is pitch black with the only light coming from your phone that lights up every once in a while with a notification.

You haven’t gotten up since you opened your eyes, however they weren’t open for long. You force yourself back to sleep, wanting nothing more than to be in an unconscious state.

You wake up a couple hours later and feel way worse.

You felt completely lethargic and mentally wiped, and you couldn't think of anything that could stir them out of this state.

Feeling like a zombie, just going through the motions and barely functioning at a most basic level. You felt like you were just existing, not truly living. Everything seemed pointless, and you couldn't find the energy or desire to do anything at all.

You begrudgingly sit up, trying to fight off the feeling that's been weighing you down. You don't have the energy to do much else but try to cope with your feelings.

You sit there on your bed, feeling overwhelmed by the sense of hopelessness that has consumed you. It feels like nothing will change and you’re just waiting around for things to magically get better.

You find yourself spiraling deeper and deeper into a dark hole of despair and there seems to be no way out.

You lie back down with a huff, feeling completely defeated. Wishing it would just go away and you could finally be happy.

But it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon. Closing your eyes and you try to block out the world, hoping that maybe things will be different.

You know deep down that nothing will change. You are stuck in this state and have no idea how to escape it. You just feel hopeless and resigned to your fate.

You can hear the front door open and close, Joe is home. Laying there silently, you listen to the sound of his footsteps coming closer to the room.

You feel anxious and nervous, unsure of how you should act when he walks in. Should you just keep pretending like you’re asleep, but you also know that you need to face him.

You’re afraid that he'll be angry or disappointed with your lack of motivation to do anything.

The bedroom door opens, and Joe walks in cautiously. He can tell by your breath and movement that you’re awake, but he decides to act as if he doesn't know that and gently sits down next to you on the bed.

He doesn't say anything at first, just gives you a comforting pat on the shoulder letting you know that he's here. He knows that it can be difficult to communicate when you’re in this state, but he wants to let you know that he cares and supports you.

You feel your heart melt a bit at his gesture and you can't help but lean into him slightly, seeking comfort from his closeness. Feeling slightly embarrassed and guilty for not having the energy to do much lately.

You can’t help but feel like you’re letting him down by not being more productive or active. You’re glad he's understanding and patient, but you feel like you’re being a burden on him and that you should try harder.

Hearing you start to cry, he immediately holds you close. He lets you cry without trying to stop the tears or make you feel bad about them. He just holds you gently, letting you let it all out and offering a strong and secure presence.

He reassures you that it's okay to cry, and he just wants you to feel better. He's there for you and he's not going anywhere, no matter how bad things get.

He wants you to know that you’re not alone, and he's there to support and love you no matter what.

He continues to hold you until the crying subsides, feeling you calming down as he does so. Once your tears have stopped, he pulls you close again and strokes your hair lovingly.

He wants to make you feel better, and he knows that sometimes you just need physical reassurance and comfort to feel more at ease. He just wants to be there for you and make you feel like everything will be okay.

You begin to relax in his arms and feel a bit better.

"Everything's going to be okay, baby, I'm here for you." He whispers placing a kiss on the top of your head.

You sigh as you lean into him, letting your mind go blank.

He continues to whisper to you, "I love you and I'll always be by your side, no matter what."

He keeps whispering these words of encouragement and love, and you can feel your spirits starting to lift.

It feels good to have his comforting presence so close to you, and you feel supported and reassured by his kindness. He continues to hold you close as you breathes out a deep breath and relax.

You feel safe and supported by his love, and your stress and anxiety slowly begins to fade away.

You start to feel better, way better than you did before, and you’re grateful that you has someone so understanding and supportive like him.

[shiftylinguini]

Fuck I Can't Write Crisis Pack:

@phoebe-delia asked in response to this fun lil ask game:

Do you have any advice for getting out of a slump/getting writing confidence back? . (for the ask anything) Do you have any advice for getting out of a slump/getting writing confidence back?

Now THIS. This is a good question, and something that is very much on my mind and has been for a while, as I am currently absolutely in the midst of this and trying to army crawl my way out. I don't have any magic bullets (is that the saying? idk) but I have been here before and i do have a small arsenal of tips or methods that I find can help me. 

