Sonny-ray-of-goth - Sunflower Grunge

Demons and Drag pt 2

Anitri and Surri sat on Jem's couch patiently as Jem brewed tea in the kitchen.

Anitri looked around the tidy apartment, staring at the rose mural on one of the walls. All other walls were white with forest green trims. It was rather peaceful with classical musical playing gently in the background.

A black fluffy, possibly fat, cat walked into the room, and stopped. Staring at the two strangers on the couch. It meowed loudly, fur puffing up on its neck.

"Lordie, leave them alone." Jem said as they walked in with a tea tray.

Anitri chuckled at the cats name. Surri narrowed her eyes at Jem. She's trying to understand the height difference. Yesterday Jem or Coco Rose as they're otherwise known, appeared to be about 6'5"yesterday. Now they seemed maybe 5'10". Seven inch shoes are nothing to sneeze at, but they perform in those. Wow.

"So," Jem started, "If you stay here, you will have to pay half the rent, along with obey a few rules."

The twins exchanged a look before Surri spoke their concern.

"What rules?"

Jem looked over the rim of their mug.

"No copulation in the apartment," Jem deadpanned, "Don't leave clothes in the bathroom unless you want them covered in fur, and don't touch my plants."

Anitri giggled over the use of the word copulation, while Surri rolled her eyes.

"Y'know, just because we're concubus, that doesn't mean we're sex fiends." Surri scoffed.

Jem quirked up their eyebrow in confusion and continued, "That's not what I was implying, sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm simply uncomfortable with any sort of happenings like that and do not wish for anyone to partake in such acts in my home. That would be a rule regardless of your race, species, gender or other components. Simply a boundary."

Surri was mildly surprising at how put together and generous Jem was being to them. She didn't exactly expect someone who knew them to be assassins to treat them so kindly, or even let them in their house.

"Oh, one more rule." Jem said, placing their cup gently on their coaster.

Anitri leaned his over, head on his hands as the were on his knees, "Yeah?"

"If you get blood on the floor," Jem said with a slight smirk, "Please use the rags in the purple bucket located next to the washer to wipe up the blood."

Surri wasn't completely shocked that Jem wasn't against their business but it's still appalling to hear someone so nonchalantly tell you that murder is okay.

"Well," Jem said, standing from their seat, "Do we have a deal?"

Anitri looks over to Surri with a smile. Surri sighs and stands.

"I believe we do," she answers, reaching out her hand to shake.

Jem smiles for the first time and shakes her hand.

"Let me show you the rooms."

Jem walked down one of the halls, Anitri hopping up to follow behind them quickly while Surri strolled along cautiously.

They walked by a door or two before reached the first room option.

It was a blank slate. It had a reasonable amount of space, a bathroom, and a sliding door closet. The floors were wood and the walls were pale grey. The window showed the city in all its underwhelming glory.

The next room was down the hall a bit more. It also had grey walls and wood floors but it had a smallish walk in closet, a two sink bathroom and a bay window overlooking the coast through the buildings.

"Dibs!" Anitri screeched, running to look out the window.

Jem turned towards Surri with a look that asked if she cared to challenge him. Surri shook her head with a chuckle.

Her brother may be the same age but he was so youthful. His spirit hasn't been crushed by the world yet.

'And we're going to keep it like that.' She thought to herself.

"Well," Jem's voice breach's Surri's thought, "If y'all need help moving in, feel free to ask, and if I'm not enough to help, I have a real eager to help friend."

Jem makes their way back down the hall towards the living room when they pause by the halls opening.

"Any questions?"

Surri remembered the busted up combat boots by the door that we're definitely to small for Jem.

"Whose boot are by the door?"

Jem looks over their shoulder with an almost quizzical look.

"They're Emily's."

Me having an insane attachment to shows/movies that I’ve never watched: “I’m a big fan”

PSA regarding tumblr’s latest Censorship Nightmare

For those of you who haven’t seen this announcement, tumblr recently made some changes to the iOS version of the app, purportedly to comply with Apple’s content guidelines. These changes took effect on Dec 21, starting in version 22.5.1 of the iOS app. As some of you may recall, Apple’s strict guidelines were the driving force for the infamous Great Purge of 2018, which coincidentally also happened around this time of year, but it seems banning all of the female-presenting nipples wasn’t good enough for Apple.

