#we're devolving folks

[joyful-soul-collector]

🥺

My dearest friend what in all hell does this even mean

Ask me yes or no questions!

[seapiglet]

hm

I've seen a LOT of shaming going round at the moment, both here and on twitter, of people who are seeking out good omens spoilers, mostly by those who have watched the new episodes in advance. despite what neil and david and michael may have said on the subject, it's rubbing me the wrong way! so I feel the need to make a potentially unpopular post about

✨SPOILERS AND NEURODIVERSITY✨

(and accessibility) 🤚🏼

now I cannot speak for everybody here but as an autistic person with ocd I actually !prefer! being spoiled ahead of time and will frequently read the entire wiki article for a show I'm about to watch (though weirdly CANNOT skip ahead with books?) in order to alleviate anxiety around the unexpected. trust me when I say that knowing what will happen in advance *enhances* the experience for me and I have yet to regret being deliberately spoiled, even when it comes to my absolute favourite things on earth, things I may have been waiting months and months (or in this case years) for. in fact, the longer I've had to wait, the more the feeling of gut-twisting anxiety and uncertainty beds down in my system and makes itself a very unwelcome house guest.

it's all very well insisting that everybody just be patient and ~wait and see~ but for a lot of neurodiverse folks this can be a very unsettling prospect. personally, I don't like surprises! I don't crave the sensation of being shocked by an unforeseen twist! it makes me do a panic! even the thought of it makes me feel deeply uncomfortable.

we're not simply throwing our toys out the pram because we WANT something and we WANT IT NOW (shout out to verruca salt). there is a soothing comfort and stability to predictability that is difficult to explain to somebody who doesn't experience this.

at this point I should mention that OBVIOUSLY not all neurodiverse/autistic/diagnosed-ocd people feel this way but that doesn't negate the fact that a lot of us do and there's not much we can do about it.

I'm aware that everybody's currently moralising about the rightness/wrongness of illicitly distributing and trading nuggets of forbidden information like crack-laced pokemon cards* (surely in this fandom everything should exist in a grey area?) but please don't jump on this as an opportunity to prove who's the most terribly righteous and which of us gets to wear the Super Duper Bestest Fan Neil's Favourite prefect badge for the day. devolving into needless factions and one-upmanship so near to the official airdate does nobody any good.

on another personal note (this is the 👂🏼♿accessibility♿👂🏼bit) I was due to attend one of the screenings and now can't due to the apparent lack of subtitles. pleeeeeaase think of accessibility, amazon. please? some of us have severely messed up ears and/or auditory processing disorders - it's not hurting anybody to have the words up on the screen but it excludes many of us if you don't.

again, if you think it's terrible and wrong to want to be spoiled or to share spoilers you are well within your rights to think that, and of course I encourage anybody who is participating in a bit of blackmarket spoiler dealing to utilise ALL the tags you can think of to keep it secret (keep it safe), or simply leave it to the DMs, but I really don't see the good in shaming others who feel differently.

uhh thank you and good day 🎩

(*hopefully that still scans - my references are as ancient and ephemeral as my knee cartilage)

[hussyknee]

Did you get you definition of communism from an American text book. Like I'm genuinely asking. "We're not allowed to drink and drive anymore for the safety of everyone! And it's because of damn communism!" Like do you believe shit like that

I have never seen an American textbook in my life. I'm not USAmerican. My parents literally lived under a communist government.

The neoliberal government that followed it went the opposite way and kicked open the economy, disenfranchised all the rural and working class folk, hunted communists and blamed them for the Tamil genocide the govt orchestrated. The Marxists reacted by forming a Sinhalese ethnosupremacist militia and killed people, to which the government responded by killing more people. Meanwhile the Tamil resistance up North was also Marxist but neither group would ally with the other because they were both on their respective ethnonationalist kicks. In fact the SL government stopped fighting the Tamil Tigers and got them to help fight the Sinhalese Marxists. There were like 100,000 people dead by the time the neoliberal government crushed the Sinhalese Marxists, at which point the Tigers immediately assassinated the neoliberal President. I've always kind of wanted to send them a fruit basket for that. But yeah, the Tigers themselves devolved into a corrupt, backstabbing shitshow by final push of the war.

The problem with us has always been ethnonationalism as a result of the arbitrary borders drawn by the British colonists and subsequent Christian Protestant Aryan Supremacist brainwashing. The nation state is an inherently violent entity. Communists always think the problem is the fact that the wrong people have power, rather than the fact that power exists. I don't have any truck with culty, ideological comrade bullshit, and armed revolution is simply a natural reaction to colonial violence, and people have the right to resist annihilation, but it rarely solves it.

And the fact that y'all have such a vicious defensive response to people who reject communism out of lived trauma is more than enough reason for us Global South people to not want anything to do with your violent, imperialist asses.

[savventeen]

I JUST BINGED YOUR ENTIRE “THANKS FOR PLAYING” AND I HAD TO STOP MYSELF FROM CRYING IN THE LIVING ROOM AND GODDAMN I GOT SO MANY QUESTIONS/IDEAS so here’s a dump lmao

AND SPOILERS ‼️‼️

and be honest if you honestly don’t have any idea or want to leave it up for interpretation

dino’s friend recommended it to him and he recommended it to mc right? well what happened to that friend/person?? i bet they are alive because they sent that game to 13 people before 3 am so the lady in the closet doesn’t get to them 🤭

if mc didn’t mess around and acted seriously in the game, would the outcome have changed? or was it always the gamemaster’s intention for the player to fall into obscurity?

how come dino remembered the mc? power of love??? or because he knew about the game (im pulling stuff out of my ass)?? or he has an android phone in this au 🧐

what if the pfps for the “AIs” are actually previous victims

so if you actually finish the game against all odds everyone is released (if they aren’t dead) hmmmmm sequel merhaps?? jk

imagine the only clue left about the players existence is the goddamn phone bill for texting 💀

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MC????? wait that’d be really sad if the mc was actually still alive but dino couldn’t recognize them as “mc” but knows they exist somehow uGH

i know you wrote this story for fun so these don’t need to have answers/comments but please provide any extra tidbits of info about this concept it’s so interesting 🙏🙏

SKLJDFLKSDJF OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING????? AND IM SO HONORED HOLY SHIT I WILL DO MY ABSOLUTE BEST TO ANSWER WHAT I CAN 😭💜

also you are not the only one with questions so I'm going to do my best to answer them all here!!!

[for anyone who hasn't read it yet and wants to know wtf we're talking about, you can read the entirety of my .|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. smau here!]

