#(by the way I'm talking about three different socials here it's not just tumblr)

[bedlamsbard]

starting to feel like I'm the only one who had a horrifically bad reaction to the end of Agatha

[blackkatdraws2]

I'm involved in a Stanley Reblog Chain and put effort into these drawings so I'll post them here too.

[The other characters belong to insomniphic / beartitled / and marionette-j2x]

[Just me rambling underneath!] ↓

Tumblr has a tag limit and it grates my nerves to no end to know that I can't ramble as much as I'd like to...

Stanley and the bad bitch he pulled by being a loser. Imagine having a hot babe deform reality just to be together with you because he sensed you were feeling lonely without him. [WHEN IS IT MY TURN?!]

It's funny because with the general vibe of their AU, it would make sense for him to show up in the most flashy but also unnerving way possible. The Narrator's [Black's] arrival has to grab people's eyes since attention and views are what he's all about.

I wasn't sure what type of characterization they had so I just played it safe and [tried to] draw how my characters would respond instead of blindly guessing how the others would talk or act around each other. [My Stanley is antisocial and an anxiety-ridden freak.]

Also, I've been wondering what their height differences actually were when I saw my Stanley have to look up at Marionette's Narrator [since this guy is pretty damn tall] so I did a bit of digging and this was what I found.

I had a lot of fun making this by the way. It's been a while since I've participated in any Reblog Chains that involved character interactions and making comics, so it's a real throwback to when I first started posting TSP art in 2023.

Stanley here is an absolute social shutoff teehee, but he does talk back when talked to. His responses usually leave no openings to continue the conversation though. He's the type of guy to stay on the corner and watch everyone else.

As for the Narrator [Black] he's a bit strange. He's proper in public, but he doesn't think the other people are special [or not as special as he is at least]. He just doesn't care to be honest, he keeps to himself [along with Stanley] and that's it. It's a miracle for Stanley to have even pulled somebody like Black considering their personalities are the type to clash with one another. [They love each other though, genuinely. Despite how deranged they can be towards each other sometimes, that development took a long time to be nurtured into something healthier for those two.]

Also, 4th wall breaking in action!!!!!!!!!!!

Black didn't want to interrupt this comic since it was made for Stanley but after the other three came in he lost reservations and came in as well.

[Copy and Pasting the tags of my other post because I am NOT re-writing all of this...]

These two would probably just stay in their own spot [somewhere quiet and more alone]. This place is a bit too crowded for their liking. But I would be very happy to jump on any opportunity to make my guys interact with the others!!!!! Don't be afraid to throw a bone [prompt] for me to bite on, okay?

[lhazaar]

hey. i'm turning my chair around and sitting in it backwards now because i want to speak specifically to people with ocd. this is a targeted post and is not meant to apply to the userbase of this website at large or to serve as a policy decision.

hi. do you know what scrupulosity means? it is a strong, intense, often painful concern about morality or religion. it's very common for religious people with ocd, actually—the fear that you've sinned, that you will sin, that your thoughts themselves are sinful. you're afraid of being an evil person. every thought and feeling you have is scrutinized to exhaustion in case it's proof that you're evil. this also happens for non-religious people with ocd, it's just that ours will look different; it's often a preoccupation with social justice issues. you care a lot about being a good person, right! most people do. you want to be a good person, you want to be kind to others and to dismantle oppressive systems where you can. i'm making some assumptions here, but they're based on my specific audience base.

so, there's this thing that happens online, especially on tumblr and twitter—not because bluh bluh platforms bad, but because of the ways in which information is propagated on here. people used to tag for these posts sporadically but don't do so as much anymore. you know posts that exhort you, the reader, specifically, to take action? they tell you not to look away, not to bury your head in the sand. they tell you to give and to agitate and to donate time, money, resources.

those posts used to make me intensely, deeply anxious. i don't mean mild agitation, i mean life-ruining, day-occupying panic that seizes your entire body, and thoughts that don't leave your brain. guilt that paralzyes you because you, personally, cannot go kill the politicians responsible. you don't have enough money to do more than donate a few dollars, and sometimes you don't even have that. but because of where you live, because of the fact that you have internet access and you're literate enough to read these posts, you know that you have a level of privilege that most people never will. you're aware of that privilege because you're reasonably in-tune with social justice movements and you've probably spent some time dissecting your own privilege to examine your biases. (that's not a bad thing; i'm not here to condemn that. stay with me, if you can.)

there's a thing that can happen if you've lived with ocd like this for a long time where you become kind of incapable of telling what's addressed to you personally and what isn't. everything feels like a personal exhortation. you have trouble saying no, or knowing when you're overextended, because other people have it worse. how dare you enjoy relative comfort when people are being bombed or drowning in a climate change -induced flood or being crushed to death in a crowd panic. how dare you not be aware of it at all times, always, constantly. how dare you look away. don't look away.

i want to tell you about something i went through, if that's okay. a lot of people who follow me will already know this, but i haven't talked about this aspect of it very much publicly. in 2020, while visiting my partner in southern oregon, we had to evacuate from wildfires twice in under 24 hours. that was a really, really bad fire season, caused and perpetuated by a combination of global climate change and colonialization practices that destroyed traditional indigenous fire management strategies across the west coast of north america. fires stretched from bc to california. we wound up fleeing south, and then had to flee back north again, hemmed in on three sides. i flew back home to bc shortly afterwards, and i have this vivid, awful memory of seeing my home mountain range, the cascades, choked out with smoke from the window of an airplane. the woman in front of me sobbed the entire time until we touched down.

i remember thinking at that time that it was insane the entire world wasn't stopping. what i was experiencing was apocalyptic in scale—the fire we ran from the first time was part of a complex that chewed up entire towns. it wasn't the first fire season, nor the worst for the continent, nor the world. but all i could think in the moment was why aren't we doing anything, this is going to be all of us in a decade, why are people looking away.

if i had gone online and posted that, it would not have been morally wrong of me. there's no ascribing morality to a reaction like that. i mean, if i'd gone to someone who suffered in the years prior in australia or california and told them that ours was So Much Worse, that would have made me an asshole, but i didn't do that. i made some upset facebook posts targeted at the trump voters in my family, but i had no way to express at the time the sort of clawing panic of WHY AREN'T PEOPLE DOING ANYTHING??

the answer to that, which you probably know, is: what would they have done? we were sheltered by friends we evacuated with, but what power did a mutual in new york or wales or singapore have to affect a wildfire in oregon?

so, come back to the present day with me again, if you will. i said above that posts worded like this used to make me really, really anxious. in the span of time after the fire, i developed ptsd, and my ocd ruined my life. i took an extra year to graduate after i'd finished all my coursework because i could not send in the forms required. i was too busy spending 10-16 hours a day rearranging furniture in my room, or lying in bed, full-body tense, until it felt like my teeth would crack from the pressure. i'm medicated now. i'm grateful for it. i have more tolerance for these posts because i've been there. i know the op isn't doing anything wrong, because they're not wrong. why isn't the world stopping to look at a natural disaster, or a genocide? the world should not be like this.

you are not the world. you are someone with a brain that will torture you to death given the chance. you know how learning to reckon with your privileges, whatever they may be, requires you to not try and escape them? you need to be able to hold in your head that yes, you benefit from something that isn't fair; yes, other people should have that benefit, and that they don't is unjust. but you need to, for example, not try and weasel your way out of being white because you're uncomfortable with the guilt that it produces. you need to not go online and say well not ALL americans because you can't sit with the idea of being complicit in american imperialism. if you have ocd, you need to apply that to your own brain, too. you need to apply it to every post that you see. you need to know that people are not speaking directly to you, they are crying out in pain and fear. they are not doing anything wrong. they are scared and hurting.

they do not benefit from you taking on all the guilt of that fear and pain. i am not saying this to absolve you of the guilt. i am saying that you need to be able to exist with that level of guilt without allowing it to paralyze and destroy you. if you can't do that right now, i'm not here to cast judgement on you. blacklist phrases. i had "wildfire" blacklisted for a long time. i'm sure i missed aid posts because of it. the alternative was me being nonfunctional. for a long time, i had donation posts blacklisted across the board, because the way my ocd worked meant that i was neurologically incapable of knowing where my own limits were, and i would give money i did not have. if you need to do that, this is me giving you permission. doing this does not make you evil. it does not make you morally bankrupt. it makes you someone whose brain is trying to fucking kill them, and the world needs you to not let that happen.

this is not a post about how you're exempt from caring about the world if you're mentally ill, it's about how you cannot apply that care to anything useful if you're having massive panic spirals every other day about the guilt that you feel. your guilt should not rule your life. if it does, i say this kindly, but you very likely need medication. i'm sorry if you don't have access to that right now. you cannot think your way out of ocd. you cannot think your way into stopping neural activity. you cannot guilt your way into being a good person; you have to be able to exist with the guilt and not let it rule you in order to do that. nobody benefits from your brain trying to martyr you in the name of solving the world's suffering.

you need to be able to function, free of crushing and paralyzing guilt, before you can help anyone. you are not an effective ally like this just because your brain tells you that it's necessary.

