#'some people use ai to make art of their own ocs!' i literally do not care

[kewpidity]

pinterest keeps shoving ai images down my throat so im about to start stealing the character designs out of spite

so to be clear i hope this goes without saying if i see you pushing ai art on here you're getting a hard block

[givemeuniversalcrossovers]

Soooooooooo......???

Seeing doubles amiright?, like, wow that's familiar oh yea it looks near identical to my besties art that was posted earlier this year, I mean maybe the heads the other way it can't be THAT copy pasted I so thought

Hm. Yea it IS that bad, now, I've not seen the movie in a long time but I am 99% sure that is not a pose from the genesect movie so it's not referenced from there

"But they have different art styles!" I mean pretty sure using an image as reference without consent or credit but altering it for your art style still infringes on copyright and the original image made by the original artist. And you're really gonna look at me with the art side by side and go well duh the art style is different even if they're near identical so can't be stolen (you can still, steal something while having a different artstyle???)

"but the head is the other way and the hands are closed!" and the posing is the exact same the angle is the exact same the mouth open the sternums pointing similarly the definition of the chest in illusion to chest plate

And as well the minor differences look pretty deliberate imo? Can't copy the exact posing 1 for 1 as somebody (read nobody (save for me bitches cause I'm pissed) since people don't like to call out bigger popular artists for things like this and just let it slide because 'wellll we like this artist better so they can steal allllll the time~!' which guys popular or not it ain't fucking on), but yea can't just do the exact same so alter just enough to make it pass off as original (didn't work literally saw it in passing and clocked it right away and had to scramble to check and make a comparison refer my beloathed)

I just wanna know like, why? What the fuck? And I know swearing might damage my point but, just, I can't stand seeing or hearing about my friends getting treated like this having their original content taken and warped by other people who know to some degree they can get away with it, it's gross, if you wanna take inspiration you credit that appropriately hell even ask permission and respect if the og artist says no.

I don't think this panel should've been made or it should've been a helluv a lot different. Things like this is exactly the reason I'm scared to share my original ideas online, in case it gets taken and used specifically by this artist because I genuinely can't trust them at this point from what I've seen I don't want my ideas to be taken and then be brushed off with a "oh I've always wanted to play with this idea/it's always been implied actually! Don't look into why it's only showed up now after somebody made a post about their ocs with the same idea" cause being the lesser content creator guess what? I'll be the insane one if I say anything, I'll be told I'm wrong and have people jump my content claiming I've stolen or something because that's unfortunately how the Internet works! I've already had my works warped in a way I cant really even talk about! I know I'd probably look mad or like I was grasping at straws if I said anything then or now and at the time I valued my safety my comfort online and enjoyment online over saying anything and hey maybe I was wrong and the ideas were simply similar, but I doubt it. I know I could dig up and provide my references at least for my work, at the time when asked they couldn't do the same.

But this is my friend, and I'm not gonna let this shit slide anymore, I know this isn't the first thing this artist has, 'taken inspiration from' I use with heavy quotation marks, and I hope to fuck it's the last. But I don't know. I'm not gonna sit in silence about it anymore though, I will be calling it out as I see.

Plugging other people's artwork and original ideas character designs traits ect into your own to replicate to boost your own art makes you no better than ai art, because it takes without consent and spits out something warped and stolen.

This might come off as angry and petty and bitter, because it is, but don't mistake that for jealousy, I don't want what they have I'm not talking about this like a jealous ex trying to sabotage their fame because I know this is probably gonna damage my online rep and experience far more than theirs (or maybe I'll be lucky and this will become a tumbleweed in the desert) I'm talking about this because I want this kind of behaviour to stop. More popular 'better' artists shouldn't get free reign to plagiarise and pocket concepts from smaller artists just because they can, my friends content is not your fucking strawberry patch to plunder, it's not yours to take ANYTHING from. Make your own fucking original content. You've got your fame. Stop taking from us, leave us alone.

[gomzdrawfr]

want to join the fandom cause it seems fun seeing fanarts and you and others interacting but I don't know how...and with the whole ai thing im scared...

my advice: just do it

really! sometimes all you really need is a leap of faith, and that was exactly how I dropped into the cod fandom. When I joined the ghoap discord server I talked to one of the artist I really like and respected from my lurking time (hi @bressynonym) aaaand the rest is history

I didnt know how to draw properly, nor digitally, all I did was scribbling on OneNote (yeah!) and rambled about cod characters, it is daunting and it is scary to interact but after a while? you may just be able to find someone to brainrot together with

start small, like commenting, reblogging, talking, chatting- doesn't have to be towards artist/writers, it could be the art/fic enjoyers!

you need to put yourself out there if you want something

as to if you want to start in the fandom as a creator, here's some more tips (which are all based on my experience, I am no pro at doing this, hell Im still learning myself, and I am by no means speaking these on behalf on others!)

establish a goal: what are you making? fandom based? original creations?

as with starting new, everything may take a while for stuff to happen, you'll feel like you're speaking to the void at times (esp with original arts, but do know that your stuff do get perceive by others as time goes, I would advise to draw fandom stuff as a beginning to get that boost going if you want! or else it's going to be quite hard to get things rolling)

imo this is hardest part of any new creator, you'll have to bear with it and try not to give up (but I understand how incredibly demotivating it could get, there were times when I stopped posting about Raven entirely, but eventually I post it anyway cuz surely someone out there will like them, it just takes a lot of patiences and perseverance)

btw, engagement can also vary from time to time, you may be booming for a bit, then suddenly you dont, it is a cycle that will bound to happen

take rest regularly, and I mean a break from social media because numbers, discourse and everything can get to you, very quickly (I cannot emphasise this enough)

the numbers are not worth it over your mental health (comes with practice to really solidify this thought)

study the algorithm (pain): see what other creators are doing to get where they are, what tags are they using in their post? what features/niche do people like?(this is, if you really want to grab some form of engagement, bcuz reminder in the end you are creating art for yourself first!)

example: I think posts would get more reach if you tag it with the ship name first, followed by the characters' name (doesn't work all the time tho)

that's the thing about algorithm, it is ever-changing, and you'll have to learn to adapt with it when it does!

expanding on that, studying algorithm could be about ships (for example, ghostsoap is most popular in the fandom), or really good rendered art/flashed out fic that leaves your jaw on the floor, or ships that gets lesser attention in general which puts you, who make content about them, easier to be brought into the light (like Faralex)

bUT, it can also be personality!

