#didn’t get the second screenshot but basically

[nifaraswife]

Woah so Cyran and the magister definitely have history right? 👀

[damienns]

My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

v1

v2

v3

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

[meazalykov]

siblings or dating?

mary fowler x mancity!reader

summary: people never knew what your relationship was like with your doppelgänger

it’s always been something people noticed first. the resemblance.

you still remember the first time you met mary, both of you showing up early to manchester city’s preseason camp. its weird wearing blue, since you were used to the pink you wore for portland. 

the first person you spotted was mary. you spotted her across the field and froze for half a second—she looked like you. same sharp jawline, matching cheekbones, eyes that crinkled the same way when she laughed. 

she must’ve felt it too because when her gaze landed on you, she blinked, tilted her head, and gave you the same crooked grin you wore when you were confused.

“weird,” she’d said when you finally introduced yourselves, shaking hands, studying each other like you were staring into a mirror.

“yeah.. uh.. it’s a little weird,” you agreed, trying to suppress the laugh that bubbled in your throat.

it wasn’t until months later that you realized how much weirder it would get. teammates made jokes almost immediately, calling you “twins” when you sat next to each other on the team bus, making you pair up for drills because “you’re basically the same person.” 

you and mary laughed it off at first. then it started becoming a thing. fans pointing it out on social media. commentators stumbling over how to describe you when you lined up next to each other on the pitch. 

your own families were raising eyebrows when you brought mary home over the holidays. it’s impossible not to see it: you look alike.

so when you and mary fell into a relationship—a slow burn that neither of you expected but both of you welcomed—you wondered how the hell you were going to explain it to anyone outside the locker room.

“we’re not sisters,” mary said once, teasing you after a particularly brutal “twin” joke from the team. 

“i promise. i’m just the prettier version of you.”

you rolled your eyes but smiled anyway because, well, you thought mary was beautiful. it didn’t matter that she looked like you; she wasn’t you. she was stubborn and fierce and australian and always knew when to crack a joke to lighten the mood. 

she wasn’t your mirror—she was your partner.

it didn’t stop the world from noticing, though. the viral moment happened on an ordinary saturday afternoon, city up by a single goal against arsenal. you were desperate to close the game out, sprinting into the box as the minutes ticked down. laia sent a pass your way, and you didn’t think—just struck the ball cleanly, sending it past the keeper into the far corner.

the stadium erupted. you spun around, pumping your fists in celebration, and then mary was there, arms wrapping around you from behind, lifting you off the ground.

“yes, y/n!” she shouted into your ear, her voice breaking through the roar of the crowd.

you laughed, leaning back against her, letting the moment settle over you. you could feel her grinning against your shoulder, her excitement bleeding into yours. 

for a second, you forgot that you were on a pitch in front of thousands of people—it was just you and mary, a girl who loved you and who you loved right back.

the moment exploded on social media.

fans who followed you closely were thrilled, posting screenshots of mary’s arms around you, captions calling it the sweetest thing they’d ever seen. but casual viewers, the ones who didn’t know your story, were confused.

“are they sisters or girlfriends?”

“this is so weird. they look identical.”

“is anyone going to talk about how she’s dating her doppelgänger?”

you and mary laughed about it later, scrolling through twitter together on the couch. mary leaned her head on your shoulder, smirking as she read a particularly unhinged comment aloud.

“it’s strange, isn’t it?” you murmured, setting your phone down. 

mary hummed, thoughtful for a beat. 

“maybe. but we don’t have to explain anything to anyone, do we?”

she was right. you didn’t owe anyone an explanation. you didn’t owe them the story of how you met,and  how you fell in love. you’d found someone who made you feel seen and loved and whole—someone who just happened to look like you.

“besides,” mary added, nudging you playfully, 

“you’re lucky. not everyone gets to date someone as beautiful as me.”

you rolled your eyes, laughing softly as you kissed her temple. 

“you’re right. i’m lucky.”

and you were.

you didn’t care what anyone else thought. mary was yours, and you were hers, and that was all that mattered.

masterlist

[seoktized]

hi everyone!! you might know junhanner/xinyanyan/neogreencurry here on tumblr, but i wanted to let you all know she is a catfish..! i wanna show everyone proof so she doesn’t try and make me seem like i’m in the wrong.

wednesday, i confronted her about the whole thing (with proof) and she kept up this lie which i didn’t believe for a second.

i asked her about a picture she said was her, where if you reverse image searched on pinterest you could find it, but there was an emoji on the girls face. so i zoomed in on the girls face and you could tell it’s been drawn over.

when confronted about it, this is what she said:

but yesterday, she sent these ppl on pinterest who uploaded the pictures she sent me of her face and said they stole her pics from xiaohongshu (a chinese pinterest basically)

so, i downloaded the app and did the little reverse image search and i found the original girl and it literally has nothing to do with “xinyan” on the account.

i had a feeling she’s from romania cause i have a clock in romania on my clock app and she’d send screenshots (most of the time she’d cover the times and say that her clock is broken) when she forgot, the times aligned with the times in romania. she’d say that her phone would reset and change to romanian time because she bought the phone in romania.

and today i asked her to send me a video of her face, she danced around the subject and only replied to smth small then blocked me.

she then texted me on instagram and was like “i just have a very traumatic experience from this and something is holding me back from sending it” which confirmed it for me.

she was banned from the discord server we were in but proceeded to message every person she was “friends” with to try and see what i was saying & threatening to “expose” me by showing things that was said about a mutual friend. most of these conversations were initiated by her and i simply agreed.

i will own up to it, i was a asshole to a friend and i have since apologized to that friend. i’m very irritable person, so, i get annoyed easily and i said things i shouldn’t. i know i’m wrong and i’m not afraid to say that.

she also made a statement “defending herself”, which was just her yelling at me and trying to make me seem like a bad person.

the ootd pictures she’d send were also from xhs. i found her actual account and she follows the girl mentioned above and the girl who posts the dress pictures.

today she’s been nonstop dming me on tumblr saying she cannot send a video because she has trauma from such things. she compared it to an someone with an ed having to eat their fear food which seems a bit of a stretch and wrong to say.

i simply asked for a video to prove she’s real, but she’s stalled the whole time saying “idk what to do in the video” or bringing up the trauma. she called me insane though i have proof that she’s using someone else’s pictures and she won’t even send a video to prove that she’s who she says she is.

i’m just putting this out there for anyone who is friends with her and to tell my side of the story incase she tries to switch it up. thank u for ur time :3

[unformula1]

So… corny (LN4 x male!reader)

lando likes you w/c: 612 a/n: happy pride month ! (masterlist)

“Happy pride month!” Lando says as you walk into the room.

You raise an eyebrow and stare at him, confused.

“Okay, rude.” He scoffs and kicks his feet up onto the table, glaring at you.

“Thank… you?” You say, still a little unsure.

“That’s more like it!” He claps and goes back to scrolling his phone.

“I’m not…” You hesitate, not sure how to phrase this, “How did you know?”

“It’s really not that hard!” Lando shrugs, “You radiate that energy.”

“How… what?” You look at Lando, confused.

“You’re clueless!” Lando sighs, exasperated, “My gaydar is never wrong.” He smirks confidently.

“Doesn’t explain much.” You shake your head.

“The accounts you follow on basically all your socials! Your posts from 2018 onward, it’s basically an open book!” Lando says.

“So you stalked me?” 

“What!? No-” Lando’s legs drop off the table, “No, wait- well when you phrase it like that.”

You nod as Lando facepalms.

“I appreciate it.” You say as you take a seat next to Lando and pat him on the shoulder.

“It’s not like it was unprompted, it’s because-” Lando trips over his own words, “Someone asked me and I thought I’d go find out!”

You nod but slightly slower, giving Lando an awkward smile.

“Yea… okay.” You pat his shoulder slightly harder.

“You’re not like… insulted… or anything, right?” Lando asks.

“No! Not at all.” You say.

“Well, I also found a couple of gems!” He says as he holds up his phone with a screenshot of your old post.

“Oh-” You gasp, “Oh hell no!”

Lando laughs at your reaction and swipes, showing you another.

A message drops from Lando’s phone. 

you should just ask him

And another.

he might say yes

You shrug them off quickly as Lando swipes again.

“How many did you take!?” 

“Like… thirty!” He smiles proudly.

“I’m gonna beat you up.” You say.

“Hey!” Lando leans back, “You aren’t flattered?”

“What?” 

“Nothing. Pretend I never said that.” He quickly stashes away his phone.

“Well, of course I’m flattered!” You chuckle, “It’s been a while since someone has given me this much attention/”

“Oh?” He says, “Really!?” He says, but more excitedly.

“Yea, I mean-” You speak with your hands a lot more, hoping to bring across a point.

“I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to! Just know I’m flattered.” You say and Lando smiles really wide.

You sigh.

“Usually guys get to this point and say ‘just know i’m not like into you or anything’” You say, horribly mimicking a deep voice.

“Oh well I won’t say that!” Lando says.

“Because you’re into me?” You provoke.

“What- No, wait, I mean, yes?” He chokes on his words, “Probably, I don’t know- maybe? I’m confused.”

“You just said 5 different answers in 2 seconds.” You chuckle.

He buries his face.

“I don’t know.” 

You feel bad for that now. You take a deep breath.

“I didn’t know either. You’ll figure it out, eventually.” You assure him while patting his back, “Take your time.”

“You don’t…” Lando hesitates, “It’s not going to be weird right?”

“No, never.” You say, “After all, I would know all about it!”

“Right, yea.” Lando looks at you, “It’s just been a tad bit confusing lately.”

“First off, don’t say ‘tad’, it sounds silly.” You joke, “Secondly, it’s going to be confusing, just give it all a minute to make sense.”

“You’re pretty.”

“I know-” You smirk, “Thank you.”

“Is it mutual?”

“Very much.”

“Oh.”

“Cool.”

That was… a lot more casual than expected. You and Lando lock eyes for a second and you smile which fills Lando with warmth as he smiles back.

God this is absolutely corny.

[decayingxskull]

┃𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖

warnings. 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐦!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫, 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐨, 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐝. 𝐀𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐮𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠!! :)

@decayingxskull - enjoy:)

•⑅♡���•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•

Laying down, bored and tired, scrolling through his phone. Unable to speak to his lovely girlfriend because she was at a party. Choso was miserable without you, he was regretting telling you no to going to the party. He missed you dearly.

Stalking your stories he noticed that you posted a video of yourself, dancing. Oh but this wasn’t just any regular dancing, or from what he’s seen. You and your friend were doing huapangos with each other. He felt his face flush and ears get red.

Maybe it was the way your body moved so skillfully, maybe it was when your ass was going side to side.

Wishing he was your friend, he groaned as his mind wandered. Even if it wasn’t a sexual dance, he wanted to feel your body close to his. He wanted to be in your friend’s position, to feel your thighs intertwined with his, to feel you basically grinding against his thigh… He really missed you.

As his thoughts continued to grow, he felt his sweatpants tighten. Wrapping a hand around the bulge in his pants as he went back a few of your stories to screenshot the photos you posted of your black dress. It hugged your figure tightly, a side was cut to expose your entire thigh, spaghetti straps with the top supposed to be covering your chest but they happened to be spilling out just teasingly enough in the photo.

Choso couldn’t handle your beauty, admiring you even though he couldn’t see you in person. He felt his dick twitch each time he got to looking at a new area of your body, you were just so perfect.

As he started to get more needy and horny, by each second he kept looking at you and your posted selfies, he started to take off his pants and boxers. He hissed as the cold air hit his cock, cringing as he spit into his hand. Then putting his hand back around his dick, slowly moving his hand up and down.

He turned off his phone, shutting his eyes as he let his imagination run wild. He wouldn’t have had to spit into his hand if you were with him, sucking him off with your pretty mouth and gorgeous tear-filled eyes looking up at him. Moving his hand faster as he continued thinking about you, a groan-like whimper releasing from his lips as he felt his tip wet from pre-cum.

Thrusting up into his hand, pretending it was yours and you were taking care of his ‘issue.’ Small gasps and groans left his lips as he continued to move his hand up and down his now damp(ish) cock.

His hand kept moving, faint squelching was filling his ears, cringing once more as he realized that was coming from his own dick and hand. He felt pathetic but he was already too lost in pleasure to care.

He paused for a second, realizing his hand wasn’t enough… But what else did he have? He sat up, letting go of his dick, looking around and seeing a spare pillow he had threw off when he went to lay down.

This time, he didn’t like what was going through his head at the moment. But nonetheless, he stood up and grabbed the pillow. He propped it up, the pillow folded into too. He sighed as he couldn’t believe he was actually doing this, kneeling forward as he entered the makeshift ��O’ in the pillow.

He completely laid forward on his stomach, his face landing on ur pillow. He took a deep breath, smelling your perfume, feeling his stomach turn from arousal.

He groaned loudly, gripping the pillow in his face as it felt like his hips started grinding all on their own. Each whiff he took of your perfume, he sped up his thrusts.

Gasping and whining as he was practically grinding into his stomach, the pillow just blocking his dick from doing so. He missed his girlfriend, his wife, his lover… He wanted her. He needed her.

“F-Fuck Y/N!” Choso gasped out, gripping the pillow in his face tighter as he felt his dick twitch, the poor pillow slowly getting damper and damper from the amount of pre-cum releasing from his tip.

He didn’t want to cum, he didn’t want to ruin the pillow even though he already did.

His gasps and whimpers filled the room, his legs shaking ever so slightly as he continued thrusting into the pillow. He didn’t expect a mere pillow to feel this good, or maybe it was because his body yearned for your touch and smelling your scent made it seem as if you were pleasing him.

Choso’s pace increased once more, finding the perfect rhythm and continued that pace to reach his near orgasm.

His legs shook, toes curling, head tossed back, bangs stuck to his forehead, groaning loudly as strings of white shot out from his cock; a small pool of cum formed as this happened.

