With October and all its fanfic prompt lists just around the corner, I, as a fan of oneshots, want to beg anyone posting to AO3 to please post your works individually and not cram the whole month into one big multichapter work.
Anthologies of short fics on AO3 cause huge obnoxious hurdles for anyone wanting to find or avoid works like yours, and also muck up the numbers for anyone doing a stats dive.
Anything real that someone might try to accomplish with an anthology can be better accomplished with a series or with tags.
Teal deer: I want to read your promptober fics. Post them as fics and not as fake chapters so I can find them and read them.
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Here's the nitty gritty.
Anthologized works cannot be filtered for word or chapter counts:
I like to read fic under 5k, so I do this:
Someone else likes longfic, so they do this:
Only people who do NOT want to see oneshots will see your oneshots.
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All tags on anthologies cannot be trusted and must be assumed to be inaccurate:
This is true of literally every tag on an anthology, including fandoms, ships, categories (m/m, f/f, etc.), and archive warnings.
I want to read Cleric Beast/Hunter vivisection fic. Someone else wants to read Cleric Beast/Hunter fic and is squicked out by vivisection. Your anthology features a Cleric Beast/Hunter coffee shop date fic and a Sam/Dean vivisection fic, and therefore carries both tags. I find a coffee shop fic I don't care to read, and the other person never finds the Cleric Beast/Hunter coffee shop date fic of their dreams because they're filtering out vivisection.
Mad lib that example with literally any combination of tags and it's the same. Only people who do not want to read the anthologized fics will find them.
(PS the tag for Cleric Beast/Hunter doesn't exist, I should get on that)
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Anthologies throw false positives for crossovers:
According to AO3's search filter, a crossover is any work which carries tags for more than one distinct fandom.
In our example above, Bloodborne and SPN fics were anthologized together. Neither fic is a crossover, but the anthology will be removed from searches that exclude crossovers, and will spam the search results of anyone looking specifically for Bloodborne or SPN crossovers.
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The ratings on anthologies cannot be trusted:
An anthology must be labeled for the highest rated fic it contains. If you anthologize porn without plot or ultra graphic vivisection in the same work as as tooth rotting fluff, the whole thing will have to be labelled as explicit (or unrated).
People looking for explicit work will find the the G rated fluff, people looking for G rated fluff will filter it out because it's erroneously labeled as explicit.
Only the people who do not want to read the work will find it. Are we noticing the pattern here?
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To break the pattern a bit:
Individually posted short works belong on the archive.
Archive of Our Own is aptly named, it's an archive. It is designed to house fanworks, all fanworks, no matter how small, and the search function is designed to make those fanworks easy to find and sort. You are not "spamming" by archiving any quantity of correctly labeled archive materials.
If someone clicks on a tag and sees a front page full of your works and decides they hate you, they can just filter out your username or change the sort criteria. But chances are they'll go "sweet, twenty new works for the thing I searched for!"
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Anthologies muck up the statistics.
I do a fair bit of searching AO3 to grab numbers rather than to find fics to read. For these numbers to have any meaning, we have to assume that the fics that show up in the searches are correctly labeled.
If I run two searches like this, I can say that these characters have about the same amount of fic. But anecdotally, Elden Ring oneshots are anthologized more often than Silmarillion oneshots. Perhaps there are actually more Ranni fics on AO3 than Turin fics, and they're lumped together and hidden from the site stats while more of the Turin fics are being counted individually.
If I wanted to dig deeper and crunch some numbers, the problem would intensify. What if I wanted to scrape all the metadata and say there were so many millions of words of Ranni fic? If I wanted that to be accurate, I'd have to manually go through nearly one thousand works to exclude the "chapters" that aren't fics with Ranni in them and have been falsely included in the Ranni tag.
And all this assumes that an anthology tagged "Ranni the Witch (Elden Ring)" even has Ranni in it at all. Overtagging is always an issue, but anthologies are often tagged for future fics the author intends to write and include in the figure; not even trace of nuts tagging or tagging, but literally tagging a fic that does not exist. (I see this with highly specific kink tags on kinktober fill anthologies often enough that it's a personal pet peeve in addition to a data accuracy pet peeve).
From another angle, is the sidebar for the Elden Ring tag that reports 2200 slash fics to 760 femslash fics accurate? Is it safe to assume that slash is anthologized at the same rate as femslash in the Elden Ring fandom? I've seen anthologies with "chapter" counts in the hundreds, how different would the sidebar look if all those fics were accurately labeled?
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But Osterby, what if someone wants to subscribe to my kinktober fills but not my other work?
Put it in a series.
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What if someone doesn't want to see my coffee shop AU fic while scrolling through my profile which is primarily vivisection kink fic?
Thanks for thinking of me! I'll filter out the coffee shop AU tag, or I'll scroll through your vivisection kink series.
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How will people know what order to read my loosely connected oneshots in?
That's what a series is for.
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How will someone find all my works with the same OC/setting/kink/trope/fandom?
Series.
Or tags.
You can give your own OCs and AU settings their own custom tags.
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How will someone subscribe to my kinktober fills if they're not all in the same work?
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What if someone doesn't want to filter and still hates my works?
Skill issue. On their part. Don't prioritize haters over both your intended audience and over people who want to filter out 99% of your work but still want to read that one Cleric Beast/Hunter coffee shop fic.
And also you should block haters, not try grovel to them.
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What if I want to bury a fic between other stuff and make it harder to find?
Try minimal tagging, nonspecific tags, empty or uninformative summary, and archive locking.
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If you've stuck with me this long, I've probably convinced you to at least look into the series function.
To create a new series, just make up the name for it while posting (or editing) a fic. It's a ticky box under "associations", right above the "this work has multiple chapters" ticky.
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And if you need more convincing, a series will allow your readers to leave kudos on each of your fics. Wouldn't it be nice to get 31 kudos from me instead of just one? Pretty please let me kudos each of your shorts as I read through your entire bibliography in one go.
Suggestion: If you don't want to fill up your Works page with a million tiny prompt fills, create a new pseudonym specifically for stuff you would otherwise drop in an anthology! username_promptfics or something. Post the first in the series under your regular pseud too so people can see it, and then tidy the rest away out of sight.
Also fun fact: for smaller fandoms, you are making it so much harder to find fics that we actually want. Charmed is a frequent victim of this, and it sucks bc there may be ONE CHAPTER of an 80 chapter prompt fill that is actually for us. And this is a significant amount of at least our AO3 listings, and I can imagine it's the same for other small fandoms! Separating it out makes it so much more likely that someone will read it.
