a red dragonfly

queer and genderqueer/less-binary nerd | ey/em, she/her, or they/them pronouns (roughly in order of preference) | northeast US | older than dirt | mostly here for Les Mis | fandom purity get off my fucking lawn

[mistysblueboxstuff]

Hi! Love your “30+stars” artwork!!!!! That is really something!!! Is there any audio of him singing it in 2019?And also Thank you very much for your art! It makes me incredibly happy everytime I see something new!

thanks so much anon!! PQ did a show a couple of months ago in Adelaide. There’s a full video, but here’s the Stars only:

[akatonbo]

So I've been basically off Tumblr since March (was too busy to keep up for several weeks, never came back, don't miss it much) but I had to reblob this because I'm dead now.

[thegoodlannister]

the year is 2012.

I have two tabs open. one is tumblr. I am 160 posts back on my dashboard - I have made it back to the place I left off the night before.

satisfied, I open the second tab to pull up a post-avengers fanfic. everyone lives together in stark tower - each of them has their own floor. for no explained reason, loki shares thor’s. no one questions that he has not been arrested. the team has friday evening movie nights. at breakfast, thor eats all of tony’s pop tarts.

I am content.

[akatonbo]

Not only is this an accurate depiction of 2012 me, it's also pretty much what I joined Tumblr for.

(I'd had a Tumblr since 2008, when a friend made a blog there even though no one was really using it for anything, but I didn't check it with any regularity until Avengers fandom )

[kkglinka]

This is a Moving Forward PSA for everyone using AO3. I am witnessing the results of a culture clash and communication failure. Not a lack of communication, but a misunderstanding caused by changes in fandom culture.

Before fic tagging was common, fics weren’t tagged. You had a pairing, if applicable, an author’s note about genre or general content, and if they were feeling charitable, a vague content warning. There are even a few genres of fic where even vaguely tagging literally spoils the plot and impact (such as horror, psyche thriller, in which the likely content is implicit to the genre). As a result, there is a basic category tag that permits this, as a courtesy to “old-fashioned” writers.

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means the fic is PG13 at worst, probably fluff, totally safe.

“Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings” is the polar opposite. It’s a glaring Enter at Your Own Risk billboard. It means: a shitload of warnings apply but I ain’t telling because this story requires shock value. It’s very important to read the author’s notes for those fics because they might be using that older format from above.

But without the context of fandom culture that generated AO3, it’s understandably easy to conflate the two categories, given their similar wording.

[vulgarweed]

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means the fic is PG13 at worst, probably fluff, totally safe. 

NO NO NO NO This is 1000% percent wrong.

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means it contains none of the FOUR THINGS that AO3 requires you to warn for if you don’t pick Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings. Those four things are: underage sex, rape/non-con, major character death, and graphic depictions of violence.

A No Archive Warnings Apply story can damn well have a LOT of other things. Most of my EXTREMELY EXPLICIT PWPs have this label, because everyone in them is a consenting adult, they’re not that violent, and nobody dies. They are full of graphic kinky sex of all flavors, and my summaries and other tags reflect this. Probably the majority of E (explicit)-rated smut fics on AO3 have this. They are also not guaranteed fluff: there are very sad angsty stories, there are horror stories, there are suspense stories, manipulation and abuse stories, all sorts of potentially upsetting things etc that all have that label - as long as there’s no rape, underage sex, really graphic (like R-rated level) violence, or major character death, that’s totally legit.

DO NOT TELL PEOPLE that this warning means safe PG-13 fluff. It really really really doesn’t. You need to check the RATING of a story. You need to read the summary. You need to check all the tags, not just the ones AO3 requires. If you don’t want to read angst or smut, DO NOT assume a No Archive Warnings Apply story is safe for you!!!

[akatonbo]

Likewise, Choose Not to Warn does NOT mean "this story is full of things I would otherwise have to warn for but being specific would spoil the shock value of my plot". It CAN mean that, just like "No Archive Warnings Apply" CAN mean PG-13 or lower fluff, but there's no direct relationship.