Choso’s head felt back into the pillow, breathing heavily as he tried to calm down from his recent orgasm. Doing this he shut his eyes, heart beating loudly in his chest…

“Cho?”

•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•⑅♡⑅•

Hi this is my first ever post! Hope u guys liked it and I’m very open for requests! :)

[tartsinarat]

I don’t have much energy (on account of still being sick :/) but I still wanted to do something so dug up an old unfinished screenshot edit that I did a while ago but never finished until now

But yeah this is from the au’s version of Eclipse Lake, which happens a bit later down the timeline than the original.

It’s set just before Hollow mind instead and I’ll explain the timeline differences in much better detail in a different post but it’s basically because Luz isn’t focusing on going home like in the og so she is seeking on ways of getting revenge on Belos and saving Pip and Eda.

But Amity has been wanting to cheer up her awesome girlfriend so she’s been secretly researching ways to create a portal door as a surprise, so Amity was the one who found out about the titan veins through the echo mouse instead and went to go find some titan blood without telling Luz.

If you’re probably wondering where Hunter is…He’s actually taking an extremely well deserved break :0 (lmao, just kidding he’s still apart of the Eclipse lake events) as Pip is surprisingly extremely efficient at sorting out tasks (normal Pip could never, this is all the brainwashing tea lmao) and so Hunter has unwilling ended up getting all his work done by Pip…

Hunter doesn’t want to admit it but he is happy about finally getting a break because he’s getting to do normal teen stuff and play with flapjack more often but he does feel like he’s getting replaced so there is complicated feelings there (it also doesn’t help that Pip is now getting all the attention from Belos and is on top of that able to do magic so Hunter is switching between “I’ve got to do as much as I can so I don’t get replaced” to “it’s kinda nice not being in mortal danger every five seconds and being able to hang out with Willow”)

But yeah onto the episode; Much to the displeasure and horror of Kiki she’s having to be supervised by Pip during the titan’s vein assignment so she’s extra cautious and paranoid about not ruining the assignment especially when in front of the Prince…

Hunter wanted to go with Pip but was then explicitly told by Belos to take a break as Pip was handling an extremely special assignment but Hunter immediately flipped into panic mode because after getting kinda jealous of Pip and he wanted to show his worth again to Belos so he ended up secretly following along as a scout in order to be the first to find the titans blood.

Belos obviously already knew that the vein was already decayed and full of Fools blood from when he went there years ago, so the assignment Kiki is on was actually just a wild goose chase created in order for Pip to secretly assassinate Kiki (who’s fucked up one too many times and knows too much about the actual day of unity plans so she’s obviously got to go.)

Amity and Hunter end up working together after stumbling onto each other searching for titans blood, though they’re bickering and fighting each other the entire way but aren’t as antagonistic with each other as Hunter has slowly mellowed out after hanging out with the emerald entrails more often so they do actually end up properly bonding :)

Uh until they accidentally stumble onto Pip’s attempt on Kiki’s life…

I’m personally imagining the spiderman meme with Pip, Amity and Hunter happening and then Kiki scampering away at full speed in the background.

So yeah Amity is just majorly confused on the fact that she’s just randomly found Pip in the weirdest situation and place possible after months of no contact or communication…

It gets weirder for Amity as Luz never actually told anybody where Pip was and just vaguely said he was staying with family when asked as it wasn’t technically lying (Luz really didn’t want to break Pip’s promise on not telling anyone who he actually is so this is her guilt free way of avoiding questions on where he is)

Pip doesn’t even let Hunter or Amity think about the implications of this whole situation before running off to go catch Kiki and attempt to go for round two… Amity stops him mid way by grabbing his arm which wasn’t the smartest idea.

Because of the brainwashing tea and all the meddling Belos did with his memories, it genuinely makes Pips brain hurt when trying to recognise who Amity or anyone from when he lived in the owl house and so he usually gets really frustrated/aggressive when seeing someone from his past… so Amity interrupting his assignment genuinely made him kinda loose it and try to kill her instead.

The image is the aftermath but they both hit a draw because Hunter does manage to deescalate the situation by reminding Pip to focus on his actual mission instead.

I’ll probably continue this explanation through either a comic or text post :p

[spacelazarwolf]

y’all i found it, i found the post that originated the claim that i’m a ZionistTM and it’s even more ridiculous than i expected.

—————————————

—————————

this is, of course, the same person who labeled me a MisogynistTM for making a half baked joke reblog basically saying “jewish standards of masculinity are different than white western standards of masculinity” then cited orthodox judaism, a community i’m not a part of, as why Actually The Jewish Community Is Horrifically Misogynistic And Bad (as if i haven’t faced misogyny from jewish cis men before???????)

anyway, my post in this screenshot didn’t once mention israel. it didn’t mention zionism. it was talking about antisemitism. i turned off reblogs because people were making it about zionism and israel, which was derailing my original point. i set a specific boundary and people kept crossing it, so i turned reblogs off and blocked people who wouldn’t leave it alone. absolutely nothing about that could possibly indicate that i’m a zionist unless you think that diaspora jews setting boundaries about being forced into a conversation about israel, especially one where we are essentially being blamed for the antisemitism we face because of the government of a country we don’t even live in and have no control over (there’s a phrase that, it’s called dual loyalty and it’s been getting jews killed for decades) or if you think simply talking about the history of antisemitism and current rising levels of antisemitism is somehow “zionist propaganda” in which case you might want to get your head out of your ass and question why you’re agreeing with literal nazis. also bonus points for this person literally just blatantly blaming jews in the tags for the rise in antisemitism because we’re apparently not being antizionist enough to deserve basic human decency and safety! not even trying to hide it anymore huh!

and of course it worked like a charm bc now, months later, you have people saying this:

“the jew is trying to disguise himself as one of you to trick you!!!!!! he is actually evil and trying to manipulate you to further his evil (((zionist))) plans!!!!!!!!!! beware!!!!!!!!!!!” which is literally just repackaged antisemitic tropes that are centuries old. i’ve never interacted with the person in this screenshot in my entire life, and yet they seem to think they have insider knowledge into my Evil Zionist Plans to infiltrate the community and spread Zionist Propaganda because they interacted with one gentile witch that threw a hissy fit about being told not to be antisemitic in discourse about gentiles appropriating lillith. this gentile decided that every single jew who disagreed with them was a zionist, and when i told them it was antisemitic as fuck to call any jew they disagree with a zionist they went on about me being a “raging zionist” and “faking being queer” for DAYS. so it’s not a mystery where the person in this screenshot got the “ooh scary (((zionist))) pretending to be queer and trans to spread his evil (((zionist))) propaganda” rhetoric from. it’s word-for-word from the gentile witch who was pissed about fucking LILLITH DISCOURSE.

bc the thing is, these ppl don’t actually care if i’m a zionist. if they did, they would be engaging with what i’ve said (which is practically nothing because i knew the second the word israel touched my blog that this would happen — which is why i didn’t want people going on and on about israel on a post about antisemitism). they know that labeling a jew a zionist is an immediate death sentence in progressive circles. they know it’s the easiest way to discredit a jew you don’t like. because it doesn’t matter how many times you say “no, i’m not” you will be forever tainted in the eyes of gentiles by that accusation. that’s why they made the accusation in the first place. and so i will continue to not share any of my thoughts or opinions other than “i’m pro palestinian liberation” and “i’m not a zionist” and people will ignore that to play yet another game of Zionist Telephone to target a jew they don’t like. it’s not the first time it’s happened, to me or in general, and it won’t be the last time. i just hope people seeing this and reading this will help people understand how fucked up and antisemitic it is.

so yeah. if you see accusations floating around that i’m a zionist, this is where it came from. a situation that is textbook dual loyalty, being punished for setting boundaries on my own blog, and people who hate trans men jumping at the chance to demonize one with one of the easiest tricks in the book as soon as they see he’s also jewish. the fact i keep having to address this when the origin of the rumor is literally just antisemitism should heavily inform how seriously you take random claims online that a jew is a zionist. most of the time it’s just blatant antisemitism, and very often it’s a way to silence an unrelated conversation that person was trying to have.

[nyxelestia]

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Fandom Community Spaces

One of my fandom servers recently imploded. I didn’t just want to post my immediate reactions and spend the next 3-5 business years litigating my feelings, so I took a few months to deconstruct what happened. Now I’m reconstructing everything into a case study on white supremacy culture in progressive spaces.

Below the poll, I’ve spelled out 17 traits of white supremacy culture, as they appear in progressive spaces, organized into four categories. I relied predominantly on the works of Tema Okun and Robin DiAngelo, whose works and websites expand upon everything I talk about.

I don’t want anyone to beat each other (or themselves) up if they’ve noticed these traits. Just fix it.

My goals with this guide:

Fans can put names to their observations.

Mods/Leaders of fandom spaces ask themselves, “how many of these have I done?”

Everyone gets an idea for what can be done about these traits.

Each listed trait has:

Definition of the trait

Common or fandom-specific examples

Suggestions to begin fixing it

Additional Commentary specific to this particular server incident

That makes this post very long, but it should be easy to skip over sections.

(If you are thinking of sending someone this post because they expressed a lot of these traits, first take a moment and identify how many of these traits you have practiced.

If someone sent you this post as an accusation, show them the above paragraph and ask what traits they recognize in their own behavior. If they say "none," ignore that person. I have will not facilitate the use of anti-racism as a smokescreen for bullying.)

I wasn't able to put this poll at the bottom of the post. I encourage you to wait until you get to the end and then answer the poll.

Because Tumblr polls expire in a week, I also encourage you to answer the same poll here on StrawPoll.

White Supremacy Culture Traits

Context (Basic Outline of What Happened)

In late Oct. 2023, someone on this server made an insensitive joke regarding Native American spirituality. They were quickly corrected by another member, and a third, indigenous member defended the gravity of their culture.

In DMs, a server mod (without the knowledge of the rest of the mod team) rebuked that indigenous server member for mini-modding, but claimed they would also moderate the person who made the joke in the first place; that person who made the joke was this mod’s friend.

This Inciting Incident Mod never did moderate their friend. When this came to light for the rest of the mod team in early Dec. 2023, the Inciting Incident Mod left before they could be ‘fired.’ Meanwhile, the Server Owner tried to cover up the preceding mess when announcing this mod’s departure.

The Indigenous Server Member used @everyone to explain to the server what had happened, dropped screenshots, and left the server.

When the community at large, including other mods, demanded more accountability and action from the mod team and the admins, the Server Owner doubled down on their defensiveness and denials for the next month.

Behind the scenes/in mod chats, the rest of the mods tried to advocate for the same things that the community was demanding. Most of their suggestions were shot down and input disregarded (primarily by the Server Owner).

Ultimately, all the mods were “let go” (fired), leaving only two admins. The second Admin largely followed the lead of the Server Owner, who was the one posting most of the announcements and engaging in the discourse.

The Admins unilaterally froze the server mid-conversations in late Jan. 2024.

They deleted the server on March 4th, 2024.

I. White Fragility

White fragility is the various phenomena by which white fans’ distress at discussions of racism take precedence over the actual occurrences of racism. This is not a conscious tactic, but the result of the layers of insulation from irl racism that white people are conditioned with, combined with white culture and experience being so pervasive as to become invisible.

1: Right To Comfort

Believing that white fans’ requirement for comfort in fandom spaces is more important than the on-going discomfort fans of color experience in the same spaces.

Examples:

Prioritizing the emotional and psychological comfort of some fans over the on-going experiences of other fans.

Scapegoating those who named the racism in the community and accusing them of ‘rocking the boat.’

These might sound familiar:

"This is just supposed to be a fun hobby."

"Can we get back to the good vibes?"

"Why can't we all just get along?"

“Hobbies/Fun shouldn’t be this much work.”

Treating any and all discussion of racism as acts of antagonism.

Fixes:

Learn to sit with discomfort before responding or (re)acting, especially if faced with an accusation. It’s an opportunity for growth, not an opening for attack.

Avoid taking criticisms personally, and avoid treating feedback as accusations. Yes, some accusations and call-outs are personal, but most are not. Even the ones that are personal need not be treated as final value judgments nor the end of the world.

Additional Commentary:

The white fan who’d made the insensitive joke in the first place did not lash out at being corrected. The discomfort was predominantly from some white mods who interpreted all mentions of racism as a conflict.

This trait is frequently found the trait called ‘Urgency.’

2: Defensiveness

Reacting to criticisms as if they were personal attacks, prioritizing comfort over growth, and using hurt feelings to derail discussions.

As author @xiranjayzhao put it in their video discussing a similar incident in the publishing industry, “If you are more concerned at being called racist than racism itself, that is an active hindrance to dismantling racism.”

Examples:

Treating criticism as threatening, inappropriate, or rude.

Focusing on making sure one’s own feelings or the feelings of community leaders are not getting hurt. This process often takes up more time and energy than addressing the actual problems do.

Spend energy defending against charges of racism instead of examining how racism might actually be happening.

White fans targeted by other oppressions (I.e. sexism, homophobia, etc.) express resentment because they feel that the naming of racism is erasing their experiences of marginalization from their other identities. This is especially prevalent in fandom as our communities are dominated by women and queer people.

Fixes:

Identify and understand the link between defensiveness and fear. When you recognize your own defensiveness, ask yourself what you are defending, and what you feel that you are defending against.

Develop culture of naming defensiveness when it arises.

Be honest with yourself and with the community about the power dynamics in the situation and respond thoughtfully. The person with greater power has the greater responsibility to name and move through their own defensiveness.

This is most important for small, online community leaders (I.e. Discord server mods). However little power we feel like we have, we still have more power than all the other members.

Additional Commentary:

Defensiveness was ultimately the biggest problem in this particular server’s implosion, and continues to be the most prevalent problem I observe in many other communities. The majority of the problems in these communities came not from actual acts of racism or patterns of insensitivity, but a few white fans’ defensiveness when these were named.