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
"If I can move things with my mind, why not my body?" is still like. the dumbest possible link between that lmao. You can just have it be separate, but I guess they still hadn't fully decided on that yet but that's suchhhh a weak ass connection. But also am curious: do you think that her powers would have eventually advanced so that she could be 'conscious' in both forms? We saw her do it in Primrose Empath when she's overpowered so I think it's plausible, which WOULD be a fascinating advancement, especially for a character like Prue.
Phoebe is like 'do you wanna know about us being witches :D ' and darryl is like 'pls tell me even less than what i know, i don't want to be remotely knowledgable about this, i am begging you to stop talking'
lmao Prue playing full on dress up in the dead hitwoman's clothes while Piper is finding real information
also she jumps into this plan wayyyy too fast like girl?? you may be a witch but if there are multiple guns at different angles?? lowkey think piper should've used her freezing to sneak along but that would've become impractical quite quickly. and also piper calling her out and then prue immediately being sassy to the right hand
Bane is a surprisingly reasonable mob boos, straight up letting that guy go as long as he doesn't lie to him again. Will say that her dress is riding up more than I think they'd intended.
But Jack being the professional is crazy between the two of them but I mean. It is both of their jobs on the line, so fair enough I guess.
Also *everyone starts cheering* BARBAS!!! Also couldn't remember if right hand got killed or not and am lowkey surprised that he survived.
Dan as the handy man is a definite role reversal, but he also is such a sweetheart?? Even offering her sisters a place to say for fear of their safety, I do love him even if it didn't work out between them. (I don't think it'd ever have worked ebtween them long term canonically but he is so sweet.)
Also Bane is such a romantic? Forget the gorgeous necklace, immediately having orchids sent that soon??
RIP to the guy who just got autopsied tho. Also Marcie girl. Fix ur social skills girl. Stop being judgy.
Clearly the real Hellfire knew that Barbas was behind it but am curious if she knew he was a demon? But I mean, she did know that the girls were witches so. Also Prue, maybeeeee don't flirt with another man in front of the mafia boss? But she's living her dark romance dreams I guess.
Also why is Marcie singing the spell??
Dan is literlaly sooo fucking sweet??? In another world babe.
Would've loved to have more about Bane actually having a relationship with the real Hellfire. Interesting use of Barbas's powers though.
Lowkey would love to see Prue with the Rapunzel hair more, it's interesting. But also that witch can strut.
Also I do lowkey feel like Bane's switch was a bit abrupt but it's fun, so I'll accept it.
Phoebe's red tank and hair clip is so cute, and I think that Piper's decision is v realistic considering that they don't actually seem to have dated long.
Also I can see why Jack's initially upset bc Prue did go radio silent on him but it is a cute moment for them?
But overall thoughts is that this episode is as fun as I remember. I think that I thought Prue was full on amnesiac and thought she was a hitwoman, but this was still fun and honestly more in character lmao.
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
"If I can move things with my mind, why not my body?" is still like. the dumbest possible link between that lmao. You can just have it be separate, but I guess they still hadn't fully decided on that yet but that's suchhhh a weak ass connection. But also am curious: do you think that her powers would have eventually advanced so that she could be 'conscious' in both forms? We saw her do it in Primrose Empath when she's overpowered so I think it's plausible, which WOULD be a fascinating advancement, especially for a character like Prue.
Phoebe is like 'do you wanna know about us being witches :D ' and darryl is like 'pls tell me even less than what i know, i don't want to be remotely knowledgable about this, i am begging you to stop talking'
lmao Prue playing full on dress up in the dead hitwoman's clothes while Piper is finding real information
also she jumps into this plan wayyyy too fast like girl?? you may be a witch but if there are multiple guns at different angles?? lowkey think piper should've used her freezing to sneak along but that would've become impractical quite quickly. and also piper calling her out and then prue immediately being sassy to the right hand
Bane is a surprisingly reasonable mob boos, straight up letting that guy go as long as he doesn't lie to him again. Will say that her dress is riding up more than I think they'd intended.
But Jack being the professional is crazy between the two of them but I mean. It is both of their jobs on the line, so fair enough I guess.
Also *everyone starts cheering* BARBAS!!! Also couldn't remember if right hand got killed or not and am lowkey surprised that he survived.
Dan as the handy man is a definite role reversal, but he also is such a sweetheart?? Even offering her sisters a place to say for fear of their safety, I do love him even if it didn't work out between them. (I don't think it'd ever have worked ebtween them long term canonically but he is so sweet.)
Also Bane is such a romantic? Forget the gorgeous necklace, immediately having orchids sent that soon??
RIP to the guy who just got autopsied tho. Also Marcie girl. Fix ur social skills girl. Stop being judgy.
Clearly the real Hellfire knew that Barbas was behind it but am curious if she knew he was a demon? But I mean, she did know that the girls were witches so. Also Prue, maybeeeee don't flirt with another man in front of the mafia boss? But she's living her dark romance dreams I guess.
Also why is Marcie singing the spell??
Dan is literlaly sooo fucking sweet??? In another world babe.
Would've loved to have more about Bane actually having a relationship with the real Hellfire. Interesting use of Barbas's powers though.
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
"If I can move things with my mind, why not my body?" is still like. the dumbest possible link between that lmao. You can just have it be separate, but I guess they still hadn't fully decided on that yet but that's suchhhh a weak ass connection. But also am curious: do you think that her powers would have eventually advanced so that she could be 'conscious' in both forms? We saw her do it in Primrose Empath when she's overpowered so I think it's plausible, which WOULD be a fascinating advancement, especially for a character like Prue.
Phoebe is like 'do you wanna know about us being witches :D ' and darryl is like 'pls tell me even less than what i know, i don't want to be remotely knowledgable about this, i am begging you to stop talking'
lmao Prue playing full on dress up in the dead hitwoman's clothes while Piper is finding real information
also she jumps into this plan wayyyy too fast like girl?? you may be a witch but if there are multiple guns at different angles?? lowkey think piper should've used her freezing to sneak along but that would've become impractical quite quickly. and also piper calling her out and then prue immediately being sassy to the right hand
Bane is a surprisingly reasonable mob boos, straight up letting that guy go as long as he doesn't lie to him again. Will say that her dress is riding up more than I think they'd intended.
But Jack being the professional is crazy between the two of them but I mean. It is both of their jobs on the line, so fair enough I guess.
Also *everyone starts cheering* BARBAS!!! Also couldn't remember if right hand got killed or not and am lowkey surprised that he survived.
Dan as the handy man is a definite role reversal, but he also is such a sweetheart?? Even offering her sisters a place to say for fear of their safety, I do love him even if it didn't work out between them. (I don't think it'd ever have worked ebtween them long term canonically but he is so sweet.)