*cracks knuckles* alrighty buckle up folks time to try and answer some questions and take a deep dive into savv’s personal TFP lore here we gooooooooooooo

[putting it all under a readmore bc it got long af and also i didn't realize how hard it would be to translate the lore in my brain into words??????? i somehow didn't realize how oddly complicated it is??? like writing all of this out in any kind of semi-coherent way was SO HARD sdkjfsdlkjf]

~ Was it all a dream? (this one was asked by @junhui-recs)

Sadly, no. 😭 In the reality of this fictional universe, a tragedy very much did happen and Dino and MC are very much suffering from it 🥲 (I will not stop you from imagining that it was all a dream tho, we all have different ways of coping dklsjfsklj <3)

~ What's the main purpose of the game? Why are they doing this? (this one asked by @diamondyjh)

OKAY SO to start off you need to know that this au was heavily inspired by an episode of a podcast called "The Magnus Archives", specifically the episode “Binary” (transcript here). [If you're a fan of horror, I highly recommend giving the episode a listen/read, it's delightfully creepy — you don't need to have listened to any of the other episodes to understand it (just stop at the ending 'supplemental' part)]

The episode goes into detail about this sort of digital urban legend/creepypasta/copypasta about a guy named Sergey Ushanka who, long story short, tried to upload his brain/consciousness into a computer because he was afraid of death and wanted to try living forever virtually. There are tame versions of how he did it and other much more brutal ones, but basically "Sergey Ushanka" is a prank that various coders/programmers like to pull when making chatboxes in which you could talk with "strangers". It would start out normal and then steadily devolve into something creepy. This paragraph taken directly from the episode transcript sums it up very nicely:

"But then the responses start to break down, become more sinister, and keep referring to how much pain Sergey is in. Eventually, the only response the bot gives you is screaming and pleas to be released. The idea is that the chatbot is Sergey Ushanka’s mind, and he doesn’t like being in a computer nearly as much as he’d hoped."

So the idea that I stole from the episode essentially was: but what if it was real? What would the reality of being turned into cold, unfeeling data feel like? Agony is what the episode posits. Here is a list of phrases that the Sergey in the episode uses:

cw: vague body horror, blood mention "the angles cut me when I try to think" / "it peels my mind like knives" / "it feels like thinking through cheese wire" / "there's no feeling, but the no feeling hurts" / "it's cold without blood" / "the maze is sharp on my mind"

My next thought process was: What happens after? If someone were able to survive this process and were somehow able to keep any kind of agency, how would that person try to get out of the digital hellscape that has now become their existence? After knowing what it feels like to become distinctly inhuman, wouldn't they do anything to feel human again?

And how do we feel human? How do we find connection with each other and our humanity without ever having to come in contact with another person?

Stories. Fiction and non-fiction alike, we are all connected through storytelling, by finding feeling through other people's words. The thing about stories, though, is that they aren't messy in the same way that actually feeling our feelings is. That being human is.

So what does all of this have to do with the purpose of the game?

Essentially, when it's all boiled down, in this universe the story of Sergey Ushanka is real, and in this universe he is trying to gain his humanity back by stealing that of others. He started off with stories, with whatever online libraries and resources and archives he could find across the internet. And while it wasn't even close to enough to satisfy him, to get rid of any of the pain he was constantly experiencing, it was enough for him to learn, to grow, to realize that if he wanted his humanity back, he needed to go to the source.

So he started stealing real people from the real world, with all of their messy feelings and emotions and humanness.

That is the purpose of the game, why "they" are doing this. (pls don't ask the how bc i don't have an answer for that, just -waves hands- you know, insert your supernatural/sci-fi explanation of choice sldkflksj)

~ Did all the other characters from the game also get pulled into it the same way reader did? (asked by @diamondyjh) / What if the pfps for the “AIs” are actually previous victims

Short answer, yes to both! (Longer answer in the next question lol)

~ Who are those other people? (asked by @junhui-recs)

Essentially, the other characters/bots/whatever you want to call them are a kind of amalgamation of all the previous players who got sucked into the game. Once someone's been... let's call it absorbed, whatever parts of themselves are left after the process basically get shoved into whatever "character" they fit best, sometimes different pieces going to different characters.

And while the pictures could just be random ones, I like the idea that they're taken from the most recent players that got absorbed :')

~ Why was Changkyun evil? (asked by @junhui-recs)

Well, the main reason he was "evil" was because he's, y'know, a part of the game and the game is trying to steal people's souls or whatever. As for why he's mean, that's because he's trying to trigger an emotional reaction. The more messy, human feelings that are happening at the time of absorption, the better :').

~ Dino’s friend recommended it to him and he recommended it to mc right? What happened to that friend/person??

"i bet they are alive because they sent that game to 13 people before 3 am so the lady in the closet doesn’t get to them 🤭" SJKDFSKLDJ this made me snort, so thank you 😂

BUT to answer your question, in the story, Dino says that Yeonjun gave it to him and that he got it from "a friend of a friend of a roommate". Because the absorption and the consequent complete erasure is such a big process, not everyone who plays gets sucked in. In fact, most people who play don't get sucked in. Which is why Yeonjun is totally fine! (And why the friend of the friend of the roommate, aka this universe's irl Changkyun, is not 🥲)

~ If mc didn’t mess around and acted seriously in the game, would the outcome have changed? Or was it always the gamemaster’s intention for the player to fall into obscurity?

This one's a little bit complicated. It's kind of a yes and no situation? Generally speaking, the game isn't looking to ensnare every single person who plays because 1) it takes A Lot Of Effort to take/erase a single person, and 2) the game needs to spread to other people somehow, thus it needs people to play it and then tell other people to play it too.

For MC specifically, though, it's hard to say. How they played the game didn't matter so much as how they reacted to the game, specifically the first phase(s) of the Mnemosyne Protocol. The whole point of the game is to get big, messy, emotional responses, so if MC hadn't had such a big reaction, the game probably would have turned out differently. That being said, if MC had played the game as blandly as possible, the game might not have ever decided to test out the Mnemosyne Protocol, so. *shrugs* Do with that what you will lol.

~ So if you actually finish the game against all odds everyone is released (if they aren’t dead) hmmmmm sequel merhaps?? jk

Sadly, nothing special happens if you finish the game 😭 Plenty of people finish the game and pretty much go "huh, that was cool I guess" and then move on with their lives after telling their friends about it. This can be said about all four games mentioned actually, since we only see one of them get played.

As for a sequel... almost certainly not 🥲 I'm not going to give a hard no/no forever, because who knows if I'll end up getting another idea/get suddenly struck with inspiration, but... it is Extremely unlikely. Another story in the same universe??? ...still not likely, but slightly more likely than a sequel lol.

~ Why is Dino the only one who remembers reader? (asked by @diamondyjh) / How come Dino remembered the mc? Power of love??? Or because he knew about the game (im pulling stuff out of my ass)?? Or he has an android phone in this au 🧐

I almost want to make the answer "bc he has an android" because that is So Funny to me like sldkfjsldkjfslkjdf amazing 😂

But no, that's not the case lmao. And while I am a huge sucker for the Power of Love being an unstoppable force (ESPECIALLY when it's non-romantic love!!!), the reason Dino and only Dino remembers is thanks to sheer luck and a glitch.

So, in episode 28, MC drops their phone when meeting their brother and in episode 29 we see the alert ".|| MNEMOSYNE PROTOCOL COMPLETE ||." show up on a cracked screen.

The final phase of the Mnemosyne Protocol is the erasure portion, and the reason players get erased instead of just like, disappearing is because their "essence" is basically being transferred from reality into this digital realm of Sergey's existence. And reality, because it's now lacking an entire person and their history, just kinda... rewrites itself to make sense with the missing gap. Think of it as the universe doing like a sort of reverse autocorrect.

But because MC's phone got broken in the middle of that transfer, there was a slight glitch in the process. A glitch wherein Dino, because he was on the opposite side of the globe when this was happening, got accidentally missed in the autocorrection process. If he had been in Korea (or heck, anywhere within a few thousand miles) when this happened, he would have forgotten MC as well.