(again, not saying this is meant for everyone and strictly from my own experience + what I observe) for me, I made up the lack of my art by establishing a personality: a wild panda who yaps about price and their oc and also kinda everywhere in the place (just like this post LOL), OR you're the person who named themselves after Soap's ash particle number OR you're the one who likes bottom Ghost- literally anything goes, you want to make an impression in different ways, some more funny/goofier than others but it works (be mindful and stay respectful tho, dont wanna be the asshole in the fandom now do ya?)

efforts ≠ engagement (not all the time, but most time) and this is a fact. Sometimes, you can't expect a piece you did for 10+ hours to get thousands views and likes, especially in a fandom space. You need to understand algorithm is that wonky. (very disheartening, but again, you make the art for you and the few others who genuinely likes them, and those people can go a long way) be mentally prepared for such events, and try not to beat yourself up too much for it

ultimately tho, do it, do it scared but do it anyways and again, draw the things that bring you joy, I hope these could be helpful in some ways!

[delta-orionis]

Tuesday Again No Problem 9/3/24

I missed last week so this Tuesdaypost will cover two weeks! Again! Oops!

Listening

One of the podcasts I listen to did an interview with a social media expert who actually took the time to track down the source of all of those horrible AI slop posts that have completely taken over Facebook. It was very interesting (and kinda bleak about the trajectory of the modern internet, ngl).

On another note.... I'm kind of ashamed to admit it, but I dipped back into some of my old Vocaloid playlists for the first time in literal years and I'm enjoying it a lot. I even discovered some new artists.

Cringe is dead, etc etc.

Watching

This was a big "re-listening to old favorite video essays" week for me. I won't list them all here otherwise these Tuesdayposts would become very repetitive. But it was a lot of Jenny Nicholson.

Playing

I finally got around to downloading the Random Buff mod for Rain World and holy shit this thing is ridiculous. I almost immediately got a bunch of ridiculously overpowered buff cards and have spent several hours zooming around in Survivor's campaign causing chaos.

I recently got cards for infinite underwater breath, as well as swim speed and maneuverability upgrades, so I made a beeline for Submerged Superstructure. I'm enjoying speeding around there. I also got several cards that buff spear damage, and I managed to kill a Leviathan by throwing spears at it. (A lot of spears, to be fair, but I did manage it eventually!)

In addition, this mod is causing my game to crash in new and exciting ways. Some of the debuffs in particular are really pushing my poor laptop to its limits. At least I'm having fun.

Making

TSAC will not leave my brain and I'm making it everyone else's problem.

I posted a new ask blog answer. I also made a random exposition post where I experimented with writing pearl dialogue (paired with some art).

Relatedly, I'm working on a Perchance generator to randomly generate Rain World Ancient names. I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'd like to work out some of the bugs before I make it publicly available, but at least for myself it's making writing about the Ancients much easier.

I'd like to try expanding on my OC's worldbuilding through expository pearl dialogue, primarily in the form of conversations between random Ancients who lived in TSAC's city. I'm trying to think about what opinions people of different social classes/backgrounds would have about their iterator (and also have TSAC make some remarks reacting to those opinions, haha).

I've said it before, but I find it extremely funny that the cure for my years-long artblock/writer's block seems to be becoming hopelessly obsessed with my own OC. (I started a new antidepressant earlier this year and I'm willing to bet that it also has something to do with it, but it's much funnier if I just say that TSAC cured my depression)

----

The summer schedule at work is officially over!! I survived!!! Time will tell if I am going to experience any delayed symptoms of burnout like I have in previous years, but for now I feel mostly fine!!!

In other news also related to OC brainrot, someone made a fucking 3D model of TSAC??? I'm still reeling over this. I'm so honored that people like my OC enough to render them in 3D. I've reblogged the post about it already but I'm using this as an opportunity to make you look at it again.

See you next week, if I remember!! My schedule is all weird now that summer is over!!! It will take me a bit to adjust, I think.

[jmtorres]

ETA 11/24/24 I will continue to focus on pretty & fun content like art, knitting, cats, etc but I'm releasing my stranglehold on not discussing hard stuff ever.

I thought as a fannish tumblr I could stumble along without a *jazz hands* policy but I guess I gotta pin a post.

I am on Tumblr for fun.

If you send an ask for money I will block and report spam.

Below the cut: stuff I reblog, sideblogs, stuff I try to avoid, block policies, queue, do not ask me for money, and as a palate cleanser to thank you for reading, a nice picture of my cat.

I like to reblog:

pictures of animals and flowers

fannish stuff about shows, books and podcasts I'm enjoying (I like a lot of shit and I'm a fannish butterfly and/or magpie, it's not useful for me to post a fandom list, it expands often) (this includes thinking about characters banging, if you are an "anti" you will probably not enjoy my blog)

sometimes chronic health stuff, that's less fun but the spoonie community sometimes offers advice i find useful or just, relatable weariness

neurodivergent stuff too

food and recipes

art (no AI. if you see me reblog AI-generated content feel free to let me know) (by the way I HATE being suspicious of artists and trying to figure out if something is genuinely creative or machine-mixed.)

architecture and interior decor

fashion

hot people, often wearing fashion

if it makes me laugh. memes and shit.

language/linguistics stuff

filmmaking stuff

knitting and other fibercrafts

general nerdery

queer stuff (history, queer rep, talking about the queer experience, hot queer people flaunting it)

jewish stuff (usually cultural, some midrash, I try not to post about current events see below)

scifi & fantasy writing/what-ifs/meta

polls I miss LJ clicky-boxes but i vote in all kinds of polls it activates something in my brain

like literally whatever interests me, this is a personal blog, not themed*

* i have a couple of themed blogs, which I very occasionally update:

@teachdeathtodye, about both fiber and hair dyeing

@wheresmygoddamnlunarbase, about surprising or exciting scientific and technological advancements.

any other blogs that are not defunct? apparently as of 2023 I still post to @hewasonfogmachine, which was essentially a moodboard for an epic plotbunny I never wrote. it was a rock star AU, so lots of interesting musical instruments and performances. also an MCU/Mission Impossible fusion so hot pics of actors from both franchises, and my fancasts for OCs. either a very specific or very random themed blog, but if it's to your taste, enjoy.