[bobbiedebruyn]

How to recognize stolen gifs

Reposting is a constant problem that all gifmakers deal with, both here and on other social media platforms. Whether you're new to Tumblr or just passing by, I'm going to provide an explanation on how to spot a repost and what to do with it. I'll cover both Tumblr and Twitter since, unfortunately, Twitter is the most common place for gifmakers to find their content.

Let me start by saying that most gifmakers have a unique style. We can recognize stolen gifs by their crop/dimension, sharpening, and coloring settings. After a couple of years, you're able to find the set of adjustment settings that you prefer the most. So even the most basic gifs (simple scene gifs) go through a lot before we post them on Tumblr.

If you're new here or don't know much about gifmaking you might be confused about what I meant by crop/dimension, sharpening, and coloring settings, so we're going to go through them one by one.

Crop/Dimension

On Tumblr, for your photosets to be displayed correctly, you need to follow the correct image dimensions. For example, if you post one gif, the width should be 540px (with a maximum height of up to 810px). If you post two gifs in a row, the width of both needs to be 268px (with a maximum height of 600px). And if you post three gifs in a row, two of them need to have a width of 177px, with an exemption for the middle one, which needs to be 178px (with a maximum height of 400px for all three).

Since the maximum height is not specified, all gifmakers have different specific dimensions that they prefer, and therefore they can recognize them easily. For example, if I were to post one gif, I'd make it 540x360 or 540x380, and if I saw it being reposted, I'd recognize it.

Sharpening

Sharpening refers to the Smart Sharpen Filter. This is a filter all of us use to make our gifs look crisp and less blurry. Similarly to dimensions, everyone has unique settings for their Smart Sharpen. Some people use it once, while others use it twice. There are also different values people input into the settings of that filter, therefore they can recognize it. I'm going to provide some visual examples of a gif with and without any sharpening.

As you can see, after applying the filter, the gif became more detailed and less blurry.

Coloring

Now, let's talk about what makes gifs special and unique. Coloring involves a set of adjustments applied to a gif to enhance brightness, and vibrancy, or to remove color tints and alter specific colors within the gif. Even the most basic gifs undergo this process. And as you might expect, everyone has their own coloring settings, ensuring that no two gifs are exactly alike.

One last visual example I'm going to provide is a comparison between a gif without sharpening and coloring and a gif with sharpening and coloring. This way, you can see the difference between what you witnessed on screen while watching a specific TV show and how someone edited that scene in a gif.

Personally, I'm always trying to give a gif more contrast, vibrancy, and brightness. One specific thing I do, which makes it easy for me to recognize my gifs, is changing the leaves in the background from green to yellow. I often aim for this little detail if I know that plot-wise TV show takes place in autumn but the filming took place in summer. Similarly, other gif makers have their own unique additions to their sets that are easily recognizable to them.

Now that we've figured out what makes a gif special and how gif makers recognize them, let's move on to the section about how you can recognize stolen gifs and what you should do about it.

Twitter

This one is extremely easy. Twitter is not exactly known for gifmaking. Sure, some gif-oriented accounts make gifs, but they're not as common as Tumblr gifmakers. However, when it comes to them, there are some ways to tell if a gif was made by them. Watermarks: Twitter accounts often watermark their gifs (Tumblr folks do that too, but it's less common, I'd say). Dimensions: Twitter uses different dimensions for gifs. On Twitter, the width of a gif needs to start from 1080px, in comparison to Tumblr's 540px. When people repost from Tumblr and post on Twitter, the quality of a gif is extremely terrible because of the different dimensions. So, if you don't see a watermark, there is a clear sign of coloring, and the quality is extremely low and pixelated - the gif is most likely from Tumblr.

You can try finding the gif's source by using Google reverse image search. Usually, it'll lead you to the original creator.

Tumblr

Spotting a repost on Tumblr is a bit more complicated but of course, there are ways to do it.

Different dimensions: On Twitter, people usually repost one gif, while on Tumblr, people repost whole sets. It just so happens that sometimes they repost different gifs from different sets. So, if you see a gifset and the dimensions of the gifs in it are not the same, then it's probably stolen from different sets.

Different coloring: Again, if the coloring of the gifs is drastically different, then it means it's probably stolen from different sets.

No creator's tag: Gifmakers often track their own creations using hashtags such as #mine, #mywork, #mine, and #gif. While sometimes gifmakers may forget to include their tag, if you notice a blog posting multiple sets without them and it looks suspicious, it's likely a repost.

No tags: To give gifsets more visibility, gifmakers often use tags such as #onedirectionedit #wtfockedit #filmtvedit or different source blog tags. Reposters don't know about it and don't use it.

Weird captions: Reposters often use gifs as reaction pics. So, instead of captioning a set with something like "Steve Harrington in 3x03", they're more likely to caption it with something like "he looks so hot here!" or "he's so pretty!!" Look out for sets with such captions that look like comments. Keep in mind that they often don't format those captions either.

If you saw the gif before: As mentioned previously, no two gifs are exactly the same. The chances of two gifmakers having the exact same settings down to a pixel are close to zero. So if you think you've seen that exact gif before, it's definitely a repost.

What can you do?

If you've been in the specific fandom for a while, chances are you might have seen that gif before and you might figure out who made it easily. You can also browse through your fandom's overall creations tag to try to find the original post and gifmaker. To do so, search for #yourfandom + #edit. For example, I currently gif the TV show called Wtfock, its creation's tag is #wtfockedit. Got it? Cool! After you figure out who the gifmaker is, you can send them the reposter's post and ask if that's their set.

If you can't find the original gifmaker on your own, you can try messaging other gifmakers from that fandom and asking whether or not they know who made the gifset.

You can also contact the reposter on your own and kindly ask them not to repost the gifs. Explain the Tumblr etiquette to them, there's a chance they're new to the website and simply didn't know about it. There's a chance they might listen to you and take down the post. If they choose not to listen and block you, you can once again message or send asks to different gifmakers from that fandom to inform them of the reposter so that they can block them.

You can also encourage the reposter to make their own gifs, especially if their excuse for reposting is "I don't know how to make my own gifs." While it may seem challenging, it's not impossible. This website is full of tutorials, and many gifmakers are open to helping out and explaining things if you're new to gifmaking. I'll leave a link to a comprehensive guide 101, just in case.

That's it! I hope this post has helped you understand what makes gifs unique, how to distinguish reposts from original posts, and what to do when you encounter a repost. If you have any more questions, feel free to leave messages in my askbox.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for how my previous 'situationship' ended? (I genuinely do not know what to call this situation so that's gonna have to do).

Okay so I (20F) met a guy that we will call Chris (21M) on tinder in Oct 2022. We were at the same uni, and we had good rapport over text, so we decided to meet up. He was pretty awkward but once we actually got talking he was a good chat. Nothing romantic or sexual was discussed/acted upon.

We hung out a few times after that. I kissed him once after a night out, which he didn't reciprocate or ever mention again. Given the complete lack of romance/sexuality coming from him, and the fact that he is a very socially awkward person, I took the hint that he wasn't interested and didn't know how to tell me. I felt that i made the fact I was interested clear and he hadn't taken me up on it, so I just dropped the subject. We continued talking as friends, and I genuinely thought that's all it was.

Come Feb 2023, I went on a night out with a different group of friends, during which a friend of mine, we'll call Tom, kissed me. I nearly had a one night stand with Tom, but I ended up not sleeping with him and just going home because I was too drunk. Being drunk and cringe, I made a pretty crude post to my tumblr before I passed out which was something like "someone is actually attracted to me? Nail me to a wall!" (Long deleted because drunk me is an embarrassment lol).

I woke up to texts from Chris, who had seen my tumblr post and was upset. I was pretty confused because 1. He doesn't even use tumblr, 2. I don't remember ever giving him my account name but it must have been in a screenshot at some point, and 3. I was not under the impression that we were dating... I let all that slide like an idiot because I was really hungover. Chris and I then had a chill discussion about what we were, and agreed to be friends. Cool! I thought that was the end of the drama. We chatted and hung out afterwards with 0 difference to how it had been before.

Cut to May, and I sent him good luck wishes before an exam. He says thanks and I just didn't think about it again, normal exchange.

