#It’s for every artist who was bullied for being new and not having a lot of skill yet

[karmathehalflander]

I’m going to get some hate with this one but it needs to be said.

STOP HARASSING CREATORS FOR CREATING MPREG CONTENT!!!

I’ll say it again. Stop 👏 harassing 👏 creators 👏 who 👏 create 👏 Mpreg 👏 content 👏

it doesn’t affect you and there is nothing wrong with anyone creating or enjoying content involving male or nonbinary presenting pregnancy! And I think it’s a bit transphobic to suggest that Male presenting pregnancy is weird or gross. As if it isn’t something that exists in real life! Trans men and nonbinary individuals have children all the fucking time and you need accept that fact.

also, stop going on posts of creators being like “are you the person who drew that thing?! Yano, ‘that’ thing? 💀💀” Mpreg is not a curse word and it’s weird that you think it’s weird. And it’s really rude of you to come in and act like they did something disgusting.

this isn’t saying you need to like said content. It’s fine if it’s not your cup of tea.

And it’s also ok to criticize content that may fetishize people and experiences. But harassing people is never the way to go. It’s not your place to bully and harass people.

Not to mention what you are doing by stigmatizing a mostly queer experience. You are hurting people and being rude for no reason!

I’m so sick of seeing talented people be shunned and harassed and struggle with their mental health for something as simple as Mpreg!

(also this stands for anything. Don’t harass people for making fan content that you don’t like. It’s ok to call out genuinely problematic behavior but harassment gets us nowhere)

and I’m ready for the hate. I’m ready for angry people. But I can’t stand it anymore.

please stop.

[erika-xero]

Thoughts on ai and Art

What has Ai really changed for me is the perception of my own art. Years back, I was extremely concerned of my work being imperfect: everything had to look "right", the anatomy had to be flawless, the lines - clean and refined. The pipe-line had to be flawless too: minimal amount of layers, one - for lines, one - for colors, and a few for lighting/shading.

Meanwhile I was yearning for chaos and the standard pipe-line felt too strict, too limiting. I finished the drawing and cried over the imperfections, but I could not let myself create a new layer and just paint it all over as I wanted to - that would "mess up my perfect psd". This was even harder because I started as a traditional artist and traditional art is basically the same as drawing on one layer or stacking the layers on top of each other whenever you wish to change anything. I was so obsessed with the anatomy/perspective looking right that my works started looking boring and stiff. If I was not sure that I would be able to draw a certain body part at a certain angle ANATOMICALLY PERFECT - I just refused to draw it at all. Drawing back then was HARD. I forced too much limitations upon myself, I was so scared of making any mistakes and thus did everything I could to avoid the risk to fail. It felts like an entire world would see me failing and everyone - literally everyone - will disapprove. And don't get me wrong - the art community in my country has always been astonishingly toxic. We had, like, a group of 20 THOUSANDS individuals hunting down children online and bullying them into oblivion for drawing anime and furry characters in their school textbooks. And pretty much everyone except a small group of people (which I was a part of) thought that it's absolutely fine and this is how the things should be. Even the industry professionals were absolutely sure that young artists have to suffer and be ashamed of everything they do unless it is absolutely flawless at an any aspect. I was ashamed of everything I did back then. I was ashamed of drawing and posting sketches because I felt like they are not good enough to be shown to anyone. And then the Ai-boom started. And I had mixed feelings because I was not THAT scared, but I was somewhat disappointed of people? General public praised the generated slop ignoring the mistakes far worse than what real artists got bullied for for DECADES. The synthetic artworks are shiny. They are overrendered. They are liveless, boring, they lack fundamentals and yet somehow people viewed them as some kind of a miracle. I decided to learn how does those little machines generated their slop out of morbid curiosity, just to make sure that I got it right and it is spitting out cadavers created from mutilated, dismembered works of real artists. Used by people who did not care enough to pick up a bloody pencils. And I thought: why would I care enough to look at something that no one bothered to create? And then I started seeing everything I do completely different. I suddenly stopped caring of being perfect. Every piece I have ever done, every work I was crying over for it being ugly, every messy sketch and unfinished doodle suddenly started to matter a lot. Not that I stopped caring of doing my best, no. I stopped wishing to disown my own mistakes. They are my own. I cared enough to try and fail and to try again, and fail so badly that I wanted to cry, scream and throw up. And I repeated the cycle for long enough that I started to enjoy my silly doodles and started loving every tiny imperfection because this is what made my art so human. I still suck at drawing hands and feet. My line-art is messy and I started doing it right on top of my colored sketch. My pipe-line is in chaos and my PSDs look like a total mess of three hundreds of layers. I draw sketches with huge-ass round brush only adding the details that really matters. My works are better than they could ever be because they feel alive and chaotic as we human had always been. This is a love letter to my art and write it while flipping off my middle finger to the cadavers generated by the machine. I will not be stopped by glorified autocomplete and I refuse to be outdone by people who confuse googling an image with the act of creation.

