this is the anon. i want clear up some things for better help. this is somethin that happened last year. it didnt happen in any cherp-mxrp-parp spheres; it was an adult discord rp server. i already reported the person to authorities.

Some important context for anyone curious, thanks for sharing!

Re: your anonymous friend who is upset the person was a minor, check out r/POCD. Even if it's not a POCD thing if it's triggering intrusive thoughts and/or rumination and disgust it's a good place to find resources.

Thanks for the rec, appreciate you weighing in with options to help! Here's the subreddit's wiki index with helpful links, for easy browsing!

this is the anon. thank you for reblogging and giving your thoughts, but i dont think itll be enough. i vented to a friend of mine about this, and they found the user on another server admitting theyre currently a minor. and now im really fucking scared, because they implicitly lied to me and im afraid ill go to prison

That's disgusting and unsettling and a real bitch to deal with, I understand, but you still did the right thing by reporting them to Trust & Safety. Nothing about what you did is in any way, shape, or form illegal and you can't be prosecuted for acting in good faith under the assumption that they were an adult in an 18+ server. The onus is on them for lying to you, not you for being deceived. You aren't going to face any legal repercussions whatsoever; even in the event that someone tries to be malicious, there's no case against you for doing exactly what you were supposed to. Trust me as someone that has been in the same situation several times over the years: you're hard-pressed to get the police to take action against a legitimate groomer, much less a hapless adult who disengaged and reported to the authorities.

Take some time to silence your kneejerk panic response and understand that, while it might feel like the end of the world, under the very harshest possible reading this is still an extremely minor infraction, and no government on earth has the time or resources to waste on you having an uncomfortable but ultimately brief interaction on Discord dot com when there are actual predators causing genuine harm out there.

I'm not trying to minimize your feelings, which are real and genuine, but providing perspective that outside of what your anxiety might be telling you, this is objectively not a big deal to anyone else. Minors lie about their age all the time, and if people were hauled to prison every single time they fooled someone, the internet would look like a very different place.

Breathe. You're going to be okay, I promise you. There will come a time when you'll look back at this and wonder what you were ever worried about.

the fault is not on the adult for enjoying their hobby under the assumption that the person they were writing with was another adult it is on the minor for lying about their age to begin with! hope this helps. my advice probably won't do much because i Don't Like Worrying about things and i try to avoid it but generally if things are out of your control for whatever reason (like being lied to) the only thing you can really do is find out what things Are in your control (never rping with that person again/reporting the shit out of them) and acting on it. speaking as someone who used to struggle a lot with anxiety. maybe take a bit of time away, compartmentalize or something, and return when you feel a little better, or only rp with trusted acquaintances/friends until you feel like returning to the big soup of faceless randos we're all rubbing elbows with

Sound advice, I'm right there with you! Thanks for your input!

I'm writing this with no power; I feel like an Amish person penning a missive for anyone out there to please send rations

Heyo, folks! Putting out my feelers for anyone that's been impacted by finding out that their RP partner is a minor, particularly those experienced in coping with that particular anxiety and intrusive worry. An anonymous friend of mine is having a bit of a rough go of it, so any advice, reassurance, or stories of how you got over that thought spiral are appreciated. Much obliged and stay safe out there!

I have polls and I'm going to inflict it on all of you.

Dougal (dog from Magic Roundabout)

Possibly the most dog that has EVER been. Now this is a top tier specimen. The long, flowing locks! The round, inviting nose! The perfectly shaped head! The guileless smile that communicates the picture of childlike innocence! Oh, this is a dog's dog, alright. If I had to level one TINY critique... The eyes terrify me. If they were sweet little black beads of lovely, fathomless darkness this would be THE perfect design hands down no questions asked forever and ever. But as it stands now, they're just a wee bit unsettling. I almost touched perfection for a moment there. Thank you for your submission.

fun post but i mean people do legitimately try to get authors twitter-cancelled for writing things they deem problematic

Oh, absolutely, especially lately. It's just a matter of degrees. It's been a long-established observation that the same subject matter that would get you instantly fucking dogpiled as a private individual is celebrated when in the form of published books, TV, film. I've swam in these waters myself and the amount of people I'd see decrying a host of Dead Dove favorites still loved the likes of George R.R. Martin, Hannibal, Nitro+Chiral, yet failed to see the amount of cognitive dissonance is. Staggering.

