#because there's a lot of refugees in those tags | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

reasonsforhope · 6 months

Text

Heads up/warning that I'm going to start posting articles related to the Israel-Palestine War

I've worked really, really hard to keep my blog about positive news only, and that's going to continue - these posts will be only about good news related to the war.

Of which there really, really isn't much, so I don't know that there will be a lot of posts, but I will be posting articles about humanitarian aid reaching those who need it and actions that will prevent more lives from being taken.

I know that, no matter my position on the war, this is something that would be very controversial and make a lot of people upset, so I wanted to be explicit about my position on this - and my posting policy, which is not the same thing. I also wanted to give people a heads up because I know the war in general is really, really triggering for a lot of people right now, for a lot of different reasons. I'll be tagging all relevant posts, so if screening those out is something that you need to do, you can.

I have worked very hard to make this blog a space with only good news because I know how much it can matter to have just one place, if nowhere else, that you can count on to not give you emotional whiplash with horrible news. To know you have one place you can go where you are guaranteed not to see bad news that will send you into a tailspin. That's why I've had a policy of not including signal boosts or PSAs about tragedies, no matter what they are, on this blog. (I do post about some of that stuff, including the Israel-Palestine War, on my main blog, though. I consider this blog to be me trying to run a public service, basically, and so have specific policies for myself around that, including my editorial and fact-checking standards.)

I'm going to be honest, I was really, really hoping the war would end after a couple of weeks, which has historically not been uncommon for wars with/involving Israel.

But that's clearly not happening, and I can't keep not acknowledging what's happening on here, so, this post.

With that, I imagine people probably want to know my actual stance on the war, since that's what I'll be posting in accordance with.

So, here's the official stance of this blog:

Every time a civilian is killed, it is a tragedy; Every time a child is killed, it is a tragedy, no matter their nationality. I condemn all antisemitism and all Islamophobia.

I support all calls for a ceasefire, as well as demands that Israel immediately stop its repeated bombing of hospitals, ambulances, shelters (including UN shelters), and refugee camps.

There is no situation in which the repeated and/or intentional bombing of hospitals is justified.

There is no situation in which the repeated and/or intentional bombing of shelters or refugee camps is justified.

There is no situation in which the repeated and/or intentional bombing of ambulances is justified.

There is no situation in which the killing of children is justified. Yet more children have now been killed in Gaza than in all global conflict zones combined in each year since 2019.

There is no situation in which cutting off an entire country and/or territory's supply of food and water is justified.

Yes, this applies to every group involved in the war, including countries supplying either side, and any countries or non-state organizations who may yet join the fighting.

The initial Hamas attack on Israel was a tragedy. The continued Israeli bombardment and invasion of Palestine is also a tragedy.

Most of the things I post will be about aid reaching Palestinians or news about tangible, confirmed progress toward a ceasefire. I probably will not be posting good news posts about aid reaching Israel, unless it's explicitly and only humanitarian and/or barring drastic unforeseen changes in circumstance. This is because as of yesterday, November 7, the Palestinian death toll is over 10,000 to Israel's roughly 1,400 (only about 200 of whom have been killed in the past month, starting on October 8, aka outside of the initial attack by Hamas). At least 3,195 children have died in Gaza, 33 in the West Bank, and 29 in Israel.

The Palestinian death toll is nearly 8 times the Israeli death toll. The number of children killed is 110 times higher in Palestine than Israel. (Source for death toll here, ratios via calculator.) Every single one of those deaths is a tragedy - and there have been far, far too many tragedies this past month.

(On a related note, Israel stands very, very little chance of actually eliminating Hamas with this war. The US has attempted this same strategy and failed many times: the US failed to eliminate the communist/North Korean regime in the Korean War, which is technically still ongoing 70 years later; failed to eliminate the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War; failed to eliminate numerous groups of Iraqi insurgents in the Iraq War, which triggered Iraq's civil war; and failed to eliminate the Taliban in the Afghanistan War, even though that war lasted for literally 20 years. Afghanistan is once again under total Taliban control.)

The last thing we need is another 20 year war. The last thing we need is more civilian deaths. Bombing civilian settlements, as well as hospitals, shelters, and refugee camps are war crimes under international law, meaning that both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes.

It's time for the war crimes to stop.

Humanitarian aid reaching civilians is good news, and I will be posting accordingly.

Ceasefire now.

#also heads up that I'm turning off anon on here because well it seems prudent #I'm not actually going to litigate technicalities numbers or international politics with anyone #I don't plan to talk much more about this aside from the aforementioned posts #including probably not answering any asks #because I really am trying to keep my content based only on good news #any asks that are trolling or threatening or supporting the deaths of any civilians on either side or are obviously in bad faith #will be deleted immediately #which has always been my blog policy btw so that's not anything new #I do actually get a certain number of troll and insulting asks/replies and I just delete them #also I reserve the right to turn off asks altogether but hopefully there won't be any need for that #mostly those happen whenever I have a new anti Trump post #gaza #save gaza #palestinians #isreal #free palestine #gazaunderattack #israel palestine war #international politics #cw child death #tw war #tw war crimes #tw child death #tw bombing #ceasefire #ceasefire now

206 notes · View notes

olderthannetfic · 3 months

Note

Hi hi! I have a question and I apologise if it's impertinent but I really didn't have anyone else to ask. I'm new to ao3 and I'm still figuring out how it works. The problem is this- when I look up a character x reader, I'll see the tag included in many works that have oneshots but since it's a side character, more often than not the oneshot for the character hasn't been written and the tag has been there for months. Is it okay to do that or is it tagging something incorrectly? They say they'll write one eventually but they never do, y'know? To me it kind of feels like they're just trying to reach a wider audience but because of this I can't even filter tags and I have to manually search through the book to check if the character is included, especially when the chapters are titled only by numbers :')

Is it okay to tag things in advance like that?

Oh boy...

Wattpad refugees do tend to use AO3 "wrong", sometimes in ways that break the rules and sometimes just in ways I find annoying and against typical AO3 culture.

I'm assuming you are coming from Wattpad based on you calling a work or a fic a "book", which is a very, very Wattpad thing to do.

I'm assuming they are coming from Wattpad given the bad behavior you're describing and the fact that they're a x reader writer.

So, here's the thing, if you start writing a fic and there's any amount of the actual fic, even if it's pretty short and bad or in a weird format or whatever, it's still a valid fanwork. Most of the time, AO3 leaves it to the author to decide how to tag (aside from a very few things like death threats in the tags or failing to use the required archive warnings).

AO3 won't stop someone from tagging a future pairing that hasn't appeared yet.

But "books" of "oneshots" are such an obnoxious Wattpad thing. This is a completely stupid use of AO3 from the "Please send me prompts" part that is usually in there to the way that unrelated fics are smashed together.

It's not against the rules, but it's a crappy use of AO3 befitting of n00bs.

Sadly, old hands at AO3 also make shitty works that are unrelated stories mashed together. They're often a whole set of kinktober fics or something where the trope tags and the ship tags are accurate, but you can't tell which ones go with which ones without searching the whole fic.

We regularly complain about that on here.

A much better way to use AO3 is to make a series titled "My x Reader Oneshots" or "All of my kinktober fics" where each separate story is its own work with its own tags.

