y’all… u dont understand how much writing in the tags of someone’s creation means to them.. whether it’s fanart, a graphic, fanfic..,, there’s a 99% chance that person looks through their tags and a single opinionated comment in the tags can rlly brighten their day it’s just a rlly wonderful thing to see
So I work a retail job on top of many other jobs, and these two girls were in and out of my store at least 8 times. Which is sketchy and pretty much a give away that they were quite obviously stealing things, I’d see them stick their hands in their pockets or in their bags, but I was the only person at work today so I couldn’t stop checking people out in order to confront them…..which im sure they noticed.
Fast forward a few hours when they finally come back in, they had decided to purchase something to seem less suspicious. A 4$ pair of pearl earrings. At this point there is no one else in the store so I think Game On.
While they were scanning the shelves for anything else they might want, I’m looking at their pockets. I can clearly see the small ring through the fabric that they swiped earlier, the outline of tags shoved in their back pockets, amateurs.
Now for those of you that don’t know, I was stranded in Ireland for about a month with little to no money when I was a teenager and had to resort to being shady to get by till my cousin got me a ticket home.
Long story short, I am an excellent pick pocket. But I only use my powers for good instead of evil now.
So I followed them around the store pretending to bump into them as I put items back on the shelves, I stole NOT ONLY the product that they took, but everything in their back pockets. Now before you wag your finger at me just hold on a minute. They come to the register to get the one item they decided to pay for, and I’m smiling the whole time.
I tell them they price and then…I wait.
The one girl frantically patted her pockets, clearly confused and she looked at the other girl to ask “Where’s my money at?” This girl is clearly upset at this point and I suggested “Oh hey maybe you dropped it?” in the most sincere retail voice I can force my vocal cords to produce. Her and her friend drop to their knees and start searching for it. I let them continue like that for 10 minutes before I tell them that I had found it earlier and forgotten.
“You really should be careful the more you have in your pockets the easier it is for your money to fall out :)))))” I say, the statement unnerved them, they didn’t know if i KNEW or not. But they awkwardly shook it off with a laugh and I start to ring up the earrings again. BUT THIS TIME, I reach over the counter and start to ring up the items I had taken from their pockets. I dropped the tags on the counter and the merchandise hit the table hard, just like these girls mouths hit the floor.
You should have seen their faces it looked like someone had sucked the very essence right from their bodies. “Oh no she did not.” The one girl whispered as she checked her pockets yet again. Yes, Yes I did :) i’m beaming, their reaction added ten years to my lifespan. They apologize, laughing it off like it was a funny joke. But I’m not done yet.This time I look them dead in the eyes and go “Would you like me to ring out whats in your bags too before security gets here?”
Shock, pure dismay and anguish come over them, they look at each other. Each of them looks at me like I have personally came and shot their dogs. I AM LIVING, I’m reveling in the situation. Slowly, they lift their bags and dump out more products than Mary Poppins could shove in her bottomless purse. I start ringing it all up. They look horrified. A total of 400$ worth of items. I hold the fate of these girls in my hands and they know it. Over 200$ is a felony larceny charge. But I think they have suffered enough and jail is not fun so I present the ultimatum.
“You buy it all and I’ll let you go.”
and that is how I made all my sales goals and fucked with some shoplifters.
Holy shit ur my idol, that was so beautiful I might cry
Think that fanartist draws your favorite character all wrong?
Wish you’d never hear about your least favorite pairing ever again?
Ask your doctor if Shutting Up ™ is right for you!
From the makers of Self-Control and Being a Decent Person, Shutting Up™ is the revolutionary new treatment, clinically proven to make sure you don’t end up looking like a heartless dickbag! Shutting Up™ will help you discover a whole new side of fandom – a life where you seek out the things that appeal to you and leave everything else alone. Nobody gets hurt, and everybody wins!
Users of Shutting Up™ may experience some temporary frustration and feelings of disgust. This is normal. Supplementation with Talking Privately With a Sympathetic Friend™ may ease those symptoms.
Long-term side effects of Shutting Up™ may include perspective, a sense of belonging, and a deep understanding that not everything in the fandom world is within your control or meant for your personal enjoyment. Shutting Up™ has been known to cause flare-ups of peace, friendship, and positivity. Not recommended for cases in which you actually like things and want to leave positive feedback.
Try Shutting Up™ today, and see how fandom can become a better place for you!
*Not available on anon memes.
Kinda hard when certain ships give me panic attacks, Linda
OP here. Let’s talk about this a bit, though. I know exactly where you’re coming from. There is a kink…. I guess I’ll call it that… that provokes a panic response in me. It makes me feel extremely uncomfortable, makes me want to throw up or cry, and often I have trouble with intrusive thoughts for hours after I see it on my dash or on AO3. I engage in obsessive checking, click on things I shouldn’t click on, and generally “poke the bruise.” It’s a god-awful feeling, and I wish to high heaven that people would just stop writing about it so I wouldn’t have to deal with the horrible sensations that it brings on.
But people aren’t gonna stop writing about it. Because some things in fandom are meant for people that are not me. And even if I said anything, it’s a) not gonna stop people from writing it and b) will make me look like a dickbag who’s out to hurt people simply for expressing something that they want to express.
So when I come across it, I talk to my husband about how it makes me feel. I step away from the computer and focus on breathing until I find equilibrium again. And I curate my feed, using Xkit’s blacklisting function. Does it still crop up? Hell yeah. And I still have that awful, heart-thudding, sick to my stomach sensation.
