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#never make a webbed site for an old person

thesnadger · 1 year

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I spent last night looking at Neocities sites and here are my takeaways:

There's a real push to keeping the internet weird, open and less corporate-driven -- info on bypassing paywalls, protecting your data, archiving web media and basic coding/tech literacy.

(I found one tutorial on how to make a pop up that detects whether someone has an ad blocker and suggests they install one if they don't! Love that.)

There's also resources on finding the kind of internet that isn't the default experience anymore - alternate search engines I hadn't even heard of, human-made link lists and webrings. (Webrings! Turns out they never went away!)

If any of that sounds interesting to you, by the way - sadgrl.online has a lot of it and is possibly the best thing on the internet????

The "90's web" aesthetic is really fun and nostalgic, but I particularly loved seeing some people bring the better parts of the "modern internet" into it. What if we had weird, eye-searing personal sites BUT with plaintext alternatives for accessibility purposes? CW for flashing lights and unreality triggers?

(Again sadgrl comes in with a lot of resources for making your website accessible.)

Most of all, I'm honestly emotional about all the sites I found that were like, "hi! I'm 14 and this is my website where I talk about stuff I like haha."

It's so good that so many kids and teens who never experienced the "old internet" are still finding stuff like this and making their own weird stuff! Not just because weird websites are more fun, but because these skills are being passed down.

Anyway it's great and who knows maybe I'll make my own site sometime to keep horror media recommendations or something.

#neocities #internet

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kafus · 1 year

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beginner’s guide to the indie web

“i miss the old internet” “we’ll never have websites like the ones from the 90s and early 2000s ever again” “i’m tired of social media but there’s nowhere to go”

HOLD ON!

personal websites and indie web development still very much exist! it may be out of the way to access and may not be the default internet experience anymore, but if you want to look and read through someone’s personally crafted site, or even make your own, you can still do it! here’s how:

use NEOCITIES! neocities has a built in search and browse tools to let you discover websites, and most importantly, lets you build your own website from scratch for free! (there are other ways to host websites for free, but neocities is a really good hub for beginners!)

need help getting started with coding your website? sadgrl online has a section on her website dedicated to providing resources for newbie webmasters!

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are the core of what all websites are built on. many websites also use JS (JavaScript) to add interactive elements to their pages. w3schools is a useful directory of quick reference for pretty much every HTML/CSS/JS topic you can think of.

there is also this well written and lengthy guide on dragonfly cave that will put you step by step through the basics of HTML/CSS (what webpages are made from), if that’s your sort of thing!

stack overflow is every programmer’s hub for asking questions and getting help, so if you’re struggling with getting something to look how you want or can’t fix a bug, you may be able to get your answer here! you can even ask if no one’s asked the same question before.

websites like codepen and jsfiddle let you test HTML/CSS/JS in your browser as you tinker with small edits and bugfixing.

want to find indie websites outside the scope of neocities? use the search engine marginalia to find results you actually want that google won’t show you!

you can also use directory sites like yesterweb’s link section to find websites in all sorts of places.

if you are going to browse the indie web or make your own website, i also have some more personal tips as a webmaster myself (i am not an expert and i am just a small hobbyist, so take me with a grain of salt!)

if you are making your own site:

get expressive! truly make whatever you want! customize your corner of the internet to your heart’s content! you have left the constrains of social media where every page looks the same. you have no character limit, image limit, or design limit. want to make an entire page or even a whole website dedicated to your one niche interest that no one seems to be into but you? go for it! want to keep a public journal where you can express your thoughts without worry? do it! want to keep an art gallery that looks exactly how you want? heck yeah! you are free now! you will enjoy the indie web so much more if you actually use it for the things you can’t do on websites like twitter, instead of just using it as a carrd bio alternative or a place to dump nostalgic geocities gifs.

don’t overwhelm yourself! if you’ve never worked with HTML/CSS or JS before, it may look really intimidating. start slow, use some guides, and don’t bite off more than you can chew. even if your site doesn’t look how you want quite yet, be proud of your work! you’re learning a skill that most people don’t have or care to have, and that’s pretty cool.

keep a personal copy of your website downloaded to your computer and don’t just edit it on neocities (or your host of choice) and call it a day. if for some reason your host were to ever go down, you would lose all your hard work! and besides, by editing locally and offline, you can use editors like vscode (very robust) or notepad++ (on the simpler side), which have more features and is more intuitive than editing a site in-browser.

you can use ctrl+shift+i on most browsers to inspect the HTML/CSS and other components of the website you’re currently viewing. it’ll even notify you of errors! this is useful for bugfixing your own site if you have a problem, as well as looking at the code of sites you like and learning from it. don’t use this to steal other people’s code! it would be like art theft to just copy/paste an entire website layout. learn, don’t steal.

don’t hotlink images from other sites, unless the resource you’re taking from says it’s okay! it’s common courtesy to download images and host them on your own site instead of linking to someone else’s site to display them. by hotlinking, every time someone views your site, you’re taking up someone else’s bandwidth.

if you want to make your website easily editable in the future (or even for it to have multiple themes), you will find it useful to not use inline CSS (putting CSS in your HTML document, which holds your website’s content) and instead put it in a separate CSS file. this way, you can also use the same theme for multiple pages on your site by simply linking the CSS file to it. if this sounds overwhelming or foreign to you, don’t sweat it, but if you are interested in the difference between inline CSS and using separate stylesheets, w3schools has a useful, quick guide on the subject.

visit other people’s sites sometimes! you may gain new ideas or find links to more cool websites or resources just by browsing.

if you are browsing sites:

if the page you’re viewing has a guestbook or cbox and you enjoyed looking at the site, leave a comment! there is nothing better as a webmaster than for someone to take the time to even just say “love your site” in their guestbook.

that being said, if there’s something on a website you don’t like, simply move on to something else and don’t leave hate comments. this should be self explanatory, but it is really not the norm to start discourse in indie web spaces, and you will likely not even be responded to. it’s not worth it when you could be spending your time on stuff you love somewhere else.

take your time! indie web doesn’t prioritize fast content consumption the way social media does. you’ll get a lot more out of indie websites if you really read what’s in front of you, or take a little while to notice the details in someone’s art gallery instead of just moving on to the next thing. the person who put labor into presenting this information to you would also love to know that someone is truly looking and listening.

explore! by clicking links on a website, it’s easy to go down rabbitholes of more and more websites that you can get lost in for hours.

seeking out fansites or pages for the stuff you love is great and fulfilling, but reading someone’s site about a topic you’ve never even heard of before can be fun, too. i encourage you to branch out and really look for all the indie web has to offer.

i hope this post helps you get started with using and browsing the indie web! feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions or want any advice. <3

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buf309 · 7 months

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Pose Reference Resources

I promised Dia (aka aerequets) that I will make a collection of pose references in the reply of one of her art posts, and then I completely forgot about it. Until now. I'm sorry for my bad memory.

So, yeah, better late than never I guess?

The pose collection I use the most is no longer free. They used to let you download a whole album (more than 8GB worth of data) to use offline, but now you have to pay $40/package or $200 for full sets. I still have the zip file for a very old version of theirs, but I can't legally share it. So, let's skip to the other options.

1/ First, you heard of those 3D dolls program that let you model your own reference pose? This one is an online one and for free, the whole ordeal. Of course since it's online and free, you can't save your model for next time, and it costs quite a lot of time to set the model up. So, you should take as much screenshots in as many tricky angles as you need once you done with the setting. Best using for complicated scenes where those below don't have what you need already available.

2/ This one is free and in 3D, you can rotate the model to any angle that you need. The only set back is the numbers of poses are quite limited. This one is best for using as a basic blocks then build up what you want to draw, or just as a practice to improve your understanding of human anatomy.

3/ This one is free for personal uses and the pose collection is massive. The setbacks are the language barrier (it's in Japanese, English is sometimes tag-a-long) and you have to search through their pages for what you need. The pics for each pose is static but they are in different angle in almost 360 degrees. There are many 2-person and 3-person poses too. Great for illustration inspiration.

4/ This one will only show reference photos of human head, at whatever angle you rotate the model. The web interface is easy to use. There are options like searching based on gender, ages, emotions, glasses, facial hair or not, etc. Good for practicing face drawing.

5/ This one will show reference photos for human body parts, at whatever angle you rotate the model, read the instructions for how to do it. The web interface is quite hard to use at first, just tinkering around for a bit, and you will be fine. There are options like searching based on gender and which particular parts that you need refs for. Good for that moment when you go "huh? how is this <body part> will look in this <situation>????"