My assumption is that this person is using the inaccurate tag both to get more eyeballs on their existing work and because they probably take prompts for that ship or something. (I'm basing this on the kinds of things people say on their oneshot books on Wattpad. Maybe they don't actually take prompts since you haven't mentioned it.)

Some people just don't care that they're annoying others and messing up the tags, but I think some actually don't realize how AO3 filtering works and have no idea this behavior is a nuisance.

On a lot of sites, both Wattpad and algorithm-driven social media, unless a post/work is very popular, it disappears out of sight. Even an inaccurate tag doesn't do that much.

On AO3, one is getting a full list of everything with the tag, going back however far. It's a library catalogue for which you should use accurate data. But this writer is probably thinking of tags more as advertising and a way to get their name out there so readers can follow them pre-emptively. They mean to write the ship in the future, so it's not really inaccurate... (And, tbh, if it were a single work and the ship just hadn't appeared yet, I would agree with them even though those are frustrating too.)

So no, they should not do this.

But it's not actually against the rules.

I would mute the annoying people who do this.

58 notes · View notes

its-jaytothemee · 1 month

Text

Until I Met You - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Introductions

Pairings: Halsin x Tav

Word count: 3,898

Rating: Currently M, will be Explicit in later chapters.

Read on AO3

Summary: A slow burn Tav and Halsin romance fic about their relationship forming between the major events of Baldur's Gate 3, and probably a little bit after too. Explores Tav's friendships with some of the other companions, but mainly Karlach. Lots of longing and fluff, including plenty of soft Halsin moments.

Tags: Slow burn, hurt/comfort, love confessions, eventual smut, light angst, implied past rape/non-con

A/N: After starting another playthrough specifically to romance Halsin, I decided to write some additional details of how their relationship forms throughout the game. Not sure how many chapters there will be yet...we'll see where the game takes me :) There will be POVs from both Tav and Halsin throughout the fic. Enjoy!

The disgusting sight of the goblin camp was bested only by the smell that assaulted the group’s nostrils as they strolled through the mucked-up halls.

“Ugh, goblins are such vile little beasts. Remind me why we agreed to come here?” Tav could hear the eye roll in Astarion’s tone.

“Because Astarion, there’s a medically talented Archdruid who can maybe help rid us of these tadpoles who is being held and probably tortured by these little beasts.” She tried to keep her voice down but found it hard to stay quiet while keeping up with Astarion’s quips.

“Speak for yourself, my friend. My tadpole and I are getting along swimmingly. I can walk in the sun, wade through rivers, and enter any home I like. I’m living the dream.” He teased back at her.

“All good points. I’ll make sure to remind you of them when your skin is turning purple and sprouting tentacles.” She turned back with a smile just in time to catch Astarion’s playful glare.

“Hey soldier, eyes up. Archers on the beams.” Karlach had her eyes fixed above them on the two goblins patrolling the large chamber.

“Best exercise caution. I might remind you all that goblins come by dozens when one of those war drums sounds off.” Gale was clutching his staff with a white-knuckled grip.

They carefully continued exploring the unfamiliar temple, on the lookout for anything that could give them a clue to Halsin’s whereabouts. Tav had thought the mercenaries and tiefling refugees may have been exaggerating about the goblins. But now that they were here amid their den of depravity, she was starting to doubt the abilities of her party – and herself. The numbers alone were enough to overwhelm them even if Karlach could cleave three goblins at a time.

In one of the far corners, Astarion spotted a small path that wound around into a back room. There was a door guarded by a few goblins, but they were able to pass by them easily while still passing as ‘True Souls.’ The air around them somehow smelled worse as they walked into the next room. The mix of decaying flesh and the worg pens caused them all to gag slightly. Several small laughs and squeals drew their attention towards another prison cell, inside was a very large cave bear. Two young goblins were throwing stones at the bear huddled in the corner of the cage. Tav quickly and quietly cast Speak with Animals just as the bear’s eyes locked on to hers.

“Stop them…free me.” The bear growled. Listening to its voice, Tav noticed the smallest tone difference between this bear and other animals she had spoken to in the past. Given Rath’s description of Halsin, she was almost certain this bear was the Archdruid they had been searching for.

“Again! Again!” One of the young goblins squealed, picking up another rock. Tav jogged up to them.

“He’s helpless! Let him go.” She demanded.

“Tav, what are you doing? We can’t stop to help every furry creature in need.” Astarion didn’t even try to hide his disapproval. She turned around to glare at him and called on their shared tadpole.

“Astarion! Use whatever piece of your brain the tadpole hasn’t eaten yet. This is obviously Halsin from the Emerald Grove.” She held her glare until he seemed to understand their situation. He let out an exaggerated sigh and backed off.

Gale groaned behind her, realizing that they were probably going to be fighting off the several goblins and worgs in the room with them.

“The beast is stayin’ right ‘ere.” The older goblin responded, taking a step towards Tav.

“I’m ending this. Now.” She growled back. The bear let out a small roar in response.

“Time for blood.” Its voice was a low snarl.

Before she had a chance to react, the cave bear rammed into the cell doors, effortlessly breaking them from their hinges. The older goblin was crushed beneath the heavy iron, causing a scream from the two younger ones.

“The guards! Get the guards!” One of the little ones yelled. They both turned to run past Tav and her party.

“Those little brats are going to bring this whole fucking camp down on us!” Astarion yelled, daggers twirling in his hands.

“Then take care of it you whiny prick!” Tav yelled back at him, lunging for the goblin that was looking after the worgs. Karlach followed suit, jumping back up the stairs to swing at a goblin that had been butchering some suspicious looking meat.

“We’re killing children now?!” Gale cried from the top of the stairs. A thin line of ice shot from his hands to the goblin archer approaching them from the rear.

“Goblin children, darling. Hardly a moral dilemma.” Astarion responded, driving his dagger into the chest of the first young goblin.

“Perhaps but still, I think we should discuss –” Gale started to respond but let out a strangled yell that interrupted him. When Tav looked back she saw an arrow sticking out of his neck, and blood was starting to spew from his mouth. Another arrow suddenly struck him in the chest. He made a small choking sound before collapsing to the floor.

“Shit! Gale’s down!” Tav yelled. When she turned away, the goblin she was fighting tried to make a swipe at her but was quickly taken down by the cave bear that had rushed to her side.

“He’s going to have to wait! We can’t risk these little monsters alerting the rest of the camp.” Astarion was slicing his blade across the throat of the other young goblin.

Tav drew her bow and shot two arrows into the worg pens, easily landing the shots right between their eyes. She could hear Gale’s labored breaths, the sound was warped by the blood spilling into his throat. Karlach took her goblin out with one more clean swing of her axe and turned to the archer.

“I’ll get Gale, take that archer down!” Tav yelled. The others all moved in to surround the last goblin as Tav dashed over to him. She quickly looked him over, ready to remove the arrow in his neck so she could heal him. Before she could start the spell, she heard one last raspy gurgle come from Gale before his body went limp.

“Fuck.” Tav whispered under her breath. She pulled her pack to the front of her waist and started frantically searching through it. They had found a couple of revivification scrolls on their journey that she was certain she had stored in her pack somewhere. Just as she started to search through the pockets, the air around her became thick with the smell of death.

“What the…” She started to exclaim before she became horribly sick, necrotic energy swirled all around her. Startled and struggling to breathe, she jumped back a few feet away from Gale’s body, allowing her to cough the toxic air from her lungs.

