I reblogged something that touched on this but I really wanna say my own thing and elaborate more.

Even if you don't follow me, you've probably seen my name in the tags. A lot of people know me as "the liveblog account" or specially "the BBH liveblog account." Which is great and true and I'm glad that's how you know me. It's pretty clear how much love I have for Bad, both in a platonic viewer to streamer sense, and all of his characters.

When I watched DSMP, I knew cBBH and I enjoyed him, but he was never really my number one to watch or keep updated on the story for. And I sort of regret that and there's a lot of story I don't know completely and still go back for. And I knew about QSMP and tried to get into it before, but I didn't officially start watching until Quackity's election results stream. And when that ended I knew other people would probably/hopefully go live. I knew the winner didn't speak English normally so I said I would check out second place winner Bad for at least a bit because he spoke English and cause I know people like him. What the heck. Well here I am eight months later. Anyway.

I love Bad as a person and creator because he's so creative, but I love specifically qBBH because of his lore, absolutely, but I love how subtle he is. It'll be a relatively normal stream and then all the sudden he'll say something like "I remember a pyramid" talking about DSMP and "I don't remember there being gas masks" talking about hunger games and "back when I was looking down" talking about general fallen angel lore then act like nothing happened.

This guy knows exactly what strings to pull to lead us and when. He knows how much to say and when he should say it. He loves making us smile or sometimes cry with big lore drops but he also loves driving us crazy and making us rethink and giving little hints and little drops.

And that's one of the biggest reasons I've become the blog I've become, because he makes you come back for more, because you never know what to expect, and I love it.

I have no control impulse. Inspired by this masterpiece from the lovely @blamemma (also hello @summer04rayne @jisblooming <3)

Or how I ended up writing a streamer!Max AU

° ° °

“What's got you smiling like that, mate?”

Max blinks, zoning back into the conversation.

“What?”

Alex, his best friend, the traitor, chuckles at his confusion, and when he looks at his screen, the chat is doing so too. Max flushes, quickly locking his phone before focusing back on the stream. Alex is grinning widely at him on the screen. Ugh, what a pain.

“Tell us, Maxy, come on, what got you giggling like a schoolgirl with a crush, eh?”

That fucker! Alex laughs knowingly, and the chat goes wild as usual when they get to tease him, and Max knows he'll have to answer now. He clears his throat, trying to sound as unruffled as possible.

“I just- found a really cool looking Instagram page, that's all…”

The Thai's grin somehow widens even more, almost shark-like, and Max just dug his own grave, didn't he?

“Yeah? Wouldn't it happen to be a certain travel vlogger's page, perchance, Maxy?”

The blonde feels heat rising in his face, and he doesn’t need to look into the screen to know that he's blushing furiously. It's probably spreading to his neck too, god. Max hides his face in his hands, embarrassment making his skin crawl. Him and his big mouth and his lack of self-control when it comes to a certain curly haired brunette.

“That's- it's not- ugh!”

He stumbles over his words, and he hears Alex laugh harder in his headset. He knows it's good natured, though, and that's the only thing keeping him from just ending the call.

“Tell them more about Daniel, Max! Look how excited they are, you can't deny them that, come on!”

Max shakes his head, drinks a sip of his Red Bull to try and regain his composure. Alex got the chat involved now, and that means he can’t just brush it off. Well, he could, and honestly, apart from some trolls here and there, his little community is really nice and understanding, and they know not to push on things if Max doesn't want to elaborate. But… this is kind of harmless, he guesses, so he can play their game a bit.

The blonde sighs, glancing at the chat, and yeah, they're going wild. Thanks, Alex

“I don't even know why I'm friends with you, at this point.”

“Don't say that! I know you love my pretty face and my humor.”

° ° °

Half an hour later, Max wraps up the stream, a faint blush lingering on his cheeks after all that had happened during what Alex had described as “gushing over Daniel for more than ten minutes”.

He gets up, tidying his desk, throwing away the empty Red Bull cans and water bottles, as well as any wrapper he could find. Finally, he leaves his streaming room, shutting off all the lights and closing the door.