3: Fear of Open Conflict

When discomfort with talking about racism begets outright avoidance. This becomes “toxic positivity,” creating a pattern of suppressing any and all disagreements with a fixation on “keeping the peace.”

Examples:

Ignoring or deflecting conflict, no matter how minor.

Emphasis on tone, performing friendliness, and on everyone ‘calming down’ once even a hint of conflict arises.

Scapegoating people who bring up racism or equating criticisms with ‘rudeness.’

Fixes:

Role play, discuss, or plan for ways to handle conflict before it happens.

Don't require hard issues to be raised in `acceptable' ways.

Once a conflict is resolved, revisit it and see how it might have been handled differently.

Additional Commentary:

This particular server’s admin team was understandably hypersensitive to conflict; the server had been previously wracked by fandom dramas unrelated to racism. However, this sympathetic feeling metastasized into an unsympathetic habit of total conflict suppression. Had that Inciting Incident Mod not reacted to that faint hint of friction, or had the admins later been willing to name and acknowledge mistakes from the moderation team as an unintended instance of racism, almost none of this final drama would have happened.

4: Denial

Insistence that racism is an individual problem that requires intent; refusal to see or acknowledge systemic problems brought to one’s attention.

Examples:

A pattern of downplaying or denying what POC are saying about their experiences.

Insisting intent is more important than impact.

Insisting that if someone did not mean to be racist, then the harms they perpetuated cannot have been serious.

Insisting that a person or group can free from racialized conditioning, leading to statements like "I don't see color," “I don’t care what anyone’s race is,” “we can’t even tell race on the Internet,” and "we're all the same."

Fixes:

Learn to acknowledge any fear that naming racism brings up; the feeling is not wrong or right.­ Move through the feeling and address what has been raised.

Assume that any naming of racism is on target. Instead of asking, “is it racism,” ask, “how is it racism?”

Learn not to take accusations of racism or white supremacy culture as personal attacks or criticisms.

Get into the habit of saying, “tell me more,” instead of jumping to denial and counter arguments.

II. Exceptionalism

AKA “the Illusion of Control.” The belief, conscious or subconscious, that one knows the right way to do things and is uniquely qualified implement it. This might literally mean one’s self, or just people similar to one’s self.

5: Paternalism

The belief that one can dictate what is ‘best’ for everyone or make decisions on others’ behalf without their input.

Examples:

Deeming it unnecessary to understand the viewpoints and experiences of people for whom one is making decisions.

Labeling people for whom one is making decisions as unqualified.

Majority of community members get marginalized from decision-making processes. Either there is no mechanism for community input, or community input is disregarded by those in power.

Frequently, these decisions also have the most outsized impact on those with the least power, e.x. members who don’t have personal friendships with mods.

Fixes:

Realize that everyone has a worldview, including you. No one’s experiences or education (or lack thereof) disqualifies them from having agency in your community.

Always include those most affected by community decisions in the brainstorming and decision-making processes.

Build in an understanding that every approach yields unintended consequences; even the most strategically made decisions will have unanticipated consequences.

Additional Commentary:

The Server Owner consistently made unilateral decisions on other people’s behalf. They also required members to be 21+ in this server, despite the show it was for only being 18+

In the interest of living up to my own standards, I must acknowledge that I was also being paternalistic.

When I first joined the server, I questioned that age requirement. The Server Owner claimed that they felt uncomfortable talking about mature topics around 18-20 year olds…and “joked” that they viewed 18-20 year olds like children. Their defensiveness reminded me of elementary school children insisting kids in the grade immediately below them are babies. On the spot, I thought the Server Owner must be in their early 20s at the oldest. With zero evidence but a lot of confirmation bias, this feeling cemented into an assumption due to some of their moderation choices (e.x. pinning messages by their whims, thus confusing newcomers). I even wondered if they grew up in a cult environment due to unusual gaps in their knowledge (e.x. being surprised that it didn’t snow in most of Thailand). I thought I could and should, over time, convince them of 'better' ways to moderate, and attributed my disagreements with some of their moderation choices to their youth.

Then the Server Owner mentioned having been to uni nearly 20 years ago, making them almost double the age I’d assumed they were.

Looking back, this was an act of paternalism on my part that spanned over a year and a half. I’m not proud of this, and I would like to think I would still come to be ashamed of this even if the Server Owner actually had been as young as I thought they were. Regardless of their actual age, this was an incredibly paternalistic viewpoint for me to have about any adult.

6: Power Hoarding

People scrabbling to hold onto whatever little power they have; resisting anything which makes them feel threatened in their position of leadership or influence.

Examples:

Feeling threatened when someone suggests changes in how things should be done in the community.

Suggestions for change often get taken as an indicator of poor leadership.

People with power insisting they do not feel threatened or defensive in the face of suggestions for change.

Assuming that anyone wanting a change are ill-informed or malicious.

“Blaming the messenger,” such as focusing on the person advocating for change rather than the substance of what change they are trying to make.

Fixes:

Leaders should expect challenges and change and learn to see this a sign that someone cares about the community enough to want to stay and reform it. Because our spaces are predominantly for hobbies, people have less need to stay, even if they have a strong desire to. If someone truly thought we were hopeless leaders, they would not be advocating for change; they would just leave.

Adopt a “tell me more” approach when someone suggests a change or challenges an existing structure * even if the thing they are trying to change is something you care deeply about preserving.

Make friends with your ego. Everyone has one. You’ll do better in the long run when you know what will automatically kick up your defensiveness; don’t try to pretend nothing will.

Additional Commentary:

The admins caused many of their own problems by consistently disregarding others’ input; they not only ignored the criticisms of the community, they ‘fired’ the entire rest of the mod team for giving suggestions that the admins did not want to hear.

7: Individualism

Believing that one can be immune from social conditioning and systemic biases, or that individual actions are sufficient to change a community.

Examples:

Believing that one can be “isolated” from the conditioning of the culture they were raised in.

Not seeing the ways dominant identities * in gender, class, sexuality, religion, able-bodiedness, age, etc. * are informed by belonging to a group that shapes cultural norms and behavior.

This one is also hard for people in fandom to recognize. Many of us are marginalized in one aspect of our identity, and marginalization in one area can make it incredibly difficult to recognize or acknowledge privilege in another.

Accusing people advocating for change of “not being team players,” because one does not recognize the large groups on whose behalf they are advocating for.

Focusing on whether or not an individual “is racist,” while ignoring systemic racism in the community’s culture or leadership.

Fixes:

Get into the habit of acknowledging both your marginalizations and your privileges. For example, I am a queer woman of color, which are three traits of marginalization. I was also raised middle-class, I have a college degree, and I am cis; three traits of privilege. All these traits inform my experiences and world view and make me subjective in different ways.

Learn how our dominant identities and how our membership in dominant identity groups informs us both overtly and covertly (while realizing too that these identities do not have to define us).

Realize we all have internalized conditioning, including racist conditioning. Commitment to anti-racism is not about being ‘good’ or ‘bad;’ it’s a commit to challenge one’s own conditioning and subconscious biases on an on-going basis.

Focus on collective accountability as much as individual accountability.

Because many people, especially on social media, use ‘accountability’ as a euphemism for ‘punishment,’ I want to be clear that this does not mean collective punishment. It means recognizing that people react to their peers (dis)approval on even the smallest scale, that people want to fit in, and that people often fear standing out. We are often not making individual decisions so much as “going with their gut” or “going with the flow.” When that’s the case, that means we need to re-condition what our gut tells us and change where that flow is going * both of which are community actions, not individual ones.

Additional Commentary:

In the Individualism page on her website, Tema Okun shared a personal story about how her upbringing had blinded her to the very real risks her POC colleagues faced even while working with well-intentioned white leaders. This story resonated with me and my experience in this fandom server.

The white admins either did not understand (or did not care) what it would cost a POC like me to try to help them. I was attempting to mediate rather than prosecute, and speaking gently as I did - which I was only doing to try to balance the need for change against the admins’ need for white comfort. Multiple people blocked me during this time period, and most did not see what came after. I try not to assume I’m more important or relevant than I am, but I and many others noticed the drastic change in the admins’ behavior once my rhetoric shifted from ‘benefit of the doubt’ to ‘naming mistakes and suggesting changes.’ I was trying to help the admins, but it came out to nothing and I still ended up paying a price and losing friends.

8: I'm The Only One

The assumption that one knows best; therefore, they have the unique right and responsibility to take unilateral action.

Examples:

Believing that the only way to get something done right is to do it one’s self. (Related to ‘One Right Way.’)

Believing that only one person is entitled or qualified to determine the right way and take action, typically in isolation from the people who will be impacted by our decisions.

Often goes hand-in-hand with micro-management (or in the case of online communities, micro-moderation).

Attempting to downplay or cover-up flaws or mistakes in leadership, fearing that the community cannot survive people discovering leadership isn’t perfect.

Fixes:

Hold ourselves and each other accountable for mistakes without assuming that we need to be perfect to lead.

Focus on collaborative and collective strategies for responding to mistakes, including accountability but also growth and inner development.

Leaders should make an effort to take in input from as many sources as possible, including the people saying things they do not like, do not want to hear or are challenging their leadership.

Especially the individuals who hold the most power, such as server admins and owners (who have more power than other mods). The higher up in this hierarchy that we are, the more likely that anyone who truly thinks we’re hopeless would simply opt to leave…which means the higher up in the hierarchy we are, the more likely that anyone who is challenging us still expects both themselves and us to stay where we are. Their challenges are not a threat, but an opportunity for growth.

Additional Commentary:

Those last two bullet points under Examples and Instances are what kicked off the entire server-ending drama in the first place. Even though the Inciting Incident Mod made a truly disappointing mistake, I don’t actually see them as having made the biggest misstep in this mess. This mod micro-managed someone and abused their power to shield a friend, but had the admins been willing to acknowledge those mistakes directly, most of the ensuing drama would not have happened.

When I asked the Server Owner to let someone else take over the server instead of closing it off completely, they claimed all the people I suggested were not equipped to handle the server. The only person they were willing to let take over the server was someone who had uncritically supported them during all the discourse. (Though I later found out that this entire discussion was never in good faith to begin with; explanation in the Final Feelings section below.)

9: Entitlement.

Assuming a right to something without any consideration for the possibility that one may not have the right. This assumption frequently is unidirectional and/or implicitly only functions as long as most other people do not have a similar right.

This trait was not core to either Tema Okun’s work on white supremacy culture nor Robin DiAngelo’s work on white fragility. However, it is an underlying component of racism (who is entitled to what), white supremacy culture (entitlement to other people’s works), and white fragility (entitlement to comfort).

Examples:

Assuming that one does not need to ask (or wait for an answer) to use someone else’s work for one’s own purposes. (Related to the trait ‘Urgency.’)

Believing that people’s boundaries regarding their work or creations do not matter. I hope I don’t need to spell out why this problem gets so in fanfic-based fandom spaces. That can of worms would need its own post and I’m already exhausted from this post.

Related to Right to Comfort: believing one is entitled to a peaceful community, even when it comes at the expense of everyone else’s sense of safety and belonging.

Fixes:

Assume one does not have permission until and unless told you do.

Graciousness if someone does not want you to use their works.

Their reasons may have nothing to do with you, so also learn not take someone else’s refusal personally.

When you do assume a right, take a moment to imagine it’s reversal (I.e. everyone else having the same rights to your work or output). How comfortable are you with this prospect of everyone ‘borrowing’ from you that which you are currently trying to borrow from someone else?

Additional Commentary:

I detailed my direct experience with the admins' entitlement down below under the trait titled ‘Urgency.’

This trend continued with their behaviors towards what server content they did and didn’t delete prior to deleting the whole server. When fans who left or were banned insisted all their own messages in the server be deleted, they were refused on the basis of ‘preserving’ the server. Yet the admins had no problems deleting every channel that had even a shred of discourse in it. They later deleted a few other channels on the grounds of people’s personal information potentially being in those channels and putting members at risk…except that if there was any such information, it had always been present in this channels; why did it suddenly matter now? I concede that they eventually deleted the individual members’ messages per their requests, and that the fear-mongering about private information came from another member altogether. However, between nebulous accusations that an admin had been party to a past doxxing of this member in the first place and the on-going problem of the admins behaving with false urgency (another trait below), I’m having a very hard time being sympathetic about this or giving them any more benefit of the doubt. Their selection of which channels to delete look less like protecting server members and more like a failed attempted to protect their own reputations.

III. Binary Thinking

This is not just a futile attempt to simplify reality, but an entitlement to a simplified reality and a habit of attempting to force others into one’s own dualistic constructions.

10: Either/Or

Polarization of issues and assumptions, categorical thinking, and viewing everything through this binary lens.

Examples:

Positioning or presenting options or issues as either/or -- good/bad, right/wrong, with us/against us, pro/anti, good/evil, safe/dangerous, etc.

Related to Perfectionism: a suggested solution must be either perfect or it’s useless.

Tendency to escalate instead of de-escalating, especially in a context where de-escalating is viewed as dismissing a problem.

Generalizing individual experiences or statements to the collective, or attempting to dismiss a claim because it is coming from an individual; either “everyone” is saying something or “no one” is saying it.

Fixes:

Cultivate a habit or community culture of looking for multiple ‘takes,’ viewpoints, and conclusions.

Break the habit of trying to sort people and ideas into two or a few categories.

Practice taking situations with seemingly only two possibilities and identifying points between them or alternative options altogether.

Be willing to set a future date or deadline for continuing a disagreement in order to de-escalate emotions in the moment. We have more options than either fixing everything in the moment or ignoring problems forever.

Additional Commentary:

When asked for transparency, this server’s Admins acted as if mistakes had to be either ignored or turned into a big production. This left no room to acknowledge a mistake, learn, and move on, since that was neither ignoring the mistake nor treating it with sufficient drama.