Also Bane is such a romantic? Forget the gorgeous necklace, immediately having orchids sent that soon??
RIP to the guy who just got autopsied tho. Also Marcie girl. Fix ur social skills girl. Stop being judgy.
Clearly the real Hellfire knew that Barbas was behind it but am curious if she knew he was a demon? But I mean, she did know that the girls were witches so. Also Prue, maybeeeee don't flirt with another man in front of the mafia boss? But she's living her dark romance dreams I guess.
Also why is Marcie singing the spell??
Dan is literlaly sooo fucking sweet??? In another world babe.
Would've loved to have more about Bane actually having a relationship with the real Hellfire. Interesting use of Barbas's powers though.
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
"If I can move things with my mind, why not my body?" is still like. the dumbest possible link between that lmao. You can just have it be separate, but I guess they still hadn't fully decided on that yet but that's suchhhh a weak ass connection. But also am curious: do you think that her powers would have eventually advanced so that she could be 'conscious' in both forms? We saw her do it in Primrose Empath when she's overpowered so I think it's plausible, which WOULD be a fascinating advancement, especially for a character like Prue.
Phoebe is like 'do you wanna know about us being witches :D ' and darryl is like 'pls tell me even less than what i know, i don't want to be remotely knowledgable about this, i am begging you to stop talking'
lmao Prue playing full on dress up in the dead hitwoman's clothes while Piper is finding real information
also she jumps into this plan wayyyy too fast like girl?? you may be a witch but if there are multiple guns at different angles?? lowkey think piper should've used her freezing to sneak along but that would've become impractical quite quickly. and also piper calling her out and then prue immediately being sassy to the right hand
Bane is a surprisingly reasonable mob boos, straight up letting that guy go as long as he doesn't lie to him again. Will say that her dress is riding up more than I think they'd intended.
But Jack being the professional is crazy between the two of them but I mean. It is both of their jobs on the line, so fair enough I guess.
Also *everyone starts cheering* BARBAS!!! Also couldn't remember if right hand got killed or not and am lowkey surprised that he survived.
Dan as the handy man is a definite role reversal, but he also is such a sweetheart?? Even offering her sisters a place to say for fear of their safety, I do love him even if it didn't work out between them. (I don't think it'd ever have worked ebtween them long term canonically but he is so sweet.)
Also Bane is such a romantic? Forget the gorgeous necklace, immediately having orchids sent that soon??
RIP to the guy who just got autopsied tho. Also Marcie girl. Fix ur social skills girl. Stop being judgy.
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
"If I can move things with my mind, why not my body?" is still like. the dumbest possible link between that lmao. You can just have it be separate, but I guess they still hadn't fully decided on that yet but that's suchhhh a weak ass connection. But also am curious: do you think that her powers would have eventually advanced so that she could be 'conscious' in both forms? We saw her do it in Primrose Empath when she's overpowered so I think it's plausible, which WOULD be a fascinating advancement, especially for a character like Prue.
Phoebe is like 'do you wanna know about us being witches :D ' and darryl is like 'pls tell me even less than what i know, i don't want to be remotely knowledgable about this, i am begging you to stop talking'
lmao Prue playing full on dress up in the dead hitwoman's clothes while Piper is finding real information
also she jumps into this plan wayyyy too fast like girl?? you may be a witch but if there are multiple guns at different angles?? lowkey think piper should've used her freezing to sneak along but that would've become impractical quite quickly. and also piper calling her out and then prue immediately being sassy to the right hand
Bane is a surprisingly reasonable mob boos, straight up letting that guy go as long as he doesn't lie to him again. Will say that her dress is riding up more than I think they'd intended.
But Jack being the professional is crazy between the two of them but I mean. It is both of their jobs on the line, so fair enough I guess.
Also *everyone starts cheering* BARBAS!!! Also couldn't remember if right hand got killed or not and am lowkey surprised that he survived.
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
"If I can move things with my mind, why not my body?" is still like. the dumbest possible link between that lmao. You can just have it be separate, but I guess they still hadn't fully decided on that yet but that's suchhhh a weak ass connection. But also am curious: do you think that her powers would have eventually advanced so that she could be 'conscious' in both forms? We saw her do it in Primrose Empath when she's overpowered so I think it's plausible, which WOULD be a fascinating advancement, especially for a character like Prue.
Phoebe is like 'do you wanna know about us being witches :D ' and darryl is like 'pls tell me even less than what i know, i don't want to be remotely knowledgable about this, i am begging you to stop talking'
lmao Prue playing full on dress up in the dead hitwoman's clothes while Piper is finding real information
also she jumps into this plan wayyyy too fast like girl?? you may be a witch but if there are multiple guns at different angles?? lowkey think piper should've used her freezing to sneak along but that would've become impractical quite quickly. and also piper calling her out and then prue immediately being sassy to the right hand
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
"If I can move things with my mind, why not my body?" is still like. the dumbest possible link between that lmao. You can just have it be separate, but I guess they still hadn't fully decided on that yet but that's suchhhh a weak ass connection. But also am curious: do you think that her powers would have eventually advanced so that she could be 'conscious' in both forms? We saw her do it in Primrose Empath when she's overpowered so I think it's plausible, which WOULD be a fascinating advancement, especially for a character like Prue.
Phoebe is like 'do you wanna know about us being witches :D ' and darryl is like 'pls tell me even less than what i know, i don't want to be remotely knowledgable about this, i am begging you to stop talking'
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
Oooh, I totally forgot this was the episode that Darryl found out!! I remembered that there was the questionable nature of him knowing for awhile but I guess it makes sense that this is the masquerade breaker.
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
Interesting that their first reactions aren't actually to vanquish the demon, but also the way that Phoebe can't even look at the body is just. Idk, something something about how she's also the one who has those premonitions + flirts with evil + something something
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
I do typically feel like Piper is the cynical, superstitious one and so it's just. Sooo fucking funny that the one time she's like 'no fuck that, i'm happy, i'll say it,' it is immediately followed by gunshots
God, for a Charmed fan blog and this being my favorite show, it has been sooo fucking long since I've actually watched an episode 😭 my girls are back on my screen (well, my boyfriend's but whatever) Watching Miss Hellfire and am actually v curious to see if this episode will hold up to being one of my favorites but like. I vaguely remember Prue's look enough that surely??
Also thirty seconds into it and damn Prue is On Top of it, queen of type a shit. Too bad the universe doesn't actually follow her v good, well-thought out schedule lmao
Okay, so I am currently working on the Piper/Mark AU 2.0 with Piper/Mark, Phoebe/Leo, and Prue/Bane and I feel like I need to rewatch both episodes that Bane is in to truly get the vibes (and also. who doesn't wanna rewatch Ms. Hellfire at the first opportunity??) But while I do that, I am going to throw Paige's ship into a poll for y'all bc I'm torn bc I have a vibe going for this AU and these ones fit that vibe best.