The last goblin’s body fell to the floor with a soft thud. Karlach and Astarion walked back down to join Tav, examining Gale and the small cloud of death encircling his lifeless body.

“Terribly tragic, always a sad day when you lose a friend. Oh well, best we keep moving before these goblins catch wind of our little fight.” Astarion said, waving his hand in the air nonchalantly and starting to walk away.

“Astarion…” Tav grumbled and turned to shoot him a warning glare. He smiled sweetly in response.

Before they could say anything else, an illusion of Gale popped up in front of Tav, causing a small scream to escape her lips.

“Well met! I am a magical projection of Gale of Waterdeep, and if you see this manifestation, that means I have prematurely perished.”

“Oh for fucks’ sake Gale…” Tav pressed one hand to her forehead, already exasperated by Gale’s afterlife theatrics.

“…it is of vital importance that my death be remedied at your earliest convenience.”

“How am I supposed to bring you back then?” Tav asked, annoyed.

The three of them sat and listened to Gale’s projection list a very detailed description of his security protocol to receive a scroll of true resurrection. First, they had to retrieve a small pouch from his robes which Astarion deftly picked from his pocket. To open the pouch, they had to unwind the purple cord in a counterclockwise motion. Inside, they found a small flute and a folded letter with notes in the corners that they would have to play. Next, a magma mephit was supposed to appear and pose the question ‘I’ss k’cha t’chiss n’aga’ to which the answer should be K’ha’ssji’trach’ash. The mephit would then give them the scroll.

“Well shit.” Tav muttered. “Does anyone know how to play a flute?”

Karlach and Astarion shrugged in response, the panic they felt evident on their faces.

“I at least caught the mephit name!” Karlach offered.

“Gods above, Gale!” Tav yelled. “What are the chances that whoever you’re dying around knows how to play a fucking flute?!” She waved the small instrument in front of the projection’s face, whose expression didn’t change. While she continued berating the magical illusion in front of her, she failed to hear the magical whoosh behind her.

“…and even if we do figure this out, it won’t matter! Because I’m going to punch you so hard that I send you in to the beyond again! And then I’ll revive you, just to choke the life out of you so we get to do this shitshow all over again!” Tav was stomping and screaming at the projection now. She noticed Karlach and Astarion staring past her, bewildered looks on both of their faces. Was Astarion…blushing?

“Excuse me,” A deep voice called out from behind her, “perhaps I could be of some assistance? It’s the least I could do.” She could only assume it belonged to Halsin.

“Look, I know we came here to free you and all and yes, we will need your help but right now our melodramatic friend has…” She had whipped around ready to tear into the mysterious addition to their group, but her breath caught once she was able to fully look at the Archdruid.

Tav wasn’t sure what she had been expecting to see when they met Halsin, but it certainly wasn’t the large, handsome elf standing in front of her. She was rather large for an elf, but Halsin made her feel tiny. Her mouth was hanging open, unable to form words as she stared him down. His smile was enchanting, his tanned skin covered in blood from their fight.

“I owe you my thanks, I am the druid Halsin. I did not expect to meet the acquaintance of someone who would not only speak with a bear, but free it too. I’m always happy to meet another true friend of nature. And you are?”

“I’m…” Tav sputtered, “…single.” Her voice was barely a whisper. She shook her head to regain some semblance of composure. She could hear Astarion giggling like a child behind her.

“Tav…my name is Tav.” She finally blurted out.

“Oakfather preserve you, Tav. Now I’d be happy to…”

Halsin was speaking but she wasn’t really listening to his words. She saw that he was holding his hand out to her. Without thinking, she placed her hand in his and gave a soft handshake, interrupting him. He gave her a confused look, still smiling.

“As I was saying, I know how to play the flute if that would help to resurrect your friend.” He was still smiling at her.

Tav’s face and chest turned a deep red and she yanked her hand back quickly. Astarion burst out laughing behind her, almost falling over. Karlach at least had the decency to try and cover her laugh. She handed over the small flute and quickly unfolded the paper, holding it in front of her face to try and hide her blush.

“Okay so his instructions said to play the notes listed in the corners of the pages, starting in the bottom right, and working our way around the page clockwise. I’ll read them off to you. Ready?” She asked, peeking over the page at Halsin. He gave a small nod, flute held up to his lips.

“D…” The first note floated through the air.

“E…” Halsin switched gracefully to the next note.

“A…” Another note rang in across the room. Tav paused before reading the last note, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

“…D…” The last note echoed off the walls slightly mixing with the groans of her companions. Of course his resurrection tune spelled out ‘dead.’

A small magma mephit appeared in front of them.

“I’ss k’cha t’chiss n’aga.” He asked.

“K’ha’ssji’trach’ash!” Karlach responded, excited to help.

“D’a jah’jah s’um!” The mephit leaned forward as Tav held the folded paper in front of her. The small note transformed into an ornate scroll. She turned back to Gale as the mephit vanished.

Tav read the incantation and felt a warm swirling energy gather around her. It was quickly transferred to Gale who disappeared momentarily. He reappeared in front of her, standing and gasping for air. His hands shot up to his neck, feeling the area where the arrow had pierced him. Then he started laughing.

“You did it! Oh it feels good to be alive. I’m sorry to say my hands are still quite cold, so a handshake will have –” Gale was interrupted by Tav punching him in the gut, letting out a loud grunt.

“That was for your ridiculous protocol. What if we couldn’t find someone who could have played the flute? What if you had died and we weren’t around? We need to do something about that orb, Gale.” Tav was yelling again, she wasn’t truly angry with him though. She had come to like Gale, seeing him dead had upset her more than she cared to admit.

“You know the volatility of my condition, Tav. The element of mystery helps persuade others to keep me amongst the living. Sore abdominals aside…I sincerely thank you.” He wheezed back.

“You’re welcome,” Tav sighed, “and welcome back.” She nudged his arm slightly.

“Thank you for your help.” Tav looked back over to Halsin. “I suppose proper introductions are in order.” She wanted to put her embarrassing display from earlier behind her.

“This is Gale, that’s Karlach back there, and Astarion standing next to her.” She pointed to each of her companions as she introduced them. Karlach waved enthusiastically, Gale was still bent over catching his breath, and Astarion wiggled his fingers seductively in their direction.

“A pleasure, truly. Might I ask how you found me?” Halsin looked between the four of them.

“We’ve been to the Emerald Grove, it’s in danger.” Tav responded. She quickly filled Halsin in on their adventure so far. Kagha’s alliance with the Shadow Druids, the cult of the Absolute, the mercenaries that had escaped from the goblins. She paused, trying to decide if she should tell him about the tadpoles yet. Before she could continue, Halsin held a hand out in front of her.

“That look in your eyes…” He said quietly. A golden glow surrounded her as Halsin closed his eyes in concentration.

“Oakfather preserve you child, you’re infected, aren’t you?” He jerked his hand back to his side. Tav placed a hand on her sword, prepared for a fight. Halsin held his hands up innocently.

“It’s no coincidence that you found me, I wager. I’ve been studying these tadpoles. They’re different from how mind flayers typically procreate.”

