[mythicalbismuth]

This is probably my favorite moment from the story so far. These two finally opening up was something I’d been leading up to for 31 chapters.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[bucketofli]

This is s15 e20 to me.

I draw dark tone too much lately…

[the-tv-trove]

Some age-accurate SPN:

[reginaphalangelobster]

This is exactly why I can rant to anyone for hours about how much I hate John Winchester.

[nourangul]

Every time I see this, I’m honestly amazed at the southern mama oc for not absolutely wrecking John’s shit.

[reginaphalangelobster]

Ha! Me too lol. I know if I were they John would've had a front row seat in Hell much sooner

[nourangul]

I think I figured it out: Sam would’ve been okay. Felt weird and conflicted a bit, because that’s his parent. Dean, oh gods, he would’ve been up in arms and conflicted in loud, dish breaking ways. That’s the model for him—and to see someone else he loves beat the brakes off his dad?

Yeah, that would’ve gone poorly.

[bucketofli]

Crying…💧

This happened on s16e1 when Castiel came back from Empty trust.

[sarahmackattack]

I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.

[lilacpaperbird]

*white knuckling the bathroom sink* do NOT infodump ppl about the fact that the first spn fic was a wincest one and that it was posted mere hours after the pilot and that the founder of ao3 was a wincestie and that the first fic on ao3 was wincest too and that the omegaverse as we know it was created by wincest shippers for jared/jensen fics *pointing at myself in the mirror with a shaky hand* ppl will think you're weird and off-putting you need to control yourself–

[nameslikeguns]

it's fundamental fandom history 😤 and honestly the amount of people who think wincest is an aberration in spn fandom and those that think ao3 shouldn't allow "problematic" content and be fully censored should know these things so they can be aware of where these cultural juggernauts started.

[lilacpaperbird]

not them asking naomi novik AKA ASTOLAT if she was okay with incest fics of her characters when she was the one in the trenches writing wincest fics and founding ao3 so people could have a place to post their works without censorship. that's absolutely hilarious I have to find that post

[lilacpaperbird]

YES my brother in christ she WROTE THE PROPOSAL !

May. 17th, 2007

An Archive of One's Own

AO3 was created out of collective effort, and she was the one who started it all. It's incredible to see how many of her ideas in this proposal ended up actually happening. So many things we now take for granted were crazy dreams at first

[jenroses]

The deep history and why I shake my head at people who were toddlers when ao3 was conceived think that they'll get anywhere with arguments about fandom purity.

Like, there's a ton of shit on ao3 that I don't bother with because it is very much not my thing but I am deeply grateful that ao3 exists as it does because the things I do like, even the super fluffy g rated fics, would be considered just as "bad" by various religions and governments. And if I want to be able to read sweet gay coffeeshop found family or wish fulfillment time travel fixit featuring complex qpp and gay ships, the best guarantee of being able to do so is a place where everything goes. Because my "non-problematic" innocent fluff is absolute perversion according to some people. I know because they yelled at me before I turned off anon comments. And even the country I live in used to require unhappy endings for queer characters if it allowed them at all in many forms of media.

I absolutely avoid the kind of fic that ao3 was founded on and I am still deeply grateful that it exists.

[vexheart]

This

[winry-lucy-beth]

I've recently learned that escaping enshitification is actually really easy. When I was younger I would use FOSS (free and open source software) because I usually couldn't afford anything else. Back then the paid options were usually significantly better than the unpaid options so when I finally got money I started using the paid stuff and completely forgot that Foss existed.

If you don't know why Foss is awesome its not just that its free. Open source software has a huge set of advantages. Most software is proprietary meaning that its code cannot be viewed by other people. Open source softwares code can be viewed by everyone and people can contribute their own code to make it better. Open source is often more secure than proprietary because more people have more eyes on it and more people have contributed to it's security. Its also easy to know how much privacy you have with every software because you can read the code. No more "trust me bro I'm not harvesting and selling your data" you know if they are collecting and selling because the code is publicly available.

In the last two months I have been switching almost completely to Foss. I was worried at first because when I stopped using Foss over 10 years ago the average Foss software was genuinely worse than the paid proprietary alternative. Thankfully things have really come full circle. 90℅ of the software I have tried in the last 2 months works better than the proprietary alternative and is 100℅ less obnoxious.

So here is a list of every Foss software I have tried and recommend. There is way more than this available. This list is just what I have used and like personally. Anyone can feel free to add and we can turn it into a master list. Please just take these as a place to start and do your own research to see if these softwares will work for your use case before you fully ditch your proprietary software.

Operating systems

Graphene os: android alt. Security and privacy focused. The most secure and private smartphone currently available.

Linux mint: easy to use linux, 100℅ better than windows.

Pop!: The Linux distro you should use if you have nividia hardware and want to play games using said hardware. Very intuitive and easy to use.

Kubuntu: Ubuntu Linux with KDE desktop. This is the linux distro one I am currently using and I don't have any plans to jump ship again. Better than windows and better than Mac. The companion app for your phone makes life soooo easy. Its pretty and easy to customize to a ridiculously granular level. No fucking notes.

Kindle jailbreak- ko reader: use jailbreak to free your kindle from the tyranny of the bezos. It will download ko reader which is a Foss OS that has every fucking feature you always wished kindle had and let's you read whatever the fuck you want, and have whatever the screensaver you want (no more ads!). Soooo fuck amazon and use this. I genuinely cannot recommend it enough.