There's no sounds in the small apartment, which probably means his roommate is already asleep. It's like, 3am, so, fair. Max gets ready for bed before slipping under the covers, practically melting on the soft mattress. Just as he reaches for his phone to plug it to charge, he sees it.

Daniel Ricciardo uploaded a new video

He clicks on it with neck breaking speed, a beginning of shame curling in his gut when he sees it was posted barely thirty seconds ago. He likes it, saves it in a playlist for good measure, and lets Daniel's australian accent drown his self-loathing and lull him to sleep.

The recent Signalis anticommunism discussion on here made me stumble onto your take about it from last month, and while I do believe that Signalis is very... normie anticommunist (you seem to disagree), your post made me really curious, but at the same time it was very vague, and a lot of people interpreted it as "Signalis isn't anti-communist, it's anti-authoritarian". Would you be willing to elaborate?

Oof didn't realize there was more discussion to it than I thought so I won't wade into the whole of that cuz that wasn't what I was responding to at the time. Also just to preface two things; for one I am a communist myself and that did effect my reading of the text a great deal and for two I didn't say anything about the "Signalis isn't anti-communist, it's anti-authoritarian" thing myself that was a later addition from other people (personally I don't like the term "authoritarian" as a way to analyze the faults of certain socialist states but that's neither here nor there).

What I was driving at is the idea that the DDR imagery (and beyond that, as others have pointed out it isn't solely pulling from that) is doing a lot more than simple condemnation or any sort of post-war triumphalism over "dystopian" socialism. We can read a lot based on what was given attention in the text, and I think the ways that DDR imagery show up in the game are shown with a rather loving, even reverent light at times (you don't create a bunch of intricately designed DDR robot girl ocs and name some of them after historical DDR special forces units because you totally despise everything the DDR stood for). This is intentionally contrasted with the rotting and decayed state we actively find a great deal of these things in, which provides a great deal of contrast between the lowercase i ideal and the reality of an execution which was tainted by the literal bleeding psychology of collective trauma and the attempts at domination of individuals.

What results is less a coherent world as such that can be dissected as one might dissect typical worldbuilding lore and more an emotional portrait which depicts a sense of portrayal at the way the history of the DDR played out, and you may disagree with parts of that (I do with certain parts as well) but it isn't intended to reflect a dissertation on the flaws of the DDR. It's an emotion first conceptualization of tainted Ostalgie and the hauntological traces of a future which was not allowed to be for reasons internal and external, through that lens it is, to me, quite ambiguous over whether or not the source object was a negative or a positive. Instead its a truly conflicted portrayal of the emotional state one is left in after both the (again lowercase i) ideals of that revolutionary state and its practical execution, warts and all, have passed into the realm of cultural memory.

(I'm sorry that's probably a whole lot of words to not fully answer your question but tldr I don't think Signalis is as anticommunist as a lot of people think it is, I think people are generally reading the diegesis too literally and not really delving into the full emotional depth going on with how communist imagery is used in the game)

Main reason Danny doesn’t have to do anything about John’s soul situation

John met God in the form of a dog named Tom who cleared it up, Satan can’t take his soul

Yes this is real, yes this is Canon

I’ve been holding back on this headcanon for too long and I think I’ll explode if I don’t write it down somewhere.

SO. We know that Grian has the Widow Curse - in which he will ultimately end up killing his allies, or contributing help towards said allies’ deaths (and I’m purposely avoiding referring to it as the Icarus Curse simply because it doesn’t match up for this hc).

So what animal does the word ‘widow’ remind you of? For me, I instantly think a widow spider. And that’s what this post is basically exploring.

When characters are assigned a hybrid status, you will usually see physical traits that relate.

But Grian already has wings as he is always going to remain some kind of winged creature in my head - to divert from that is basically impossible in my head. That makes his back a very clustered set of extra limbs if we’re deciding to include the extra four legs to add up to eight, and although that idea may sound rough to think about in terms of coherent design, I couldn’t give a fuck because having countless extra limbs that a normal player should not have is ultimate eldritch energy, which I think we can all agree that Grian exudes by default.