Halsin launched into a summary of his research surrounding the tadpoles. Of course, there wasn’t going to be a simple cure for their affliction. He confirmed that their tadpoles were special, altered, just as they suspected. He was also able to give them their next destination, Moonrise Towers. She froze at the mention of Moonrise. It was their first solid lead since the nautiloid crashed, but the news filled Tav with dread. She knew all too well the evil that besieged that land. Without thinking, she stepped close to Halsin, leaning in so only he could hear her. She reached up and grabbed his arm, trying to keep her balance.

“You’re sure that’s where we need to go?” She asked quietly, in Elvish. “That is no easy task.”

His expression softened and he gave her a knowing look in response.

“You know of this place?” He lowered his voice to match hers, as smooth as his voice was before, it was nothing compared to hearing him speak their native tongue.

“Unfortunately, yes. I would not go back there unless I had no other choice.” Tav’s hand was starting to shake slightly against his arm, but he placed his other hand over hers to steady it. His hands were lightly calloused but warm and comforting. She felt the blushing feeling returning to her face.

“It will be dangerous, but it can be done. And perhaps, we can see the light there again.” He whispered back. His voice was hopeful, but his face was a mask of pain.

We? Before she could respond, she heard Astarion clear his throat loudly.

“Care to include us in your little whispers, darlings?” He practically sang the words.

Tav quickly let go of Halsin but noticed his hand lingered on hers for just a fraction of a second longer.

“Don’t be jealous, love. There’s enough of me to go around.” She composed herself and flashed a teasing grin at him.

“Thank you, Halsin. At least we know where to go now.” Tav turned back to face him.

“Wait,” He called after her, “I could accompany you if you’ll have me. I’ve long sought to return to Moonrise.”

“Great!” Tav said a little too quickly. “We just have to find a way to sneak through this camp and we can get you back to the Emerald Grove. Could you shift into something small so we can sneak you out? Like a mouse or a bird?”

“I cannot do that.” Halsin said, his voice lower than before.

“So much for a powerful Archdruid.” Astarion murmured. Halsin pursed his lips.

“I cannot allow these butchers to continue to threaten the Grove. I have no right to ask it of you, but if you would lend me your aid in removing the goblins’ leadership, I would be free to join you on your journey.”

Tav considered his offer for a moment. They were a capable group of fighters, but there was an alarming number of goblins between them and the three leaders. Even with Halsin, she wasn’t sure if they could fight their way out. Then she thought back to the refugees, the tieflings sheltered in the Grove. Even if they could sneak past the entire camp, Zevlor and his kin would never be able to survive on the road. Halsin was right, they needed to take out the leaders.

“Having a shapeshifting bear-druid at my side might make things easier.” She smiled at him and held out her hand. “Welcome to the team.”

He smiled back at her and clasped her forearm, once again lingering just a little longer than she would have expected.

***

Halsin let go of Tav’s arm and took a moment to catch his breath. He had been in his bear form for days now, standing on two legs made him feel a little uneasy at the moment. The four strange adventurers in front of him had huddled close together, plotting their plan of attack on the goblin leaders.

His eyes wandered to Tav, who seemed to be their leader. A picture of elven beauty in his humble opinion. Her long white-blonde hair was tied back in a braid that was currently slung over one of her shoulders, several strands had worked their way out of the confines of the braid and swirled around her head. The long scar that ran over her nose and right cheek looked like it had been caused by a claw of some kind based on the shape of the edges. She had a rugged look to her, like she had been in the wilds long before she was abducted by mind flayers. But something was off. He listened as she strung together a plan with her companions, effortlessly doling out assignments and orders, commanding their attention despite their tired state. There was a noble air about her, but he hardly knew of any nobles who would prefer stomping around in the wilderness over the comforts of their estates.

Seeing her now, it was hard to believe their initial awkward encounter had happened. She seemed so confident and sure of herself talking with her companions. He wasn’t a stranger to others being caught off guard by his appearance. Given her own beauty he was surprised that she would have any trouble forming words of flattery. She seemed witty enough and happy to flirt back at the pale elf in her company. He would have assumed she had suitors lined up from here to Neverwinter, so why would he elicit such a flustered response from her? Regardless, he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a slight pull in his chest looking at her. It had been quite some time since anyone looked at him with any kind of desire in their eyes. As for her awkward fumbling, he found it rather endearing. He pushed the thoughts away for now, he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted, not when he finally had a chance to correct so many of the mistakes from his past.

At some point while he was lost in his thoughts, Tav had summoned a large wolf to her side. The beast paced around her protectively, the smells in this wretched hideout were no doubt overwhelming to it. Halsin met its eyes, causing the wolf to freeze. He kept calm, careful not to startle it. Making a small lap around the others, it walked over to stand in front of him, still crouched in a protective stance.

“Lunari! Here girl!” Tav shouted.

Halsin carefully lowered his eyes, continuing to stand still. The wolf tentatively circled around him, sniffing around his legs. Seeming satisfied, she moved back over towards Tav and plopped down on her haunches in front of her, tail wagging slightly. Such a loyal creature, he thought to himself. Tav was absentmindedly scratching Lunari’s ears, causing her to lean against her legs and wag her tail faster. A friend of nature indeed.

Halsin thought back to Tav’s reaction to Moonrise. She had to know of the curse. When he looked into her eyes, he saw the same fear that had haunted his reflection for the last century. There were so few still alive who knew of that tragedy, let alone who had lived it. Now, it seemed that he may have found another who shared that burden.

“Okay, I think this gives us as good a chance as anything.” Tav’s voice rang through the room. “Anything to add?” Astarion’s hand shot up in the air, but Tav gave him a look that caused him to lower it again. She took a deep breath and motioned for them to head for the door. Halsin took the cue to wildshape back into his bear form. He padded up behind Tav, braced and ready to follow her into battle.

#Someone take this man away from me #i cannot be contained #bg3 #bg3 fanfiction #baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #bg3 halsin #halsin x tav #halsin silverbough #bg3 headcanons #bg3 brainrot #bg3 fluff #the tadfools

28 notes · View notes

outofangband · 3 months

Text

Rambling Morwen thoughts, more in my houseless for exiles tag, sorry for aforementioned rambling

“Rashness, lord! If my son works in the woods hungry if he lingers in bonds, if his body lies unburied, then I would be rash. I would lose no hour to go to seek him.”

-Chapter 14, The Journey of Morwen and Niënor

Everything in this exchange is so important to me, but it’s specifically the if his body lies unburied that really gets to me because I think it speaks a lot about Morwen’s trauma from the Bragollach, and Húrin and Rían’s vanishing

Just have so much of her pride is in twined with her grief so much of her grief is so intertwined with uncertainty, and not knowing.

Her father and uncle, and a lot of her male relatives who died with Barahir, she never got news of their death. If she did, it would’ve been decades after it happened when she finally came to Doriath, if Beren’s full history was known there. Her mother may well have died in the Bragollach too*

And then her cousin, the last of her people there also runs off, and she never gets any news of her, and she never learns at least presumably never learns what happened to Rían’s son**

And of course Húrin! Húrin Rides off for war and never returns, and no tidings from any of his people who fought in the battle come back either. She doesn’t know if he’s dead, or captured, or simply prevented from returning as she says herself.

I have a couple posts in my houseless for exiles tag about this but also leaving Hithlum behind, knowing that she would never see it or its people again, and would likely never know of their fate, is yet another grief. She would have left Aerin and anyone else she was close with, knowing the circumstances they would be in and knowing the parting was a permanent one.