So long story short, Dino was just extremely (un?)lucky 🥲

~ Where is reader? (asked by @junhui-recs) / WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MC????? Wait that’d be really sad if the mc was actually still alive but dino couldn’t recognize them as “mc” but knows they exist somehow uGH

Well, sad news here friends. Most of what's left of MC is now stuck inside the game. They got absorbed and are now a part of Sergey's dataset and will be used/distributed into "characters" as needed.

Notice that I said most. Because, thanks to the glitch, the part of them that was connected to Dino didn't get transferred properly, and now that part of them is kinda stuck — it no longer exists in the real world, but it also didn't get fully absorbed into the game.

Which leads me to the next question:

~ Did reader turn evil and try to pull Dino into the game or is it the game itself being evil and impersonating reader to lure Dino in? (asked by @diamondyjh)

When I wrote the original version of this, the answer was a kind of combination of both — MC had gotten absorbed and corrupted by the game, so while it was the MC reaching out, they were doing so because it was what the game wanted.

But in this version... It's actually neither! Which I think would normally be a good thing but I think in this instance actually just makes this sadder oops.

So, the epilogue isn't the game impersonating MC and it isn't an "evil" MC trying to lure Dino in, it's actually just the part of MC that got stuck during the glitchy transfer. This is why the messages show as being from "Unknown" instead of the phone number associated with the game. And the reason what's left of MC asks Dino if he wants to play a game is because that's the only way it knows how to connect with anything anymore.

Basically, this sliver of MC that's left is experiencing what the original Sergey went through when he first "uploaded" himself, but instead of reaching out to anyone through a chatbot for help, it's reaching out to the only thing it "remembers" about humanity — Dino.

...I honestly didn't mean to make this story any sadder than it already is and I'm glad that the epilogue by itself just reads as spooky/freaky as hell instead of, well, this. 🥲

~ If Dino plays the game, will he be reunited with reader? (asked by @diamondyjh)

It pains me to say that there is no longer an MC for Dino to reunite with 😭 The part of them that got absorbed by the game is, well, a part of the game now. And the piece of them that's left and trying to reach out to him? Well, like I said, it's just a piece.

There could potentially be a chance for him to find some closure here, but that's about it I'm afraid :')

And now because I want this to end on a more lighthearted note:

~ Imagine the only clue left about the players existence is the goddamn phone bill for texting 💀

It becomes the next biggest conspiracy, that there's someone (or a group of someones) out there completing the world's next biggest scam by raking up random people's phone bills and somehow finding a way to steal the profit lmao

~ Some last thoughts from savv:

If y'all made it all the way to the end of this... holy shit I applaud you sldkfjsdlkjflksjdf LIKE!!!

thank you for taking the time to read all of this?????? it's not even fic it's just me rambling and making things Even Sadder??????

i also want to say that i'm a believer that 'canon' is whatever was posted in the story itself and that anything else is just headcannon, even if it's from me, the author. so if you don't like/don't agree with anything i've said here, feel free to ignore it!! fill in any gaps/questions you have in the way that makes your reading experience the most enjoyable!!

but yeah tHANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING AND I HOPE THESE ARE SATISFACTORY ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS AND IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE/HAVE A RENEWED DESIRE TO FIGHT ME MY INBOX IS OPEN SDKLJFSLKJFLSKFJSLKD

[pzfr]

🐶 & 🔪!

munday no-no and yes-yes list

Send  🐶 for a role play related pet peeve.

A classic: It feels like people just do not read the rules/bio/etc.

And it irks me because I try to keep my character bios fairly focused on the core ideas, the essentials, so it isn't daunting to newcomers and if they want to know anything else, they can ask or see it play out in threads. And I don't expect people to memorize every little detail! Just have the gist of it, the page is always there, I try to welcome questions and discussion once we've interacted a bit.

I have had the most excited, friendly IC/OOC responses to me and my stuff! But it feels a bit like hollow lovebombing if people gloss over details. Worst case it leads to substituting details on their own.

Send 🔪 for a fandom you refuse to associate with

Here's but one: I have BNHA as a 'maybe' on my rules list if I feel comfortable with whoever I'm RPing with. It's also helped that I've mostly only interacted with folks writing OCs, usually with their own unique spin on things that distances their character from the source material.

I'll bar all other gripes I have with the author/series (really, that I've had with a few mangaka in how they depict teenagers or embrace nationalism) and try to zero in a bit on what's got me even more miffed about it than usual recently as it's specifically irked me in RP.

The series drops surface level attempts at clever ambiguity before backtracking as if nothing happened. The villains are furious because hero society doesn't offer provisions for their well-being. BUT WAIT then the heroes insult them about how they're "friendless" and "don't contribute to society" and then the majority of villain characters devolve into mindless chaos murderers so the heroes can do their thing unbothered. Meanwhile the heroes who treat people like dirt are praised and protected with such gusto. And this would be so juicy if it were explored in some other narrative, but it's not! We're just supposed to return to standard good vs evil and accept that. It just feels like it's insulting audience intelligence for even being invested in the idea for a moment. Because it keeps popping up!

Now my frustration with this in regards to writing it with any of my hero-oriented characters--- Rex for instance, comes from a world like that where entire industries revolve around the fame and marketability of supers (not even just heroes, celebrity villains exploit this too). But Rex was cast out for his inability to function there, and whether friend or foe he feels sympathy towards fellow low ranked, nameless dregs. BNHAverse is kind of like his worst nightmare because every criticism, every complaint ends up wrong and to offer one would be to disturb the natural order of things.

And I've been in threads where-- again with Rex since he doesn't fit the mold, is subject to that pseudo-nuanced morality-- and what's funniest is it was often with characters who weren't directly based out of BNHA but the character faceclaim/aesthetic and inspiration was all there, same style more than once by multiple separate people. Skirting around the rules a bit there, I dare say. All other OCs I've encountered have either been cool, or didn't really interact when we were mutuals.

Oh yeah and BNHA also just seems to internalize the worst parts of Naruto now that I think of it (emphasis on the genetic exclusivity of the fancy chakra-powered jutsu techniques, protag is fighting doggedly to be part of the very system that fucked over him, his friends, and enemies alike. Like some blonde kid coasting on training through secret divine powers shows up promising that once he becomes president everything will be okay-- not because he has a plan or anyone else's advice or support, just positive vibes and great man theory? Lol. Lmao.).

[sussexbound]

Following slightly off of that last reblog, I think another reason why fandom creativity has declined is the way that fandom creativity and fandom drama has evolved over time, moving away from a culture of 'counterculture' where deviations from the mainstream were expected, celebrated, and embraced, and where most debate and discussion in community, was in good faith, and was about reaching across rather than punching down, to a fandom culture that has, again, been heavily influenced by commodification and. hence, dominant cultural norms.

In the past, transformative works were expected to be exactly that. They were works that explored things that the source material would not, or could not. It was a place to explore themes that fell outside those dominant cultural norms. Fandom communities banded together around a communal feeling of being 'othered' and an understanding that you stuck together as fandom, on the one side, and didn't cross streams with the large corporate entities and corporate-backed creators, creating the source material.