11: Perfectionism

Belief that there is a single right way to accomplish something. Belief that individuals must implement only correct, successful actions (and that missteps and mistakes represent fundamental character flaws).

Examples:

Mistakes are seen as personal, i.e. they reflect badly on the person making them.

Making a mistake is confused with being a mistake; doing wrong is confused with being wrong.

Believing a problem can be permanently resolved with the correct or ‘perfect’ course of action.

Fixes:

Develop a community where the expectation is that everyone will make mistakes, but those mistakes are opportunities for learning, not value judgments.

Accept that, when faced with a systemic or deeply entrenched issues, community leaders will need time to address the problems.

They will probably need to try multiple ideas, some of which might not work. That’s okay; it does not have to be a failure if you learn from it and try again.

Additional Commentary:

In the case of this server’s implosion, perfectionism appeared with the Admins’ fixation on looking for a solution that would ‘put the matter to rest.’ They ignored or actively derided suggestions that did not ‘solve’ the problem in its entirety.

12: One Right Way

The belief that there is a particular correct or ideal way of doing this (and that fault lies with others for not following this particular correct way).

Examples:

Assuming that once people are introduced to the right way, they will ‘see the light’ and adopt it.

Believing that when one’s way is not working, the fault lies with everyone else for not ‘converting,’ not the method itself.

Related to perfectionism: believing there is a singular or permanent solution to on-going, systemic problems.

Believing only certain people are qualified to address or resolve problems. This is especially prevalent among people whose post-secondary education was mostly institutional (i.e. college).

Fixes:

Create a culture of support that recognizes how mistakes sometimes lead to positive results.

Challenge notions of what constitutes the "right way" and what defines a "mistake."

Catch our internalized assumptions about being ‘qualified’ to fix a problem on our own or take on a large responsibility.

Additional Commentary:

Once again, in the interests of living up to my own standards, that means admitting when I’m doing or did the very habits I’m castigating. While my intent was not to behave as if I thought there was One Right Way, I recognize that my actions had the same impact as if I did believe in One Right Way. I presented a solution (collection of rules, guides, and channels) from a server I owned in another fandom entirely, and implied that there was only one right way to ‘fix’ the server.

That said, their conduct in utilizing this also reflected Entitlement and Urgency (which is where I elaborated).

13: (Belief in) Objectivity

The belief that there is some neutral, unbiased experience or viewpoint a person can have.

Because patriarchy so often uses claims of emotionality to dismiss women, many women become oversensitive to claims of subjectivity or identity-based bias. This can make recognizing the invalidity of objectivity difficult in communities whose leadership is dominated by women, especially white women (as white men tend to be most likely to rely on accusations of excess emotion in the first place).

Examples:

Fixation on prioritizing facts over feelings, or thinking feelings can be disregarded and ignored.

Requiring people to think in a linear fashion or otherwise expecting others to perform only the type of logic validated by those in power.

Those in power get to be scared, hurt, or angry and still viewed as rational/logical, while marginalized people who are visibly scared, hurt, or angry are deemed irrational/illogical.

Refusal to acknowledge when a certain line of logic is covering an emotional bias, perspective, or agenda.

Fixes:

Own up to one’s subjectivity; instead of assuming that one can have some arch-neutral worldview, be clear about your background, experiences, and potential biases (whether you believe you actually have these biases or not).

Recognize your own worldview will be as subjective as everybody else’s. If your view of society is also part of the dominant view of society (e.x. if you are white and/or cis and/or male and/or…), this means you were probably conditioned to believe certain assumptions are objective when they are actually subjective.

There is no way to be human without being biased by one’s identity and experience; some identities are just so privileged or normalized by institutions that they are the “invisible” default or norm.

Get into the habit of trying to determine what a situation you are in looks like from the outside, what information others do and do not have, or getting diverse perspectives on various situations.

By “get into the habit,” I mean we should practice doing this even in situations without confrontation, crisis, or argument. Analyze successful incidents and events this way to get the practice for handling unsuccessful incidents and crises.

Utilize ‘I’ statements and make sure not to assume that your personal experience is the same as everyone else’s experiences.

Community leaders have to take extra special care with what we say about our communities and how we present our assumptions and experiences. When we claim a community is trustworthy or safe, we just make it even less trustworthy or safe for anyone feels otherwise, because this disconnect between our experiences (that we generalize) and theirs (that we individualize) creates a barrier against further feedback.

Additional Commentary:

This was also related to at least one admin struggling to disconnect their own experiences with everyone else’s experiences. To the admin, because so much of their own time was consumed by this discourse, they spoke and behaved as if this were consuming the entire server. They did not realize that most of the members of the server had nothing to do with this discourse, and many did not even know it was happening…until the admin started repeatedly utilizing @everyone. This implies the admin viewed their own experience as “objective” and thus projected their own experience onto everybody else.

VI. Validation Seeking

I called this collection of traits ‘validation seeking’ because they all trace back to appeals to external authorities or claims of external pressures.

14: Progress = More

Assuming solutions always require “more” of something; never considering that existing resources could be sufficient or that “less” might be a solution.

Examples:

Assuming the goal is always to grow membership, rather than maintaining an enjoyable community

Assuming that “more” will fix a problem (e.x. more moderators will fix a moderation problem)

Disregarding the costs of growth (such as how increased number of channels can make a community overwhelming to newcomers)

Valuing people who have achieved a certain milestone or objective metric of progress more than those who have not (e.x. valuing older members over younger ones, valuing college-educated members over those without college education, etc.)

Fixes:

Try to make sustainable decisions, with an aim not for endless growth but maintaining the actual goal of the community.

When pursuing “more” of something to solve a problem, first evaluate what you actually need and determine why the existing number of resources is no longer sufficient when it previously had been.

For example, are you actually pursuing more moderators because there is an increase in activity and the existing moderation team feels burnt out and falling behind? Or are you just assuming that you need more moderators regardless of activity levels?

15: Quantity Over Quality

Believing that only things that can be numerically measured have value (and that things which cannot be measured have little to no value).

Examples:

Fixation on things like number of members in a community (quantity) over the members’ relationships and experiences in said community (quality)

Treating quantified milestones as a goal in their own right, rather than means to an end or a guideline (e.x. acquiring a certain number of moderators or maintaining a certain number of channels in a server)

Discomfort with emotions and feelings (as they cannot be measured objectively)

Fixes:

Determine traits and practices important to your community which cannot be easily quantatively (safety, respect, mutualism, etc.) and think of ways to evaluate them (for example: open-ended questions in a survey instead of relying exclusively on numerical ratings or menu options)

Focus less on output goals and more on process goals, such as how many new ideas were considered or how many people felt fully heard in a meeting. Even if, in the short run, this feels like leading to a bunch of unproductive meetings, in the long run this creates a more robust decision-making process.

Treat ‘accountability’ not as a euphemism for punishment (which social media tends to do), but as an opening for receiving support.

Additional Commentary:

The admins fixated on obtaining more moderators, but the reality is that the problems facing the community did not need more moderators, but rather a shift in culture altogether - a thing which could have easily been engendered by the admins on their own, even without additional moderators.

16: Worshiping the Written Word

Fixation on knowledge provided by institutions over people’s lived experiences and on-going, dynamic realities.

This one is hard to recognize in virtual communities because most or all of our interactions are “written” in chats and social media.

Examples:

Attempting to use dictionary definitions of words as arguments in and of themselves or treating them as the end of an argument.

Refusing to acknowledge that the way people use a word in daily living may not match up to the institutional definition.

Using errors in spelling, grammar, or language to justify dismissing someone’s arguments.

Over-valuing people who can write well (or just write a lot), and undervaluing the contributions from people who rely on other media formats or informal documentation.

Fixes:

Treat encyclopedia articles and dictionary definitions as a conversation starter, not an argument ender, e.x. “This is my understanding of that word; what’s yours?” or “In what ways does this ‘official’ definition fall short?”

Focus less on using resources (articles, videos, guides, etc.) as an appeal to authority in an argument, and more as a starting point from which you develop your own community guidelines.

Additional Commentary:

I had an out-sized impact on discourse simply because I could write a lot in one go. Some of that was me anonymously relaying other people’s words on their behalf and some was original on my part; most of what I said simply reiterated what others had already conveyed. However, as I did so in a pseudo-academic manner, my word was given more weight.

Sharing of resources like educational articles or videos were treated as the end of a discussion, rather than the start of one.

17: Urgency

Applying extremely short deadlines to action, giving no time for rest or consideration. Utilizing the overarching urgency of racism as an excuse for short-sighted, short-term actions.

Examples:

Related to Quality Over Quantity: prioritizes measurable actions over impact.

Fixation on appearing to address racism moreso than actually doing it.

Uses expediency to justify poor-decision making processes or lack of consideration (related to Entitlement, Power Hoarding, and Conflict Aversion).

Often relies on perpetuating the idea that racism can be “solved” (which in turn implies that future accusations of racism cannot be made, nor community problems discussed).

Creating a culture of anxiety as people believe they must act immediately or they will never get to act at all.

Related to Right to Comfort: rushing decision-making in order to rush towards an idealized state of no further conflict.

Fixes:

When the feeling of urgency arises, slow down and encourage people pause, restate the goal, and dive deeper into alternatives.

Avoid making decisions under extreme pressure.

Work to distinguish what is actual pressure and what is pressure that you or others are creating.

Establish plans ahead of time for how decisions will be made during times of urgency, and how crises can be handled in the short-term while leaders evaluate ideas for long-term change.

This is related to Conflict Avoidance. When community leaders are uncomfortable with conflict, this also means not wanting to think about potential conflicts, and thus having no plans when conflict arises anyway. Becoming comfortable with conflict also allows planning for conflict management.

Additional Commentary:

When I showed the admins my fandom wank resolving set-up from another server (as mentioned in my additional commentary on One Right Way), they asked me if they could just use it as it was. However, they were too impatient to actually wait for an answer and used it, anyway, before I could respond. It was very clear that my answer never actually mattered to them. Had they waited, I would have explained how this exact set-up was not a good fit for this community and its current problems; I was sharing it assuming they would use it as a source of inspiration to brainstorm their own ideas for their own server. In addition, while I did not mind sharing, these were not my sole creation, but the product of a team of mods in my other server. Even if it had been a good fit, I would have checked with other mods whose labor had gone into this set-up to see if they were also alright with its wholesale reuse.

My experience is only one example. Ultimately, the admins kept fumbling, and increasingly claimed it was all due to the pressure and demands from the community that they ‘handle it’ - refusing to acknowledge that community members weren’t asking for an immediate solution to every problem. This urgency was self-inflicted. The server admins disregarded all their remaining mods’ suggestions that would have given them more time to address these problems carefully. Server-wide slow-downs, channel trimming, temporary server freeze, etc. - the admins had multiple ideas given to them, but shot them all down. The admins’ goal was not to address the problems, but to suppress discussions of racism as fast as possible because they were uncomfortable with admitting its existence in the first place (see Right to Comfort at the top).

Final Feelings

What Took Me So Long To Say Anything?

I didn’t want to risk the admins prematurely deleting the server out of spite. They were already unilaterally and suddenly taking away a community space from hundreds of fans entirely for their own benefit. I could not count on them being above robbing people the final opportunity to recover the last shreds of their materials and memories from the server.

I also, quite frankly, just had a lot going on in my offline life.

I continued to take my time even after they deleted the server because I was hurt and furious. I needed time to turn what was originally a soliloquy of my sorrows into an educational guide.

This was exacerbated by finding out that the admins faked the ‘death’ of the server:

As you can imagine, I was furious - and to be honest, I still am. That anger was precisely why I made myself slow down. I did not want to burn down the fandom for the sake of keeping only myself warm.

Complicated Feelings

I feel hurt and betrayed by the Admins and disappointed in the Inciting Incident Mod…but one thing I will say for them is that they expressed interest in learning the language and culture of the country that our fandom’s show came from.

They showed far more interest than that aforementioned Indigenous Server Member ever did.

I don’t begrudge this indigenous fan for defending their cultural tradition, nor their anger over how it was handled. I also acknowledge that in fandom and irl, Asian diaspora often end up partaking in white supremacy culture and entitlements. However, I do find this fan's umbrage at the initial ignorance to be tremendously hypocritical given this fan’s approach to Asian cultures, traditions, and histories. Their fanfics, server interactions, and other fanworks in this Asian media fandom demonstrated incredible disregard about Asian cultures - one which this fan never showed any interest in undoing or challenging.

I doubt it was a coincidence that this fan blocked me on Discord right around the time I started talking about the westernization of eastern characters and settings. Even if it was, that doesn’t lessen the pervasive apathy towards Asian culture in their fandom activities.

I routinely see fans call for the decolonization fandom when it comes to BIPOC people settings, only for these same fans to turn around and perpetuate the colonization of fandom when it comes to Asian people and settings.

This does not mean western fans shouldn’t participate in an eastern fandom! This participation is the best way to learn about a new culture. Mistakes and missteps are parts of the learning process, both at the individual level and at the collective level.

This is also not to pass a judgment on that specific fan or their creative works. That would be hypocritical of me in turn, given I’ve enjoyed some of those stories and fanworks, anyway.

I am bringing this up to demonstrate why solidarity is difficult for fans of color.

As an Asian diaspora fan in particular, I hate feeling like my choices are “BIPOC fans with ignorance and apathy that they don’t want to unpack” and “white fans with supremacy culture that they don’t want to unpack.” Either way, I’m going to have to put up with a ton of entitlement (never mind the rampant fetishization of Asians from all sides, which is its own can of worms I can’t even open right now).

And if I try to speak up about any of this, I will get blocked or I will be accused of being an anti-fandom killjoy.

Again.

Final Thoughts

People change for the better, and communities change for the better.