Here is my Fuck I Can't Write Crisis Pack (In no particular order):

Write anything 

This is hardly groundbreaking advice, and it's also the hardest thing to actually do (imo) so do not beat yourself up if it takes a while to get to this. Basically, write ANYTHING―it can be aimless, it can be pointless, it can be crap (crap is subjective!! don't let the brain gremlins win!!). 

Don't think about posting it, don't worry about anyone else ever reading it, just fling a few words onto a page and feel the rusty faucet turn on, proving to yourself that it still works. 

Try and sus out what it is that's blocking you 

Again this one is hard and annoying but functional. Once you can put your finger on the particular reason you're staring at a flashing black line on a blank page it can help you kick that reason off your lawn and into the bin. 

And then, take it out of the bin and be kind to yourself about whatever that reason is. Maybe you feel shit because you're comparing yourself to others, your last fic felt like a lead balloon, you can't muster enthusiasm for what you once loved doing and fear that it's gone forever, you're projecting in a Tumblr post―whatever it is, it's something all the writers you admire and aspire to be like have felt, and been annoyed with themselves for, and so you can wrap it up in a blanket and put it on a shelf and be kind to it so it, (respectfully) shuts the fuck up. 

(and remember, everyone feels insecure about their stuff. Like literally everyone, at some stage, feels like their stuff is rubbish)

Cheat on your OTP 

Okay this one might not work for everyone, but it really does for me lol. Ruts (not the sexy kind) can often come with not wanting to engage in my usual ships, being annoyed by my lack of ability to fucking write them/anything/all my ideas taste like cardboard/bleh, and stepping out on them and reading something new can snap me out of it. Just, an injection of new ideas or scenarios or words or even just a little reprieve from being fed up with myself, which ideally, is why we're all here anyway. 

(And then I come crawling back, and am welcomed with open arms haha)

In a similar vein:

Engage in media 

This subtitle is genuinely terrible, i am sorry, LMAO, but essentially: find a piece of media that makes you go "oh, helLO sailor", unhinge your jaw like a snake, and consume it whole. 

Let it nourish you, inspire you, excite you, making you feel SOMETHING, and then take that and think "fuck, what if i wrote bleepbloopblarp" and even if you write nary a single word, you've thought about it and that fucking counts. 

It might be an album, a book, a song, a show, gifs of a hot person, the wikipedia summary of a movie, literally anything counts here if it makes you feel a twinge of creativity. 

Ask yourself, what would Astolat do? 

No for real. @candybarrnerd and I genuinely use this haha.  

Worried your idea is stupid? Astolat would say write it. 

Worried it's too weird? Nah, just write it. 

It's dumb and no one will read it? Just write it for you *waggles eyebrows* (and then find out that yeah, nah, someone else will absolutely read this and be real fucking happy about it haha.)

Worried you're a one trick pony and have already written this fic before, like, and not even once before, and also you're projecting again in Tumblr post? WRITE IT AGAIN! As Astolat once said, "it's a fic so nice, I wrote it thrice". 

It's good advice. 

Make a friend or lean hard on the ones you have here

Misery loves company because it knows they'll come out of this together :). I know, I know, that's fucking NAFF, but fandom is all about finding like-minded freaks and blowing up their DMs because you saw a gif and now feel a kind of ways about it. 

And lastly: 

FUCK STATS! 

I mean I love stats (yay validation!), but god can they make you feel like a worthless shit (hey where did my validation go :((( ). It can be really insidious, so piss that right off when it starts to fuck with your confidence or outlook on your own writing.

Hopefully there is something useful here, even if it's just looking at this advice and thinking "no that's shit, it's writing POISON" cos then you can maybe do the version you think is NOT shit, and that might work. 

Good luck, fellow travelers!!

[noma-is-here]

i had some time to look more closely at the trailer, so i thought i'd make a post about some of the things i noticed. i’ll include some reference pictures so everyone knows what i’m talking about.