Basically, this is me giving Grian the most disturbing and unimaginable designs possible while still looking vaguely human (???).

Then we go onto the eyes, spiders have many eyes, eight to be exact, which ties very neatly into Grian being a Watcher. Lots of eyes to Watch, so really nothing changes much other than the fact that there are multiple eyes on Grian’s face all the time, and not just when he Watches.

Another thing that makes sense by default is that, like many animals in the wild, the males are smaller than the females by about half an inch. He’s short.

AND ODDLY ENOUGH, (though this one is more specific for Limited Life) widow spiders have a red-orange hour glass shape on their abdomens. And who is in charge of timing the sessions, with announcing halftime breaks, with deciding the end of the session, therefore stopping time/the sand in the hourglass from falling??? THIS ELDRITCH-SPIDER-WATCHER-AVIAN (+wither if I insert another one of mind melting headcanons in) THING!!!!

THESE SPIDERS ARE VENOMOUS, GRIAN IS VENOMOUS TO THOSE AROUND HIM!!!! THIS SHIT WRITES ITSELF!!!

ALSO!!!!: “habitat: will build irregular, erratic webs in quiet undisturbed areas” After three games - after the curse has been officially solidified - where does he build his bases? A deserted and oddly empty mansion, and a quiet hilltop. What do his bases look like? An odd bridge along with a tall grid above the server to Watch from, no set shape for the base ever. And then an erratically built abstract staircase leading to nowhere and an irregular second base shaped as an egg (spiders lay eggs guysssss).

AND FINALLY: “Despite their venom, black widows are typically non-aggressive” Grian is not one of the openly hostile players like maybe Martyn or Joel, he stays back and fights if necessary or entertaining.

Oh and how Spider of Grian to lure his prey into his web, to care for them until they get caught and stuck, and they can do nothing but wait for Grian’s venom to sink in, not even knowing that what they were stepping into was simply a trap set by Fate, who also goes by Other Names.

reading Dune as a preteen: wow… all these characters are sooo smart :O

rereading Dune as an adult: this book rules, every single one of these people is fuckin’ stupid in a different way

Sayori tends to catch feelings for people very easily, but very rarely acts on them. She doesn't think she's good enough for anyone, and believes she'd only burden them in any potential relationship. She doesn't want to hurt anyone, or ruin a good friendship. I don't think she would really think about her sexuality very often or strictly define it, because she "has a lot of love for everybody!", so she'd probably just ambiguously identify as queer and let her actions speak for themselves.

Yuri initially tries to avoid the conversation entirely. It's not that she's ashamed per se, more like she's had bad experiences with people in the past, and finds the entire concept of romance to be very embarrassing to talk about openly. She's accepted her sexuality as just another thing that makes her "weird", and mostly keeps it to herself because she doesn't really want any of her relationship with the others to change. She doesn't want any of them to "get the wrong idea and think she's creepy" or anything.

Natsuki keeps it on the down low, but makes it clear that she doesn't really like boys. Maybe she likes specific ones. Fictional ones, mostly. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other as to whether or not she's strictly lesbian or something else, but if she is attracted to men, she's the type to do the whole "Aren't you attracted to men too?" "*gag* ...yeah." bit. I think she's unlikely to personally pursue someone romantically, in large part because she's afraid that she'll hurt them.

Basically, they're all some kind of gay, they just don't really talk about it, for variable reasons.

That is, until Monika walks in one day and starts a conversation on the topic, the end of which being the reveal that "I'm...starting to think I'm not quite straight! Ahaha..."

Any number? 23 and saïx :)

couldn't count all the ways that i've died for you

[ID: a digital drawing of saix from kingdom hearts. He is shown from the hip up, his body in 3/4's and his face in profile. He is shadowed in warm tones. He has a neutral expression, and he's standing straight.

The background is transparent except for a circle that lays from the middle of his shoulders and upwards, with three sections that have a slightly bigger circumference where one to three, seven to eight, and eight to nine would be on a clock. All scenes are blue tones with a noise overlay. these three are all from saix's perspective.