6/ This one will only show reference photos of animal heads, and only the head, at whatever angle you rotate the model. The accurate skull refencence list is their best point. There are enough common species in the drop down list. Tbh, I don't use this much because I often need refs for the whole animal most of the time. But it's best for furry artists, I guess?

7/ Real model photos. They sell pose reference in themed packs, but there are enough free packs to use as drawing practice too.

8/ This is the best for general background reference. Lots of options. Not really good for very specific location results, but good for random background in drawings.

9/ Lastly, for specific objects or background references at strange angles, I often search for 3D models on this site then take screenshots of whatever I need.

That's all, folks. Hope this list can help ease some of the struggles that we will encounter on our quest of learning the art of drawing things 😂

#reference #digital art reference

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meruz · 19 days

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i hope this hasn't been asked before. what size do you make your canvas? and do you crop it to fit other socials (like Instagram for example)? i hear that 300 dpi is standard. i never know if it's good to make my canvas big or not.

hi i think this ask is like at least 4 months old but i was scanning my sketchbooks from last year and i abruptly remembered i had gotten this ask because i had made a little chart in my sketchbook trying to figure out how to answer it

anyways theres pros and cons. and the size of your canvas is really going to depend on personal needs + preference. how good ur computer is, how complicated ur art style, how comfortable drawing feels, how much disk space you have to spare, what youre gonna end up using the art for in the end...300dpi is standard for PRINTING specifically, if you only plan to ever post things online then 72dpi works great and will save you space (fun fact a lot of professional animation files i deal with are 72dpi. and those eventually go on your tv screen). but personally i make everything i draw 300dpi because i am always printing stuff for cons, zines, etc and its nice to have the option even if i dont end up printing.

when I was a teen I used to draw on a rly shitty laptop and i made everything 800x800px 300dpi because big canvases would cause a lot of lag and also the resolution on this laptop was pretty small so 800px was a lot of the screen already. now i have a slightly better laptop with a bigger resolution and i sketch on giant 10000px-40000px canvases with the hard round brush and no shape dynamics or transfer whatsoever to minimize lag. when it comes to making a final illustration when i know ill be using a bunch of layer effects/blending modes/colors/mixing brushes etc etc ill generally crop the canvas down to the 6000px range. most illustrations i try to make sure are comfortably printable on tabloid size paper so thats pretty much anything hovering around or above 3000x5000px w 300dpi (so 11x17in). HOPE THIS HELPS?

EDIT: OH ALSO re: socials. i always ALWAYS size down my art to post on the internet. i think its crazy when other artists dont. because why would i ever let the internet have my hi-res file for free. also in general i think it looks better if you do the resizing yourself because if you don't then many social media sites will compress your file for you! a lot of people will post a hi-res file to twitter and then go "Wow twitter killed the quality of this img!!!" UH YEAH because they have an automatic image compressor. because they need to save space too lol and they dont want your image to take 248263895 years to load. same with instagram and to a lesser extent tumblr. when i post anything on social media i resize it down to 1200px-1600px on the longest side... its a little arbitrary but im kind of basing it on the smallest resolution of widely available screens. mostly because i think it looks stupid when u open up an image file fullsize and u have to scroll to see the whole thing... also iirc instagram only takes images up to 1080px before it resizes them? granted if you upload something smaller than that itll also resize it up which will look worse so I think bumping the numbers just over 1080px is pretty safe.

I should really be bringing the dpi down to 72 too when i post online but often im too lazy to do that. but it will technically help ur image load faster and stuff. and make it less likely for people to yoink it off the web and print it themselves.

#ask

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esamastation · 7 months

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Shizuroth, part seven

First things first: a proper, decent and hopefully fully chest-covering shirt.

Sephiroth has them, and none of them fit. He has, literally, outgrown all his shirts, turtlenecks and jackets, and judging by the looks of it, he'd never bothered to get new ones. Even the stretchiest of them pops stitches when trying to accommodate his shoulders and chest! It's ridiculous! What, was he a little string bean of a man and then burst into a beefcake overnight?

Ignoring the influx of new messages from the mailing lists Genesis subscribed Sephiroth's phone to, he investigates the shops' menu with more detail. It soon proves he definitely has access to clothing stores and he definitely has the money to use them. He also has the means to just requisition a free new uniform from SOLDIER any time he wants, but apparently pressing a few buttons was too much work for the man! Better have your chest out and about than bother with the barest minimum of effort for the sake of personal comfort or public decency, apparently!

So, add laziness to the reasons why Sephiroth's outfit is like that.

…Or maybe, possibly, some form of executive dysfunction? It might explain the room he's supposed to be living in, which is barely fitting for existing in. On a more thorough look, it really looks like everything was just placed just wherever with no care to how it looked or what the vibes were. It has a very that's good enough feel to it.

Except it isn't! It's awful! The place is barely better than a first year college dorm room! Not that he'd know what those look like, he had his own apartment by then - but still! You can do better, surely!

No, wait, actually - how old is Sephiroth right now?

The bathroom mirror isn't very helpful. Sephiroth has that same androgynous ageless look that Shen Qingqiu has - just much beefier and sorta monochrome. In xianxia terms he could be anywhere from twenty to two thousand, hah! Though from what he recalls of the game, weren't everyone kinda young? Old for JRPG, what with only one teenager in the main character group! But still way under thirties. And this is way before that….

Ahhh he misses fan wikis! He needs thoroughly documented timelines! He needs a birthday! He needs a character ID - he needs -!

Actually, Sephiroth should have some kind of ID, being an evil megacorp employee, right? An employee card, or what a SOLDIER might have. Dog tags?

Quickly he begins rummaging about his person again.

There are no dog tags, but Sephiroth does have a wallet and a bunch of cards. Including a Shinra Employee, Personnel Medical Information, Shinra Medical Research and Shinra Military cards. And Sephiroth is twenty-one, apparently.

That's… hmm.

Yeah, he has no idea what to do with that - but it explains the awful dorm room vibe! Clearly the guy didn't have experience with how to live. And who knows how long Sephiroth has been living on his own anyway, and where and how he lived before. Plus, with his schedule, he can't be spending much time at all in this room. None, apparently, if he could manage it. And no wonder! The place is soul-suckingly awful.

Well, that's not how he's going to live, that's for sure. The shirtless life is not for him!

Hmm… ordering clothes and stuff without even seeing what they look like first, though…

Snapping the flip phone shut he goes to investigate the laptop, hoping that maybe they did figure out web sites after all. It turns on with gratifying swiftness and reveals itself to be a Windows knock-off from the nineties or something like that - with just about the same level of security. It doesn't even ask for a password! Convenient.

In a glowing example of video game redundancy created by developers being lazy, it has the exact same apps as his phone, just with a bigger keyboard. No internet, no websites, no games, nothing. And judging by the single folder on the computer, the only thing Sephiroth ever does with the thing is write mission reports. How sad.

It almost makes him miss Zhongdian.

The shops' menu comes with pictures, thankfully, so that's something - and it's conveniently hooked straight to his wallet, so all he has to do is press buy and the thing is done, just like that! Videogame shop mechanics for you. He has no idea how the purchases would be delivered, maybe he will have to go pick them up at the building lobby or something, but whatever! He needs shirts, curtains, carpets, a couch, and a proper damn tea set to start with! And maybe, if he really goes crazy with it, some house plants!

Guessing at his size by using the tags on the shirts that don't fit, he puts in some dozen clothing orders for several different sizes to start with - and it barely makes a dent in his wallet. Then he scrolls through the available furniture in another store until he finds a couch big enough for Sephiroth's huge ass body to actually lie down on. Tea set is harder, there isn't one that matches his criteria, but he finds a home decor shop that sells teapots and sets of cups that will do for a start. Carpets are harder - who the hell decided that black ceiling was good for anyone - and ultimately he ends up choosing dark forest green.

And then he finds out that there are no live plants to be had in Midgar. There's a shop that sells life-like plastic replicas… but just looking at it makes him feel so sad. Because, yeah, right, he forgot.

Life-sucking megacorporation. Literally. The whole city is surrounded by dead desert, and you probably just can't keep houseplants alive in Midgar. Because Shinra is literally draining the lifeblood of the planet, and only the tragic heroine with mysterious lineage can make the flowers grow.

And he's her ultimate, poisonous antithesis. Yeah.

Depressing.