I know fandom can change because I’ve seen how it’s already changed. Fans take social justice issues and racial justice issues far more seriously than they did 20, 10, or even 5 years ago, and that’s just my own living memory of fandom.

We should always take a moment to recognize and celebrate how much better we are today than we were in the metaphorical yesterday.

But being better than yesterday does not mean being good enough for tomorrow.

And we still have a long way to go.

-

Thank you for reading this monstrously long post all the way to the end. Please remember to answer the poll at the top. Please reblog, and I encourage you to add your own experiences when you do.

[nephyria]

Hi, genuine question here.

This witch game kickstarter. Putting aside the whole "inspired by HP" thing (not because it is not bad, this is a fair complaint, but because it became a known fact a fair bit into the reblog chain), but why does everyone act like it _must_ have something to do with Disco Elysium? Simply due to the "witch looks for a cat" part like in the Alps witch tweet? Which seems like a trope-y coincidence, if anything? Is it just a joke?

Hi I honestly thought it was related bc I was having a nervous breakdown due to Having The Entire Country’s Public Funding Cut By A Tyrant King, Including Mine, so I saw that, screenshotted it, thought “I need to nap before I do something stupid to myself” & then I napped. and Well. WELL. I MADE A POINT NOT TO TAG IT. I MADE A POINT TO NEVER EVEN SAY THE PHRASE!!! THOUGHT IT WAS HIDDEN FROM SEARCH. MY LUCK IS IN SHAMBLES.

TL;DR - it IS just a coincidence ❤️ the MCs just looked similar ❤️ the phrase “witch looking for her cat in the alps” is no longer a cozy game trope to the internet, but a Memetic Concept ❤️ she’s a stand-in for people who don’t like Dark Or Complex Content, but their media illiteracy keeps them from making Cozy derivatives or comparisons that Work

To answer the 1st half of your question :) it’s bc the Infamous Tweet timeline (2020) and the Potential Game Development Timeline (2023-2025, so 2-ish years of development, initially I thought it was from late-2020-2025) lined up very suspiciously, and the potential main characters looked uncannily similar at a glance, just tweaked enough for the copyright not to get stripped off like a sheet. And like. It is indeed a Young Witch in the not-Alps Looking For Her (presumably dead) mom’s Cat. It’s very generic and it’s a platformer not a narrative RPG with a unique skill system, but that seems exactly like the kind of thing the cozy games genre would do. because it’s more marketable to kids and stuff that way. But the dev team tripped over the trope on their own, they didn’t base it on the tweet.

Which leads to THE SECOND PART. OF YOUR QUESTION.

Young Witch Looking For Her (Neighbor’s) Cat In The Alps is basically a meme phrase around the internet at this point. It’s used when someone who doesn’t understand why a Boring Game in a Setting Full Of Serious Conflict would do well, and tries to take a central element that they liked from the game and make it Cozy™. This ends up completely missing the central point of the original thing, its genre, its audience, the gameplay, and the interplay between all those things, and then is upset bc nobody liked their idea, which is often attributed (or misattributed) to misogyny in the games/media sphere. it’s also used when people watch/play/read a piece of media, get squicked out by the primary draw of that media, and go “hey I’ll just recommend this other, cozier option” that ends up being nothing at all like the original media.

Often times it’s presumed that a female audience doesn’t want a gritty, emotionally fraught story with stakes and consequences. or complexity. Or fighting. as I understand it Mattel used this strat massively with Transformers and Barbie.

so as an example of that 2nd one. Someone might say “I liked the gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2, but I didn’t like playing as a problematic white man at the end of the Wild West Era who kills people for money, and has to grapple with the horrible and appalling things that people did in that time” and you’re like oh yeah that’s a fair criticism. I too would not enjoy that storyline, particularly if I were marginalized in similar ways that—“It should be like Barbie Horse Adventure instead,” they say. And you say Beg Pardon?

and they say, “Yeah it should be like if Barbie Horse Adventure got remade in the modern era with RDR2-style mechanics. And you win races and ribbons. Actually I’ll be recommending anyone who liked RDR2, but not that Shitty Stuff, Barbie Horse Adventure or games like it instead.” So you didn’t like the public server stuff either? “No I don’t like robbing people or PVP :( but you should be able to play with friends :)” I. How are they at all similar, you wonder. “Oh my god. not every main character has to be a man.”

Like yeah. Maybe a modern Barbie Horse Adventure would be cool. I think kids would like it. I would never in a million years compare it with RDR2. Until now I guess.

Mentioning it to friends, you wouldn’t say “do you think consumer misogyny and media illiteracy, combined with conflict avoidance and overall societal stress, is creating a snake that eats its own tail? Haha jokes right?”

You would say. “So I had an idea for a game. It’s like RDR2, but what if. instead of playing another white guy doing crimes for money. it’s about a Young Witch In The Alps Looking For Her Neighbor’s Cat.”

[pkg4mumtown]

Special Weapons and Tactics (Ch. 2)

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Male!Reader

Rating: Teen (for now)

Summary: Checking up on the agent you carried out of a hostile situation is innocent, right? Right??

Content Warnings: Male!reader (no Y/N), strong language, first person POV, canon-typical violence, mostly fluff

A/N: Hiiiiii! Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the first chapter, here is the second! I’m embedding the Spotify playlist I made for the fic, but due to the lack of dividers for you all to know what chapters I placed them in, I’ll let you know here. Feel free to listen to the whole playlist if you want, just know I’m still making continuous changes to it.

Chapter 1: The Man, Mad Sounds, Want You Bad, Take A Chance on Me Chapter 2: If I Wanted Someone, Neon Moon, Lovers Eyes, Want Want

Also available on AO3 - I do use a workskin on AO3 for text messaging, so I uploaded screenshots of the texts here. I know this isn’t what iOS looked like in 2010 but I didnt feel like learning a new workskin lol.

July 2010

I could practically feel his eyeroll through the phone.

Before I could ask for his order, he started typing again.

It felt stupid to send considering his team would probably bend over backwards for him, but I sent it anyway. He should know someone else was thinking about him, right?

—

Beyond the occasional checkup text on how he’d been feeling—I couldn’t help it—he was still on track to get back to work Wednesday morning. It was actually quite convenient for me as I had a medic course to teach at the academy that day.

Keeping a straight face around my team was nearly impossible as his daily updates came in, some of them even unprompted. That part was surprising given that at work, his demeanor seemingly left a lot to be desired.

When Wednesday morning arrived, I got up extra early to stop at a decent coffee place on the way into Quantico instead of whatever sludge passed for coffee and littered every corner of FBI Headquarters. The drive was maybe half an hour longer than I would have had going into the DC field office, so I had plenty of time to sweat over seeing Hotch after our brief texting over the last seven days. After stopping for our morning beverages closer to Quantico so nothing was cold and stale, I made my way into Headquarters armed with the carrier holding our two drinks, a box of coffee for the team, some random assorted pastries to win their hearts over, and my training materials (which were super important, of course).

The elevator dinged on what I hoped was the correct floor for the BAU. Stepping out, I spotted the team immediately and headed over to their group of desks in the bullpen.

“Good morning, I come bearing gifts,” I announced in front of their desks.

Prentiss and Reid had noticed my presence as I walked in, and they peered over their dividers until they were basically standing as I approached. At the sound of my voice, Morgan’s head perked up and he rushed over to greet me.

“What's all this?” He smiled, gesturing to my full arms.

“This is for you all,” I gently handed the box of pastries with the coffee box balancing precariously on top to Morgan. JJ and Emily looked surprised, and I watched their eyes flick back and forth at each other in some unspoken language.

“What’s the occasion?” Derek laughed after setting the boxes down on one of their desks.

“Just didn’t want to come here empty handed for y’all,” I shrugged. He reached for the carrier in my hand, but I swatted his hand away and moved the drink carrier out of reach. “This is for your boss, and speaking of him where can I find him?”

Reid, who hadn’t said a word the entire time, gestured behind me with his chin. He was definitely familiar, and I knew him from somewhere. Judging by the look in his eye, I wasn’t wrong. Reid gave me a knowing smile and it finally hit me that he frequented one of the same local bars that I do, making me instantly nervous given the potential for volatility in a government workplace. Hell, most of my SWAT teammates didn’t even know I was gay because of that overly macho, straight culture on the team. The only one here I was actually out to was Morgan, though by now, I was sure the room of profilers had figured it out. It was inevitable that Reid had seen me flirt with men at said bar but, by his nod and comforting smile, I was reassured that I was safe and in good company.

I turned and looked over my shoulder to where Reid had gestured and saw Hotch skimming through a file behind the window of his office.

Turning back to them, I raised the drink carrier, “Thanks.”

I spun on my heel and made my way up the stairs to his office.

“Well, that was weird,” Emily spoke up as soon as I was out of earshot. When no one replied, she turned around to face the team, “That was weird, right?”

“Nah, just checking up on Hotch, I’m sure. He’s a good dude like that,” Derek shrugged.

“I mean I’m not complaining. That polo was doing wonders for his arms,” she absentmindedly fanned herself with a file to exaggerate her point.

“You should ask him for his number and get his workout routine,” JJ teased.

“Please, Sergio is the only man I need in my life,” Emily laughed, causing the two of them to veer off in a separate conversation.

“You're being awfully quiet, pretty boy,” Morgan murmured suspiciously to Reid as the girls kept chatting.

“Am I?” the genius jokingly feigned ignorance.

Derek fixed a pointed glare at him, “What aren’t you telling me?”

“We frequent the same bar,” Reid clarified. “Obviously, I recognized him, but I didn’t think he would recognize me, too.”

Derek’s eyebrows had never flown faster up his face, “Have you fu—”

“—No! No, no, no,” Reid cuts him off hurriedly, glancing at the girls who were still talking amongst themselves. “I’m not his type,” Reid answered matter-of-factly with a smirk and directed Morgan's attention to Hotch's office with his eyes.

“Oh, I’m giving him hell over this,” Morgan shook his head and walked back to his desk.

“Over what?” Emily asked as her conversation with JJ ended.

“It seems like he has the number he’s looking for,” Reid answered cryptically and flicked open the box of pastries to hide the smile threatening his features.

—

I took my time on the stairs to gather my wits and my nerves, feeling absolutely ridiculous considering my profession. I knocked on his door frame with my free hand, seeing a pinched frown on his face as he quickly looked up. The tension in his forehead eased upon being greeted with my shy smile and I watched his brain fight his lips as they twitched upward.

After a beat of silence, Hotch snapped out of it and gestured me in, his voice softer than his face indicated, “Sorry, come in. Please, sit.”

“Black, two sugars,” I recited while setting the carrier down on his desk. I gently rotated the cup out and placed it in front of him.

His lips finally won the battle, turning into a deep, closed-mouth smile. As quickly as it came, it disappeared again as he turned to look out of his window at the team. They feigned “work” well, but Hotch wasn’t convinced and stood up to lower his blinds.

“Subtle,” I nearly snorted.

“They’re nosy,” he sighed and sat back down.

“How are you feeling?” I shrugged my bag off my shoulder and plopped it on the floor before taking a seat across from him. I twisted my own cup out of the holder and brought it to my lips with a satisfied hum.

I hadn’t realized I closed my eyes with that sip until I was blinking them open to see Hotch’s calculating eyes scanning me. I tilted my head questioningly.

“Much better. I think the withdrawal headache made it worse,” he lifted the coffee cup up and sipped his. As he pulled it away from his face, he examined the label, “Where’d you get this?”

“Just some place in town I found on the way in. I brought pastries but I think they’ve started decimating them out there,” I laughed, imagining Morgan working with one hanging from his lips.

“That’s kind of you.”

“Felt rude not to,” I shrugged. “I’m glad you’re feeling better though, it didn’t seem like you hit it that hard but the mixture with the blast probably didn’t help.”

“No kidding. The past week was eventful in all the worst ways.”

A laugh was pulled from deep in my chest as I nearly choked on the liquid in my mouth. I wiped at the corner of my mouth as I recovered, “Seems like that might be putting it mildly.  But hey, you could have used the lingering headache as the perfect excuse to avoid a coffee d—meet.”

Hotch smirked over the lid of the coffee cup with a raised eyebrow, “A coffee date? Presumptuous,” he finished with my rank and last name, making my face heat up at how smoothly it came out. “But…I would have missed out on my wager, and it’s been worth the wait so far.”

Any worry I had last week about whether I was imagining this or not flew out of the window at lightning speed, “I’m glad I’m good company.”

“I know, I was surprised,” he joked, smirking once again. “Hopefully this isn’t too out of your way.”

I bit back a laugh, “I work out of the DC field office in Violent Crimes.”

Hotch’s face dropped immediately, “Why would you come all the way here?”

“You asked me to,” I stated simply. His face was concerned and almost looked mad that I would do that, “I’m teaching an intro to field medicine course at the academy today, don’t worry. I was just making you sweat.”

“You didn’t have to try hard to accomplish that,” he shook his head, visibly relaxing and licking over his lower lip.

We enjoyed a brief silence, savoring our drinks and listening to the bustle outside of Hotch’s office. His eyes flicked between my face and the cup being cradled and dwarfed by his hands. He was reserved, which was unsurprising given the setting, and hadn’t quite shut off the serious demeanor he carried in his office. It was hardly a problem and was still a fairly comfortable silence.

That was until my eyes settled on a photo behind his head, “Is that your son?”

Hotch slowly spun away so he could see what I was looking at and nodded with the brightest smile I’d seen on his face so far. I could tell his son was his whole world just from that look.

“Yea, Jack,” he confirmed with a proud smile.

“May I?” I was already half out of my seat.

“Sure,” he nodded, savoring another long sip of coffee.

I rounded his desk and got a closer look at the photo of father and son, with a real, honest-to-God grin on Hotch’s face, “He’s so cute. How old is he?”

“Five, almost six,” Hotch tilted his head at his son’s smiling face, fiddling with the coffee cup in his hand.

