Am I a ghost, then?

Jasper | he/they/ze | im an adult | just a nerdy dude who likes puns and hyperfixates on cartoons n anime a lot | I yell in my tags | background is by @jamiekinosian header is from @happymoomin

[nightcorecarseatheadrest]

My friend blocked me because I wouldn’t stop sending him this picture

[horns4handles-deactivated202607]

[onedivinemisfit]

👆

[throathole]

Women with big curly red hair always have like 12 gay guy friends why is that

[throathole]

INCREDIBLE response

[epicsause-official]

on sharing one's opinons

[makuyi13]

Felt like I needed to share my experience as well

[mswyrr]

What Happens When Young People Actually Read “Disturbing” Books

Something is missing from the debate over educationally suitable literature

[mikkeneko]

[queerolddad]

Don’t let fake fans tell you different, Trek has always been queer 🏳️‍🌈🪐🚀

[papyrus44439]

our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house our house in the middle of our house. 1

1 Unsure what exactly Zampano meant by this.2

2 Goddamn I'm jerkin' it crazy bananas cuckoo style in this silly ass house of leaves.

[fuckyeahladybug]

Open Thread: Wattpad Refugees

With the recent rumblings about censorship and work deletions on Wattpad, many users are considering posting to AO3 for the first time. If that describes you, you may have questions.

This post is a collection of resources you can use to start finding the answers to these questions. If you don’t find what you’re looking for at the links below or you have something more specific to ask, please feel welcome to post questions in the reblogs and comments here.

If you’re an AO3 pro answering questions in these notes, be kind. We were all new once, and other fans helped us then. It’s time to pay it forward.

Resources (under the cut)

How does AO3 work? What is and isn’t allowed?

My first recommendation for new users is always to skim the Terms of Service FAQ. It explains what AO3 allows and why in plain, straightforward terms. AO3 does not allow placeholder works, commercial content such as commissions links, or “work search” posts.

How can I change the look of the site?

The appearance of AO3 is very customizable! If you just want a basic dark mode, scroll down to the bottom of any page and click “Reversi” under the Customize menu. For more advanced customizations, I can’t recommend @ao3commentoftheday enough. They have so many gorgeous tutorials for everything from site skins to making the site’s content filters do whatever you want.

Wattpad users may especially appreciate the Floating Comment Box extension, which makes commenting on AO3 work slightly more like Wattpad.

How does AO3 search work?

This handy guide by @backofthebookshelf covers the basics. Here is a cheatsheet with more advanced searching tricks.

I’m ready to post my own works. How do I add [specific thing]?

With a little bit of HTML, you can do some incredibly neat things in an AO3 work. Here’s the website running Doom. Here is a very comprehensive guide to Limited HTML on AO3. It may look intimidating at first, but you can get a lot done by copying and pasting and paying attention to the results. As a fun bonus, check out the rest of the series, which includes step by step instructions for making your fic look like text messages on a phone screen, newspaper articles, sticky notes, and more.

Why is Wattpad doing this now? Have similar things happened before?

Fandom creatives have been outrunning purges and legal threats for a long time. Here is a comprehensive timeline of fandom purges and legal actions taken against fanworks, from 1977 to the present day. Here is another timeline written by @olderthannetfic, with associated commentary from other fans.

Purges on LiveJournal and other sites circa 2007 influenced the founding of AO3. You can read in detail about the circumstances of its founding and the construction of the policies it abides by today here.

If you read this far, I’m proud of you. Migrating to a new site is always hard, and there’s so much grief when archives purge content without warning. Welcome to AO3. We’re glad to have you. 🤝

[olderthannetfic]

It's not the first site to turn on fandom, and it won't be the last.

At least AO3 makes it easy to find things, no matter how old or obscure.

Check out the fandom index by media type and try going directly to your fandom's tag or a ship or another tag and using the sidebar filters. AO3 does have a search box and even an advanced search, but those are less of a default compared to Wattpad and other sites.

[headspace-hotel]

Wtf happening with wattpad?

[madam-melon-meow]

@headspace-hotel they updated their policies and changed what content is permissible. You can find the entire update here:

Wattpad Policies

my friend @orangestorapples made a pretty decent summary, see below

They no longer allow works:

- Created primarily for sexual arousal

- Exploitative or harmful

- Intended to shock, glorify harm, or promote hate

For their updated sexual content policies, they do not allow:

- Pornographic content (created primarily for sexual arousal)

- Any sexual content involving minors.

