#i checked this blog and it is indeed legit

[harakanvarpu]

O merciful heart, O lover of goodness and giving..

‏Hello, I am Oday from Gaza. I created a link to my gfm campaign to get me and my family out of Gaza. We live in very harsh living conditions. I contracted viral hepatitis as a result of malnutrition and there is no cure here. We die every day from the extreme heat of the tent, insects and scorpions. My sister is about to give birth to her first child. Our biggest fear is where will this child live in these circumstances? Help us bear the costs of leaving Gaza and the difficult costs of living and treatment.

‏I hope you will help us by donating or reposting. Make sure that every $5 can make a big difference in our lives

‏Your support and contributions are very important and appreciated, and I hope that you will continue to support us until we achieve the goal. Thank you from the bottom of my heart 🙏🏻

‏https://gofund.me/7fc8a826

‏This campaign was published and verified by@el-shab-hussein

I'm sorry you are in that situation. I really, really hope it will get better for you 💗

[dfortrafalgar]

Catch Up

Law x Fem Reader

You might have met your soulmate while intoxicated, making out with him in a dark broom closet. But the only thing you left with was his first name.

Warnings: MATURE CONTENT, MINORS/AGELESS BLOGS WILL BE BLOCKED!!!, reader is meant to be over 21, bar crawl setting and responsible alcohol consumption

--

A/N- I'm still (still!) working on requests, and posting un-posted fics from my google drive in the meantime. I'm hoping to have my inbox open once again at the end of the month, or perhaps early June, now that my work/life balance is adjusting properly since starting my new job! I'm really sorry to those who have been hoping for consistent fics from me, i really wish i could write as much as i was recently but i'm still trying really hard!

[Also posted on AO3]

Chapter 1

[Next]

It was hard to convince yourself that you weren’t just the slightest bit tipsy as you kept your head lowered and channeled all of your focus into making sure your feet walked in a linear path.  How many bars had you gone to again?  Four?  Five, maybe?  Your body swayed slightly with your gait as your mind scrambled to catch up with the last drink that you had.  It was only a cocktail, as all your other drinks from your bar crawl were.  Was it mango-flavored?  What street were you even on now?  You blindly followed the two women in front of you whose voices were gleefully mocking the words you had said some hours before the sun had gone down.

“‘I’m not a lightweight, never have been!’” chided Ikkaku, eyes crinkled in a smile as she poked fun at your previous confident statement.  She tossed a glance over her shoulder where you walked only a few steps behind.

“I’m not a lightweight!  My voice isn’t even slurring yet!” you fought back, increasing your speed to keep pace with your best friends.

“And what was the last drink you had?” Nami asked, pulling her phone out of her bra to check her map.

“A mango margarita,” you confirmed.  “With a little lime wedge and a mint leaf for a garnish.  The place was called Elgia Lounge and it was on–”

“Okay, okay, you’re not drunk!  We surrender!” laughed Ikkaku.  “I’m glad you’re not, though, because this next place apparently has some of the best pineapple daiquiris in the entire city.”

Your mouth started watering immediately at the thought.  You were always a sucker for sweet cocktails, arguably some of the most dangerous drinks due to the way the tangy, sour mixers completely blocked the taste of any alcohol added.  Sometimes, it was impossible to tell if there even was alcohol in the glass, but with the way you walked, there was obviously more than enough from your previous locations.  You hadn’t quite passed the threshold into drunk territory yet, but the image of a sweet and tart pineapple daiquiri might just be the thing to completely inebriate you.

Nami stopped dead in her tracks and looked towards the congested buildings immediately to your right side, scanning the signposts in the dark and looking for a specific one.  Tucked in between two sports bars, with absolutely zero signage on the graffiti-covered door, the red-head nodded her head toward the unmarked entrance.  “This is it.”

“Nami, you’re going to get us killed,” Ikkaku murmured, eyes squinting at the door to spot any indication that this was indeed a speakeasy and not a hidden trap house.  

“Am not, I swear this is the place!”

The three of you approached the steel door, Nami confidently being the one to ring the doorbell that was attached to a small intercom system.  It took a few breathless moments of mild worry before a voice filled with static came through the speaker.

“Password?”

You and Ikkaku were both blindsided as Nami crossed her arms over her chest and loudly proclaimed, “Suck my big, fat cock.”

Another few seconds of silence followed before the lock on the door clicked open and the same voice from before spoke, “Come in.”

“What the fuck,” you muttered in shock.

“Told you it was legit!” Nami chided with a giggle.

“A place that makes you say, ‘Suck my big, fat cock,’ as a password doesn’t seem very legit to me, but I’ll take your word for it,” Ikkaku mused as she followed Nami through the door and down a flight of stairs only illuminated with blue and pink fluorescent lights.

Graffiti completely covered the entire interior of the stairwell, leaving no part of concrete untouched from colorful ink.  Even the ceiling above you was marked in elaborate, incomprehensible swirls and zags of paint of all different colors, made even more colorful in the odd lighting.  The stairwell seemed to last forever as you followed your two friends down into the underground, clutching the steel railing for dear life as your tipsy vertigo fought with your ability to walk down a flight of steps.  You finally reached the bottom to another door, this time lined with a soft, cushiony leather fabric.  Nami pulled open the door and greeted a black-clad man standing in the small room directly behind it.

“IDs,” he grumbled.  Straight to the point.

The three of you fumbled through your purses for your driver’s licenses before handing each of them over to the man for a review.  He clicked on a pocket flashlight, scanning each card, handing them back to you with a hum.  “Enjoy the night, ladies.”  His large hand pushed open another door that was hidden in the wall itself.

The room that was opened to you was unlike any of the other bars you had entered, both during your current crawl and in your entire adult life previous.  The room was cloaked in a sexy blue and pink lighting, decorative art of pin-up models framed on the walls along with retro-inspired neon signs and liquor branding.  Groups of people filled the tables nearby, laughing and drinking through the booming music that flowed freely through the space.  It was crowded, almost overwhelmingly so, but you squeezed close to Ikkaku’s back as you pushed your way through the other patrons to get to the bar.  Your hand accidentally grabbed Ikkaku’s ass as her shoulder bumped into your breast, both of you wheezing out surprised laughter.

You popped through the stream of people to the bar which was, unsurprisingly, completely filled with every seat taken.  Two men worked tirelessly behind the counter, filling shakers with liquor and mixers, bitters and juices.  A bin of assorted fruits sat open in front of patrons, allowing the bartenders to grab their garnishes quickly and decorate their glasses with expert precision before passing them off to elated, tipsy customers.  You, Nami, and Ikkaku squeezed yourselves into the far corner of the bar, between the counter and a booth of patrons.  

“At least we can stand here!  It’s a bit crowded but it’ll do for now,” the red-head yelled through the shaking stereo that sat nearby.  

One of the two bartenders waved his hand in the air to attract your attention.  Long, spikey auburn hair framed a sharp face and crooked nose.  You were confused at the angular sunglasses that covered his eyes, but paid no mind in the end.  His voice cut through the music, but was clearly worn after a long night of screaming at people because of the volume.  “What can I get for you, ladies?”

Nami handed the man her credit card, explaining that she was going to close out after one drink for each of them, which he gladly accepted and placed in a secure box by the register.  Your eyes frantically scanned the illuminated menu above the bar, the raunchy, debauched names of the signature cocktails revealing absolutely nothing about their ingredients.  

“What the hell is a ‘Fuck Me Sideways?’” you shouted towards your friends.  

The man behind the counter cackled.  “That’s a pineapple daiquiri!  It’s sour as fuck, hence the name!”

Your mind flashed back to your conversation from the street, mouth once again salivating at the thought of the tangy, delicious concoction.  “I’ll get that please!”

The man memorized your three orders and immediately got to work.  You watched idly as he nudged his coworker’s shoulder and alerted him of the order so he could help with making your drinks.  It was then that your eyes trailed to said coworker.

All sound in the room faded into a muffled nothingness as your eyes narrowed on the other bartender, pupils dilating.  Toned, tanned arms and hands were littered in elaborate, grungy tattoos, and you could tell with the way his worn t-shirt dipped below his collarbones that he had another large piece on his chest, defining his pectorals even from beneath his clothing.  His jawline was sharp, a small goatee defining his chin, black sideburns framing his perfect face as intense, golden eyes focused on his work.   His tongue poked out from his thick lips slightly, revealing a tiny glimpse of a stud pierced through the muscle, and giving his intimidating appearance a sudden adorable qualm as long, deft fingers poured shots of liquor into his metal shaker cup.

You barely noticed the fingers snapping in your face.

