softpine - Tumblr blog

[softpine]

if you hadnt rushed cara's storyline, what wouldve been different?

god i can barely remember because it's been so long 😭 i know that caroline was meant to actually be arrested (it was never supposed to be a nightmare) and she was set up to be the fall guy because 1. she was a minor and 2. they were all betting that caroline wouldn't rat anyone out because she trusted her friends and it's just not in her nature to betray them (i wish i had stuck with my plan, because seriously... it's NOT in her nature. caroline?? working with the cops?? she'd rather go to prison). she would've spent a few months in juvy while the legal proceedings took place, where she would've been visited by cleo, who saw how defeated & miserable caroline was. she couldn't stand by and let this teenager throw her life away because of them, so she's the one that eventually turns herself and arrow in. caroline would've still been hit with some minor charges, but nothing life-ruining, and she'd be able to return home. iirc she would've needed to repeat senior year, which means she would still have her "i hate this town its so washed up and all my friends dont give a fuck :(" story arc lol. so it would all lead to the same place in the end!

[softpine]

hello. i'm reading through camellia for the first time and i'm still experiencing cara being an angsty teen (i love how seamless the development / time passing feels in your story btw!) but i was just wondering, why exactly did cara turn her older friends in? it seemed a little sudden, but i thought maybe it was because of the og storyline for that causing you such great anxiety. i hope i don't seem nitpicky, i was just wondering what you as the writer feel was her motivation for doing that?

omg hello new reader hiiiii 💖💖 okay that whole story line was SUCH a shit show and i'm totally fine saying it!! nothing went according to plan for a few different reasons. the first one being that personal issues in my life were making it really difficult for me to continue writing themes of addiction & incarceration, so i was eager to speed through that part of the plot even though i really really wish i had given it the time and care it deserved (well actually i wish i hadn't written it at all, because i didn't know what i was doing yet). i think that might be the only time i've actually, truly triggered myself through writing. i'm so much more self aware about what i can & can't handle now, but at the time i was only 18 (!!! that's crazy) and i didn't know how to move on from that in a graceful manner.

but the other important context is that, at that point, caroline was HEAVILY disliked by a small but vocal number of people. the hateful messages about her were coming on a daily basis and some of them were just plain vile. i had never had to deal with that before, because i'd never written a morally gray character before (well.... was she morally gray or was she just a teenage girl..... tbh....... anyway). it got really overwhelming to me, as i saw myself in caroline and it hurt to see so many of my own personality traits being shit on. so, again, i was eager to just hurry up and get this story line over with so i could show caroline in a more positive light again and hopefully the hate mail would stop.

i regret so much of what happened during that time period. i let people get in my head when i should've just blocked them and carried on with my original plan. but it was a good learning experience for sure! i'm just sorry you have to read through my mistakes 😬

[softpine]

can i just word vomit for a min...

there was a point in late 2023 where i felt like i overstayed my welcome on simblr and i planned on just wrapping frozen pines up as quickly as possible and moving on. continuing to write when it's clear that the audience for it is dwindling felt so embarrassing that i almost didn't even want to put effort into it anymore, because i was afraid it just looked pathetic (obligatory disclaimer: no one made me feel this way, you're all so lovely, it's just the nature of seeing a community change over 7 years). writing already feels very personal to me and it's becoming increasingly harder for me to put my work out there (again, for reasons unrelated to simblr and entirely related to mental illness 🤙🏻). i know my story is so long that it deters new readers, and so sporadic that it makes old readers drop off with time. this has really been bothering me lately because i don't know what i can do to fix it. i don't think there IS anything i can do.

but. okay. don't make fun of me for saying this. dan and phil returning to youtube kinda changed my mindset? they may be pulling a fraction of the views they got in their peak, but they're happier than they've ever been and they're working on things they actually want to do, not things they think will be particularly popular. seeing that has made me realize that it is possible to keep finding joy in a community that has largely moved on without you. obviously my little blog is nowhere near the same scale, so this feels kind of silly, but i've been thinking about all the things i used to do on simblr that were never fun for me, i mainly did them because i knew they would get notes or because i felt like i had to do it. making cc, lookbooks, sim requests, reshade help (oh my god the reshade help), lot downloads, etc. they DID get notes, but i can't imagine spending my time doing any of that stuff ever again tbh.

on top of that, it makes me sad to scroll through my dash and realize that i don't recognize most of the people i see anymore. i still talk to some wonderful people here who i consider friends and that's invaluable to me (💖), but the broader community aspect is something i no longer feel a part of. and believe me, i know i'm at fault here because it's not like i'm going out of my way to talk to new people or participate in trends like i used to. i don't blame anyone except the passage of time!!