But back to THIS blog!

I try not to post about politics (I am trying not to even read about politics on tumblr tbh) but sometimes the moment moves me. I will tag relevantly (I use "us politics" for American shit and "i/p" for the Israel-Palestine conflict).

I believe in curating my tumblr experience. I filter a lot of keywords and tags, but I also unfollow people if you post something that upsets me and gets past the filters. It's rarely personal. Who I follow is meant to give me an interesting and pleasing dashboard experience, not necessarily be a reflection of who I'm friends with.

I block fairly liberally. If I find your posts/opinions antithetical to my existence or my friends' existence, I will do my damndest to block you rather than argue with you (sorry if i was unable to resist arguing with you before I remembered the block button).

I softblock declared minors who follow me. I'm not an "adult" blog per se but I'm not filtering my content for children and also if you are a minor for your own safety you should not be announcing it on the internet, get that shit off your profile.

I periodically check who follows me and I might softblock (or hardblock) you if I do not think we are compatible (ie you have a DNI that lists people like me but followed me anyway for some reason??)

I queue shit and don't mark it queued so me posting is never an indication of whether I'm actually online.

And here's the thing I need to say that got me to pin a post:

I do not reblog ANY requests for money, I do not respond to asks from people I don't know personally asking for money. I'm on Tumblr for fun and my wallet is not available.

If you send me something like that and it looks spammy (which if you're cold calling, it does), I will report you to Tumblr. If you send me something like that and we don't know each other at all, I will block you. (If I know you I will probably gently remind you I don't do that. Unless I know you but you've been borderline annoying or upsetting in the past, in which case I might just block you anyway.)

Look. The world sucks. A lot of us are in financial straits and are not getting the support we need from our communities, our governments, our families. But I don't have the energy to figure out if you're "deserving" and I'm not loaded either. I do my volunteering/community aid locally in person, not online, to be sure I know who I'm helping, and because a lot of the help I am able to provide is via action rather than money. I am very sorry for the failures of our society that have made social media your best chance of getting help, but please don't ask me to participate in that.

Here's my cat.

The end

[shadecrux]

On The Wing - Chapter 1

https://open.spotify.com/track/0RLwgks1gHQzXeIkaJIpHr

Next Chapter ┃

˚ * •̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙* ˚＊------💜 💚 💜------＊* •̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙ *

°•★Pairing: Bucky Barnes x femaleartist!reader

°•★Rating: NSFW (this chapter is SFW future ones won’t be)

°•★Tags: strangers to lovers, fluff, angst, first meetings, romantic tension, flirting, pet names (doll, sweetheart), brief homophobia mentions, bisexual reader

°•★ Words: 1755

°•★ Notes: It’s me, ya girl back with some more x y/n fanfic!! This is gonna be 6 chapters altogether, already written, all based on a song I haven’t been able to get out of my head for weeks now.  I hope you enjoy!! I had a lot of fun with this AU.   No beta, literally just finished writing it, all mistakes are mine. 

//CW FOR THIS CHAPTER// There is a brief mention of y/n being disowned by her family for being bisexual. 

~All writing unless otherwise noted is my own. Please do not post or reupload my work to other websites without my express consent. I do not consent for my fics to be used in AI creations. I do not own any of the characters featured in my works unless they are stated to be OCs.~

All of my fanworks are intended for adults aged 18 and up only! Minors please DNI. ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48744160

˚ * •̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙* ˚＊------💜 💚 💜------＊* •̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙ *

 Breathe and ill carry you away

Into the velvet sky 

And we’ll stir the stars around

And watch them fall away 

Into the Hudson Bay 

And plummet out of sight and sound 

The open summer breeze 

Will sweep you through the hills 

Where I live in the alpine heights 

Below the northern lights 

I spend my coldest nights 

Alone awake and thinking of 

The weekend we were in love

—------------------------------------------------

Unpacking. You always hated unpacking, hated everything to do with moving into a place, for that matter. You never intended on staying for long, and it felt like such a chore. Often, you would choose to simply live out of suitcases, but you had always had somewhere else to go, some next destination in mind. But not this time.  Things had been going well when you arrived in Calgary. Your paintings were selling, your busking was lucrative enough to afford you a nice little studio apartment in the city. You didn’t need much after all. A place to stay, food in your belly, and your art supplies - you would rather save your money for experiences, and for getting you to that next destination.  For years, you were living your dream, traveling the world, making art. You got by mostly via selling your wares at fairs and on streetcorners - paintings, jewelry, pottery when you could access a studio to use.  Sometimes you did custom work on commission. It was amazing how many people wanted portraits of their cats and dogs, you always thought. Then the recession hit. Unemployment spiked, wages stagnated, and layoffs were sweeping their way through the Americas, leaving many struggling just to make ends meet. People weren’t buying luxury goods the way they used to, and before you knew it, you were struggling too.  There was nothing else for it, so you found whatever jobs you could - which, as a person who had spent the last seven years of their life as a transient artist, traveling the world with no real work history or credentials, relegated you mostly to minimum wage work, or labor jobs that weren’t as picky about the people they hired. 

You had to move out of the city and found a small town up in the mountains and an even smaller one-bedroom house that was being rented out at a ridiculously low price due to it being relatively isolated - a 20-minute drive from the town proper, surrounded by deep forests.  Dirt road, no cell service, satellite TV, and internet - for most it would be undesirable at best. For you, it was a respite from a world that no longer seemed to have a place for you.  

It never really felt like it did - you grew up as a military brat, constantly moving from place to place, never setting down roots, never making lasting friendships. You were the black sheep - of your family as well as every school you had ever gone to. The weird girl, the one nobody really understood.  But you had your art, and you had your dreams - you wanted to see the world, to drink in life and put it on a canvas. You were counting the days until you turned 18 and could leave, but you didn’t get that far. 

Your family had kicked you out, disowned you at the age of 17, after catching you and your at-the-time girlfriend, holding hands and smooching on the back porch when you thought no one was home. Her family would have done the same to her if they had found out - so with nowhere else to go, you struck out on your own. And it had gone well - until the financial crash sent the world into a tailspin, that is.

There wasn’t much to unpack, all told. Three suitcases and an oversized canvas bag into which you stuffed your entire life - clothes, art supplies, rolled-up canvases pulled from their frames to make it easy to travel. Some sparse camping supplies for those nights you couldn’t find a better place to sleep. You had been doing this long enough that you had it down to a science, and you were very efficient.  