In the first, there is a cloaked figure shown from the waist down, the tip end of young xehanort's keyblade leans forward and some of it goes out of bound, tiled floor as a background. The second one is saix's hand reaching for kingdom hearts. The third is his hand reaching towards Lea, who lies on the floor of radiant garden's lab.

The rest of the circumference is a labyrinth wall in keyblade's graveyard, with a harsh diagonal line of light on the upper half. Most of the circumference is lined black, except from nine to one o'clock, lined white. /End ID.]

Meat Marionette #11?

Thinkin about the rogues in this Au, and like, the difference between their relationship with the bats vs this Au. 

 For example, Selina. I’ll admit I take a bit of inspiration from the 2022 movie and mix it with comic depictions along with the different cartoons, which honestly isn’t too different from each other by too much. Now, I don’t think that Catwoman would flirt with this version of Batman, what with his body being a meat puppet that is visibly not human and off putting. There’s also the fact that she would have been an early-ish rogue of his, at least in order of encounters. Which means that she probably encounters the Bat for the first time while Bruce was still getting used to said gifted body, which in turn was probably terrifying. So there’s still a cat and mouse game happening, but it’s more akin to Selina doing her darn best to avoid the Bat no matter what, because to her it isn’t above trying to kill. It’s like seeing a lion where you figure you’re safe at this distance, until it starts moving and you realize that you are definitely not far enough away. 

 Another rogue that I am thinking of is Harvey and Two-Face (Which DC, give Two-Face a proper name :/ he’s his own dude even if they share a body). Harvey was best friends with Bruce, hell they were practically high-school sweethearts in some cases! And Bruce still visits him in Arkham, canonically still talks and interacts with both his friend and TF. Now if anyone is going to notice the changes to Bruce, it’s going to be Harvey. He’s going to be the first to notice how Bruce’s movements are now dangerous and downright predatory, with too much grace even for a dancer or martial artist. There’s something familiar about that movement, and Harvey isn’t an idiot, TF isn’t one either. They know there’s something wrong with Bruce even if he insists he’s fine. In canon Harvey straight up broke down and cried when he found out Bruce was Batman, so I’m wondering what their reaction to this version of the bat would be…

 There’s also rogues like the Riddler and the Joker who are downright obsessed with Batman, but would they still be with this one? I could see Joker slowly becoming obsessed as the creatures continue to thwart him over and over again, but I’m still rotating Riddler. 

 But y’know who would definitely be obsessed with the batclan?

Scarecrow. The man is obsessed with studying fear, with the effects it has and how to cause it. So the bats, who bring terror wherever they go, with something about them continuously tingling at the back of ones’ more instinctive mind that this is something to fear? He would be utterly enthralled, he’d need to know more, he’d need to know Everything. Especially if his fear toxin doesn’t work right on them. After all, how would a gas effect something without lungs? How can you inject something that doesn’t have blood, that’s not quite alive, not in the way that we as humans understand? How can you cause fear of something that has stared into the Tunnels’ heart and lived? Or something like that lol. 

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AU is a combo of my cryptid batfam and @phoenixcatch7 's Possessed Doll au, go check them out, they're amazing

Linktober (Shadow) 2023

Spirit

Welp turns out my exam season throughly steam rolled through my general Linktober plans, so you get this VERY late thing for now folks who find this, at least until I decide whether to continue this until I finish it even though it's no longer Linktober or if I'll make whatever other stories come later their own thing after exam season is over (mostly because the original for this one is my preferred draft, and that I feel the one for the Link/Dark Link prompt would be kind of wasted if it just sat there collecting dust cause I worked hard on the tension and horror there lord darn it, along with a few others mainly involving Fae Hyrule, Twilight, Time, First, among other Links like Legend, Sky, Warriors, just all of the boys, I wanted to give them all proper spotlight and still want to do that in any way I can). Welp. *Downs coffee like a shot* Also really need to find out how to make a Masterlist on mobile, figure out how AO3 works and answer asks.

Anyway, not really any warnings this time besides Reader Not Being Okay (par the course really) and angst.

As always can be read as either romantic or platonic, Reader is gender neutral on purpose, technically is meant to be read as either Hero's Shade Time x Reader or First x Reader mainly, but you can interpret it as any Link really lol

Good reading!