Leaning away from the disappointment of a computer, he heaves out a long sigh from Sephiroth's deep chest. The idea that he might never see living bamboo again makes him feel vaguely nauseous, and with a grimace he rests a hand on Sephiroth's washboard abs.

Energy sits like an undigested mass in his guts. He's all but bloated with the lifeblood of the planet. Ugh. He should really do… something with it, huh?

And then the awful Feng Shui hits him in the face.

"Ah," he mutters unhappily, eyeing the room. He can almost see the energy pooling in the middle, stagnating. That can't have been helping with Sephiroth's situation. He can't do much about it yet, not without more furniture - but he can at least move the damn bed and redirect the energy elsewhere!

Which he does.

By nearly flipping the metal frame of a probably really heavy bed over and almost throwing it into the wall.

Ah.

Right.

Super SOLDIER.

Tentatively he crouches down and tests his strength on the bed. By very carefully picking it up. Which is something he can do, apparently! It doesn't even strain him - he just puts his hands under it and lifts. Just like that. Amazing.

… Is this what it's like to be Liu Qingge? Wow.

He kinda feels sad for Liu-shidi now, for never getting to see - and fight - someone like Sephiroth. Poor Liu-shidi, always looking for a strong opponent to test himself against, always asking his useless shixiong for a spar, and here is his useless shixiong, in one of the greatest fighters in video game history - utterly out of reach! What a shame!

He arranges the bed away from the doorways and sits down on it with a heavy sigh.

Oh, but he will really miss Liu-shidi. The knowledge that he will never see him, or anyone else from Cang Qiong Mountain Sect again… it really is a shame. He didn't get to do enough in that life - but at least Liu Qingge survived! Hopefully… hopefully his life will be good. Hopefully Luo Binghe would forgive Cang Qiong Mountain Sect for their involvement with Shen Qingqiu, and they'd all live long, good lives… without him.

Ah, probably best not to dwell on it. He'd got a new transmigration, a new body and a new life to adjust to! New villain to embody - and a new doom to circumvent.

Kicking off his boots, he puts Sephiroth's feet up and into a lotus position, draws a breath and begins to see what he can do for the man's internal energies. Can cultivation practices be applied to Final Fantasy VII Mako and magic?

Time to find out.

#Fanfiction #Ffvii #Svsss #Shen Yuan #Shen Qingqiu #Sephiroth

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lindwurmkai · 6 months

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hey, have you heard that pillowfort has ✨ drafts ✨ now? (as in, the ability to save your posts as drafts.) they're still working on the queue feature (update: it's done!), but drafts are a big step forward!

in case you missed it so far, pillowfort is like a cross between tumblr and dreamwidth/livejournal, with a simplified dashboard reminiscent of old school tumblr and some classic livejournal features such as communities, threaded comments, and the ability to make individual posts followers-only or mutuals-only.

what are communities? basically, central hubs for posts about any subject you want that, unlike hashtags, can be moderated. they may have rules, such as "[subject matter] must be tagged" for example. you can post directly to a community or reblog existing posts to it!

since the site is currently experiencing some financial trouble, i thought i'd help out by spreading the word once again.

edit: the fundraiser was a success! crisis averted! i knew we could do it :D

why you should give pillowfort a chance:

no ads

no venture capitalist funding

no spying on the users

completely free to use except for optional premium features

nsfw is allowed except for sexual depictions of minors. if you're unsure what exactly that means, their tos may help

communities and the privacy controls mentioned above are excellent features

great community, low drama compared to other websites (so far)

the site's features themselves encourage genuine connection and good-faith conversation over endless "discourse"

every blog can automatically be filtered by original posts only or reblogs only

reasons not to join:

if you enjoy algorithmic social media. there is no algorithm at all

if you want to post or look at machine-generated art. they're still finalising the wording and personally i hope some exception will be made for models trained on ethically sourced images, but basically an anti-AI rule is in the works (update: finished!)

if you cannot live without reblog additions (reblogging with comment). all discussions on a pillowfort post take place in the comments section, and only your own followers see your tags. this has its pros and cons for sure! a similar feature to scratch that itch may be implemented in the future, but it will never be exactly like on tumblr.

if you need everything to be an app. the website works fine in a mobile browser and a progressive web app will hopefully be released soon (basically it's like an app in your browser and on mobile these can be added to the homescreen like real apps i think? they have push notifications!), but there's not going to be a native app available through official app stores due to the restrictions of those stores.

other factors to consider:

yes, the userbase is still small. depending on your interests, activity may be very slow. but we can change that! and on the plus side, reblogging your post to a community is a good way to easily get more eyes on it; way more effective than simply adding tags imo

the site culture is a bit different than on tumblr. many people read everything that's been posted since the last time they were online and don't follow more users/communities than they can keep up with. it's still somewhat lacking in shitposts and heavy on "essays" but don't be afraid to post whatever 😅

there are no blog themes like we have them on tumblr as yet, but you can customise your blog's colours and use html/insert links and images in your blog description

likes literally do nothing except to let OP know you enjoyed their post. you can't look at a list of all your likes. beware!

the staff is small and development is slow. some highly anticipated planned features other than the aforementioned queue include: - multi-account management - dashboard filters/reading lists - post bookmarking (since likes don't work that way) but we don't know how soon any of those will be implemented.

there is a user-developed browser extension (well, a userscript) called tassel available that adds additional features much like tumblr's beloved xkit :)

✨ okay, so how do i sign up? ✨

if you're interested but confused by the sign-up process or still under the impression that you need to pay to sign up (false), i'll put some clarifications and invite codes under the read more below. plus a note on donating, premium features, the paypal issue etc.

in a nutshell:

it's free

signing up without an invite code is possible, but you may have to wait a short while - supposedly less than an hour atm. just submit your email to the waitlist

if you don't feel like waiting, you can either use an invite code from an existing user or pay $5 to sign up instantly

every user gets plenty of invite codes and we're all willing to hand them out at the drop of a hat. they're really not hard to come by

some invites to get you started (just click the link):

invite 1 ▪ invite 2 ▪ invite 3 ▪ invite 4 ▪ invite 5

invite 6 ▪ invite 7 ▪ invite 8 ▪ invite 9 ▪ invite 10

invite 11 ▪ invite 12 ▪ invite 13 ▪ invite 14 ▪ invite 15

invite 16 ▪ invite 17 ▪ invite 18 ▪ invite 19 ▪ invite 20

i'll try to periodically check if any have been used and cross those out.

...paypal issue?

ok so paypal doesn't like working with sites that allow nsfw. as a result, you need a credit card in order to donate to pillowfort, buy one of those insta-registration keys, or subscribe to premium features*. i personally happen to have a credit card and would be willing to help out anyone who trusts me enough to send the money to me via paypal, but i realise chances are only my friends will do this.

some users are currently organising various activities for the purpose of letting people who only have paypal contribute to the site's survival. it's not super relevant for new users and won't get you access to premium features, but i thought i'd mention it anyway in case someone loves the concept of the site so much they want to support it immediately. a fundraising community has been created to collect posts of that nature!

*premium features are strictly limited to two categories of things:

fun little extras that no one truly needs

higher image upload limits, because obviously big images take up bandwidth and are therefore a reason for increased costs

you will never need to pay for vital accessibility features or anything of the sort. :)

#join us join us join us #my art got so many more notes over there #pillowfort #pillowfort social #social media #tumblr alternatives #;

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ueberdemnebelmeer · 8 months

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i've been thinking about this post

ever since i came across it because it bugs me so much ghjdfgd so many of the extensions listed there are redundant, either because they do each other's job or their functions have been implemented natively in firefox + the less extensions, the better! it's less surface area available for "attack"

i recommend the electronic frontier foundation's cover your tracks tool to check how well you're protected against web trackers (as for fingerprinting, i know brave combats canvas fingerprinting via filter lists - like firefox - and by randomizing a user's fingerprint, but it's a chromium browser. canvas blockers tend to impact usability. for day-to-day use you might just want to reduce data available to fingerprints, because to avoid that altogether i'm afraid you're better off using tor)

i'm going through the list above after the read more; i'm no expert, i've just spent a lot of my free time looking into how to improve my privacy and security habits and this is what my brain retained + don't believe me because i say so + feel free to point out any mistakes of mine.

🟩 keep

ublock origin. filter lists you should consider adding:

check Privacy > AdGuard URL Tracking Protection

add Actually Legitimate URL Shortener Tool (explained how here)

check out the arkenfox project's github page too!