Over three weeks after I'd wished him good luck, I woke up to a wall of text he'd sent me at 3am where he went into detail about how i had strung him along and wasted his time; that he thought I was manipulative and playing "mind games" with him for that good luck text, which he took as me trying to psyche him out before the exam and make him fail the module; that he didn't want to 'just be friends anymore' because the knowlege that i strung him along hurt too much; that I "ignored him as he walked past" (I still have no idea where or when this happened, I straight up did not see him wherever it was). He also went into detail about physical and mental health issues he'd been going through (that I wasn't aware of before the wall of text) saying that I'd been a great help with them during first term, then "ruined his second term". He went off that my lack of communication skills is a detriment to everyone around me.

I was completely blindsided by all of that, and honestly really hurt that he'd accuse me of trying to make him fail his exams, but I'm not sure that he's not got a point? Looking back, yeah maybe I should have straight up asked him if he was interested back in Nov. But idk I'd say kissing someone is a pretty fucking clear communication that i was interested, and he made 0 reaction to it, what was i supposed to think? I'm not in the habit of pushing people when they do nothing in the way of reciprocation. But, one of the issues he disclosed to me was that he had gotten an autism diagnosis in April and I can see how not being 100% clear and verbal in my communication may have been the root of the issues here, given that he was undiagnosed autistic for most of the time I knew him.

Anyway, was my lack of communication an asshole move?

What are these acronyms?

[probablyaparadox]

Oh gosh here we go again- the peak of my hyper fixation on something where I finally post a theory... SO CROCODILE- (Y'all love this guy on tumblr-)I'm going to be very truthful, this started out as a head cannon which I found evidence for in this theory to bring my idea's to completion, and really ties up my thought process together.

What are the key takeaways? 1. Crocodile specifically Avoids having a ring on ring finger, and this could be because he has a spouse 2. Him having lost them in some way, and Iva knowing about them. But why Iva? And why do I say them? Y'all already know- I'm saying Crocodile is gay, and has a husband, well somewhere out there. This makes logistic sense because well, why Iva becomes answered, but we also have a subtle hint in crocodiles overall design. Firstly

Crocodiles Outfit is surprisingly evocative of the victorian dress. Mostly thanks to the vest and cravat look. Additionally, the victorian era began in 1837, very close to when Cigars became popular. I bring this up partially because I think it's cool, and partially because it allows for some implications to come across, as one piece's world spans socially over several decades in terms of atmosphere and acceptance. Mostly that the victorian era was a time where being LGBTQ+ was still considered taboo. So while most of new kama is living in the times of 1970's to modern day, he is very much living in the victorian era. One revolves around being loud and proud, and the other very much around subtleties. What subtleties does he have? Well. For starters, It's a very- Choice colour with the purple vest there. (this is mostly a joke, although purple is associated with signalling, it's usually a different manner as far as I'm aware.) What I actually want to talk about is the earring. Most characters in one piece Wear double earrings if they are wearing them (I.E. Law, bart, Nami, Blackbeard etc.) For those of you unaware, Earring signalling goes like this. Right is gay, left is straight. I could only find three characters wearing a single earring. 1. Zoro on his left. 2. Benn Beckman on his right (Good for him!/hj) and 3. Crocodile on his right. So with this ramble aside. I think his interactions with Iva and the gays TM make much more sense. He's down with the gays because well. He is. They literally give him an entirely new outfit, just like they do for the rest of the LGBTQ+ people they bring in. And why IVA SPECIFICALLY would know that he is married, as per Iva knowing and being all gay peoples parent (/hj). In all seriousness I think it would make sense in this context that he asked Iva to help with his wedding or something of the like, since he (and presumably his husband) likely didn't have many connections to people who could do wedding stuff non-judgementally I.E. a cake or getting someone to do the vows. It's very wholesome, but it's something that I could see as Crocodile wanting to be kept secret, as he's been characterized as someone very secretive. This part is pure speculation/almost definitely false; but. I could definitely see some sort of "held hostage" situation. As Crocodile said "If you want to protect something, do it right." This could be someone who is protecting something, but also someone who lost it. I mean, they've forced the other warlords into similar corners, with the protection of Amazon Lily, or the release of Arlong (and likewise the safe return of all the escaped slaves from the Sun pirates who just wanted to go home.) It makes the "wanting to have a power that can match the WG or any nation in force" goal of his have a much more interesting reason than "KING OF THE PIRATES." We got enough folks aiming for that already, and I feel like if you beat an early antagonist that badly and just keep using him, you gotta have some kind of pay off that doesn't involve him getting beat again.

[meraki-yao]

I want to hear your opinion on this. Please. If you can because the twitter account that I'll be talking about is on tumblr and I think her account is njwoman (unless they changed it). But anyway...

Their account on Twitter is @bourdainstalker if you want to see. But today was the PGA Awards and, sadly, they lost. Taylor went to the event and Nick didn't (I don't know if he got invited to attend or what). On their twitter account, they pinned a post that said they support both of them.

But immediately after RWRB lost the category, they posted a tweet that said "I know 1 person who doesn't care that they lost". And I know who they mean because every single time that Taylor talks about RWRB, they say something like 'Nick hates the movie'. Everytime Taylor signs RWRB books, they say something like 'Nick hates RWRB'. And also today, Phil Dunsen liked Taylor's Instagram post from yesterday and they said 'Colleagues supporting colleagues. It's so easy. Takes 30 seconds.' And I know who they're talking about because they always say that Nick doesn't like Taylor's Instagram posts.

For someone who says they support BOTH OF THEM, I don't think the word support means shitting on one of them. And spreading hate.

Someone really is obsessed for Nick's like. Like, Nick is so famous that so-called Taylor fans want Nick's like on Taylor's Instagram posts.

...whew. Okay, here we go.

I'm not on Twitter, so I can't (and don't really want to check it), so right now I'll take your word for it, especially since it's not just this person, I had plenty of anon ask come in my inbox with similar sentiments.

I'm going to divide this ask into parts and refute them accordingly:

1, Nick doesn't sign books

2, Nick doesn't like Taylor's post

3, Nick didn't attend PGA, he doesn't care

4, Nick hates rwrb

okay, let's start.

Regarding 1:

That's simply not true.

We see Taylor sign books and talk about rwrb, partly of course because he wants to and he's proud of the movie, but partly also because he shows up to events and places to do so. Think about it, when and where does he sign books? when he attends public events, whether or not it's related to the movie even marginally (ex: fashion events). when and where does he talk about rwrb publicly? when he's prompted to by an interviewer. I have no doubt that he could talk about the movie for hours on his own, but everything we see in public, is from him attending public events.

Nick hasn't been to that many public events since the strike ended. I can't keep track of how many events Taylor attended since August, in his China trip one day alone covered three to four events. Nick on the other hand, went to GQ Men of the Year in November, the Academy museum gala in December, and Milan Fashion Week for Fendi last month. That's it. And except for the academy gala where fans weren't really allowed to be there, so neither Taylor nor Nick got to sign anything, both other times, Nick signed the books. That's where the "Should I sign on Taylor's face? I heard he keeps signing in my face." came from. And that was literally last month.

And it's not a problem that Taylor attends so many events while Nick doesn't. It doesn't make Nick a lesser person. They just have different choices in how to use their time, as we all do. Taylor's also a significantly more extroverted person than Nick, who was diagnosed with anxiety and depression when he was young.

But anytime they can, they both sign books. So accusing Nick of not signing books isn't true in the slightest. It just seems that way because of the contrast between the number of events Taylor attends vs that of Nick.

Regarding 2:

I don't understand, nor see a logical explanation for being so fixating on "liking" on social media, and using that to determine their relationship. If that's how your friendship work, you may want to re-evluate them.

Also again, I think it's a matter of contrast and it's effect on perception. Taylor doesn't like Nick's post all the time either: since the strike ended, the only post of Nick's that Taylor liked is the Academy Museum Gala, George's "The Son The Seducer" poster, and the poster with Mary and George. That's three times. Neither of the boys liked each other's RWRB post.

And it's not like Nick doesn't like Taylor's post at all. In fact, he does it quite deliberately: In my "candies" post, When Taylor was in China but being attacked on Twitter, Nick suddenly popped out to like Taylor's Academy Museum Gala post, which is rare for him. At the end of the day, we can only speculate but it's pretty safe to guess that this was a sign of support amist the drama.

On top of that, there's actually a "candy" about their social media interaction that is in my part 2 post that I'm working on, but basically on Nick's Tik Tok, he cleared out a good number of following accounts, only keeping 7 out of 83 accounts: 6 are other co-stars that developed into close friends (we call it 閨蜜) like Camila Cabello and the girls from Bottoms, but the only one account left in his following list that's not a girl is Taylor. I would argue that's a stronger indication of a relationship than likes.