Now, once corporations started to get their grubby little hands all over fandom (I partially blame Twitter for this, because more than any other platform it blurred the lines between those creating the source material and those creating transformative works - the old fandom adage of 'don't cross the streams' was forgotten), new folks coming into fandom started to see fan fiction and fan art as a consumable extension of the source material, rather than something that ran counter to it and that was created to build community. This is when you started to see more insistence on things aligning with source canon, and the idea that there was a right and a wrong way to interpret fan works. This shift then met the rising popularity of online, performative 'activism' in the early 2010's and resulted in a fandom culture where things one didn't like in fandom also started to be considered moral and ethical failings, worthy of censure and even abuse. This shifted things even more away from a transformative fandom counterculture, where the general motto/theme tended to be, "Hey, we're all outcasts here, with weird views on stuff, so live and let live, ship and let ship, celebrate what you love, and ignore what you don't, and if you want to discuss our differences, let's do that across the table 'in-community'!" towards one where anything you personally disagreed with because something that needed to be squashed, publicly shamed, shut down, silenced and sanitized.

So now, not only would people get angry if transformative works didn't align with their own preferences, or expectations of source canon interpretation, they would also turn their anger over this into a moral and ethical argument. Powerless to effect change with large corporations, they would 'punch down' and attack fandom creators of transformative works, for not portraying things, like queerness for instance, in a way that aligned with how they viewed it. And not only would they get angry over this, things quickly devolved to the level of doxxing people irl, over these things. I've known people who almost lost their job due to online outrage over fanfic they had written or art they had created.

This had an extreme smothering effect on creativity in fandom circles. The fandom communities that marginalized folks had been building for decades, with understood rules that helped insulate and protect it's members from outside threat, started to crumble. They were literally being eaten away and eroded from inside the house. This was probably exacerbated by the swiftly increasing online influence of conservative morality and gatekeeping that started to sneak it's way into fandom spaces due to the broad influence of neoliberalism and terf rhetoric on popular fandom platforms. The 2010s saw the rise of puriteen culture, the normalization of mass, in-house censorship and gatekeeping, and other ills that have always historically put a damper on creativity.

furthermore, by allowing the crossing of streams between marginalized, transformative, fandom spaces, and corporate, mainstream cultural entities, a cascade effect of rapid deterioration began. Corporations had successfully divided fandom into content creator and content consumer. They had wooed fandoms into engagement and used the fans' creation of additional content to shore up promotion of their products (we became free promotional tools essentially) to consumer fans. Perhaps due to this, large swaths of fandom started to feel like these corporations owed them something in return, i.e. - to create content that aligned with our individual preferences.

This, of course, was never going to happen, so when the corporations failed to meet this expectation, and online backlash against them had little to no effect, fandom consumers turned on fandom creators inside the house instead. Fandom creators started to be expected to take the place of the corporate powers and create material that perfectly aligned with every consumer fan's individual preference, opinion, and moral standing. This was impossible, of course, and was never the purpose or responsibility of transformative works within fandom spaces.

Fandom started to collapse under the weight of this new corporatized model of content creator and content consumer fan. In the past fandoms had been a community where people created for the fun, joy and social aspects of it. Fandoms did not see themselves perfectly reflected in mainstream media (marginalized groups never will), and so they created community around a sharing of creative energy. Folks would write fic, which they shared for free. Fan artists, in turn, would draw art for those fics, which they would share for free. Fans who would read and enjoy this fic and art, would then, in turn, share and spread it. It was an exchange born of shared passion, joy, and creative play.

Everyone one would collaborate, communicate, trade, share, etc. It was a space free of commodification and all the ills that come with that. Instead of buying and selling content, things like fandom giveaways, trades, exchanges, etc. were common. You never encountered issues of fan-created content being locked behind paywalls. Anyone and everyone could view, speak to, collaborate, cross-create. There was this more communal flow of ideas and creativity that was seen as running counter to the outside, mainstream culture of commodification and status quo morality.

That isn't to say that there wasn't fandom drama back in those days, there was. People still got their knickers in a twist about canon interpretations, characters, ships, they didn't like. They still sometimes didn't like certain tropes or kinds of fic. People had different tolerance for what they wanted to see or not see in nsfw fanart. People could get in pretty heated debates on these topics. But generally the drama that arose played out in a way that didn't cast other fans as morally degenerate, or someone who had to be destroyed at all costs, so that some 'morally superior' reading of canon, or some level of in-community censorship could be upheld.

Anyway, the general collapse of creativity and community within online fandoms is something I have been really grieving the last few years. More and more fandom communities have moved to places like Discord, just so that they can vet who joins the community, and feel free to voice their opinions in a place where they can be safe from other fans dogpiling, bullying or doxxing them for having an opinion and that is really unfortunate.

And while I fully appreciate artists needing to make a living, the corporate acceptance and promotion of fan art, as a genre, while at the same time heavily censoring nsfw content has also led to almost every fan artist out there having a patreon and charging for people to see all tiers of their work, which has led to a decrease in open, free sharing, and the sense of community that comes from that.

Fan fic writers can't charge for their content, of course. But the in-house attacks on fan fic writers over the last few years have become so vicious, that many folks, myself included, have backed away from publicly sharing their fiction due to the fact that we just don't have the time or energy to deal with that, especially when sometimes it escalates to the point of people getting doxxed in real life.

Our culture is sick, that is clear. I mean this isn't just a fandom problem, it extends across online culture as a whole, and outward into real life, as well. But I guess it feels extra sad to me, that it has so negatively effected fandom, too, because fandom used to be a relatively safe space, a community for marginalized folks built around a shared love, passion and joy for stories, transformation and exploration. I feel like my life is richer due to some of the fandom communities I have been a part of, but I have seen a deterioration of that since the mid 20-teens that has, overtime, caused me to just draw away more and more.

It makes me wonder what fandom will look like in the future. Will it self correct and start to build community again? Will it move more and more toward cooperation with corporate source creators, and just become another sad victim of late stage capitalism? Will it find a new path altogether?

I like to think and hope that it will survive. I'm curious to see what form that takes. I hope I and many others have the energy to come back to the table and help rebuild that at some point. Right now I'm just tired, and a little sad, and wondering what will become of us all.

[pop-punklouis]

re: your anon from yesterday bc im lazy and havent updated my dash, that's why folklore felt so refreshing to me (as a middle school swiftie who lost interest when she went pop and was pulled back in by folklore). by that point she was 4 years into her relationship w joe and started expanding past just writing about public facing stories into creating new worlds and stories to write about. paired w the new genre and much more poetic lyricism (especially compared to lover) it was a breath of fresh air. in the last year or so it's like you said, tired. it's felt like we're moving backwards, we're back to taylor swift's newest relationship and all speculation about that and the last boy she dated being the main thing both we (the culture, in news articles and social media posts) and she (in songwriting) are writing about as if we're back in 2010, or 2012, or 2014, or on and on and on. as if no one learned or grew in these 10 years

i would agree. i, personally, believe there are layers to taylor swift's resurgence in popularity (to the insane extent it is now) and how it got a head start due to folklore. besides it being an album that kinda dropped in the perfect moment where we were all at home and resonated with music like folklore during the pandemic.... and besides it being a pleasant surprise to see taylor step outside of the comfort we all know her music to be with an album that is, largely, considered an indie/folk project.... it was in the songwriting, for me, that ultimately brought me around.

and, during that time i had, had a tumultous relationship with her as a celebrity and as an artist. the rollercoaster i had felt since 1989 with her image and music was fascinating when i look back at it, and Lover is the record that brought be tentatively back into enjoying taylor swift. yet, folklore is the album that sucked me in entirely. and it was because there wasn't any nonsense revolving around the release or the lyricism of the project. it was so detached from her life that you could actually focus on the music and her songwriting without being distracted by easter eggs or references to relationships/controversial songs/lyrics that would be broadcast in the headlines. i felt at ease listening to it and creating my own world and own interpretations out of this universe she spun around both evermore and folklore.