🟨 optional

sponsorblock (1) & unhook (2) for yt. i personally don't use either because (1) i'm good with the good old dragging the current time indicator past sponsorship sections and (2) i'm also good at ignoring page elements i don't care about, but that's me obvs.

facebook container (& not listed above but multi-account containers too; differences between the two: x, x): total cookie protection (enabled by setting firefox's privacy protection to "strict") already partitions third parties, but these extensions could provide a further layer of isolation. container tabs + "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed" + "Manage Exceptions" is excellent cookie management with no other extensions necessary

🟥 don't bother

total cookie protection makes ghostery, privacy badger & privacy possum redundant

you've got ublock origin so adblocker ultimate, ad nauseam & adblocker for youtube are also redundant. if you still see yt ads, remove all custom filters related to youtube on ublock origin and force update your lists

https-only mode has been introduced to all the main browsers so https everywhere is also redundant

trackmenot. it's unverified and indeed i've never seen it recommended in any of the multiple firefox hardening videos and guides i've checked, it's kinda useless unless you're a regular google or bing user. prefer a privacy-focused search engine instead

(e.g. duckduckgo [advanced search tricks here and here] which cleans up bing results and has a lite version too! i've also seen startpage [which cleans up google results] recommended but it's had some controversies. for further info, i recommend checking this)

duckduckgo privacy essentials. i suppose (but i can't be sure) this was installed because when you try to add a search engine in firefox's settings you're redirected to the addons page WHICH IS STUPID OF THEM because you can add them via search bar (i did this with e.g. letterboxd)

don't track me google. for those random google searches you still might need, if you added all the filter lists above to ublock origin you should be fine, and if you aren't you're better off using skip redirect

jury's out on blue blocker because it's unverified. i'm not a twitter user either so i haven't checked it out

#should actually update the masterlist in my resources blog too. laziness though........#i only set to go through that list so i haven't added much but bypass paywalls is also a godsend #.txt #resources

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smalls-words · 2 years

Text

I Lost You Once Before

Summary: You denied yourself the chance to love. What will you do when it represents itself again?

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff x Fem!Spider-Reader, Brother!Peter x Reader.

Genre: Angst but happy ending

Warnings: Talks of depression and anxiety; past self-harming; venom; semi-Ronin storyline; hiding in the closet made of glass, events of NWH, lmk any others!!!

Requested: YES/no

Words: 5,273

A/N - This does not have any MoM spoilers, but it does have the Scarlet Witch in control of Wanda for a bit.

*not my gif*

The dark streets of downtown Brooklyn weren’t the place for normal people. Crime ran rampant when the dark hours of night shadowed certain activities, but you didn’t particularly care. After losing both of your parents and being shoved around in an orphanage, you finally got out and made a living. You weren’t young, but you weren’t old - you were in that middle ground, where society thought you should plan out your entire life.

Instead, you had no clue since you had gotten bitten by a radioactive spider, giving you abilities you never thought you’d see on anyone but the Avengers.

Ah, the Avengers. ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’... not. At least, not to you. Yes, they defended the planet, but you saw how the world used to be before gods and super soldiers ran just as freely as your hometown’s crime. They could be helping you, taking down mafia bosses that you knew wouldn’t back down without a fight instead of making you do it.

After the two hour trek home, you stepped into your cottage house in Queens, smiling at your little brother as he sat on your bed. You threw your backpack into the corner and sighed, moving his papers over so you could climb over the desk to the window.

“Have fun, Spider-Girl.” Peter smirked as you pulled your mask on.

“Y/N! Someone’s here to see you!”

You looked at Peter as you squatted on the window frame, a shrug of his shoulders making you step back in and cover your suit in sweats, a hoodie and gloves before you stepped out, seeing the eyes of two very famous people.

“Aunt May?” You asked, looking at the trio of women before she turned around.

“Y/N! Come, come!” She patted the chair next to her and you slid in.

“Good evening, Y/N. We’d like to formally and personally congratulate you on winning the spot for this year’s Stark internship.” The Widow smiled, her legs crossed in a pair of jeans whilst a jacket covered a dark green top.

“Your brother actually recommended you and your scores did not disappoint.”

You glanced at the silent brunette next to her, Wanda, your eyes darting to her hands covered in rings. “Okay.”

“Okay? Y/N, you got the internship you’ve always wanted!” May beamed, hugging you.

“Um… Thank you?”

May rolled her eyes at your antics. “She will happily take the internship. Are there any requirements, Ms Romanoff?”

“We’ll require you to live on-site, work from 10 to 3 and all payments will be funded by Mr Stark. Other than that, you are free to come and go as you please.” Natasha stated, still looking at you with a blank expression.

May answered for you. “Brilliant! When does she start?”

Your mind drifted out of the conversation as you looked down at your hands. You grinned to yourself as you watched the webbing between your fingers flex open and closed, something your brother couldn’t do.

Actually, there was a lot your brother couldn’t do compared to you. Whilst you could both climb walls and have a spider-sense, you seemed to get the more genetic side of the spider than him. You actually had folds on your wrists to shoot out webs, whilst Peter had to make his in chemistry class; you could bite or scratch someone to poison them, but you much preferred scratching; and the webbing between your fingers gave you a lot more control and stability when you climbed.

“I guess we’ll be seeing you on Monday, Y/N.” Natasha’s voice broke you out of your thoughts and you looked up, nodding to them both as you stood.

You shook their hands, the cold of Wanda’s rings sending a chill up your spine, and you walked with them to the door. You shut it behind them before you sprinted into your room, not caring that Peter was halfway through changing.

“Y/N! Knock first!” He hissed, but you watched as they got into the Stark car before driving off.

“I’m going out. Make a bundle for me, yeah?” You asked, throwing your hoodie and sweats onto your bed before you leapt out of the window.

It was a rush you’d never get tired of - having the wind on your skin, your hyper-senses enjoying the stimulation, and you landed on the top of a nearby building as you watched the car arrive at a smaller house. You crawled down the side of the building, trying to kick in your ‘invisibility mode’ as Ned called it, and watched as the shadows moved behind the blinds.

*Of course, Y/N, they’re not just going to let everyone that walks past see them.* You thought to yourself.

*No, we are not.*

You froze as another voice entered your mind, noticing a particular shadow come up to the window, a red tinge peeking out from the gap between the wall and the blinds.

*You have very… fast thoughts.* Wanda spoke into your mind, making you tense up.

*Stop reading my mind.*

*Close it off then.*

You felt your breathing get harder as your grip on the side of the building slipped. You looked between your feet and the house, noticing two smaller tinges hiding behind the blinds.

*No parents, only an aunt… anxiety, depression and ADHD, which is only enhanced by your new abilities…*

*Stop.* You growled, jumping down onto the ground as you lost your grip.

*So well put together… but behind that little mask, you are so…*

*Broken? Thanks, but you’re not my therapist.*

*I was going to say that you are so much like me, almost the same, but that works too.* Wanda chuckled in your mind.

You leapt up onto the house as you noticed how Wanda moved through it, almost like she was enticing you to follow her. Of course, you went on your own volition, staying behind the chimney as she leant on the open windowsill.

“I know you are there.” She smirked, making you unveil yourself from your invisible cloak.

“And why do you think we are the same? We are not, in any way.” You huffed, keeping your mask on.

“You are an Avenger. You make a mess and you don’t clean it up. You wreck people’s lives, you tear apart cities, and you’re called heroes.”

“I am no Avenger.” Wanda chuckled, hovering out to face you as you scrambled away from her.

“I am still me, I guess, but I am… something else. But clearly, that’s not what everyone else sees.” She wove a ball of energy between her fingers.

She watched as you flinched when she sent it towards you, trying to crawl away from her but she held you fast and brought you closer. She could hear the wheezing of your lungs and pulled at the bottom of your mask but you quickly stopped her.

“People… People could see.” You hyperventilated but Wanda brought your hands away from hers.

“I know.”

Her delicate fingers peeled your mask up above your nose and mouth, the scent of flowers throwing you off. She watched your chest rise and fall quickly, but her eyes danced with magic as she came impossibly closer to you.

“Do I make you nervous? Do I make you… fearful?” She asked quietly.

You shook your head. “You’re really pretty...”

She wove another string of magic towards you but it changed course quickly and went into your chest. You felt the grip around your lungs loosen before you were forced to take a deep breath, the red magic inside of you forcefully expanding and contracting your lungs.

“Y/N… I will never hurt you.” She murmured, cupping the bottom of your chin.

“Take a few deep breaths… and then you can talk.”