Regarding 3:

Nick didn't go because he's in London dealing with M&G promo stuff. It's airing in the UK next week. It's part of his job, and unlike going to award ceremonies, doing promo for a show that's airing really soon isn't optional.

Regrading 4:

When has Nick ever actually shown hate towards rwrb? Jacob Elordi literally saying that he hated making the kissing booth movies on record, same with Robin Pattison with Twilight, that's "the actor hates this work".

Nick mentioned in the limited amount of rwrb interviews we have that it was a thrill to work with Matthew and Taylor on this movie. After Prince Robert he didn't want to take another royal role but Henry was too fascinating of a character to not take up. He, despite not being able to be vocal about the movie due to the strike, posted ❤�� on premiere night. His rwrb Instagram post says that the love Henry's received one of the most heartwarming experiences in his life. He signs books. He even refers to Henry as himself: when he was asked to signed the Japanese cover of the book, he took one look at Henry, not even himself as Henry, BOOK Henry and said "wow I look so much better here!" it was Henry, and he used "I".

What about this could possibly indicate he hates rwrb?

Someone who shades on one actor clearly isn't someone who's supportive for the pair. Just because there are certain things people expect Nick to do that he doesn't, doesn't mean that he's what they claim to be. This isn't a valid method of verification. Everything I said here has evidence, visual or vocal or written evidence to back my points up.

If this person's opinions is hurtful and they won't listen to reason, then please block them. As upsetting as it is, getting into arguments won't do any good. You cannot change the mind of someone who has their mind set.

[gender-trash]

okay i AM going to turn reblogs off for this one --

i think we need to talk more about the collective trauma of being part of an online community that a different online community is directing coordinated, nonstop harassment towards. this is the part of the post i am so close to deleting or leaving in the drafts, because i'm (still!) anticipating anon asks like, how dare YOU, an asexual, compare YOUR experience to that of REAL queer people -- and i have no experience of being a transfeminine person on tumblr but i get the impression it is way way worse than aphobia was at its height. but like -- the experience of having your queer subcommunity harassed sucks! hardcore sucks! and has a variety of shitty knock-on effects on the health of the community! and i wanna commiserate with other people who've had that experience!

(also, i can't stand the sj "how dare you compare bad thing A to bad thing B when B is clearly much worse" rhetorical move. sometimes bad things are bad in similar ways and it's useful to talk about that similarity without necessarily making any claims about relative severity.)

i also think we need better tools and mental models for thinking of harassment as not just a one-to-one relationship, but a many-to-many relationship -- "moderation" as a concept seems to exclusively deal with individual posts or at best individual accounts, when, like. the social graph exists; clustering algorithms exist; i don't trust their reliability enough to want to bring down the website banhammer on anyone in a particular cluster, but i would absolutely fucking love a "block this blog and everyone within three degrees of separation of them" button. or something along those lines -- hey, i'm just spitballing here. a mental model of bad actors on a website as not just individual bad actors, but badly-acting communities with internal dynamics.

in every community of recreational bullies i've ever closely observed on tumblr (terfs, truscum, aphobes, various flavors of shipping drama), the following dynamics are present:

members of the community socially reward other members for engaging in harassment, and encourage new members to engage in harassment

members of the community screenshot and pass around often-equally-rude responses from the people they're harassing, as "proof" that these people are Incredibly Harmful and therefore the harassment is Morally Good, even Important, and that the harassing community are actually embattled victims valiantly fighting the oppressor

usually an Opposition Community forms, with the mission of harassing the bully community and exactly the same group dynamics, and the "original" bullies + opposition bullies become a self-sustaining feedback loop of harassment, because each group is constantly giving the other one more material to pass around and rile themselves up with

each community forms an incredibly specific and characteristic dialect of shorthand language that updates frequently as the community they're harassing gets wise and starts blacklisting keywords (when i was most recently on a terf blocking spree, "febfem", "TiM", and "moid" were big ones). engaged community members rapidly become unable to interact with anyone who is not Very Online, isolating them so that the community is now their main social circle

eventually the community comes up with some chain of reasoning, no matter how strained, for calling the objects of their hatred pedophiles

occasionally someone in the community will actually Go Too Far and bring down the banhammer on themselves. they remake their blog within days or weeks (due to the profit incentives of running a social media website, users are sucked into becoming hopelessly addicted -- especially users who are in so deep that they can no longer figure out how talk to people who aren't up on the Incredibly Specific Group Vocabulary). they are promptly passed around as a martyr

you'll notice that the main forces that keep the feedback loop going are a feeling of victimization -- if you feel like you're a righteous, oppressed victim, then you can justify little a death threat as a treat against the evil outgroup who is oppressing you, right? -- a community that rewards its members socially both for harassing others and for being harassed, and isolationist tendencies that make it difficult for community members to get social reward anywhere other than within the community.

it seems that, if you want to be able to deal with a group like this, you need to have some strategy for countering those forces -- whereas conventional moderation efforts mostly feed into the victimization mindset. maybe you need to somehow wall off the harassing community and the responding opposition harassers from each other, so that as far as each group is concerned the other one doesn't exist. maybe you need better tools so users with the characteristics that the harassing community targets can block the entire harassing community all at once. i don't actually know! but i doubt we're going to get anywhere without at least a basic understanding of system dynamics!!

[wifegideonnav]

I'm new to Tumblr. How do Tumblr users usually engage with each other?

well first of all welcome haha. the main ways to engage with people are:

liking and reblogging. platforms like instagram and tiktok run on likes and an algorithm, but on tumblr, people almost exclusively use their dashboard and turn off suggested content, so they’re only seeing what people actually reblog onto their dash. that’s why people on this site are so adamant about reblogs, because likes basically do nothing. i saw someone say once that anything you would like on a different social media, you should reblog on here, and i totally agree. and don’t worry about how old a post is, or about reblogging something you’ve previously reblogged. there are posts from 2014 that i regularly see on my dash a decade later, so literally don’t feel awkward, it’s 100% normal to engage with old posts.

tags. there are three main ways tags are used: labeling original content so people find it in searches, internal organization systems when reblogging or posting (for instance, many people have a tag for their original posts, and will tag reblogs by fandom or character or whatever - important note that reblogs do not show up in search results), and to make sotto voce comments on a post. it’s normal for people to make jokes, add their own commentary, ramble about something semi relevant, or say something to op in the tags on posts they reblog.

reblog additions. every time you reblog, you have the chance to add something to the post, which unlike tags will be retained when someone reblogs from you. a good rule of thumb is to comment instead of tagging when it’s something you actually want other people to engage with, as opposed to tags where you’re just kind of expressing yourself lol. don’t be surprised however if you see people’s tags getting screenshotted and added to a reblog. if this happens because the screenshotter likes what the tag writer said, it’s jokingly referred to as “passing peer review.” (and of course people screenshot tags to criticize or mock them as well.) essentially, tags are like being at a big group dinner and saying something to the person next to you as an aside, and then sometimes that person goes “hey everyone listen to this”

post comments. there’s also an option on every post (unless op has turned it off) for people to comment on the post itself, not on a specific reblog. mostly this is useful for talking to people on personal posts or posts with reblogs turned off. on a bigger post, just reblog it and put your thoughts in an addition or tag.

asks. seems like you figured this one out! lmao. asks are used for a wide variety of things, but essentially it can either be a prompt for someone to make a post or a way of having an interaction/conversation with someone without dming them.

dms. these work like dms everywhere else, except the functionality is limited and it kinda sucks.

games. there are also many varieties of games that people play with each other, ranging from ask games (things like “rec me some music” or a post with prompts and people send you some from that list), tag games (typically there are questions you answer then you tag other people to fill them out for themselves) handwriting tags, follow chains, giveaways, name/url playlists, and more. with the addition of polls, brackets have gotten popular too (eg the tumblr sexyman bracket). there also used to be a lot of in-character ask blogs, where a user would set up a blog and roleplay as a specific character that people could send questions to (there still are some but way fewer and way less popular than there used to be)

to be honest i feel like i have to put “discourse” and “drama” on this list too. people on this site loveeee having the most insane arguments of all time and then everyone else memes the hell out of it. google “sonic for real justice” for an example lmao. (of course there’s also very unfunny political and fandom discourse that goes on as well. i would advise you to avoid discourse blogs as a general rule regardless of whether you agree with their position or not)

tagging people. you can also @ people in posts you think they’d like or if you feel like they have relevant input. typically this is something you would do either to people you’ve spoken to before, or a big blog with an established persona and rapport with their followers (eg if you follow a blog about snakes and you see a random post with snake info that seems wrong but you’re not sure, so you tag them to ask for their expertise).

and this isn’t a specific “mode” of communication but it’s also a thing to “interpret” (for lack of a better word) other people’s posts. for instance, people drawing a photo from the original post (i cant find it but there was a post going around recently where op posted an aesthetic photo of an egg cooking and then several people painted it), or people trying/recreating something a post was about (example). it was also a thing for a minute there where people would rewrite funny exchanges as shakespearean dialogue

those are all the ways i can think of, although im sure i’ve missed some (if other people think of any pls add on!). good luck, and i hope you’re able to meet some cool people!