Clothes were stuffed into drawers, toiletries into the bathroom, and the metal cups and plates and cutlery you traveled with barely taking up any space in the kitchen. You had little in the ways of personal effects, save for the photographs you took and the small handful of trinkets you had collected in your journeys. Stones, little sculptures, silly magnets and keychains, and shot glasses documenting all the cities and countries you had been to. 

You laid them out on top of the dresser in the bedroom and, with a wistful sigh, flopped down onto the bed with your back against the headboard, stacks of little plastic envelopes, and started flipping through the pictures you had taken, reminiscing on those better, brighter days.  It was a pleasant enough way to pass the time, and it brought a small smile to your face, gave you a way to forget your current circumstances - for a while at least. Until you landed on the album that you usually avoided looking at - New York City. The place where you had met, and lost, the only man you had ever loved. 

—------------------------------------------------

You were at Coney Island one bright and beautiful day - it had been a lucrative few days so you decided to reward yourself.  It was early, and Luna Park was just beginning to fill up with guests, shouts and laughter, and excitement buzzing in the air around you. As you walked along the midway, only some of the game stands were up and running, while others had workers bustling around them, still setting up.  As you passed nearby one of those, a group of children rushed past, knocking into you, the nearest employee, and one of the legs of the awning that the employee had been about to secure.  It buckled at one of the joints as he fell, and the entire metal sheet came crashing down. You screamed and tried to scramble away when a strong set of arms wrapped around your waist and yanked you, forcefully out of the path of the falling awning just in time.  Whoever it was had grabbed you from behind, setting you down gently on your feet and taking hold of your forearms as he did so to make sure you were steady before letting you go.  “That was a close one… you alright there, doll?” Something about the gentleness of that voice and the soft, gravelly undertone struck you, and your stomach did a little jump as you turned around to face your rescuer only to be left momentarily speechless at the sight of him. He was tall, handsome, with bright blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through yours. “... I- I think so.” You stammered, your mouth suddenly feeling very dry. You saw over his shoulder the employees now battling with the awning, which had bent badly in its impact against the side of the building, and the building itself now bearing deep dents in the surface where the edges had collided with it.  “God, if you hadn’t been here…” You looked up at him in shock, a shudder running through your body. Adrenaline still flooded your system as you realized just how much danger you had been in moments before. “That thing might have killed me…” “Right place, right time I guess.” He grinned, the smile slipping from his face as he noticed the way you were shivering as shock set in. “Oh hey…sweetheart, you’re shaking. Here… let’s find a place to sit down.” You mutely nodded and took his offered arm, letting the man lead you over to a nearby outdoor dining area and guide you to one of the unoccupied tables.  “Here - can I get you anything? Maybe some water?” he asked gently. Chewing on your lip for a moment of indecision, you eventually nodded sheepishly. “Yes, please…” “Say no more.” 

Before you could formulate any words of protest he was off, leaving you with a few moments to catch your breath and reorient yourself while he waited in line. By the time he returned your heart rate had calmed at least slightly, and he slid the little plastic cup across the table to you to drink. Your hands were still shaking as you raised the cup to your lips - the water certainly helped with your dry throat, though you still weren’t sure if that was the fault of the scare or the absolutely gorgeous man sitting across from you at the small metal table. “I don’t think I got a chance to properly introduce myself back there.” The man said with a crooked grin, extending a hand across the table to shake yours. Calloused fingertips slid over your knuckles as you clasped his hand, sending a spark of electricity up your arm. “James Buchanan Barnes, at your service. You can call me Bucky, though. All my friends do.”  Giving him your name in turn you raised a brow at him, managing to not sound like a babbling idiot. “Are we friends now, then? We have only just met…”  “Well, I saved your life back there.” He flashed you a charming smile in return. “I think that makes us something. Dunno what quite yet.” 

That smile. You thought your knees might actually buckle, the way he smiled at you, the way his hand lingered a bit too long on yours before he dropped it back onto the table. Here you were, in the most glamorous city in the United States, surrounded by beautiful, successful people… and the most gorgeous man you had ever met was making eyes at you. Was this real life? 

“So, are you here with anyone?” you hedged. “I don’t want to be holding you hostage here. I think I’ll be alright.” “Nah, my buddy was supposed to join me but he couldn’t make it. So it’s just me. I’m all yours, for as long as you want to tolerate me.” He grinned. A shy smile split your lips then, and you replied, “I think I’d like to tolerate you for a while longer… if you want to stick around, that is.” The way his eyes lit up made you feel slightly faint, a fluttering in your chest that heated your cheeks and warmed you from the inside.  

Soon the two of you were walking together, side by side through the park. And if you kept straying a little too close to him, brushing your arm against his, it was only to make sure you stayed close to your personal guardian angel.

And if he took your hand a bit too often, helping you up and down some stairs, maneuvering you out of the way of crowds, well… he was looking out for you, after all. The carnival structures had already proven themselves to be dangerous, and he took his duty guarding you very seriously. 

[outer-spec]

OCtober 2024 ⭐ Day 4: Under-Appreciated OC

The first OC that comes to mind for this prompt is Juno, because she's supposed to be the main character, but I feel like she isn't as fleshed out as her friends. character traits that she has that i love:

does not give up, she will wear herself down to the point of exhaustion first

complex about trying to save/help as many people as possible, gets sad if she can't save someone

knows martial arts

she acts more chill and good-natured than Steve and Tora, who are really petty.

basically the caretaker of her friends, they go to her for advice, and she has to remind them to not do stupid shit.

usually shes the only sane man. but occasionally acts deranged. examples:

crazy determination, as previously stated

represses so much shit, to focus on fighting for the greater good

lowkey kind of a gun nut

every once in a while, the tables turn, and she does some stupid shit herself. and her friends have to step in for her. because thats what she did for them

attracted to stupid people

part of her arc is figuring out that her current boyfriend isn't right for her, and breaking up, and then getting a girlfriend.

so. much. angst.

i want her to be able to relax in the post canon. actually i want everyone to relax post canon. i think after you save an alternate version of earth, u should get paid at least enough to retire forever. i want them to be happy

also, if possible, id like to flesh out "Dale" more, and give him a different name. i want to also flesh out the other minor characters in hexagon. so far Dr. Moss, Terry, and Charlie all have their own toyhouse pages, but i have other vague ideas for background characters that i wanna make more concrete eventually.

