#this is such a niche idea i dont think anyone will understand what i feel hahah

[jimjimenezzz]

stabbing your love to save the world

Shadow and Bone 2.08 "No Funerals" | The Magnus Archives MAG 200 "Last Words"

[snekdood]

i feel like u shouldnt be allowed to say someone has an ideology if they dont even know wtf you're talking about

[soapskneebrace]

Hi!!! I saw you're accepting headcanons and wondered if its okay to blab some ghost/soap/oc thoughts with you? (If not you can totally delete this cus i dont wanna bother haha)

Im writing a poly fic where ghost/soap are already established but i like the idea of having a third person who i feel like would really fit a niche in their relationship? With my oc's background anyway, she has an understanding of the kind of trauma ghost has been through and connects with him through that in a way that soap might not ever fully understand. But she's also more open emotionally than ghost is, and i think she can provide an emotional support to soap that ghost can find difficult to provide. For example: One moment in my fic, before they're all together, my oc comes across soap having a panic attack while ghost is away on a mission. They both kind of freeze for a second before she immediately tries to comfort him, hug him, talk him through it. And soap is taken aback because this kind of openness and care came so easily from her. (Not that i dont think ghost is caring, just emotional vulnerability is harder for him)

Wow that turned into a rant LMAO. i dont really have anyone to talk to about my fic so i just wanted to share some thoughts 😅 hope u have a good day!!

I love that!! I fully agree, there’s a lot in the dynamic between Soap and Ghost that could benefit from a 3rd, more intuitive partner. Because we see that Ghost cares about people—about Soap—a lot, but has trouble expressing it. Soap cares, too, and expresses it a whole lot, but putting them together can be challenging because I imagine Soap needs a partner as empathetic as him but maybe not as excitable.

A 3rd who would suit them best would, I think, have both men’s traits—an even keel, like Ghost, but a sensitive intuition, like Soap. They could understand Ghost and his weird reticence and be able to communicate what’s going on, to Soap, in a way Ghost might not feel capable of. The 3rd wouldn’t get their feelings hurt easily, because they are very in tune with their feelings as well as their partners’.

[faffreux]

hi you are not my therapist or advice giver so you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but i look up to you a lot because of your dedication to fawful!

i have autism (i prefer person-first language sorry ik it's not the universal usage :() too and an incredibly niche/random character has been my special interest for quite a few years now, i dont own merch of her or anything since it's so random and i feel embarrassed about it. i eat up the same few pieces of art every single time,, a 2010 deviantart post where she's in the background? EATING. IT. UP. 😭 how did you let those feelings of shame go (if you ever had them)? idk i don't think it's cringe when other people do it but i just think if any of my friends found out they'd be like wth... i don't really know what i'm trying to say but i guess i wonder if you have any tips on how to make the most of your special interest :) fawful is a cool villain (sorry not insinuating he's evil/bad, just his role in the game) so your interest makes way more sense than mine but you are super dedicated so i think you have some cool guru knowledge about this sorta thing :')

Well, first things first... thank you so much for the kind words!! It's really heartwarming to hear that anyone views me in this manner qwq - I appreciate you telling me bc it really means a lot to me!

But I guess I'd like to say the first piece of advice I have for you is to not see your interest as any lesser than mine or anyone else's just because the character only shows up for a little bit or barely at all. Focus on the joy YOU get from your guy/gal and don't worry about how silly or ridiculous it may appear in the eyes of others.

Another thing I'd say would be to take criticism and people's lack of understanding in stride. I hesitate to say "expect criticism/hate" but at the same time I do think it's a good idea to prepare yourself for it. I think if the idea of receiving negativity from others makes you lose all motivation and confidence in yourself and this character you have feelings for, then it may not be the wisest thing to put it in a public place (like the internet) for the time being.

Having a public presence with this sort of thing isn't for everyone and I think it's perfectly okay and valid when it's not. It doesn't make you or your feelings and less real for it.

PS. regarding the merch: please remember that I caused 99% of the stuff in my room to come into being myself! Fawful doesn't have any official merch outside of a few promotional items with his official render on it from 2009. My entire room is stuff I wanted to have and to see and so I went out there with some dollars in my pocket (and super talented friends, heyooo) & made it happen. (Point being: YOU HAVE THE POWER.) I only haven't added more to it in a while bc I'm broke lmao

Take care, dude. I know I have no idea who you are but feel free to send another anon or DM me privately if I can help you with anything else or if this didn't answer the question enough!

[sophieinwonderland]

YEAH the new person saying the endo community is a cult is so weird like heh?? im gonna try to paraphrase their comments so you can get the gist of what they say without anyone going to attack them since they are a cult survivor and i can understand why they think that endogenics are a cult, but... it's just projection imo

they see the term sysmed as terrible and say using it is a cult tactic because it compares sysmeds to transmeds (even though if u think about it for 3 seconds it's like hold on, maybe there IS a connection between between two groups of people who think the only way to experience there personhood-related thing is through suffering. who knew!)

they think being pro-endos are brainwashed and programmed to believe a certain "niche" way of thinking, which is really really silly when the "way of thinking" is "hey maybe there are other ways of being more than one person other than trauma"

theres one exerpt of a post comparing plurality to scientology and saying that endogenics think that plurality makes you a better person compared to singlets / that dissociation/identity disturbances/internal voices aren't disordered at all / are not symptoms at all. when that is factually entirely incorrect, they can be symptoms of problems and no system is better than any singlet just by being more than one person

"they actively target the mentally ill and instill fear towards them seeking treatment" as if sysmeds aren't the ones making us feel more fake and less deserving of disordered-system resources

also them repeating the idea that people think alters arent real people but soulbonds/endogenic headmates are real people, which isn't true (many alters are real people and some endogenic headmates may just be parts / not full people)

also them claiming that most endogenics are white, middle class americans with religious/christian trauma??? they used screenshots from SAS to "prove" their point which is really strange- (and also making fun of people "bastardizing other cultures" right after... like maybe, some of the people who are "bastardizing" cultures might just be engaging in their own culture? or be engaging in something so disconnected from the original concept like tulpamancy, that many non-actively-syscourse-engaging buddhists dont care and don't mind lol)

also also them reblogging from sweet-sloths-sys making fun of someone asking for money, which is the literal ONLY "pro-endo" that i've seen act like that. it's embarrassing. like we blocked that "pro endo" the moment we saw them they are just as bad as any sysmed we've seen lol no one whom i know is pro-endo agrees with their bullshit

them saying endogenics have MADD and not plurality??? what the fuck lol

and more but im getting a headache scrolling through their blog lol

and yk maybe i am looking too hard into it but when we've had moments when we were fixated on cults (especially this one youtuber who talks about a certain cult a lot), comparing that to people going "hey maybe my perspective on life isnt the only perspective, science doesnt always account for personal perspective" and supporting endogenic systems is... weird.

yeah, sure there are a LOT of cult-like behaviors in certain endogenic groups, but to call the entire thing a cult is very strange, and honestly downplays the actual cult behaviors in the sub-groups which should be talked about.

but me saying "hey maybe plurality isn't inherently a disordered experience" isn't fucking cult-behavior! at least compare this shit to the BITE model or SOMETHING lol

Thanks for the rundown!

they think being pro-endos are brainwashed and programmed to believe a certain "niche" way of thinking, which is really really silly when the "way of thinking" is "hey maybe there are other ways of being more than one person other than trauma"

Another thing that bothers me about this is that by this logic, any belief that's not mainstream could be considered a cult. That includes a ton of smaller religions. It could even include the MOGAI community, since xenogenders are still pretty niche themselves.

And I too am SO curious where their endogenic demographics come from! It sounds like they just made them up.

them saying endogenics have MADD and not plurality??? what the fuck lol

I've seen this take several times, and it's just total medical misinformation.

If you have daydream characters with a will of their own who takeover your body, those aren't just daydream characters. Switching is not a normal symptom of MADD. (Although MADD is often related to plurality.)