This corner of Faron Woods was quiet this time of year.

The woods were solemn in this Hyrule, the sliver of moonlight barely enough of a guide through the mist, it was silent but for the soft padding of animals through the underbrush and the howl of a wolf in the distance (not Wolfie's, not musical enough). The stars were your only company as you were separated from the group, the air was cold agaisnt your skin as you attempted to find your way.

Being alone in the forests of Hyrule never spelled anything good for anyone, but as you felt the brush of a hand tenderly twined in yours, the ghost of leather and the faint clinking of steel, and a faint glow of pale gold and ivory cutting through the veil of the night, mindful of roots you may trip onto and never flickering too far out of sight you couldn't feel safer, even  if instead something like melancholy threatened to lock your throat with the chains of silence, you felt as warm as the soft twilight glow and as frigid as ice, frostburned with the bitter cold of your own warring emotions.

You can't help but chuckle a bit whille holding a old scabbard close to your heart, it's a wry sound, "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

There is no answer, of course there isn't, but you don't mind, you know he'll listen, thorns wrap around your heart and crawl up your throat, the smell of lilies and steel coats and sticks in your throat like honey, or maybe blood, "... I didn't think you'd show up, you know? I always considered the possibility but..." You trail off, you feel something brush your side, you can only see him in the corner of your eyes or with a passing glance, there but not, existing but gone, so you keep your eyes on the road and in the flicker of light, so you carefully don't look to your side, you don't think you could contain the shaking in your heart otherwise, to stare at inevitability and prophecy, "... I know, I know you're fine. At least for now, I apologize for all the trouble I gave you."

'It's alright. It could never be a hardship aiding you.', the voice echoes in your ears, and you swallow thickly, breath hitching, the warmth of the sun in the fields of Hyrule, the wind caressing your hair, the song of the animals in Faron Woods, someone holding you carefully, fondly. The warmth of your hand in his. Not really here, but not gone either, more feeling than true echo.

You chuckle, and try to pretend it's not a bit breathless, something like a wounded keen, "... You're too kind. Too, too kind, thank you."

Spirits in Hyrule never spell anything good, in this wild land of light and shadow in a gestalt of divinity. There are some exceptions though, even if it hurts to witness then. So you follow him through the dark, certain that as you've guided his way once, he'll lead you now to where you need to go.

----------------------------------------------------------

... The clearing he leads you to is open, but by no means truly quiet among the trees, there is no peace to be found for the armored skeleton here. You choke on sorrow, on unfinished business, on the cruelty of being brought to ruin and being denied peace, and you stumble towards the familiar figure, almost in a trance as your vision blurs, roots and thorny vines wrap over rusted armor and a thorn cape, the skeleton's void sockets piercing through your soul, illuminated by the solemn gaze of the wretched moon and it's uncaring maids of honor in the stars.

You fall to your knees near the decaying skeleton, biting back against the wounded sound that attempts to leave your throat with enough strenght to bleed, you lay the scabbard by his side with a bouquet of lilies and shiver at the gentle, phantom touch, so soft, so loving it almost leads you to ruin all over again.

'... It's foolish to grieve for someone who isn't gone yet.' the thought comes to you, yet you can't help it. You still hurt for him, you still hold onto the fury at the heavens themselves for denying them quietus. For denying them rest over and over and over again. To watch this cycle and be helpless to stop it all due to the will of uncaring gods.

Alive. Dead. Alive. Dead. Denied full rest over and over again, to watch the chance at rest to the kindest of souls found in this world you found yourself in.

You barely register the touch to your cheek, ephemeral as it is, as you can't help but shed tears, can't help but grieve. Because if you don't, who will?

You know by now that some wounds can never heal, some rifts can never be mended. Even with the guarantee of cyclic, eternal rebirth, some things never return to how they were. And reminding yourself of this inevitability to them will never not hurt, even if you know it's futile to blame anyone but the one god who started this, and maybe the goddess who stood complacent to it. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth that it'll one day come to this, that the frost of death and the sharpness of pain will leave a mark the sands of time can't scar over.