“Hey, Earth to Apollo!  Can you read me?” Ikkaku hollered directly in your ear, shaking you out of your trance.

You jumped in surprise, music fading back into your consciousness as the sound of Nami’s laughter brought you firmly back to reality.

“Looks like someone’s got the hots for the emo bartender over there!” sang the red-head, leaning against the wall and making a very lewd gesture with her hands.

You grumbled.  “Do not!”

“Whatever you say, princess,” Ikkaku chuckled in response.  “He is pretty cute… if you don’t make a move I might.”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” you growled, making your best friends roar in laughter.  A rush of blood filled your face with an embarrassed heat.  “He probably already has a partner, a guy as hot as him can’t possibly be single.”

“There’s only one way to find that out, and it’s to talk to him,” lectured Nami.  “Come on, you’re on a bar crawl, you’re drunk, you’re hot, your pants make your ass look fucking amazing.  I would look the other way if you dragged that hunk to the bathrooms.”

“Nami!  Shut up!” you screamed, thoroughly embarrassed now.  It’s not like anyone could hear your conversation amongst the intense volume of the room, but the subject matter still made you flush from your tailbone to the crown of your head.

The conversation dissipated into enthusiasm about the location, the three of you taking note of the sex-positive decor and how good the playlist was.  Every once in a while, your eyes would dart back to the raven-haired man with his eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration as he filtered a cocktail through the metal strainer and into a slim, iced glass.  He reached forward into his box of garnishes, procuring a thin lime wedge and expertly slicing it down the middle to perch it on the rim of the glass.  As you were staring at him, his eyes darted up directly meeting yours.  Your face flushed red hot with embarrassment, but before you could yank your gaze away, he flashed you a grin that had your legs quivering.  He held up the drink.  It was your’s.

You pulled away from Nami and Ikkaku who hardly noticed your movement as you approached the bar and reached between two peoples’ shoulders to grab your cocktail from the man who kept his deep, golden eyes on your form the entire time.  An elated, cold sweat ran up your spine and you flashed him as good of a smile as you could through your ceaseless embarrassment that he had caught you staring.

Once the drink was in your hands, he tossed you a wink.

You hobbled back toward Nami and Ikkaku who were already holding their own orders, sipping idly through their conversation.

“You look like you got spooked by a ghost or something!” giggled Ikkaku, squeezing your left cheek with her fingers.

“Ikka, that hot emo bartender gave her her daiquiri!” Nami replied for you, making the curly-haired girl gasp in excitement.

“Did he say anything?  Did you say anything?”  The questions rolled off of her tongue faster than your heart rate.

“He just winked at me, and smiled, I guess,” you stated through nervous breaths.  

Your best friends dragged you into the conversation that had developed in the short time you were away getting your drink, but when you tossed another glance over your shoulder, you once again locked with golden eyes that froze your feet to the ground.

—

You weren’t exactly sure how much time had passed over all, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour.  You and your friends finished your drinks, closed out your tab, and proceeded to the dance floor to burn off energy under the neon disco lights and pounding music.  You let your mind stray away from the bartender’s piercing glare while you moved your hips against Nami’s, the two of you poking fun at Ikkaku from afar as she found herself in an awkward dance with a random man who was far from her type (that is to say: not a woman).  The room was dipping slightly around you, the sweet pineapple daiquiri definitely making you tipsier than you wanted to be.  You didn’t have to pee at that moment, but you figured it would be worth a shot to sober you up even just slightly.  With a nudge against Nami’s shoulder, you pointed to the bathroom, mouthing your intentions, and waved to her as you walked toward the back of the room through the sea of happy, alcohol-fueled patrons.

The bathroom was situated behind the bar past a few rows of small booth tables, and the further you walked from the center of the lounge the more the music faded to a much more tolerable volume.  The walls remained lined with graffiti, which you trailed with your eyes as you walked, marveling at the tantalizing swirls of colors and personalized messages and names memorialized forever on the concrete.  You finally rounded the corner into the small corridor where the two single bathrooms were found, along with a single broom closet that was kept closed with a padlock.  Your feet blindly led you towards one of the bathroom doors that was cracked open.

“You know, those pants make your ass look phenomenal.”

A husky voice stopped you in your tracks.  A million thoughts rushed through your mind within an instant.  Who was talking to you?  Did you get followed to the bathroom?  Were you being watched?  Were you in danger?  Should you have brought your purse with you instead of leaving it with Nami?  Were you going to make a run for it?

Fighting against your flight, you turned around to face the voice that cut through the muffled music.

Intense, golden eyes, raven-black hair, and a sly, toothy smirk.

“Sorry if I scared you, I promise I didn’t follow you back here,” he added, his face morphing from a flirtatious, mischievous expression into a more apologetic one.  “I had to take a piss, too.”

“Oh, it’s no problem, really!” you replied, inwardly wincing at how your voice involuntarily quivered with excited anxiety.  The Hot Emo Bartender was standing in front of you.  Had he just complimented your ass?  “And, uhm, thank you!  For my ass.  I mean, for saying I look good.  Or, phenomenal, I think?”  You pinched your lips shut forcing yourself to cease your drunken rambling, but your reaction only made the man’s mouth curl into a grin as a laugh bubbled out of his throat.

“Go sober up in there, princess, then we’ll talk.  I’ll wait for you out here.”  The man ended his sentence by entering the second unoccupied bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him.

You quickly did the same.  The bathroom had the exact same aesthetic and lighting as the rest of the establishment, the mirror completely covered in graffiti and leaving little room to view your current appearance after you finished your business.  You gazed through the dried ink, fixing your hair with your fingers and pushing your boobs into place under your top, blowing an encouraging huff out of your mouth before washing your hands, drying them, and exiting the bathroom into the corridor once more.

The man had indeed waited for you, leaning nonchalantly against the wall with one leg up checking his phone.  He was tall, much taller than you, and his legs were long and skinny, complemented beautifully by his tight, bespeckled jeans.  The spots were definitely an odd aesthetic choice in your mind, but you couldn’t complain.  Somehow, they suited his vibe perfectly.  He picked his head up and looked you up and down, that charming, mischievous grin once again returning to his lips.

“Feel better?”

“Absolutely, I didn’t think you’d actually wait out here,” you confirmed.  Somehow, your voice had evened out from the anxious drunken stupor you sported before.  Maybe pissing out the alcohol did have its merits.

“Good, I wanted to talk to you but needed to see if you were too drunk first.  Those pineapple daiquiris are really something,” he explained.

You were very quickly gaining more comfort in his presence, isolated from the club beyond the corridor in the dim lighting that accentuated his cheekbones and gave him the sexiest aura you had ever seen.  You swallowed your pounding heart and returned his grin.

“Talk to me?  Out of everyone here?” you questioned, putting on your charm.

“I don’t just talk to any random bar patron,” he responded.  “In fact, I barely talk to anyone here at all.  But how could I pass up such an alluring face?”  He stepped across the corridor to you, reaching out a hand that smelled like the generic brand soap in the bathroom.  His callouses tickled the fine hairs of your cheek and chin.

“And ass?” you asked innocently, clearly enjoying the little game you two had initiated.

“And ass,” he repeated.  “Though…” his eyes trailed up and down your body from his closer angle, eating you up through your clothes.  “You’re definitely the most stunning girl I’ve ever seen, all around.”  His golden eyes met yours once more.  “You have beautiful eyes.”

He had done it now.  You were beyond flustered, convinced that your entire body was glowing red and steaming like a geyser from your anticipation and embarrassment at his tender compliments.  A part of you still wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t the type to talk up every woman at the bar, but Nami’s words from prior bounced through your skull.  You were drunk, you were hot, and damn it, your pants did make your ass look good!  You only live once, right?

With alcohol and adrenaline fueled courage you never experienced before, you closed the narrow gap between your bodies and pressed your lips against his, standing on your toes and grasping his shoulders to steady yourself.  The anxious voice in your head told you he was going to push you away, call you some horrible slur and leave you in the dust to regret every choice you made leading up to that moment.

You were very pleasantly surprised when his lanky arms looped around your waist, clutching you close to his sturdy form as he moved his lips against yours.  You weren’t an expert kisser by any means, but something about the way his mouth moved told you that he wasn’t actually used to doing this, more of a smooth-talker than a do-er.  He was reluctant to open his mouth to allocate for your tongue, instead simply pursing and unpursing his lips against yours.  The feeling made you pull away, failing to suppress the giggle that followed.

Before you had the chance to make any snide, lighthearted comment, however, a tattooed hand traveled down your arm and gripped your hand, dragging you toward the broom closet.  He fiddled with the padlock on the door without letting you go, shoving open the entrance with his shoulder and pulling you inside.  The door slammed behind you, now almost completely muffling the music blaring from within the club.  The two of you were now free from prying eyes that might wander into the corridor to use the bathroom, completely unaware of the actions taking place just one door away.