[scilifig]

Hi guys long time no see! i feel extremely sad for not saying this earlier and honestly haven’t vent had the energy to write this, but I’ve been inactive for a while on this acc. I never rlly thought i would make this tweet, but im not as engaged in this fandom as i once was, partly due to my mental health not allowing me to enjoy as much as i used to, and other factors. Its honestly been so upsetting feeling myself slowly start to distance myself, and slowly not being updated on content, whereas in the past i would never miss a piece of content and it was the only thing i thought about. i no longer understand certain niche tweets about current content and have lost all energy to even bother to scroll tl. its honestly been such a journey trying to find myself and understand what i enjoy outside of this fandom, because for so long it has been the only thing going for me, and i feel like i had such a strong attachment to the cc’s i enjoyed, and found my health and headspace got worse when there wasn’t content, and was so anxiously attached to twitter and never wanted to miss out on anything, and i felt so left out all the time. honestly the meetup was one of the most joyous, beautiful, experiences, but also quite traumatic for me.

another thing i haven’t mentioned is the toll its had on my mental health being fixated on a content creator that is treated so terribly, and is seen as punching bag of the internet in most cases, and having to see discourse after discourse and seeing everything’s antis are saying was so draining. i feel like that ruined my mindset, because before i had twitter, i didn’t even know what antis were and i was enjoying content as it was, and honestly didn’t even know what stan twt was. i could talk about the negative effects this app has had on me, but i want to acknowledge the good.

i just want to say that i still absolutely love the dteam and i feel like i always will, they have been such a huge part of my life and i will forever be grateful to them, im so excited for new things coming and im so proud of dream and all the new music and future endeavours! i wish nothing but the best for them all, and will support them for a long time to come! i hope everyone in the fandom experiences so much love and happiness, and has so much more amazing content to enjoy!

i dont want to get too emotional, but i am truly so grateful for this community. it genuinely saved me and im not able to articulate it with words. I had no idea that there was such a community like this on the internet, that was so loving and accepting, so talented with so many incredible creatives and beautiful human beings. all of this made me feel loved in a way i never knew i could feel. i have met so many beautiful people that are now some of my best friends and i dont know what it would be like without them, and to all my mutuals and anyone thats ever interacted with me, thank you. i love you all so dearly, and the suppourt i have gotten on my art has felt unreal. i never understood why i even gained followers, and was honestly so shocked that ppl would see something i created, and like it enough to comment the nicest things imaginable. honestly im getting teary eyes while writing this and im sure that this format of writing might be a bit difficult to read and im rambling but thank you so much. if you have taken time to read this far!

i’ve been active on my private account posting about random life updates but also about other things i like, such as cartoons! i do spam alot over there and i totally understand not wanting to follow me if u dont share the same interests, but if u are interested in seeing me on ur tl, u can always follow! @/curlywurly1239

im not sure what i want to do with this acc as i dont want to annoy ppl with posting art other than what i was followed for, so i think ill leave it as is! i think ill still be on here sometimes to support my moots and talk every now and then, but not very frequently! again thank you so much i love you all so much, i hope u are all doing well, and if not, i hope u are treating urself kindly because you deserve the entire world and more, and you deserve love and care! tysm if u read all this im so grateful for you guys 💕

[first-only]

You know, knowing that the majority of the world does not/ has not read fanfiction is such a weird thing to me. And I don't mean that in a 'why aren't people more like me?' or a 'those people are weird' kinda way

I guess it's just cause fanfic is something that is very important to me, and is something that has made me happy, it's one of my core interest. This isn't just related to fic, all of my interests are like that. Whenever I see someone who has no interest in art, or writing, or thinking up stories, it kinda of boggles my mind a bit. And I think it's because I, myself, could not imagine being happy without those doing those hobbies and interests. But other people aren't me, and that is fine! People have a wide range of interests, and what makes someone happy won't be the same as some other people. People are different, and that is a good thing

It is still something that's a bit hard to wrap my head around (which is fine, as long as I don't act like an ass to people who have different interests) but I'm trying my best

right on, anon! brains work weird sometimes but we do reign them in lol

this is actually a very interesting view to me (but valid! very valid!), because when i was like getting into fanfiction and fandom in general it really wasnt that popularized ya know? like very few people knew this niche interest and social group existed, and there was this intra-culture view that all this is sort of a secret, that this is 'our space', its 'just for us'. (taken as a mantra from rpf ofc which is a good practice). so i never expected anyone i didnt meet in such spaces specifically to even /know/ they exist, let alone enjoy them. ive had this situation with a friend with whom we'd been friends for like over 2 years when i casually (accidentally maybe i dont remember anymore) mentioned fic and they literally jumped out of their chair like YOU KNOW WHAT FANFICTION IS?!?! it's still hilarious, we were actual friends for /two years/ and we never revealed our Secret Society cards to each other lol. but yes as it /is/ getting more popular now its more understandable to assume people would've at least heard about it, but still many people and places where its not that much of a thing! that and a lot of people dismiss it as 'cringy' and worthless and obsessed fangirl work which. wig ig lol. and even in more fandom-adjacent circles you'd see people /surprised/ when a fic is actually good bc they never gave fandom a chance, and just dismissed it as a cringy hobby (which is also fine but no need to be patronizing ya know). Personal experiences will shape the way you think of things

as for weird brain refusing to understand rational concepts - i had this meet up with reality when i studied coding. i was in a novice class with a lot of other people and some of them just... didnt get it. not necessarily the problems themselves, but like.. the essential idea of /how code works/. it was very weird to me. they insisted i must have previous experience to catch on that quickly, and well i did, but they were stumbling at the first steps, something that never gave me pause. i was really really shocked then, i just couldnt believe people couldnt grasp a basic function, and i realized i was coming off as a bit patronizing myself. it got to me that i was expecting more of people that just didnt have the perspective that i did. that prompted a whole discussion on How People Think, because it was obvious that these people not getting code were definitely not stupid, this was just a way of thinking that didnt agree with the way their thought process worked as whole. so in this discussion a lot of friends shared a bit of the insides of their minds and it was fascinating - i tend to think with words and images, visuals appearing along with a strong internal monologue. but my friends shared about thinking in concepts, in feelings, with no imagery at all, by association and memory alone. when asked to describe how we think of a specific object we all described the thought process differently ("i think of where it is now" "i think of who it belongs to" "i think of what it would be like to touch it" "i think of what color and shape it is" "i think of what personality it would have" "i think of how i feel about it" etc etc). so what im saying is.. brains weird. brains different. dont punish yourself for your brain deciding that an experience has to be universal if its so helpful to it personally. as long as you realize that emotions and actions and needs and rational decisions are different, albeit connected, all's good. brains man.

[sonicboomseason3]

Same lore anon who asked about rol vs shattered crystal. Back with a diff question. In ur experience, do you think that most boom fans are kids? Ofc a large proportion of sonic fans in general are kids, but like, asking about boom specifically bc it's more of a niche, and the humor (AT TIMES) suits a slightly older audience; like I find the show wayyy funnier now (in my 20s) than I did when it first came out (in my early teens). Basically what I'm saying is that when I post stuff, I feel like only children interact. Which isn't horrible ig but like, it sucks when I wanna have a deeper convo about lore or characterizations (I love both btw), u dig? Ofc u dig. Idk it just feels like there are zero active adults in here except you. Thoughts? Or am I not experiencing the norm?