But that sensation passes. I get my wits back about me. And I go on.
Contrary to the beliefs of some, this post was never meant to apply only to the out-and-out dickbags who send anon hate and seemingly exist solely to give others pain. Shutting Up™ is for all of us. Those of us who have genuine objections to things, those of us who have something that makes us feel sick, those of us who are sure that if we can only express what we’re feeling about something in fandom, it will make a difference. We all need it, not only so it doesn’t hurt others but so the negativity will not consume us so much that it becomes the definition of us.
It’s not easy. And I don’t succeed at it all of the time. None of us do. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. And after a while, it becomes very clear that we can have negative emotions and even panic reactions to things, and THAT’S OKAY. You’re going to be okay. Navigating negative feelings is something we all have to deal with. The question is, do we lash out by making someone else feel negatively too, or do we manage our emotions and move on.
You said it was “kinda hard.” Yeah. It is. It can be very hard. I don’t discount your struggles at all. But it’s also incumbent on you to practice some self-care –by curating your feed and by finding outlets for those emotions that don’t add more negativity to the fandom universe. I think you can do it, my friend. I really do. And even if you don’t manage it all the time, you can get better at it with practice. I wish you all the luck and happiness in the world.
I don’t want to speak for Tippy, but I am also pretty darn sure that she wasn’t talking about, say, politely asking someone to tag for something when she made this post.
Your triggers and squicks aren’t everyone else’s problem. However, fandom is a better place for everyone when creators are also not dicks and tag things that might upset other people so that those people can avoid it, so if something upsets you and there was no tag or warning (including Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, which you really should take at face value if something in the usual warnings is a major problem for you), it’s fine to politely ask them to tag/warn for it for the sake of other people with the same sensitivity as you. Or to politely ask someone whose tumblr you follow if they’re willing to tag that content for the sake of your blacklist. Just remember that in neither case are they obligated to do that, and if they won’t then you may have to decide to just unfollow or avoid that creator. Since ships are generally the most likely thing in the world to be tagged for, it’s up to you to avoid those ships, it’s not on anyone else to not write them.
What’s very much not okay is to yell at or otherwise berate the creator for daring to create something that is personally upsetting to you, or to blame them for your failing to read the tags and warnings. Or to demand that they tag something and harass them if they don’t. (Unless it’s one of AO3′s required warnings, in which case the best course of action is to ask politely and then if they don’t report them to AO3 and let them deal with it.) Yes, maybe they’re being a dick if they refuse to provide any sort of tag or warning for something that’s likely to upset people, but just remember to avoid them in the future and maybe warn other people who might have the same trigger to avoid that work or creator. Avoid, not harass.
And then take a moment to be thankful that fandom even has such a robust tradition of tags and warnings to begin with, because 90% of mainstream media does not.
Far away, long ago / Glowing dim as an ember Things my heart used to know / Things it yearns to remember
In which Shiro is the Altean army general and Keith is a Galra diplomat who fall in love, only to be torn apart by a war that nobody saw coming. 10,000 years later they come together again, this time to end the bloodshed.
The Steven Universe Mumswap fan-episode “The Smothering” is almost here!
The Smothering is a Fan-made episode of Steven Universe; made by fans, for fun because we love the show. The Smothering is a ‘Mumswap’ story. For those who are unaware Mumswap means a fanfiction where you imagine what Steven Universe would be like if Peridot, Jasper and Lapis were Steven’s caretakers instead of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. They’re used to explore the personalities of the characters in a different setting.
Bless this blog for tiding us over during this SU famine
Thinking on it, Loki should really have just dropped the whole Asgard thing and moved to Greece to hang with the Olympians
Like, Loki’s worst bits of mischief, up to and including murder, is just Zeus’ casual Tuesday. Plus everyone is always busy either fucking with someone if not actually fucking them. There’s a god of drinking and theatre (professional artful lying, holy shit). Also a god of chilling in the woods and banging nymphs and/or lonely shepherds (ideal). Two love/beauty/lust deities (doubly ideal, good on Mama Aphrodite and Son Eros, great family tradition). No prophesy of an apocalyptic showdown to look forward to–or any kind of narrative to bind the gods, period (Fuck Yes). The local mortals are all nerds in togas or oiled up muscle men (c:). Balmy weather, access to spices (C:).
Honestly, it’d just be
Zeus: What convinces you, god from the north, that you have a place here among my family? Among the gods of sky and sea and earth, the gods who are all the power and inspiration of the world? What right have you, foreign trickster, to the gates of Olympus?
Loki: Oh, is this the job interview? Damn, and here I am without my power suit. Let me change real quick
Loki, naked: So my work history is,
Zeus, naked: Hera, have someone clear out the guest room
if that sewer clown makes himself an image of your worst fear before he eats you, i could kick his ass. what’s he gonna do turn into the physical manifestation of being abandoned by your closest friends? gonna turn into an ooky spooky visual representation of catastrophic failure and loss? jokes on you dumbass the only thing im afraid of is myself
This is an actual plot point in the book though as I recall, he doesn’t like hunting adults usually because hes a) a cowardly parasite and b) Children have very tangible fears that can be easily manifested physically while adults generally have quite abstract or conceptual fears about the future, or events, or feelings.
pennywise aint shit
Abstract fears have reached the youngins these days, pussywise gonna starve