In the stark darkness of the closet, the man’s hands found the collar of your shirt and pulled it down as best as he could, encouraging you to slip your arms out and pull it over your head.  His lips pecked at your jaw, your chin, your neck, and the dip of your breast as you unhooked your bra and let it flop to the floor.  Your own hands grasped his ratty t-shirt and yanked it over his head, its loose fit making undressing his torso much easier.  Your fingers now had access to his bare skin, your breath hitching in your throat as you blindly felt around firm abdominal muscles that met a lean yet supple chest and broad shoulders.  Even through the lack of light you could tell just how attractive this man was.  A smattering of coarse hairs covered his chest and stomach, but for the most part he was well trimmed, save for the patch of hair that you felt at his naval.  You heard his breath catch in his throat as your fingers followed the dip of his pelvic bone and trailed along the belt of his jeans.

“Wait,” his airy voice muttered.  “I need to know your name.”

You laughed, divulging your information.  You felt his lips smile against the skin of your neck.

“I’m Law,” he added.

“Law…” you exhaled his name on your soft, aroused breath.  “Can you fuck me, Law?”

A low groan rumbled through Law’s throat as his hands now played at your own waistband.  “Anything for you, princess.”

[wasyago]

Do be wary of asks about palestinian evacuation gofundmes since the vast majority are bots/scams, but as far as i could tell the one you got is indeed legit. The whole point of bots and scammers is that they'll copy-paste an existing story, so most likely laila's was used by a bunch of those. It's horrible genuinely

That's why you shouldn't just check if the story/description has been mentioned and shared by other people but also check the blog and gofundme account carefully (which i did and it all looks legit), hope this helped!

maaaan this really is just. sad. i dont know how else to describe it... disappointing maybe. upsetting... taking the attention away from real people in need and making everyone suspicious of everything and every cry for help, just because it's so overwhelmed with bots and scams :(

thank you for checking it for me <3 and thank you for reaching out too <33

[sgiandubh]

This what I mean 👇🏻

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3518505943900484/

Dear (returning) Bitchy Anon,

I wrote this answer yesterday, but I am posting it today, because I did not want to give you any satisfaction. Your coming back in here proves there is not an ounce of humanity left in you: just a #silly obsession for an actress who does not even know or care you exist. I promise you she doesn't. Confidently so.

But then, onwards to your 'evidence'.

You thought you would give me the creeps on Christmas Day with a controversial picture allegedly taken at the Weinstein (yes, that Weinstein!) and Netflix Golden Globes afterparty, on January 8, 2017?

No, seriously now: you actually did?

Crikey. As we say in Romanian (and yes, it is very rude, but also dementedly funny): mi se umple fundul de lacrimi/my arse is in tears. Perhaps the equivalent of I don't give a flying fuck, btw.

If you did read me before posting your laughable shite, and I think you did, you should know by now how I usually work, at least for those things I choose to make public (the rest is none of your business, I am afraid). You found this pic on Pinterest, originating from a Tumblr blog: @clairebeauchampfan. Since this person started blogging one year later than the moment this picture was taken, she probably found it chez Contemplating Outlander. You know, that pseudo-social scientist-cum-shrink, who thinks people are machines and adds a shitload of footnotes to her rantings, because she truly believes it makes her biased crap more credible (it doesn't, and this comes from an academic researcher: it is legit pathetic). So Claire Beauchamp Fan shared it and forgive me, but I did not bother finding her post, I just looked for her source (*urv's fetish):

This took me to CO's really nasty blog and you could have spared me that ordeal, Anon: it's literally akin to severe constipation. And then, onwards to Instagram:

A further search revealed she was wearing a Romanian designer (Maria Lucia Hohan) dress and Amrapali earrings. And then, I read the comments on that Insta post. Maybe you'd read them too, they are enlightening - for someone who's 'been around since 2015', people are rather confused about his real status in her life, don't you think?

But Internet is really forever, no matter how you try to hide your trash, Anon. Here is a copy of O'Callaghan's post which was, indeed, deleted: maybe *urv was too insistent? It wouldn't surprise me:

She should have won the Golden Globe in 2017, that's true. And it was S, not McIdiot, the one who told the Internet she should have won all those prizes, if memory serves. How odd McIdiot is never mentioned in that particular post (y'all would have paraded it for YEARS, if it were so) - but household staff, no matter how promoted, never really is. And before you screech, tell all the damn truth Anon, and put this pic in its right context:

How odd the 'successful music producer and entrepreneur' (he is not successful, nor a music producer and much less an entrepreneur) was not tagged, by someone who is active in the industry, who clearly knows C and who attended that Golden Globes gala!

Just a last word on that pic. C was obviously smiling and talking animatedly with O'Callaghan and then McIdiot (who looks malnourished - but hey, humble beginnings, eh?) got dragged in the middle, for the convenient pic. I sometimes wonder what kind of social life you people have and sadly, I have to say - next to 0, for some of you. I never fuck the dozens of men with whom I do have similar 'just because' pics, interrupting my conversation in the middle of an event.

Also, check this very warm & fuzzy pic with one prominent member of her own, personal and very, very gay Circle of Trust. Because I am sorry, but what straight man wears lipstick, as McIdiot clearly does (and no, it's not because they were smooching in the lavatories, what are you, 14?):

She looks happy, doesn't she?

I mean: really, honey. Get a Real Life and stop trying to persuade me with ye olde Pinterest pics you clearly are completely clueless about, ok?

And before you open your mouth to vomit CO's trash again, please carefully do your homework about McIdiot. But as carefully as I did. Then you can talk, share your interesting findings. Merry Christmas and....

[techmomma]

I mentioned this in my discord server, but all of the gofundmes I reblogged today were from asks sent to my inbox a week ago. When they were sent, they originally had no links to vetting or ways to confirm that they were legit, or they were not easily seen despite digging through posts and reblogs.

But I suspected that they were just waiting on vetting and were not spam, bots, or scams, so I chose to keep them in my inbox and check in on them from time to time to confirm whether or not they were a bot or a scammer, rather than immediately blocking or reporting.

Lo and behold, checking in later, these are indeed legit.

This is a crucial time. You CANNOT block and report palestinian gofundmes without being absolutely dead sure they are not a bot and not a scammer. If you don't know, then just DON'T DO ANYTHING.

I suspect word is getting around that people are getting actual tangible help through tumblr. Meaning that Palestinians who are not familiar with tumblr, who may or may not speak english, are now joining and having to navigate this goddamn site that even veterans know is a nightmare in hopes of reaching us and getting some sliver of help.

I also suspect that zionists are using this opportunity to get palestinian blogs deleted, on top of staff already helping to do so, we CANNOT give them fucking ammunition.

We need to give Palestinians compassionate patience. That "bot" in your inbox might be a legit cry for help, they just need a little time for one of the handful of other palestinians blogs who are doing astronomical work with only a few people to try to confirm they're legit, who are normal people like you and me trying to vet people with their own time, resources, and kindness--as friends and family are suffering and dying.

[castlebyersafterdark]

It’s crazy the way misinformation and unconfirmed information spreads like wildfire in this fandom. That “First I Love You” remix, which was quickly discovered to be a fan edit sadly and not the byler version of the song, has gone around the world and back with people not realizing this. we gotta be more discerning 😭

Yes, yes indeed. I give people a little grace, because as much as I pride myself as being this analytical, level-headed fan who likes to research and vet things and tries to rein excitement in with a healthy dose of hesitance and skepticism, there are times where I've cast that aside and gotten swept up, too. It's easy to see how we were fooled with that song remix, and not knowing it was a fan remix. I think seeing the actual composer names linked to the song on Spotify made it easy to think it was official. I didn't go looking further because it looked legit. I think this instance it's really easy to see where the mistake was made, but! It has been corrected. The song is very pretty and it was a nice thought. We can only hope what plays during an emotional Byler scene is just as lovely.

I guess it's the fact that one of the blessings and detractors of tumblr is exactly in the design - everyone sees difference stages of information, based on who you are or are not following, timing of posts, what hits your dash, if you care to go reading back far enough to catch up on what you missed. I only follow a few dozen blogs, so it's easy to see everything I missed even being away for a few days sometimes. On my previous account I used to follow nearly a thousand blogs across way too many subjects and fandoms. So it was overwhelming to keep up with stuff. You miss a lot and I think a lot of tumblr users are more towards that following count.