oh man im actually pretty closed off to the sonic fandom (all fandoms, really) and if it werent for this blog id be that silent fan that shares other peoples art but no one would know who i was. and technically i guess that still is the case because i dont advertise my main blog so if you were to see me around you definitely wouldve never heard of me? anyway my point is that im really the last person to know about the age of the average sonic fan (boom or not) on tumblr BUT... from what ive seen i understand what youre talking about because ive noticed a lot of minors in the fandom and even the adults ive seen around are around the 18-21 range and not much older than that. i know for a fact that sonic fans that are closer to my age and even older exist out there, but in my experience many of them are more active on twitter and i dont feel like immediately redirecting anyone to that place because its twitter and twitter sucks. and thats not even going into my opinion of how adult sonic fans choose to engage with this franchise for KIDS because i swear ive seen some weird shit on here coming from them and im just kinda like, guys pls alkdjflk would you act this way with your other interests? rhetorical bc i dont want to know the answer to that

and thats me talking about just the sonic fanbase in general but a lot of this can apply to boom as well since... boom is still sonic lol a good handful of people just dont like it and the ones that do consume other sonic media and thus dont focus solely on it. between this, its lack of priority with sega atm, the less than universal acclaim that it has, and the fact that its just not old enough to really cash in on that nostalgia bait, its no surprise to me that theres a metaphorical tumbleweed blowing through the boom part of the fanbase right now. hell its not like i was aiming to be one of the few active boom fans when i made this blog, i just wanted a place where i could organize my ideas for the continuation i plan on (eventually) writing while i kept the rest of my sonic consumption on my main blog

anyway just because someones a minor doesnt inherently mean they arent capable of engaging in conversations about lore or characters, but nonetheless, i see what you mean - life experiences can have an effect on how we interact with media and if youre anything like me you probably prefer to talk to people closer to your age lol. idk i feel like my answer is all over the place but i hope you got something from it nonetheless!

[joshneedsspace]

I've had multitudes of people say "oh youre so smart" my whole life, some of whom not able to grasp how I could struggle and why I dont capitalize on it. The truth is it really doesnt matter whether youre smart or not. It doesnt matter at all in the world. Because intelligence itself actually doesnt get you anywhere. It doesnt matter, its an illusion. Even the idea of knowledge that you possess that people will label you as "smart" for is subjective, with cultural, social, and economic factors being involved.

People would like to think that being smart will get you to a high paying job. It doesnt. Unless you have a particular, singular niche that someone else can make money on. We dont live in a meritocracy. We live in a capitalist hellscape where very few get lucky and the only way to get to the top is by being a bad person. Full stop. Sometimes (rarely) people DO get somewhere by being good, and thats amazing. But it doesnt mean it makes up even a reliable fraction of what its actually like out there. We are in a deeply flawed system that can only change when the majority decide to make that change. To recognize these faults, even if they benefit us directly, and making that brave choice stoked in empathy to deny ourselves the benefits of the system so that others may make it too, instead of killing themselves over not fitting into what the greater world would expect of us. I almost did, because I didnt feel like I could fit in, and it took YEARS to find others who even slightly understood me and my feelings. Mostly being cast off to the next person because no one could understand why I felt the way I did, and few even tried to begin with.

Thats not to say theyre not victims either. They have been thrust into a world where supporting others only meant supporting your immediate family, no matter how broken that family is. And god forbid you dont have a family to rely on, then youre just fucked I guess. While I am envious of the family's people have, what I am truly envious of is the support system and understanding these people have. And why shouldnt I, or anyone else who doesnt have that, be envious of it? I, and everyone else in the world, is deserving of that. YOU are deserving of that. To be seen and heard and understood. To have people in your life supporting you. Its not even a lot to ask, to be heard and seen and to have an attempt made to look passed the veil of societaly stoked cognisance and be aware of what truly makes somebody who they are. Is that a lot? Is it too much to ask to want to be understood? To be looked at not just for the shallow impression you make on people, but for the things that have led you to the moment in which we live? Is that too much?

[jostepherjoestar]

hey cozy! ik requests are closed at the moment so u dont have to answer this im only sending it so i dont forget the idea! u can answer once requests are open again haha so like what about hcs for la squadra members actually playing yakuza? im not a yakuza player but my friend is and im trying to get into it!

La Squadra playing Yakuza 0 HC’s

AAA! Anon I love you for requesting this!! I know the niche in the Yakuza and JJBA venn diagram is kinda small :0 but here we go regardless because this mixture has literally been my shit for a year so far!! Hc’s for them playing Yakuza 0 since that’s a very nice entry point 💖✨(also deffo give the game a try it will BREAK UR HEART)

also maybe Yakuza 0 spoilers?

Risotto

Risotto will be hard to convince to do anything fun or relaxing since he’s always working. After a loooooot of nagging he will finally give in and say he’ll play a chapter or two.

Silent standoff with Kiryu because Risotto can R E L A T E.

Is surprised that he likes the fighting mechanics and quickly picks up the combos, literally obliterates enemies with his skills.

Gets sucked into the story and will play more than two chapters because he just needs to know what the fuck is going on.

Risotto is BAD at the karaoke mini game at first, not really having much experience with games in general, especially rhythm games. He gets a little better over time but still can’t get over a 92 score.

When he gets to Majima he will  R E L A T E again. He feels a connection between the complicated situations in the game and his own work life, he’s glad that it’s fictional because he’s already feeling a bit stressed thinking about being in those situations.

Will finish the game pretty quickly, doesn’t do too much side quests or minigames because he loves the story too much. He does like the Cabaret Club Czar minigame, he enjoys talking to the girls but won’t finish it. Ignores the existence of Pocket Racing.

Formaggio

Is into casually gaming every once in a while and is open to the game but isn’t really sure he will like the story.

Oh but he falls hard. He’s totally in love with this game, literally loses his shit at the end of every chapter.

Will get distracted and play way too much side content instead of the main story despite wanting to know what happens next. Will also ragequit if he can’t get the hit in baseball or grab the plushy in the claw machine.

Likes the silliness of the side quests but gets a little whiplashed from the emotional tone changes in the main story.

POCKET RACING IS HIS SHIT! Will complete the Real Estate business thing just so he can spend all his money on car parts.

Is pretty good at karaoke and will start randomly singing the songs throughout the day. Also really loves Cabaret Club Czar and grind till he finishes it. 

Formaggio is a loud gamer, will say his thoughts out loud and attract an audience from his housemates.

Is a literal mess at the end. WHY CAN’T WE HAVE NICE THINGS?

Illuso

Doesn’t really game but like Risotto will finally cave so whoever’s nagging will finally shut up.

Is suspicious of every character and what their part is in the story. Has a bunch of predictions at the start, actually got a few things right before knowing what was up.

Really loves Nishiki and wishes he could be friends with him in real life. Does still think he’s hotter than Nishiki even though he has great hair.

Doesn’t bother too much with doing a lot of side quests and finds it really annoying he can’t run through the map without getting into a fight every 2 seconds.

Oof he doesn’t really like Majima but gets where he comes from, just doesn’t really relate to him.

Gets annoyed by Kiryu’s denseness sometimes.

Enjoys the story but doesn’t really get emotionally attached.

Even though he will have enjoyed it, he won’t play any other games from the franchise, he has better stuff to do.

Prosciutto

Prosciutto is not a gamer AT ALL, has a hard time getting into it and barely understands the controls.

Will offer live snide commentary about the stupid stuff that happens.

He does enjoy going ham every once in a while once he gets beast mode.

He tries out almost everything available sidecontent-wise and eating at restaurants just to see what it’s like.

Does get bored easily and doesn’t care if he finishes the game or not.

Well shit... he dropped the game before he even got into it.

Don’t bother him again with playing games unless it’s cards, he’s an old man like that.

Pesci

Pesci enjoys gaming every once in a while and is actually pretty good at them. He can really lose himself in them, fully concentrated and having a lot of fun.

He loves Kiryu and looks up to him, he can relate to Kiryu being a bit lost as well. Majima on the other hand is very cool to him but he doesn’t really get his transition.

Will love playing Cabaret Club and completes it. He truly does his best to talk with the hostesses, making it practice for when he actually has to talk to girls.

Has a crush on all of the girls, if they’re somewhat nice to him he’ll think about them for days.

Pesci is pretty good at fighting in the Colosseum as well, enjoying being able to focus on successfully beating the hell out of those idiots.

Wants to swoop Makoto off her feet and speed off to safety. Cheers her on quietly and cries whenever bad things happen.

Absolutely crushed by the ending but will still want to continue playing the other games in the franchise.

Melone

Did someone say new hyper-fixation? Because it sure sounded like it!!