Choose Not to Warn can mean "something happens in this story that you could debate whether or not it requires an archive warning, and I'm not going to spoil the story for readers who don't want spoilers when I can put some notes at the beginning telling people who want the warning to skip to the notes at the end to see the deets". It can mean "something happens in this story that I don't believe merits an archive warning, but someone else disagreed, and I'm not warning for something I don't believe is true but I'm covering my ass and/or letting people know there's an issue". It can mean "this story was imported from another archive that AO3 made arrangements to preserve, and the author hasn't updated the tags". It can mean "something happens in this story that you could debate whether or not it requires an archive warning and I know not everyone who wants to filter out clear-cut instances of this warning will object to what I wrote, so I want to make sure those people get the chance to make their own choice based on my notes instead of just never seeing the story at all because the archive filtered it out". It can mean "I object to the idea that this topic needs to be warned for" or "I object to the idea that this story needs the same warning for X as this other kind of story that treats the content differently" or "I object to the idea of warnings altogether no matter what the content of my story is". It can mean all kinds of things. The only thing it ALWAYS means is "you can't tell if this story contains any of the four otherwise-required warnings by looking here; you're going to have to look inside to find out".

[hydro-homies]

I wept working 25¢ over minimum wage at McDonalds

[raccooninthegirlslockerroom]

This just in millionaires add crying to the list of things that they should get paid for?

[sunrisenebula]

The first time I cried on the job was the second day of my first ever job.

Retail, of course. Because where else is it acceptable to scream at a 19 year old until they’re weeping?

[akatonbo]

I spent seven years in a job that I (rightly) cried myself to sleep about the night before my first day, and the only time I've ever made more than $40k/year was my outlier job at a web startup before the tech bubble burst in 2000-2001. (I escaped from crying-causing job with my life, and I'll get to $40k/year in my current career sooner or later, but I'll probably never get back to what the outlier job paid me unless something really big changes.)

[dignitywhatdignity]

@copperbadge , still figuring out your title?

[copperbadge]

Holy fuck this might actually have helped me fix the title. 

I renamed Samuel/Sam to Wilder/Wild. WILD FAITH might be the thing. 

[akatonbo]

Also they left out song lyrics... oh wait this isn't for fanfics. XD

(My fic titles lately: Mumford and Sons lyric, Mumford and Sons lyric, which Mumford and Sons lyric should I use?, oh here's one titled after a lyric that isn't from Mumford and Sons, gosh this one isn't titled after a-- oh wait it is it's just a lyric from the actual show, etc. etc.)

(I'm not even a hipster; it's not my fault Marcus Mumford is the captain of the ship!)

[foreveriallyzombified]

Pardon me, are we, as a website, still doing the kin thing? if so, may i kin columbo? i am a frumpy adult man who likes solving mysteries, and, uh, i can pull off a tan coat, or so in told. I don’t watch any anime, so if i have a kin, would it inconvenience you to be columbo? Thanks.

[megapope-deactivated20220531]

my friend you could not do such a thing for i am already Columbo

[foreveriallyzombified]

Ah, I see, sorry to bother you sir, i will just be heading out…

[foreveriallyzombified]

*turns around in the doorframe*

just one more thing…

i noticed that you are kinning outside of your ability.

[akatonbo]

Detective Gumshoe, is that you?

[akatonbo]

A preview of the actualfacts AO3 summary of the story I'm going to write @thelifeofemm for FTH

[thefernhands]

If you're fifteen or older an still sleep with a stuffed animal please reblog this.

[quarryquest]

I’m 52, my stuffed hippo called Humphrey is 42!

[akatonbo]

43, I'm a hybrid side/stomach sleeper who's always found it more comfortable to have my top arm wrapped around something soft. These days and for some years that's been a body pillow so that I can also have it between my knees (stuffed animals that big are pricey!), but before I needed the leg support, it was usually a fuzzy friend. Why not cuddle something cute?

[being-lion-hearted]

On a scale in which Gimli is a stone butch and Thranduil a high femme, who are you ?

[akatonbo]

I have no idea where my genderqueer ass is on this scale tbh but it's still hilarious.

[havisham]

well, this fic isn’t going to write itself, but i’m going to wait a bit longer to make sure. 

[rocket-sith]

Reblog if you write fic and people can inbox you random-ass questions about your stories, itemized number lists be damned.

[bigendervaljean]

Javert’s long hair loose or disheveled or dramatically illustrated

Reblog if you agree

[dragons-bones]

It’s time to upload a new fic~

…

FUCK I NEED A TITLE *HEADDESK*

[ohlookashinysquirrel]

[copperbadge]

Aw man I hate it when I end up Lawful Good. 

Also where do titles that are puns fall on this chart. 

[akatonbo]

I don't feel like any of these describe me well, but I guess the good row?

[copperbadge]

Sam! I want to ask you an important question. This is something I, as a younger (26) millennial, argue about (playfully) with my older-gen-X parents all the time. As someone who's on the line between those generations I want your opinion: What do you feel about the importance/usefulness of a top/flat sheet? It seems millennials dont use them because we grew up with soft sheet-like comforters/duvets while our parents use them because they grew up with less-soft bedspreads and quilts. Thoughts?