My worst drawing is better than any of the generative imagery out there, because I cared drawing it.

[stuckybangs]

Thank you to all the participants in this year's reverse bang! We're thrilled to present the incredible 34 collaborations in this round! From the artists, to authors, to betas, pinch hitters and cheerleaders, we thank you all for being a part of this year's bang!

Under the cut you'll find all the collaborations from this year. Enjoy!

Touch Me and You'll Never Be Alone [not rated, wip] art by @metalbvcky written by @hanitrash

Bucky is barely managing to get by on his own, but is proud of the small, safe life he's created for himself. He's even content to thirst in secret over the insanely hot older man that recently moved to the area. But when a popped tire and an early season winter storm combine to throw their paths together, Bucky's carefully constructed life is about to get flipped upside down.

hold my body (hold my breath) [Teen, 2/2, 16k] art by @alwaysabrighterdarkness written by @teenytabris

“You were born in a storm. On a rocking boat, too. Maybe that’s where all this started,” his ma had said, kissing his head and rocking him in her arms. “Demanded to come into the world in an in-between place. Couldn’t wait to get to America,” she joked. Steve didn’t know what that meant, but he did know that even imagining a boat out there, getting tossed by waves, made him feel ill enough that even looking at the rain made him retch weakly. His ma tutted, and pressed a hand to his forehead. -- Steve has always had an all-consuming fear of water, and nearly drowning twice only made it worse. One day, after just turning on a tap sends him spiraling, he has to consider what his breaking point is.

Runaway [Teen, 8/8, 20k] art by @alwaysabrighterdarkness written by @mandyyvibes

Steve still felt a little guilty that Bucky was willing to do all that for him. Did he really deserve his unconditional loyalty? He could’ve picked anyone at school to be best friends with, but he picked him, and Steve would never know how he got so lucky. The thought of running away was comforting, anyway, even if maybe they couldn’t actually leave for a while. Days, weeks, months. — In which Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes grow up together under circumstances that no child should have to face, and Bucky paints Steve daydreams of a better life together, if only they could run far enough.

Finding You With Open Arms [Gen, 1/1, 8.5k] art by @taybay14 written by LuxuryVelvetStudebaker

Coming home means the big things are the little things

Some legends are told [Explicit, 2/2, 26k] art by @rufferto9 and @chaosmanor (additional art) written by @chaosmanor

Twenty-eight billion kilometers. Four thousand years. That's how far Bucky has gone to get away from HYDRA, and that's how far Steve will have to go to bring him home.

The art of shadowboxing [Explicit, wip] art by @burnin-brighter written by @dharmasharks

In 1918, Bucky is forced to flee New York with his family. In 1923, he returns as a prize fighter, determined to send money to his sisters and stay far away from the gang violence that destroyed their home. And then Steve Rogers shows up. These days, Bucky’s childhood pal isn’t facing down neighborhood bullies. He’s taking on every factory owner in the Garment District—and every gangster they hire to intimidate union members. By joining the fray as Steve’s bodyguard, Bucky can finally stand up to the mobsters who took so much from him. And if that means spending a whole lot of time by Steve’s side…well, that’s just an added bonus.