YAP SESSION UNDER THE CUT

at the beginning, when Kris, Susie and Ralsei are introduced, Kris seeks out Susie and helps her get up, while Ralsei simply joins them without Kris doing anything.

i feel this is somewhat representative of the relationship between our three protagonists. Kris seems to have a genuine interest in Susie (as does Susie in Kris), while Kris cares less about Ralsei in comparison. this also reflects tea theory of course.

this seems to be (at least in function) some kind of new soul mode (even though the soul’s colour doesn’t change). the colour of the projectiles here matches Spamton’s glasses, as well as Friend’s eyes. the pattern in the background seems also reminiscent of eyes to me.

i feel this sequence is probably somehow connected to Spamton, perhaps this is a battle against Mike, who might share Spamton’s glasses’ colour in some way.

also, this could be the room Toby was talking about in the Release Date Announcement Newsletter. it features two parallel and simultaneous areas of interaction, which could be a good opportunity to implement the mouse feature on two switch 2 joycons.

this rhythm segment shows the Delta Warriors performing on a stage. the box that shows Susie’s notes is blocked somehow, while Kris’s and Ralsei’s are accessible to the player. i feel like this reflects Susie’s actions from Ch. 1 somewhat, where the player couldn’t directly control her. it’ll be interesting to see whether this is because Susie’s relation with the Fun Gang gets worse again, or if this is just another “Susie casually rejects the Player’s control” moment.

some sort of glass (or maybe ice) seems to be falling in this scene. after Kris hangs onto the row of tiles, you can see a faint outline around the tile to the left of Kris, as well as a sort of progress bar before Kris jumps to the next tile. this leads me to believe this is some sort of climbing mechanic. perhaps this will be used in a real time climbing section. the falling glass indicates some kind of emergency, and the progress bar supports this as well (placing a time cost on the player in a situation when time isn’t important would be pointless).

on the top you can also see what seems to be stained glass windows. this leads me to believe that this is the location of the dark world of Ch. 4: the church. the stained glass windows would also explain the change in the colour palette.

in the “Chapter X is waiting” sequence, the footage for the first two chapters shows their respective main antagonists. this leads me to believe that what is shown for Ch. 3 & 4 is a sneak peak at the upcoming main antagonists.

the tv we see at the end of Ch. 2 is shown for Ch. 3. this practically confirms that this tv person, who is presumably Tenna (from antenna) is the antagonist of Ch. 3.

it gets a bit trickier for Ch. 4. Kris and Susie are running along a pathway made of large (glass?) tiles featuring the Delta Rune, while a bunch of small, black, fuzzy creatures with one white spot (perhaps an eye) are hunting them. the tiles light up as Kris steps onto them, and break shortly after.

This could either mean that Toby broke the pattern with the antagonists in order to keep Ch. 4 more mysterious, or the Ch. 4 antagonist is a sort of hive mind or a group of these small creatures.

the prevalence of the Delta Rune here is another point towards the fourth chapter being set in the church. another small detail is the rest of the tiles: it seems like the Vessel or Kris are pictured behind the Delta Rune.

then there’s the sepia tone animation at the end. the entity that the fun gang is standing in front of is too large to clearly make out, but it seems like multiple angel-like wings are unfolding to reveal the big star shape in the centre. i think it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that this is the angel, or at least something closely connected to it.

interestingly enough, the star shape at the centre of this entity connects it to the titans of the prophecy, which feature a very similar shape on their bodies. this likely means that the titans are also connected to the angel somehow, and are probably allied with it. i think this makes it also clear that the Roaring and the Angel’s Heaven are connected too; perhaps one follows from the other.

—

if you want some more yapping, i'd recommend TBSkyen's analysis of the trailer.

anyways, i'm tired (if i made a typo or smth, you now know why), so that's it from me for now.

[dwncams]

me and you and awkward silence…

warnings: unrequited love and kinda open ended..

pairing: miles1610 x gn!reader

a/n: first post on here yayy!!! this fic is also based on from the start by laufey bc i love her and that song so much

you’ve know miles since elementary school, and have been basically inseparable since. though, when you went into high school things started to get a bit more.. awkward.

your interests were changing, his interests were changing. he started crushing on people but you?

you were crushing on him.

you didn’t understand how he didn’t realize, it was pretty obvious. you would always get silent around him when it was just the two of you, more awkward silence rather than the jokes and pointless conversation you would have to fill that silence in any other situation.

he was always on about some other girl he was crushing on, on facetime or when you would go on an occasional walk around the block. you were his best friend, of course you would be the first person miles would think to tell about his crushes, but apart of you always dreading it when he would talk about it.

“this girl, shes in my math class and shes so pretty and smart, i haven’t been able to stop thinking about her!” he would say as he walks with his hands in his pockets, basically on the verge of skipping as he talks about this girl.

‘blah, blah, blah..’ you would say mentally, walking along side miles as he continues to drone on and on about her.

you just wish he would open his eyes and just look at you one day and suddenly feel the same way you feel about him, that whenever he comes around it’s like you’re brain forgets to function and your knees feel like giving out, and all you can think about is how you’ve loved him from the start.