I glanced at his left hand, quickly looking back at the photo.

Lack of a ring tan means he didn’t divorce or separate too recently. Oh my—stop that right now.

“He had to have gotten his looks from his mom because…” I looked at Hotch again, making a show of looking him up and down before mocking a cringe. I stepped back from the photo and leaned against his desk.

Hotch hissed from between his teeth, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs, “That would hurt more if you weren’t right.”

“I’m kidding,” I purposefully knocked my leg into his foot. “He’s got your eyes.”

“He just started school recently. He’s so smart,” Hotch looked thoughtfully up at the photo once more. “Figuring out co-parenting with school has been a bit of a struggle, but Haley and I are making it work.”

“I’m sure it’s a whirlwind, even with two parents.  My younger brother is a newly single father.”

“It is, but he's a great kid and I’m lucky to have him.”

My watch started beeping, alerting me to my twenty-minute warning before I needed to be downstairs for the course. I quickly turned off the alarm and focused back on Hotch.

“Speaking of kids, have you taken him to the new bakery on King and Cameron?  They have these incredible cupcakes that my nephew loves. I don’t know how far that is from you.”

“Not too far and Jack does have a sweet tooth,” he pondered for a moment. “Maybe we could check it out sometime. Without him. You know, make sure it’s safe first.” 

I was taken aback for a second at the invitation, “We?  Now who’s presumptuous?” I smirked. Before he could reply I was speaking again, “Would Saturday work for you?”

“It should. Provided we don’t get a case. Eight?”

“Sounds good. I have to run, but—uh—I’ll talk to you later?”

“You will,” Hotch smirked back.

I just about ran out of his office, almost forgetting my bag in the process, not wanting to be late in front of a bunch of trainees. He shook his head at my antics and I had to ignore the way my face felt like it was on fire out of embarrassment.

I’m so fucking dumb.

-

Chapter 3 - Coming Soon

[the-most-humble-blog]

Cancel Culture Starter Pack: How to Get Outraged Online

Welcome to the Art of Outrage

Congratulations! You’ve decided to become a fully-fledged member of the Cancel Culture Club—where moral high ground meets internet fury, and everyone’s an expert on everyone else’s mistakes. Cancel culture isn’t about fixing systemic issues or fostering productive dialogue. No, no. It’s about quick outrage, performative hashtags, and demanding accountability from people you didn’t even follow until yesterday.

In this satirical starter pack, we’ll walk you through the steps to master the fine art of canceling someone online. Warning: Side effects may include echo chambers, bad faith arguments, and the sudden realization that maybe, just maybe, you’re part of the problem.

1. Choose Your Target Carefully (Or Don’t)

The first rule of cancel culture? You need someone to cancel. But who should it be? Here’s a handy guide:

Option 1: A celebrity who said something problematic 10 years ago. (Because clearly, no one grows or evolves.)

Option 2: A random TikTok user who got too popular for their own good.

Option 3: Literally anyone who disagrees with you on the internet.

Pro Tip:

The less context you have about the situation, the better! Outrage thrives on partial screenshots and out-of-context quotes.

2. Gather Your Receipts

You’ll need “receipts” (a.k.a. evidence) to fuel your takedown. These can include:

Old Tweets: The more embarrassing, the better. Bonus points if they’re from an account that’s been inactive for years.

Video Clips: Preferably ones edited down to 5 seconds to remove any nuance.

Hearsay: If someone says they did it, that’s basically proof, right?

Warning:

Fact-checking ruins the fun. Stick to emotional reactions over logical conclusions.

3. Post Your Hot Take ASAP

Speed is key in cancel culture. The faster you join the pile-on, the more engagement you’ll get. Craft a tweet or Tumblr post that’s equal parts outrage and self-righteousness. Examples:

“This is disgusting. How did we let this person have a platform?”

“I’m sick of people excusing this behavior. Cancel them immediately!”

Pro Tip:

End your post with “Do better.” It’s the cancel culture equivalent of dropping the mic.

4. Rally the Mob

No cancel campaign is complete without a crowd. Encourage others to share your outrage. Use phrases like:

“Let’s make sure they never work again!”

“We need to hold them accountable!”

Pro Tip:

Create a hashtag for the cause, like #Cancel[InsertName]. Even if it doesn’t trend, it makes your outrage feel official.

5. Demand an Apology (And Then Reject It Anyway)

When the target inevitably apologizes, it’s your time to shine. Here’s how to respond:

“This apology isn’t sincere enough.”

“Why didn’t they apologize sooner?”

“This isn’t an apology; it’s damage control!”

The Goal:

No matter how heartfelt the apology, never let them off the hook. Remember: forgiveness is for the weak.

6. Expand the Fallout

Don’t stop at canceling the individual—drag their family, friends, and coworkers into the mess.

Did their cousin like a questionable post? Call them out.

Does their employer still work with them? Boycott the company.

Pro Tip:

The wider the net, the more chaos you create. And chaos equals engagement.

7. Move On to the Next Scandal

Once the outrage dies down, it’s time to pack up your pitchfork and move on. After all, there’s always someone else to cancel. Don’t forget to leave a vague post like:

“Glad we held them accountable. Who’s next?”

The Dark Side of Cancel Culture

Now that you’ve mastered the basics, let’s get real for a moment. Cancel culture often misses the mark. Instead of fostering accountability and growth, it creates fear and division. Here’s what you should consider:

Nuance Matters: Not every mistake is equal. We’ve lost the ability to differentiate between harmful behavior and simple human error.

Room for Growth: If we don’t allow people to learn and change, we’re setting an impossible standard for everyone.

Performative vs. Productive: Are you truly seeking change, or just chasing likes and retweets?

The Humble Alternative

Instead of canceling, consider calling in. What if, instead of public shaming, we approached people with empathy and the intent to educate? Sure, it’s not as flashy or fun, but it might actually make the world a better place.

Cancel culture is easy. Growth is hard. Choose wisely.

[your-unfriendlyghost]

How I draw: Use of references

Second response to a few art questions from @johnny-and-clyde let’s gooo!

I love references! Like most artists I did have that phase where I thought I was better than everyone because I didn’t use ‘em, but lemme tell ya- starting to use references took my art from this

(Art from 2021-2022) To some better lookin stuff, and eventually to the stuff y’all know me for now lol!

Nowadays I do use references for almost every drawing, but the amount that I reference them varies Occasionally it’s pretty direct, like my drawing of Curly Shepard, in which I HEAVILY referenced a photo of myself for the pose and fit:

(I don’t dress like this on a daily basis the pic was taken at a Twilight-themed school dance ok) (I’m not cool enough to wear that many necklaces w/o a good reason 😔)

In drawings where I directly reference photos that don’t belong to me, I put the reference in the post under the drawing, so folks know I didn’t plan the concepts/compositions on my own. But usually I don’t directly reference things…

Usually I use a bunch of different references for a bunch of different things. This is for two purposes:

1- Making sure everything stays vaguely anatomically decent, that the fabric folds in the right places, that the perspective works, that the lighting looks good, etc…especially in tricker/unusual poses. Um I’m also pretty sure that I might have some form of aphantasia, or at least a really weak “mind’s eye”, which is probably why I struggle with composition/planning in art and why I do so much better with references

Like here, when I used this pic of Emilio Estevez’s character in Repo Man to make sure I was getting Mark Jennings’s face shape right- just glanced at it off to the side and (more or less) drew what I saw

Or here, in this pic of Steve Randle- I didn’t know how to even start to draw the angle I needed, so I took a pic of myself and used that

2- Capturing the likeness of a person. For most new characters I draw, I take a bunch of screenshots and roughly redraw them and occasionally trace them to build muscle memory, all while taking little notes about unique features they have. Then, once I have a feel for them, and enough odd-looking line drawings to look like a crazy stalker, I’m ready to start actually drawing post-able art yk?

Here’s an example from 2023 where I studied Nancy Wheeler. Final product ain’t fantastic, but this was two-school-years ago so it’s basically ancient in my book lol

I do still use refs often in the finals, but less directly and with less adherence

But I will say, for rougher/cartoonier drawings I don’t use as many refs. Like, I didn’t use references for these (although I did pose in the mirror to get the arm right in the self-portrait lol) :

Lastly, I also find it’s nice to have a mirror/window nearby to look at my own anatomy and reference that, although that’s mainly just useful for characters who look semi-like me/have similar builds to me lol. Like I can reference myself for drawing Steve Randle or Johnny Cade (at least his face lol), but not so much for drawing like…Dally or Evie or Marcia. Still, it’s useful, especially when I can’t find a specific reference I want, yk?

Anyhow, those are the main ways I utilize references in art! Hope some of this was helpful :))

[acrobattack]

bliss redesign based off one I made in my teens

thought process + various other bits and bobs under the cut

I was 15 and annoyed by everything that moved when this character first came out, so in my own head I was very much making a Point with this redesign. Hence, I made very minimal changes. I wanted to work with what was already there and basically just make the existing design more thought-through. Little breakdown ahead (keeping in mind i myself am very much An Amateur who doesn’t know shit and am just ranting about my opinions and i also haven’t seen a single second of the 2016 reboot so i don’t know much about Bliss to begin with)

1. one of my Biggest pet peeves with Bliss is that the powerpuff girls each have bangs that are simple, memorable, and iconic while also being unique from each other and being reminiscent of irl little girls hairstyles. It’s very neat and clever and I like it a lot

and then Bliss has this confusing jumble of shapes that looks like it changes in style halfway across her forehead

i have absolutely no idea what the intent is here. My only guess is maybe it’s meant to look weird on purpose like she was trying to cut it herself or something (I suspect it’s something like that since she seems to have normal looking bangs as a little kid from what I can see) but it doesn’t really come off that way if that’s the case. It just looks like baby’s first PPG OC where you Understand that it’s meant to be hair and that it is made out of shapes but have 0 understanding of hairstyle or character design in general. Heck I might have put this exact hairline on a character in the past at the age of like 8

So in my redesign she’s got 5 even notches across her bangs, not thee most exciting change but it does the job I think. It is pretty reminiscent of Blossom but they look different enough from each other that I wasn’t too worried about it

2. low-hanging fruit time, Bliss’s hair color is horrible on the eyes. I’m bewildered at the decision to do this, especially since there is just so much of it, I struggle to think of how she could exist in any scene without hogging all the viewer’s attention constantly. That said, I understand they wanted her to have an unnatural hair color to really signal that she is a Fresh new Teen character from the late 2010’s, which is. Whatever, that’s fine, so she gets purple hair now. I kept the streak for the same reason, especially since she’s got a lot of hair, so no harm in a little extra interest in there.

I also learned recently that her hair glows sometimes? which i did Not know when first drawing her but well i think the darker color helps anyway. It adds some contrast for when she’s normal vs when she’s glowing and makes the latter appear more,, idk threatening or powerful or whatever the mood generally is when she’s doing that.

I did re-add that toothpaste blue to her eyelids though. I like to think it’s also the color of her lasers. It’s a cute color, just not as like 70% of this character’s palette

3. real talk I was drawing this from memory and didn’t mean to change the way her hair flares out from her head. realistically I think the original is fine, maybe just a little boring but fine, so that part of the redesign was an accident. Only thing is, it’s in the exact same position in every screenshot I’ve seen? It doesn’t seem to whip around when she’s flying or anything which looks weird and probably looks weirder in motion, especially since it takes up so much space onscreen. Idk it’s a strange decision, esp since the original show liked to use the ppg’s hair to emphasize their movement, so I’d just bring more movement into her hair. I mean if nothing else it’d make her look cooler.

very very rough little visual of what I mean

I also ended up making it shorter in my redesign—again, not really intentional, but I think it’s better that it eats up a little less of her silhouette

4. Her headband is largely the same, I didn’t hate the idea of her having an accessory, so I just toned down the colors. I’m not personally a fan of the powder blue and that pink heart is very bright and just doesn’t go with the rest of her (once again the color of her hair is doing it no favors). I also moved the heart over. Not necessarily needed I think, but I feel like it reads quicker as a headband and not a weird crown that way+introduces some asymmetry into her design that I think is nice.

5. my biggest gripe other than her bangs are her hips. I’m not against adding anatomy to this character design to make her read visually as older than the girls, but it’s so awkwardly done and distracting. I feel like it even interferes with her line of action more often than not (which is not helped by her unmoving hair).

Part of the issue is she still has the teeny tiny torso, just… with those square-ish hips slapped on, which makes her legs look all gangly and stretched out. I tried to balance out the proportions more in my redesign, as well as change the hips to a flared skirt. I think it helps differentiate her from the girls and still implies hips underneath, it just also functions as a less clunky transition from her torso to her legs.

Lengthening her torso also allows the stripe to look more like a belt above the skirt, which I think helps to sell her as “similar, but not the same” from the ppg

6. Her leggings(? Idk Im not a fashion person) aren’t a bad idea I think. like a more mature version of the girls’ stockings, but I think the white makes them look really distracting. It would help to make them a darker color I think, but since I wanted to keep them reminiscent of the girls’ socks I kept them white and just shortened them.

7. Not really sure what Bliss is wearing on her feet. I think they’re Mary Janes, but they’re drawn a bit different from the girls’ and I honestly think it’s too babyish a shoe for her to wear. I’m not sure what she’s actually wearing in my redesign either honestly, but the goal was just to make them look like the girls’ Mary Janes while clearly being something different.

8. Uh her signature color is something I’ve contemplated changing a lot but to be real I think it’s fine. I feel it was a very bad idea from a marketing standpoint because people were hype about Bunny and would obviously be mad they didn’t get her once the character actually dropped (and in the long-run she would just end up being overshadowed by the character everyone has already assigned that color to) but I’m personally not bugged by her being purple beyond that. If I were to draw them together though I think Bunny would have a more pinky shade of purple and Bliss leans more blue.