anyway outside of hexagon, some other characters that should probably get fleshed out more:

the various ocs that i posted about on Day 2

Petra - shes part of her own fantasy world that i made ages ago but mostly forgot about

space robots - i love these guys so much!!! i feel like i should make a secret third space robot, like a dog that represents twilight

literally every other character in the untitled robot game (i ran out of character ideas)

since the alien cats are loosely based off of scientology lore. i think it would also be funny to base some of the robots off of lesswrong and e/acc ideas. im sorry, but cults have the best scifi worldbuilding.

ok but this is a bit of a random tangent but: scientology lore, especially the Xenu story, talks about powerful alien organizations that use psychological manipulation to oppress people. the church of scientology portrays itself as being the opposite of these organizations, but someone who is anti-scientology could also write about these organizations to make them allegories for the church. on a similar note you could also use the paperclip maximizer as a metaphor for big tech corporations that waste resources and hurt the environment. or use the ai box thought experiment as a metaphor for charismatic cult leaders.

also since my MCs are based off of vocaloids. i do plan to use vocaloid characters as inspo for some of the other characters, but not completely.

OCtober is by @bweirdart

(ps: i had a thing for day 3 all written out beforehand, but i forgot to post it cause i was so busy with schoolwork, so its under the cut)

OCtober 2024 Day 3: Old OC

technically i don't know who my oldest oc is, because ive literally been making up little guys in my head ever since I was capable of forming memories. but heres some honorable mentions:

when i was in ~5th grade i was obsessed with dragons, so i bugged my mom to sew me a dragon hoodie for halloween, and she did, and i had lots of fun. the dragon hoodie was so cool that in my head, i invented a story about girls wearing magical dragon & unicorn pajamas that turned them into those creatures in another world or something, i forget most of the details tho.

one time i was walking around the playground and talking to myself. and i came up with a story about dragon people living in this isolated town where nobody was allowed to leave. the town was ruled by this dragon named "Firelord" and it was surrounded by this huge ring of fire. some dragon kids escaped though, to figure out what was actually going on.

it turned out that Firelord was one of four quadruplets with magical powers, they were Earthlord, Waterlord, Firelord, and Airlord. but they had an evil younger brother named Hypnolord, who wanted to take over the world, and had everyone trapped in his evil skyscraper prison. So Firelord made the town where nobody is allowed to leave, to protect everybody. fortunately the dragon kids defeated Hypnolord, and saved the day.

i was really into legos and dragons. so for my birthday my mom went on ebay and bought a bunch of the baby norbert lego figure in different colors. while listening to music i imagined them in music videos in my head, eventually each figure had like. its own personality.

also when lego elves came out, i bought all of the lego elves dragon sets. and each of those baby dragons also got their own personality too.

I had this oc Max, who was a stupid teenage boy, and his little sister Megan was like this child genius. originally Max was supposed to be super depressed and edgy, but eventually evolved to be totally different.

Max and Meg weren't actually related. they were adopted by a talking cat that was their dad. the cat was british

also sometimes Megan had this other friend who was a child serial killer. she had the same black hat as that one xkcd character that has that hat, becuase theyre both eeeeevil.

i drew so much fanart of them, i cringe to remember what my art style was like then   

you can probably tell that i liked dragons as a child

[phantomstofathom]

Enjoy some art I made featuring Feliciano and Arthur during their "oh shit, I'm a Roman colony" era ;)

(Rambling below cut)

So I've been cooking hetalia in my brain since about 2012, but stopped interacting and consuming Hetalia content in about 2013-2014(?)

My versions of these characters are kinda like that one family in red dead 2, you know, the one that had been isolated for so long that they started basically making up their own language? That. Yeah, so these guys are pretty oc at this point. oops.

And since apparently i've made the decision to dump out Hetalia content into the world for the first time ever, it's a good excuse to ramble a bit about lore of this little au i've made~.*•

Notes that are Important:

- England was a roman colony in real life

- In real life history, Rome would use its prisoners of war as slaves or gladiators (or sometimes both)

- Therefore; Arthur was, at one point, a Roman prisoner of war, and, at one point, was a gladiator for Rome (I headcannon him to be somewhere in the 14-16 years old range during this time)

- I personally have beef with the Roman empire (took a few too many history classes and I have Opinions) (this is mostly for the lolz, you are absolutely allowed to disregard my opinion on this matter lol)

- Romulus (personification of Rome) is always depicted as a Villain in my head

- Feliciano had the misfortune of being a gentle soul and a big crybaby when he was young. Romulus didn't like that very much.

- this is all just for fun. I made it for my own enjoyment. No matter who I depict as a villain, or what they do in this story, it is not an opinion on the real life nation or the people from said nation. These characters are completely fictional, and are not meant to represent entire countries any more than any other fictional character. Consider them just, "some guy that happens to be from X country"

- I am not a historian, I am not an expert, I took a few history classes, thats it, Historical accuracy may be dubious, I'm doing my best here lol

(I do tend to focus mostly on Arthur and Feliciano, because they are my favourites. I will not apologize for what I've done)

(Also The Roman Empire stole literally everything that defines them. They have nothing of their own. They are the least unique empire ever and do not deserve the credit that people give them. Literally all they did was steal shit and make it worse. (LIKE AI ART!) I will die on this hill.)

[nebulaad]

it's truly insane and I think the most annoying thing about people defending their use of AI is how quickly the notes will be filled with people like "I have [x fairly common neurodivergence] and so I'm obviously too stupid and lazy to do [x task people with said condition have been doing on their own forever]" like actually a huge percentage of my artists friends also have ADHD and they can do everything from writing their own essays to doing their own art.

People obviously and commonly struggle with some tasks but it's 1) not a monolith, and 2) has literally never required such a gormless and pathetic avoidance of any actual effort. If you wanna cheat on an essay pay someone like a normal person or do the work or set something up with your prof or reexamine whether you can keep up with the program. If you want to see oc art pay someone or try to develop a talent or create an aesthetic board that makes you think of them or a playlist that follows their emotional arc. Like it's insane how quickly people will be like "people with my condition are actually completely incapable of art, thought, eloquence, and anything that requires any thought or effort" like 1) fuck you, 2) improve yourself because you are an oil spill of a person.