Melone plays to game from start to end fully into it and only wanting more. In between jobs he’ll spend most of his time playing, fully immersed.

He wants to 100% the game at any cost, so he will do premium adventure to get all the achievements.

Sometimes he isn’t even having fun anymore, just doing the things he needs to get that 100%. Will have heard every single karaoke song a million times and still listens to them by choice.

He looooves playing Cabaret Club Czar and doesn’t even need a guide to know how to get the most out of his hostesses. He’d actually love to manage a hostess club now that he thinks about it.

Will get a crush on Majima, will cry at all the horrible stuff that happens and he will stan him even harder in the end.

Melone is already planning his trip to Tokyo for a thorough tour of Kabukicho (Kamurocho), won’t even need a guide since he’s memorised the map.

He will also purchase all the other games available in the franchise. Honestly he’s never been this into any game before but he’s so glad to have found it.

Ghiaccio

Just like Formaggio he is a loud gamer. This game will get on his nerves, especially since he isn’t immediately good at fighting.

No matter how angry he gets he will NOT quit! Gritting his teeth and slamming the controller but HE WILL CONTINUE FUUU-

Can relate to Majima a lot, sometimes he feels like another pawn in a game he has no power in. Maybe it inspires him to be more rebellious or let go of mental restraints.

He will try for hours on end to get a 100 in karaoke. When he finally gets it, expect a loooot of yelling and whooping.

Secretly loves dressing up the hostesses but is too embarrassed to play too much Cabaret Club in case someone walks by.  

Ghiaccio will also get annoyed at Kiryu’s sporadic stupidity.

He’ll also spend a lot of time on Pocket Circuit but he won’t finish it once it gets hard, unlike the fighting in the game, he will quit this minigame.

He won’t let anyone see or know but he sobbed like a baby at the ending. He really liked the story and got attached to these wonderfully weird characters.

[morwensteelsheen]

farawyn and borodred for the ship ask game thing?

thank you so much!! :)

okay i’ll start with borodred because for some unfathomable reason i actually got there first —

1. What made you ship it?

One of my favourite Types of ships is the Elder Statesmen Of War-type set-ups, where it’s less about people brought together through theatrical romantic gestures and more about the steadiness of people who are going through similar (immensely difficult) circumstances, who know that in their hearts they’re always going to put their duty to that cause first, but still seek out human comfort in other people who will understand what their priorities are and why.

I think there’s also a lot of similarities about the kind of helplessness they both face despite having this tremendous innate strength. Both of them still have to deal with family dynamics that are complex (made more complex by the war) and that can’t be fixed just by their own sheer will power; both of them die these utterly unnecessary deaths (not that death makes a ship but I think in this instance it actually points to the constant tragedy these guys face); and both of them are meant to be the principal figures of their families and people and are ultimately sidelined by the cruel mechanisations of war and the forward march of history or whatever wanky term there is for it — my apologies to ep thompson's ghost, dont haunt me bro.

Plus there’s obviously the interesting thread raised when Faramir starts bitching about Gondor and likens Gondor (and by very explicit extension, Boromir) to Rohan. That always made me go ‘Hmmmmmm, wonder what else Boromir liked about Rohan,’ lmao.

Anyways for me the ship is the equivalent of Star Wars’ Kanan and Hera or (my OTP to end all others) Luke and Wedge, just people getting by on love and duty and without big ol fancy romance.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

The fanon, I think, really makes it, as with so many other LOTR ships. battlefield manners, by themightypen is essentially the definitive take for me on them — these two guys who are just so fucking exhausted, man, but still overcome by defensive love for their families, even if their (foster-)siblings are naïve fools. That I just love, love, love. Plus I think they’re unique for their ability to pretty comfortable explore the relationship between Gondor & Rohan in advance of the Ring War without having to stray too far into AU, which I always appreciate.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Not really, tbh, except in that I don’t think Boromir is necessarily as laddy as people like to portray him. I’m happy to play into it in, say, my modern AUs because I think that’s a fun and sweet niche for him, but I am a bit 🤪 about Boromir as this kind of reckless, drunken playboy (not least because I think that’s a much funnier niche for Faramir to fill, at least when he’s younger). Chapter Four of Swaddledog’s Hearts and Minds gets my preferred Boromir characterisation absolutely spot on, I think.

And now, sigh, the ultimate OTP, Farawyn —

1. What made you ship it?

For starters, I think I am obsessed with Éowyn in a way I’ve never quite been obsessed with any other fictional character. I came to reading LOTR at this moment in my life where I was intensely frustrated about everything — trapped inside permanently (helplessly!) because of the pandemic, just starting a new political organisation that I truly believed in but that was still making me feel like shit, facing down an untenable about of work, and, fundamentally, really, really hating being a woman and what that means. And along comes Éowyn, who is bitter, who is cold, who is ANGRY, and who doesn’t perform joy or softness or gentleness just because people expect her to. She’s this seminal Woman Of War in so many ways, I think the kind of person a lot of us wish we could be. She’s got her emotional taps cut off at the source, she holds her head high and faces down unimaginable personal and political terrors, and at the end of it all still has this abiding love for her family that, I would argue, is almost unparalleled by anyone else in the book.

After all that, she gets this incredible moment of emotional catharsis (or what we expect to be emotional catharsis): “no living man am I!” She undertakes THE greatest martial act of the Ring War, and in that moment there’s this unbelievably sophisticated dialogue happening about gender (“Éowyn it was, and Dernhelm also”), and leadership (Merry finding his courage not because of the immediate scenario of the Witch-king, but because he’s spurred into it by Éowyn’s presence), and love and care.

And then we learn that no, actually, this glorious act of violence wasn’t the emotional catharsis we thought it would be. She gets to ride to war, she gets to throw herself headlong at death, and in the end that hopeless act of individualism isn’t really what does it for her. She’s still left desolate and despairing, and actually all of her problems haven’t gone away.

And then we need to rewind a bit, because along comes Faramir, who is gentle, and is kind, and does seem to believe in joy, but not because people expect it — actually it's made abundantly clear nobody expects it — but because it’s something quite innate to how he figures the world. And he’s a huge fucking nerd too. I have a lot of thoughts on Faramir’s flaws and why I find them endearing, which I won’t put here, but almost immediately you get this sense of a guy who’s quite melodramatic, good humoured, and very much not made to live in a time of war.

But he’s also clear-headed about war and what it requires (tactically, if not strategically, though that’s a post for another day), but who is kind of cynical and weary of it in his own unique way. And it’s a unique cynicism given his personal circumstances because he’s the second son of The great family of Gondor, he’s apparently — though with some big ol’ question marks hanging about the extent — very able to command some of the elite units in the realm, and what’s more than that, he’s got all these fantastical powers (the light mind reading to start, to say nothing of this apparently magical ability to command animals too. bruh.). By all accounts he should be this brazen hot mess, but he’s not. He’s desperate to claw his way out of this war-torn cage of expectation his people have for how a man should comport himself in time of war. Is it a little naïve? Sure. A little fussy? Absolutely. But does it point to that same desperation that Éowyn has? Yes! But also the practicality, like, neither of them are really enjoying the circumstances they live under, but good fucking god are they both able to Make It Work.

So finally we get to the Houses of Healing and what is the finest and most aggressively romantic writing of LOTR. Seriously, it’s so fucking much. It’s breathtaking. It reminds me quite viscerally of this fabulous quote from Les Mis:

The power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories, that it has come to be disbelieved in. Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only.

At some point I will devote more time to talking about the two reasons line, and the blissful Queen of Gondor speech, but I think to me that big, important line is: “And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.”