You reach a trembling hand towards the one in your cheek, try to find catharsis in the remains of decayed, dead yet ever eternal, ever growing love. And you breathe.

'We'll meet again. So do not mourn for me, please.'

You don't think you could deny him if you tried. Not when you know he's trying to soothe you, to thaw your sorrow. To allow your heart's healing to fallow.

"We will, I know. I'm sorry for making you worry." You chuckle, leaning into the cold, trying to brand the memory of the shadowed, but not gone love given to you so you can return it in kind. Just until you meet again, just until you can give all you can to his not yet decomposing self, grasping onto what remains of him, "I love you."

'I love you too. Until we meet again.'

The cold is gone, the echo of love leaves. And you breathe, and pretend you don't feel empty.

(When you see Link again, reuniting with the Chain on the next day's twilight. You hug him as tight as you can, and hope you he doesn't notice the tears in your eyes. And that you don't feel the lingering traces of a frigid embrace.

When no one is looking, you wave goodbye to the shade. And pray he dreams of warmer days until he finds quietus.)

btw if ur ever struggling to draw hands just remember the thumb is 90% of the time facing toward the character unless the palm is upward/facing away from them ok gnifht

how @/loiswasadevil is about family guy and being lois is honest to god how i am about corpses and captain spaulding btw.

Hey, Do you have any Chara headcanons?

So technically I already have a reblogged post of Chara headcanons. Right here, within the tags. (99+) Chara neutralist squad on Tumblr

However, I most certainly have not run out of things to talk about and so...

I now present Chara Dreemurr headcanons 2: Electric Boogaloo

1. Yes, so as I said before, they have been spotted reading the dictionary cover to cover multiple times and reads english grammar books for fun. It is like they have to use one word literally nobody understands at least once a day or they will figuratively die. And of course, they would be the one to say figuratively every single time they use a metaphor or hyperbole or turn of phrase and they would get genuinely annoyed with anyone who says literally when they don't literally mean literally. Chara is the kind of kid who if someone says "can I", they will say "I don't know, can you?" like an english teacher because it's supposed to be "may I" for allowances. And, Azzy, it's supposed to be "Chara and I" not "me and Chara" ...no-one cares.

2. Something vocabulary related is that Chara absolutely, categorically refuses to swear! Apparently, contradictory to popular belief given that they're an "edgy" character, they think they are far too intelligent, high-class and mature for such gauche and vulgar words (did I mention they're a loser yet?), you see, and they would definitely consider using words that mean almost nothing to be a grave insult to their extensive vocabulary.

This doesn't mean they don't have certain stock phrases they use as exclamations or insults, though, of course. "asshole" or "bitch" becomes "you complete and utter ingrate", "what the fuck/hell?" becomes "What on this good earth/What in the Angel's name?" and "fuck you" becomes "may the angel smite you dead" or "may you burn in hell forevermore" (except that since Chara Dreemurr has proved themselves able to dish out much, much worse insults than "may the angel..." (stuff like "you look horrible, why are you even alive" for example) this might just be more annoyance than genuine hatred.)

So basically, while a normal person might say "Ow! Fuck!" when they stub their toe on something, Chara "Sesquipedalian loquaciousness" Dreemurr starts up an anime villain speech at nothing in particular while Asriel giggles and possibly records in the background. (Because of Asriel's apparent love for anime, he'd probably find his sibling's way of speaking to be the coolest thing ever as well as thinking it makes Chara some sort of uber-genius (note: it does not))

3. Okay so, since they tend to fixate on being impeccable in every way, even for the smallest of things, they can get embarrassed very easily and...very dramatically. Not finding the best word for every situation (particularly if they end up saying something wrong), not getting a perfect score on the test, anyone (who isn't the Dreemurrs) seeing them when their appearance is anything less than completely spotless.

They shall freeze and go completely blood red, they shall squeal and run off to their room. They will lie face down, not making a sound, and stay there for...hours. They will not respond, they will not be consoled. They have recently learnt they're not literally the best at everything ever and no, nothing will ever be okay again.