Who should be Paige's LI in the next Piper/Mark AU?
love your au prandy kiddos posts! 💗 so good! out of curiosity, would love to see what alternate next gen you'd come up with if piper/mark were the prompt to build from?
...I accidentally wrote over four thousand words and made a full out AU. Again. (Someone save me from myself please.) I was gonna finish this up with describing all of the next gen's powers but this is already so long, so please feel free to send another ask about it bc I do have ideas for them but I cannnot make this even fucking longer y'all. You can also scroll to the veryyyyy end to see the character list for this AU if you want to skip all of the fucking plot that shoved its way inside. (This is also the last paragraph I wrote bc I'm not editing all of this, so disclaimer that is why. But let's flash back to past!Abi who actually thought she was gonna be succint.)
I have no idea if this is going to be a reoccurring thing or not, but like. I am so on board with this game, I'll sketch out an entire AU next gen for like anybody lmao.
So, I think with Piper/Mark being our foundation, this gives us a few interesting combinations for the other sisters. Since Piper is taken, I think that we'd end up with accidental Phoebe/Leo, more on that down below. For Prue... I adore Andy, but I don't think that anything'd swing it at the s1 finale to save him. I'd say Prue/Cole with Cole needing an in to a different sister, but uhh, Prue would've vanquished his ass so fast so maybe not. Leaning towards either Prue/Bane or Prue/Micah (look, I know his name is Mitch, but. I'm not calling him Mitch, Micah is a significantly better name.) Ooh, wait, with Piper and Phoebe happily in relationships, and Andy's death in s1, Prue is the one who is struggling with love in s2 and denying it, and we get Prue/Coop from the Heartbreak City episode on. As for Paige, I'm not super leaning into any of her canon guys for this, but y'know what might be fun? Paige/Drake. (I'm saving Cole for the next Piper/Mark AU I have lmao, so I'm finally gonna give him an AU kid too!) Okay, so let's actually dive into this.
Actually, that's a lie, first, I'd like to just gush about Mark for a minute because I rewatched Dead Man Dating to think and now have feelings. He and Piper would've been so cute because Mark is definitely a very sweet and outgoing guy with kind of bad jokes, and he and Piper would've bounced off of each other great. Like he seems to be pretty social (before he's. y'know, shot and burned) and so I think that he'd have brought Piper out of her shell a bit more. Plus, I think that he has a bit more of a backbone that one might first consider, like he does full on shove Tony Wong into Yama's sword, which, yeah, he killed him, but I feel like it's not super common for this very sweet and sociable guy to be willing to put down someone who hurt him (and potentially others who would his loved ones, idk, are y'all getting the thought here?) Just, they have the Factor, man.
Okay, now onto the actual outline here.
So, we actually see Piper shove Mark behind her at the end of the episode when she tells Yama off, so I think that it could be just that their emotions are heightened and they don't initially realize that maybe Mark is able to become solid and he and Piper can touch. But in this they do! So Piper and Mark have one night of passion before Mark moves on, which is great but also heartbreaking to Piper, so she's grieving this relationship a little more until the Wedding From Hell. Phoebe has her premonition and thinks it's a warlock baby, but they figure out that it's Hecate and vanquish her and everything is fine! Except, wait. Piper's period is actually late, and she takes a test and discovers 'congratulations, you're pregnant!' And Prue and Phoebe are both initially assuming that it's Jeremy's, but Piper isn't totally convinced and both of her sisters are like, 'well, sweetie, there aren't exactly a ton of other options for the father' and Phoebe brushes her hand against Piper's arm and gets a premonition and they're both like 'what did you see!!' and Phoebe just demands 'you fucked the ghost?!' and they v quickly realize that this is a totally different ball game.
but anyways, Mark is still dead, and Piper gives birth to a daughter Mara Penelope Halliwell. (Mara did in fact come about because of me trying to mimic the beginning of Mark's name very poorly. It also means 'bitter' and was the name that Naomi, the mother-in-law to Ruth in the Bible used when her husband and sons died, so I'm drawing a death connection.) I am Once Again bringing up the idea of death-touched witches (all of which seem to be Piper's for some reason, like?? Chris, Prose, and now Mara), so we can give her some cool powers and stuff.
Meanwhile, Phoebe, who basically had free access to Leo without Piper's investment, was flirting with him and everything, thinking it was casual. This worked until she discovered his little secret, and it was Suddenly Not Casual and Phoebe is running scared from her feelings now that this is actually going to matter because Leo isn't exactly going anywhere.
Anyways, a few months after Mara's birth, on the anniversary of Mark's death, Piper is feeling sad and everything and tries to summon him to let him meet his daughter, except when he appears, he is suspiciously not dead but is, instead, a Whitelighter! So we get to have that fun reunion, and Mark is just enamored with Mara and getting to see Piper again because the Elders hadn't let him go near them and now he's seeing why because Whitelighters aren't supposed to have these kinds of attachments and all but Mark is Very Much Attached rn so.
This is around the time that season two comes in. Back to Phoebe and Leo, Phoebe isn't ready to tie herself down or anything, she was just trying to have fun, and Leo's a little bit heartbroken but is like 'you don't owe me anything, Phoebe' but Phoebe wants there to be something shared, which is like. terrifying, so she tries to just force herself to be over it, and what better way than the hot new neighbor next door? So Phoebe gets the love triangle, except it becomes that Phoebe has to stop and realize that, while she likes Dan, she's thinking of Leo's eyes when she's with him. And so, she finally takes that step and she and Leo begin quietly dating, which is helped by the fact that Piper and Mark are currently the ones challenging the Elders because like. That's their daughter, so the Elders currently have their hands-full with that.
Meanwhile, Prue, who has lost Andy at this point, has kind of just given up on love because what's the point? She had her true love, and he's gone. (Prue tried to find Andy in hopes that maybe it'd be like Piper and Mark, but either Patty or Grams came down and told her that it wasn't meant to be in this life and blah blah, and she's happy for Piper, really, she is, but fuck, it stings rn.) And Heartbreak City rolls around, and Coop pops up as the Cupid innocent, but the end of the episode rolls around and he's like 'you're not destined to be alone, Prue' and she just scoffs and Coop is stubborn, but so is Prue and he's like, 'well, you helped me, Prue Halliwell, I think it's time for me to return to favor.' And he's trying to set her up, but they find themselves bonding over like. photography and art and the passion in creating something.