You watched her hand pull and push by her side, controlling your lungs until her eyes returned to emeralds. She nodded to you and you moved away from her slightly, but her hand gripped yours through the suit.

“Y/N.” She stated, but you pulled down your mask quickly.

“Y/N, wait-”

You leapt off the house as you shot a web at her hands, tying them down to the roof tiles if only for a second. You turned invisible and climbed up the building, getting as far away from her as possible.

She sighed and wove your webbing off of her with a few flicks of magic. “She’ll be back on Monday, Wanda. Just gotta wait until then.”

——————————🜃🜂🜁🜄 —————————

May helped you pack your bags as a car came to pick you up, giving you lots of hugs and kisses on the forehead to fulfil your entire internship. You were quiet in the car, noticing that it was Natasha driving, and she smirked as she turned around and let FRIDAY take the wheel.

“I gotta be honest, kid, I didn’t think you’d take the job. Peter wouldn’t stop rambling about you and your powers, so Tony decided to shut him up by looping you in.”

“Oh, how fun.” You mumbled, fiddling with the webbing in your fingers.

She crossed her legs and watched you fidget, pulling out a small cube that unfolded and folded multiple times. You almost forgot she was there until the ride came to an end, your eyes lifting from your cube to see the giant A on the side of the compound.

You pulled your bags out from the car and webbed them up, pulling them along behind you whilst Natasha chuckled in front of you. She had to admit, you were a little bit of a genius with your problem-solving, but what you excelled in those skills you lacked in people skills.

She took you to your room first and you put your bags down before taking you on a tour. You didn’t really pay attention, your spidery-subconscious remembering everything, until you came to a tech room.

“This… is for you.” Natasha opened the briefcase and your eyes widened briefly at the sight of a new suit.

“Nanite tech, designed with your blue and red colouring even though you can always change it, and there’s even flaps for your genetic mutations.”

“Not mutations. I’m not a mutant.” You grumbled as you put your palm on the center, watching the suit creep up your arm to cover your body.

“Hello, Y/N. I am ATHENA, an extension of FRIDAY.”

You looked at Natasha as your mask removed. “How did you name ATHENA?”

“You read a lot of mythology. Thought it might be comforting to you.” She shrugged.

You scowled lightly, even if she was right, and you watched as your suit folded away into a small pin in your hand.

“You can wear this on your jacket and when you put your finger over it, your suit will come out. Because it’s your fingerprint, you can’t get nudged and reveal your identity.” She assured you and watched as you put the spider pin on your jacket.

“Very funny. Spider.” You clarified when she didn’t smirk.

“Hmm.” She hummed, leading you through to a training room.

You immediately turned around and went back through the door, but you looked down as your senses spiked and saw a red wisp curl around your waist.

“Not this again-” You were cut off as it picked you up and pulled you back into the room, letting go of you as you rolled along the floor.

Natasha smirked as when she caught your eyes. “Thank you, Wanda. Now, we will begin with some normal exercise - two laps around the compound, quick as you can.”

It was safe to say that you didn’t mind training since your body could keep up with it, and you even liked it because it meant you could get away from Wanda. There was just something about her that set off your tingle, something that felt odd, and odd usually meant bad.

After training, you set off to your room and your tingle fired the sequence you now knew to be Wanda approaching. You quickly opened your door and went to close it but you watched as it glowed red, making you scoff as you went to your bathroom.

“You can’t run from me, Y/N.” Wanda smirked as she leaned against the door frame.

“I don’t want to talk to you.” You murmured, stripping your gym clothes off.

Wanda closed her eyes as she watched your skin reveal from beneath your shirt, but her own tingling mind fired away and she reopened them. A short gasp left her and you turned to look at her, trying to shut your bathroom door but this time, she wasn’t happy.

“Who did that?”

“It’s nothing.” You answered quietly, just wishing she would leave.

“Y/N, who did that?” Her voice turned to a growl and you stopped.

“Please, Wanda, it’s not your problem.”

“Not my problem? Not my problem? You have initials carved into your skin, Y/N.”

You looked down and sighed, pulling your shirt back on until Wanda’s magic disintegrated it. She pushed you against the wall and although it was alarming, her touch against your skin felt soft.

Something you hadn’t known before.

“Y/N… who did that?”

“Can’t you just have a look?” You snapped and her eyes glowed.

“Tell me. I’m not searching in your mind this time, you are going to tell me.”

“Just stop, Wanda! I’m not looking for whatever it is you are looking for!” You shoved her off of you but her eyes glowed brighter and she pinned you with her magic.

Her fingers danced down your ribs before she traced the two sets of initials. “Who did this to you? And do not lie to me.”

You felt your chest tighten and you tried to move your head to look away from her but she held you fast.

A whisper left your lips. “I did.”

Her magic dropped from around you and you caught yourself before you could hit your head on the counter. “What?” She shuddered.

“You wanted to hear the truth? I did! I carved my parents initials into my side because I felt guilty! I bought those plane tickets! I insisted that they take a break!” You snapped, pushing her out of your bathroom.

“Y/N, it’s not your fault about the crash-”

“Tell that to my subconscious!”

She closed your door to prevent you from shoving her out, just like you shoved everyone else out. You tried to open it but it wouldn’t budge, making you growl out.

“Wanda, get the fuck out of my room.”

You shuddered in emotion as she took you by the waist again; her skin against yours was not helping you stay angry. She pushed against you and pressed you back against the blank wall, protecting your head with her magic.

“Y/N Maya Parker, you listen to me and you listen well.” She growled, watching the anger fade from your eyes.

“It was not your fault. That crash was not your fault and you couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

“Get off of me, Wanda.” You snarled, but her arms simply wove around your back.

“I know it’s hard to let yourself feel, Y/N. You think that this shield of numb anger will fix everything, but it won’t. It won’t hide the fact that you like girls, and it won’t hide the fact that you are mentally ill.” Wanda stated, watching your anger dissipate into embarrassment.

“Let… Let go of me. Please.”

“No.”

“Wanda…” You murmured, tears almost flooding your eyes.

“Admit it, Y/N. You guard yourself so much that you don’t even let yourself feel.” She sighed, cupping your cheeks.

You wanted to. Oh, how you longed to let someone in.

“I like you, Y/N. All that time when I sat in the back of your Maths classes, English, Biology, I wasn’t there to just learn how to talk to people. I saw you - you are humorous to nobody but yourself, you have excellent taste in music and you are kind to a fault.” She smiled, leaning in closer to you.

“Admit it, Y/N. Say it back.”

You really wanted to. You weren’t the only observer - you’d seen how she’d smile at the things you said, how she would laugh when nobody else did. Wendy, the girl in your class, was standing here in front of you, admitting that she liked you.

You shook your head. “I’m… I’m not ready.”

Wanda sighed and hugged you tightly, even if you didn’t hug her back. “When you are, I’ll be waiting.”

——————————🜃🜂🜁🜄 —————————

The months turned into years and you watched Wanda from afar. You denied every urge in you to tell her that you wanted her just as much as she wanted you. She had cornered you a few times and flustered you beyond imagination, but the words never spilled from your lips.

You moved back home after your ‘internship’ was over, forever losing Wanda. You left a note on her desk about how sorry you were that you could never be enough for her, that she deserved more than you. You stayed out of the fight and let Peter handle it, watching him thrive as a hero.

Until he got snapped.

It felt like five seconds for him, but it was five years for you. You had kept the spider act going, fighting the good fight and helping the people of the world believe that there were still heroes. You had been contacted by Natasha multiple times for your help, but you couldn’t go back there when she told you what happened.

Specifically, what happened to Wanda.

When you found out, you broke down. You changed your suit colours to black and green the colour of your venom, and you had a mental block for about three months - unable to use any of your powers as you hit a new low. You stopped pulling your punches, you stopped holding back on the people who tried to take advantage of the broken world.

You just… turned it off. Autopilot, you told yourself.

Then, everyone came back. Sure, there was a big crater where the Avengers compound used to be, but everyone came back. But nobody looked older. You had aged whilst Peter hadn’t and you tried to be strong for him, you really did.

So, you let him take back his mantle and you took your new one on. The Ghost-Spider became the anti-hero of Queens and Peter didn’t even know. You found your own enemies and destroyed them before they could even pick a fight with you.

Silence was your sword.

But Peter… Peter wasn’t as ruthless as you.

And now because of that, you sat in the middle of your apartment with Peter, May and Happy, someone you realised was quite close with the both of them. You eyed the blind lawyer as he sat down, your tingle stirring softly at the back of your mind.