It’s not about Éowyn changing herself entirely (though, I think, it really does bear mentioning that she does change, and that’s every bit as important to understanding that scene as it is romantic), it’s about Éowyn coming to terms with how to live with herself as herself, and how to live in communion with someone else. She can’t just cut people out anymore, and she can’t just treat them as objects of infatuation as she did with Aragorn, she has to reckon with people as they are. And that’s sort of the moment where I knew I was about to plunge fully off the deep end with these two and never know a moments’ peace again, lmao.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

Someone on here once called Farawyn a love letter to women and, by god, yes, exactly that. I love the capacity for emotional intimacy, that is beautiful in ways I can’t express. To me, though, my favourite thing is the promise of life they speak of. Not as in oh they shag loads and have babies (though not opposed to that, obviously), but in the sense that unlike Aragorn and Arwen, who are always going to be buried under/burdened with the crushing weight of history and tradition, Éowyn and Faramir are going out yonder those hills and they’re going to do some real cottagecore farming shit. Obviously with all the trappings of rank and nobility and whatnot, but they, unique to anybody else in the books, get to sow this new idea of what life should be. They are, outside of Aragorn, the single most powerful people in Gondor. Éowyn’s got the ear of a king, a steward (which is essentially a prime-ministerial deal here), and functionally her own prince (if the hobbits are to be believed when they refer to it as essentially hers). I suspect that, in life, there were remarkably few arguments she wasn’t winning, and that Ithilien probably trended towards the jumped up noble hippie camp Tolkien so desperately wanted Oxford to be (or, in other words — Cambridge, lol).

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Yeah, man, everybody stop treating Faramir like he’s a big fucking crybaby and Éowyn like she’s some kind of shrieking 2010-era tumblr girl.

One of the single most important lines defining Faramir’s character is when Denethor roasts his ass for always trying to appear noble and lordly, if you ignore every other piece of textual evidence we have about him, what part of that line makes you think Faramir’s some simpering daisy? And why would you want to link tremendous emotional intelligence and care with being too limp-wristed to function, lol??? Like I struggle loads with writing Faramir, because I have never once in my life tried to be noble or self-restrained, so find it hard to get into that mindset, but better, I think, to imagine him too closed off than to do this wilting flower song and dance lmao.

And stop making Éowyn out to be this over-emotional angst machine. She’s got problems, yes, and she’s sure as shit got a lot of angst, but at almost every point in the book where we’re overtly dealing with her emotions, she’s sublimating them into something else. One of the most serious times we see her cry is when she’s fighting with Aragorn about riding out, and after that moment she literally tries to kill herself. Those tears aren’t standard, man, that’s a real watershed (lol) moment for her. You have to read around what the text is saying to get a better feel why everybody’s constantly calling her cold and distant.

[strawberryspeachy]

So i went to grab some take out today and had to wait a while in the bar while the takoyaki grill heated up. While waiting i could unfortunately overhear the loud white dude in the bar… reminding me-expat white men always remind me why americans are hated sigh

He was so loud - not in a drunk way - in a way that says he thinks hes sooo coool. Ugh every single time i get stuck waiting somewhere in earshot of a white dude they talk like this. Theyre so proud of themselves for speaking English and being out with japanese men. And him and his friend kept looking at me - i could see then in my peripheral and tried to pretend i couldnt understand them so they wouldnt try to talk to me

He was getting too friendly with the bar staff lady. And bragging about something - dunno. Managed to tune out making sense of what he was saying for the most part

UNTIL (luckily just as my food was being back nd i was about to leave) this dude starts talking about about how a girl wont suck his dick so hes gonna end it and “break her heart”

He was short and ugly and i assume looks even older than he is. Youre not “breaking” anyones heart dude….

Its just gross. So full of himself. So many super gross white men so fucking full of themselves here.

Got my thinking. I dont really ever see the girl equivalent… the closest i can think of are older white ladies whose air about them gives…. Military wife?? Or some other kind of stay at home mother vibe. They dont yell so everyone fan hear them but they do make faces of disgust at everything for seemingly no reason

But thinking about this ive realized theres 3 groups of western women in japan

1) girls who were not cool high school and obsessed with anime - actually this accounts for two groups…. Yea im in this one

1a) girls who were made fun of as a teen for liking japanese stuff…. This….. also splits into two..

1aa) girls STILL obsessed with japanese stuff and obsessed with japan. But secretly. They pretend they have a regular admiration for the country but really they’re still trying to live out their anime world

1ab) girls who left their obsession in the past. Trying to pretend were just normal functional people and not just weird in a different way

1b) the actual second group of this two parter. The girls who were made fun of in high school for liking anime BUT were cool on like the internet or anime cons or within their weird kid group. These are the girls THRIVING in japan (unfair) still doing lolita, street fashion or dancing or voice acting or whatever their niche at 16 was. (UNFAIR BECAUSE) as usual its appearance based. They always are super pale, have GIANT eyes, are SUPER skinny OR curvy in the right places. Usually light hair and eyes too. Got here off their parents money. Better than group 1aa because they dont look at japan through rose colored glasses BUT they dont advocate for change (like stopping pedos from doing whatever they want) because theyre the “good gaijin” understanding japanese ppl, theyll “never feel comfortable in the west again” cause only in japan can they be mini celebs, if they were the wests idea of (the word that means society has deemed you pretty) then theyd be in group 2

Group 2) literal models. This month tokyo, next month paris.

[corvidshipping]

modern au red/milo dump while i try to get myself together to answer asks nd work on ATJ:

(tw for alcohol mentions near the end, also this is an EXTREMELY long post, its so long that even after i split it into categorized sections each section could be its own post)

CLOTHING

milo absolutely has no sense of fashion. i feel like this is basically canon - for the styles at the time, he dresses fairly basic, mostly focused on looking put together for his job (definitely dresses aimed more towards how he would like to be treated by his peers, despite his actual position - then again our best example outside of the expedition is when he's about to deliver what he considers the most important presentation of his life, so who knows, maybe he usually dresses like a slob). aside from that his main concern seems like practicality and comfort. his wardrobe is dominated by earth tones - beiges and greens set with white and greys. all of that taken into account, i can see him dressing like this in a more modern era:

basically- a lot of cardigans, usually collared shirts or comfortable turtlenecks (since he does still occupy a research position at the smithsonian, even if only in title), big ol' coats, khakis and chinos and slightly stiff dress pants complete with ironed creases. i can see him wearing similar clothes outside work, just more comfortable - jeans and knitted shirts, henleys, more turtlenecks, and comfy cardigans over short sleeved shirts. i dont really see him wearing a lot of prints, i think he'd veer more towards solid clothes in lighter colors, but maybe he has a few. hes definitely the kind of guy to think of wearing the single graphic tee he owns as "bold and wild".

im very married to the idea of him wearing converse though. i cant explain it. milo in converse keeps me going in this world

hes kind of broke so i think maybe he got the converse secondhand maybe? or a gift of some kind. aside from the converse i can see him wearing a lot of oxfords and maybe wingtips

i want to see him in a hawaiian shirt so bad. i am losing it at this thought. he buttons it all the way up to his neck like someones awkward dad. milo wears a hawaiian shirt to "let loose". he wears it with like, khakis. or knee length jorts AHHHHDJHDSGJHDSJGh

a tie??? does he wear his hawaiian shirt with a tie???? does he think it makes it look cooler?????????? i am sobbing

red is the COMPLETE opposite. in the canon 1914 setting, red is already very rebellious for an AFAB person of their era- theyre openly a suffragette, they frequently refuse to wear skirts even in public and dress in mens clothes even before they were openly nonbinary, despite not being accepted into the male-dominated research fields and colleges they continue to educate themself with or without help, they purposely aim for an "unfeminine" silhouette when they dress, refuse to wear corsets, etc. (spoiler alert- there's a clear reason they get on so well with audrey in ATJ)

theyre also easily mistaken by people that didnt know them prior to their transition for being just a very small/young cis man- even though they canonically have a very soft "traditionally feminine" face

so basically, in any era theyre set into, red is always gonna aim to be ahead of the curve- both in their personal beliefs and practices and in their fashion. theyre also very androgynous in their clothes, although they tend to aim a bit more masculine (thats partially due to the era though, and having been forced into skirts exclusively for their entire life- i think in a modern setting where its more acceptable for AFABs to dress and act in a less hyperfeminine way, theyd be more okay with a fluidity in their gender presentation).