But anyways, I'm not doing all the season plotlines because it's after one a.m. and I have work at seven, so we're gonna kind of just hit the main highlights. Piper and Mark are together first, and Mark and Leo are sharing the role as the sisters' Whitelighter. Piper and Mark get married first out of the sisters but hold off on having another kid for a minute.
Despite taking longer, Prue and Coop actually commit faster than Phoebe and Leo because Phoebe is still battling her commitment issues, while Prue is... not necessarily without her issues, but she's been more prepared for a serious relationship, and where Leo kind of sits and waits for Phoebe to come to terms and make her own choice, Coop's a bit more 'let's confront your problems' because Coop has a more therapist vibe to Leo's advisor vibe. But they're committed second.
Now, I don't wanna just mimic the Prandy Kids au and do the Po4, but I didn't want to kill a sister either. So Paige's destiny is a bit separate to her sisters, and that's how we're going to bring her in. Again, not doing a full blown outline, but Paige's destiny lies in her being the Key, a figure that can either greatly amplify either the Source or the Charmed Ones' powers and give them a massive advantage in the ongoing fight. I'm kind of pulling from the Whitelighters' ability to sense their charges' emotion and mind manipulation to give her this combination of empathy and power mimicry, which includes power augmentation, and basically establish her as a figure in the Charmed prophecy that can either help destroy the Charmed Ones or empower them to defeat the Source. Unfortunately, the Source finds her find and manipulates her into joining him, but he has to do it very carefully because he can't exactly hold her against her will or manipulate her mind so just lots of careful decisions about what she sees or learns. (And the sisters don't yet learn that Paige is their sister!)
When the sisters find out about this, it's obviously a blow but Prue and Coop end up getting married at some point during this, and at their wedding, Phoebe and Leo have this soft moment and just hold hands all cute and it's like the confirmation of their relationship to being public. Shortly after Prue and Coop's wedding, I think that Piper and Mark have their second kid, Lian Lei Halliwell. (According to the wiki, Mark's mom's name is Lei, which Google results said meant either flower bud or thunder, and Lian means lotus, which is apparently a popular symbol for rebirth which fits with Mark's transformation into a Whitelighter. Also I like how Mara and Lian sound together.) I was gonna have Prue accidentally get pregnant, but I simply cannot have her get pregnant on accident for the first kid in two AUs back to back, that is disrespectful to her bc we all know damn well that she is like the Queen of Safe Sex. So no more kids yet, but let's check back into the plot! (Why is there a plot?? This was just supposed to be a breakdown of the next gen, how did I get a plot what the fuck)
So the thing is that the Source is pretending that he isn't like. the Source of All Evil, y'know? But how the fuck does he have Paige doing shit if she doesn't know? Well, that's simple: get the social worker who specializes in cases with kids to work in the demonic academy. (I'm thinking the one that Tyler Michaels was almost taken to but specifically for kids whose loyalty needs to be assured, so warlocks, hybrids, firestarters, etc.) And the thing is that as far as she knows, she's basically making sure that these kids are okay, helping them with their powers, and all that. However, they want her to also share if the kids ever express or have feelings of disloyalty. (Do they word it like this? No, but that's the gist of it.) And Paige is a smart gal, and something feels... off about it. These are obviously kids, she's helping them, and she can see/feel that she is, but she doesn't quite share everything, especially about the way that the kids feel, with any of her coworkers or boss here. Something about most of the adults feels off, and she can't help but distrust them. All except one: Drake de Mon, who, despite apparently being a pretty powerful guy, is much more invested in teaching literature to these kids. (Drake, meanwhile, has already traded in for a soul and is mostly here at this point to try to lowkey sabotage it and get the kids out before they commit to evil. The Source knows that there is some kind of curse on him and is using that as a bargaining tool, but he doesn't know the specifics (similar to Cole's father's soul). Drake has no intention of ever cashing it in bc he knows that whatever it would require isn't worth it.) So those two are growing close, and Drake is like wait hey, she doesn't know shit about what's going on here for real. And there's a student who is just straight up not getting with the program and is probably about to be straight up killed bc she cries whenever she's supposed to fight and refuses to use her power to help them and like. she's nine. (or something idk how old the kid actually is) Drake is like okay. I got a plan here. He helps the girl bust out and directs her to the Charmed Ones (bc Drake, unlike Paige, knows who the good guys are and like. he's heard some things and they're not adding up, sooo let's see if we can figure out what's going on). Paige, who has been kinda mentoring this kid, is sent after her to find her and bring her back and told that she's endangered out there and all this. Drake volunteers to help bc like... he knows that Paige is a good person. he isn't wrong. but like, he's a teacher and that means something to him, so like if he is wrong (he is not wrong, he's sure), he's not letting that kid be dragged back here.
The gal makes it to halliwell manor, and let's say that she's some kind of powerful psychic that they're hoping to make become a potential successor for the seer. her name is Cordelia, which means heart. (When she told Drake her name, it was after a class about Shakespeare and she made a joke about how her fate will probably be as tragic as that of Cordelia in King Lear, which probably is what tipped him off that this girl is gonna die if she doesn't get out asap.) And we have some bonding time, mostly with Phoebe bc like. She's been told for so long what her powers are meant to be but then there's phoebe, who has her powers! but is so good! and like leo stops by at some point bc idk something happened and someone needs a quick healing and cordelia is so excited at the idea of healing and is asking all of these questions and leo mentions that he used to be a doctor or something and cordelia says that's what she wants to be and! (it's cute. we all know where this is going, right?)
but give it an episode or two and paige and drake track them down and paige is fully about to do her best to rock the og sisters' shit bc get the fuck away from the kid but cordelia begs her not to and like. again paige has empathy! she can feel that the sisters mean no harm towards cordelia and the kid is panicked and blah blah, paige backs down. prue, suspicious as always, demands to know why and paige says that she can feel their emotions. and leo goes wait what? evil doesn't have empathy and paige is like who tf are you calling evil and basically drake chimes in and it basically ends in a discussion where paige gets caught up to speed and is just like. shit. and the sisters are like okay so you clearly didnt know wtf was going on and mark is like we can protect you like- paige says no, there are kids there and she needs to protect them, especially now, like something felt off and she can't just leave them there and all this and basically paige and drake are going back to the demonic academy but as spies and trying to protect these kids. paige hesitates when she's leaving and looks at phoebe and leo and demands that they protect cordelia, and she's staying with them. (introducing Cordelia Ravenna Halliwell, Phoebe and Leo's oldest daughter! She ditched her original last name so fast that I never even gave her one lmao.) (fun fact: i have not mentioned that the sisters have found out that paige is their sister yet. :D ) anyways, paige orbs her and drake out, lowkey stunning all of the og sisters and the husbands. bc like... she's a whitelighter?? (they are trying to figure tf is going on there and will have to go back to this next time.)