[forevermore05]

Okay this is going to be a bit of a rambling type post. I want to organize my three accounts that being my YouTube channel my Tumblr and my AO3 account to tie into each other. But it's already pretty messy since I have a complete page to dedicated to Zutara, a YouTube channel that talks about K-pop and obviously my AO3 is for my FanFiction. I just need some suggestions how do I neatly tie all of these accounts into a nice little bow. Should I use my Tumblr as an Instagram account to provide updates on a video and continue updating things about my FanFiction. I'm obviously going to use it as a direct way of contacting me. But then again I'm also using my YouTube Community page to also provide updates, would it be too overwhelming? Do I post semi-essay critical analysis on here or do I do that on YouTube again I'm not sure about what I want to do. Would it be fun if I turned my posts into a YouTube video? Would it be too disorganized to have two separate social media accounts with different topics. I need to know your opinion on what is happening because the creation of my YouTube channel was also done in the most messiest way possible.

I'm already a pretty disorganized person. I'm also pretty indecisive if you have not already noticed but I want to do my best to not provide instability I want to do my best to provide some assurance of my content.

Again I do plan on making my YouTube channel talk about other things such as Zutara. But there's still a very big need to organize what I already have going.

Please tell me what you want to see from me in terms of organization and I'll try

🤍🤍🤍🤍

[swords-of-a-soilder]

Bless you for compiling what’s going on with that ex-bird app. It’s been genuinely insightful for me to understand the thoughts of the kinds of people behind those accounts.

That person trying to cancel creators for associating with Forever (and probably advocating for his lore to be excised from the server) saying “but I can’t possibly give up guapoduo, it’s My Hyperfixation” is very telling. Hypocrisy specifically in the context of “separating the art from the artist” isn’t something I’ve seen before, shockingly, so I guess I get to add that to my Social Media Discourse Bingo. (I had an online friend in 2016 who I was terrified to talk about my interests with because I didn’t know what angry punk teenagers on tumblr had deemed “evil and disgusting”, and even SHE stopped listening to some of her favorite metal bands when she learned they were homophobic, and had absolute turmoil when she learned that David Bowie might have allegedly slept with an underage groupie in the 70s. Her constant, unpredictable rage at seemingly random pieces of media was awful for my mental health, but at least she wasn’t a genuine hypocrite.)

Also that tone of “I’ve had good memories here… but I just can’t handle it anymore.” It sounds like someone whose meaningful but soul-crushing work has finally broken them, almost sounding like someone I knew at the frontline worker job I had mid-pandemic who missed her own birthday three years in a row, got repetitive stress injuries, and then got passed over for a promotion that was given to someone who did a fraction of the work. But the “God willing, I’ll never come back” was followed by “I’m 13” …damn, I got whiplash so hard that I astral projected into a universe where things made sense for a second. Because of course kids don’t have a complex view of other countries’ political systems or cultural pressures. Or the nuances of personal change and redemption. Or that sometimes people are just not online for a few days. And of course a 13-year-old doesn’t understand how dumb and petty they look by trying to ruin other peoples’ careers in the name of Activism (tm) while having a fandom portmanteau username.

“I didn’t want it to come to this but… I’m going to delete twitter!” I hope so, but more for their own sake, honestly. I actually have less anger towards most of them now. Many are kids with a false sense of grandiosity that makes them believe they are the ultimate moral authority, but have very little understanding of how messy people or societies can be. I just hope they can learn one day, and look back on who they are now and cringe. (And then many years after that, have the grace to forgive themselves.)

Oof, sorry for the wall of text.

I’m still not over the whole situation with Forever. I miss his energy, and his accent, and his silly bits with Richas that always dragged on too long, and N.I.N.H.O. (and everything it represented), and how different he and Cellbit are but how they understood each other WAY too well, and how he tried to make people who didn’t log onto the server as often still feel welcome and wanted, and how happy he got when anyone non-Brazilian even tried to speak a little bit of Portuguese. (I was learning, but I’ve barely touched it since.) I won’t lie, it’s affected me far more than I thought it would.

I miss Forever. Thank you for your blog being a little space where that’s okay.

I'm honestly a little worried for the kid (s), not in a "oh I just want the best for" fake bs way just a little concerned tbh. I still don't like them but I don't hate them either, they're a kid.

But at the same time I'm worried for their well being, they have like 5,000 follower on their main Twitter and 28 on curious cat (which is apprantly high for that app )

That's 5000 people (teens or not) waiting for you to tell them how to feel that can't be good for their mental state, not for a 13 yr old kid.

Most of their life was spent learning about the world and their still learning, these are the ages where you're worried about the sun blowing up.

You haven't seen how awful the world can be yet, You haven't seen how much worst it could get you haven't learned calculus yet!

To you the world is only these 13 years and you think if you don't act now everything will be over.

I get it, I had that fear too, most people grown into it and realize just how shitty it can get an settle in choosing their own battles and not letting It consume them, because no one had time for that anymore.

You want to experience the most out of live while you can and the older you get the easier it is to balance.

To me it looks like one of those situation where you'll look back and think "I wish I enojyed my childhood."

Because 5000 people waiting for you to tell them who to bash, 28 people prasing your while admitting they use to hate you.

It can't be good. And if they were to read this they'd probably say "oh you don't actually care you just want to shit on me."

And like, yeah I don't care, but am I saying all this because I want to shit on them? no I'm just pointing out concerns.

Apart from that I fully agree with anon.

[korka-mindlore]

Writeblr (re)intro !

Hi, hi! I've had a writeblr before, but left after remaking my entire Tumblr account. Got a bit busy, but missed the community so much that I wanted back in <3

-About me-

Korka or Corky - whichever you prefer

adult

undergrad majoring in two foreign languages and their respective literature :>

I've been writing for about as long as I've known of myself, but only started taking it seriously in the last 5-6 years, and only in the past year or two did I really start figuring out what I want to write, so my style is still unpolished and I still consider myself in my "finding myself" era

major procrastinator and experiencer of what I think is executive dysfunction; I will try my bestest to be active on here, but I might take a week or seven to read a single excerpt, though not for lack of interest or trying!! Nevertheless, please tag me in your works so I won't lose them in the dash :3

-What I write-

prose, short story lover, but I have about three WIPs that would be about the length of a novel(la) (that planning stage sure is planning)

literary movements I draw inspiration from the most are the romantic period (especially gothic) and symbolist movement, as well as the spirit of avant-garde's experimentation and pushing boundaries

my biggest role model is Charles Baudelaire :>

genres I like to stick to: fantasy, horror, horror/dark fantasy, recently tried experimenting with social satire, but we'll see how that goes

I feel most comfortable in fantasy and historical, but I love writing horror the most

I love worldbuilding and writing body horror/gore the most, but describing body language and appearance is something I desperately need to work on

I'm a planner and a perfectionist, so it might take some time for me to intro my WIPs properly, but I'm more than happy to talk about my OCs in the meantime :>

I have four WIPs in varying stages of planning, all still practically nameless:

a historical (time-travel) coming-of-age WIP meant to be about the length of a novel-novella (skeletal stage, planning out characters and main plot points)

a fantasy political intrigue WIP of a similar length (planning stage, details need to be ironed out before I can work on it, but i have an outline, sort of)

(and the spin-off horror fantasy collection of short stories WIP set in the same world) (skeletal stage, planning out the characters and the storylines)

a satirical WIP on the "tiktokification" of the arts, mainly literature, and anti-intellectualism (newest, researching stage; I know nothing about this yet beyond the core message and idea, but I'm looking forward to developing it)

-What I'd love to read-

genres: horror (especially dark fantasy!!), fantasy, "cheesy" romances, historical!!!!! I'm not too picky on genres, but if you mix horror in it, I'll love it even more

details: ngl those hyper-specific fantasy academy settings in coming-of-age stories hit different, detailed worldbuilding is everything to me, best-friends-to-lovers? chef's kiss. enemies-to-lovers? even louder chef's kiss. Morally ambiguous characters, morally questionable protagonists, I just love when the cast is formed of imperfect characters where you can't with 100% certainty say "x is evil" or "y is good". Make me think !