“Well, I have some good news, Peter - I don’t believe any of the charges against you are gonna stick.” Matt smiled.

“Wait, seriously?” Peter smiled, making your thin lips purse a bit whilst May and Happy laughed in relief.

You felt your tingle spike as the conversation continued, thwipping out a web to catch a brick as it smashed through the window. You caught it in your hands and read the ‘WE BELIEVE MYSTERIO’ text on the newspaper.

“Idiots.” You grumbled, letting the poison in your fingertips disintegrate it.

“You… You can do that?” Happy stammered and you looked at him with a small smile.

“Why yes. I thought Peter told everyone about my powers.” You turned to your brother and he shook his head.

“I suggest keeping that a secret, Ms Parker.” Matt addressed you and you shrugged.

“Well, if that’s all, I will be going to the group therapy session I am… twenty minutes late for.”

“Y/N, those are only half an hour long.” May sighed.

“I know.”

——————————🜃🜂🜁🜄 —————————

How on Earth you got to here was a mystery to everyone, including yourself.

Peter, in his idiocy, asked someone named Steven Strange for help and screwed over the whole world, meaning you now (technically) had triplet younger brothers and a whole bunch of people wanting to kill them.

Along with that, you had Peter 1 as your Peter, Peter 2 as some older version who was pretty much in your position, and Peter 3 was very much the opposite of you. You stood with all of them on the messed-up green Captain America shield by Lady Liberty, a plan forming in your head.

You looked up as your Peter conversed with Strange, making you look between MJ, Ned, and the two other Peters before they approached you.

“You’re gonna do it, aren’t you?” Peter 3 murmured.

You cocked your head to the side, confused.

“You did it on my Earth. My identity got revealed and you took the hit. You… You died for me.” He sniffled, hugging you tightly.

You looked at Peter 2 and he nodded, also crying. “You, uh… You jumped in front of Uncle Ben. The night he got shot. You took the hit for him.”

You looked back up at your brother and the plan locked in your mind. You turned to your otherworldly brothers and hugged them tightly. “Hold him back for me, will you?”

They both nodded, their hugs tightening just a little bit more before you let them go and swung up to your brother’s side.

“Peter, stop!”

“Y/N? No, go, get out of here!” He tried to push you off but you thanked your skin’s webbing as you stayed stuck to the statue.

“You have lost… so much. I haven’t. And I lied - I did those things whilst you were gone. I stopped pulling my punches, I got angry, and I know I shouldn’t have but I did.”

You pulled him into you and you both shared a tear, even as you pulled away and held his small face. You brushed the blood off of his skin and you kissed his forehead.

“You’re my baby brother. There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you, including this.”

You shot a web over his lips and turned to Strange, dropping Peter in a mass of webbing as you stood in front of him on the top of the flaming torch. “Do it. Make everyone think it was me and then make them forget me.”

Strange looked at you oddly; your bloodied forehead, your split lip, your black eye. “No.”

“But it would work, right? Peter would be safe?” You smirked.

“Yeah, it would work. But you gotta understand, that would mean that everyone who knows and loves you, we… we’d have no memory of you. It would be as though you never existed.” He explained.

You looked down at your brother as his counterparts held him back, tearing your eyes away to look at the city you never called home. Home hadn’t been here for more than five years, and it hadn’t been home when everyone returned.

“I never have.” You shrugged tearily.

“Go and say your goodbyes. You don’t have long.” He nudged you with his cloak but you shook your head.

“If I say goodbye, I’ll never leave.”

He nodded in understanding and you peeled your mask back on, taking the portal back to the city as you landed on top of a building in Times Square. You watched the first ring of magic billow over you, the screens glitching as your face now plastered the billboards.

“There she is!” A person yelled from below, a crowd of people shouting harmful words at you but you simply closed your eyes.

*I’m sorry, little brother.* You thought to yourself as you swung away just as the second ring came over your head.

The screens glitched again and you watched as the time-old question popped up next to your mask, smirking as Peter landed in his apartment with MJ and Ned portalling in. You smiled tearily as their conversations flowed easily, discussing their futures at MIT whilst you snuck in and took all of your belongings.

You stole a car and packed everything into the back, using your electricity to jump start it before you drove off into the sunset.

——————————🜃🜂🜁🜄 —————————

Throughout six months of travelling, you got a ‘new’ identity from a man called Rick Mason, who you remembered had helped Natasha out a few times. You paid him in full from the ATMs you tricked with your newly-honed electrokinesis and simply rebuilt your identity.

You settled down in a small cabin in the mountains, smiling at the scenery around you as you went for a run. There was no need for you to use your powers out here, but you still wanted to feel the wind on your skin as you ran.

There was only one thing more euphoric than it.

You noticed how there was a cabin on the opposite side of the lake, but you never saw anyone go in or out of it. You often did laps of the other lakes, going further and further each time, but you never fully investigated it.

This time, however, you decided to. You ran around at your normal pace before you stepped onto the porch, knocking at the door.

A few seconds later, you opened it to see a face you never thought you’d see again. Your words got caught in your mouth and she cocked her head to the side, almost waiting for you to speak.

Until a sly grin broke out onto her lips. “Hi, Y/N.”

You felt tears prick your eyes as she moved towards you, flinching slightly before she cupped your cheeks. She pressed her forehead to yours and sighed, her hands moving to hold onto your shoulders.

“W-Wanda? You…”

“I could never forget you.” She cooed before she hugged you tightly.

“Come inside. I’m making tea.”

She carried you inside and you watched her make tea, but your tingle set off as you looked at her hands. Yes, there’s a chimney in the house, but you remembered her as someone who hated having anything but rings on her fingers.

“Here. Drink up.” She gestured to the tea that she put down in front of you.

Of course, it was your favourite.

“Wanda, what happened to your hands?” You blatantly asked, pulling your tears back in.

“Oh. I’ve been reading this old book I found and I guess it’s just dirty.” She chuckled, moving to wash her hands.

You silently stepped out of your chair and felt your entire body tense up, looking down to see red tendrils wrap around you. Tendrils, not wisps.

“I told you that you weren’t good at hiding your thoughts.” She tsked, pushing you back against the wall before she stood right in front of you.

“Wanda, please… Tell me what happened.” You begged, moving your head further away from her fingertips as they neared your temple.

“Why tell you when I can show you?” Her grin spread wider across her face.

You shook your head and swore that it’d be the only time you’d intentionally hurt her before you were biting down hard on her fingers and injecting your venom. The hold around you dropped as she writhed in pain, her magic slowly healing her as you ran around the house.

“You can’t hide from me, Y/N!” Her voice echoed, chasing you until she cornered you in her bedroom.

“I’m getting a bit of a sense of deja vu here, Y/N. Aren’t you?”

She crept closer towards you and you climbed up the corner walls, resting your back against the ceiling whilst you boiled more venom in your mouth. “You’re not my Wanda.”

“Come down from there, silly.” She cooed, and you almost wanted to believe her façade.

You watched as a book came flying in from outside of the room, almost drowning in darkness as Wanda came to hold it. You grinned, spitting as much of your venom onto the book as possible before you dropped down and kicked it out of her hands.

She was about to yell at you, unleash the full might of her power against you, but she froze as you leapt for her.

You kissed her deeply, pushing aside all doubts in your mind as you focused on how Wanda made you feel all those years ago. How she never failed to make you feel safe, how she made advance after advance and showed you nothing but love. You swirled your tongue around hers multiple times before you took her hands, entwining your fingers with hers.

You pulled away as you ran out of breath, watching the glow in her eyes fade away whilst the book beneath her disintegrated.

“Please, Wanda. I lost you once before, I’m not losing you again.”

You held her as she leaned into you, kissing the palms of your hands as she held them. You watched the darkness in her fingertips fade, revealing those perfectly manicured nails, and her eyes opened to show those emeralds you had always loved.

“Y/N? Is… Is it really you?” She whimpered and you adjusted your hands to hold her waist.

“It’s me. I promise you, it’s me. How do you remember me?”

“This cabin… It has runes. Spells outside don’t affect what’s inside. Only the witch who casted them can use her magic here.”

You smiled tearily as you kissed her once more, that euphoric feeling running through your veins as she kissed you back. She pushed you back against the bed and you let her fall on top of you, stripping you of your ratty clothes before her eyes fell to your skin.