In the Mood to Let You Know [Mature, wip] art by @burnin-brighter written by @voylitscope

Bucky's never liked keeping secrets from Steve, but there are a few things he hasn't told his best friend over the years. These days? There are three. The two new ones he begins keeping in the summer of 1925, and that one massive secret he's been holding onto since 1918. (Or: During the height of the 1918 flu outbreak in New York, a seveneteen-year-old Steve spends a month indoors. Steve and Bucky write letters to pass the time and keep in communication. By the time Steve is out and about again, they've said a few things they'll never say out loud.At least not until 1925, when Bucky can't seem to stop running into Steve in unexpected places. )

Desert Fires [Explicit, 1/1, 9.6k] art by @zanthems written by @buckybarnesdeservestobehappy

Bucky doesn’t plan to end up high and naked in the desert with stars shining in the heavens and his eyes with his dick deep inside a dainty, beautiful man with sparkling sapphire eyes and chapped, bitten lips that drive all coherent thoughts from his mind. He didn’t intend for any of it to happen, but that’s where he’s found himself, nonetheless.

Coffee, Sugar, and Pine [Mature, wip] art by @taybay14 written by @buckybarnesdeservestobehappy

There’s nothing Bucky loves more than his cat Alpine and an excellent cup of coffee. After three tours in the army, he’s probably earned a few breaks and an IV of caffeine. When he steps into a café in Brooklyn where a spunky redhead mans the cash register and a sassy blonde with sparkling blue eyes concocts delicious hot beverages, Bucky realizes he’s found his perfect drink and perhaps his ideal mate. Now, he can’t stop thinking about how to guarantee that he’ll have both for the rest of his life.

Let's Do It [Teen, wip] art by @skullfragments written by @trinitydaydabbles

Even before Steve drags him up before the crack of dawn to go running, Bucky is already plotting his revenge. If only Steve didn't know him so well, maybe the day wouldn't devolve into a game of one-upmanship.

Human Lens [Teen, wip] art by @taybay14 written by @chaossmagic

Torn from his old life and dumped unceremoniously in the 21st century, and then having to face an alien attack just months after coming out of the ice, Steve Rogers is struggling to come to terms with everything he's lost and isn't sure the title of Captain America is one he feels 100% comfortable with anymore. Alone, deeply lonely and desperate for anything to help him feel like his old self again, he stumbles across the work of fellow veteran and photographer Bucky Barnes, who specialises in helping wounded soldiers reclaim their bodily autonomy and sense of self after injury in combat. When he asks Bucky to take his own photograph, he finds the connection he's been looking for the entire time. And, as it just so happens, Bucky finds exactly the same thing.

Taking Pictures [Gen, wip] art by @taybay14 written by @leavinghopeao3

Reporter Steve Rogers and photojournalist Bucky Barnes stumble across a conspiracy at the heart of the United States government. Will they be able to stop it before it's too late? And will this fight bring them closer together?

lost to time [Mature, wip] art by @rufferto9 written by @burnin-brighter

As Steve returns the last Infinity Stone, he realizes there is nothing for him to return to in 2024. His friends, the ones who are still here, have families they want to be with or people they need to help. Steve has no one. Bucky died in 1944, Natasha died on Vormir, Tony perished in the fight with Thanos. What is he supposed to do? There are many options in front of him, though before he can make up his mind, a ghost from his past appears. Could it really be his Bucky?

A Game for Two [Mature, 1/1, 9.9k] art by einahpets written by @dontcallmebree

Steve will never forget the itch under his skin, the need to peel the world back until it finally felt right. He knows he would have gotten it then, would’ve finally latched his teeth around this amorphous, unnamable thing that had been haunting him if it weren’t for the Winter Soldier. If it weren’t for Bucky. And ain’t that a trip and a half—if not for Bucky. Story of his fucking life. The hands of fate are familiar, loving, and too cruel by half.

Til the End of the Line [Teen, 7/7, 14.7k] art by @taybay14 written by @xoxobuckybarnes

Back home after their first tour, the Avengers are getting ready to record their second album - they just have to write it first. Lead singer, Bucky Barnes, struggles to write a song that's not about his childhood best friend, the drummer of the band, Steve Rogers. The problem is, Steve has no idea how Bucky feels about him. When another childhood friend starts leaning on Steve, Bucky must decide if it's time to let his crush go, or to finally be brave and let Steve know how he feels.