I also love reading poetry, though I'm not the best at analysing it and understanding particularly deep analogies, I love poetry that deals with abstract feelings, interpersonal relationships and personal philosophies <3

-I don't know how to end this :> -

A bit more about what i love writing/reading:

I'm from a Slavic country and dislike the way Slavic characters get written in western media, so most of my OCs are Slavic and I love to see a fleshed out Slavic character

I love body horror as an allegory for bodily autonomy and beauty standards. It's fun as horror, too, but as an allegory - very fun to explore

In general, I'm weak for a good symbol

And on me:

I spent most of my time in the last few years writing fanfiction, but so eager to focus on original fiction, too

I tend to write on-and-off, I'm either busy or tired, and sadly can go months without any progress :< I hope this changes as I get more settled into life

But! I've taken a recent liking to just making OCs without any particular WIP attached to them, so I'll probs talk about them if nothing else :)

I just missed the community of a writeblr a lot, so I'm hoping to make friends on here ! ^_^

[omamervt]

This is gonna come off as a weird rant probably but that's fine. I'm not looking for advice, really, I just feel the need to say it.

I've been given praise in the past for managing 3 different socials for LiteralCatPod, but the truth is, it really is the biggest strain of producing the show. I've talked in the past about how thinly spread LiteralCatPod is on socials, and how I feel like I'm not doing enough for any of them. And this has prompted people to tell me about stuff like Postybirb, which I'm sure is all done out of a genuine place of wanting to help, but mass-posting tools are really only helpful when your posts are all formatted the same, and LiteralCatPod's can't be.

Outside Tumblr, linking to other sites will get your post de-prioritized in the algorithm, so to show devs that someone's thinking about their game, and to help our audience find its source without having our posts buried, we tag creators as much as possible. We also obviously tag collaborators. This is important to us because if you ignore the big corporate/licensed games, TTRPGs are a niche scene, with one specific game sucking up most of the oxygen in it. Even if we're making light of the process, I think people would like to know that someone is showing some love to at least one aspect of their game.

Tagging gets tricky when people have different usernames on different sites, sites format their usernames in different ways, and not everyone has a presence on every site we post to. So I can't pre-format a bunch of posts, and while it might be possible to schedule posts on Tumblr, the fact that I can't schedule a thread on Twitter or Bluesky means that I have to post those all manually. And while I wouldn't call myself lucky to be under-employed, I am lucky to be free the mornings my show releases so that I can manually make those posts.

and like, I'm genuinely not sure what I can do about it. Manually posting to 3 sites can easily take an hour every other wednesday morning, and I've never once successfully dragged myself out of bed in time to start posting when the episode actually airs, it's always a couple hours later. And maybe that doesn't actually make a difference, I don't know. But it often doesn't feel like the posts are making a difference anymore either. Twitter gives increasingly diminishing returns but it's still used by more RPG publishers than Bluesky or Tumblr. Some of them are on Threads but that's a bigger privacy nightmare than the YouTube app and, being a Facebook product, it's almost entirely pay-to-win, and there's no way in hell I jump into that. I feel like the show's reach on Tumblr is entirely at the whim of a handful of popular TTRPG gimmick blogs, which nevertheless rarely translates to new listeners. And Bluesky... I've never figured out Bluesky. It looks like Twitter, the users act like it's Twitter, down to the toxic, controlling, manipulative behavior surrounding who you follow and what posts you like, but the site is functionally not Twitter, at least not yet. Never tried Mastodon, I know a lot of people like it but the decentralized structure just seems like too much of a mess to wade into, and everyone who's tried to reassure me about my concerns just make it sound worse.

I created the public Discord because... well we were thinking about it anyway and ultimately it serves a practical purpose but I really put in the work on it because Tumblr's CEO was putting people through it over here for a bit and that seems to have died down (or at least, people talking about it has, that doesn't necessarily mean much.) But anyway at the time I was just frustrated because I had already watched my potential audience fragment from one site to three, and facing the possibility of it fragmenting to 4-6 just felt like too much.

TL;DR, I chose the three social sites that I did because I know that when Twitter's audience fragmented, most of the ones who left flocked here or to Bluesky. And it feels like abandoning any of them would mean abandoning a big chunk of potential audience. But idk. Right now it seems like a lot for little return to continue trying to reach them all. If I got to have a cool conversation about an RPG once every couple weeks out of it it'd all be worth it. But so far I'm not so lucky.

[umbralrosa]

06, 08, 22, 27 & 32 ♥

@s-talking

𝑬𝑿𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑺𝑬𝑳𝑭 . ( a collection of 40 questions for muns , with assorted questions directed towards both single - muse & multi - muse blogs! )

ℒ:

o6﹕ is there something about the roleplay community that irks you ?

I know it's a two-way on this, given I get sidetracked and caught up IRL between going to Tumblr, but seeing many responses while my own is kind of collecting dust is deflating to experience. I think I've experienced so much of it I kind of just go really quiet and don't touch it anymore. What sucks is I know the best way to get on top of that issue is to ask if the interest is still there, but I am cursed with social constipation and anxiety and get caught in this loop of being a possible bother. Sending asks to let people know I'm still interested but go unanswered is another level to it. It's always been a thing since I started on Tumblr around 2010, not to mention when I have asked it got disregarded, which I guess is why I don't say anything now that I think about it. I feel like it's one of those things everyone feels on here though. It's easy to reach me and others on Discord by contrast imo.

o8﹕ what time of day do you feel you create your best work ?

I used to always be on top of it all around the clock before I got balls deep in college stuff. Nowadays in university it's turned to evenings, but know for a fact I'm quick to hop on when a homie I've known for years responds.

22﹕ would you consider [ character name ] to be a comfort character ?

There wasn't a specified name, but I can say I have 2 comfort characters. Naruto was the first anime I got very deep into, and was always drawn to Sasuke. I think it's the same case today because seeing art of him pre-Boruto is always quick to make me remember calmer times. Vampire Hunter D is a whole different character that I adopted in my adult years from the novels and Bloodlust movie. Love that man so much I bought the deluxe edition statue, which was limited to 650 pieces (no I do not want to talk about the cost).

27﹕ what is a trend within the rpc that you would consider to be overrated ?

I think I'd had such a semi-hiatus from school that I'm out of the loop on any new trends.

32﹕ what were the last three songs you listened to ?

Frank Sinatra - I Can Read Between The Lines

Joji - Die For You

Bad Omens X Poppy - V.A.N.

Bonus: I've been listening to all of Kendrick Lamar's stuff with the Drake beef, but that don't count since it's on rotation in everything rn xD

[paigemathews]

idk why but in the prandy P3 daughters au i feel like piper would have a girl first and then her boys (maybe twin boys? i'm just bullshitting here tbh)

Okay, so, I can genuinely guarantee that this over three thousand word outline is not what you intended when you sent this, but I got this and another ask about the prandy girls AU and decided that I needed to sketch this out to at least have an idea of what happens and who else are around the prandy girls and it... spiraled. I did put this under a read more because, like I said, over three thousand words. But to actually answer your question, and I guess spoilers for the outline ahead, Piper actually ends up with two girls: Proserpina "Prose" Patricia Halliwell and Petra Penelope Halliwell. (Abi, you may say with dismay, there's no way that Piper would name her daughter Proserpina and you're not wrong! Special circumstances apply for why she did, and I actually did initially begin to dive into the next gen girls' powers and personalities here as well before realizing it was way too long already, but that information is available if anyone cares lmao.)

I also had to break this up more because Tumblr yelled at me, so we have different headings.

The Beginning

I think that the first two seasons would still primarily shake out the same, besides Andy's death, since season two is still pretty episodic

instead of that unnamed Cupid in "Heartbreak City," however, it's Coop, who kind of just gently bullies Phoebe into admitting that she's afraid of love and of losing people. (we're gonna set the stage early here.)

Additionally, Prue and Andy are still not fully together yet (bc they had been, y'know, broken up when he died) so Coop reveals to Phoebe that he's there to help them but doesn't tell anyone else yet.

Anyways, Prue and Andy end up hooking up at one point and accidentally ends up pregnant around three quarters of the way through season two but we end season two with them finally committing to one another and Perri is born about halfway through season three

During season three, however, we first see the sisters go head-to-head with the Source. They try to vanquish him, and Prue goes down hard. The Power of Three doesn't work and they're about to die when they're suddenly beamed out, revealed to be Phoebe wishing she could've confessed her love to Coop before they died. (Look, we're doing very broad strokes here rn.)