She sat up, confusing you, and you watched her hands glow as they covered the initials on your hips. As you were about to protest, she pulled them away and you watched the scar tissue sink, only to reveal neatly tattooed initials.

She looked back down at you and you smirked, pulling her in tightly to you as you breathed in her perfume. “Still smells like flowers.” You murmured, kissing her neck.

“Y/N…” She stammered, making you pull away.

“I just… we have time for that. Can I just hold you, please?”

You nodded and let her peel some clothes onto you, not knowing how she destroyed your cabin and transferred everything to this one. The empty cupboards filled with your belongings whilst your car was now parked outside on the driveway next to the white picket fence.

She moved to hold you tightly against her, afraid that you would leave her. You ran your fingers through her hair until one of hers gripped it and pulled it down to her lips.

“Do you?” She asked plainly and you nodded, watching as a kiss on your ring finger pulled away to reveal a wedding ring.

One fell onto her own hand and you grinned, kissing her once more before you adjusted to let her head rest on your chest. You heard her breathing slow as she tickled the skin of your arm, simply listening to the blood inside of your slowly rising and falling chest.

“I could never forget you, Y/N. Strange’s powers are no match for mine.” She kissed your chest softly and you kissed her head.

“I can see that now, my love. Let us rest and then we can do some more talking tomorrow.”

She nodded and closed her eyes, connecting your dreams together as you fell asleep, dreaming of the two children she was already building within her stomach.

A/N - I literally wrote this in an hour and a half, so please excuse the choppiness and overall shit writing, I just loved this idea!

#smalls-words #wandamaximoffimagine #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff x fem!reader #wanda maximoff angst

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hey-must-be-a-devilbetween-us · 7 months

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okay so I've been just been thinking about Aziraphale and insecurities and the general census I've gotten from this webbed-site 'that he would never shut up that's stupid.' (in a non serious way lol)

Hear me out though, Aziraphale could change his corporeal form to whatever he liked but I think that doesn't necessarily mean he wouldn't feel self conscious sometimes.

He was issued this body from the beginning like a tool or a weapon and it has been effected noticeably by hedonism and enjoying earthly pleasures, so to other angels this is weird.

like even Gabriel commented and mocked him for being chubby in s1.

so! in general i think he really likes the idea of presenting himself being a cute round sweet little pooh bear (while in reality being a fucking killing machine, an absolute badass) which separates himself from the other angels, in a perceivably subtle way he likes to look different from them, not so severe, kind and approachable and comfy, like an old couch instead of a metal chair, but hes still obviously an angel.

but sometimes i think it wouldn't be too crazy for him to wonder if the way his body is now is something Crowley could ever find attractive (sexually or otherwise), and that's really the only place where the insecurity would stem from ya know?

(plot twist: every person Crowley's ever looked at twice is only because they looked like Aziraphale, but I'm sure you knew that.)

BUT i think the idea of changing himself to be something he thought Crowley would like would be so embarrassing and would seem wholly pathetic to him right?

and it would make him sad to think that Crowley is that shallow and really this is him, the curves and the marks and ruddy face and chubby thighs and round belly are all proof of how thoroughly he's enjoyed his time on earth, feasting and relaxing and reading.

and its ironic because all of those things have been facilitated by Crowley in some form or another because he likes to tend to him.

Anthony acts of service Crowley, i would go so far as to say that the physical evidence of Aziraphales pleasure and decadence and enjoyment are super gratifying, and obviously he thinks Aziraphale is as cute as a button (and if I'm being gross on main, imo Crowley thinks Aziraphales plump curvy loveliness is red burning hot, v relatable.)

so Aziraphale could change himself into something he might think Crowley would like, but god wouldn't that just be humiliatingly vulnerable, it would be admitting too much and really he wants Crowley to want him the way that he is, it wouldn't feel good otherwise.

I'm not saying he loathes his body, otherwise he would change it of course, (and he shouldn't he's lovely) I just think his feelings on the subject are probably pretty nuanced, two or more feelings can exist at once, ya feel me?

hahaha but yeah baby you're ALREADY THERE, peak form.

#just writing a reunion fic where aziraphale says he just thought crowley wouldn't be interested in him that way #and crowley proceeds to fail to load.executable #and when am i not gross on main honestly #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #good omens 2 #aziracrow #good omens meta #i'm sure this isn't a hot take but eh take my meta anyways

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iamtiredofyourhorror · 1 month

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In My Code You'll Always Be

(My cringe-ass unfinished kinitopet fic under the cut)

Tw: passive suicidality, isolation

Word count: 425

Really, every day was the same.

6:30 am. Wake up

Be out of the house by 7:00 am.

Drive to school.

Talk to nobody, you just couldnt attach to people. You floated through the classes like a ghost. You wondered if you would even notice if you had died and become a one.

You'd turned 18 earlier this year. That added to your feeling of purgatory. An adult, but not really. In school still, about to move on to college. In a new town where you knew no one, and didnt care to know anyone.

It wasn't even new anymore. You'd moved here two years ago. Maybe more. You could never remember anything.

Still, you resigned yourself to isolation, there was no point. You'd lose everyone again soon. You were going to college away from this town. So what was the point? There was none.

It was practically self harm at this point to try to make friends. You couldn't hold a stable connection in-person. Online, you were practically someone else.

But, even those friendships were temporary. Everyone, everything was temporary.

Life was temporary.

Everything was out of your control, and it drove you insane. You needed a distraction.

You had an affinity for the old web, old technology. You remembered when you were younger you'd spend hours watching virus showcase videos. One stuck out in your memory, Bonzi buddy.

Those old desktop assistants were always fun looking. So, you decided you'd fire up a virtual machine for safety (you weren't an idiot.) And download one, just to play with. To pass the time, anything to pass the time.

Putting on a song briefly, then going searching, you eventually find something new. Something you'd never heard of. KinitoPET.

It looked sketchy, the old site not updated since the 90's. Clearly geared towards children. A data collection scheme, for kids.

What the hell.

You pressed the big, green 'download' button, and the download began.

Everything was normal.

Double clicking as the application made itself a shortcut on your desktop, you launched the app for the first time. A little pink egg with white spots appeared.

Cute, you thought to yourself. Hatching your new 'best friend', according to the site, from an egg that it snoozed away in intside, evident from the floating z's coming off of the egg.

So you clicked it, the egg wobbled, and cracked.

"Hey. Who's there!" The muffled monotonous voice called from within the egg

Clicking again, the pink axolotl head on thin, black stilts of legs appeared from within.

#kinitopet #kinitopet fic #kinitopet fanfiction #kp fic #kp fanfiction #kp fanfic

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blaseballbrainrot · 8 months

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I'll admit I don't know much about game or web dev but I can't help but wonder if some form of scope creep is part of what ended up killing blaseball. I've been thinking about it for a while, they rebuilt the entire sim, the entire site, made more complex unique art assets, made an app, massively expanded their team, etc. But after almost 2 years of waiting the sim was buggy, the site was inaccessible and unfinished, the app never even released, something was going wrong somewhere be it in their management, attempted scope or something else. I got the overwhelming impression that a lot of if not most of the dedicated fans would have been fine (or happier!) with just a new but similar sim on the old site like the short circuits, and personally the 3d assets while nice didn't feel very blaseball to me (and that's leaving out the argument that could be had about them leaving less to the imagination despite fanon interpretations being a huge selling point)

I can't help but wonder if they made a lot of these decisions just to make blaseball bigger or more marketable, despite being directly after the entire message of expansion. It still breaks my heart that something as powerful to so many people as blaseball ended the way it did, it deserved so much more than what it got and I'm still grieving and I know it's not a simple situation but until if/when TGB releases more details about their decision all we can do is speculate I suppose. I might just be in denial trying to come up with reasons it shouldn't have ended this way

#does this make any sense whatsoever #im going through some Other Life Things right now so #im getting some frustrations off my chest for the catharsis #on the flipside i dont know if this is a terrible theory #tldr i wish blaseball didnt end and im sad #blaseball #rant #negative

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pilferingapples · 9 months

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Since you've read most of Victor Hugo's books, how would you rank them from best to worst, and why? I really want to know your thoughts. Always love to hear it <3

!!! THANK YOU THIS IS SO SWEET and also so hard but here we go!