[genesisrecord]

hello world.

name's alex, or i guess i also go by cancel on here too. he and neos if you want. 18 years old unfortunately. transmasculine nonbinary and aroace. im diagnosed with many things and undiagnosed with many more things. welcome to the introductory post for this chaos pit of a blog.

information.

im an artist with a main focus in character design and concept art, though i do illustrations too. i love my ocs so thats what i draw most of the time. id advise against following me for fandom stuff other than lotf but i do reblog some animanga things and other media i like from time to time. i use this blog as a catchall for my art, yapping, and reblogs, so beware.

if youre coming from the lotf fandom, hi. so heres the deal. i used to draw the lotf characters, but eventually my designs and hcs for them became so complex and removed from the novel that i decided to make them ocs. theyre called the island kids. you can look at their refs and read about them by clicking that link. i long for them to eventually be their own characters apart from lotf, but i understand that they still look and act similarly to the lotf characters, and seeing as they literally evolved from them, they can pretty much be treated as the same thing. thats why im here. i still engage with the fandom normally, but when i draw the "lotf characters" im really drawing the island kids. apologies if thats highly confusing, dont worry. im still confused myself.

if youre here for oc content, hi. i have way too many projects to possibly keep track of so id suggest to not even try. if youre interested in any particular project feel free to ask and i will spill the beans all over your counter. i dont really have a hierarchy of projects as my focus switches constantly but in general the island kids and catwog are on top. im also a big fan of making gijinkas so youll probably see a lot of those from me too. i aspire to be a character designer / concept artist one day and making ocs have always kind of been an outlet for me to hone that skill. i treat them like my babies. i hope you will like them as much as i do.

some other miscellaneous interests i have are mythology, shakespeare, various animanga, some choice video games, internet / psychological horror, and a bunch of other stuff, but i dont usually talk about those on here. they may pop up from time to time though.

rules.

before you follow ; im quite literally almost never on this app so posts are extremely inconsistent. i wouldnt follow for one particular thing because you will get an earful of everything else im interested in at the moment. not much else, just make sure you can handle the uber instincts of my uber autism.

do not interact ; bigots of any affiliation (racist, ableist, queerphobic, etc), proshippers, zionists, terfs, ai "art" creators or defenders, nftbros, mspec "lesbians" or defenders, and generally annoying people. this isnt exhaustive but for the most part i just block if i dont like you.

misc.

my ask box is always open for general chatter or art requests. probably wont draw media characters but feel free to send in lotf characters, my ocs, or your ocs and i might doodle them depending on my availability.

please dont hesitate to message me if we share an interest or you just wanna talk with me. i dont bite i promise. and if you are ever so inclined to draw one of my ocs, i beg of you, please tag me or send it to me so i can scream about it and do my little autism dance while looking at it for the next 5 business days.

you can use the tags down below to look for specific stuff on my account, though i cant guarantee everythings tagged properly. i also tag reblogs with the name of the media im reblogging and the characters in the post so you can also look for stuff that way.

if youre interested in more of my yapping and / or art, heres my twitter and instagram. my discord is ihavetheconch if you want to shoot me a friend request.

[opinated-user]

Did lily just give her HP aliana oc a gardevoir for a Petronas? And also totally change the magic so it's sentient and never fades away so it can hang out with everyone?

Fanfic is self-indulgent by design, so it's fine that she does whatever she wants. The only issue I have is that LO always acts like her fics are first that aim to improve the original when they're not. All they are is super self-indulgent stories she writes for fun. Yet she dunks on other fics for the same thing. Or people who don't agree with how she writes certain things.

I'd respect her so much more if she just said 'Hey this is my fic, not a book and I do what want' rather then defend her choices as fine and pat herself on the back for fixing a story while simultaneously saying other fic writers are trash for just enjoying a trope she hates.

Side note I do find funny that she really only has like 3 stock characters she uses at nauseum and can't write anything else. But, yeah, she totally could get a book published.

i admit this could be a cute idea. some people in the fandom always speculated that the Patronus of Harry had some form of own consciousness based on how they were portrayed in the third and fifth movies, so it's not a bad idea to take that concept further and turn it into "you can create your very own best friend". if you ever heard about the concept of tulpas, beings you can create within your own mind to be independent of you, LO's essentially doing just that with a physical form. LO could have created a entirely new spell just for that, but i don't really have an issue with this being her new interpretation of patronus. my problem is the "only some patronus can talk given their form" because... why? they're already beings made of light, why biology of all things would be the thing that impedes them communicate? i guess just because LO's characters have to have the most especial pokemon/patronus by default.

... the issue that i'm already seeing is that this is literally just the exact same thing she already did with the AI that rey created. it hasn't been that long and she's already recycling her own ideas again, blatantly so. does LO even realize that or she does not care? remember that AI robot that started as basically a toddler that alaina, not rey, had to teach her about everything until the AI develops a crush on alaina? the thing that we called out as being plain grooming? think about it: -both beings are entirely dependant on another character. if rey stops the servers or brent just undoes the spell, they both cease to exist. -they're both empty shells until their creator/wife's creator takes them under their wing. as a note, how come something can be an "empty shell", but their loyalty still has to be earned? that makes no sense. -they're essentially free servants, borderline slaves. they're both told that they have free will, that they're part of the family and they aren't under anyone's control... but there's really nothing showing that because neither of these characters has any personality beyond adoring brent/alaina and how useful they're for their respective "families." do they have any hobbies? do they enjoy doing anything outside of the people who made them? can they create art? do they have imagination? do they have preferences? do they dream about mechanical sheep? we don't know, and i frankly doubt that LO even thought about it because it's not about any of them becoming actual people, it's about alaina/brent having adoring servants that they don't even need to pay.

-they both have overtly formal speech patterns regarding the "family" as if they were their superior and, despite all the talk about them not being subservient and being on equal footing, nobody seems to mind? i just don't know how equal a relationship can be when one of the parties keeps using "my lady" and being so reverent. it's almost like LO want to replicate the relationship between Sylvannas and anevay, but she missed the part about that dynamic has a different tone when it comes to a creator and the creation.