all that taken into account, i can see them dressing like this:

lots of baggy clothes, especially baggy jackets and shirts. they like loose fitting high waisted pants like JNCO jeans, cargo pants, etc but they arent averse to pencil legs. they rarely ever wear skinny jeans or drainpipes though. messy hair is a lifestyle for them- their haircut is definitely home-done

you know how in BICSTLY they used to have really long hair before they cut it? in a modern au i can see them impulsively doing the cut at like 3am and waking milo up at his door cause they screwed it up and he ends up having to help fix it (even though hes literally no better at cutting hair than them. worse even)

definitely have an undercut bob- bob on top, shaven on the bottom layer. they might end up growing their hair into a mullet at some point if they get bored. probably dyes their hair all the time out of boredom and then regrets it later and has to use dye remover.

lots of ripped tights and fishnets, leggings with big loose crop tops, big hoodies, safety pin jewelry and homemade jewelry. maybe some sticknpokes.

all that said, they still know how to dress in a professional situation. since its a modern au theres really nothing holding them back from the education and career they canonically want but cant get in the 1910s, so i imagine they would work at the smithsonian as well, maybe their father helped them get the job? potentially in that case they might be his assistant- after all, he trusts their opinion on artifacts more than anyone else's.

at work you can still very much see the punk/skater/grunge/goth style but its more understated- turtlenecks, high waisted and looser dress pants, lots of black, slightly unbuttoned collared shirts with a loose overcoat and no tie

since i elaborated on milos shoe taste i may as well elaborate on red's: they definitely wear converse as well, probably newer than milo's since their father is fairly wealthy and they can afford it. they also have a doc martens collection. they have a pair of demonias but they never wear them and milo is really the only person to even know they own them, let alone see them in them. they really dont like to wear heels much, but they own a few just to play around with. they have a bad habit of wearing any laced shoes untied, but they never trip over the laces. they also use lace code- their most-worn Docs have purple laces on the right foot and yellow on the left. some of their Docs have (reclaimed) pink laces.

has an extensive pin collection including feminism pins, anti-racism pins, punk-related pins, skater-related pins, and pop culture pins (80s music, modern music, old movies, etc)

MUSIC TASTE

milo's into a lot of older music- stuff from the 50s is his favorite. really into jazz and ballroom style stuff. his favorite band is queen, i think- he likes the old-fashioned sound, the jazz-chamber-ballroom influences, the diversity of their lyrics, and the complexity between the guitar riffs, the basslines, and freddie's vocal runs as well as the vocal harmonies.

sometimes he hums good old fashioned lover boy to red and they two-step in the living room in their pajamas :pleading:

also very into rush. yes, he is a rush guy :pensive:.

also listens to a surprising amount of lo-fi? he really likes stuff that remixes older music with hip hop and lofi elements, like earl grey. nearly exclusively into instrumental stuff but also very into louie zong. he listens to it while he works a lot.

knows a lotttt of foreign artists, especially niche ones. fuckin LOVES casiopea

red's spotify is a goddamn mess. everything from 2000s emo, to classic 70s punk, to post-punk and new wave, to 90s pop, to rap. they cant be easily classified at all

their favorite bands are oingo boingo, prince, queen (they listen to a lot of their harder-rock music, but milo knows theyre into the ballads too. theyll never tell anyone else though), doja cat, lil nas, fall out boy, and billie eilish.

red recites the intro monologue to lets go crazy very seriously to make milo laugh, sometimes. they get very into it with their facial expressions. sometimes it devolves into a full air guitar/keyboard/drum and wild dancing session. milo does not know how to participate in this but he loves watching them have fun with it. sometimes they pull him off the couch to make him dance with them, though

they are a huge sucker for dark pop, vaporwave, retrowave, EDM, hip hop, emo, punk... etc etc. anything that combines any two or more of those genres in an original or interesting way gets their attention right away

there's a lot of sharing between the two of them- even though their music tastes are so different, they like a lot of the others taste, and theyre always up to listen to whatever their partner is playing.

red is a huge softie, and milo has found them more than once listening to or humming something he was playing for them the other day because it reminded them of him

speaking of which- in the 1914 canon, red can play piano. i think that carries over to a modern au, where they could play piano and by extension keyboard. i like to think they experiment with a lot of instruments but i doubt they ever really mastered any others. maybe theyre okay at drums or bass?

they learned to play and sing teo torriatte for milo, as a surprise. when they first performed it for them, they had everything set up for when he got home from work- the lights were dimmed, they had candles lit around the keyboard, they draped stuff in cloth to make it look pretty, they scattered flower petals around. when milo walked in and saw it all, he almost proposed then and there- the only thing that stopped him was that he would kick himself for the rest of his life if he did that without a ring.

HOBBIES/ACTIVITIES

milo is still an avid chess player in this, but i like to think hes in some kind of groupchat or text or discord server for it. he doesnt necessarily consider any of the others in the chat close friends, but he does know them all by name

he tries to get red into chess but they never really get it

he tells them all about the stuff that goes down in the games and they just. do not understand. but they love listening to him get excited about it anyway

"red you're not gonna BELIEVE this, eddie played an italian game on star today! i thought for sure she would see through it since everyone knows it but she slipped and he beat her in like, 13 moves! i wouldnt have believed it if i hadnt been there!"

"yes sweetie please tell me more" (barely disguised pained expression)

red is a skater and a regular at the skate park by the smithsonian

most regulars there know them by name, they can spot a newbie a mile away

they have a sticker of a broken tv with a skull inside of it on the underside of their board, its become recognized as a symbol of them unofficially

since theyre so regular and have been going there a lot longer than most of the other skaters that frequent the place, a lot of what they say is kind of just accepted as the rules

they have a bad habit of lecturing new kids who show up without knee/elbow pads or helmets at the very least. all the other skaters enforce it too. kids dont end up showing up without protective gear very often after their first visit

they brought a first aid kid and left it there and everyone has kept it stocked pretty well without them having to have much input. its kind of just a communal first aid kit

they once drew the broken tv symbol on the inside of a half-pipe and everyone started calling it red's ramp after that

they also started calling the bowl at the center of the park the Soup Bowl and now thats just accepted as the name. some of the newer kids genuinely thought that it was called that by the park and were shocked when they found out it was just a random nickname red gave it one day

theyve brought milo a few times but hes extremely awkward on his feet and could never really get his balance on a skateboard, and quite frankly red is afraid of what might happen if he tried even a low ramp, so he usually just sits at the rim of the bowl while red skates around

everyone knew he was their boyfriend before they even met him. a few of the regulars called him by name right away. one of them was certain red had brought him before.

but no

they just talk so fuckin much about him that its like they already know him

aside from skateboarding, red is pretty good on rollerskates/blades

they tried to take milo to a roller rink once but it was a disaster and they ended up going home, changing into pajamas, ordering chinese food, and marathoning movies till they fell asleep on the couch together. so not a total loss

theyre both very into movies. red is deep into horror and milo likes indie/art movies and just Cannot handle horror at all, but they both agree on old movies, from the 80s and 90s to like the 30s.

red has shown milo some of the classic horror movies and the niche old ones (from like the 40s) since theyre not difficult to stomach

every so often when red brings up wanting to see a horror movie milo is like "aw babe we can watch that tonight i promise it wont be bad" and he genuinely thinks he can handle it this time

he cant

he never can

it is always a lie

red ends up holding him every time and talking him to sleep, but it thankfully never causes like a major panic attack or anything like that

they love going to museums together, of all kinds. they love art museums. they also go to aquariums and aviaries

sometimes they like to go to other history museums and criticise the veracity or accuracy of exhibits/translations, all in good fun of course. theyre never actually being mean about it

SIDENOTES/UNCATEGORIZED

they both used to work at starbucks, when they were younger and before they worked at the smithsonian. they worked at separate stores 2 blocks from each other.