Which leads to my main point

Morwen is willing to drown crossing the Sirion (as she tells Mablung) or be murdered by Morgoth’s most dreadful monster (as she nearly is) trying to get news of Túrin, or save him or even just to bury him! She’s willing to risk that just to make sure he gets proper burial and so she knows what has become of him.

I’m sorry to bring this back into my thoughts about those words and traits that are always associated with Morwen; her pride, her grief (and also her inability to grieve!!,) and severity and stubbornness and resilience but I think it’s all so fascinatingly connected. She has been denied closure for decades. She’s willing to do pretty much anything to make sure it doesn’t happen again

And that’s part of what makes that last interaction at the grave of her children so heartbreaking

And this should be a post in itself I’ll make later but I also think about how for those who knew Morwen, they suffer this same uncertainty

…but Morwen also was lost. Neither then nor after did any certain news of her fate come to Doriath or to Dor-lómin.

(Also, I love her being able to tell the difference in the members of the party and to be able to tell that there’s one more member that there should be when these thousands of year-old fully trained elven scouts didn’t notice that it’s both awesome and very funny to me! And the part about Morwen refusing to be led back to Doriath by Niënor! It’s the second to last mention of her pride and resolve in the novel and it’s part of the last description of Niënor as Niënor!)

Anyway I love Morwen very much and I will do an entire post on the whence came he! Scene

* Neither the mother of Morwen nor her parents or any other maternal family is mentioned in canon. In The Shaping of Middle Earth, Tolkien originally had the mothers of Morwen and Rían as being of the house of Marach, his original reason for them having survived the Bragollach and ending up in Hithlum. He discarded this however, making Morwen and Rían refugees of the Bragollach but never saying anything more about their mothers.

** kept this part short as I have several post specifically about this aspect of their relationship and their relationship and general, which are very important to me, I’ll link one of the more recent ones just for my own organization here

#the silmarillion #the children of húrin #morwen #houseless for exiles #musing and meta #and they saw her no more

27 notes · View notes

timetravellingkitty · 2 months

Note

Going Anonymous for security reasons here. So, regarding Kashmir: I am sick and tired of how people on Tumblr (or rather Hindublr tags) really believe that Kashmir is healing when it is still the most armed state in the world. I am horrified of how these people glorifying Army personels, who are no more than paid abusers and rapists and this is coming from a person whose family legacy is that of 'serving in the Army' I am not Kashmiri (And I cannot say I have faced the same shit they faced and I commend their resilience and their spirit) but I've had the chance to visit the 'non tourist' spots and let me tell you, it is fucked up. Even from the perspective of a person who is very privileged in this situation. I've literally seen some of these 'brave sons of India' beat up a seven year old boy just because he was 'being a hindrance in the road' One of my dad's colleague just got a 'warning' even after being a convicted assaulter after he raped two Kashmiri women (And this was back in 2013) and I came to know about this through Twitter out of all things. I remember going through those small towns in Kashmir and it being fucking empty and everything being closed up because they were afraid of the people who were stationed to 'protect' them. I am so sorry for venting out on your inbox like this but I've seen some of these blogs defend the Militarisation in Kashmir and it is awful and inhumane of how these people could even defend that out of all things. And to burst their bubble of delusion, it has gotten worse after the bill was passed. So many Kashmiri Muslims are getting wrongfully evicted out of their homes to 'house' the Pandits (but doing nothing when they were living as refugees and in destitution in Jammu) and the internet ban during the pandemic and people think Kashmir is healing?

And most of all, I wanted to thank you for posting the masterlist about Kashmir. It is very informative and has helped me learn and unlearn a lot of Kashmiri history.

This isn't even the first time the Army has done something like this. The IPKF was responsible for the massacres and rapes of multiple Tamil civilians it's insane how dedicated we are to glorifying the Indian military

#i know someone whose family legacy is also “serving in the army.” he wants to get in too...#anyways i'm glad you learnt something from that post nonnie!#asks #anon

22 notes · View notes

mossy-rainfrog · 3 months

Text

Build A Cowboy Round 5!

Hi good evening sorry for vanishing OK SO i mentioned in the tags of my first poll that this cowboy is not just going to be a vaguely historical cowboy, but from a Very specific time frame, because of the fic that his partner Javi exists in. That being said, there is a lot to unpack here with this! The time period exactly is 1841, the setting is Texas (because I am texan and we are predictable) and oh my god this is one of the most insane times for a character to be from texas 😭

Our cowboy will have in fact lived through the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821), the Texas Revolution (1835-1836), tx's CRINGEFAIL attempt at self governing, rapidly approaching our annexation into the US in 1844-5, and then coming right up on the fuckign CIVIL WAR in 1861. These guys deeply understand the concept of "get me the fuck out of the interesting times, im sick of the interesting times". im so sorry cowboys, you can blame Herman Melville for this.

anyways yall didnt come here for a history lesson but you are in fact going to get one because i am insufferable first and an artist second :) and also as a note, race and backstory are always intertwined things but Especially when it is fuckign 1841 so. yeah exercise caution, there will be discussion of racism, medical close-calls, and anti-indigenous genocide. PLEASE ACTUALLY READ THE BACKGROUNDS BEFORE CHOOSING ONE! you dont have to read the sources. those are just there because i have autism. 👍

DETAILS BELOW THE READMORE BC I GOT WAYYY TOO WORDY⬇️

BACKSTORY A: Black Cowboy fled Texas* to Oklahoma with his family after the revolution, now travels up the trade routes breaking wild horses, passing along abolitionist messages, and assisting refugees. A miracle baby surviving a cleft lip with limited surgery and sustained permanent hearing damage as a result, he took up the trade of horsebreaking with flying colors, keeping right up with his older brothers. A sharp shot, keen eye, and a talented horseman, his best trained horses help him identify sounds that he otherwise can't hear. Loosely familiar with PSL, but primarily used a mix of lip-reading, localized/community generated sign growing up.

* After the US aided Texas in staging a coup against Mexico and declaring independence, an ordinance passed in 1836 that fully banished free Black people from the region unless they had personal pardon from Congress. This ordinance was not passed without pushback, and it changed shape and restriction over the years as people of color such as Joseph Tate, John and Charity Bird, Diana Leonard, Allen Dimery, and more all fought for their right to their own lands and lives. The law eventually settled into what was known as the Ashworth Act in 1840, which allowed free Black people to stay IF they had been residing in the state before 1836. It certainly wasn't the victory many had hoped, and even though many free Black persons in Texas were granted pardon to stay, like the Ashworths who the act was named after, many others were forced to leave after their allotted time was up, and were threatened with the future of slavery should they return. thank you texas history for being a vile piece of shit 👍

BACKSTORY B: Mexican/Tejano Vaquero from West Texas whose family has been ranching and cattle driving for decades. Has no interest in moving post-revolution, fuck you very much. If the borders are going to cross his family without asking*, then there's no need to cross them back. Technically lives with his family, but spends extensive periods of time away from home on cattle drives. Steady-handed, steadfast, quick to keep his herd safe. Miraculously survived a cleft lip as a baby and sustained permanent hearing damage** as a result, but that didn't stop his father from teaching him everything he knew, nor our man from taking to it like a fish to water. Knows more about cattle driving than you will ever forget.

*Some brief notes on the borders shifting and alienating people in their own rightful land.

**There was no official sign language of Mexico until the first Deaf school was established in 1869, but he and his family likely have a community-based one that works for them.