Loosely on the same topic, because of Bliss I’ve had a running headcanon that “only child” types of powerpuffs tend to come out purple. Kind of like how trios tend to have a red, blue, and green. It’s a fun little piece of fake lore to rotate around in my brain

Anyway with all that out of the way, here’s some redesigns I decided to have some fun with. Wasn’t being too precious about recognizability or simplicity or anything like that, but I did run out of steam partway through. There’s also one based off Whoopass Bell bc idk, why not

Finally, here’s some OCs I only ever drew once before out of a desire to give Bliss her own teen girl archetypes to form a team with. This is Bee and Beetle, who I’ll probably definitely forget about again immediately after posting this

[petiteprincesses]

Hello, again! Welcome back to Petite Princesses! With Princess Maker 2 Regeneration out (except for the PlayStation), I decided it’d be polite of me to create a basic guide to some of the simple parts! This one will be about everything from the starting menu!

Bear in mind that due to the change in localization (bless the Translators), I’ll refer to each stat by all 3 English names on first mention, but I’ll default to the latest translation from then on. As well, I’ll be using Centimeters and Kilometers for ease of reference. Furthermore, I’ll be using Refine for screenshots.

Here’s our basic screen, of which you can see many different things. I’ve labeled them accordingly, and I’ll speak of each tab in detail!

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CURRENT DATE: A Box where you can tell the day— the year is on top (1210), with the month (April 4) and the day of the week (Sunday) on the left, with the day of the month (the Fourth) on the right. The game starts on your daughters 10th birthday, and ends on her 18th (in our case, April 4th 1218)

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STAR: I didn’t label this myself, but the “Star” section on the right side info box is pretty important. Here, our daughter’s sign is Aries (Mars), and her blood type is B. Your star sign determines starting statistics and a +100 bonus from slaying a certain foe that I’ll mention later, while type influences passive stat increases. I’ll explain the exacts in another post someday, but for the impatient, googling Patrons on the Princess Maker Fandom Wiki should do the trick!

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ARM/WPN: This is her equipment! You can set it in the menu marked ITEM (the box with the sword, shield, and scroll). All equipment can be equipped at any point, and your armor is even visible during (non errantry) battles!

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STATUS: Here she will have her statuses— there are 3 in the game. Sick (Stress > Constitution/Stamina, represented by a Skull) lowers her HP in combat and can lead to her demise, Degrade (Stress > Morality or Faith, whatever is higher, represented by blue lightning) makes her less likely to work properly and risks being arrested (lowering your reputations) / wasting your money (happens mostly during free time but can occur during working hours), and Love (Triggered by an event when she’s 14 that requires her Charisma/Glamour stat to be the highest, represented by a Pink Heart) that lasts 3 months, makes her less likely to work, and lowers 3 of her hidden stats (Relationship with Father, Cube, and Prince— the last of which could be troublesome for getting the ending).

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HER MEASUREMENTS: This ones pretty simple— it’s her Height, Weight, and Three Sizes (Bust/Waist/Hips). In modern releases, it uses Centimeter/Kilograms, but in the original DOS en leak, its Inches and Pound. If she’s overweight, then she cannot wear certain clothes (all that aren’t the Siren Robes, Cotton Dress, or seasonal outfits). You can tell her weight by her sprite. As well, you can calculate her threshold by .95[height]-[Age + 87]. To get a rough idea, let’s punch in our daughter from earlier, Alice. At 146 centimeters, .95 x 146 is 138.7. Now, she’s 10, so 10 + 87 is 97. 138.7 - 97 is 41.7. Behold, she’ll turn overweight the second the “weight” bar is “41.70”, but if she’s at “41.69”, it’s fine. Though I am to assume rounding is in play!

(Do mind the different stats of her three sizes— I don’t have the original file, so I had to make a replacement with the necessary stats!)

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STATS: Brings up a Menu. For Clarity, below is the side bar from Regeneration. I will list the stats in order, with every name applicable in the order of DOS/Refine/Regen.

Constitution/Stamina: Determines your daughter’s HP. Needs at least 50 to be good at most jobs. Also determines your daughter’s health. Most easily raised by Farming. Likely to be Lowered by Dieting

Strength: A bonus to Attack: 8 points of Strength is equivalent to 1 attack point. Most easily raised by Farming. Likely to be Lowered by Salon.

Intelligence: Essentially, her MP. Needs at least 10 to cast a magic attack. Most easily raised by Science. Likely to be Lowered by Bar work

Refinement/Elegance: Not particularly important unless you’re doing a Ruling Queen run— in which case it needs to be 800. You may need this to get random proposals (which means money!) Most easily raised by Decorum, or if you’re cheap, Lucifon in the Desert. Likely to be Lowered by Farming, so it’ll be zero for a while

Charisma/Glamour: Usually important for special marriage endings. Can cause a few problems such as Attempted Sexual Assault, becoming someone’s Mistress (if it’s her highest stat, indicated by her different facial expression), and generally being asked out. Easily raised by Dance, if you’re cheap (again) Lucifon in the Desert, or the Sleazy/Illegal Bar if you’re willing to tank the stress.

Morality: Need at least 30 for a basic marriage ending. Can also play a part in rejecting the more gross offers she may encounter, as well as being able to stave off delinquency if it’s higher than Faith. If it’s your highest stat, you may encounter a deal that will sell all of it for Equivocal Gold. Easily raised by Church Work, or simply being born with Type A blood. Likely to be Lowered by the aforementioned demonic deals.

Faith: Staves off Delinquency if higher than Morality. It’s definitely a stat that exists. Easily raised by Church, which can also prevent the demon from showing up to eat her morals. Likely to be Lowered by Science.

Sin/Karma: If it’s over 100/250, she will get a Sin ending. If it’s 500 (along with some decent fighter/magic reputation), she will instantly become the Queen of Darkness by the end. You’ll likely get this by killing anything in Errantry, but other “Sinful” acts like the illegal bar and hunting animals will raise it too. Can be sold off for 100g per 10 points, or simply going to Church for work normally.

Sensitivity: It’ll let her see what’s usually “mythical”, such as Fairies and the such if she goes where they hang out. If it’s the highest, she’ll run away, lowering her reputations. Easily raised by Salon work, but can be raised in a multitude of fun ways.

Stress: This is mostly a problem early game. So long as it doesn’t exceed her Morality/Faith or stamina stats, she’s in the clear. It can go to Zero in certain events, such as witnessing Fairies, so if you plan right, Free Time doesn’t have to happen.

Combat Skill: Essentially, your Hit/Dodge rate. Essential for any adventurer, otherwise you’re unable to do ANYTHING! Easily raised by Fighting/Kung-fu classes, but the tempting Restaurant and Inn can lower it.

Attack: Exactly what it says. It determines your daughter’s attack stat. Separate from your strength, but both will result in your “total” attack. Easily raised by Fencing and most Swords. Difficult to lose.

Defense: A difficult stat to raise terribly high. Also exactly what it says on the tin. Can be gained consistently by second level Kung-Fu classes, but not terribly fast. Also, most armor increases it.

All of these skills will be boosted by the spirit Valkyria, first Skill, then Attack, then Defense. When you get to 400 Fighters Reputation, as well as 40 instances of Fencing, Kung-Fu, or Errantry, you’ll receive the Valkyria Sword— which is the second best sword in the game, with 25 attack, 10 defense, and 18 skill.

Magic Skill: Like Combat Skill, but for Magic. Easily raised by Magic Classes. Impossible to lose.

Magic Attack: Much like Attack, but for Magic. Unlike Attack, there isn’t another stat that also functions as an attack bonus, but Magic tends to be what most of the tougher bosses are weak to. Easily raised by Magic Classes.

Magic Defense: It’s like Defense, but easier to raise! In fact, there’s a few ways to raise it! Unfortunately, most things that can do Magic can’t hit you once you’re skilled enough, so this is mainly for Wendy. Can be raised by Theology or working at the Graveyard. Likely to be lowered at Science (but slowly)

All of these skills will be boosted by the sorceress Fay, first Magic Skill, then Magic Attack, then Magic Defense. When you get to 400 Magic Reputation, you’ll receive the Power Ring/Unrivaled Ring, letting you cast Magic without needing 11+ Intelligence. Unfortunately, you’ll have to waste a ton of money as this also requires 32 magic classes- which become Useless very fast. More importantly than that, if you do only Magic classes for a mont, she’ll come raise one of the Magic stats by 5. The stat she raises is of your choosing, so my recommendation Magic Attack.

Decorum: You need decorum to be able to speak to people at the palace. Easily(and for the most part, Only) raised by doing Decorum classes. Impossible to lose.

Art/Art Skill/Artistry: Impacts her Dance Contest score and determines what painting she’ll create in Art Class. For the record, if it’s the highest of the Housework/Social stats, the daughter will be locked into an Art based ending. Easily raised by… Painting Classes. Cannot be Lowered below 100 once you reach 100.

Conversation/Speech/Eloquence: Really only used for two characters at the castle. Only raised by Bar work. Impossible to lose.

All of these skills will be boosted by the demon Paimon, first Decorum, then Artistry, then Eloquence. When you get to 400 Social Reputation, as well as 64 instances of Painting, Dance, or Protocol, you’ll receive Perfume— which… attracts suitors. Which at the point you get it, you’ll already attract anyways.

Cooking: Very important for the Cooking contest. You will need at least 90+ to win, alongside high sensitivity.

Cleaning: An entirely useless stat. It only impacts your Housekeeping reputation.

Temperament/Personal/Temper: Solely important for the Queen. Likely to be lowered by Sinful Work.

All of these skills will be boosted by the spirit Domovoi, first Cooking, then Cleaning, then Temper. When you get to 400 House Reputation, as well as 120 instances of Housework, Bar work, or Restaurant work, you’ll receive the Perfect Flour— it guarantees a Cooking victory, but by the time you get it, you’ll be guaranteed to win anyways.

Fight Repuation: Derives from your “Combat” oriented stats. Can be raised further by winning fights with the sword, or a Dragon Fang. Serves as Morale if higher than Magic. Can be uniquely lowered by selling the “Royal Sword” I allude to.

Magic Repuation: Derives from your “Magic” oriented stats. Can be raised further by winning fights with Magic. Serves as Morale if higher than Fight.

Social Reputation: Derives from your “Social” oriented stats. Can be raised further by winning the Dance/Art contests. Can be uniquely lowered by talking to the Clown.

House Reputation: Derives from your “Housework” oriented stats. Can be raised further by winning the Cooking contest.

All reputations will be lowered by being arrested or running away from home.

But wait! There’s more!! Let’s bring up the Four Hidden stats!

Relationship with Father (called Father_love by Mad Eddy) is rather relevant- you can use it to scold her and dissuade her from things like delinquency and being a mistress. Easily raised by Vacations and just. Talking to her. Most likely to be lowered by Free Time (regardless of pocket money) and resting for the Harvest Festival. Needs to be 100 (along with some stats) to Marry Her.

Relationship with Cube (called Cube_love by Mad Eddy) is rather less relevant. Pretty much is only for the ending, where it needs to be 100. Can be conveniently raised by changing equipment on errantry- you can essentially spam it if you’re really into that.

Relationship with Prince (called Prince_love by Mad Eddy) is mostly just for the Ending, but this time it needs to be 96. Raised by 12 each time you meet him, so every January 31st must be spent with him.

All of them are subject to lower by 6 if she falls In Love.

Maternal Instinct is exactly what it says, Important for some endings (like Princess of Darkness for some reason). Raised by Babysitting and Tutoring. Lowered by Hunting (for. Some reason?)

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TALK: Lets you talk to your daughter. The Three option are Father-Daughter Chat/Father-Daughter talk, Pocket Money, and Scold/Lecture.

When you click Father-Daughter talk, you get 3 more options. How she is doing/Recent matters will prompt her to speak about, well, whatever she wants. Usually, it is about herself, such as her (in)ability to do art, or how she worries about her childrearing skills. After that is Her studies/About study, which is related to what you’ve been making her study— be it how she appreciates how Art brings people together, or how she’s the best magician ever. As for Other topics/Another topic, it’s known to have some weird conversations, usually relating to her body, sometimes relating to other things. As well, picking any option here will raise your internal “Relationship with Father” stat by 1– this is important for two things down the line.

Pocket Money is a lot less complicated, as it’s pretty straightforward. Essentially, you give your daughter 20 + 10x gold, with “X” being the second digit of her age. So, if your daughter is 10, that’s 20 + (10 x 0), which would just be 20. If she’s 18, that’s 20 + (10 x 8), which would be 100. However, while the price increases, the benefits do not— she will lose 20 stress when used, regardless of age. This option does not raise the internal stat mentioned above. As well, if sick, she will not accept your money, and if “Degrade”, she will take it, and it will not impact her stress.

Scold/Lecture is pretty useless… it doesn’t do anything but make your daughter look a little confused. If she’s sick, she’ll wonder if she’s doing something wrong— which will lower her stress by 5, for whatever reason, at least in the refine version. But what you’d actually want to use this feature for is when she’s being rowdy, indicated by the “DEGRADE” marker— it’ll lower her stress by her relationship with her father, (up to a 100 point stress loss!!), and then raise it by 5. If you’ve been playing up a daddy’s girl, this could be of great use.

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DIET: Now, this one’s a little interesting. You have the choice of 4 options, which tie to her weight and stamina! By selecting the Normal/Standard diet, you’ll have a daughter that gains roughly .20 kilograms per month. This is the default, and is also standard, costing 30g. By picking the Robust/Hearty diet, you’ll gain a little over .30 kilograms, but you’ll also gain 10 stamina at the end of every month. It costs 80g, but can be good if you’ve been neglecting your stamina intakes— or if you really want to bulk up early game with the right set up. Then there is the Slim down/Refined diet— In addition to lowering your weight gain to around .15 kilograms, it also lowers your Stamina by 5. It costs 10g, so it’s not really recommended, unless you’re about to cross the threshold. Finally is the Slim Down/Intensive diet. Here, you’ll lose a hefty 20 stamina, but in return you’ll lose around .50 kilograms, and it costs 5g. This is only worth it if you have stamina (and kilos!) to burn. It’s worth noting that if your daughter is getting a little too weak (low stamina), then Cube will swap to the Hearty diet, but you can simply change back to whatever diet you’d like.