but now we have the plot moving more but there's a breath bc this girl was the one who was supposed to try to kill them and didn't and like prue gets a chance to deal with some of her mommy issues bc there's mara and lian the babies (mara is probably like four or five actually now?) and cordelia is a bit older and it's actually probably cordelia bc this kid has seen some shit but the way that she is with phoebe and leo (by the way, this adoption is not official yet but like. it is. we're dancing around it a bit, we'll get to it.) and prue can see that she just wants a family and prue wants her own as well (bc like cordelia is clearly already taken, that is phoebe's kid) and coop is like prue you can never truly plan for everything especially when it comes to love. i cant promise you that nothing will happen but there is love in this and it matters and some great speech that i cant/wont be writing rn bc this has gotten v much away from me whoops and basically we get a prue/coop baby!! i finally am doing a next gen au boy, Porter Carwyn Halliwell. (Porter is for the P tradition, and Carwyn means fair love.)
okay so we have more plot, maybe one of paige and drake's coworkers being sent out against the sisters and blah blah more plot! somehow paige ends up having to find them to warn them and the sisters are like you're a whitelighter?? and paige is like a what? and she gets the whole rundown on it all but has no idea what happened bc the sisters are like who were your parents?? and she's like idk i was adopted but i dont think you mean those parents and we're also giving paige and drake a subplot of trying to figure out paige's birth parents bc uhhh she's both a witch and whitelighter maybe they can help or have some knowledge about her destiny here. but phoebe and leo are finally getting married, and paige and drake come super lowkey (the wedding is lowkey bc i mean. we have paige and drake coming, so that needs to be a secret and cordelia is still like being hunted too y'know?) but before the wedding cordelia is helping phoebe or something and is just starry eyed about her dress and how pretty she is and phoebe finally gets the full realization dropped on her and cordelia is in the wedding somehow as like a mini flower girl or whatever and like immediately after the ceremony and stuff phoebe and leo have this short hushed conversation and then pull cordelia aside and she's worried that she did something wrong and leo just blurts out would you want to be our daughter? and cordelia obvi says yes and now its a wedding/we're getting our daughter! ceremony at once. but also during the wedding, i want paige and drake to have this meaningful eye contact moment and tension dammit. this is still building!
couple weeks later phoebe finds out she's pregnant as well! (a fic writer (totally different fandom) had a couple accidentally get pregnant earlier than intended right when they were in the midst of adopting their first kid and i thought it was fun so im stealing it. that author had it be twins but this is just one kid.) welcome Priscilla Grace Halliwell, but we're calling her either Cilla or Pri bc she's a baby not an old lady. Priscilla is for the name tradition, and maybe we could have had a subplot of phoebe also going through the family tree and something something idk man. let's say grace was leo's mom's name bc... why not? it is also in the family tree as well!
okay so now we're kinda getting into the thick of it bc the source is like wtf is this so he's trying to indoctrinate paige more into like yay evil! but it is not fucking working!! and so he's like getting more and more pissed about all of this and he's lowkey dragging the kids out to become foot soldiers and paige and drake are trying to save as many as possible and every one that the sisters meet they try to save as well but paige is just breaking down about how she cant do this and she's not strong enough on her own bc she's only meant to serve as a power source and she found this spell (bc she is still in a demon school!) that would let her power enhance the charmed ones by like threefold or whatever but it would depower or kill her or whatever and drake is like no! and basically gives this rousing speech or whatever about how paige is one of the best people that he's ever met and regardless of power her care and love for these kids is more important than how much magic she has and all that and paige is like two seconds away from kissing him and then like drake mentions something about the prophecy and instead they end up going to look at the prophecy to see if it gives any clues (include some casual tragic pining behind the other's back bc i can) and idk it includes something about blood and whatever and they meet up with the sisters again at some point and ask about it and prue is like there's a spell to call a lost witch and paige casts it but nothing happens but then the book flips to the summon the dead spell and she's like what? and none of the others have any idea and paige casts it and everyone's tense now and then it's just grams and piper sighs and is like grams this isnt the best time- but grams says well to call a lost witch doesnt work on the dead, dear and everyone is caught off guard and patty shows up with a sigh like mother, that isn't how i planned to tell them and prue demands tell us what and patty is staring at paige with these eyes and admits that paige's spell couldn't work bc her sisters were already in the room.
and like. i want to do some big thing where one of the og sisters is pissed and its related to her specific issues or whatever and a plot that leads into paige being embraced (she mostly is already but whichever sister it is was just being a bit of an asshole bc of her issues and there's a heartfelt talk and an embrace of sisterhood) and all but idk which sister it is. but the point is that the prophecy is basically indicating that paige's powers work better for her sisters and further and all bc of that bond and whatever and maybe we can have paige be able to mimic her sisters' powers but only one at a time and whoever powers she's mimicking cant use that power while she's doing it or soemthing (does that make sense? not necessarily bc mimicry isnt power borrowing but maybe it's related to her empathy or something isntead) and like there's probably like a year of so of some other subplot that we have as the sisters become close and train together and maybe the source begins suspecting paige and drake as being traitors and we have an introduction to magic school and all this but i had no intention of initially recreating the show and this is like already four thousand words and i want it out of my damn drafts at this point so just. loose ideas there.
and we're gearing up to the big fight and all but it's gonna be at the school and everyone is freaking out and we have a paige and drake moment where they finally confess their love, and meanwhile prue tells coop that she's pregnant and all of the dominoes are about to fall whatever. they win, obviously, and it's great! (this feels anti climatic but i am Tired yall.) paige and drake take over the academy and turn it into a place where those kids can find a place in good, and maybe there's some kind of crossover with magic school somehow (not crossover, partnership maybe?) and it's great. prue and coop have their other child, a daughter named Carys Victoria Halliwell. Her first name means to love, and I kinda just find the name Victoria romantic. Ooh, also means victorious! (I was literally looking up names that mean victory and wasnt vibing with them so I was gonna just stick to Victoria and finally looked up what it means, like I said, I'm tired and this has been a lot.) After that, Phoebe and Leo have their last kid as well, Pax Matthew Halliwell. Pax means peace, and Matthew is for Paige as like an acknowledgement of her in the family (also was torn between prue or phoebe being the one beefing initially and kinda liked phoebe bc it's a bit different). As for Paige and Drake, they get married at some point and have a daughter, Aurora Marion Matthews. Aurora represents the dawn, fitting the light Paige's Whitelighter side, the beginning of their peaceful time, and the dawn of a new kind of magic. Marion, meanwhile, is a reference to Marion Cotillard (Lady Macbeth's actress in the 2015 movie) and to Maid Marian, since Drake is a Robin Hood fan. I kinda wanted to give paige and drake an adopted kid, but i didn't really sketch out space for one in the actual narrative and i feel like they're gonna be busy as heck running the new school and guiding all of these new kids, so i think i'll stick with just the one for them.