@ nokkihy , all rights reserved

[the-world-annealing]

"Should the USA government block all and any federal aid to NGOs that provide abortion counseling, including those operating in third-world countries, affecting the allocation of millions if not billions of dollars" is a question that approximately zero people on this site struggle to answer, and approximately zero people think doesn't matter.

If there was a nationwide binding referendum on this question, this site's userbase would be up in arms about it. The suggestion that voting in this referendum would be pointless would be extremely fringe, and would invite an actively hostile response.

The thing is: functionally the presidential elections are this already. The Mexico City Policy tracks democratic/republican presidents exactly as you'd expect, and has done so for the ~40 years it has existed.

So why is 'voting for Biden does not actually matter' common, when it's definitionally a less defensible version of 'voting in the described referendum does not matter'?

[sparkling-pink-lemonade]

While proship is an anti-censorship and anti-harassment stance, it's important to acknowledge the stance is only in regards to fictional content and opinions of it.

A proshipper is still capable of harassing others over a warped sense of justice for political beliefs, petty revenge, or entitlement.

A proshipper can still support the censorship of other information.

And I mean that as in harassment is more than just showing your disgust or having a mutual argument. And censorship is more than just blocking a person, deleting a comment, or using the report function if it violates a websites TOS.

Proshippers can and have harassed antis for voicing their disgust, for revenge against a call-out post or other forms of harassment, for blocking them, and more.

And so long as they actively and genuinely identify as proship, then they are still proship. This isn't a private community where some leader has a registry of all existing proshippers.

So, I pity the antis who feel justified in their stance because they've had their beliefs reinforced by volatile proshippers. They didn't deserve that. And I tend to find that though those kinds of antis do condone censorship of fiction, and specific forms of harassment over fictionsl content (aka call-out posts, sorry but no matter how big red and bold your "DO NOT HARASS THIS PERSON, JUST BLOCK THEM" is, you're still catering to the volatile masses, and spreading targeted hate), they too believe in curating their experiences, and rather block and move on than start a fight or send hate. So they surround themselves with other antis who may have had bad experiences with agressive proshippers, but also believe it's wrong/pointless to send proshippers hate. Since they obviously don't interact with the proship community, they genuinely believe their side is 90% innocent victims, bullied and sexually harassed by the evil proshippers who are 90% morbid aggressors who seek enjoyment in starting a scene, so they can find targets to mock.

It's sad cause they hide in their little echo chambers, and only have their fear of the "big bad evil proshippers" confirmed.

[duckedoesartstuff]

HOWARD CHARLES!!!!!! HE IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

IM SO SORRY THIS ART IS ASS 😭😭😭 I FINISHED EVERYTHING AND I REALIZED I MESSED UP THE ANATOMY SO I HAD TO GO BACK AND SNAP HIS SPINE!!!!!!!!!!!! thas why everything is in 144p quality. (also shoutout to anyone who recognizes the lyrics in the art) Ok anyways well its time for character info!!! (um, it's kind of a lot)

Howard Charles (Charlie):

I gave a brief amount of info on him on my last post so its time to elaborate!! He works at the CCC, he's not exactly on the forefront of dealing with chaos, he is more or less just a repair man. Although he is just a repairman, he is experienced with electrical work. (this would come back to help Luccille later) He just chills out in their facilities, repairing stuff and making sure all equipment runs smoothly.

Charlie is actually quite interested in investigating anomalies, mostly cause he is an anomaly himself. His chaos levels are too low for the CCC to exterminate him. The CCC hired him in order to monitor him incase something happens with his chaos levels. His "anomalous property" is literally just having a brick head... Absolutely no one knows how or why he has it, not even himself. His abnormality is so pointless that he just functions like your average stickman, infact it leans more towards being an inconvienence cause he needs to get head accessories specifically tailored to fit his block head... He wants to figure out why he has a block head.