Plan Bee [Gen, 1/1, 15k] art by britbrit99 written by @hkandiu

Steve is still getting used to the 21st century and begins to frequent farmers markets, where he becomes a regular customer of Shield Apiary, a small business selling all things honey. As he enters that sweet chapter of his life, Tony decides to take on a new project - finding someone for Steve! Steve lies to the team that he's already dating someone but before he can come clean, Tony reaches the wrong conclusion that Steve is dating one of the owners of Shield. Except, Steve's never met Bucky, much less gone on a date. Becca somehow talks the men into pretending to date to help Steve, and the month isn't what anyone expected...

The Beekeeper & The Gardener [Gen, 10/10, 13k] art by britbrit99 written by E_Greer

Every morning, Bucky likes to greet the dawn and watch morning runner guy. Every morning, Steve likes to sip his coffee and watch plant guy. One morning, runner guy and plant guy meet.

Let Us Partake in Summer’s Bounty [Teen, 1/1, 11.8k] art by britbrit99 written by @theflailing

Spring was one of Steve’s favourite seasons; it was a time of renewal and intention, a time to plant the seeds of things that will yet bear fruit, both literal and metaphorical. It was a time when the chilly grip of winter gave way to the lush green of new growth; it was when the world took its first deep breath and stretched its limbs after the long, somber solitude that preceded it. Although Steve was born in the height of summer, his mother always said that he did not belong there. “I did a reading, the day you were born,” she would tell him often, a soft and loving sparkle in her eyes. “Your heart belongs to the springtime; it is an omen that marks your soul.” -8- Steve is never one to turn down a request for help, and as he prepares to accept this call for aid, he reflects on his life, the friends he has made, and the community he serves.

I'll Use You (As A Focal Point) [Teen, wip] art by @taybay14 written by @lynlee494

The Soldier’s understanding of the world begins to unravel after he completes a mission and finds a helpless, shivering, and soaking wet kitten. Unable to leave, knowing the frail thing will die in the elements, the Soldier makes a choice... The Soldier can not risk contact, capture, and the inevitable return to Hydra and captivity would bring. He may remember Steve Rogers, but he also remembers Captain America. Similarly enhanced, the Captain would have the advantage, the Soldier’s movement would be limited with the kitten’s safety to consider.A surveillance approach is the safest angle to take. There had been notebooks at the museum exhibit, so there may be more memories to be dredged up if Steve Rogers still keeps journals, keepsakes, things that may stir up more memories - more pieces to fill in the expanse between Bucky and the Soldier.He’ll seek out Steve Rogers, who seems to feature in nearly every memory with Bucky, but he’ll be cautious. Can hopefully glean from the exposure more about the time before Bucky – before he – was presumed dead in a war. From before Steve’s Bucky became Hydra’s, time stuttering by till the Soldier was born.

5 Times Bucky Tricked Steve Into Washing His Hair +1 Time He Didn’t Have To Ask [Explicit, 8/8, 34.8k] art by @taybay14 written by @norelationtoatticus

During the worst of his recovery, Steve used to wash Bucky’s hair for him. Now, Bucky is a semi-stable hundred year old man who can bathe all by himself… but he misses Steve washing his hair for him. Asking for it? Out of the question. Lies, subterfuge, and expertly crafted machinations to manipulate Steve’s big, soapy hands right where he wants them? Much more Bucky’s style.

Piece By Piece [not rated, 10/10, 34.7k] art by @skullfragments written by @taybay14

Steve and Bucky are discovered on the bank of the Potomac & brought to Stark Tower. From the beginning, everyone has one thing on their mind: Help Bucky. It’s going to be hard, but they're ready to give it everything they’ve got - and they’re the Avengers, so they’ve got quite a lot. *** “Hey, Buck,” Steve says, his voice soft. Bucky lays on his side, pressing a cheek to the soft carpeting, wishing he hadn’t ruined all his blankets. He hates feeling cold and it’s a little cold in his room. “You don’t have to talk or come out or anything, but… I’m going to lay here, okay? All night. I’m going to stay right here so you don’t forget that it’s different now. So you don't forget that you’re safe. You’re not alone.” Bucky doesn’t know what to say to that. Even if he did know, his tongue is doing that heavy-sticky thing again. Instead, he slides his flesh fingers under the crack in the door, barely able to fit the tips, and waits. A moment passes. Then Steve’s fingers are pressing right back. And maybe Steve is right. Maybe things are different, maybe he is safe, maybe he’s not alone. Maybe - just maybe - he’ll be able to get himself back after all, piece by piece.