so, i do think that is such an important observation to see as her popularity skyrockets how she is digressing (imo) in her sound and lyricism. almost devolving into what she was beforehand, making pop music which is fun to listen to but really doesn't grip you or keep you coming back around because the lyrical content isn't as rich. i remember when folklore came out, i was on a podcast with a few writers that used to write for the same music publication as me, and we discussed all of this. and the one who wasn't as big of a swift fan previously, really enjoyed folklore because of the difference in pace and her songwriting. then, just last year a group of us in the same publication had a roundtable just to discuss all things taylor swift (from both those who enjoy her and those who don't see the hype), and the conversations touched a lot on this dynamic with her songwriting and the differing of opinions of her since like reputation to folklore to now the second era of overexposure of her with the eras tour and the disappointment a lot of people felt with midnights etc. so!!!

all in all, i agree. i think everything she/her team is doing now feels so dated? like we've been here in this loop before, and i do hope tortured poets surprises us all and makes me shut up, but idk all signs are pointing to the same marketing and sound she did at 21 and 24 and 27. it doesn't feel new. not to quote the girlie herself but i feel like ive seen this movie before and i didn't like the ending lmfao

[divineprank]

🐶💀✋

[Munday No-No and Yes-Yes!]

🐶 for a role play related pet peeve

𝖳𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗂𝗌 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝖻𝖺𝖻𝗅𝗒 𝗀𝗈𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗈 𝗆𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝗆𝖾 𝗅𝗈𝗈𝗄 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝖺 𝒹𝒾𝒸𝓀, 𝖻𝗎𝗍... 𝐼 𝑔𝑒𝓃𝓊𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝑴𝑶𝑺𝑻 𝑜𝒻 𝒶𝓃 𝑅𝒫 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓅𝑜𝓃𝓈𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒹𝒾𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓃𝓉𝓈, 𝓈𝒾𝓏𝑒𝓈, 𝓼𝓹𝓪𝓬𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓇𝒷𝒾𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝒷𝑜𝓁𝒹𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓁𝒾𝒸𝓈. ﻨ սռժεгรէձռժ էհձէ ﻨէ'ร รսթթօรεժ էօ ъε բօг λεsτнετις ρυгρσsεs, ъսէ... Iт ɢeтѕ тo α poιɴт wнere yoυ cαɴ тell тнe αυтнor ιѕ нιdιɴɢ вeнιɴd αll тнeѕe ғαɴcy decorαтιoɴѕ вecαυѕe тнey doɴ'т ғeel coɴғιdeɴт ιɴ тнe qυαlιтy oғ тнeιr owɴ wrιтιɴɢ 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚞𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚢 𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚜.

Honestly, though, I'm an old lady and shit like this gets tedious to try and read. I don't mind when the entire post has one singular font or size change, because usually it's for legibility reasons more so than ~aesthetic~. I just really hate when the entire post is just completely illegible. It's also usually very exclusionary towards those of us with visual impairments that rely on text-to-speech readers because those programs don't recognize the letters as they display and will proceed to speak out each individual character's browser codepoint rather than the letter it's supposed to represent. Certain browsers and smartphones have this problem, too.

Send ☠️ for something that will result in a instant unfollow from you

Callout posts. I've been on this trash hellsite for longer than most of you have been adults (that's a real accomplishment for me, I know. 🙄) and I know for a fact that every single one of us hasn't always been our best towards someone else in some way or another. It happens, we're complex creatures: most of us with some kind of chemical imbalance in our brains. This is why I believe most callout posts aren't necessary and, more often than not, they only prove to stoke the flames of whatever stupid internet drama someone's involved in. Callouts have rapidly devolved from serious warnings from extremely dangerous, frightening individuals to weird displays of entitlement wherein folks demand the mass-unfollowing of an individual because they've discovered they are incompatible as friends. I don't think anybody has the right to completely destroy someone's reputation because they got into a fight with them privately and have learned that one or both parties are not yet mature enough to handle conflict in a grown-up manner. It's not anyone's fault that they don't know when to walk away from a failing and incompatible friendship other than their own, you know? I just don't have the energy for this type of shit anymore. I don't believe it's my responsibility to navigate fucking tumblr of all places by having to tip-toe around and remember to avoid the specific people that someone who follows me has personally had beef with. I've got too much shit going on in my life, I'm not going to remember that and it's extremely unfair to expect me to. I'm sorry, I know it's not easy to hear but the only person that's responsible for your online safety and comfort is you.

This website has blocking features. This website has reliable filters that remove posts you don't want to see on your dashboard. Learn what browser extensions and add-ons are, and if possible, stop using tumblr on your mobile device. There are steps you can take to protect yourself that don't require making sure other people remember to keep track of this stuff for you, too. Sorry about the rant, I'm just getting too old and extremely sick of social media, honestly.

Send ✋ for a prompt/plot/concept/ anything you refuse to role play

The sexual exploitation of children is absolutely unacceptable in my book. Which is, y'know, pretty universally understood to be a no-no across nearly all creeds and walks of life. But, as someone who mainly writes for villains, you'd be surprised by how much I've been approached for shit like that.

Fuck that, and fuck you if you have the balls to ask me to write something like that with you, or if you try to write me into that corner. :) Thanksssssssssssssssssss

[thatoneguy031]

Can I talk about something? Out of character, I mean.

It's a long post, but you don't have to read it if you're not interested. It's more of a vent post than anything else.

I've been having a hard time with this blog. Not in the popularity sense, this is what I expected from this kind of thing. I mean like... I don't know what to do with it. I've experimented with a few things(You can go way back in my post history if you want to see what I mean), but those ideas sorta fell flat, no?

This was originally meant to be a storytelling blog. I wanted to share my little synopses of my characters and plot points or whatever, because I was genuinely proud of what I've done so far.

Then I resorted to trying to be a comedian. I would try to post something funny under most reblogs, leaving them be if I couldn't come up with a remark of any kind.

It wasn't until recently that I decided to turn this into a Pokemon IRL blog, and I'm not even doing that well with this. That, and I'm afraid that I come off as self-centered, so I cut any posts that give that kind of vibe. Heck, I even tried doing a playthrough series, but I keep forgetting about it, and when I do remember that it exists, I just postpone the next update to oblivion.

I really want to keep this blog going, and trust me when I say I'm going to, but it's not going anywhere, and I feel like nothing is happening. At first, I thought it was just Tumblr having boring days, but I realized that I'm just not doing anything entertaining. My blog just turned into a pool of reblogs with the occasional Pokemon-related post or rant. And I mostly wait for either @the-one-from-dres or @drizzileiscool to bring up the occasional topic that I might have enough insight to talk about. Sorry for @'ing you guys, by the way, I just need folks to know who I'm talking about. Y'all the goats.

Once I got my drawing tablet, I thought that I could do a bunch of art stuff, but then it devolved into the same potential self-obsession problem, where I would just draw that one character(which is literally just a Samurott with anxiety and a Goku complex, let's be honest with ourselves here) over and over again. I have other characters I can draw, and I'm even taking free art requests. Granted, I haven't gotten any requests yet, but the option was still there.

And that's how we got here. I have to retake my Regents in literally under 24 hours, and I'm bitching and moaning about how I'm not getting anywhere in my ha-ha internet blog, which everyone already takes as a joke anyway.

If anything, I think my problem comes from a lack of communication. There was this like, 4 day period that I didn't hear a word from Dres, and I thought he hated me for something I did, until he involved me in 3 back-to-back reblog games literally the next day.