The sisters are confused because that was the strongest spell and potion that they got, and Leo goes to talk to the Elders and says that there's something blocking the sisters from their full potential and Phoebe is like "okay, what does that mean" and Leo has no idea so that takes up the back half of season three as they try to discover what's blocking them.

Meanwhile, Prue, a new mother, is having this breakdown about how she nearly orphaned her daughter and lashes out and has her plot about dealing with all of this with Andy.

Anyways, at the end of season three, we finally figure out what's limiting their powers and spoiler alert:

it's because there's supposed to be a fourth sister with them: Paige

but the Source discovers this before the sisters do and attacks once again, and this time, they're slightly more prepared but something happens and Piper is (seemingly) killed while the Source is seriously weakened so he retreats.

The Power of Four

In reality, Piper has actually ended up between planes, alive in the place you're meant to go before you die. Also, as we later find out when Leo is tearfully confiding to probably Coop, she's pregnant as well. (This will be relevant to our Pleo kid.) The rest quickly figure out, however, that wherever Piper is, she's not in the Beyond like their mother or grandmother.

But anyways, Prue is furious and going after every demon like a madwoman and casting any and every spell to locate a sister. Phoebe, meanwhile, graduated at some point during season three and is adrift and unsure what to do. She starts working with social services to help people down on their luck, where she begins running into a chaotic young Berkley grad named Paige.

Meanwhile, Piper is trying to figure out a way home and starts casting her own spells to contact her sisters. She ends up in Paige's dreams, who at first dismisses it as just being lonely and wanting family as the anniversary of her parent's death approaches and being alone for it for the first time (as Glen is unable to get back to the States in time).

Paige is a bit creeped out when she first sees a picture of Piper and sees that she's identical to the woman in her dreams but continues to dismiss it as her wishing she had a sister like Phoebe.

Anyways, something happens and Prue and Phoebe realize that Paige is their sister and Paige realizes that she's a witch. (For this, they initially believe that she's a telepath since she's able to mentally connect with Piper through planes and displays this mental connection with all of the sisters, but it's later revealed to be a product of their collective power. Her actual primary power is photokinesis, the ability to create and manipulate light.)

There's some growing pains at first, but Prue, Phoebe, and Paige manage to connect with one another and discover a way to save Piper, which is something like at the height of All Hallow's Eve or whatever.

Anyway, they save Piper and the Power of Four is established.

Either during or soon after, Piper gives birth to her and Leo's daughter: Proserpina "Prose" Patricia Halliwell, named after the mysterious woman on the plane who helped Piper and likely gave her something to help her keep the pregnancy (a life growing where one is not meant to exist)(look, I wasn't intentionally trying to sketch out stuff here, we're just going with vibes now.

Prue is also pregnant again about halfway through the "getting Piper back" arc and, if Piper gives birth end of season four, Prue gives birth to Presley about half a season afterwards.

Now, back to the sisters. Let's say that Phoebe finally confesses to Coop and they deal with their feelings and are going strong. But the Source has been working to regain his strength, and so, we get some kind of enemy sent the sister's way. With the reveal of Paige's existence and Piper giving birth, the Source decides to try to divide the sisters to weaken them by targeting the most obvious weak link: Paige.

We Still Have a Demon Romance

With Piper's return, Paige feels unnecessary, like she was a placeholder only meant to hold the second sister's place until she came back. And it isn't helped by the fact that Piper came back and had a baby, Prue is now pregnant/close to having another baby, and Phoebe is dancing around Coop who may or may not have tried to set her up with someone else.

And Paige isn't impressive to the magical community, not like the original Charmed Ones and she doesn't know what she's doing yet, not really, so it doesn't go well. But there's someone who seems to like her and look up to her and they're a fellow witch (except they're actually a demon) and he gets her and understands her.

So instead of Phoebe, Paige gets a demon romance, except she doesn't know of course. And she learns more about magic and how to use it differently than anything her sisters had taught her and a lot of it is on the up-and-up for the most part but some of it just tilts Paige a bit of a different direction.

The saving grace is that Paige is also given a charge during this time, so her Whitelighter side is tugging at her consistently so her demon lover can't pull her too far, even if Paige doesn't know yet why some things he shows her she is instinctually repelled from. And through her Whitelighter side, she gets a charge, who also happens to have an infuriating parole officer named Henry.

They butt heads a lot but both care a lot about their charge, so slowly and reluctantly become friends against their will. But Paige's demon boyfriend is getting impatient at the lack of progress, especially because the Source is starting to get vexed and regaining his strength, so he kicks it up a notch by starting to steadily bewitch Paige, a la Phoebe in s4.

In the interest of having a backup, the Source also sends a demon to befriend the sisters, especially in an attempt to target the kids and Prue's pregnancy. (After all, what better way to destroy the sisters than from the inside?)

And it takes a minute, because everything has been so hectic with everything going on for the sisters (Piper going missing and then giving birth, Prue getting pregnant again, finding Paige, etc.) that they've kinda just been lingering with this chill atmosphere for once, but start to realize something is wrong with Paige.

Andy is the one to investigate and find out that something is off about the demon boyfriend, like how he did with Rex and Hannah in s1. An oracle or seer (depending on who we wanna add in here) warns the demon that his cover is blown before Andy can get to Prue, and he knows he's no match for the Charmed Ones, so he decides to try to forcibly turn Paige, and potentially the sisters, in one fell swoop through a Dark Wedding (like Zile marrying Prue in the canon s3.) To distract the sisters, he infects the sisters, Andy, Leo, and Coop with sin balls.

This has a two-fold purpose: one, I love Sin Francisco, so shoutout! Two, Phoebe gets infected with lust and Coop with envy. Coop is envious of the men that he's tried setting Phoebe up with, and Phoebe is. lusting after Coop, so. Under the influence of the sins, they have sex! (I'm sure you can see why this will be very important later on.)

Anyways, Henry, who the demon boyfriend (who I probably should've given a name tbh) had deemed unimportant, figures out that something is wrong with Paige and tries to go to the sisters to ask about her, only to be like what the fuck.

He ends up somehow helping them realize something is wrong blah blah and they all break their individual sin/remove their sin in the case of Prue.

Meanwhile, Paige and the demon boyfriend are seemingly about to get married but Paige just looks around dazed and asks softly where are my sisters? and he gives her some bullshit about how he's the only one that cares about her or whatever and then is blasted halfway across the room by a very furious Piper going get away from my sister!

(Imagine this as being the turning point between Piper and Paige's relationship since they'd been so iffy around each other because they had no idea who the other was and thought that the other was intended to be their replacement or whatever.)

Her sisters rush to her side and Phoebe hands her a potion and gently asks her to take it, sweetie, and Paige trusts her so she does and all of the demon's tricks fail when his enchanting is abruptly wiped from her sister. Paige hesitates only for a minute before joining her sisters in the vanquishing spell.

Also Henry finds out about magic from this and has to sit down.

And this has probably been going on for the about three quarters of the season and uhhh, Prue goes into labor at the end of all this and hi ya, Presley!

And they hustle her off to the hospital and- Oh my God, Prue is cradling Presley in her arms with Andy beaming next to her and they need a middle name and everyone's making suggestions and Prue kind of just looks up at Paige, who we'll say have bonded over Paige's love of art and Prue's experience with antiquities and art knowledge, and says Artemisia after Artemisia Gentileschi and Paige points out that's a big name for a girl to handle and if Prue's sure if she handle it and they're not really talking about the name at all but Prue says that she knows she'll be able to handle anything because she's so strong and brave and will always have her sisters.

And Paige beams and Piper and Leo are standing together and Phoebe goes and leans her head on Paige's shoulder in one of those cute sisterly moments and gets a premonition of, oh, about nineish months?

Congratulations, Paige, it's a demon-witch-Whitelighter hybrid!

(Phoebe does not tell them in that moment but definitely brings it up later.)

I Feel Like Everyone is Just Having a Kid RN Here

Anyways, we get a break from all the heavy plot stuff for a minute because Phoebe and Coop are. Not talking about what happened between them and Paige and Henry are being a little weird with each other and Prue is having a crisis with Andy about what if she goes and dies on her kids like her mom and Piper isn't sure if she and Leo will be able to have another kid after her experiences on the plane between life and death, and that's all just the romance and family side of things.

On the professional side of things, Prue is struggling with the desire to stay at 415 Magazine or move to the Bay Mirror to be able to be there on the streets seeing what's going on versus the glossy photoshoots that she's been doing. Piper, after quitting Quake, had basically been working as a caterer without the money to actually buy a physical location for her building but is taking the plunge on the restaurant. Phoebe has been working at social services with Paige but isn't sure what she actually wants to do. After an episode where something forced Phoebe into helping Prue at the Bay Mirror, she begins doing some editing work there, eventually taking on a column role. Paige meanwhile finally becomes a social worker.