BACKSTORY C: Coahuiltecan (specifically Payaya)* cowboy, farrier, and leatherworker. Picked up the line of work as family was pushed to assimilate, one of the few still claiming Coahuiltecan identity at this time**, and has made a good living for himself and his sisters with it. Like the others, miraculously survived a cleft lip as a child but sustained permanent hearing damage as a result. Knows Plains Indian Sign fluently, and also relies on the direction of his horse for picking up sudden sounds before he can spot them. Tries to keep his work as local as possible to avoid separation from family for long, and whenever that is necessary, makes sure to come back soon.

*Note: Coahuiltecan is a term referring to several northern-Mexican and southern-Texan autonomous groups with distinct cultural differences. However, since Spanish and French colonizers lumped these groups together, an immense amount of distinguishing knowledge has since been lost.

** Also note: the Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan Nation is still very much around today (check out their site!) but nearing the mid 19th century, people at least claiming/listing this heritage on legal documents dwindled immensely for a variety of reasons.

#build a cowboy #polls #mossy art #described #collaborative character design #also yes i know cleft lip lost the last poll but i dont care. im including both. its my poll and i get to do voter fraud #anyways my god this is a fucking tx history lecture in a tumblr post. sorry everyone #i checked out 9 books from the library for this #but yeah heehoo!! here we goo again #id in alt

20 notes · View notes

copperbadge · 1 year

Note

Sam! I know this is very late, but I was scrolling back through your Shivadh-tag and had a thought about Simon's rival chef. My two cents is for a North African chef. I am missing people of color in these books. A-S is a Mediterranean country, so there's got to be some immigrant presence. And it sets you up to have some kind of community of color already established when you write your soccer (football, whatever) book, since those teams seem to have a lot of young men of color on them, from an outsider's untrained eye. (And I know you aren't getting into heavy real-world stuff, but A-S is a friendly coastal country, and I just keep thinking about refugees and immigration these days.)

I was just thinking about this the other day and wondering! I'm pretty committed to the chef being Shivadh by birth but that's nationality, not race, and there's no reason she couldn't be the child of immigrants, or of African descent, and possibly working in the immigrant/refugee community within Fons-Askaz. I've been trying to consciously include more racial diversity in the upcoming books, but that's still something I'm working out. I do have a couple of characters in mind, but nothing significant written for them yet.

I've been hesitant because I know that race and racism are viewed and act differently in Europe than they do in the US and often it's pretty regional. Without being immersed in the culture it's rough to pick up on, so I don't want to fuck up portraying that. But also these are "blue sky" novels where people aren't meant to be dealing with that kind of problem more than absolutely necessary -- viz Caleb not really coming up against any transphobia, Buck only mentioning biphobia in passing, etc -- so I think that's anxiety rather than realism talking.

Regardless, while I'll be doing my own research I'd also welcome trustworthy resources on race/diversity and racism as it appears in the Mediterranean, particularly southern France and northern Italy. If I can master the casual Italian attitude towards pastry taxonomy surely I can master this.

#shivadhverse

91 notes · View notes

grey-gazania · 2 months

Text

Throwback Thursday Sunday

@swanhild tagged me to share a fic that's more than a year old, so I'm picking one of my Girl-galad WIPs, which I started writing in 2019 and started posting in 2022.

The Kids Are All Right (Rated G, 6/? chapters posted)

As the survivors from Nargothrond come to Balar and the Fell Winter sets in, the girl who will become Gil-galad struggles alongside her friends to find a ray of hope in a darkness that seems unending.

I will fully admit that this story is self-indulgent, because the entire Woman King AU is self-indulgent. I didn't expect it to have many (if any) readers, and so far I've been right, but I'm enjoying writing it and that's what counts! It's allowed me to explore a lot of my ideas and headcanons, such as:

Life on Balar, which at this point in time contains refugees from three longstanding communities (the Falathrim, the Northern Sindar, and the Noldor of Hithlum), with the survivors of the destruction of Nargothrond newly arrived at the beginning of the story. Thinking about how these disparate ethnic groups would interact has been fun.

Following on that, I'm also exploring what it would be like for Gil-galad to grow up between these communities. Her father is the crown prince and later the High King of the Noldor, and her mother is from a high-status family of the Mithrim Sindar, but Ereiniel has in fact spent most of her life among the Falathrim. This frequently leaves her feeling like she's too Noldorin for the Sindar and too Sindarin for the Noldor, but in this story she's coming to realize that her understanding of and affection for all three groups could actually become one of her strengths.

The arc of Ereiniel's relationship with Círdan. The major question I always ask myself when I write a genderswap AU in any fandom is, How would so-and-so being female change things? Círdan's relationship with young Gil-galad is one of those changes. Ereinion, as crown prince and Fingon's heir, would have been much more involved with Círdan as a child. But Ereiniel, being female and not in the line of succession, isn't perceived as needing the same degree of fostering that her male counterpart would. She respects Círdan and knows she can rely on him, but her care was left largely to her mother when she was growing up, and her education was left to a tutor Fingon had selected before his death. She wasn't fostered in the traditional sense because no one ever expected that she would end up ruling her people.

Young people coming of age in the decline following the Nírnaeth Arnoediad. Most of the young adults in this story were born sometime within fifty years before the Dagor Bragollach, when the Siege of Angband was still in place and things were looking more hopeful. Their families were intact and they grew up being told that Morgoth would be defeated. But that's not how things are anymore. What is it like to be the Elf equivalent of an 18-30 year old in a world that's now suffering one catastrophic defeat after another, where your parents and their parents and all the other older adults in your lives have, through no fault of their own, neither a plan nor the ability to stand against the monster Vala who's doing his damnedest to destroy the world and all its people? How do you plan for life in a future that you know there's a good chance you may not have? How do you grow up with the possible deaths of you and everyone you love hanging over your head like a sword?

Elvish local government. Yes, Círdan is in charge on Balar, but he can't possibly being seeing to every little thing. Someone has to make sure the roads are in good repair, and the snow is getting shoveled, and the cesspits are being emptied and composted. Somebody has to adjudicate the smaller disputes and hear the local concerns. So I've invented local neighborhood councils for this purpose.

Erestor. My Erestor is not nobility, nor is he half-Elven, nor is he a Fëanorian. He's a regular-degular Falathron Sinda, but he's intensely curious, a voracious learner, and hungry for knowledge. It's his mind that makes him notable, not his family background.

Celebrimbor and Gil-galad. The published Silm is pretty sparse on what Celebrimbor does in the First Age following his renunciation of his father, so I kept him in Nargothrond, and he arrives on Balar with the first wave of Nargothrond refugees. He's cut ties with his family. Ereiniel, on the other hand, is hungry for connection with her father's kin. And I truly believe that Gil-galad and Celebrimbor were friends before the whole Annatar thing, so this story is allowing me to explore the early days of that budding friendship.

With my OCs Henthael and Gurvadhor, I'm fine-tuning my ideas regarding Fingolfin's followers -- how loyal they would feel to him as the one who led them across the ice and ruled them for four and a half centuries, and how that loyalty might or might not transfer to Fingon, who was his father's heir but also a Kinslayer. Whose loyalty might that fact affect? Who would overlook that pesky detail and who wouldn't?