I still feel awful about it now, it was so petty of me to even think that way. For context, Dres might as well be my day one, and he's inadvertently taught me the ins and outs of Tumblr, like how to use tags and things like that. Hell, we even played DnD together once. No exaggeration, he's the closest thing I've had to a real friend in years, and I'm convinced that's only the case because he hasn't seen me in person.

I love him deeply, and only wish the best for him. To think that he'd leave me after I did basically nothing, I've really hit a new level of desperate. He likely had his own things to do, while I'm still stressing about things that probably don't even matter in hindsight.

Back to my original point, I want to do a lot more on this blog, and I also wanted to make it a chill place.

That's one of the reasons why I don't talk about politics myself. I don't want to get involved in things like that at all, because I want people to live without worry. The furthest I go with that kind of thing is "Stop being dicks to each other. We're people, deal with it." I know it's more complicated than that, but at this point, I'm almost scared to get involved in that kind of thing. I don't even know what a terf is. I didn't know Rowling was a bad person until recently when Drizzile was talking about her.

And it's like, I don't even know why it's so hard to talk to people for me. But at the same time, I think I really have something wrong with me, but I'm too scared to get it checked out. And, while I'm not getting into personal details, I don't have the right circumstances to even have that happen in the first place. That's the out of character reason why I say I might have ADHD, instead of outright saying I have it. I literally can't get it diagnosed myself if I wanted to, and I don't do the self-diagnosis stuff because I always get paranoid and think my problem is worse than it is. For example, I've convinced myself three times within the past year and a half that I had appendicitis, because I would get this really specific pain in my stomach. Guess who I told about it?

No one. I was terrified of wasting someone's time just for it to be me freaking out over nothing, and if I'm being honest, I still am. At this point, I have a plethora of things wrong with me, I know that now, but I don't ever get them checked out. I'm doing well so far with them, why worry about it now.

I just don't want to offend anyone. All I wanted to do was make a place where I and other people could have fun.

This is still going to primarily be a Pokemon IRL blog, but I'm doing something different. Please, if there's anything you all want to see on here, let me know. Stuff for Guy, art stuff, whatever floats your boat besides the obvious. And I'll do my best to keep up with my stories and fanfics or whatever. Once I get my stuff settled again, obviously, but I don't want to make it seem like I'm doing this for myself.

I don't want to turn this into a pity party. I really don't. At this point, I'm sick of having people worry about me. Whenever they do, I feel like I'm being an attention hog, and it sucks. If you did read this, thanks for listening. I just needed to get this much off my chest.

[mings]

Hey my friend! So sorry for your Brexit woes. In the States we have some wingnuts pushing for Texas to leave the US. (!) It’s like some sort of contagion. Ugh. 😑 Good to know you’re back home and safe.

Good to hear from you! In truth, whilst brexit was the biggest act of self harm in history, it almost certainly boosted the independence argument in Scotland. Many Scots voted to remain in the UK in the 2014 referendum because they fell for the tory lie that it was the best way of ensuring we stayed in the EU. Fast forward to 2016 and suddenly brexit was a reality, despite 62% of Scots voting to remain in the EU.

Worse was to come under Boris Johnson. He did what his far right puppeteers wanted and executed the hardest of hard brexits. In doing so, he threw Scottish exporters under the bus and effectively destroyed our fishing industry. We're not alone; the Northern Ireland protocol that has been so important in keeping the peace there was also tossed onto his bonfire of vanities. Wales is slightly different for lots of reasons, but nonetheless the nationalist spirit is rising there too...

Britain is no longer the UK. It's an international laughing stock and more of a disunited kingdom than I can recall at any time in my life. Many Scots (and I hesitate to say a majority because that would need a referendum) want out from under Westminster rule. If nothing else, the Supreme Court's decision makes it clear that the so-called voluntary union is anything but. Thus Scotland, and indeed each of the devolved territories, are effectively colonies.

Westminster knows it cannot survive without Scotland's enormous fiscal contribution. We generate enough energy - from renewable sources - to power our nation and still have enough to export. The North Sea oil fields in Scottish waters, which the tories asserted in 2014 were exhausted, now miraculously have many more years life in them (handy that, when you're trying to fill the £multi-billion black hole that your last leader created in the space of just a few weeks).

Scotland has hydro power, wind power, timber and water. The latter will become the new oil in the near future. We have tourism and world-renowned whisky. We can revitalise our fishing and seafood industries if we have unfettered access to the European Market.

We're big enough and strong enough. It's time. My personal view is that Scottish Independence has built into an unstoppable movement. Now it's a matter of when and how, not if.

I visited Texas & Louisiana a few years back. Texas in particular was very different to my other experiences in other parts of America. Yes it's a big state and yes it has oil, but secession? In truth I'm not qualified to judge.

And yes, we're back home in the place that I love. It was good to see our daughter and meet our future extended family. It was a genuine pleasure to feel that warmth that I've felt so many times from folks in countries throughout Europe. But there's nothing quite like the Highlands & there really is no place like home.

[taiblogcomics]

Dick and Mutt, Signing Off

Hey there, urinal cakes. It's our finale for Dastardly and Muttley! Let's hope it's a good one~!

Here's the cover:

And we're back in the plane again. War Pig One and its grawlix cloud is back for the finale, which I think is good for a symbolic reason. The stars make a cool cover, but I don't think it carried the escalation from the previous issue. Last issue really hinted for the first time of the further toony theme going on, and I woulda like to see that go even harder for the last issue. Instead, we just get our two protagonists. I think it's a good cover, don't get me wrong. But it could've been a great cover.

So, recap time! Dick and Mutt, a pair of Air Force pilots, are affected by the radioactive rainbow mist of the drone War Pig One. This comes from a mysterious element called Unstabilium, which is rapidly altering the planet into a zany cartoon version of itself. The president, who is a fox now, doesn't much like this concept, recruits Dick and Mutt (along with their pals Zee and Uncle) to track down the wayward drone and introduce its sample of Unstabilium to their own, which should cancel out each other--hopefully before they succumb to their own transformations.

The final issue opens with President Clooney in the oval office, noting that Dick and crew have already left, glad they're so enthusiastic. One of his aides asks if they're the best choice for the job, and the president notes that Delta Force turned into chipmunks and the Navy SEALs turned into--well, you can probably guess. And as a different aide suddenly turns into a large sauropod dinosaur, the president pours himself a drink and muses that when fighting lunacy itself, the best folks for the job are probably a group of lunatics like our protagonists.

Speaking of, we cut over to the group in their bizarre mish-mashed plane. They only got two seats, so Zee and Uncle are piloting. Dick and Mutt? They're strapped in, standing on the wings, with Dick wielding a lasso to ensnare War Pig One. This is, of course, his whole idea and he thinks it's brilliant. He even saw fit to give them a new name, freshly spray-painted on the side of their fused planes: Vulture Squadron. Good, now I have a group name to call them by instead of "our protagonists" or "Dick and crew".

Naturally, the plan is to hook onto War Pig One and hit it with their own sample of Unstabilium. Except… they don't have one, Mutt points out. Except they do: they're the sample. The three of them minus Uncle have been affected by the element, and have been spreading it. That makes them as contaminated as an actual sample of the element. The plan, thus, is to fly them into the drone and have the three of them use their own bodies to cancel it out, while the unaffected Uncle pilots them safely.