Now That I've Met You [Teen, 3/3, 11k] art by @louikazooie written by @megs-bee

First day back from vacation, not even inside the building yet and Bucky’s boss calls, telling him to head straight up to the executive suite. “The short version is that we’ve found ourselves with a VIP who needs a personal assistant immediately,” Pepper sighs. “The longer version is that we discovered the previous assistant was selling information on said VIP’s schedule and other high-security details which resulted in, among other issues, an attempted…let’s call it assault.” Pepper hands over the StarkPad open to what Bucky recognizes as a personnel file. Commander S. G. Rogers. If he’d been drinking his coffee at that moment, he’d have choked.

The Rest Are Stories To Tell [Teen, wip] art by @taybay14 written by @endlesstwanted

After he broke free from HYDRA with Steve and his new friends’ help, Bucky is working on reconnecting with himself living in the Avengers Tower with his cat Alpine. Soon, a dream brings back memories of his time as the Winter Soldier and one specific location in which he supervised experiments like the ones he went through. The team works together to figure out what’s real and puts the pieces together to prepare against a potential hidden thread by HYDRA before they run out of time —or the experiments run out of time. What would happen if, on top of this, Bucky discovered a secret related to Steve and me that would tie them together more than they have ever been?

out of the darkness, out into the light [Mature, wip] art by bergamotene written by @burnin-brighter

There were very few things Bucky disliked in life, although chaperoning his sister at every ball of the season was one of them. It was boring, long, and overall unpleasant. Or it used to be, until the day Bucky laid eyes on the most beautiful man he had ever seen at such an event. The man wasn’t familiar, Bucky would have remembered seeing him before. And after the first night, Bucky saw him everywhere. While he slept, while he daydreamed, while he walked around town. There was no escaping this stranger. And perhaps Bucky did not want to. What was the worst that could happen if Bucky were to let himself give in to his thoughts, to his urges?

Penumbra [not rated, 1/1, 12.7k] art by bergamotene written by @bonky-bornes

There was nothing more dangerous than having a soulmate. That’s what James had been taught his entire life. Being bound to another, life for life, got one killed just as surely as treason. Anyone with the mark of a binding was executed. Kings and peasants alike, it didn’t matter. There was nothing more dangerous than secondary loyalty to your Kingdom. James mastered the art of knives and silence, he learned to move like a shadow, unseen and inescapable. Bondeds were a disease, and he was a cure. He’d rather have his hands stained red than see his people suffer. Bondeds killed to protect one life. James killed to protect them all. - The Northern and Southern Kingdoms have been at war over Bonded Pairs for years. When a temporary armistice is proposed, and James is invited to the Southern Kingdom, it's one last chance to find a way towards peace.

No Better Version of Me [Teen, 3/3, 26.8k] art by @koreanrage written by @film-in-my-soul

Like Steve’s got a shooting star fused to his pulse (and hell, it just might be), he makes a wish. Thanos is stopped from making the snap. But just because Steve managed to save everyone else, it doesn't mean he can save himself.

no years of silence in the shadow of regret [Gen, 1/1, 9.7k] art by @koreanrage written by @hipsterdiva

“I’m fine,” Steve says again without looking at him. “You don’t have to stay.” It takes a while, and for a second, Steve thinks that perhaps Bucky will get up, pack his bag and his cat and leave. For a second, Steve hopes that’s what’s gonna happen. Then Bucky speaks. “I know,” he says. And stays. Or, Steve has baggage, communication is difficult, and (baby) steps are taken.

A Safe Place To Land [Explicit, wip] art by @kahey2804 written by @gloromeien

Bucky Barnes had it all—grease under his fingernails, dog fur behind the cushions of his couch, a cozy place to call his own. The house, the truck, the dogs, the works. A ride-or-die, close-knit community. A patch of land he could wander. A mountain view to inspire him. After six tours of duty and nine months in captivity, Bucky knew how bad things could get, so he didn't dare ask for anything else. Especially not someone to hold. Until a tall, blond super-soldier crash-landed into his quiet life and threatened to make all his dreams come true. For now.