They're able to put a separation between the prolific art that they can enjoy as harmless fiction because it's mainstream and commercialized, but have absolutely zero tolerance for no-name strangers doing the same in their spare time as a product of passion. (And, let's be real, a not-insignificant portion of them do indulge privately in the exact topics they spend all day railing against, or they find that one dynamic that sparks their interest despite all their bluster. I know because I've been there and I've seen it repeated enough times to catch on.)

These people are not a monolith, I understand, and plenty of them do remain consistent between their media consumption and the fights they pick on Twitter, but it's an interesting enough pattern to note that I thought it warranted comment.

Disclaimer disclaimer before anyone gets it twisted, we here at Cherubark Incorporated subscribe to the philosophy of "nothing is off-limits in terms of creative expression, but by that same token, nothing is free from good-faith critique." Nuance, context, critical application of media literacy, and curating your experience are all tools you gotta have in your arsenal.

Question: How come the people that are all “never write [uncomfortable subject I Don’t Like]” aren’t going after published authors that explore dark topics in their work? Is it because randos on an anonymous website are an easier target and people whose job it is to push boundaries in fiction don’t have the time or inclination to give a shit about someone starting beef with them? Where do we draw the line between “this is unacceptable in real life so it’s unacceptable in fiction” and “fiction is meant to explore challenging scenarios and things that wouldn’t otherwise fly in the real world” and who gets to decide which is which? Is it you? Are you the arbiter of all that is good and just and morally pure, or are you trying to justify controlling other people’s experiences and methods of dealing with them? When did closing a book or a tab or hitting the back button stop becoming a viable strategy when encountering something that you personally find objectionable?

can we see that thing in your drafts? you’ve got me all tantalized

Yeah, sure, fuck it.

Have you ever actually watched an episode of Dog with a Blog, out of curiosity?

Never. I'd aged out of the Disney demographic before it was so much as a twinkle in Stark and Kaplan's collective eye. I would be up for trying a drinking game with a handful of episodes as a nice little vertical slice of what the series has to offer if you've got recommendations, though! Pilot and finale are obviously a given, but I need to know what the Fandom Consensus is on best episodes of Dogverse.

I have a post in my drafts from January of 2019 and it has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of recent drama that's been posted since, so I haven't felt the need to beat that particular dead horse yet, but part of me wants to drop it just to see what happens.

Hand bussies

Let's get married.

Ohhh, I love that concept!! I had something relatively similar knockin' around the old noggin involving dystopian cyberpunk mafia and a rotating selection of (illegal) clone bodyguards protecting the group's heir, who treats them as people instead of tools. Just love the exploration of personhood, duty, real vs. artificial emotion, and what comes as a result of giving people the tools to understand their own selves, it's good stuff! You should absolutely do this!

The inspiration well's been running dry for a while, so how about a change of pace? Let's get self-indulgent. Gimme your nichest, silliest, cringiest desires for an RP, something that'll appeal only to you with all your favorite things thrown in for good measure. Don't even make it niche, who cares if it's the 86th coffee shop AU on the block! I just want to know the kinds of concepts that bring other people joy.

I've been thinking a lot about time loops and the inevitability of narrative and that's something I've been wanting to play around with for the longest time. Characters who know they're just playthings, pieces moved around the board by an unseen hand, powerless to fight against the amusement of these higher forces but trying (and trying, and trying, and trying) to find meaning despite it all. The bending and breaking of assigned archetypes into something raw and real and lasting has been on my mind lately!

What's something that hasn't left you alone since you first thought of it? Drop me a line, I'd like to hear about it.

Alright, alright, what about your 5th ideal RP? Surely that's not classified information?

The inspiration well's been running dry for a while, so how about a change of pace? Let's get self-indulgent. Gimme your nichest, silliest, cringiest desires for an RP, something that'll appeal only to you with all your favorite things thrown in for good measure. Don't even make it niche, who cares if it's the 86th coffee shop AU on the block! I just want to know the kinds of concepts that bring other people joy.

I've been thinking a lot about time loops and the inevitability of narrative and that's something I've been wanting to play around with for the longest time. Characters who know they're just playthings, pieces moved around the board by an unseen hand, powerless to fight against the amusement of these higher forces but trying (and trying, and trying, and trying) to find meaning despite it all. The bending and breaking of assigned archetypes into something raw and real and lasting has been on my mind lately!

What's something that hasn't left you alone since you first thought of it? Drop me a line, I'd like to hear about it.