"What am I..... Why do I even exist..... Why am I like this???" -Howard having an existential crisis probably

^^^such a miniscule detail but his hair is fluffy and when he puts his hat on it makes his hair sad and flat (this is visible in the last post i made of him and Luccille)

In terms of personality, he's a chaotic fella and he likes to do dubious things. He's not exactly stupid, he just likes pulling stupid stunts. He is kinda selfish and doesn't really care for other's lives that much. He doesn't mind killing people, which is kinda reflective on how the CCC would do anything to terminate chaos. If its for the better, he'd hurt someone without thinking much about it. (Meeting Luccille makes him start to question this way of thinking)

Oh and some miscellaneous stuff, his primary weapon choice is a pipe wrench. He also uses other tools like crowbars and regular wrenchs, its just that he prefers the pipe wrench out of all of his choices. When he's not busy trying to figure out what he is, Charlie is particulary interested in the Toppat Clan. The toppat clan is a chaotic nightmare for the CCC!!!! (genuine question, how does the CCC respond to anomalous things in the toppat clan..) Anyways, Charlie is quite fascinated by the process of fusion, it seems that fusion is an advantage used by the toppats in battle.

Idk what else to add.... If i remember any missing info I'll edit this post!!!

[nrilliree]

I saw before you said you would happily ask blogs not to bait-tag and could you please please ask @ironthroneconquerors ?? I am so sick of seeing Aemond in the Rhaenyra / Daemon / Daemyra tag. But now I have to look at that completely pointless Rhalicxent photo shoot? Like please ask them to actually tag properly. What is their issue?? I know Daemyra is the most popular thing, no contest. But ur just pissing us all off. Keep your greens off our tag!!!! Im blocking them. So over it.

At the beginning: I apologize to everyone whose question I haven't answered, but I'm having a very, very difficult time right now. I'll try to do it this weekend. I didn't ignore you and I'm sorry for the delay.

I sent this post to this person:

"Can you start tagging your posts properly please? Tags have specific functions. You post tags without any sense and either you do it out of laziness, tagging the first things that come to your mind and don't check them, or you do it on purpose to piss off people who have certain tags blocked, and you show them your posts because of the incorrect tags. What does Deamon and Daemyra have to do with stupid posts about Ameond or Rhaenicent? have blocked these tags and you are the reason these posts appear in our searches. Start tagging posts correctly."

Although I doubt it will help. Some people are resistant.

[miloscat]

[Review] Legend of Kay Anniversary (Wii U)

An unremarkable PS2 action-adventure.

After immersing myself in Avatar media for so long I looked around for any other games set in Asia-inspired fantasy worlds but made by Westerners. This let me knock one off my Wii U backlog, the 2015 remaster of the 2005 PS2 game Legend of Kay. Neon Software, the German studio behind the original game, are known to me for their Amiga Sonic clone Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad, and it's somewhat fitting that their final game before closure was this other furry platformer. Some of the Neon cofounders went on to form Keen Games, which seems to have morphed into a new Kaiko... the original Kaiko being the company that the Mr. Nutz Hoppin' Mad team left to form Neon in the first place! Who knows how long they'll survive now under the aegis of the troubled and layoff-happy Embracer, but it's been four years since their last remaster...

Anyway, this game is a sort of 3D Zelda-like-slash-3D platformer filled with anthropomorphic animal characters, which as a Rare fan sounds up my alley. Comparing it to Starfox Adventures may be a little generous though: this is very much a B-tier PS2 action game, and a graphical revamp for new generation consoles can't magically fix the mediocrity.

To get the plot out of the way: it's extremely Normal. Kay is a "plucky" (read: obnoxious) protagonist, using his martial arts training to fight back against the occupation of his cat village by evil gorillas and rats. He travels his island to settlements of rabbits, frogs, and pandas to free them from oppression. I think it's telling that there are no credits given for story or writing; anything story-related is constantly undermined by overly shallow characterisations, completely functional video game progression (go here to get key to open door to go there etc.), and the most brain-dead "banter". For example, Kay thinks the height of action hero quips is to call a rat "cheese-breath" about a hundred times.

The latter issue is not helped by some misguided voice acting choices. It's a fully voiced game but you'll wish it wasn't with Kay's bland sarcastic schtick and almost every other character uncomfortably presenting as a borderline racist caricature. Mostly it's white people doing faux-"Asian" accents, although apparently crocodiles are Eastern European and frogs are... Jamaican, for some reason? I was glad to find a setting that let me skip any dialogue scene with a quick tap of X, because there's no other way to speed up the tedious exposition and pointless back-and-forth when you meet enemy groups.