But our final result for a next gen inspired by Piper/Mark, featuring Phoebe/Leo, Prue/Coop, and Paige/Drake, is:
Mara Penelope Halliwell - firstborn of the next gen, oldest daughter of Piper and Mark. Death-touched witch (bc I simply cannot resist, oops) bc I don't feel like I can label witch/ghost as a genuine hybrid but I do think that her having the nickname of the Ghost Witch in the Underworld would be cool af actually.
Lian Lei Halliwell - the second born of the next generation and the youngest daughter of Piper and Mark. She's a Witchlighter!
Cordelia Ravenna Halliwell - technically, she'd be the eldest but is the third brought into the family and I'm not editing the list. She's Phoebe and Leo's oldest daughter and is some kind of demon-witch hybrid. (Just realized I never actually specified but that's what we're going with for at least rn.)
Porter Carywyn Halliwell - fourth child of the next generation, and he's the oldest son of Prue and Coop. First ever Cupid-Witch hybrid in this verse!
Priscilla 'Pris' Grace Halliwell - fifth kid of the family and she's Phoebe and Leo's youngest daughter! She is also a witchlighter. (I also did go with Pris as a nickname bc I ended up using Cilla for the Prue!Twice-Blessed AU kid, and also. My mom's dog's name is Prissy. And I am in fact shouting out my mom's dog bc no one can stop me.)
Carys Victoria Halliwell - sixth kid of the family! Prue and Coop's youngest daughter and another Cupid-witch hybrid.
Pax Matthew Halliwell - seventh kid of the family (who I actually uhhh accidentally left off of the list until I did math and was like wait.) Phoebe and Leo's youngest son/child and the last witchlighter. (Sorry Pax....)
Aurora 'Rory' Marion Matthews - the v last kid and also Paige and Drake's only child. Another demon-witch-whitelighter hybrid, huh, new trend for Paige's AU kids I guess?
So Piper and Mark have Mara and Lian, Phoebe and Leo have Cordelia, Pris, and Pax, Prue and Coop have Porter and Carys, and Paige and Drake have Rory!
oh, i love your last rewrite esp the abundance of p's (which is very princess pinky early aughts dawn-of-charmed fanfiction coded; a vibe i miss in charmed fanfiction nowadays even tho i wasn't *technically* alive for that era but time is fluid or whatever). would be kinda cool if you could do have a power breakdown on that for the CO's and their kids? love the telepathic sisterhood and photokinetic light bringer paige. so good! i'm sure your piper/mark one will be fab also! 🧠🧊🔮🪬
Oooh, so I was like "it hasn't been that long since this ask" and it has been like. two years. Time is an illusion, and I don't see her, sorry babe 😭 ('Abi what the fuck is this even about-' this is the Prandy Kids AU power ask that I decided I had to answer before I could post the Piper/Mark AU. No, I don't know either, I just work here.)
But thank you, I love finding names for characters bc there can be so much meaning involved in it and some fun thematic stuff!! Only problem is that there are unfortunately only so many P names, so we're getting into some wacky stuff for later AUs, oops! But it's just so much fun!!
Also I hadn't really considered changing up any of the sisters' other powers, but I actually think that would make more sense in this AU for their powers to end up different from canon, so we have everyone divided up as sister - kids - next sister - kids - etc. So hear is the way too long post lmao.
Ugh, I said to myself that I wouldn't put this under a cut unless it was over 2k but it was. 2122 (without this paragraph), so I lost my little bet against myself. I need to decide on a firm read more word count, but I clearly love these characters, and this honestly helped in banging out their powers more succintly/clearly for me! Now I can actually post that Piper/Mark AU after two years... (Look, I will always respond to asks, just uhm. Sometimes it may be a several year process, my bad.) Also, now that I'm Prandy Kids AU posting again (and actually clarified powers): should I try to do an AU-gust thing in this AU? Drop your answers in the replies or ask box today!
Prue Halliwell - obviously, we begin with telekinesis. Initially, Perri's powers were following a similar trajectory to Prue's, which would've led to levitation/limited flight, but instead, I think that her telekinesis advancing to psychokinesis, aka the ability to move things that you can't see with your mind. She actually canonically does this a few times in the show, like with Roger's tie in the first episode! (Obviously, that was just them not fully set on her powers, but.) And I do think that this is a logical advancement that both a) is a big power boost but b) balanced in that she's required to be vulnerable to do it. (Example is how Max Franklin had to have his head down and intensely concentrating doing it.) It's also kind of similar to Prue's canon astral projection in how she's stuck wherever she is and focus. (Also with Andy's survival, I don't think that Prue would've developed astral projection anyways bc a lot of it is this need to be in two places at once, this difficulty in keeping up, and I think that Andy is a very grounding presence for her.)
Perri Halliwell - discussed in the original post, but Perri also has telekinesis and advanced telekinesis like her momma! Her advanced telekinesis isn't as advanced as Prue's and is much more of a newer power for her, so she's still struggling to fully control it. A subpower of her advanced telekinesis is levitation and limited flight! She can tap into that one a bit easier in a stable mood, but the advanced telekinesis/levitation/limited flight most often appears when Perri hits her limit and absolutely wrecks shit. I initially wasn't gonna make her a v good spell writer, but I love the idea of her Power of Three being more well-rounded, so she's definitely a very good spell writer now.
Presley Halliwell - also in the original post, but Presley has molecular immobilization! I feel like her trigger is a bit different to Piper's, but I'm not sure exactly how? Maybe bc Piper's was fear, and Presley had her powers since she was a kid but it's more likely to be triggered by her intensity/observation? Or on the rare occasion she gets overwhelmed. And then it progresses into molecular inhibition, which was actually the power that warlock!Piper had displayed in the Bride and Gloom episode. It basically encompasses her target in ice, but she doesn't have full blown cryokinesis. That said, she can also make ice appear underneath her hands when she tries. And where Perri is the spell writer, Presley is the potioneer, little miss scientific over here can make the best potions.