frozen pines, and simblr by extension, played such a gigantic part in my life when i needed it the most. and that's not to say that i don't still care about it, because i absolutely do, but it's a different kind of feeling. i've always promised that i would give frozen pines a satisfying conclusion rather than silently abandoning it someday, and though i do intend to keep that promise, i know it's possible that i might never get there. but i don't want to let my own insecurities get in the way of something i really enjoy doing. writing is an intrinsic piece of me that i'll never quit doing, but sharing my writing on tumblr is something that can't (and shouldn't) last forever. i know that. but i'm going to enjoy it to the fullest while we're all still here together 💞

to anyone who's still reading my silly story after all these years (especially those of you who still check in on my blog even though you're not on simblr anymore): thank you thank you thank you THANK YOUUU. you don't have to change a single thing about what you're doing. this is not me fishing for compliments or putting down an ultimatum, this is just me trying to make sense of my feelings.

but with all this being said, i've decided to quit simblr and start my own exclusive streaming service for $60 a year, i hope you'll all support me as i increase my production value 😌

(just kidding. ily. okay that's all)

[softpine]

📩 Simblr question of the day: Does your sim/s or oc/s mispronounce any words? Why? Is it on purpose or on accident?

( p.s freely share this SQOTD around, anon or not, and use the hashtag " SQOTD " ! ~ 💛) ( p.p.s I also made a SQOTD blog! " simblr-question-of-the-day " feel free to share the name about :) )

this made me flash back to middle school when this kid used to pronounce "milk" like "melk" and everyone tore into him so bad, we called him melk boy for 3 years but he was insanely popular so there were many occasions where he would walk down the hallway and everyone would yell MELK BOY MELK BOY MELK BOY in like. a positive manner. fjksjds that feels like something that would happen to stevie

[softpine]

What is the age gap between Sadie and Casper? And does it correlate with Mic and Dan getting their room back? 👀

casper was around 16 when sadie was born, so mikaela and danny had already made plenty good use of their bedroom before then lmaoo but i like the way you think

[softpine]

📩 Simblr question of the day: Choose as many sims/ocs as you'd like for this question, What's something INCREDIBLY obscure and/or out-of-pocket about your sim/oc? Something that nobody (fellow sims and/or your followers and mutuals) knows 👀 (This could be things about their social skills, physicality and/or birth defects, or it could be something they vaguely remember, a dream they had that actually predicted the future, etc etc... whatever you come up with)

oooh i have SO many

shortly after caroline and beth got married, caroline got a tattoo of a bee for her. and well. it's a pussy tat 😌 she might have become less impulsive with time but she missed having someone's name on her, so she compromised. and beth loves it lmao (i actually did draw it and added it to her tattoo overlay even though you'll probably never see it)

mikaela is incredibly good at finding people's veins. whenever there's a patient who's scared of needles, they always have her do it because it'll be super quick and painless

casper didn't have a bedroom until he was like 6 and even then, he slept in his parents' bed until he was 12

coco was born with a broken collarbone but it's the only bone she's ever broken to this day (also, even with that, coco was the easiest birth her mom had out of 5 children, so... that poor woman has been through a lot 😬)

stevie likes going to concerts and musical festivals with the friends we don't see on-screen because they're irrelevant. they're older, so they're able to get her into places she wouldn't normally be able to go. she's taken elaine a few times and they had fun, but it's not her scene (and elaine is always worried about getting in trouble)

even when he was just starting out in the music industry as a teenager, danny has never gotten starstruck meeting celebrities. they're all just Some Guy to him. but if he met tony hawk he would literally lose the ability to speak

asa is perceived by strangers as just... a weird guy. he talks to himself under his breath (sometimes he really is talking to himself, sometimes he's talking to finn or another ghost), he's kind of shaky and twitchy because of the meds he takes, he gets lost in thought and can drift in and out of conversation, he paces around, etc. kids used to be really mean to him around middle school age, but as everyone got older they started to mostly feel bad for him and avoid him (it helps that stevie and elaine are well-liked and won't tolerate anyone saying rude things about asa)

[softpine]

rip to the sims porn that was lost forever and nobody even noticed.... not a bang but a whimper...