Plans, though, rarely survive making contact with the enemy, and this is true even here. While the three of them are immune to the grawlixes being thrust at them from War Pig One's wake, they strike Uncle and devolve him into a drooling idiot. Dick swears loudly at this, and I mean actually swears, which Mutt somehow manages to reach over and physically cover his word balloon to censor it. He's completely baffled at how he did this afterward. Anyway, with Uncle now debilitated, the plan is completely scuppered--unless they do something crazy. Well, I mean, crazier than they were already planning.

Dick announces his intent: the only thing left is for them to make the ultimate sacrifice and save the world by ramming the drone. Mutt is kind of shocked, and he's not quite ready to die. After all, he's got a family at home. This whole series, he's been reiterating how much he wants to get home to his family when this is all over. Maybe he's okay with being a dog. Maybe his wife can get used to it too. But he just wants to see her. After all, if they die saving the world, who are they even saving it for?

The pair of them continue to argue, with Dick insisting they have to sacrifice themselves. Worse, as they argue, Zee's cowardly persona begins to surface again, causing her to be unable to take Dick's orders, even as he reiterates the point she so admired him for: "Without discipline, there is chaos." And what's more chaotic than the end of the world by cartoons? They continue to argue, even as Mutt once more devolves and loses his ability to speak. And all he can do is pull out a photo of his wife and kids and whimper like a dog.

Dick begins to reconsider, seeing his closest friend in such a sorry state. He has this final moment of clarity, wondering if they should reconsider. And then Uncle, rendered senseless and babbling like a fool, leaps forward and plunges onto the throttle, spiraling the plane into a nosedive, where it rams into the drone, War Pig One. There's an enormous burst of rainbow light, and the four of them begin to rapidly devolve into their cartoon counterparts. Mutt stops looking like a realistic dogman and becomes Muttley. And Dick can only singlemindedly shout their mission: to stop War Pig One.

Stop the Pig One.

Stop. That. Pigeon!

In the days that followed, the world slowly became normal again. A drowned mermaid fished out of the Potomac, that sort of thing. Even President Clooney is slowly turning back into a human. He pours himself another drink, toasting those heroes who saved the world with their sacrifice: Dick Dastardly, Muttley, Zilly, and Klunk. Wait, no, those weren't their names, were they…? He can't quite recall. None of his aides can remember either, but they could try to find out. It's probably fine, even if there's someone else answering to their call number now.

And in a messy house, a young boy asks his mother if they ever had a dog. No, they haven't, she replies. Is this like when he asked about his dad? Every time he watches that damned cartoon, he starts asking weird questions. She doesn't know who his father is, she can't remember him at all. She doesn't even know why they live so close to the Air Force base. And they definitely never had a dog. He promises to stop watching the show, since it's upsetting his mom, and goes back into the TV room. He stares thoughtfully for a minute as the opening theme for "Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines" plays on the TV, then turns it off, ending the comic.

I admit, it's kind of a downer ending, but you also kind of expect that from a Garth Ennis comic. Heck, this is pretty upbeat for him, and I think that's why I like it. It's not quite a happy ending--our protagonists turned into a villain, a dog who can't talk, a coward, and an idiot, transported to another universe while this one forgets them. Mutt never got to see his family again. But they did save the world. And it was definitely an interesting comic, with a very interesting premise. Definitely worth a read in my opinion, and a reminder that not every good story has to have a happy ending.

But we've had it good for too long, haven't we~? Next week, we approach the blog's 13th anniversary. That seems like a sign, doesn't it? We ought to review something truly horrible. I have just the thing... You'll just have to count down the days until I reveal it~

[useful-boy]

Hey, hi! Im really sorry for sending this, i just hope im not overstepping any boundaries as I’m about to ask help which is very important right now :( our cat, Sleepy needs an urgent vet care. She is pain and I can't afford to pay the vet to help her so I'm reaching out to ask for help, I mean even if you can’t help monetarily, reblogging or sharing it would truly mean a lot. She is my daughter’s best friend and she’s all I have left of my mom who passed away last 2021. In case you’d be insterested to help, I have pinned the post on my blog, please try to also answer the ask privately as some people tend to get weird on this stuff. Please send us prayers, be safe. ♥️🙏

Oh brother, this guys STINKS

One of the oldest scams in the book, and you've actually got people falling for this? My god, man.

1.) 5 day old account

2.) Following random blogs out of nowhere to beg for help

3.) Pinned post introduces the cat as "Sleepy" in quotes. Everyone knows animal lovers don't talk about their pets that way. You say their name with your chest or you don't say it at all. No one "quotes" their beloved pet's name.

4.) You mention having several pictures of this cat but never attach any to the post? Couldn't even be bothered to rip them off google and just hoped people would take you at your word? Amateur.

5.) Your story is just all over the place. You say your cat's condition was noticed "just before Christmas", then go on to describe mastitis (which would be very unusual for a cat to get when not nursing unless it was caused by an infection, an injury, or extremely poor hygiene). You say that because of this, she has an infection in her lungs, and that with antibiotics, she only has days left to live.

Then you go on to say that you don't actually know what her condition is, which contradicts the whole thing about her being on antibiotics because how would you even have her on that if you couldn't afford to bring her to a vet that could diagnose her in the first place to give her those antibiotics? You don't just find those lying around anywhere. The proper order is take cat to vet -> get diagnosis -> get antibiotics, not cat is sick -> listen to friend -> buy medicine at petsmart -> ??? -> get antibiotics for mystery condition from fucking nowhere I guess.

6.) You Also say that you "don't want her to develop sepsis or gangrene" after saying that your cat has an infection in her lungs, but if it's spread that far to her body? She's already dead.

Your cat is not laying at home like this 5 days after making a post about her condition. Your fictional cat is dead.

Also you mention not wanting her to die over something that needs antibiotics, which is a double contradiction. She's on antibiotics, you couldn't afford to see a vet where you would get both antibiotics and a diagnosis, she needs antibiotics, make up your mind.

7.) We're in the final stretch of breaking down your obvious scam, don't worry folks. You said... Okay your English really devolved here so copy/paste it is. "I have a PayPal. The estimate reflects the only vet in our tricity area that will take donations over the phone but they require the money upfront."

You never actually gave a monetary estimate Anywhere in your post, so good job failing that. Donating money through PayPal would just leave you with money in your PayPal account, which you could then transfer to a bank account, so the idea of taking individual donations received through PayPal and just, what? Reading their usernames out loud to the vet? That makes no sense at all.

8.) Actually taking a look at the page your donation post links out to brings us here.

Almost no information here, but let's check out the PayPal link.

Hm. That's a name alright. Odd that you can't tap on their name to open up a profile of some sort... Going onto actual PayPal and manually searching their name up got me this.

Well that just can't be right. The nice person with a totally real cat said that they had a PayPal account, and that was the name their page said we were donating to. Hmm.

9.) The cat used in your page isn't yours.

10.) "Please try to answer the post privately" No, I don't think I will. I think I'll show everyone how lousy you are at scamming people. Feel ashamed.

Now if you've made it this far, block and report this guy for trying to scam us hardworking tumblr users out of their money by feeding us a lameass sob story about their fake dead cat, and look at the post this cat pic comes from as a reward when you're done.