The thing is - if you get swept up in something and see a corrected explanation or fact checking, review and accept it. I think sometimes there's a defensiveness to be had if something in fandom gets proven/dis-proven because people don't like to feel stupid for getting excited or getting upset, either way. And it's human to let emotions get the best of you, especially in something like fandom. Especially when there are so many accounts around different social media sites that thrive on engagement and/or attention and lie and spread rumors and leaks. The song wasn't one of these moments, but if the filming era was bad, I feel like post-production is gonna be insufferable with lies and claims of info. Stay logical and vigilant out there, friends!!

[xnaochi]

Hello! The kokobot thing that appears in people’s dms sites your blog as someone who endorses it. I just wanted to let you know just in case the bot uses random people’s urls without their permission to make it seem more legit. I really haven’t looked into kokobot at all or your blog so maybe everything is fine. But I thought I would say something just in case.

honestly, I'm more surprised that Kokobot is still a thing than anything

first off: I do NOT condone Kokobot: here are some issues (but I didn't necessarily double-check so don't expect it to be 100% correct)

Nothing you say to it is confidential

Everyone's venting is made into Kokobot's property- meaning that they can use or sell whatever you send it in any way they see fit

People can say actually horrid things to other people tbh

There are a lot of minors who use Kokobot. And those minors will often be asked to help someone else who is going through a rough time. Keep in mind that a lot of these kids are going through tough times themselves, so getting a child in a bad mental state to help someone else is a bit... ethically strange

It uses AI on its users. I learned that one from a kind asker

I think there miiight be more but I don't remember if there is tbh (soz,)

so let's get to some facts about the situation

I did indeed type that post on August 27th 2022. I was 16 years old. This was the same day that Kokobot had gone into my messages at random and asked me about helping other people with mental health issues. I decided to try it out despite my initial suspicions because wanted to help people.

They did NOT get my permission to post that. I didn't even know it happened until I had gotten an influx of asks asking about it.

When I had typed that post, there was barely any negative information about Kokobot (at least none that I could find because I do have the vaguest memory of doing a search about it before I used it but I can't trust my memory)

[afniel]

Yo hi there? I’m hoping you dont find this ask strange, weird or whatever you call it 😞 Just wanted to ask a favor if you could possibly check the post I pinned for my cat? Its on this blog, please do check if you have a spare time and reblog/boost it as we badly need help because there’s some kind of a rash on her mouth and im so so worried 😭😭 Im so sorry if I did bother you, just need some help. Please do send me a msg to reply or answer the ask privately, please and have good day! 😭🙏🙏🐈

So here's a real common likely scam. Account seems legit at first glance, name makes sense, contents are thematically related, seems like it all checks out. Except as of the time of this reply, this account is a whole 11 hours old, and the only personal posts they've made are asking for money for this cat that might or might not exist.

I'll allow that reverse image search didn't pull up any identical cat photos, but the single photo they supplied doesn't show any kind of oral lesions, or indeed anything specifically wrong with the cat at all. It's just a cat photo. Cute, but not credible.

Asking to only reply privately about what seems to be a public fundraiser is a huge red flag also. Normally if someone asks that, you do it, right? That's been considered Tumblr good manners since the site's inception. However it's shady to go around sending copypasta asks to strangers for money and then essentially asking them to not blow your cover.

The link in their post not only uses PayPal and not something more reputable for fundraising, but it specifically asks you to send it as friends and family to avoid them taking a cut. This also handily avoids almost all of PayPal's built-in scam protection and refund systems.

Checking their pinned post also reveals that someone's already pointed out that it's likely a scam and they didn't even refute it, when it would have been super easy to go, "Sorry it sounded sketchy, here's more detail."

And even if this is still somehow real despite entirely failing the sniff test, and there really is an 11-hour-old account with a sick cat, no pictures of what sounds like it should be a visible ailment, no idea that GoFundMe exists, and parroting an extremely common scam (and let's be real here, I don't believe that to be the case for one moment)...

Don't fucking prey on strangers with this. That's not what we're here for. Like I'm flattered that you think my following is large enough to contain a few suckers but get the fuck on outta here, buddy.

I'm off to report and block this person now and you should do the same.

[meimi-haneoka]

There are others who post some summaries and make small theories (I follow such people myself, some of them cross post to other places too...) but did CLAMP mention anything specific? Can you please share if so? Are they open to such things then (fan summaries with some translation, or would they still be upset[?] if it's the "full chapter" translated)? I thought we were in general worried about what would happen if CLAMP noticed them (again?), so is this confirming the opposite...?

Alright alright, let's specify some things here. (I'm writing my report on it so you'll see exactly what they mentioned)

What sensei talked about was strictly the difficulty of translating certain words from Japanese to other foreign languages, and the fact that for many of them there isn't much that can be done due to lack of a perfectly corresponding word in the other language (I'm aware of that and I don't criticize that in particular in my posts, but rather the direction they choose to go in ENG every single time there's a subtlety, and if Kaito is involved, you can be sure it's going to be to his detriment). Ohkawa sensei didn't even put emphasis on the actual mistakes (like, the Mana thing that was corrected 2 days later, or Lilie's "my beloved" in ch. 60, or making the Squids say that they have Clow Reed's blood, or making Kaito say that he wanted to give magic to Akiho in ch. 35, etc etc etc etc, those are mistakes that highly alter the understanding of the plot), but she did mention specifically the ENG translation. What she said is that she's aware there are people who have discomfort from those translation differences and make blog posts about them to point them out to the international fandom. That's indeed what I've been doing, mixing them up with my personal commentaries for my convenience's sake (having them separated would just take too much time). She said she's grateful to them and that it's already something if fans check those out and get the correct nuance from them, but they're also grateful to the official translators for their hard work, putting up with her scripts.

She didn't mention posts for fan theories, or commentaries, or summaries. Those fall within the area of "fan activity" and it's perfectly legit to do them, it's always been. Even japanese fans do that themselves.

OF COURSE, now more than ever (since we know they apparently look over stuff of foreign fans), we have to be extremely respectful when we're doing those kind of posts. Exposing our thoughts respectfully, always keeping in mind that they are hard working women, not our sisters. Even when we don't like or agree with something they're doing (they don't mind that).

What they didn't mention nor even infer is that it's ok to *completely re-translate* their chapters. That's not okay. Hell, I would've done it myself probably by now but the official translation is still out there, they still have the license, we have to respect that. As much as it frustrates me. Don't manipulate Clamp's chapters because we don't have any permission to do that. The most we can do is to redirect the fans (who want to read about it) towards the right translation with blog posts, or explaining the hidden nuance when it's a case of "look, they couldn't really translate it any other way, but know that this word actually got this and that nuance".

But, as a piece of advice, be careful. This isn't something that should be entered into lightly. I've actually had anxiety yesterday because I started worrying over so many things, "what if I said something incorrect" "did I sound too harsh towards the official translation?", "are they *really* glad I'm doing this or did I overstep?", this shit comes with a lot of responsibility and I always double check with the other international translations I can understand (like Spanish, which is very good) if I'm getting the right interpretation or not. Because, after all, Japanese is a language that relies on context and interpretation a lot. I also check with my japanese friends when I'm still not sure (bothering them). Heck, sometimes (very rarely) the ENG is correct and other languages got it wrong (it happened in last chapter and I did point it out! I always remember to be fair and when the ENG gets something right it's good to point that out).

But most importantly, precisely because of interpretation issues, if you're willing to do that, you shouldn't have bias towards this or that character, or against this or that character. Or, let me rephrase that, you should be able to put them aside when you're writing the post. Because that will inevitably reflect onto your interpretation and then it's once again the same issue of the ENG official translation.

[murumokirby360]

My FAKE Samsung 870 EVO Solid State Drive Review [feat. my Paper Dolls] (Recorded: Oct 13th 2013)

Hello, its been a long time since June of that year. Unfortunately, on Oct 13th (of that year) was a horrible Friday (no pun intended) to received a counterfeit item instead of a genuine one.😟

Yup, my latest topic says it all, so here's my review of the FAKE Samsung 870 EVO Solid State Drive (with my Paper Dolls), and how to spot the details between legit and a fake one.

So, without further ado, let's get started:

1st & 2nd Image(s): ↑

• So, my order was arrived on Oct 12th (2023, Thursday), and me & my paper dolls are excited to see! 😁 However, I noticed when I shake my parcel, something's not right... 🤔📦 Yeah, I'm a little bit of scared, right now, but at the same time I'm excited to open the parcel.

• Well, I'm not waste my time, let's get this over with and watch my video...