Below is a summary of the important changes. Note that these changes technically ONLY affect those using the iOS app. If you’re accessing tumblr through a different app or operating system (Google Chrome, Android app, etc) it won’t affect you directly but it will affect your followers who use iOS so you should definitely be aware of it.

The list of banned tags has been expanded. As before, there’s no way to know which words or phrases have been banned until you try searching for them, in which case you’ll either get no search results or the following message: “This content has been hidden because of potentially suggestive or explicit content.” You may think this doesn’t concern you if you don’t post explicit material, but do not make the mistake of expecting the banned tags to be logical or reasonable. I’ve already encountered multiple completely innocuous posts (random fandom gifsets) that seem to be hidden on iOS for no discernible reason.

Blogs that have been flagged as explicit can no longer be viewed. Previously, flagged blogs just had their posts hidden from searches, but if you knew the username you could still visit it after clicking through a warning about sensitive content. Now you can’t access it at all.

Likes and reblogs from blogs that have been flagged will no longer show up in your notes. This one won’t affect most people’s user experience as much as the others, but it does mean you may be missing notes. It’s unclear if likes and reblogs from flagged blogs will still count towards the overall note total (and only be missing from the activity feed and note viewer) but I suspect that’s the case.

THE BIG ONE: ANY POST TAGGED WITH A BANNED TAG WILL NO LONGER SHOW UP ON YOUR DASHBOARD. Previously, if you tagged a post with a banned word or phrase (even if the words were used inside another tag), that post would not show up in searches, but your followers would still be able to see it on their dashboard. Now those posts are hidden from your own followers as well. This includes both original posts and reblogs. And if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s the real kicker: even if you don’t tag something with one of the banned words, if the OP used a banned tag, any reblogs of that post will not show up on anyone’s dashboard (on the iOS app). The only saving grace here, and I hate to even call it that, is that the blocked posts are still visible if you visit a blog directly or if you have post notifications turned on.

As usual, tumblr was extremely unclear and evasive about all of this in their official announcement. Not surprising, of course, since if more people were aware of these new draconian tactics I can’t imagine there wouldn’t be more of an uproar about it. Tumblr claims that these changes are somewhat temporary and that they are currently working on something that will allow for a less restricted iOS experience, but they refuse to say what that something is and when it will be implemented. And let’s just say, considering their track record, I’m not hopeful.

All of this is horrible and infuriating for many reasons, but the worst part is how insanely counterproductive it is to creating the “safe” environment tumblr (or more specifically Apple) supposedly wants.

Tags have always been used for both blog organization and filtering purposes. Tagging posts with triggers and content warnings is a common practice that gives users the ability to filter out content they may find upsetting or just don’t don’t want to see for whatever reason. By choosing to ban a bunch of unlisted “sensitive content” tags, all they’re doing is encouraging people who want to share that kind of content to come up with alternative less well-known tags or simply not tag that content at all anymore if they want it to show up on their follower’s dashboards, thereby making it more likely for someone to encounter it when they didn’t want to.

So really, with all of the alleged concern for safety and “protecting the children,” all they’ve done is make tumblr less safe for everyone. Typical.

i don’t think we acknowledge enough that when children want to be treated “like adults” what they really mean is “like people”

this is just my own observations of course but 90% of the time when a kid tries to get people to treat them like an adult, what they really want is the respect and acknowledgement that they associate with adulthood - because that’s what they must give the adults. they have to give that to the adults in their lives, but the adults never give that same respect back, and so they see that difference and decide that they want to be treated “like an adult”

and sometimes i see parents who are like fine you want to be treated like an adult then you can work and pay rent but that’s the exact OPPOSITE of what the kid is actually asking for. you’re just belittling them, clearly intending to punish them for daring ask for your respect, clearly intending for them to break down and beg to be “treated like a child” again because you purposefully twisted their wants. they ask for respect, and you give them abuse.

never, ever, ever, treat a child like a full grown adult. it’s our responsibility as adults NOT to, because they ARENT adults no matter how much they think they want to be, and it’s our job as adults to take care of them.

that said, ALWAYS treat children like people. because they ARE that. they’re real people with real agency acting as best as they know to with what knowledge they have

it’s not a matter of kids trying to grow up too fast, it’s a matter of kids wanting to be treated like people instead of objects or pets.

