An Actual Goblin

“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” – Gordon Parks

i like him a normal amount

me: yeah, i posted on tumblr

publisher: .........tumblr?

me: that's where the gays are.

publisher: And what is your marketing strategy on... tumblr?

me: idk, i shitpost at 2am?

publisher: .....and it works?

me: depends on what the gays find funny at that point in time.

publisher: Could I have a link to your tumblr?

me: .......absolutely not.

publisher: I've been looking into tumblr, have you thought of using Blaze to promote your book?

me: NO

publisher: But it seems like an efficient way to get this in front of more eyes-

me: people on tumblr hate Blaze.

publisher: There is no algorithm and you can't pay to promote a post? I don't understand how anyone advertises anything on tumblr.

me: That's the best part. They don't. They can't.

(trying to make him understand that we do not control the attention. We just have to show something shiny and gay enough and if people are interested, they'll reblog.)

@vividaway​ Randall Munroe is an internet cartoonist who runs the ‘xkcd’ online comic series, which has run from 2006 up to today, with new comics every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Xkcd isn’t an ongoing story, just a series of funny, wholesome, depressing, or oddly scientifically informative comics.

In 2010, Randall’s fiance was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. He didn’t share too many details at first, but things tended to bleed into his comics: sometimes funny, sometimes sad.

Often in this time, other cartoonists would write in guest comics for Randall, or he’d put in short filler pieces, to try and fill space while nonstop cancer treatments took up most of his time.

In 2012, he posted a comic called ‘Two Years’, about the time since the diagnosis. It’s the one that hasn’t yet been posted here (although parts of it are included in the other comics), and it commemorates some of the things that had happened in the two years since the diagnosis.

There are representations of Randall and his fiance being together for her treatment, worrying together, traveling the world, and getting married. It’s still depressing, but it’s a lot more hopeful, showing how they’ve still managed to have happy moments together, and things will still get better.

Themes of cancer continued in xkcd, but they increasingly became less about fear and nihilism, and more about hope, or just cool facts related to cancer.

At the top of this post is the comic posted in 2017: Seven Years. In it, Randall and his wife are traveling more, trying to have fun and continue old and new hobbies, with cancer ever-present in the background of it all. At the end, the two of them observe the 2017 solar eclipse, and despite all the uncertainty that comes with the thought of another seven years, agree to watch the 2024 eclipse together too.

There are just about no cancer comics between that one and the most recent comic, the one I posted: Ten Years, written in 2020. It’s by far the most hopeful of the three in the little series: the two of them are happy, they’re playing with rabbits and riding on handcarts and going out hiking and stargazing, together. At the end, Ten Years breaks the format with a conversation in which they talk about how unbelievable it is that it’s been so long, and share their worries as well as their hopes. It even ends on a much more lighthearted joke about immortality.

It’s a good comic. Definitely in my top two comics wherein internet cartoonists express emotions about an illness suffered by their wife.

The first time I reblogged this it was three years after large bastard's heart attack and quad bypass and one year after his transplant.

Now it has been five years since his transplant, and seven years since his bypass.

Turnabout My Heart

📖 Read on AO3

Slowburn

Fluff and Angst

Friends to Lovers

Hurt/Comfort

Rated M

Ongoing: Chapters 12/? (updated 6/21/2026)

Phoenix refuses to accept Edgeworth’s rejection and makes it his mission to reach out and rekindle their friendship. They find comfort in each other as Phoenix grieves and learns to trust again, while Edgeworth grapples with the trauma of his past and his future as a prosecutor.

A romance set during Gyakuten Saiban 1.

Note: I do not write the fics in this series, though I wish I did. Also, all of these recs come from the fandoms I am a part of. If I'm not in your favorite fandom, sorry about that.

Welcome to a brand new series I'm doing! There are so many wonderful fanfictions that don't get the credit and adoration they deserve, and even the ones that do could use a little more. This week's recommendation is:

This is my first choice when I'm feeling like a cozy, comforting read. It's the love story of Miles Edgeworth, a reclusive and standoffish bookstore owner, and Phoenix Wright, flower shop employee and local artist. Their paths unexpectedly collide when Trucy wanders into Miles's shop, looking for books about 'real magic'.

I love to read this during fall, curled up in bed with nothing to do. This story is so sweet and fluffy, perfect for those who want limited angst in their fan fiction. Usually I'm a fiend for fictional characters suffering, but this makes me want to every single one of them a hug. I love how awkward Miles and Phoenix are in the beginning, and how they slowly become more comfortable with each other. All of the relationships, romantic or otherwise, are so engaging to watch. It feels like this is a real town with real people just trying their best. Also, this author just nails Miles's POV.

If you want an escape from this stressful world, I would highly recommend checking this story out. It feels like a cup of hot chocolate.

Status: Complete

Word Count: 108,952

1. make a syllabus for yourself - books, media, places, recipes

2. complete 40% of it

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.