-neither that AI or this patronus have an actual option to leave their creators, even if they wanted to. they're bound to them to continue living. because of that, no matter how much talk there's about "you're part of the family", there's always going to be a power dynamic at play here that, considering who's writing, is almost for certain going to be abused in some way in the future.

as a side note, that "she's opinionated" and "she's the first one to say she isn't an slave" (even though she is because there's no talk anywhere about her having any actual indepedence or actual rights) are entirely recycling what little of a personality G has on pokemadhouse. this is just G.

[newportangels]

(in reference to ai "art" post) no bc like thank god somebody finally fucking said it like........ did we all forget how ai literally steals from other artists like you can avoid anime-fying your oc trust me

Yeah, it's okay anon It really did need to be said. It's totally insulting, not only to the artists the AI is stealing from but the artists in ssoblr like myself, and many others (who are in fact using this ai which baffles me). As an artist, you should respect the work your peers put into their art as much as your own. With the recent scare on Deviantart, I had to take down years' worth of stuff out of fear of it ending up in some similar program. I may have only really started doing full painted works recently but the fear is still very real to me. I make art for myself! I started art for me! if anything my art is very personal. The thought of it being used to train AI is just.. again insulting. I feel for all the artist's work who has been sent through programs without their consent. This isn't just about artists losing jobs or fear of technology this is about stealing from those who have no means to protect themself (some even deceased). Some of us literally do art just for kicks and have nothing stopping our art from being used commercially, we just trust people won't.

So if you're thinking of using ai, dont. Commission someone instead, or even better! draw it yourself and learn new skills.

[shinxeysartgallery]

oh so you're okay with people using AI to make ocs but not when it's using your shit? you should be ashamed of yourself

How can you support AI as an artist???

Do you people even fucking READ? 'Cause this shit sounds like you're literally just reading the first sentence, assuming what the rest is, and then getting pissed off at your own assumption, but you never actually bother to read the rest of the fucking post to know if your assumption is actually RIGHT.

I do NOT support AI as a replacement for real artists, nor do I think that AI art is real art. What I actually SAID was that I can see the utility of it being used as a TOOL OR AID for a real artist, NOT a replacement or as "real art". I gave a few examples of what I meant by it being used as a tool/aid. I never said people had to use it at all, use it in that manner, or even that I used it for that purpose (I don't, for the record). All I said and all I meant by what I said is that I see the utility.

In regards to the comment about using it to generate OC images in particular, some artists do better with a visual aid than they do with a written description. I'm not saying to AI generate images of your OCs and then run around touting it as your own art or claiming that it's real art. If an artist has aphantasia, they'd do much better with a visual aid than they would with a written description, due to their struggles/inability to picture things in their minds. Some artists don't have that, but can still struggle without a visual aid to help them. In a case like that, I think it would be a useful tool to use AI to generate a visual aid for them so they can do real art of your OC. The entire purpose of that generation would be to help those real artists complete what they were commissioned to do. I can't say that in particular is a bad thing.

As mentioned on the previous ask, I still don't think AI should be outright BANNED because of this utility. HOWEVER, there should still be strict regulations on it, because afaik there's next to none currently. Obviously, it's too late to do anything about what's already there. They can't un-train their AI or un-scrape the data; what's done is done. I think there should be fines for all the non-consensual data scraping that the AI companies must pay, and subsequent fines for any future non-consensual scrapes. I think that by itself would cut down on it a lot. There should always be a default opt-out function and YOU must make the choice to manually opt-in. If you don't opt-in and your data is scraped anyway, you should have the legal right to sue. If a website/company is planning on training AI, they should be required to disclose everything about that, from what AI company to what's getting grabbed and fed to it and for what purpose.

There are still lots of ethical concerns surrounding AI, and those need to get addressed.

And again, to re-iterate:

I DO NOT SUPPORT AI ART AS "REAL ART" OR AS A REPLACEMENT FOR REAL ARTISTS.

I DO THINK THAT IT CAN BE USED AS A TOOL OR AID FOR REAL ARTISTS, BUT NOTHING MORE.

THERE NEEDS TO BE STRICT REGULATIONS ON AI IN GENERAL.

[e-tankx]

It's theft of their skill and of their talent, and it's refusing to pay them for the work they've put into getting this far. Imagine I like someone's art style, and they've done a lot of work getting to that point, but I'd really like my personal OC in that style. Now, I could go and commission them, put money in their pocket for their work and capability, ensuring that they can continue to make art and live. Or instead of paying them I could just feed a bunch of their artwork (without their permission) to an AI to make something 'close enough' and derivative of their work. I bought access to the AI, in which case the only person who profits is some fucking silicon valley bro who is facilitating theft on a grand scale and the artist gets to be told 'Look I made something out of all your work that I love, but you're never seeing a dime, even though it's blatantly based on your previous works'. I don't see how disney would benefit from having it so that anything made with AI turns out to be immediately labeled copyright theft or even uncopyrightable, because you know disney jerks off every day with the idea of how many copyrights they actually own. Hell every 'creative' corporation does the same. Every single contract says anything you create, even on your own free time, is magically theirs forever. Making the tool that they could use to try and shove actual artists out of the creative process (While once again without permission, feeding previous arts into said tool, and no having to sign a contract in order to work doesn't count as permission, IMO that's the same shit as company stores/scrip. Incredibly anti-worker and needs to be shot into the sun.) immediately be considered as potentially infringing copyright, and even making it so anything developed via AI being uncopyrightable means that literally anyone can make use of their work. Remember how much Disney lobbied to increase the length of copyright because they were *terrified* of Mickey Mouse going public domain? Anything made with AI would be immediately in the public domain, and that's the only thing that corporations/shareholders care about. How much money they can make off of it. If it's public domain they can't charge people to show it, they can't shut down people making toys without permission, they can't do cease and desist letters towards people who are making art based on their 'work'.

So, Shockingly, they'd not use 'degenerative AI' to make their shit.

on the other end the copyright argument against ai art is just so bad. I hate how that's the most common one people use, like I'm sorry but an interpretation of copyright law that classifies images made with generative ai as "plagiarism" or "theft" would be a worst-case scenario for everyone except the walt disney corporation

[sweetaplle]

Hi!

To anyone who sees this: Welcome to my blog! Not sure if I’ve done the “mandatory introduction post” yet, and if I have, it was probably short asf lol.

I’m Aplle, your friendly neighborhood rhythm game enjoyer and cat furry on the internet! I am a HUGE fan of Rhythm Doctor and its fanon community.