Linux FOSS: (some available on windows and android as well)

Calibre: Foss desktop eBook library. Packed with features. You will want to use this with koreader to make managing your kindle easy.

Manuscript: skrivner alt. Does absolutely everything I need.

Bitwarden: password manager (use a keepass fork if you want self hosted)

Next cloud: private google drive and cloud alternative that you can self host if you want but it's not required. App available

Proton VPN: to the best of my knowledge it is the only Foss no log VPN you can get. You can pay for higher speeds. App available

Quad9dns: free encrypted DNS provider. App available.

News software:

Use any Foss RSS reader and for the love of god stop getting news from social media. Take control of your feed!

Apps (I only know for android)

Fdroid: great app store to find Foss android apps and download them.

Antennapod: you can get all of your podcasts fetched to one feature rich app via RSS feed. No need to rely on spotify or music steaming services.

Openreads: it's good reads but private and 100℅ stored locally. No amazon, no social media aspect, it just tracks your reading, you can import your good reads but if you want to import from storygraph you have to make a good reads burner account, import to good reads, then import to openreads. The menus Navigation on this one is a bit cumbersome but honestly good reads app is worse.

Newpipe: YouTube frontend that let's you have YouTube subscriptions, watch YouTube in the background, and blocks all ads, without logging in to YouTube. You will want to use this one with a VPN set to Canada (or any other country) so YouTube doesn't keep blocking it in order to force you to sign in. But even with that extra step its worth it for the privacy and the lack of ads.

Proton mail: one of 2 more private gmail alts. But you should note that email cannot be 100℅ anonymous or private.

I think that's it. There are still a lot software varieties I am slowly finding.

[dreamsy990]

i saw someone say nobody needs to know what a .txt file is anymore. what the fuck is the world coming to

[dreamsy990]

unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school

[dreamsy990]

things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)

how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem

what common file types are

some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)

how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private

how to understand terms of service (hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)

what a cookie actually is

internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl

basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)

common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)

as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on

vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)

how to not get a virus while pirating something

what a temporary email is and when to use one

red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)

what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls

[dreamsy990]

ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)

an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous

a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps

a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)

some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself

[mythicalbismuth]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Made fanart for one of my new favorite fics! This is my interpretation of one of the moments Nyrra returns from a vision in the Shadow Cursed Lands. We love us a soft, protective Gale!

I’m still practicing, but I free handed more of the features as opposed to having an exact reference for this angle. It came out pretty decent for that! If you want to read Gale and Nyrra’s story, I linked it on this post and can’t recommend it enough. Thanks to @fyreiswriting for permission to create and post this, as well as open permission for the many other fanart projects I’ve already started for these two! (What can I say, this fic lives in my head rent free. The romance is perfection.)

[obsidianpegasus-deactivated2025]

Say it with me:

I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine. I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine. I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine.

It’s okay if I don’t have time to write. It’s okay if a chapter is delayed. It’s okay if my words come out messy. It’s okay if I need to take a break. It’s okay if I don’t update every week, every month, or even every year.

My value as a writer is not measured by how fast I post. My worth is not defined by kudos, bookmarks, or comments.

I am allowed to be slow. I am allowed to rest. I am allowed to write for joy, not for an algorithm.

I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine.

And if anyone thinks otherwise, they can wait.

[cannibalthoughts]

I really appreciate Encanto's transition from "Grandma has really rigid standards and this family is falling apart under the weight of her expectations"

to

"Grandma is a refugee whose neighborhood burned down during mass violence and who watched her husband be murdered by soldiers. PTSD and survivor's guilt have dominated her life for fifty years. The survival mechanisms she developed in an attempt to feel less helpless are no longer helping her. She taught her family these same survival mechanisms and now all of them are falling apart trying to keep living through a tragedy that took place decades before most of them were born"

[mythicalbismuth]

I think the worst thing about cultures with close-knit families is what happens when you break the rules of not shaking the boat. I chose my own safety and sanity over obedience, and I have seen my parents twice in the last eleven years. I have only seen any of my six living siblings once in that same time. My nieces and nephews hardly know who I am. And I know that sacrificing my own mental health for the sake of being a part of their lives again isn't an option, but it doesn't make it hurt any less to watch nieces and nephews I have never met grow up through photos on social media.

[mythicalbismuth]

[neondragonfly]

It could use some music.

[mythicalbismuth]

How it feels writing a trauma fic

[wiisagi-maiingan]

This is going to be hard for a lot of people to hear but if you want to make your spaces safer for disabled people, then you need to stop assuming malice from every poorly worded post.

A lot of neurodivergencies and disabilities cause people to ramble, lose their train of thought very easily, go on tangents, have disordered thinking, etc. We can get words and names mixed up very easily, lose words entirely, struggle to put our thoughts into actual words that make sense to people, and lose track of conversations. Whether it's from ADHD, psychosis, brain fog, brain damage, or any other condition, thinking and verbalizing ourselves can be really fucking hard.

This isn't malicious. We aren't doing it on purpose to hurt or upset people, and we aren't ignorant about the topic just because we get mixed up. We deserve to have voices, even if we don't always make sense to other people.

[mythicalbismuth]

When you click to read the next part of a series after a brutal cliffhanger and realize Ao3 is down 😭