My Recorded Video [Combined and edited using Filmora 9]: ↑

• Let's bring it down the main details one by one, shall we? 📃📋

3rd to 6th Image(s) [From the 1st video]: ↑

• From the 1st video, you see the reveal of my Samsung 870 EVO Solid State Drive, and you could see some red flags from the packaging box (namely, a huge tear on the left side) that had detected that my SSD was 100% FAKE! Not genuine. 👎❌From every side to the sticker, and even at the back of the package, my paper dolls tell indeed a "fake" Samsung brand SSD. Even though they don't know much about tech stuff or storage devices, I'm just trying to teach my paper dolls about tech stuff aside from their addiction to food.

7th to 10th Image(s) [From the 2nd video]: ↑

• Compared with my genuine Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus's (M.2 NVMe Solid State Drive) package from all sides and even the back (which, by the way, I don't have the genuine SSD 870 EVOs' package), you could see a HUGE difference most notably the latter. There, the original Samsung SSD products should have multiple languages, with two barcodes (from the sticker), some serial numbers, and a legit specific model; whether you're purchasing a SATA Solid State Drive, or an M.2 MVNe Stick Drive format (depending on what storage size you target). My paper dolls say, that my legit M.2 drive had checked all the boxes ✅📦, whereas my fake SSD did not check everything. ❌📦

• Here's my edited photo via my current phone (Honor 8C 📲), ignore my awful scribble. [7th Image edited ↑]

11th to 17th Image(s) [From the 2nd video]: ↑

• So, upon opening the package, you've already noticed from my 2nd video that the "Fake 870 EVO" does not have a manual booklet 📖❌, only the main SSD albeit not proper well to put at. Every genuine Samsung SATA SSD should have a manual booklet upon unboxing. My legit M.2 NVMe drive, on the other hand, had a different approach compare to the SSD type. And I have a video for that → [CLICK ME!].

○ If you want to see more unboxing the "genuine" 870 EVO SSD (before you decide to buy), then you should watch these YT videos, right here. 🖥️🖱️🎦↓

(You don't need to open a subtitle for the latter, just take a peek at the genuine brand.)

• As for the main item, the details and use of cheap metal materials are crucial. Not to mention, the sticker at the SSD's back and screw holes were absolutely imperfect. The Genuine Samsung SSDs should be well made using good quality metal matte material (not glossy kind), the sticker at the back matched the serial no. and barcode from the packaging box, and four silver metal screw holes were noticeably installed. As I'll show it to you in our last three photos.

○ And if you need more information, then here's one → [CLICK ME!].

18th to 20th Image(s) [With edited in 18th Image]: ↑

• So, here's what I'm talking about. Once again, the back of their SSDs was distinctly noticeable between the "legit 870 EVO SSD" 🧠🖥️✅ from the big picture (image source from "Rock Paper Shotgun" blog page → [CLICK ME!]) and the bottom one that was the "fake 870 EVO SSD" 🧠🖥️❌. These photos/videos of mine should be enough information about it. 🖼️🎦📲 Right, you two? Yeah, now you know. 🙂👍

Overall & Asking Price:

• A HUGE disappointment for me to buy a fake Samsung 870 EVO SSD. 😣 And the fact that this SSD I bought from Lazada PH 🇵🇭 wasn't for my custom PC, although I'm still searching for a decent job (maybe another round of voluntary street cleaner) to buy a functional GPU Card (and I REALLY missed it, so much *sigh* 🖥️😞). But nope, this SSD I've bought was supposed to be for my mom's laptop that deserves an upgrade from a physical and slow Hard Drive to a fast-paced Solid State Drive, with a huge 1TB memory storage. ⬆️🧠💻 But, I ended up with a fake Samsung SSD brand, so I won't be bothered to test run or forcefully attempt to install the SSD onto my mom's laptop. It'll be much worse than my messed-up 3.5mm Seagate Hard Drive that contains my precious important files. 😟😢😔

• As for the asking price of that fake 870 EVO, I paid ₱ 2,155.20 with numerous discounted vouchers and a free shipping fee during Lazada's 10.10 big sale, this year. Link for the specific item → [CLICK ME!] So, what's the bad news? I LITERALLY wasted all of my funds on this not-genuine Samsung SSD product. 😣💸 But, on the bright side, I immediately requested a refund from the seller, with full details about my recent item. So, the Lazada crew took the rest, and it quickly refunded my money via digital wallet before I cashed it out so I wouldn't get snatched from online theft. Yup, now that's good news! 💵😄

BTW: This is the second time that I've encountered a fake item from Lazada, with the first story never shared. So, I'll plan to share my untold story, someday. 📖

• And you know, I've learned my lesson today. For what is otherwise, already noted; never judge an item by its seller (Yeah, it's like saying "never judge a book by its cover"). It may look like a legit item, but looks can be deceiving. I should do more observation on their ratings and their thoughts about the item that they've bought, whether it's fake or not. 🤔⌨️🔍🕵️ And that goes to you. Hope you do some research about counterfeit SSD products (and other related semiconductor storage devices, like Micro SD cards) before you turn around and find a legitimate variant that you are willing. ☝️😯

Well, that's the end of my topic.

If you want to see my previous topic from April 2023, then I'll provide a link down below. ↓😉

• My NVMe Upgrade [Apr 30th, 2023]

Tagged: @bryan360, @lordromulus90, @carmenramcat, @leapant, @rafacaz4lisam2k4, @paektu, @alexander1301

[m-00kieshouse]

It’s been a day, in a week, in a year. Life has indeed been life-ing. Blessed to be here right now

Since this blog is new lemme hit those of yall who care with the life updates

• Ya boy is a home-owner now. I’ve been rockin’ condo-style for a minute now. A mortgage is nice. Nicer than a rent check, fsho.

• Still rhyming & making beats/paintings. Still running an international art & music collective (we’re beginning the process to become a legit non-profit. Scary, exciting, exhausting work that I’m so hyped to do). Still not playing guitar as often as I should.

• No real love life to speak of atm. Kinda for the best, though the loneliness spells be slapping a nigga cold cross the face on the late night shift. As much as I could be in these streets looking for Lil Miss Right For Me, I’ve still got traumas to face and mental boundaries to break. Also not so sure there’s anyone for me out there regardless 😅

• Depression is still that bitch with them hands, but we spend a lot more time focusing on Self so it all pans out even. Me & Depression been making smoothies for brunch and trying to wean off eating-out. It’s slow progress, but better than no progress. Anxiety is still trying to sucker punch me tho, fuck that nigga.

• Still takin care of my parents. Now more than ever they wear their age heavy on their bones. There’s so much to say on this topic, but I’ll save it for another time. They’re in high spirits but, well, yeah. Not easy to speak on.

• The homies & I are throwing shows across the city again and it just feels GOOD. Living in the truth of it all, yknow? It’s nice to have at least ONE day dedicated to music in my life. I never realized how desperately I needed that, WE needed that. It’s early into the experience but people have positive reactions and it seems to be growing slow and steady.

[rainwalker-dragonblade29]

So there's this thing going on recently... I don't think it's tumblers fault... but @staff you guys need to take this kind of behavior down.

Will you ever suddenly just get a new follower and you go check their blog to see if they're legit and there's nothing on that blog like not one damned post. But there's an avatar alright... and it's always of a woman, but not a face sometimes...

And there's just a one line description and that's it... she's what, this slim lady who is like 18-22 years old... with her only definition being this one hobby but nothing about it, not a post on her blog....

But there's a banner image right? and many times it's *inappropriate* like NSFW.

Like ma'am are you okay with showing that outrageous image of yourself?

See, here many people out there DO NOT WANT TO ASSOCIATE with such vulgar-ness. To be very frank, the only intent I see in this is that these account are porn accounts run by bots.

But those are images of real people... like remembering how people say they pull your image off of your Facebook to do bad things? If these accounts are indeed run by bots, the images they have used may or may not be intently consented or stolen.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposing wearing bikinis which for most of em that's all that they're ever in... I'm not. So please don't feel offended anyone. This post is purely an observation and a notice to bring to account. It's not about the outfit at all, it is the image that concerns.)

And it's not like one or two people like this are following me. No. IT'S A WHOLE BLOODY INFLUX!

Like imagine just sauntering to tumblr, your one hideout, and checking the notes and suddenly you have three more followers and all are just like this* (I would have put up a more neutral veiwable example, but I rather not)

But this is not the only thing going on... no. Once in a while, you'll get like a dm and ahem* no. You do not get to walk into my inbox and send in porn with a stupid message when I do not consent to it. It's cyber crime if you have malicious intent.

Either they're bots or they are troublemakers. Tumblr please take this in account.

[fortruthseekers]

REFRESHER ON MY INSIDER SOURCES: BTW, this is Purv aka @p-redux. This is my original Tumblr blog I’ve revived to archive past source info.