[riverdaleplots]

it's a bottle episode!

jughead, archie, veronica, betty, cheryl and toni and also Gay Kevin wake up to find themselves sitting in a circle inside a giant glass bottle. it's lying on its side, with sand covering the bottom, and an intricately constructed ship in the middle. cheryl immediately assumes that's she's been dosed with something and in turn accuses every single person in the room (bottle) with her. this all quickly devolves into a full on argument between everyone there, airing out grievances not at all relevant to the situation. suddenly, jughead yells out "STOP." "ugh, who yells?" veronica says, slyly whispering to betty "that's a line from broad city. so woke." betty pinches veronica on the leg but pretends she doesn't. "don't you see what this is, you guys? don't you get it?" jughead is standing now, looking down at them all with arms spread open. he is met with identical looks of confusion and annoyance. "it's a bottle episode. we're in a BOTTLE EPISODE!" a deafening roar of applause and cheers erupts around them then, though nobody can see where the sound is actually coming from. jughead turns to the camera and winks. "well, folks. looks like we're gonna be here for a while. stay tuned, and don't go anywhere." he smiles, points to the camera and then turns back around to the others. they all look horrified. "okay i think we need to air out our grievances and talk about whatever issues we may have with each other or they're never going to let us out of here. we're stuck in a fucking bottle episode." "i don't understand" idiot archie says, so jughead launches into an explanation, and then his theories as to why they're all stuck here and how he thinks they can get out. the camera slowly pans out to his friends, all of whom are trembling and bleeding profusely from their eyes, noses, and mouths. we cut back to jughead, who tries to say something, but can only gurgle, as he too begins to dribble blood. his ears start bleeding. he sits down with the others. he can't speak. he can't think. it's over. it's all...ov

er...

everything fades to black, before we see a freeze frame from an earlier, more lighthearted moment in the episode, with the audience cheering and clapping profusely. the credits start rolling, and the gurgling sound of seven teenagers choking on their own blood is soon the only thing you can hear. finally, a still frame of jughead appears. he's staring at the camera, shrugging with a goofy "what are ya gonna do?" face, and the words IT'S A BOTTLE EPISODE! superimposed on top.

[albatris]

here's what I thought about today and it's super fucking silly and idk if I'll use it but like. here we go

so quinn and nat's first conversation is NOT the encounter they have in the petrol station after nat accidentally kills a guy. although nat thinks this is the first time he's spoken to quinn

alex and quinn do a lot of fun background work trying to figure out as much as they can about nat before nat inevitably Snaps And Turns. except nat is a hermit whose personal information is wildly difficult to track down and they can barely find an email address let alone valuable info about his history and personal life and whatever

like. they can tail him and watch him but like. he doesn't have friends and he doesn't speak with family and he doesn't leave his apartment if he can avoid it. he goes to work and is in bland generic Customer Service Mode with customers and bland generic You Are A Vague Acquaintance I Have To Put Up With mode with coworkers. he has a favourite pizza restaurant. occasionally he says hi to a neighbour if he passes them. that's it. that's what they're working with

but anyway yeah no I think the first conversation quinn actually has with him happens because in the midst of being like "who the fuck is this guy and how are we supposed to find an angle to approach him that'll get him to trust us" quinn just kind of. stumbles onto nat in their call centre database and is like. lmao alright

because nat makes the occasional donation to fucking wildlife charities. bc he loves animals. and it just happens to be one of the places quinn's company works for to call folks and be like :) hey do you wanna give us money :) hey we'd love some more money :) except, like, in a polite and grateful way

so quinn is just like. fuck it I'm gonna call this guy. I wanna see what his vibe is

so they put on a dumb voice and make up a fake name and they have one extremely awkward phone conversation which is just like

quinn starting off with the generic hey how are you thanks so much for your support <3 and the usual company spiel. except it just devolves into uncomfortably personal questions and prying

hopping from the generic "haha this weather is crazy right?" and "so what made you want to donate? :)"

to the still vague but kinda weird "anything interesting or inexplicable happen to you lately? you wanna talk about it?" and "oh how did you sleep last night, have you been sleeping badly?"

to straight up bizarre bullshit no call centre employee would ever feasibly use for small talk like "do you have any roommates? how many?" and "how does your mouth feel?" and "how come you don't have any social media?"

until nat just gets freaked out enough that he hangs up

and I can't decide whether this conversation is funnier from quinn's perspective or nat's

and I think it'll be a quinn pov scene. bc while I love the image of nat answering the phone to this bonkers conversation with zero context and having juuuuust enough awareness of social cues and how one should carry themself in this type of interaction that he knows this is probably weird, but not quite enough that he's CERTAIN this is weird. until it gets to a point where he's like yeah no I'm out

on the other hand. like. quinn in their little call centre booth just like. smiling and twirling the phone cord round their finger like a teenager at a slumber party calling their crush. except it's just them terrorising this poor confused soon-to-be-vampire and being like "mm-hmm and what are your biggest fears, would you say? no, yeah, it's for a survey, we're asking everyone <3"

[blackkatmagic]

So I was scrolling through instagram and saw a D&D/Fantasy world building meme that reminded me of the salty rant about Tra Saa and the whole she's a tree person why does she have boobs that appeared on your blog a while back. Only this one was a human man cat calling a lizardfolk woman saying he didn't know that they had boobs that nice. And instead of devolving into skeevy territory the lizard folk woman says "oh we don't we're not mammals I just keep my snacks there" 1/2

She then opens her shirt to reveal she has random food stuffs bandoed to her chest. When the guy keeps staring her response is "no you can't have any snacks."

afjkdfkjdg BEST trope inversion oh my god, that is beautiful.

[redwinterroses]

Hi ! :D I've seen anon call you Queen of Frigid Roses, do you have other royal names ? What does the royal attire look like ? General medieval fantasy mix or specific inspiration like Renaissance Italy, 220 AD Wei, Jin dynasties China, Tran Dynasty Vietnam, 12th century Finnish Butterfly suit for the winter ?

The Queen of Frigid Roses is so hardcore I never would have come up with it on my own. XD Definitely not "the Red Queen," lol. Queen of the Meadows/Meadowlands, maybe? Possibly the Rosarian.

Ooh. Yeah. I like that. Maybe Rosarian is a title as well as a nationality -- like originally it was just a title, but the kingdom's people became known as "the people of the Rosarian" and it just devolved into them simply being known as the Rosarians.

As for style, I was picturing like... German/Russian/Celtic flavored?(...in large part because that's basically my actual heritage, lol) Those are all cultures I associate with both snow and bright colors, and would work well for a high-mountain realm that's snowlocked a good portion of the year. Plus I think I was channeling my inner 8yo-self obsessed with Heidi when I answered the original ask, lol.

(I wanted to add pictures but tumblr is having a case of the stupid and won't load anything so. links will have to do)

Scarlet is definitely her/my color, with black/white and gold accents. We're just gonna combine all the things here and keep the elytrian wings from Edge, so with the crow-black wings and something like this red dress (wool, so it's warm, with pretty simple lines but very elegant) or this one in the winter (or maybe that first one is a coat and cut shorter, with black trousers underneath -- much more practical). Jewelry is probably a thing -- they do mine in the mountains after all -- but I hate big bulky stuff so I'm going to say there probably isn't much in the way of royal regalia. Crowns and the like.

In the summer, probably something lighter -- maybe linen, like this traditional-styled Russian folk-dress. Embroidery is one of those things that gets done to take up time on long winter nights, though I think the people of the meadows would probably be more prone to floral designs than geometric ones. And of course, a practical exploring sort of outfit for caving and such.