There's only a handful of what you might call "puzzles", and the platforming ranges from "not bad" to "OK", serviceable but doesn't excel. The biggest strength and biggest weakness of the game is its combat, which is pretty involved. You can swap between three weapons which have different attributes, you often have to get around enemy blocks so there's a Wind Waker-style roll around move to hit their back, but you can also zip between targets during a combo, or use rolling, crouching, or jump attacks. You can carry up to 5 usable items which sometimes are used to explore but you have to rely on them for combat encounters late in the game when they start throwing waves at you with hordes of armoured enemies. When the difficulty spikes like this, it all just becomes too much and goes from an exercise in creatively using moves to keep your combo up to a struggle to survive (and if you die, you lose any consumables you used in your last attempt, also there's a lives system for some reason??).

I said combat might be the game's strength and it was clearly a focus of the project, but I had the most fun exploring the little worlds. There's lots of goodies to collect, mostly in the form of chests and pots containing money. You quickly end up with more than you'll ever spend but I still liked finding it. The point multiplier mechanic may seem superfluous but when you get accustomed to the flow of the platforming sections, grabbing coloured crystals to keep this combo going to make your fights and coins worth more points becomes addictive. The level design may be nothing special but the zones you traverse have some character to them.

It should be noted that this is a semi-linear game, in that the levels are mostly open to explore with events and sub-dungeons within them, but you progress from one field to the next with no way to go back. This bit me on more than one occasion when I blundered into the story trigger to move on before turning in one of the rare sidequests or going down a side path to find a health extension, making it permanently missable. This frustration prompted me to occasionally consult a Gamefaqs guide with maps during each subsequent chapter. The game does give you a minimap in the corner of the screen but it can't be expanded to a full map so it's less useful than it could be.

Legend of Kay would have felt middling even at release but rereleasing it just makes its deficiencies even more obvious. It's still got some charm for being "of that era" (I was often reminded of The Hobbit's action-adventure game from the same generation, but with fewer instant death pits), so I got some enjoyment from it. And it has some ideas that work, like the acrobatic combat and combo system. While some of the environments look nice there were just as many drab areas, and the repeated character model reuse got old. Oh, and sometimes you ride an animal and it's not fun. On the whole, I can't recommend this one... even if you ignore the cringey cultural stereotypes!!

[dragonsarecool]

Febwhump Day 20 - Emergency Surgery

A/N: Continuation of Day 13 - I Don't Trust Anyone Else. Julian is forced to leave a terrified Miles outside as he works to stabilise Keiko. Be aware there will be some descriptions of female anatomy.

"Administer a second dose of tranxemic acid."

Julian saw the hypospray in the outskirts of his vision, with Jabara administering it against Keiko's neck. He finished cauterising the anterior section of the fallopian tube (or rather, what was left of it), only to swear under his breath as the vitals monitor began to alarm. "What's her status?"

"Pulse one eighteen, blood pressure 92 over 50," Jabara answered. "Blood loss at nineteen hundred millilitres and rising."

The bleeding simply wouldn't stop. It was beginning to both frighten and frustrate Julian; he was running out of vessels to cauterise. "How much is currently in the abdominal cavity?"

"We've suctioned three hundred millilitres in the last five minutes, but it has refilled just as quickly."

"And vaginal loss?"

"One hundred millilitres since we last checked."

"Where the hell is this bleeding coming from?!" Julian snapped at himself. He manoeuvred the camera further into the abdomen, though his view was quickly filled with a fresh spurt of blood. "Suction, please."

He finished cauterising the current artery before activating the suction, the blood blocking his view quickly retreating. Realising quickly that he may have to abandon the laparoscopic approach and open up Keiko's abdomen for exploratory surgery, he went to adjust the camera when another spurt of blood filled his view. Only this time, the spurt had come from behind the ovary, rather than in front of it. Don't tell me…

Julian pushed the camera in further and twisted the lens to the left. "Oh my God…"

"Doctor?" Jabara's voice rang with concern.

It took him a second to process what he was seeing. "It's not just the fallopian artery. It's the ovarian artery that's bleeding as well!"

He heard Jabara curse in Bajoran as he quickly moved the cauterising tool, widening his field of view to include the whole of the ovary. "There!" He pointed at the screen for Jabara. "How the hell did it hit the ovarian artery as well?! Unbelievable…"

"It's a miracle she didn't bleed to death," Jabara commented. "How long did the Chief say she was on the floor?"