But anyways, Paige is struggling with what happened, her deteriorating friendship with Henry, and her impending motherhood. She finally explodes on Henry calling him out for slowly drifting away and revealing how terrified she is of becoming a mother. The two reconcile when Henry tells her that, regardless of magic, he knows that she'll be a great mother because of the way that she cares for her charges and her work and promises to be there for her. There's also plenty of bonding with Prue during this time because Paige (and Henry) definitely have a plot about babysitting little Perri and Presley for "practice."

Meanwhile, Phoebe realizes about halfway through the season that she's pregnant and she and Coop finally have to sit down and talk about it. They confess their feelings but are concerned about the forbidden romance aspect of it. Despite that, with Phoebe being spectacularly less burned this time, they decide to try and pursue it anyways.

About halfway through season six, Paige goes into labor about the same time that a demon is attempting to devour ghosts' powers or something so we get an episode featuring Melinda Warren because Paige deserves to meet her too and Henry gets some magical shenanigans. Also some nice moments with Melinda commiserating with Paige about being tricked and how she, and her baby, are still Warrens. But anyways, Paige delivers not one little demon-witch-Whitelighter baby but two! (No one expected this. Phoebe's premonition helpfully left out Henry cradling the other baby.) Either way, we now have Lillith Prudence Matthews and Morgan Melinda Matthews!

Remember how I mentioned that the Source had a backup plan to befriend the sisters? Yeah, she's still here, slowly worming her way into their lives. Due to the twins' half-demon natures, she begins often volunteering to be a babysitter with the goal eventually being to turn them completely. None of the sisters expect anything as demonic activity begins ticking upward again and she becomes closer to their kids. It's her that lets it slip that Phoebe and Coop are in a forbidden romance soon before Phoebe's meant to give birth, and the Elders recall him to the Heavens in punishment.

Phoebe gives birth soon afterwards to Philomena "Mena" Cordelia Halliwell, naming her daughter after love and heart.

She challenges the Elders for him back, and with her sisters behind her, they falter enough that she's able to press them enough that they give her an option. She came to them on the claim of true love, and so it's that claim they'll make her prove herself on. If Phoebe is truly in love with Coop, she just has to find him. They'll send him back, no memories and in-disguise, but will guarantee that they'll be in a position to meet once more and interact. If she kisses him, it'll return his memories and they'll be free to be together. However, to prevent her from just kissing every guy she finds to try to find Coop, she has only once chance, and her next kiss will be the only chance she gets. (I did decide to add in a fairytale ass plot bc I can, thanks.) Phoebe accepts, and her romantic plot for the rest of the season and the beginning of the next is on finding Coop.

Meanwhile, the demon friend decides that if she's going to poison the Warren line of witches, why stop at only a set of twins when there could be a death-touched witch and the first ever Cupid-witch hybrid at her command? (She looks at Perri and Presley, fully witches born with no complications, and dismisses them. She is the first demon that will do this but will not be the last. Like her, others will learn that this is a mistake.) Knowing vaguely of the potion Piper took to be able to keep the pregnancy, the demon creates a fertility potion to give her to see if she'll be able to utilize another child's powers to even greater strengths. She gives it to Piper in the season six finale.

The Final Battle

During this time, the sisters begin to prepare for the final battle against the Source. Their last major battle at this was at the end of season three, and we're now at the beginning of season seven. The Source has fully recovered from their battle, and the sisters themselves are at full power with Piper recovered and Paige at their side.

Piper finds out she's pregnant again a few episodes into the season.

Phoebe finds Coop at the midseason finale, which is also when the demon friend is revealed to be a demon when she makes a move for the kids. Someone gets stabbed (idk who. Andy? Henry?) stopping her but is narrowly saved and the sisters vanquish her.

Phoebe and Coop get married around midseason as well, while Paige and Henry discuss if they want to take that step soon.

The sisters take on and vanquish the Source in the season finale once and for all, which is where I think the big storylines stop.

Shortly after the finale, Piper gives birth to Petra Penelope Halliwell. Phoebe and Coop may or may not have a second kid? Still undecided on that one. Paige and Henry move in together in the flashforward in the series finale and marry a year or two later. Andy and Prue have Pamela as the last next gen kid.

[bee-saucee]

Fanfic Writing Resolutions 2024

With the start of 2024, I wrote out some of my personal writing goals for the year and thought I would share them with you all! I don't usually make posts like this but I hope I can inspire other writers to make goals for themselves in this next year and have a greater sense of accountability for myself.

Some writing accomplishments from 2023

I learned a lot in 2023 as a fanfic writer and I'm proud of what I did! I deleted my Wattpad to start fresh with a new writing style, posted my first three fics to Ao3, applied to two zines and got accepted as a pinch hitter for one, grew my Tumblr account, started a Twitter, commissioned several artists including my current pfp for a new look, and started writing more consistently again!

This post is pretty long so here's the short list:

Create and refine a writing process to have a written process outline that makes writing simpler

Watch a video and take notes on a writing topic at least once a month centering predominantly on craft but also on storytelling

Apply to at least two zines

Post on Tumblr every other week

Build out my Twitter

Keep better track of my writing habits 

Bring fun back into the writing process

1. Create and refine a writing process to have a written process outline that makes writing simpler

When I refer to my "writing process" in this goal, I'm talking about 1) my outlining process and 2) what goes on off of the page such as how often, when, and where I'm writing.

To address the outlining portion of this goal, I plan to intentionally try out different outlining methods. My balance of plotting and pantsing is off but I can't find that balance until I just try stuff out! I want to try a lot of existing outlining methods and hopefully combine the facets that I like about various methods I've tried over the course of the year to get a mix that is tailored to me and how I like to write. I think it is also important to think out and write down the outlining methods I try so I can replicate or change my process iteratively. I've found that not having a outlining process that makes writing easy and enjoyable for me is the biggest reason why I've started and dropped so many projects this year!

Regarding the off the page process, consistency is my main goal. I just kind of squeeze in writing whenever I can or feel like it but that means that writing has often fallen off my radar. I want to set up specific times to write every day, but to be frank, I'm not sure when or how the best way for me is to write as I haven't experienced next semester's schedule or my post-college routine at all! I'm fine going with the flow on this one, but again, I've gotta be intentional about it.

2. Watch a video and take notes on a writing topic at least once a month centering predominantly on craft but also on storytelling

I've been writing stories ever since I was a kid but this year is really the first time I'm trying to do it more seriously. My public school and even college education has not fully equipped me to write creatively so I recognize that I have to learn about all of the parts of creative writing I don't know!

3. Apply to at least two zines

Contributing to zines have always been a super big dream of mine so I will keep on monitoring upcoming zines and hopefully find two I can apply for this year! Getting accepted isn't even the goal for me, I think that there is a lot to learn in the application process itself and I can't get accepted to a zine unless I try!

4. Post on Tumblr every other week

It's really important for me to build out my social media presence but I also value the lower stakes creative fun I have on Tumblr! So the goal is to write in a chill manner as I currently do for Tumblr and grow my reach at the same time! I just love making people smile with my stories.

I think the best way for me to post consistently on Tumblr is to introduce writing warm up exercises into my writing routine and share them on Tumblr. I can also use extra time that I have on breaks to stock up a bunch of Tumblr posts I can share in the future.

5. Build out my Twitter

I don't get Twitter at all and I'm not a super big fan of it but this is such a big space for the bnha fandom! I think I definitely am holding myself back particularly when it comes to zine applications by not having a Twitter presence. So I hope to not only understand twitter but post at least once a week and retweet or comment on posts at least every other day.

6. Keep better track of my writing habits 

Both when I write consistently and inconsistently, I wish that I kept better track of how I spend my writing time because it is so precious. I want to use the often limited time that I have to work on the projects I truly want/need to work on. I'm thinking that logging what I write through Google Calendar could be easy and effective, but we'll see!

7. Bring fun back into the writing process

When I've tried to focus more on "professionalism" and "writing well" I sucked all of the fun out of writing and I basically stopped for a year or two. I don't want that to happen to me again because writing is so therapeutic to me so I'm going to focus on editing less for craft and instead keep my eye on the concepts and feelings behind what I write.

Writing is so so hard but I think that fanfiction is such a beautiful and powerful form of creation. I hope that I can keep up with these goals to continue to participate in this creative process that I have come to love dearly and make more content that brings a smile to people's faces.

Thanks for reading! Check out my masterlist for more.