milo cant stand soda or carbonated drinks, red can and will chug a java monster in order to survive a long workday if they must. milo is constantly concerned for their health and wellbeing

they r both lightweights when it comes to drinking. they can split a six pack and both be falling-over drunk by the end of the night.

given the changes in beauty standards people DEFINITELY think milo is more attractive than they would in 1914. cmon. hes a lil twinky nerd. you think people wont eat that up?

he never really catches onto the flirting much though

did u think i would forget ki/da and the others? youd be wrong.

i simultaneously like the idea of something similar to the movie happening, but also just like... ki/da just being a regular person living on the surface. in either case they r all friends still

in the case of ki/da just being a regular person on the surface- i like the idea of atl/antis just being A Place in this au, maybe its a bit of a closed off country though? like, not many foreigners live there and to get there you basically need to be there as a diplomat or a scholar

maybe ki/da visits DC as a diplomat? she is a princess, after all

red meets audrey online cause they both yell at the same misogynistic asshole on twitter

they exchange discord names in the replies of the tweet and tell the guy not to interrupt them while theyre talking in his replies

i like to think red and milo are selected to go on an academic visit to atl/antis (to learn about the culture, with permission of the king), and audrey ends up as the mechanic on the ship during the visit and theyre like (spiderman pointing meme) at each other

red and audrey have so many inside jokes that they basically speak a different language. milo gets some of the terms from context and pop culture (they use "so very" in real life- as in "wow, that shirt is so very.") but he is hopeless to learn all of it

one of their inside jokes is any variation of "milo hot girl summer" and they REFUSE to explain it to him no matter how much he begs

milo wears that iconique tank top on the ship and they say it literally any time he bends over, picks anything up, reaches for anything, moves, BREATHES. he is bewildered and at this point concerned

(in truth, the joke came from red taking a really blurry picture of him in a short sleeve shirt where he looked pretty cute and captioned it "milo's having a hot girl summer rn" and they just could not stop repeating it once audrey met him IRL)

they have a minecraft world. i do like to believe that every so often vinny finds a way in- theyre never sure how- and griefs the shit out of them by blowing up EVERY. monument.

this post is getting long bc im enraptured by the idea of an atl/antis modern au so im cutting it off here but expect WAY MORE later

[dumbassscout]

i see a lot of 13 yr olds on tumblr these days, so id like to share some advice i wish i had known using tumblr at age 13.

this is also probably not an original idea from me lol, someone has got to have done this before. i would usually put this under a cut but ive decided not to for now

be aware that this site is like NOTORIOUSLY harmful. you may think you’re above it or too mature for it to hurt you, but trust me, you aren’t. since you will probably not be stopped by that warning, maybe take some precautions/keep some stuff in mind to stay safe.

i had tumblr savior for my first experiences with the site. im pretty sure it still works and it’s regularly updated, so take a look into that. it blocks posts with certain keywords from being seen on your radar, and can also push/allow posts with other keywords to always be shown. i would advise getting it or a similar extension to custom block triggering/harmful content.

don’t put other/more popular users in your fandom/community on a pedestal. they’re people behind a blog, just like you are. don’t feel intimidated by the people in your own community, they are just people the same way you are a person. they can mess up at times, and so can you.

making friends is a great thing on this site, but keep an eye on new online friends’ behaviors. it is exciting to meet new people, but you want to be aware of toxic friends. same goes for your mutuals. overall, keep people on this site at an arm’s length until you’ve gotten to know them enough personally to know that they’re genuine people. as you get older you can relax on this, but as a young teen it’s better to be hyperaware than to be blissfully ignorant as you get hurt.

onto more broad things, your theme doesn’t have to be perfect. you dont have to make a custom html/edited html website theme for your blog, you can leave it as tumblr default. if you enjoy organizing that, then by all means go ahead! but don’t feel like it is necessary for your blog, most of the time you will get a new theme set up and check on it on a month and find that it actually looks terrible to you. if you’d rather just have it as a basic/default site, then that is perfectly normal.

your blog’s theme/topic is your choice, and can be uniquely you. some people have many blogs for many things, just a few, or just one with everything. it is up to you how you want to do it! the themes you choose, topics, are up to you. fads and trends are cool but finding what works for you personally is way more fun. your blog is supposed to be fun. you are supposed to enjoy using tumblr. don’t compromise that for a trend. make your blog(s) however you want, however it pleases you. it can feel pressuring to have a perfect blog, but it’s better to just make your appearance the way it would make you happy.

also, tag systems are awesome! but they are not necessary unless you’re tagging trigger warnings. always tag those! but i know a lot of people have personal tagging systems to organize their blog, which is totally cool! but again, personal tag systems are not necessary, and if they feel unnecessary to you, don’t use them. but again, tag triggering content, especially if you are asked to.

archiving/deleting/creating new blogs is a whole other process. some people like to start with a clean slate every time they switch to a new fandom, and let their old user be archived or deleted. this is perfectly respectable (and probably the right thing to do) personally, i just switch my blog over to whatever im feeling that month and people can unfollow if they no longer enjoy my blog (i dont have that big of a following on this blog). it’s really a personal decision, and if you want to restart your blog you will know when to/if you want to.

reblog art, but never “repost” it. aka dont take the image and post it on your own blog, just reblog it from the original poster. its common sense but not everyone knows? idk

if you end up having some or many followers, make sure to check yourself. appreciate your followers, respect them. they are people with blogs. just like you. don’t let a high number inflate your ego way out of proportion, it’s easy to fall into that sense of power.

respect people’s pronouns. even if you for some reason have a disagreement with them, or you don’t understand why/how their identity works, just use the correct pronouns that they ask you to. it costs you zero dollars and zero cents, and is incredibly respectful

as a young teen, don’t get involved/let yourself get buried in tumblr-wide discourse. examples of this include the bi vs pan debate, flag discourse etc. most ppl who i know who were attentive to things similar to that at a young age ended up being affected negatively by it. pay some attention to what pertains to you and also pay attention to what you can identify as right or wrong, but don’t let people’s opinions on your dash influence you in times of discourse. go and look at both sides of those kinds of debates if you’re interested, and form an opinion from there.

speaking of which, sometimes people will just post their takes on literally anything and youll come across it. take everything with a grain of salt unless there is links to proof (if applicable, not always needed). sometimes bad takes just havent had someone to reblog and disprove yet.

speaking of discourse, there is always discourse on this site in every fandom, every community. form your own opinions always, but keep your moral compass in mind. don’t compromise your morals and sense of right and wrong to enjoy certain fan-media. if something seems off, it probably is.

people make mistakes, and if someone did something kind of shitty/had a terrible take/belief (not irredemably shitty, those ppl do not need ur attention) and they genuinely apologize for the shit they did and learn from it, move on. leave some shit in the past, holding grudges isnt good for your mental health and people change. but again, always take things with a grain of salt.

you dont need a high follower count to get traction on your posts. it might help, but you can have a low follower count with high interaction or a high follower count with little to know interaction. the best advice i have is to tag what it is relevant to, whether it’s a fandom, aesthetic, etc and people who regularly check those tags will find it.

if you ever get anon hate for some reason, just delete it from ur inbox n move on. ppl who send anon hate want to see you post it and respond to it. if they said some really really MEAN shit though, it may be best to talk to a friend about it for comfort, or take a break from tumblr for a hot min. most importantly, report it, close your ask box/change it to no anonymous asks.

if at some point you choose to voice your opinion about a highly debated topic at the time, be aware that people who disagree might attack you for it. be aware, and be safe about it.

a lot of people swear by xkit. i have never used it in my life, but from the looks of it, it makes using tumblr so much more bearable. it breaks sometimes with tumblr updates, but apparently it’s worth it. again, look into it, but it’s not necessary to use the site.

do niche shit. start sideblogs without a plan in mind. make aus, make art, make writing, or make nothing at all. reblog the things you love wherever you want them to be reblogged. comment on people’s creations if you love them, they probably would love to hear how much you enjoyed it. appreciate how wonderful the better part of this site is, enjoy the free access to view and appreciate others’ creations and ideas.

i would put a lot more on here, but i feel like 20 is probably too much already. if anyone has anything to add, definitely rb with ur addition

overall, do the things you love on here, keep yourself safe, and be respectful of others.