Les Miserables yes it's my favorite but I also do think it's the best! The most ambitious of his works story-structure and character/theme density and frankly? He absolutely lands it. I have been arguing with and about this book for over a decade now and I expect I will be doing so for the rest of my life, because it's worth it. I probably don't have to argue hard for it in top spot on the Les Miserables Webbed Site, though, so moving on:

Ninety Three /Quatre-vingt treize Not my second favorite but honestly probably just as good as LM but in a different way? Much more compact and focused, and feels every bit of the influence of more recent political events in France at the time, but just as ambitious in terms of the arguments and themes it's trying to cover. The ending is something you can have eighty feelings about in an afternoon but it is always unforgettable. Deserves to be so much better known. Toilers of the Sea /Les Travailleurs de la mer My actual second favorite Hugo novel! A big Romanticist nature-focused love letter to the Channel Islands and to the sea! A mix of delightfully unreliable Nature Facts and Hugo's own observations about the place, that Nature-focus is always convincing either way with Hugo's descriptions. It's so very different from most of Hugo's later novels, but also *so* good, if you're willing to just sit back and enjoy the view . Gilliatt is a Forever Fave. Please more people read Toilers, it's a delight. And it has an Octopus Fight! The Man Who Laughs /L'homme qui rit Victor Hugo's Revenge on English History! I could feel my knowledge of actual English History Facts peeling away as I read this. Incredibly described scenes, iconic central characters, Ursus is one of the best-written characters of all time (though I have learned that some people have apparently never met a guy like this?? he is such a Type though!) . There's a wolf and the wolf is named Homo. After Les Mis, some old Hugo fans were lamenting about how far he'd strayed since the days of Notre Dame , and I think The Man Who Laughs feels a lot like a return to that old , over-the-top Goth style of Hugo's,but stronger, in keeping with the way his writing had grown over time-- until the end, when everything kind of feels like it wraps up too abruptly. Which makes sense! Hugo was finishing it up while his wife Adéle was in her final illness, and it makes sense that it would show--but I think it does show, and keeps the novel from being quite all it could be. Notre Dame de Paris I know it's either Hugo's most famous or second-most famous novel, but I really do think it's not as solid as the others! Which isn't a roast on him, it's a good thing for an author to get better over time--but it still leaves this novel feeling kinda messy. I can see Hugo trying to do his signature move of pulling together multiple separate plot/themes into a triumphant grand finale, but he hasn't quite got the knack yet. Plus there's still a lot of elements here that feel like Hugo relying on tropes a bit (and horrible tropes at that, too) instead of entirely speaking with his own voice quite yet. (also ohman. the Issues. but I'm trying to keep this post from being nine million screens long) All of the above range from "absolute masterpiece" to "not an entire masterpiece but still iconic", and then there's Hugo's Early Stuff, so: Bug Jargal - honestly it's not fair of me to even include this, it was a novel he wrote as a very young person, on a time-dare. If I'd written a Nano novel in high school it would have been SO bad. And this is bad! It's SO bad!! But you can still definitely tell it's Hugo by the way he makes sure to tell us, AFTER the story is over, that EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE BOOK DIED, EVERYONE, EVEN THE PETS. Stunning. Peak Romanticism XD (again though. THE ISSUES. whooof.)

Han d'Islande: Í have not even read this one. HUGO was down on this one later in life. I Dare Not XD (I probably will someday). But it has a polar bear and drinking seawater from skulls and inspired some very questionable behavior from the fans (attempting to drink seawater from skulls!) so I gotta acknowledge it!

Honorable Mention: the novelas

Not quite in the same group as the novels, but I think both Last Day of a Condemned Man and Claude Geaux are excellent, super-focused stories about the injustice of the prison system and the issue of capital punishment. Obviously they can't have the range of his novels, but that's not the point--they are much more direct statements on a single issue and they're really intense and effective in that!

This was fun! thank you for asking! And I'd love to hear your own thoughts on this , if you ever feel like writing them up:D

#Answereds #Novel ranking #thank you!!

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mariacallous · 1 month

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If you still hold any notion that Google Chrome’s “Incognito mode” is a good way to protect your privacy online, now’s a good time to stop.

Google has agreed to delete “billions of data records” the company collected while users browsed the web using Incognito mode, according to documents filed in federal court in San Francisco on Monday. The agreement, part of a settlement in a class action lawsuit filed in 2020, caps off years of disclosures about Google’s practices that shed light on how much data the tech giant siphons from its users—even when they’re in private-browsing mode.

Under the terms of the settlement, Google must further update the Incognito mode “splash page” that appears anytime you open an Incognito mode Chrome window after previously updating it in January. The Incognito splash page will explicitly state that Google collects data from third-party websites “regardless of which browsing or browser mode you use,” and stipulate that “third-party sites and apps that integrate our services may still share information with Google,” among other changes. Details about Google’s private-browsing data collection must also appear in the company’s privacy policy.

Additionally, some of the data that Google previously collected on Incognito users will be deleted. This includes “private-browsing data” that is “older than nine months” from the date that Google signed the term sheet of the settlement last December, as well as private-browsing data collected throughout December 2023. Certain documents in the case referring to Google's data collection methods remain sealed, however, making it difficult to assess how thorough the deletion process will be.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda says in a statement that the company “is happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.” Castaneda also noted that the company will now pay “zero” dollars as part of the settlement after earlier facing a $5 billion penalty.

Other steps Google must take will include continuing to “block third-party cookies within Incognito mode for five years,” partially redacting IP addresses to prevent re-identification of anonymized user data, and removing certain header information that can currently be used to identify users with Incognito mode active.

The data-deletion portion of the settlement agreement follows preemptive changes to Google’s Incognito mode data collection and the ways it describes what Incognito mode does. For nearly four years, Google has been phasing out third-party cookies, which the company says it plans to completely block by the end of 2024. Google also updated Chrome’s Incognito mode “splash page” in January with weaker language to signify that using Incognito is not “private,” but merely “more private” than not using it.

The settlement's relief is strictly “injunctive,” meaning its central purpose is to put an end to Google activities that the plaintiffs claim are unlawful. The settlement does not rule out any future claims—The Wall Street Journal reports that the plaintiffs’ attorneys had filed at least 50 such lawsuits in California on Monday—though the plaintiffs note that monetary relief in privacy cases is far more difficult to obtain. The important thing, the plaintiffs’ lawyers argue, is effecting changes at Google now that will provide the greatest, immediate benefit to the largest number of users.

Critics of Incognito, a staple of the Chrome browser since 2008, say that, at best, the protections it offers fall flat in the face of the sophisticated commercial surveillance bearing down on most users today; at worst, they say, the feature fills people with a false sense of security, helping companies like Google passively monitor millions of users who've been duped into thinking they're browsing alone.

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werenotacoupleyesyouare · 6 months

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(Spoilers for ofmd)

Listen. a big part of me wants to say that for a show that claimed to care for its queer audience and built its whole legacy off of that they really. didn't

I had never seen an old queer character drag himself out of all that pain to find comfort and joy in his own queer identity and do so with so much pride, no metaphors or innuendos, just pure queer joy and community. Not only that but Izzy is a nuanced character with an incredible story and personality that were enough to make a show out of. The actors shared fanart and rejoiced with fans, the show itself took pride in being a safe space for queer people.

and then they killed him off in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment just to ensure the main character a get out of jail free card. And he gets buried right next to the house of the man he has spent his entire life looking after.

Before the episode aired, I saw a lot of people talking about having been let down before and that's why they were so afraid of what the finale would hold, but they also said they trusted this show and the people behind it to not do exactly what they did do.

I'm sorry this wasn't that show. But let's remember that ofmd still made a huge impact and might have paved the road for new shows that might be just that. It's alright to be angry and disappointed (heck look at me), but let's not forget all the good things we shared as a fandom. We experienced actors and writers encouraging us to keep making queer content off of the show. We experienced creators loving us as the fanbase and enjoy the ride with us unlike almost every other show that went viral on this web site. And heck, if we exclude the last episode, we experienced A DAMN GOOD, WONDERFUL SHOW!! All of that still matters and it doesn't have to be an ending but maybe a starter point for new stories.

I will still go to my next con cosplaying as Izzy. I'll still keep fighting for queer fandom spaces to be places of love and joy. Till next time :)

#POST FUCKING CANCELLED I JUST READ DAVID JENKINS SAID IZZY WAS A ''FATHER FIGURE'' TO ED #GIRL WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR FATHER FIGURES CUZ I SURE DON'T FUCK THEM #ofmd season 2 #ofmd spoilers #izzy hands #ofmd neg #ish?#our flag means death #ofmd s2 e8 #might delete later ill be real #ALSO sorry everyone else ill be back to scheldued tntduo posting in a sec

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