- Sexual exploitation, coercion, or non-consensual acts that are glorified

- Sexual roleplay, solicitation, or messaging

- Illegal sex acts in violation of applicable local and international laws, including but not limited to, bestiality, necrophilia, incest, or child sexual exploitation and abuse material

For their updated violent content policies, they do not allow:

- Content created primarily to shock or glorify harm

- Gratuitous or prolonged violence that doesn't support the broader narrative

For their updated Self-Harm and Suicide content policies, they allow:

- General, non-graphic references

- Stories that explore self-harm or suicide in a responsible, story-driven way

- Recovery, survival, or awareness-focused narratives

And do not allow:

- Graphic depictions

- Content that encourages, instructs, or glorifies self-harm or suicide

For their updated Real-World Harm and Extremism content policies, they do not allow:

- Glorification or support of real-world violence, hate groups, or extremist ideologies

- Content that promotes or imitates real-world harmful acts or actionable plans/steps on how to commit violent acts, illegal acts, or organize real-world violent crimes

For their updated Self-Expression and Sensitive Topics content policies, they allow:

- Survival stories that offer a sense of hope or support

- Could contain graphic descriptions

- Stories referencing or describing sensitive topics, in a non-glorifying way

And do not allow:

- Content that normalizes or glorifies harmful behavior

- Content where harmful acts are presented as desirable or rewarding

[headspace-hotel]

This legitimately sound like some kind of amish christian romance publishing imprint or something

[headspace-hotel]

"not evoke sexual arousal" is obviously very bad because a major purpose of art is to evoke feelings, and "Horny" is one of the major human feelings, so it's unnecessarily restrictive to art.

but most of these are just so incredibly subjective. Whether or not violence, suicide, sexual content "supports the broader narrative" assumes that these things aren't artistically valuable in of themselves.

What does it mean to "glorify" something? Can the character have positive feelings at all? What if the character is a perpetrator?

It really comes down to "whether or not it makes the censor uncomfortable" which of course will depend on what is culturally acceptable to the censor and what complexities they are able to think about

[jawpeople]

being a kid and hearing adults say stuff like "woah 2011 was 4 years ago haha" didn't really convey the fucking horror of a youtube video crossing my recommended labelled "9 years ago" and it's from 2017. that's not true. 9 years ago is 2010 or something. don't lie.

[okayyoureacab]

Hexagon Quilt

[rumade]

This is the second time I've seen a video of this technique and this explanation is so clear! It does use more fabric than English paper piecing (EPP) but you end up with a double sided hexagon so don't have to source fabric for the backing.

I'm doing EPP at the moment but I have a hole punch to make the papers and just use leaflets and junk mail, so it doesn't feel wasteful. I don't think it's difficult either- in the video she mentions it's not for beginners, but I don't have that much experience with hand sewing or EPP and I've been finding it pretty easy so YMMV

[lindstromm]

I saw this video yesterday and was seized with the need to try it out immediately. Lookit my cute lil' hexagon baby!!

Here is what the backside looks like. OP notes this takes more fabric than paper piecing, but that excess fabric makes it already triple-layered. Besides not needing backing fabric, I don't think you'd need batting for this quilt at all. It's already thick and soft just from folding all that fabric into a hexagon.

[lannamichaels]

Hexagon quilt tutorial video by tiktok user camelscrafts. Method:

Each hexagon begins as a 6" circle. camelscrafts does this by creating a paper template using a compass. According to the video, a 6" circle will create a hexagon that is 2.5 inches tall.

These hexagons are hand-sewn. Thread the needle.

With the fabric right side facing, find the center of the circle by folding it in half right sides together, then folding it in half again (wrong sides are facing). The top of the triangle shape is the center of the fabric circle.

Make a small stitch into the center of the fabric. The wrong side is still facing.

Unfold the circle. There will be a small stitch in the center.

Now the hexagon is created by folding the circle into itself: Take the needle to one of the edges of the fabric (it doesn't matter which one). Pull the needle through and pull the thread tight. This will fold down the fabric and create an edge of the hexagon. Crease the fold with your finger.

This fold has two corners, one at the top and one at the bottom. Put the needle into one of the corners and pull the thread taut. This will create another fold.

Continue this going around the circle until all of it is folded down, creating the hexagon. camelscrafts notes that the last corner pulled in may be a little bit "wonky" (no precise point in the corner) if the corners were not done precisely. However, that corner is pulled into the back, so is not visible from the front.

The hexagon is now formed. Sew around the folds in the middle of the circle to hold the folds in place. Tie off and cut the thread.

Attach hexagons to each other along the sides. With right sides together, whip stitch the sides together.

[probuccalfat]

any time i feel instinctive discomfort or irritation at somebody doing something i find weird but is truly harmless, i legit say to myself “it’s hard getting by in this world, what is your problem with somebody who found a way to make it easier for themselves?” like i had a full turnaround on so many infamously cringe subcultures because of it because i don’t see it that way anymore. it’s not cringe, it’s somebody making this bitch of a life more bearable.

[probuccalfat]

it’s kind of inspiring because when i look at the world through that lens instead of the jaded and cynical lens of judgement, i see much more joy and community and love between people. i experience more and more of an indomitable human spirit that’s endured over hundreds of years of suffering. there’s something in humans that cannot be taken away, no matter how much evildoers try, and as long as we keep trying to quietly build it.