...They'll be back to normal within a day, though, boastful and eager to impress as ever. I think at some point they do learn that maybe not being perfect isn't the end of the world...eventually. Anyway, heard someone saying that hell exists for Flowey and it is minor inconveniences and that is true but hell also exists for Chara and it is minor embarrassments.

(Yes, I am aware this is very exaggerated, it's just more fun that way)

They have an equally dramatic, though positive, reaction to praise and compliments. Giddily skipping around and smiling ear to ear for hours, they tend to preen and straighten up, and it turns out they were lying and can cry, (a lot) just not out of sadness or fear. Though, they do get somewhat good at downplaying how much they care in front of acquaintances or strangers (even if they are nice and polite about it). Technically, only the Dreemurrs are allowed to know that Chara feels emotions.

(Also they have the same reaction to realising they are in fact the prophesied angel in the murder run, despite not being a praiseworthy accomplishment in any way, they're just happy to be, well...special. They always knew the prophecy was about them! Of course they were the angel, they're the best person in the world after all, finally they have the title they always deserved! Oh dear...)

AU where Charlotte was a mermaid from the very start.

Gracie leaves Charlotte a letter after her passing, leaving her instructions on how to get to Mako Island and telling her that there is something there for her, waiting. But she must be there on a full moon. Following her late grandmother’s instructions, Charlotte finds herself at the moon pool under the full moon.

Would love to hear some propaganda 101 from you if you're ever so inclined c:

I think I'm going to start from current events, what I've been seeing on tumblr, and why I would categorize most of what I see here not as propaganda but rather as propaganda-related phenomena, namely the largely organic amplification of propaganda messages, ideologically motivated framings, and heaps upon heaps of misinformation. Ultimately, I actually find what we see here much worse - if all we saw on here was propaganda in the stricter sense, I would find that comforting and reassuring because it would suggest that maybe fewer people than we think actually buy into the views currently being spread (because more of the work would be done by specific groups with organizational structures and a budget for propaganda). Now, I personally still think that much of what we see on here is the outcome of various long-term, organized propaganda campaigns that have been driven by multiple groups with different if sometimes overlapping goals. And a lot of these groups are probably still actively contributing to the current wave of propaganda/information manipulation, but there's a huge organic component as well. Hopefully by the time I'm done with this post, it'll become clear what I mean by this. All lessons for media literacy still apply.

If we look at the definitions of propaganda, it's pretty clear why many of the posts on here don't qualify. There are a large number of definitions for propaganda, each with slight variations, and I should probably point out that many people working in this area reject the term per se because it has been thrown around too much and used by people simply to refer to content they disagree with. I personally still use 'propaganda' to refer to systematic and coordinated information manipulation in service of broad or narrow political goals, and so do some other people. Basically what most definitions of propaganda (or the alternative terms used by those who don't like the term propaganda but, at least in my view, still analyze the same phenomena) have in common is a set of ingredients/boxes to be checked for something to qualify as "propaganda." The one I'll use here is the ABC model, which looks at Actor, Behavior, and Content. I'll tackle these in reverse.

Content: This is the content of a message that is being spread. In many ways, this is the weakest and least meaningful checkbox of the three, though it can and should be used in combination with the other two to assess whether something is propaganda/coordinated information manipulation. When you look at content, one of the things to look for is whether something is true or whether it is disinformation/misinformation. (Generally speaking, the term disinformation is used to refer to false or misleading information spread intentionally, while misinformation is used to refer to false or misleading information spread either intentionally or unintentionally/unwittingly. Just like a lot of people don't like using the term propaganda because it has been thrown around too much, some people have started shunning the term disinformation because they argue it has been abused to much. I have no strong opinions here one way or the other. False or misleading information, whether spread on purpose or not, can range from anything that is outright falsehoods, conspiracy theories, etc. to more subtle forms of manipulated information, such as an incomplete and one-sided picture, selective presentation of facts, the promotion of specific narratives, and framing/selective presentation of reality, either quite literally by literally showing only part of the picture, but also, for example, by presenting facts through a particular ideological lens).