Pamela Halliwell - okay, so a headcanon that I have is that fair amount of the psychic abilities are able to be developed/taught, even if it's not an innate ability (such as canonically astral projection! I also feel dream leaping, aura reading, and stuff like that can be learned.) So Pamela's natural powers are premonitions and then telepathy, and she would've liked developed astral projection as well if she hadn't already taught herself how to do it. However, I think that she a) kind of. jailbreaked her telepathy to develop empathy (bc I do think that those two powers are two sides of the same coin but that is a v different post) and b) utilized that telepathy/empathy combination to access dream leaping, aura sensing, etc. This is something that I think psychics can do to an extent but no the way Pamela did it. Don't do this, this is bad and will catch up to her v soon. I think that Pamela is a good spell writer as well, but it's her control over her powers that make her shine in her Power of Three tbh. Like it's just the control and precision, even if they're not traditionally considered "powerful" or "dangerous," they very much are in her hands.
Piper Halliwell - obviously has molecular immobilization, and I'll probably still slide molecular combustion her way as well. Idk if I wanna mess with her powers too much tbh but may give her something plant or death like as a lingering gift from Proserpina. Hmm.... I may give her a bit of a sliding scale in being able to reconstitute or decay molecules (explained more in Petra and Prose's powers respectively) but not nearly to the same extent as her daughters, an increased sense of mediumship, and very very minor phytokinesis (honestly really only able to make a house plant bloom kind of thing).
Prose Halliwell - my OG death-touched witch <3 also became the most complicated bc of her and mara (piper/mark au) and realizing that they're both death-touched but it comes from different angles so adjusting accordingly (or at least trying to lol). (As I develop this concept further, I may make adjustments but for rn at least...) She has molecular immobilization (pretty standard) and molecular decay, which is best described as being able to take an object and decay or decompose (fun fact, this includes people! with people, she has the ability to kind of decide if it's permanent or not, and even if it's demonic, she almost always chooses temporary bc. ick.) While everyone has mediumship, hers is the only one strong enough to be labeled as a power in of itself, including being able to sense spirits (even when they're actively trying to hide) and influence (potentially even control in the very far future) them. Like Pamela, she has this kind of aura reading/sensing, but it's very specifically about when someone is dying, and even more specifically, if it's their time and they cannot be saved. On the Whitelighter side of things, she's completely unable to heal. Her orbing is darker/more wispier than others, influenced by the Angel of Death's Dark Wisping but not quite a hybrid effect. She can still glamour and has the Whitelighter version of photokinesis, but her orbs are similar to the ones when she's orbing.
Petra Halliwell - the life to Prose's death motif lol. In contrast to Prose's decay, Petra has molecular reconstitution/restoration. She also has molecular combustion, but there's the normal version and then the other one which is kind of just. reconstituting something until it explodes basically? (Despite not being twins, they v heavily split a motif of life and death, especially in their powers.) Due to the tonic that Piper took on the spiritual plane, Petra also has phytokinesis but like actual phytokinesis that can be a threat (not full on geokinesis but grass or vines wrapping around your ankles, stuff like that.) Her Whitelighter powers aren't too affected, but she's an incredibly good healer. Her orbs can give off more light or heat than typical, and she has a limited version of thermokinesis but it's not really something controlled as innate with her emotions.
Phoebe Halliwell - so we keep Phoebe with premonitions, but I think I'll have her lose levitation and honestly even empathy for the most part? I'd rather get to explore some of the underrated psychic stuff, such as psychic reflections, psychic echoes, and maybe even give her astral projection to lead into astral premonitions. I think that we may give her empathy at some point, but it'd be pivotal to her plot with Coop (possibly getting together or when she finds him again and after their true love kiss? probably right after the true love kiss). I just would really prefer to keep her much more psychic-based tbh.
Philomena Halliwell - Ooh, I really am unsure on Philomena's powers tbh. Bc like the thing is that her plot really is about this, honestly, loneliness in the family bc she's loved but she doesn't have a sister to share her burden with in the same way, but that also means that she doesn't have someone to fight with so there's an element of her needing to be able to be okay on her own? But I mean, Phoebe was able to kick ass on her own, and in my canonverse, Penny is a psychic who is probably one of the top three demon hunters of the next gen so that doesn't necessarily stop Philomena? My two preferences are either molecular immobilization or premonitions, bc I really do wanna explore a Cupid-witch with molecular immobilization, but I think I'm gonna go with premonitions on this one for Philomena specifically. Not only does she have premonitions, but she also does end up with empathy, which is just straight up me being mean to her bc the one girl who feels so loneliness and like the odd witch out can literally feel other people's love for one another (and I cannot stress enough that if ltierally any of her cousins knew this, they would be simply showering her with love). At some point, she gets the go apeshit (bc she deserves it) and develops psychic reflection. Cupid-wise, she has beaming innately. However, Philomena, in contrast to my other Cupid girls, actually already has her Cupid ring, which mostly allows her to do small holograms/illusions and gives her suggestion (but can be combined with her psychic abilities to do some worse shit if she ever gets an evil arc, which I am now thinking that she should).
Paige Matthews - the lightbringer! Her powers are almost entirely Whitelighter-based in this verse. Her primary power is photokinesis, aka light manipulation. Her photokinesis is also a bit of a hybrid with thermokinesis in that she can basically throw light blasts at you, and she can make the light burn. Since her power is manipulation of light, she can also make illusions through that manipulation (especially combined with her ability to glamour) or conceal herself or others. (It's not true invisibility and much easier to see through than the genuine power but useful.) She can orb, glamour, and heal. Lowkey, I may have made this too OP tbh... Like the thermokinesis and illusions are solely extensions of her photokinesis for context, not the powers in of themselves if that makes sense?
Lilith Matthews - so the fun thing is that I'm probably gonna keep adding to the twins bc they're the only tribids I've ever done lmao, so realistically, they're both fucking stacked with powers tbh. Lilith has the explosion/fire motif though, so I think that she has flaming, light manipulation like her momma, fireballs (but kind of a hybrid thing of Paige's light blasts with demonic fireballs), thermokinesis, molecular combustion, and telekinesis. I don't normally stack Warren powers twice on one witch bc my personal headcanon is that it just. doesn't happen tbh? But telekinesis and premonitions are also pretty common demonic powers, I feel like? Also has a psychic bond with Morgan and can do funky things with that and their powers together.
Morgan Matthews - in contrast, Morgan has this storm/cold motif. She has orbing, light manipulation (but without heat), cryokinesis, electrokinesis, molecular immobilization, and premonitions. Am still kind of tempted to give her aerokinesis bc like. that would really hit with the storm thing?? But cryokinesis was already in the Warren line and electrokinesis can come from Paige's side. Fuck it, technopathy maybe? I'm just saying shit now lmao, probably neither of those bc that honestly is already a v powerful set of powers right there. (It would also help if I actually decided on literally anything about their biological father, but he's a loser so he gets nothing. In my Notion database, one of the tags is for the father of each next gen kid and the twins got tagged as Henry's kid bc fuck that demon loser lmao.)