[cringesyoulllove]

is it bad that i sometimes read fanfics? i dont read weird shit, just regular shipping fics.

no that’s totally fine!! I posted one today lol. I recommend AO3 over Wattpad because imo it has generally better content, but there are some good niches of Wattpad as well :)

this actually brings me to a point I’ve been wanting to make for a while, which is that I (mod Emma, not speaking for anyone else) don’t really love the messages this blog was pushing when we were active. I do think we did some good stuff in terms of calling out harmful tropes/relationship dynamics in fics (Wattpad writers romanticize some weird shit sometimes), and I’m not going to pretend like I didn’t have fun laughing with you guys at all the weird grammar mistakes and plot contrivances we found, but tbh I do think it was kind of mean spirited & I know that if I was a young writer posting stories on Wattpad & saw one of them featured on here, I’d be heartbroken. Honestly, everyone has to start from somewhere and don’t think cringe culture is very understanding of that or constructive to future growth. 

and also yeah I really hope we didn’t perpetuate the idea that reading fanfiction is bad, because it’s not! Fanfic is a super cool creative outlet & a way that a lot of people these days get into writing original content, and I hate that a lot of writers (myself included) feel the need to hide/downplay such a cool hobby because they’re afraid of being judged for it. one thing I don’t really support is fanfiction about real people (like band members and stuff) because it’s kind of intrusive and often makes the subjects uncomfortable, but even in that case like... i wrote panic! at the disco fics when I was 13. And they might be embarrassing to me now & I wish I’d just stuck with doctor who but I also did develop my writing a lot and make friends in the process.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that while I love how we managed to create a little community with some cool inside jokes on this account, I think we went about it in an irresponsible way and I hope no one came away feeling embarrassed about their own reading/writing habits

[readyforit]

Idk why but I have been here since late 2018 and dont seem to have any friends! Like how did you get to know people and you know.....

ahhhh hi anon! I don’t feel like I’ve got that many friends but here are some tips that have definitely helped me personally (because I know this would’ve been so useful to me when I first joined), and maybe they’ll help you too? sorry for writing so much but I hope this helped! you’re welcome to message me anytime, let’s be friends! 💕

1. be more open (or as open as you’re comfortable being!)

when I first joined tumblr, I was super intimidated by everything and everyone; to the point where I didn’t want people to know what my name (and anything else about me) was, I was just kind of lurking in the background; kind of too scared to make my own text post or send an ask that wasn’t anonymous and so on. but I think one of the best things you can do on here is be open (but only if you’re comfortable)! that can be little things, like putting things in your bio about yourself (like your name, age, pronouns, personality type etc), as well as making text posts about your life (like your current random thoughts, feelings, how your day went, highlights of the day, any issues you’d been going through, people you’d met, just anything - treat your text posts like your journal [just don’t be too personal in like revealing your school or workplace kldfjakjflkj] and just feel comfortable opening up about yourself and who you are, and I guess that way, people will be drawn to you and your personality! it might take a while, but tumblr is honestly the place to just go all out and there’s nothing to be worried about! just be yourself (and you’ll find ~your people~ lsdkfjldfjk)!!

2. interact!

if you want to get to know people or become friends with them, do it!! back when I actually had the time to do so, I used to send asks to blogs I loved all the time (like I’d wish them a lovely day or send them my wishes if they’d specifically made a post about something in particular, or like I’d send them asks from an ask game post that they’d reblogged)

you can also join networks, that’s one of the best ways to get to know people, in my opinion! I’m part of @tssnut, @networkthirteen and @theswiftweb, and you should usually be able to join these networks and servers (there should usually be a ‘join us!’ link on their page) and that way, you’ll be opened up to a whole lot of likeminded people! networks and servers are one of the best ways to actually talk and get to know one another, so I’d definitely think about joining them!

likewise, you could also invite people to interact with you (sounds weird lkdjldj). like you could reblog ask games (while also sending an ask to the blog you reblogged the post from), and just ask open ended questions in your own text posts? you could also just talk to the blogs around you in general (especially if you’re mutuals with them). interact with your mutuals! I find it sooo hard to go from being mutuals to friends, but I guess it’s just through interaction with one another!

3. don’t overestimate/underestimate yourself

don’t know how else to word this ldkj, but when I first joined tumblr (I actually just recently learnt to grow out of this), I used to be intimidated by like, every single blog on here. I just felt so isolated and like I hardly had any followers (confession; it took me like a year to reach 100 followers), and also like everyone had already formed their own social groups, and like!! I just felt like everyone was soooo cool and interesting and smart (with yes, lots of followers) and that I could never “get on their level” enough for them to want to be friends with me. but I guess I’ve recently realised that we’re all the same, if we’re on tumblr, we’re most likely just a dorkish clown ranting about the world around us. and I’ve learned that most everyone on here is sooo insanely kind and nice and sweet and lovely, so don’t be scared to interact (as in, sending asks, leaving comments, etc) likewise, I don’t know if this would apply to anyone dlkjdl, but it doesn’t help to think of yourself as superior or better than anyone else (like if someone reaches out to you, reply!!), we’re all on the same level and this is literally just tumblr, a welcoming and fun place for everyone!

4. have a specific… niche

I don’t know if that’s the right word, and I know a handful of multifandom blogs who do their multifandom things amazingly, but I think it’s a good idea to have a central niche/aesthetic/thing that you post about! (like I mean, you could join tumblr and be a taylor swift blog then slowly become a lana del rey blog, I don’t know) but I think it’s good to have like a central theme that you post about; this way you’ll draw likeminded people who you can talk to, and I guess it’ll just be easier to control…? like I have a lorde blog specifically for lorde, but this blog I have here is primarily taylor swift; and like all of my mutuals are swifties and blog about her, and so I guess I’m a part of the taylor swift fandom…? so I don’t know if this works for everyone, but it definitely helped me to mainly post taylor swift content (well of course, I only stan taylor dslkjdlj) likewise, you could maybe have sideblogs for other fandoms that you’d love to be a part of! I don’t know, I just guess it’s harder to be part of a fandom if you’re multifandom?

in addition, you totally don’t have to; but you could also have your own content! as in, like I make and post my own edits (I think that really helped me feel more included into the community; I posted my first edit in june last year and that’s when I slowly begun to feel more welcome?!). but you could also offer and host specific things on your blog that other blogs don’t have, like I know some people host discourse nights, positivity nights, and so on! if you’re comfortable, it just really helps I think, to bring something into the community and just create and manage and design something! :)

5. have a nice theme!

okay, this isn’t essential, but it definitely really helps to have a really nice theme! this includes a nice header (or lack of one; the simplicity can be really cool too), colour palette (FLKDJ WHEN I SEE BLOGS THAT HAVE VERY CONTRASTING COLOURS like green and purpleee), a nice url (at least one that reflects what your blog is about), a nice bio (like it doesn’t have to be long, like most people who take the time to look at your blog won’t read through a whole paragraph in your bio I don’t think?) and nice posts (like some people post like according to a specific theme/colour scheme and I think that’s really pretty but hard to stick to) you could also have a nice desktop theme, like there are soooo many theme blogs on here with beautiful themes that you can download to really spark up your page! again, this isn’t all that necessary, but it really does help to have a visually pleasing blog!

6. be nice!!!

this probably goes without saying, but just be nice and kind and positive; you don’t know how much it could mean to someone!! just be nice in whatever you do and post and say, that’s the most important thing you could do!! I can’t emphasise on this enough, but please just be niceeeeee.

andddd that’s all I could think of for now! but yes, I totally understand and relate to that feeling of being isolated or separate from the rest of the community (I felt so lost and distant from everyone in the first year that I was on here), but through taking the time to being nice, open and interacting with others (like seriously, you can message me right now!), you’ll hopefully feel more welcome into the community! love you!! 💖