In 2014, I first posted my insider source info. I didn’t have a Tumblr blog, so I posted everything on my old Twitter account, all the details the sources gave me then. The fandom, especially shippers, went into an uproar because my source info sunk the ship. The SamCait ship had barely started sailing and I sunk it before it had made it out into open sea. Shippers have never forgiven me for that. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. 

Throughout the years, I’ve reiterated my source info, but summarized it because most people had already heard it, and I didn’t see a need to keep rehashing it. The more time past, the more it became clear Sam and Cait weren’t a couple, and that the info I had shared with the fandom AHEAD of time was true. Cait was seen with Tony a lot. And Sam was seen with different girlfriends or dates. But since I’m turning this account @fortruthseekers into an archive account, I’m going to post the original source DETAILS again, for newbies. This post is going to be LONG, very long, because I go into detail. Read it if you need a refresher on what I said previously about sources, or if you’ve never read the source details before. Click on Keep Reading to find the rest.

Okay, so about sources. REAL sources. I live in Los Angeles and used to be in the industry many years ago. As a result, I still know people in the industry. And just by living in L.A., you meet people who know celebs. In 2014, I got who I call “my original industry source” through a friend who knew I was watching Outlander. And she thought it would be cool for me to talk to this industry person who had Outlander connections. My friend put me in touch with her so we could talk about our common interest. Initially, me talking to the source was just to schmooze about insider info, I wasn’t planning to make it public or create a celebrity insider info account. But I was surprised about how much she knew. At the time many people, including myself, thought Sam and Cait were most likely a couple, when the source told me she knew for sure they weren’t, I was floored. Then after she told me all the details of her interactions with Sam, Cait, and some of the Outlander cast, and the fact that she was friends with one of Cait’s besties, I knew I’d hit a huge source of info. 

At first, the source didn’t want me to make the info public, she didn’t want to get in trouble, but she thought it was important that people knew the truth about whether or not Sam and Cait were a couple. She figured if they knew, then people wouldn’t get their hopes up and be disappointed when Sam and Cait became more famous, and would inevitably be seen with other people. As I said, that original industry source is good friends with one of Cait’s female best friends. And because she’s in the industry, she also had a connection to Sam through his talent agency. So, she had insider info on BOTH Cait and Sam. Jackpot.

Because I knew her full identity and knew I was talking to the real person on her real and blue check verified Twitter account, and my friend had introduced me to her, I could trust that her info was legit. She is also Instagram blue check verified and has made a name for herself in the industry. People would be shocked if they knew who she was. SHE is the one who told me 100% Sam and Cait were not dating and that 100% Sam is not gay.  At first, she didn’t want me to post things publicly, but I begged and she finally relented, as long I would swear I would keep her identity private and would leave out some identifying details. 

So, in 2014, I went public with all the details she told me. And through the years, EVERYTHING she told me turned out to be true. I didn’t have a Tumblr blog at the time, so all my source info was posted on my old Twitter account. I posted every detail of what she told me and I also posted some of her DMs with permission, and name blacked out. Unfortunately, all that is gone because I deleted my old Twitter account a long time ago. 

The main points were: Sam and Cait weren’t a couple and never have been. When I said to her that I knew actors were different than regular people, but that when I saw Sam and Cait talking about watching the wedding scene together, while drinking a bottle of wine, that there was no way they didn’t hook up at some point. She said she’s been around a lot of actors and said Sam and Cait are both natural flirts and very touchy-feely people, and she didn’t see anything out of of the ordinary in their interactions–she reminded me their behavior is the norm when promoting a show. 

She also said Sam isn’t gay per people she’s talked to who know him. She knew the director of Batman Live, the live show Sam starred in years ago. The director was a gay man, and when she asked him if Sam was gay, since he seemed too good to be true and was so good-looking, he said no. And he said he and other crew who were hoping Sam was gay were disappointed that he was straight. The director told her that the reason Sam didn’t seem to have much of a dating history, was because he had always been focused on his career and on working out. And that because he was traveling with the show, there wasn’t time for a committed relationship. Later, we found out that Sam had indeed been dating a woman named Katie Rebekah, but they broke up because she moved from London to Australia, and Sam started to tour with Batman Live. That’s the info I got in 2014. If Sam was gay, the gay director would have told my source and squeed about it.

This source used to work between New York and Los Angeles. She was in New York for one of her TV shows during the July 2014 premiere of Outlander and hung out with Cait and Cait’s bestie, as well as some of the other OL cast and crew. She also had some business meetings with Sam in NY. She confirmed Sam brought Amy Shiels as his “plus one” to the premiere and even skipped out on an unplanned event the cast was invited to because he “had a date.” When they saw him the next day and asked him how his date went, source said Sam replied “It was great!” Even though this source got info from Cait’s bestie…the bestie kept quiet about Cait and Tony, and simply said that Cait and Sam weren’t a couple….I found out about Tony from someone else...more on that later. 

This source did share some info about what Cait thought about Sam. She said that Cait cared about Sam as a costar and friend, and they got along very well.  But Cait said Sam was not her type, that Cait didn’t date actors, and that Cait referred to Sam as “a bro,” and that Cait was not into guys who spent so much time in the gym. She said Cait genuinely liked Sam as a person, but there was not more to it. And that Sam was just a big flirt, and that they were both trying to promote Outlander as much as possible because they knew it was their big break. 

This is also the source who told me that Cait’s friend, the one the source is friends with, didn’t particularly care for Sam. To be very clear: I don’t feel this way about Sam, Cait doesn’t feel this way about Sam, and my source doesn’t feel this way about Sam. In fact, my source said Sam “was lovely” to her and “a sweetheart.” But one of Cait’s besties, just ONE FRIEND–not plural, the friend said that she thought Sam “could be self-absorbed,” and “douchy.” ONE of Cait’s friends said this. No one else said this. And that was way back in 2014. I’m sure Sam has matured since then, as people tend to do as they get older. BTW Cait has a lot of close friends, some of which aren’t well known to fans. Reiterating: Cait doesn’t feel that way about Sam, the source didn’t feel this way about Sam, and I, Purv, don’t feel this way about Sam, nor have I said anything like that about Sam. 

Back to Sam being a natural flirt, remember, even Cait said “he could flirt with a lamppost.” Well, my source said that the times she saw Sam at business meetings, he was always very nice to her and would greet her with a big bear hug, tight enough that she could feel how hard his chest was. He would look down at her, right into her yes, hold her gaze, and smile big at her. And this was a woman he was not interested in romantically. He was just being friendly and sweet. Imagine how high the charm wattage is turned up for a woman he IS interested in. No wonder that Samshine has been hard to resist. This is also the source who said that Sam would always say goodbye to her by saying his now ubiquitous “Let’s get together for a wee dram when you’re in Scotland.” Of course, that “wee dram” never happened. I think that’s just Sam’s people pleasing qualities coming out, never wants to disappoint anyone. The source also said whenever he would text or e-mail her for business related stuff, he was always super enthusiastic and used a lot of exclamation points !!!!!!

Anyway, my original industry source “broke up” with me years ago because she didn’t want to chance anyone finding out who she was, as Outlander got bigger, and as she got bigger in the industry. I still sometimes look at her Twitter and IG all nostalgic, remembering when it all started...ah, memories...

My second major source was my Tony family source. My Tony source is someone from Glasgow who was friends with someone I’d known for awhile. My friend put me in contact with her. The Tony source approached me to tell me that she was shocked to find out a relative of hers (later found out it was her brother) had revealed “the lead actress from that new show Outlander is dating Tony McGill.” She was shocked because she and her family have known Tony and his family for years, all of them growing up in and around Glasgow. Her brother went to school with Tony and his brother, Joe. She then told me the whole backstory of Cait and Tony. She wanted me to keep the info to myself and she had no motivation or intention of making it public. But she finally agreed, after I gave my word that I would protect her identity and I have. 

What she shared with me in late 2014 is that her brother found out their friend, Tony was dating Caitriona Balfe. At the time she said they’d been dating for about 9-10 months, that’s why I always put the start of their relationship around March 2014. She was told that by December 2014, the relationship was “dead serious” between them and that Cait had spent Christmas 2014 in London with Tony and his dad. And then Tony had flown to Ireland with Cait to spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s with her family and friends (we’ve all seen the pic and video on Donal Brophy’s IG). My source said that Cait and Tony had been friends for 9 years or so at the time (again, this was told to me in 2014) and had met years ago when Tony rented out a room to one of Cait’s friends. They hooked up briefly back then and then remained friends, until it turned romantic again around March 2014. The source said that she and her family knew Tony and his family from back in the day, and she told me what school Tony went to in Glasgow (something I haven’t and won’t make public). She said that Tony had moved from Glasgow years ago and had been living in London for awhile (again, this was told to me in 2014). Also, that he and his brother owned a bar/live music place in London, The Library in Islington (they later opened a second one, The Reading Room, which Cait posted from on IG) and a music production company. And that prior to that, Tony was the band manager for some Scottish bands, most notable, The Fratellis. She described Tony as “fun, clever and hysterically funny.” 