Please someone ask me anything

I’m lonely

here’s weirder asks

who is/are your comfort character(s)?

lighter or matches?

do you leave the window open at night?

which cryptyd being do you believe in?

what color are your eyes?

why did you do that?

hair-ties or scrunchies?

how many water bottles are in your room right now?

which do you prefer, hot coffee or cold coffee?

would you slaughter the rich?

favorite extracurricular activity?

what kind of day is it?

when was the last time you ate?

do you love the smell of earth after it rains?

are you a parent? (all answers qualify)

can you drive?

are you farsighted or nearsighted?

what hair products do you use?

imagine we’re at a sleepover, would you paint my nails?

do you say soda or pop?

something you’ve kept since childhood?

what type of person are you?

how do you feel about chilly weather?

if we were together on a rooftop, what would we be doing?

perfume/body spray or lotion?

a scenario that you’ve replayed multiple times?

about how many hours of sleep did you get?

do you wear a mask?

how do you like your shower water?

is there dishes in your room?

what type of music keeps you grounded?

do you have a favorite towel?

the last adventure you’ve been on?

is there a song you know every word to by heart?

what’s your timezone?

how many times have you changed your url?

someone in your life, other than a relative, you’ve known for 10+ years?

a soap bar that smells good?

do you use lip balm?

did you have any snacks today?

how do you take your coffee?

an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken site?

what’s your take on spicy foods?

you get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it?

can you remember what happened yesterday?

favorite holiday film?

what was the last message you sent?

when did you first try an alcohol beverage?

can you skip rocks?

can i tag you in random stuff?

Hopefully this tip can really help someone, please take this advice or suggest to friends and family if you feel it could really assist them

I have another thought rattling around my head;

I know it’s really easy for people to assume a man or masc person getting help with something is simply wielding false incompetence - or that that they view whoever is helping as a maid or a servant.

But I need people to stop blanket assuming shit like this. If it’s all just things you’re seeing rather then a bad situation you’re being told about directly; Take a step back and ask yourself if you might be misconstruing a situation you don’t have all the context for.

Example; I need meals made for me, I need help with basic chores, I need help getting myself drinks, I need help caring for pets. Outwardly, I look fine - but the thing a lot of people with no inside perspective don’t know that I’m actually severely disabled. What might be a simple task for someone else could wipe me out for days. And because of this I’ve actively had people call me a “man child” when I admit I need help with these things, and say they feel bad for my partners having to “baby me” because of this.

I’ve seen so many threads bashing men and masc folks as a whole for not being able to cook for themselves, do chores entirely by themselves, ect ect ect.

You’re hurting people in the crossfire - especially disabled men + masc folk, and men + masc folk who have suffered abuse (since abusers often intentionally don’t teach their victims life skills in order to keep them dependent).

the next person who tries to tell me   “you just need to do X to cure your chronic illness!”   is going to get beaten to death with a binder of my entire compiled medical history

I hate my love language

Hi I’m your local friendly AroAce.

And my love language is gifts. As I’m writing this I’m currently sitting on the floor making stuff for my friends for Easter.

I love to make gifts for people. Or even buying stuff for them. I will sew them a stuffie, draw them a picture, pain and item for them, make a piece of jewelry or otherwise.

But the issue is,

I like presents too.

That doesn’t sound like a problem except that the people in my life don’t really do gifts.

My parents will typically do something that I was already in need of as my present and my friends will typically just mass produce some sort of pastry for the group to share.

And I know it’s greedy and selfish to want something more, something with more meaning.

But I can’t help it. I don’t talk to them about it because I know I would sound greedy and selfish. I just need to rant about it.

I’m sorry.