[chimaerakitten]

Not enough military-adjacent sci-fi takes advantage of the humble rearguard action tbh.

(Not talking about hard military sci-fi since I haven’t read enough of it to say one way or the other. I’m talking soft quasi-military sf like Trek)

Like if you think about it narratively they’re incredibly useful because it’s a type of battle where:

1. No matter how spectacularly well the people fighting one do, it’s inherently not gonna successfully take down the big bad. Because the battle that could have done that is already lost. So it’s a time when they can win (achieve their objective of a successful orderly retreat) without winning. Always useful in a story where you need your protagonists to not win until the end.

2. You have an excuse for your Very Clever Plucky Band of Protagonists to be taking on a much much bigger and better armed force without it being just plain stupid to do so. No idiot balls here, just an acknowledgment that we inherently have to be asking a small force to hold off a large one, so the rest of our large force can get clear.

3. Great potential for a heroic sacrifice that doesn’t feel contrived BUT a sacrifice is not required. As mentioned in point 1 your protagonists can also do really well without it screwing up the pacing of the story. This means that your audience will not know for sure which way it is going to go based on the rules of storytelling. So you can get genuine tension/suspense and genuine catharsis.

4. Battle tactics and objectives can be complex and difficult to get across on page or on screen at the best of times, but “cover everyone else’s retreat from a lost battle” is easy to understand, sufficiently high stakes, and emotionally impactful—much more so than any convoluted “get the macguffin” or “take this territory” could ever be.

5. The combo of high stakes, inability to retreat (the whole point is they’re already retreating) and desperation mean it’s a perfect excuse for your protagonists to pull out all the stops. That experimental weapon that has a one in three chance of blowing up? Might as well use it because if we don’t not only are we dead, all our friends retreating behind us are too.

6. A rearguard action is easy to make unambiguously heroic or at least more morally defensible many other kinds of battle. Whatever lead up to this, right now our allies are just trying to not get killed/captured and we are standing between them and a force that wants to overwhelm and kill/capture them. This works even when the antagonist force isn’t evil or dishonorable, because “chase a retreat to try to turn it into a rout or full surrender” is considered pretty acceptable in many kinds of warfare, so your Honorable Enemy is likely to engage in it to an extent—it’s not reserved for the Evil Forces of Evilness.

[writing-prompt-s]

Instead of the Monkey’s Paw, you find the Clown’s Nose, which instead of granting your wish in the worst way possible will grant it in the funniest way.

[randomitemdrop]

Item: the Cursed Clown Nose. Obviously to use it you have to put it on and give it a honk

[bluehairedspidey]

[bananonbinary]

okay no hang on because assuming it takes half a second for each bill, this would in fact take over five days of nonstop bills

[legowerewolf]

and it would still pay better than my current job, so fuck it, I’m putting on a podcast and emptying my fucking pockets

[gueroboyfriend-deactivated20180]

u ever have on mutuals whos so deep in another fandom that u know absolutely zero about and they make posts that look like they speaking another language or some shit

[gueroboyfriend-deactivated20180]

[captainlordauditor]

i really appreciate the number of mutuals who are not in any of my fandoms sharing this post. its like a little hello nod as we pass each other in the hall

[samandriel]

my rooster doesn’t crow when the sun rises, he crows when he hears humans wake up, like you can literally just roll over in bed and he’s like “hoLY SHIT THAT’S A PEOPLE THE HUMAN ISAWAKE AHHH AHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

[samandriel]

the same rooster - god guys he’s so cute - he always lets hens eat treats first and won’t have any treats until they’ve had as much as they want, unless it’s a blueberry. shit, blueberries are like serious fucking business for Pharaoh. he’s a gentleman until the damn blueberries come out and then he don’t play no fuckin games

[samandriel]

in case you were wondering this is him

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Vampires where blood groups matter. Drinking off an incompatible blood group makes you extremely ill. Vampires can also feed from each other, and sometimes will as a bonding or dominance thing, so they have an organically evolved blood-group-based social caste system.

[wandringaesthetic]

Wait wait wait does that mean if I become a vampire all the other vampires are going to feed on my O- vampire blood.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Yes

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#you could say it's the omegaverse- (GUNSHOTS)

Hmm. Post cancelled.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

POST DOUBLE CANCELLED

[l0rm]

Wait so would O- be at the top or the bottom of the system?

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Bottom. Everyone can eat them and they can eat no one but their own.

[kactusnz]

assigned bottom by derin

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Post. Triple. Cancelled.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I wrote this btw and it was accidentally 18 chapters

[space-writes]

the Writer Mood™ when you've got the shadow of a concept of a scene and a couple lines of dialogue bouncing around in your head like a screensaver and you have to be like buddy, come back when you're something coherent. i can't do anything with this.

[binturong-of-the-day]

The binturong of suspicion