Behavior: On its own, content only tells us so much. False information could be an honest mistake or spread unwittingly. Framing is also something most humans do automatically to make sense of reality. All of this occurs organically pretty often and therefore on its own does not qualify as propaganda/systematic information manipulation by pretty much any standard. This is where analyzing behavior comes into play. This includes stuff like whether there is coordinated behavior, such as multiple accounts spreading the same message either because they are part of the same network or because they have agreed in advance to do so. (An example of coordinated behavior might be the use of a WhatsApp group to push out messages to hundreds of ideologically aligned tumblr users to alert them that another user has posted something "problematic" and asking the members of the group to harass the "problematic user.") A further step is coordinated inauthentic behavior, such as bot or troll networks that are used to promote certain content or pile on/harass others in a coordinated fashion. There are certain ways how analysts can detect inauthentic behavior, especially in more obvious cases when large numbers of accounts created within time frames of each other all start pushing out the same messages, use repetitive language, jump from one topic to the next in unison, etc. but if it's smartly done and involves a strong human component rather than pure automation, it is often harder to detect. (I've done a lot of research on bot/troll networks in their various forms. Political bot/troll networks exist on tumblr, but they have negligible impact as far as I can tell.) Transparency is often used as another criterion when analyzing behavior: is someone transparent about their identity and their goals? Behavior can also include the use of certain (rhetorical and other) techniques used with the intention to manipulate. Intention matters a lot to determine if something qualifies as propaganda. People can spread propaganda unintentionally, but that does not turn them into a propagandist (rather, they would be a potential resource that a propagandist/an actor engaging in organized propaganda could try to use). The point is: somebody somewhere has to be doing something on purpose. This is where the actor comes in.

Actor: When looking simply at information manipulation, an individual can qualify as a relevant actor, but most definitions of propaganda would look at collective actors, such as state actors and non-state actors (religious groups, lobby groups, etc.) pursuing specific broader or narrower political goals. Yes, a single tumblr user can engage in intentional information manipulation for a number of reasons ranging from trolling to acting in service of a larger ideological conviction, but most definitions of propaganda would not count the relatively unsystematic actions of an individual as a propaganda campaign (unless maybe they're Elon Musk and wield massive resources en par with that of a government or a political party to promote their messages and further their goals.) Some definitions of propaganda might include individuals, but in my opinion, that's unhelpful because it potentially turns everything into propaganda and makes the concept useless both analytically and in terms of practical responses. So it is better to look for a collective actor with a goal. The goal is usually to change the behavior of people in a way that is favorable to the actor, for example by starting to support a goal pursued by the actor, by opposing something the actor opposes, or often simply by deciding to refrain from doing something that the actor doesn't want people to do. (The goal can also be simply to confuse people and to create the perception that everything and nothing is true.) In practice, when looking at individual pieces of manipulated information, the actor is not always clearly identifiable, but for something to be propaganda/coordinated information manipulation in pursuit of a political goal, there absolutely has to be an actor acting with intention. A criterion that I personally use to determine whether something is propaganda in the stricter sense is whether the actor has an institutional structure (usually with a budget, however large or small) in place that is dedicated to propaganda, for example a government's propaganda department, a military's press liaison bureau, a company's press or publicity department, a political party's press office, a religious group's communications office, etc. Now just because a state or an organization has a structure in place dedicated to communicating with the public does not necessarily mean it is engaging in propaganda: this is where you have to look at the kind of behavior it engages in together with the content it promotes. This is why A, B, and C are looked at together to make a judgment call on whether something should be treated as propaganda/systematic information manipulation.

Based on all this, when I look at tumblr, what I see is (probably) very few actors that would qualify as actual propagandists (though I'm sure some are active here as well), but still massive spread of messages that contain false and misleading information through largely authentic networks that are not engaged in organized propaganda themselves, but that possibly feature in the resource and ecosystem analyses conducted by actors that do engage in organized propaganda. Where and how organized propaganda and organic networks intersect on this website would require much more detailed analysis that I am personally not capable to conduct in this particular case.

Help me Amonhaise/Amonsasa is taking over my brain rn

Sillies... I wish they could actually interact ... if only