I hadn’t ever thought about it as a comfort thing, though admittedly when I was younger and a really, REALLY restless sleeper, I slept without a top sheet because I would wake myself up tangling up in it. As I got older, into my late teens, that calmed down, but I was a lazy fuck and it was one more thing to wash, so I didn’t sleep with a topsheet for a long time.

I do think it should be noted that duvets aren’t really new or novel – my boomer parents had comforters/duvets since they were kids, and coming from cold climates my family often put a topsheet on top of the duvet as well, which is apparently an old Swedish trick. 

For a lot of people it’s a hygiene thing, and eventually for me it became that too – I don’t know about you but I wash my sheets way more often than my duvet, and everyone sleeps gross, we sweat and shed and all the rest, so it’s better to have the stuff touching your skin washed more often rather than less. But I don’t think it’s particularly stinky or a health risk to sleep just under a duvet, I’m just kind of fastidious about feet and armpits.

I use a top sheet now, for hygiene and because I find I like the layered feel of it – with a bit of an air layer between the sheet and the duvet, you trap more warm air and stay warmer in the winter, while in the summer sometimes I kick the blanket off and just sleep under the sheet. 

So I don’t know about important, but I do think it has some use. That said, utility does not mean necessity, so if you don’t want to use one I don’t see why you should. 

This is gonna be one of those things that’s going to inadvertently touch off a really loud debate, I can just tell. 

[drgaellon]

As an older-gen-X-er (49) myself, I think OP is over-generalizing. I grew up in a family that never used flat sheets - not my parents, nor either set of grandparents, ever used one that I recall. The first time I encountered one at a hotel (I was 8 or 9), I was completely confounded.

[copperbadge]

I’m not gonna lie, I am dying at the mental image of nine year old @drgaellon staring at a topsheet with a tiny wrinkled brow, internal monologuing in all caps about WHAT IS THIS ALIEN CREATION. 

[akatonbo]

Late GenXer and I just kind of hate sheets overall. I have no idea why anyone would want to sleep touching most of them; even the absurdly expensive high thread count ones feel bad to me. I'll pick out some made from an actual comfortable fabric like flannel or jersey or sometimes microfiber and use the bottom sheet because you've gotta put something on your bed, but a thin, often slippery top sheet gets out of alignment with my blankets so easily (unlike blankets themselves which stay lined up with each other fairly well) that all it ever does is get lost under the blankets, annoy me, and then end up bunched up at the foot of the bed. When it's hot in the summer I don't want a top sheet, I want it to be cool enough that I can use the weighted blanket that I paid three figures for, that's why I put up with air conditioning.

[hellenhighwater]

The Valvert Tarot has been proofed and published, and is available for purchase here! (It’s about $20 USD.)

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/the-valvert-tarot1

This deck includes a total of thirty hand drawn black-and-white cards. Twenty-two are Major Arcana cards, and are eight interpretation cards, which have the Major Arcana listed by number, followed by a Brick quote and brief guide. 

Thank you to everyone who has given advice, support, and help while I drew this deck! I had a ton of fun, and I hope you all enjoy this deck as much as I have. Please reblog this post if you don’t mind; I know the originals got some travel and a number of people who don’t follow me expressed that they wanted to buy it, and I’d appreciate it if they got the opportunity to do so. If you have any questions about it, please let me know, I’m more than happy to chat!

[akatonbo]

I'm buying myself this for my birthday.

[ao3tagoftheday]

[Image Description: Tags reading “STAND BACK WE’RE GOING TO TRY SCIENCE, STAND FURTHER BACK WE’RE HAVING A THREESOME”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: The scientific method

[akatonbo]

I think this is the first time I’ve immediately recognized the story from the tags on this blog.

@copperbadge

[copperbadge]

I mean, props to you, I didn’t even recognize this as mine so it’s damn good you tagged me. THEN I SEARCHED AO3 and was like FUCK YES

I am honored and humbled, @ao3tagoftheday. You are doing such good work within fandom and I read you all the time and I am pleased to be a tiny part of your glory. 

(Fanfic here)

[akatonbo]

I mean, I did have to search to double-check exactly which fic it was, but I'd randomly re-read it recently so I knew it was you.

[ao3tagoftheday]

[Image Description: Tags reading “STAND BACK WE’RE GOING TO TRY SCIENCE, STAND FURTHER BACK WE’RE HAVING A THREESOME”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: The scientific method

[akatonbo]

I think this is the first time I've immediately recognized the story from the tags on this blog.

@copperbadge