The Tony source came into the picture after I had my Twitter account up, where I was posting insider info given by my first source. I had already posted that Sam and Cait weren’t dating. This second source is the one that filled in the missing puzzle piece I didn’t know was missing and told me she knew WHO Cait was dating. I would have NEVER known the name Tony McGill associated with Cait if not for this source. He was on no one’s radar. And he wasn’t on social media. This source told me details only an insider would know. And I also had her full identity, so I knew she was legit as well. Then ‘lo and behold Tony started showing up places with Cait. There is NO way I would have known about Tony without this inside family source. No way. Of course after my source told me about him, I did look him up online and there was hardly any information about him. Never in a million years would I have linked Tony McGill with Cait on my own. And I mentioned Tony McGill way before he started showing up places with Cait. How could it be that I said sources told me Tony McGill is dating Cait, and then a man identified as Tony McGill is seen out and about with Cait? The only way I knew about Tony is because the source told me. 

Back in the day, when Cait and Tony weren’t yet living together yet, people wondered how they made their relationship work given the sometimes long distances? Well, when they first started dating around March 2014, Cait was filming Outlander Season 1, so Tony would go to Glasgow or Cait would go to London on weekends. Then when Season 1 wrapped and Cait went back to L.A. (where she had been living) in late Sept. 2014, Tony went to L.A. to visit her in October 2014 (both their birthdays are in October, Cait Oct. 4 and Tony Oct. 12, not Oct. 14 like some have said. Libra/Libra bond!). The Fratellis were also in L.A. Oct. 2014 and Tony helped them out with some business stuff, even though he was no longer managing them then. Then, as I’ve already stated, Cait and Tony spent time together Dec. 2014 and January 2015 for the holidays. Then Valentine’s Feb. 2015, Cait flew to London for the opening of Tony’s 2nd bar, The Reading Room. She posted a pic on IG. Then in April 2015, Tony flew to NY to join Cait for the premiere of the second half of Season 1. Eyewitness sources saw him sitting with Cait’s friends at the screening and then with Cait and her friends inside the after party. There was one PUBLIC pic on Twitter of Cait, Tony and Sam. And I and others have been shown private pics of Tony there. Many of us have seen them but we couldn’t make them public because they show the location where they were taken, thus identifying the source who took them, and she would get in trouble with her boss. After that, in May 2015, Cait went back to Glasgow to begin shooting OL Season 2, and this time, she brought her cat, Eddie with her. Per more than one source, Tony pretty much lived in Glasgow after that with Cait. One person who went to Tony’s bars in Glasgow and then reached out to me, said that she had asked about Tony and was told “he doesn’t come around much anymore because he moved back to Scotland.” They then moved into their new place in Glasgow, move out of that one and into a new one in Glasgow, and also have a place in London, and are now married and had their first son. THAT’s how Tony and Cait made it work.

My Tony source also parted ways with me, also due to fear of being found out. She didn’t formally break up with me, the way the original industry source did, she simply ghosted me. But I also see her pop up on Twitter or IG sometimes and get all wistful. Oh well...

After I posted the insider info from BOTH these sources, then people started to contact me with source info. They knew I was Anon and would keep them Anon--win/win. People who went to Hollywood parties, or premieres, or meet and greets, people who saw celebs at the market, or baseball games, or the beach, or at the gym, or walking down the street, or just happened to be at the right place at the right time, started sending me info. From all over the world, wherever Sam and Cait were. And if I could confirm it to be true, I would post it. If I couldn’t completely guarantee it, then I’d say it was speculation. And that’s what I still do. Granted, back in the day, I was somewhat naive, and did get burned and betrayed a few times. I admitted when that happened. I’m much more careful now. But for the most part, the MAJORITY of the info I’ve posted has been ACCURATE. People who have been here for years can corroborate that. I don’t post everything that is shared with me though. And because my sources are actual real humans, they can’t know everything or be everywhere…I don’t always get minute by minute info, that doesn’t mean I don’t have real sources.

As for me also being the first to let the fandom know that Sam was dating Abbie Salt in 2015...I had a couple of Abbie sources. One of them turned out to be super sketchy and once I figured that out, we parted ways. My Abbie sources approached me after I had already established my account as an insider info sharing account. The motivation was to debunk that Cody and Sam were still seeing each other since they no longer were, and Abbie had started seeing Sam. 

BTW: as an aside...I was also the one that, through an eyewitness source, told the fandom that Sam and Cody Kennedy had gone to the Matthew Morrison Halloween party in October 2014, and the source had seen them kissing while waiting for the valet to bring their car around. You don’t know the LENGTHS that Extreme Shippers went to to disprove my source. They even Google Earthed the driveway from the street to the valet and measured it trying to prove that my source could not have seen where Sam and Cody were waiting for their car. Hahahah omg. Except, my source wasn’t on the street, she was right next to them. After all the bullshit from ES, it’s a wonder I’m still here, but here I am...the strongest bitch you’ll ever meet. But I digress...

Anyhoo, back to Sam and Abbie. I had no idea Abbie Salt existed or that she had dated Sam before and was friends with him…until my Abbie source contacted me to tell me that Sam was no longer dating Cody Kennedy and had resumed dating Abbie Salt. Abbie met Sam years ago when her sister, actress, Charlotte Salt starred with Sam in “A Princess For Christmas,” they dated briefly then, and then rekindled their romance in early 2015. Cody Kennedy’s mom later confirmed this by posting publicly in response to a fan Sam and Cody had broken up because “Sam went back to his old girlfriend in London.” Abbie lives in London. Again…I was surprised because I had no idea…but all the info checked out and then whadda you know, Abbie started showing up in Glasgow…in Sam’s flat (IG pics since deleted)…in L.A. in February 2015 at the London hotel, West Hollywood seen and photographed by an eyewitness for Oscars Week parties (the pic is of Sam and the fan, taken by Abbie, fan said Abbie was super sweet)... n NY when he was there for the OL premiere April 2015 (she posted on her IG, since deleted the pics), in Miami when he was there (eyewitness and Miami source proof that they were in Miami together, and NO that was not me, it was a source) and in Barbados together (Barbados source confirmation, and NO that was not me, it was a source, and pics from Abbie and Sam Tweeted he had been in Barbados). After that, Abbie was in Glasgow and Sam in London, where Abbie lives, on several occasions…not to mention she was photographed as his date in Monte Carlo for the TV Film Festival. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the Abbie Salt sources told me about AHEAD of time, then started to spend all that time with Sam. I didn’t even know Abbie existed, how would I have ever known anything about her without sources?

I also told the fandom about Mackenzie Mauzy and Sam dating via a source who saw them in person, holding hands and leaving together at a Guns N Roses concert in Los Angeles April 1, 2016. A friend of someone I know in L.A. was there and recognized Sam. He told my friend that he’d seen “that Outlander dude, Sam Heughan holding hands with a blonde, leaving the Guns N Roses concert.” At first, I thought it may have been Cody Kennedy, but afterwards, sources came forth to confirm it was Mackenzie Mauzy. Later on, I was contacted by a different Mackenzie source and given more info, which I posted. That Mackenzie source ghosted me too because Mackenzie was probably asking questions as to who was doling out info.  Also, by sheer providence, a fan was in the stands at the Dodgers baseball game in June 2016 and sent me a video of Sam and Mackenzie at the game together. Another source sent me the video of Sam and Mackenzie leaving their hotel together at San Diego Comic Con. I’ll repost all that in the archives. And someone I’ve known for years on Tumblr and trust completely came forward to share that she found out Sam and Mackenzie had broken up from one of Mackenzie’s relatives who live near her. Again, that was also by chance. Life can indeed be stranger than fiction. The relative told her Mackenzie wanted to get married and have kids and Sam wasn’t ready for that yet, so they broke up. That source came forth and identified herself on Tumblr, so that also proves my source info was legit. 

In summary: I was the FIRST to let the fandom know Cait and Sam weren’t dating, Cait was dating Tony, and Sam was dating Abbie, and Sam was dating Mackenzie BEFORE anyone else knew. You can’t do ALL of that simply by scouring social media posts as haters would have you think. It’s just not possible. And reasonable people understand that.