And last but not least, Elvish gender roles and sexual norms, which I'm exploring via bisexual baby butch Ereiniel. I love her, your honor. ❤️

I am tagging: @vidumavi, @melestasflight, @cuarthol, @polutrope@, leucisticpuffin, @emyn-arnens, @polutrope, @swanmaids, @sallysavestheday, @thelordofgifs, @zealouswerewolfcollector, @hhimring, @elfscribe, @lucifers-cuvette, and anyone else who hasn't done this yet but wants to!

#dash games #gil galad #girl galad #woman king AU #genderswaps my beloved

15 notes · View notes

lizzieonka · 1 year

Text

A Guide to Tagging on Tumblr: Types of Tags

This was meant to be part 3 of my Tumblr guide for Twitter refugees series, but I figured old Tumblr users could benefit from it as well. I’m also writing this for myself because even after years on this site, there’s still so much I could learn to tagging.

Types of Tags by Purpose

General (for global categorization)

Communal (for identifying with a community)

Considerate (for other users’ safety)

Descriptive (for describing how the post is formatted)

Promotional (i.e. tag tracking)

Systematic (for blog-level organization)

Fun (your little side comments)

Above are categories I’ve come up with after looking through the tags on my own post, and I think they should cover all the tags mainly used on Tumblr. If you think there should be another category up there, just share it in the notes.

Before I explain what each of those types are, here’s a heads-up that most of my examples would be tags used in fandom spaces. After all, this is a multi-fandom blog.

General

General tags are also what I would call Topic tags. They make your post easier for your target audience to find. Like, if you post something about a certain topic, then a #topic name would be appropriate.

Example: Posts about the anime Blue Lock would be tagged with #blue lock.

Topic names can even be abbreviated to make it faster to type. Mob Psycho 100 can be #mp100. Archive of our Own is usually tagged as just #ao3. Blue Lock can be just #bllk (the actual acronym should be #bl, but people are cowards asfhddgfzh).

General tags also include sub-topics.

Example: If you’re posting specifically about the Blue Lock manga and not the anime, then you may tag it with #blue lock manga.

Sub-topic tags can also work as Considerate tags. People may be interested in posts under the parent topic but would like to avoid the sub-topic. Don’t want to intentionally spoil people about a certain media? Tag it with #media title spoilers.

Example: #mp100 spoilers, #little mushroom spoilers, #blue lock spoilers

Extra example: If you post x reader fanfics for a certain media, then you may must tag it with #media title x reader.

[Don’t wanna sound like a tyrant on this blue site, but for the love of god please include a general tag for your x reader fics to make them easier to filter out. Some people (me) don’t want to read them at all, and it’s tiring to come up with all #character name x reader variations out there. I end up just automatically blocking those who don’t use general tags the moment I come across their fic.]

Examples of some non-fandom General tags:

#spilled ink

#writing

#art

#illustration

#science

#chemistry

Communal

These are tags used to identify yourself as part of a certain community here on Tumblr. Such tags are often suffixed by “blr.”

Examples:

#bookblr

#writeblr

#studyblr

#artblr

#birblr

There are no hard rules, but these -blr communities often contain specific kind of posts in the tag. For example, in #studyblr, you would find a lot of photos of aesthetic notes and people’s desks. If tagging with a -blr tag, check out the community first to see what kind of posts fit under the tag.

Examples of other communal tags:

#actually adhd

#artists on tumblr

#writers on tumblr

#photographers on tumblr

And here’s a list of the top Tumblr communities in 2022. You might wanna check it out.

Considerate

Considerate tags are the most important. Primarily, these tags contain the trigger/content warnings for your post. I’m not gonna include a list of all possible triggers on this post though coz that would be quite long. You can just look that up on your own.

From observation, warning tags affix a tw or cw to the base tag to differentiate them from neutral discussions of said tag.

Example: A post tagged with #depression may be an informational post containing tips on how to manage one’s depression. A post tagged with #tw depression or #tw: depression, however, may contain extremely depressing rants that could negatively affect others’ moods.

It’s different for posts that may be harmful to epileptic people, though. If your post contains flashing gifs and the like, tag it with #flashing and NOT #tw epilepsy or just #epilepsy. A more in-depth explanation as to why can be read here.

You may have also recently seen the #unreality tag in Goncharov posts. I just learned about this tag myself, so I cannot explain it well. Here’s an old post by @ whethervane though that explains it:

an unreality warning is a warning that something (media, discussion, etc.) will deal with themes of unreality and false reality—which can be very stressful and triggering for people who’ve gone through feelings of unreality or disassociation before.

Another kind of Considerate tag would be one used in fandom spaces, especially in big fandoms. These are what I would call anti tags, and they’re used to contain fandom discourse or prevent fandoms from becoming toxic spaces.

If you spout hate about a certain character, do not tag your post with #character name. Instead, prefix your tag with the word “anti.”

Example: If you hate Mu Qing from Tian Guan Ci Fu for whatever reason, tag your hate post with #anti mu qing.

Believe it or not, regardless of how hateful you think that guy is, some people in the fandom actually like him (me, for one) and would be upset at seeing your hate posts while browsing under the #mu qing tag.

Moreover, anti tags are not just for characters. They can also apply to ships you hate.

Examples: #anti mileven if you don’t like the Mike x Eleven ship from Stranger Things. #anti byler if you don’t like the Mike/Will ship.

I see a lot of people censoring anti tags (e.g. #anti mil*ven, #anti milkvan, etc.), but I think such tags would be easier to filter out if they’re just spelled completely.

Descriptive

Descriptive tags describe how the post is formatted. In a way, they also work as Considerate tags, as they allow people to filter out posts that may be too stressful/painful for them to read or look at.

Most common example would be #long post, which is used for posts that are, well, very long. I reckon such a tag became necessary because in the past, Tumblr didn’t have an option to truncate long posts on the dashboard. It was all up to the original poster if they’d be kind enough to cut their posts under a Read More/Keep Reading block. Scrolling past a long post was hell, especially for those on mobile. The color of the sky post was quite notorious for this.

Another example would be tags informing users on whether images in the post contain an alt text (aka image description/image ID): #image id, #image described

Or, if the images don’t have an ID: #undescribed, #no image id, #no id, #no id in alt text.

Other Descriptive tags:

#caps lock

#large text

#small text

#colored text

#eye strain

#bright colors

#flashing

#fast gif

#transcribed (for audio/video posts including a transcription)

#unmute (tells the viewer of a post to turn on the sound of a video)

Promotional

These are tags that are tracked by other blogs and often use the name of the blog that tracks them. By adding Promotional tags on your posts, you are guaranteed a reblog from the blog tracking the tag.

Examples:

@ bluelocksource tracks the #bluelocksource and #bluelockedit tags

@ anisource tracks #anisource

@ dailyanime tracks #dailyanime

Systematic

Tags are a great way to organize your blog. Since Tumblr is a reblogging site, people often use tags to differentiate their original posts from reblogs. Some would tag their originals with something like #my post or #mine. Another trend is to use #your-url.txt.

I tag original posts on this blog and across my side blogs as #lznk. It's from the consonants of my url, but I also chose it because it's unique throughout Tumblr. Whenever I want to view my posts across all my blogs in one place, I just use the dashboard search. Nobody uses the #lznk tag aside me, so all posts that come up would be mine. Hopefully it stays that way...

And from your own originals, you can categorize it even further: #my art, #my edits, #my writing, #my cats, etc.