[softpine]

hi! i was wondering wcif the blue stripped shirt and garfield hat from your scene post? (/748228786148048896/i-made-you-a-cookie-but-i-eated-it?source=share)

blue striped shirt

garfield hat

[softpine]

stevie im begging u write shotgun shipping fanfic instead stevieeeee theres lesbians in saaaaaw

LMAOO unfortunately she's a big enjoyer of lame ass middle aged men so lawrence gordon is basically her kryptonite 😔 no hope for her at all. adam has the pathetic sopping wet abandoned kitten factor going on so that's a bonus

[softpine]

i have been binging saw lately and somehow it got me thinking abt ur story nd wanting 2 know who of ur characters wld be into horror / what their fav films n franchises wld be? idk srry this is very random LOL

beth and danny!!! it hasn't been mentioned in a long long time but they're huge horror fans. caroline hates all things horror (she doesn't like being scared or gore/blood), so it's always been just beth and danny's thing to share :)

also beth dressed up as carrie for halloween (which i custom made for her)

and i've used them for cc previews on simblreen

so yeah the biggest horror fan awards definitely go to them, but also elaine and jada like some horror too! elaine prefers supernatural romance and jada enjoys more psychological thrillers, but when they watch movies together it's easy to meet in the middle (think like.. ginger snaps, practical magic, jennifer's body, the craft, etc. sorry for only listing dyke classics fjksdjs)

[softpine]

i love scene baby coco SO MUCH <33 wcif the kirby belt, the green tank, the i love causing drama t-shirt, the oversized hoodie and the black cargo trousers please? hope you get well soon!

thank you!! 💖

kirby belt

invader zim tank (it's not in the previews, but it is in there as EmoScenePJs! it's a full body outfit)

black cargo pants (i can't find these exact ones, but here's a similar one and another option) + the keychains acc

oversized hoodie

i love causing drama t-shirt

[softpine]

i made you a cookie but i eated it

[softpine]

i know tumblr is dying because i said you could ask me wcifs and it's been crickets... back in the day i would've already gotten 5 anons asking me to list every single thing and if i didn't answer quick enough someone would've told me to kill myself

[softpine]

Happy birthday to Danny!! (I think I recall his birthday being 4/20)

yes it is!! 🎉 aside from my own birthday which caroline shares, danny's is the only birthday i remember off the top of my head jfkjsd i wish i knew how old he is today.... if the timeline of my story worked the way i wish it did, i think he'd be turning 42?? but since the kids have been in their senior year of high school for like one thousand years i can't let anyone else age either (pacing for an ensemble cast is harddd). so mr peter pan syndrome is safe in his 30s for now

anyway happy birthday old man

[softpine]

coco's hair is naturally curly, but as a teenager she started straightening it every day and dyeing it an orange-y color so it got damaged for years and now she gets permanent extensions so it's weighed down and looks more like waves instead of curls, and she has to go in with a flat iron or a curling iron to make it look nice either way (which really annoys her). in case anyone has been curious fjkjsd

[softpine]

i made you a cookie but i eated it

[softpine]

@minamill it's actually still the same day as this post!! i know it feels like it's been 10 years jfkjsds but jada was still in the freezer when she had the vision of asa dying. so we'll pick back up with her reaction soon!! alisa will definitely have.... something to say too 👀 if that's not what you meant please let me know because i think i'm misunderstanding you ;-; but don't worry, i never feel rushed!! i love that you're thinking about it 💖💖

awww cute :3 i've seen so many more garter snakes than usual this year!! i like to walk around this marshy area and there's always 1 or 2 snakes on the wooden dock that runs through it, i have to be careful not to step on them because they're not scared of humans at all!

@forgotten-pixels i'm always thinking about what my characters would do in other universes or how they would play games themselves etc. so thank you for indulging me fjksjds

and yes for sure!! i show some of my characters hobbies when they're relevant, but for the most part they're just set pieces (like jada painting while having a conversation). i like to think that stevie climbs trees ALL the time; she was an adventurous kid who never grew out of the habit. but it's nearly impossible to make poses work with trees and they don't look good up close anyway so it's just a hassle to show :( same with swimming, i try to avoid showing that even though they all live close to the ocean & smaller lakes that they frequent. asa spends soooooo much time just laying down somewhere and thinking, which is nearly impossible to show. and i generally have to neglect caroline/beth/danny/mikaela's interests now that they aren't the main focus of the story anymore and are only really relevant in terms of their kids (sad!!!! but that's life 😔). i do have a little more freedom in that sims is a visual medium and i know how to make my own poses and stuff, but there's only so much work i'm willing to put into such small details lmao

i actually have pinterest boards for all my main characters!! here's some from stevie's, because i just happened to look through that one recently 💖

maine was in the path of totality so i assume most of them would have seen it since they wouldn't have to travel further than their own backyard! and at least where i live, people were handing out eclipse glasses for free. but stevie would definitely be the one who gets the most into it, she'd be infodumping about the eclipse to anyone who will listen :') and jada would be really into it from an artist perspective. she'd be painting the cool shadows for sure!! the others i think would just be into it a normal amount lmao

i actually don't use topaz anymore! if i'm looking for a cleaner/smoother look, i use the camera raw filter that comes with more recent photoshop versions and i just mess around with these settings:

@minamill thank youuuuuuu 🥺🥺🥺💖💖💖