I do, in fact, have an OC/sona! While yes, there’s a fursona that I have, I’d rather not share it on this account per se. I did eventually decide I want to share the fursona! It's in a reblog of art. However, the one that I use probably comes from an unlikely source: Geometry Dash.

My OC’s name is Aplle, making him more of a sona than an OC, except that as an intern of the Middlesea Hospital, he actually IS an OC!

He’s not human, but that doesn’t stop him from trying his best at the hospital. In fact, he’s his own unestablished species that no one’s really heard of, even in his own world. He can transform into a humanoid and a cube, the cube being literally just his head.

(Alt text: Sprite by wispykirby on Discord. Animation of that sprite by me.)

If you stumble across this blog, you will find content on this guy. I write fanfictions and short stories on occasion, and he’s definitely not exempt from this. In fact, I’m writing an introduction fic for him right now!

Things I won’t tolerate:

Hate on anyone that I’m friends with, such as people I’m following or even friends of friends in some cases.

Homophobes and furry haters. Get out of my sight, please!

AI art passed off as real art. (People who say it’s AI art outright, you’re fine! Keep going, it’s cool!)

Scammers or weirdos in my PMs. This is self-explanatory.

Minors DNI people. If you need minors not to interact, then don't even attempt to interact with me. Thank you.

Things I’m perfectly fine with:

Interactions with people who are nice! I’m always welcoming here, unless you’ve clearly done something that I don’t like. This is supposed to be a chill blog, after all.

Comments! Comments are wonderful and really help let me know what I can improve. You can do this on my AO3 or on my tumblr, I’ll try to post my stuff on both platforms if I don’t want to keep something from a certain platform!

Reblogs of my content. I don’t get why anybody wouldn’t want to have this done, but it’s at least nice to say in advance.

Thanks for reading through the whole post, and have a great rest of your day/night!

:3

[very-grownup]

Book 79, 2023

When Lois McMaster Bujold took a break from her Vorkosigan and Chalion serieses to write the Sharing Knife books, most of her pre-existing fans went "I am not digging this age gap rural fantasy romance" and romance novel fans went "this age gap romance in the fantasy American countryside is not romance novel enough" and I went "gosh she's having fun" because when someone is creating a piece of art or media that's wholly for them, I love their love for the work.

This is, I think, different from a certain kind of writing that Drops References to create a positive association between what you're reading and a thing you already like.

The podcast I Don't Even Own a Television (RIP) often had long digressions about music and bands and I rarely recognized the bands they were talking about, let alone possessing any kind of blanket familiarity with genres and scenes. But I loved getting a glimpse into their passions.

I hope you enjoyed this long walk to talking about Catherine Asaro's "Ascendant Sun", because I'm not sure I have ever read an author who is writing for herself and her passions as much as Catherine Asaro does.

I'm going to drop some creds both because I've literally never seen anyone but me talk about Catherine Asaro and also because I went to wikipedia to see if there were any egregious controversies like you maybe do about speculative fiction authors in this the year of our cursed lord 2023, so I have her wikipedia article open and it's fascinating stuff.

Asaro is a trained ballet and jazz dancer.

Asaro has master's degrees in physics and chemistry and a doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard.

Asaro is the daughter of one of the nuclear chemists involved in the discovery that lead to the theory that an asteroid collision caused the mass extinction event that took out the dinosaurs.

Until his death several years ago, Asaro was married to a NASA astrophysicist.

Asaro's main work is a series called the Skolian Saga. Some of the books in the Skolian Saga contain mathematical equations and quantum mechanic wave diagrams. The interstellar travel method she uses is based on a paper on special relativity that she wrote for the American Journal of Physics. I can't even begin to figure out what "spherical harmonic eigenfunctions" are. I don't understand any of it, but it appears to be the hardest of hard science baked into Asaro's worldbuilding.

Naturally, after assembling her world, Asaro has written a sprawling intergenerational political intrigue space opera full of fucking, incredibly tall, powerful, beautiful, and jacked men and women, complicated family trees and arranged marriages leading to genuine love and telepathy and telepathically enhanced super empathy sex, a planet of people who all have metallic gold pigmentation due to genetic modification for survival in that particular planet's hostile atmosphere and sun combo, AI cyberimplants and supersoldiers, with a key focus on the romantic entanglements of the members of this large family of aristocratic telepaths, members of whom are integral to the existence of intergalactic wifi.

I cannot overstate how thorough a manifestation of a certain kind of twelve-year-old girl's psyche this is, but also she has a phd. Did you ever make huge family trees because you wanted to have characters with all the different hair and eye colour combinations you thought of but also every character you came up with had to be related so they could always interact but also sometimes you just needed to make a new character to slap onto that family because you have a new interest or just saw a name in something that was too cool not to use?

Catherine Asaro is living that dream and making rocket scientists beta read about her over-powered OCs fucking.

"Ascendant Sun" is ALL OF THAT, in this specific case about Keldric, a prince of this empire and super telepath and interstellar fighter pilot and theoretical mathematician who's been missing for almost twenty years because he was stranded on a planet cut off from the wider galaxy, one ruled by warring matriarchal clans with harems of men whose value and rank is determined both by what they're bringing to the table physical-wise and what they're bringing to the table in the realm of ADVANCED MATHEMATICAL QUANTUM DICE PROBABILITY POLITICAL PREDICTION GAMES. He spent those years getting kidnapped and traded by various women and doing dice math and fucking but that was a different book, THIS book is after he fakes his death to both escape the planet and to settle some kind of brewing civil war, only to find that a tentative truce exists between his empire and their longtime enemy empire (made up of black-haired, red-eyed anti-empaths who get boners from suffering and love slavery) and also most of his immediate family is either dead or missing making him technically maybe the new hereditary military leader of the empire. Keldric has to find out what the fuck has happened while he's been presumed dead and figure out a way to claim his title and its wifi link without revealing that he's alive to definite enemies and potential enemies and yes it does involve a slave auction and a discussion on how to circumvent paying exorbitant tax on secret slave auctions.

It's fun. I can't comment on the accuracy of the science/math/sex, but it's a fun read, a sprawling, tumbling sort of narrative and we all know if a George R.R. Martin were writing this, dudes would be all over it.

It's got a buff shirtless Keldric in sex slave clothes on the cover while a sexy lady all in black ogles him from her setee.

I hope Catherine Asaro's having a good day.