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INFO: You’ll find personal information here, such as your daughters birth and her star sign. You’ll also find connections (Raised by talking to Palace Staff) and Sick/Delinquency percentages. One percent is equal to one point of stress over the stat mentioned in “Status”— you’ll need 90% Sickness (Critical) to become Bedridden (Which will kill you if it lasts at least 2 months, ending the game), and 90% Delinquency (A hooligan) to become a Gang Member (Which will get you arrested— a harsh penalty to your reputation stats).

I☆I

SHOP: Another doozy, but we’ll simplify, simplify, simplify!

The Armorer/Armoury is ran by Armorer Zeno/Zen, with Anita as a Part Time worker. Here you can buy equipment, which goes in the Armor/Weapon slots. You’re free to buy anything here, but I highly recommend buying a Dagger and Leather armor, especially if you’re not confident in “Rushing” strategies. Don’t worry! I’ll cover adventuring as a whole in a future post, maybe multiple

The Tailor is run by Maura, who sells clothes. The variety isn’t particularly extravagant, but this is where you’ll find the seasonal clothes. As well, the Cotton Dress is only 500g: you’ll always be able to afford it for the harvest festival if you’re not in debt. Otherwise, there’s not many tips I can give here, other than pick the clothes you find cute— though you can wear most of these only when you’re at least 13, sometimes older.

The Restaurant is ran by one Chef Balbon, and sometimes his part timer Marcia/Marthia. Here, you’ll find food that’ll lower your stress (or raise Stamina!) and raise your weight. Here’s a fun fact! The food is free if you don’t have the money— you’ll just have to spend your first month block working at the kitchen for free. Regardless of if you pay or not, you can only eat here once per month.

The Item/Pawn Shop is run by Shalom alongside his part time assistant Wendy. Here you can buy a few so-so items (which also serve as birthday gifts for when the day comes: you’ll have to buy from the first four items on the list), as well as a Healing Pill and Grenade for errantry. Unique to this shop, you’re able to sell items, though I’d be wary on selling anything that’s “Royal”.

The Church may ring some bells to history buffs— Sister Lee will ask you to donate 100g. Accept, and you’ll lose 10 sin! That’s its entire purpose. This can be used should you rack up far too many on a murder spree and not want to dedicate the time to church work, though it does feel rather humorous in its execution.

Lastly, is the Hospital/Clinic, with Doctor Lombardini asking if you’re sick, and if you are, charging a fee for an examination. When you pay the fee, you’ll lose stress up to one less than your stamina— which means if you don’t gain any more stress (ie- resting), you’ll recover by next month. Really unnecessary unless you’re high up on stress.

I☆I

CASTLE: Basically, a way to gain reputation, a lot of it if you know how to work it. First of all, the key stat here is Decorum, raised by Protocol Classes. Let’s get started, rapid fire motion!!

The Palace Guard/Gatekeeper will be your first stop, needing 10 decorum to speak properly (almost every birthday will start you with 10 decorum). His preferred stat is Refinement. Every 5 points in refinement is worth one point for Personal Connections (hereinafter referred to as just “Connections”). You can gain up to 15 points per visit this way, and 40 total.

Next is the Royal Knight/Imperial Guard Knight, who needs 30 decorum. His preferred stat is Refinement. Every 8 points of Refinement is worth one point for your connections. You can get up to 25 points per visit this way, and 50 total. Did you notice the text was identical? This guy isn’t very special. But since you’re raising elegance anyways, it’s worth a visit.

After that comes the General, who needs 50 decorum. His preferred stat is Glamour. And every 5 points of Glamour will be worth a point for your connection stat. You can max out your visit at 50 points for connection, and 120 total for the guy overall. If you’re raising Glamour, which you likely are if you’re raising your decorum, it’s worth checking him out, at least until you max at 50.

Making it to 70 Decorum lets you speak with the Minister of State. His preferred stat is Intelligence. Aside from the usual, that being that every 10 points is worth a connection point, up to 60 a visit for a maximum of 100, your connection to him specifically can net you bonuses at the Dance Party— specifically, a score boost. This is fun if you are a dirty cheater!

If you’re still raising your decorum, at 80 you’ll have the manners to speak to the Archbishop. His preferred stat is Faith. Like the Minister of State, 10 points is one connection point, and a visit will max at 60, but his overall max is 120. You’ll want to raise Faith anyways, so it won’t hurt to visit the old man.

Getting tired? Great! So is our next stop— at 85 decorum, you’ll speak to the King’s favorite #2, the Royal Concubine/Favorite Mistress. Her preferred stat is Conversation/Speech/Eloquence. Yes, that’s right! A stat with three names!! Eloquence is the Regeneration name. Anyways, every 10 points of Eloquence will equate to 1 point for connections, up to a maximum of… 10 per visit. Her total maximum is 120, but considering you only get this stat at the Bar, I wouldn’t bother.

Now to the King’s favorite #1, the Queen! She’d love to invite you for tea if you have 90 decorum. Her preferred stat is Temperament/Personal./Temper. Much like #2, the same rules apply, 10 points = 1 point, 10 maximum per visit. She’ll raise your connections by 160 points total. This one is even more worthless, as it’s gained by doing housework (arguably easier), but there’s no other reason to raise Temper. What a fraud.

At 95 decorum, we’ll have the Bowing Skills to bow our way to the King. You may think otherwise, but his preferred stat is, strangely enough, Fight Rep. Every 10 points will go to your connection stat, but here’s where it gets interesting— the King has no limit per visit! For the crazies who raise it up to a maximum, the King will gladly give 99 points to your connections. His true maximum is 300, but Fighters Reputation is fairly easy to raise, and you’ll definitely be able to make use of his benefits.

So, what do connections do? Why, palace discounts of course! If you raise them high enough, you’ll get marked down prices! These apply even if she’s buying rogue, so it’s nice to have. Personal connections don’t go away, either! Well, unless you happen to sell that “Royal” thing.

Now, the Jester/Clown is unique— he doesn’t really care for decorum, and speaking to him will lower your social reputation by 15. What he does want is someone to talk to, and that Eloquence stat will come in handy. He’ll also raise your sensitivity by 15. If you keep talking to him, you may even be on the path for that 4th Art-based Ending. If you, of course, are feeling whimsical.

And to defy all odds, the Young Military Officer does… well, nothing. He doesn’t have any preference, he doesn’t require decorum, and he doesn’t impact your stats in any way. Well, not any way that you can see. He’s only available on January 31st, and if you keep your promises, he’s the ticket to becoming a Princess.

I☆I

ITEM: A screen where you can see your inventory. Many items in this game are passive, they’ll have their effect when just held in your inventory. Exceptions include clothes (which are to be clicked on to be worn- then granting their bonuses), Equipment (can be clicked to add to weapon/armor slot, then their effects are in, uh, effect), and consumables (like the Ancient Milk and the Breast Pill). Some items are to be traded away, however. Usually, they are to be traded in errantry.

I☆I

SYS: The save menu. You save your game. You load your game. You leave your game. That is. Uhm. All.

I☆I

SCHEDULE: Leads to the scheduling screen, of which, we’ll talk about… next time!! I’d like you tune in for that, ok?

[my-castles-crumbling]

Anon Advice Asks - January 30

Junk food anon (new), sum it up anon (new), w anon (new), tile anon (new), angry anon (new

Junk Food Anon

Hi <3 First, I am SO sorry, this got eaten by tumblr and just appeared in my inbox now.

I am an overweight person and like...I get where you're coming from, I promise. But I also need you to know that what you're thinking about is NOT a solution. Because being overweight isn't a problem, it's a symptom. It could be a symptom of an unhealthy relationship with food or some kind of health condition, but either way, if you're trying to treat being overweight, you're not going to help yourself, because you're treating the symptom, not the actual problem.

If you say your problem is having an unhealthy relationship with food, this will just make it ten times worse. You have to try to have a HEALTHY relationship with food. Whether that be by seeing a nutritionist, a therapist, going to a support group, etc, THAT is the problem you need to focus on.

And of course, that's only if you want to! The other thing is, people regard weight as such a negative and what I've learned is...if your body is functioning fine, then your weight doesn't matter. So you really don't have to do anything if your body is healthy.

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Sum It Up Anon

whats up cass? hope your day is well!!

so there’s a lot, but ill sum it up:

basically, i have a girlfriend right? she’s super awesome, but things have been rocky recently

it started after she sent me screenshots of texts of me and another one of her friends talking about crushes (in said screenshot, i admitted that i liked her back, which was a lie and something i recognize i shouldn’t have done, but it was awkward and i didn’t know what to do)

she clearly seemed upset by it, but we were on a break when those texts were sent, so i didn’t really get why she was upset? alas i told her that it was a lie and i shouldn’t have said the lie, but throughout all of it she seemed to not believe me. we probably both weren’t in the right headspace (she texted me so and i am going through it rn) but i told her that i was giving my absolute honesty to her.

i talked to a few friends, and they threw around the word insecure a lot, which is something i keep thinking about for some reason. anyway, a few days later she texted me and asked if i was okay and if she did anything wrong. i told her that i was just going though it and she was fine.

honestly throughout all of this im starting to resent her, idek why she’s honestly so amazing i just… can’t. i feel like a piece of shit for resenting her because i truly don’t know if she’s wrong or if i am.

(bonus but something im trying to figure out: i think i might be gay??? which is a problem because i’m a man. like i lowkey hate myself for it but thats not important)

Okay so as far as the first problem, yeah it sounds like she's insecure, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's true you did nothing wrong, but she might just need reassurance that you like HER, and only her. Have you tried sitting down with her and reminding her of that?

Buuuuuuut the second problem. Well, that could definitely affect the first problem. First of all, being gay is not a problem by itself. It's okay to be gay! And I really hope you know that you don't have to hate yourself for that. But if you're not sure how you feel, or if you like your girlfriend, it might be best for you to break up with her and take some time to figure out how you feel. Remember, it's okay to like more than one gender, too!

But yeah, it might be that you need some time for self-reflection and that's totally okay and valid. Be kind to yourself, all of this is okay <3

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W Anon

Hey cas

Here to vent ig? Completely new and original of me, I know.

I'm scared. About everything that's going on right now. I'm safe, I guess, cause I'm white and ostensibly straight, but I'm also a girl so maybe not so much. But I'm still scared. And angry. I'm an adult now but I wasn't back when the election happened and it feels like my future was stolen right out of my hands and I couldn't do anything about it. I'm scared for other people. Things are changing and it feels very unfixable. And there's all this bad stuff happening. And I guess I do feel a little guilty in a way, because even though I'm young and one person can't change anything and all of that, I've definitely made some choices out of fear or comfort. (Not speaking up as much as I should or not cutting off deeply bigoted friends... the like) That other people might not have the freedom to make those choices now, you know? I live in a deeply red state (tho honestly by the statics of it, in any given group of ten in my county, you have 5 who didn't vote, 2 who voted for trump, 2 for Harris, and one who voted independent, or around that. So it could have been worse? Which makes the whole thing seem stupider yk). And you hear about like people who went along with like what the nazis did and I don't want to be that! It contradicts my religious beliefs and my moral compass. But I don't really know what to do. So yeah, scared angry and guilty. And lost. This is terrible for my mental health.

Oh and I got my first college rejection yesterday. Kinda grieving a bit about that, but only to myself because I don't want my parents to know I care. It was where my dad went to school, ironically enough.

Do you listen to sad music when you're sad? I do. Or like happy music to try and change that? Idk

I hope you're well. Thanks for all you do for people. ✨️ stay cool ✨️

-W

Hi <3 I think all of what you are feeling right now is so normal and valid, and a lot of people are feeling the same way. I think the thing is, the fact that you are scared shows that you'll never be completely complacent. Just keep questioning things, you know? It's okay to make decisions to protect yourself when you're at risk, but it also is necessary sometimes to protect other people. And it's okay to make mistakes sometimes about knowing the difference. We're all human, and learning to navigate this together <3

I'm so sorry about your college rejection. I hope you get accepted to a school soon! And I tend to listen to sad music when I'm sad.

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Tile Anon

Hi <3

I think the question is, IS there anything you can do? It might be that there isn't, and as horrible as it is, you have to let this go, you know? I know you want things to be the way they used to be, but it sounds like they aren't even when things are okay. It might be that you need to focus your energy on healthier relationships.

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Angry Anon

Hi, sorry don't mean to bother but do you have some safer ways to calm down from being angry?

I'm dealing with an unhealthy household. I get shouted at for 'existing wrong', 'damaging everything in the house' (the furniture survived three generations before me) and even for talking to anyone. I can't leave the house unless it's for an errand, neither can sleep because I get woken up two to three times a night. every. single. day. for around two months now. I cannot sleep in the morning either because how dare I. I'm taking care of my grandma and a younger sibling and I don't wanna lash out on anyone or anything but I'm sick of things. I was meant to go to college this year but I don't think they'd let me.

I was interrupted around five times to do stuff just when writing this ahh. Sorry for venting a bit. Do you have any advice :(

Hi <3

First of all, I'm so sorry about your situation. I'm assuming moving out isn't an option?

But as far as getting anger out- I think it's a mixture of getting the mental and physical energy out. Physically, you can punch pillows, crumple and throw paper, go for walks, scream into a pillow. Mentally, you can write angry letters and not send them, vent to friends (or in my inbox), draw, or go somewhere and rant.

Also....if rage rooms are a thing near you...they're fucking amazing.

Wishing you all the luck <3