Of course, you can also categorize reblogs. Some people add #reblog or #rb. If you blog about a certain topic and would like to post/reblog something unrelated to that topic, you may add a #not topic tag. The popular @ one-time-i-dreamt blog uses the tag #not a dream.

Fun

I don’t really have to explain this, do I? Fun tags are basically your little side comments/footnotes. They are things you wanna say but don’t really want to be too out there.

I'm not gonna include examples of this, but I’d like to talk about the mentions of “prev” in Fun tags.

Prev stands for the user you reblogged a post from—the previous person, so to speak. Some people just prefer to speak to someone in the tags instead of saying it loudly in a reblog; hence, the need to say “prev.”

“Prev” is also used when one is copying a person’s tags [on the mobile app]. To give credit to the person who came up with the tags, you may add something like #<- prev’s tags (the arrow would be pointing to the copied tags).

----

Aaaand that's all. Normally, I'd write a proper conclusion to a post like this, but writing this was exhausting, okay? Just take this and go~

#tumblr #tumblr guide #tutorial #twitter #tagging #colored text #<- but only a little #long post #tumblr tags #ironically idk how to tag this post #tumblr culture #miyamiwu.src #tumblr tutorial #miyamiwu.tut

185 notes · View notes

raven-6-10 · 5 months

Text

As promised, tagging @hamelin-born and @ertrunkenerwassergeist

So, when thinking about writing Regis, especially during the last years of his reign I try to keep one thing in mind:

Regis is, at his core, somebody who has given up.

Yeah, I know, how could I say something so controversial.

Well, let's not keep you in the dark.

Prince Regis and his support circle

(Or rather, the lack of thereof.)

We know very, very little about Regis' childhood so I have to extrapolate based on what canon info we have about Noctis.

And none of this is promising. Because it looks like for most of his childhood, his friends consisted of Clarus and Weskham. There is the one mention of knowing Aulea back then, but not much detail of how they met or how their relationship looked like. While he presumably met other noble children, there would always be that undercurrent of politics to any interactions, which isn't exactly conductive to healthy relationships. Not with the chasm between their respective social ranks.

(It exists even in his interactions with his Retinue, too, for all that they manage to forget it most of the time)

Then comes the Road Trip, with Cor dragged along and Cid who joins to keep eye on those goddamn rich city kids. Honestly, that might be the happiest time in Regis' life. He has minimal responsibilities, he's not under constant scrutiny from everyone and he has people who genuinely like him for him around himself. Life looks good, even with the war on the horizon.

And then comes Accordo and Altissia, and the failed treaty negotiations.

And then Weskham leaves.

A lot of people headcanon that Wesk stayed in Accordo to funnel information to Insomnia and act as a Lucian representative to Accordo's government. Whether that's true or not, the fact is that he was unlikely to consistently keep in touch with Regis. Not with how closely all communication channels would be monitored as the war heated up. By necessity, their friendship becomes a distant one at best.

So that's one of Regis' people gone from his life. Cid is the second one to leave him, this time entirely of his own choice.

While there are no actual specifics, the timing makes it clear that Cid was not happy with Mors pulling back the Wall and the Royal Family's policy on the refugees thereafter. Which is a polite way of saying "they left people to fend for themselves". What we don't know is how Regis reacted to it. Did he think his father had to have good reasons? Did he disagreed with him but couldn't think of anything he could do to improve things? Did he agree with Mors wholeheartedly? Either way, Cid storms out of the Citadel and Insomnia, eventually settles down in Hammerhead and, as far as we know, does not see Regis ever again.

(And there is that one hint from Cor how Cid was still angry that Regis kept secrets and refused to confide in his friends. But that's for later.)

Post-coronation and his marriage

(Or, his social circle still isn't great)

So here they are in the year 729 of Modern Era, with one friend on the other side of the world and another currently very pissed off at them, when Mors dies and leaves Regis running Lucis.

Regis is all of 23.

I don't know about you but I wouldn't leave a 23-years-old charge of a local retail shop. Nevermind the entire fucking country. Unfortunately, Regis does not have the luxury of leaving the job to somebody else, so he puts on his big boy boots and the fancy crown, and gets to work.

And there's a lot of work.

We have next to nothing about Mors and his reign, but what we do have points to a person more interested in the results than the means used to achieve them, which is never good attitude in somebody who has absolute authority over other people. It's bound to piss off people in all social strata and create some short-term "solutions" in exchange for a lot of long-term problems. I suspect Regis spent a lot of his early years as a king placating nobles and unfucking his father's various messes with Clarus and Cor's help.

Not that Cor would have been much of a help, being freshly 18 himself - ageism is very firmly alive in politics, even fictional ones - and still a reckless little shit at his heart. For Regis, Cor is firmly a little brother figure - somebody to guide and teach and protect, and to entrust important missions to once he's a little older, but not somebody Regis can rely on to support him.

(Regis never loses this mindset. Not even after Cor has been his Marshall for years. In the end, Cor is never told about the real prophecy, is sent away before the Invasion begins.)

With Clarus busy with work and Cor not suitable, Regis would have to look to somebody else for emotional support. Enter Aulea. Around this time, their relationship shifts from friends to actual courtship and then to a marriage in 732 ME. Finally, Regis has someone who isn't his subordinate and doesn't need to be kept at arms length, who is actually his equal, who he can confide in and rely on, and be happy with. His best friend's also gotten married recently and had a little boy. Life is looking great!

And then Noctis is born and Aulea dies.

(There's a lot of IRL research about how men rely almost entirely on their wives for emotional support, and how badly they cope once it's gone.)

Noctis as the Chosen One

And then we come to this cluster fuck of a prophecy.

Because Regis learns his son is going to die.

Because there's nothing he can do to change it.

Because how do you defy a god?

(You don't. Not on your own)

But there's more!

Not only is his son going to die very painfully, first the world has to be plunged into complete darkness for who knows how long. Demons will run everywhere and people will struggle to survive. In the end, Eos will be devastated and Lucis is not guaranteed to survive.

That's bound to influence his decisions, and not always consciously.

Like, we know Noctis had an unprecedented amount of freedom for a Crown Prince, going to a normal high school, having commoner friend and living outside of the Citadel. Going by his complete unfamiliarity with life outside of Insomnia (he didn't know what a gil was) and not recognising Ardyn (a high ranking member of foreign court), I would say he also didn't receive much of a training that would be expected of a prince.

(It's not like he's going to rule anything, ever)

Then there's how that knowledge would affect Regis and his policies.

Oh, I don't think he actually realised that but. Why would he try to improve anything if it's all going to be destroyed anyway? Why bother to fix the system, it's not like it's broken, it works correctly?

(It's not working correctly. It's very much broken and rotting under his feet. He just can't see that from his place at the top.)

What does it have to do with Galahdians?

Freaking everything.

Starting with Mors' shitty refugee policies that likely never were repelled in full, through the fact that Regis likely had to make a lot of concessions to nobles to secure his reign, to his negligence of and ignorance about the issues arising among the lowest classes.

After all, corrupt officials will not suddenly decide to stop on their own. They can and will only get worse, because they feel more and more untouchable with every stolen yen and every bribe taken.

And resentment builds up.

#ffxv #regis lucis caelum #meta #headcanon #tldr regis needs therapy and to ACTUALLY TALK TO HIS FRIENDS

19 notes · View notes