"He didn't," Julian answered grimly. "Hang another unit of blood, please."

****

Julian had been begging silently that the captain or Dax would've taken Miles away from the infirmary while he operated, only to find all three of them waiting in his office. He decided it was pointless trying to hide his fatigue and rubbed his eyes before making his way inside.

He'd barely opened the door before Miles practically flew out of his seat. "Julian-"

The younger man raised a hand. "She made it, Chief. She's alive."

Julian could've sworn he saw the exact millisecond where the weight of the universe came away from Miles's shoulders. The Irishman sank back down with relief, a choked sob escaping his throat as Sisko and Dax patted his shoulders comfortingly.

It was strange to witness his best friend crying in such a manner, though he knew it was a perfectly normal reaction to such a stressful event.

Eventually Miles looked away from the floor, his red-rimmed eyes gazing at Julian. "…T-Thank you, Julian, thank you-"

It was a surprise to everyone when Miles suddenly stood and threw his arms around the doctor, his body shaking with his sobs.

"Keiko's a strong woman, Miles. She'll make a fine recovery. And you need to have some rest."

"But Julian-"

"Doctor's orders. Out!"

****

"While I can't be a hundred percent certain, it seemed that the fetus was approximately seven weeks' gestation," Julian explained quietly. "The rupture caused significant damage to the surrounding tissue, and while I was able to repair most of it, unfortunately your left fallopian tube had been completely destroyed. I've inserted a replacement, but I can't guarantee its functioning capacity until your menstrual cycle resumes or you choose to attempt another pregnancy."

Keiko nodded silently. She wiped her eyes with a tissue Julian had provided earlier and breathed in sharply. "…Could you tell what it was?"

Julian shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't…The baby was too small to see, and was caught up among all the blood in your abdomen."

"It's alright, Julian. I-I just thought," Keiko sniffed, calming herself before continuing. "I had this…this stupid thought that maybe you would've seen it."

"Keiko," He spoke as kindly as he could, "it's not a stupid thought to want to see your baby. I'm just sorry that I couldn't save him or her for you."

He allowed Keiko a few moments to process the information before continuing. "You'll need to be on strict bedrest for at least another day and then light duties for four to six weeks. The rupture caused the artery supplying blood to your left ovary to also rupture, hence you had a significant haemorrhage. You've already had three units of blood, but depending on how your body responds, we may need to administer more in the coming weeks."

The tears began to run faster down Keiko's cheeks, but she still nodded. "Does Miles know all this?"

Julian nodded. "You were unconscious for a while after the surgery, and as your next of kin, I decided he should know. That, and the fact he probably wouldn't leave the infirmary for a rest until I told him everything."

He was pleased that that quip prompted a small laugh from Keiko, though her change in mood didn't last. "I didn't get a chance to tell him…"

"You knew about the pregnancy?"

"W-We've been trying for a while," Keiko admitted in a whisper. "I-I was worried after what happened during Molly's birth that I'd never get pregnant again, a-and this-" She broke off as an uncontrollable sob rattled her body. "I-I was too scared to tell him in case, a-and then this happens, and-"

Julian patted her hand soothingly, allowing her to grasp his other hand as needed. He waited patiently as she cried, and chose to delay his next question until she was ready. "Keiko, I'm…I'm sorry I have to ask you this, but…how many miscarriages have you had since Molly was born?"

Keiko wiped her face with her sleeve, drawing in a sharp breath. The memory was obviously painful, and Julian felt incredible guilt by asking her to divulge such private information, but he also knew she would understand why he had asked.

"Keiko?" Julian breathed.

The older woman sniffled quietly. She couldn't meet his gaze, instead staring at the ceiling. "Three. This…this one was the fourth."

Julian's heart sank, but his professional mask didn't break. "…I'm so sorry, Keiko. This…I can't even begin to imagine how you're feeling right now."

Keiko was silent, seemingly lost in thought or grief. It stunned Julian when she finally spoke again. "…Do you think it's worth us trying again?"

As in professional medical opinion or personal belief? He pondered, taking a moment to carefully construct his answer. "What I'd recommend, Keiko, is that when you're well and everything has healed, both you and Miles come in for some testing and scans," Julian explained. "We don't have to jump straight to intro vitro fertilisation straight away, but we can try to determine what is causing the pregnancies to fail. It's possible there's some chromosomal abnormalities in either of the gametes that are producing an undesirable combination, or perhaps your uterine lining isn't thickening enough to retain the implanted fetus, or whether it's the effect of the wormhole-"

"Julian," Keiko gave him a watery but grateful smile. She stretched her hand out and grasped Julian's, squeezing it tightly. "We don't deserve you, Julian. We really don't."