Before Covid-19 hit, people who were attending industry events would contact me and say “Hey Purv, I’m going to the PCA, or the TCA, or the GoldenGlobes, or the Outlander Season premiere and after party, I’ll give you the scoop!” I’d say “Cool, thanks! Send pics or video and let me know what and who you see.” That’s it. No social media searches or data mining needed. There is no conspiracy involved. No one is “feeding” me info from Sam or Cait’s camps or non-shipper or shipper sides to propagate a certain “narrative.” It’s just different people, who are at the right place at the right time, or are privy to certain insider info, sharing it with me because they know I post info for fans who are into that. As I’ve said ad infinitum, I am quite simply THE MESSENGER.

Any questions, send me an Ask or a Direct Message on my MAIN account @p-redux  Thanks!

[btsandvmin]

The side-blog struggle is real.😓 I go around liking posts w my main and reblogging in the tags w my side (and currently more used lol). It's so nice to hear that others get joy out of reading the tags too though!!💜

Indeed it is @swingingrobin. It really is annoying that the replies aren't also changing when you change between blogq. I have 4 side blogs and one main and it's really sad when I can't reply to you all as BTSandVMIN. If I knew what this blog would become I probably would have created it as a new main one. 😅 Oh well...

But yes, tags is such a joy and can legit be hilarious! I always check out reblogs. 💜😚

[insomniac-ships]

Hihi! I’ve seen you around and I get a really safe vibe from you so I’d like to tell you this. A bit ago I reblogged a post I agreed with from someone who I later found out had proshippers on their DNI list. I deleted when I saw it bc ofc I did. Just recently I saw the post again from a blog I adore and decided to reblog it again bc this blog was this blog and not OP so I wasn’t breaking any rules. I put in my tags just as much, that I deleted once cuz OP but I’m reblogging again cuz fuck it. Immediately I get an anon asking what’s wrong with OP, and I foolishly didn’t think it was OP who sent the anon, so I answered that listing proshippers alongside terfs, racists, etc was terminally online because what ships I like affects no one but me. I’m not allowed to reblog something I think is cool because OP doesn’t like the fact I like things? And it’s not like I was reblogging from the source this time, so it’s fair game, right?

Not ten minutes after posting, I get another ask like “so you’re a proshipper then?” and I didn’t know how to answer. Because I don’t know. But apparently it doesn’t matter because OP blocked me. I asked them why does it matter what I like? That’s like getting mad at someone for eating pizza when you only like tacos—you’re not the one eating it so why does it affect you?

They had no reading comprehension and said that they never wanted to dictate what I can/cannot consume but if I choose to consume that content to not interact bc that’s the point of a DNI list.

Except that is kind of dictating what I can/cannot consume? And anyway, that wasn’t the point of my ask—my question was why does my stance on shipping matter because they don’t know me, and I’m not following them, I’m just reblogging something from someone else. Most people will not check the source of the things they reblog (I only did so because the blog name was relevant to my interests, which doesn’t make this situation any better). They see a post they like, they reblog. They get them from people, who get them from other people, who get them from other people. I am not important. I am not important to OP, and they are not important to me. We do not know each other. So why does the possibility of this random stranger liking fictional pairs matter that much to them? I’m just minding my own business reblogging stuff.

Anyway, they regarded the proship stuff as “anon hate” and deleted it. I think they just didn’t want to admit they couldn’t come up with a legit answer because there is none. Because it requires them to admit to being dumb. And then they said if you want to have a conversation, to come off anon. Which is very funny considering they came into my inbox on anon. And then they blocked me. Before I even answered! They just decided for me so I guess I’m officially a proshipper now—where’s the sign-in sheet? /j (Don’t know how to feel about being the blockee, tbh. I’m usually the one doing the blocking so I’m kinda mad they got to it first. Before I knew it was OP. I had a whole thing written out too!) I feel confident in labeling them an anti, but I’m still trying to figure it out for sure.

Thanks for listening; hope you have a good day!

Hello lovely anon! This was absolutely not what I expected to find in my inbox first thing in the morning, but I'm happy you felt I was a safe person to talk to! I'm gonna have to answer this in chunks so my brain doesn't explode, so bear with me! ♡

Yeah, DNI boundaries do indeed extend to reblogs of reblogs of reblogs etc., which can get a little ridiculous when a post gets big enough. It's just the way of Tumblr. Once a post is in circulation outside of your immediate friend group, there's no real way to control who does and doesn't interact with it. And trying to police every single individual interaction on every single post you make is just a recipe for mental exhaustion. The best thing OP could've done is just block and carry on with their day. (Though most anti types are entirely unwilling to do that.)

Oof. I'm gonna be honest, I have a personal issue with people that try to stir up drama about themselves by coming into a person's inbox on anon and pretending to be someone else. Starting shit under the guise of curiosity is childish at best and manipulative at worst. For the most part, all anyone has to do is send an ask off anon and (at least somewhat nicely,) ask for the reblog of their post to be deleted. Proshippers that are genuinely decent people will usually just apologize and delete the post without causing a scene. (However, if you come screaming into someone's inbox throwing a shitfit, calling people names, threatening them, and making baseless accusations toward them, they probably won't respond so kindly.)

Yeah... the "I'm not trying to dictate what content you can like, but if you like content I'm personally grossed out by, you're horrible, awful, subhuman scum and I hate you forever" take is... well, it sure is an opinion. Just say you're a control freak and go.

(And like, there's nothing wrong with not liking certain ships or dynamics. That's totally fine! To each their own! It's the harassment part that's fucked up. You can curate your online experience and maintain your boundaries without being a nasty little gremlin to compete strangers.)

I'm not surprised that someone would take valid, genuine questions that they apparently didn't have a good answer to as "hate mail". Honestly reminds me of hyper-religious folks who treat any doubt or questioning of the faith/church as some deeply personal attack so they don't have to think critically about things for more than 5 seconds or admit any fault. (I grew up Catholic and got in trouble for asking too many questions.)

Don't sweat being blocked, honestly. ♡ They're really not worth the emotional turmoil. Just block them right back and keep on doing you!

Official Proship Sign-Up Sheet coming soon! (/j)

[gallaghercest]

Evidence #2 - The Bracelets

YOOOOO, this quarantine is tough, man. Since I haven’t got many things to do, I decided to give continuity to my posts.

Today’s episode is “The Bracelets”.

The first and probably the most important piece of information about the bracelets is right above. I don’t know where it is from, surely it’s from a magazine/newspaper. I most likely got it from Fran’s blog.

So it says that Liam’s bracelet was silver whereas Noel’s bracelet was golden. Don’t forget about this, we’ll get back to it later.

Anyway, I went to check on my Drive of Oasis photos (which contains more than 10k of photos) and, yes, I found them. The info is legit: the bracelets can be seen.

There you go! This one ^ is Liam’s, from a 94’ photoshoot in the bathroom of a venue. He wore the bracelet on his right arm.

The thing is that: every photo I found of Liam wearing is black and white. Seriously. Thus I couldn’t check the colour. And I found very few photos, all of them being from the DM era:

^ Circa ‘94/‘95.

EDIT: An Anon told me that there are, indeed, coloured pictures of Liam wearing the bracelet:

^ ‘94 photoshoot

^ ‘94 Wetlands gig, New York

The good thing is that WE NOW HAVE THE CONFIRMATION THAT THE BRACELET IS GOLDEN, INDEED!!!!!

The good news is that there is a shitload of photos of Noel with his bracelet.

There you have it!

BUT.

One thing I noticed and you probably noticed too is: Noel’s bracelet is actually silver. That doesn’t match what the quote said.

^ Supersonic (2016) screencap from the WTSMG recording sessions, ‘95

^ ‘97 gig. Here you can clearly see the ID thingy, which was supposed for them to write their names.

^ ‘97 gig

^ ‘97 gig

There are more photos but I think you got the point. It’s clearly silver.

So what the fuck happened?

We have two options:

Initially, Liam’s bracelet was silver and Noel’s golden, indeed. But they could’ve traded them with each other out of love. Maybe they even traded them because it had each other’s name on it, so they wanted to use the one who had the other’s name. Sort of a Call Me By Your Name vibe.

The reporter made a mistake. Which is probably what really happened.

I’m a huge fan of Romanticism so deep down my heart, I’ll stay with the first option. Bear with me, please.

Lastly, we have some things to keep in mind:

The bracelets were bought in ‘94.

Liam’s only seen wearing them in ‘94, whereas Noel is seen wearing it until ‘97.

The bracelets could have been exchanged between them.

It is, indeed, an ID bracelet.

And that’s all, folks!

Feel free to send me more pictures or ask me questions or idk, give me more info about it.

Thank you for joining me! Bye bye 💖