Stunned, Julian found his own eyes beginning to mist. He sniffed the tears away and patted Keiko's hand. "I'm just glad you're still here to say that, Keiko. Miles would never admit it, after all."

[shallow-wordsalad]

[Fate/Destiny Shift] - What Is This Shit

For the last few days, I've been pretty dedicatedly hammering out my own Fate fanfic for basically no purpose and by no prompting. I'm probably flooding some tags so I apologize for that, but this blog is my outlet for the swarm of words and concepts that flood my brain.

As I've been working on it, I've been learning Tumblr's formatting tricks, such as how to add a Read More line - though I only learned that a few posts in. I tried to add it retroactively but Tumblr's weird system saves posts as they were when they were reblogged.

Again my apologies if I'm flooding your feed or tags. My only excuse is that I'm stupid. I'm going to try and be better about it, but you should probably just block this blog if you don't wanna see it. If you have advice for structuring of Tumblr-hosted fanfics, I'd appreciate a DM.

More under the thing for people who care about the fic.

This story is called Fate/Destiny Shift and is essentially my own personal take on a version of the 5th Grail War along the same timespan as the original Fate/Stay Night. Why the 5th War? Because I feel the state of the world of Fate was at its most volatile after the 4th, with lots of open threads and movable pieces from which stories can emerge. And because in common canon, I'd have an annoying time explaining a 6th War. This is easier, and it's more comfortable, so here we are - Fuyuki in 2004.

Characters from the original story will likely not be appearing. Sorry for anyone wanting to see an AU take of the classics, but I don't feel confident writing them. Moreover, I don't want to. I feel Shirou, Rin, Sakura, Kirei et al have been wrung out like sponges for every sweet droplet of character complexity possible, and I have nothing to add. These characters, for reasons that will be explored (some more, some less), simply do not exist or do not act in this AU.

The cast will largely be my own OCs, and Servants either from the larger Fate universe (Extra and Grand Order), or Servants I've made up. There will be my own personal interpretations of figures of history, fiction, and myth. They will be inaccurate. They are interpretations, and while I will do my level best to include and incorporate as much fact or canonicity as possible, ultimately they will be characters in service of a story. I will end up focusing on the parts that help me tell the story I want to tell, and sometimes I may twist something to fit the narrative. I do not apologize for this, but I feel if you're expecting me to write Assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald) [not appearing in this fanfic!] exactly according to his biography you should know you're going to be disappointed.

I am endeavoring in my writing to maintain some aspects of the Fate series I like - deep engagement with characters, high-stakes combat, subjective and disjointed narration, and cute sad girls. I am, however, not a novelist. My writing is choppy and errs on the side of brevity, so things may move quickly and feel very staccato in pacing. Part of this project will be working that tendency into a style rather than just my own form of typography.

Part of the objective of this fanfic is to be accessible for those that don't know Fate inside and out. Counter-intuitive, I know, but part of my audience is friends who don't know things that are obvious to Fate fans. I intend to leave nice details for those that do recognize them, but they probably won't be major features. Also, to be bluntly honest, the explanations of magic in the Nasuverse are dense, loaded with Proper Nouns You're Expected To Know, and largely pointless to moment-to-moment understanding of what's going on. I'll be glossing over them. Again, I'm not apologizing for this, but don't expect me to expound upon the exact function of The Throne, Ghost Liners, The Root, or the Inner Sea Of The Planet.

I said this earlier, but I have no idea what TWs or CWs will be necessary for this fic or its various chapters. I know the content will be largely PG-13 for realistic depictions of violence, tobacco, drugs and alcohol, and mature themes. Honestly aside from those, I'm not that familiar with the ones that should be commonly tagged. If my writing upsets you, I apologize. Please send me a succinct DM and I will add any needed tags to any posts or chapters. I'm writing this out scene by scene, with a vague narrative in mind, so I may include or exclude things if I feel they help the story.

If you've decided to read, I hope you enjoy the story of Kolyastavia Marie Zofastria and Berserker. I promise they will get the ending they deserve.

Thanks for reading, if anyone is.