Soul Mates and Circumstances [Explicit, wip] art by @kahey2804 written by @sunriserose1023

It’s a classic story. Boy meets boy, they share an instant connection. They have a night of pure heaven, and then life steps in. That’s the story for Bucky and Steve. They had one great night, then radio silence. Until they manage to cross paths again, but they seem destined to ghost each other. Maybe it’s just not meant to be. But what if it is?

All Along - It Was You [Explicit, 8/8, 34.k] art by @burnin-brighter written by @taybay14

It all started with a suggestion from Natasha - which should have been Steve's first clue that it'd end in trouble. She suggests a BDSM club that allows photostatic veils for anonymity, knowing Steve has growing desires he's been desperate to explore. Of course, she didn't bother to warn him of three very important facts: 1. Bucky Barnes is a member of this club 2. Bucky Barnes is apparently gay 3. Bucky Barnes is a dom Steve is stunned when he comes face to (veiled) face with Bucky Barnes himself his first night at the club. His brain malfunctions. Surely, that's the only reason why he does the incredibly idiotic thing of accepting Bucky's invitation to play with him. He knows he shouldn't - but what will one night of lies hurt? One night to scratch the itch, to get Bucky Barnes out of his system once and for all, and then Steve can move on. Except when Bucky keeps giving him chances for more, Steve finds himself unable to walk away. Like Steve said before... trouble. Unfortunately for him, he's always been a magnet for that kind of thing.

Complicate this world you've wrapped for me (I'm acquainted with your suffering) [Explicit, wip] art by LadyGigi written by @hanitrash

The Captain is sent on a mission to prove his ability to perform without the assistance of a STRIKE team. What he doesn’t know is that it’s more than his competence being tested…because if he passes, the face of HYDRA—and the fate of the world—will be forever changed.

Stephanos of the Glade [Explicit, 9/9, 22.6k] art by @murkycrush written by @wolfiefics

Escaped gladiator slave Iacomus discovers a new path in life as a guardian of a mysterious glade and it's equally godlike inhabitor, Stephanos, the river god of the Aneine River. With Stephanos' intercession, he learns to live a life outside of slavery with the help of Artemis, Ares, Demeter, and many other Greek/Roman gods. He finds his purpose in helping Stephanos protect the river from one who would cause it harm. Possibly to the death.

Covert Display [Explicit, 1/1, 8k] art by @murkycrush written by @buckybarnesdeservestobehappy

For decades, Bucky suffered, but he’s finally back with Steve, completing missions together, and going home to a shared apartment. Despite their past, nothing’s happened between them since waking up in the twenty-first century. Until it does. Bucky just never intended for anyone else to see.

I Wanna Break a Sweat, Eating Your Juicy Cake [Explicit, 1/1, 13.4k] art by @mxaether written by @theflailing

When Bucky finally has some time off work, he books a flight to DC to visit his best friend and old college roommate, Sam. While there, Bucky decides that he needs to blow off some steam, and a Grindr hookup is exactly the thing that will scratch that itch. When the hottest guy on the planet starts sexting him, Bucky can't believe his luck. But the universe has more in store for Bucky than he ever could have hoped for, and with the luck that he's about to have, maybe he should buy a lottery ticket, because it feels like all of his dreams are coming true.

Thank you again to all the participants this year!

[olderthannetfic]

Seems like there are a lot of people who write here I wanna ask what do you do if you're under a writer's block?

I've been writing consistently for over a year, published around 400k words on ao3 and after a few unpleasant events that happened to me in my previous fandom around June I can't bring myself to write anymore.

Without going into details it didn't have to do with my writing just regular fandom drama in a discord server, friendship coming to an end, etc, etc. Not that I was bullied for my writing or anything.

Idk if it's that bad experience or what but since then every time I try to write I feel like I'm writing some cringe. I go back and reread what I published and its obvious that its not as cringy as I think it is but with my new writing every line feels so incredibly wrong.

I tried editing my previous work to get into the mood. Didn't work.

I tried doing the camp nano thing, didn't even make one inch of the progress.

I tried not writing and letting it go also didn't work since I found a new fandom and I'm genuinely excited about it and I want to write for it and have like dozen of ideas.

I tried doing that Artists Way, didn't work on me.

I sort of don't know what else to do. Any tips?

--

I think you have to let go of the first draft being good just to let yourself get some words down.

But also... that's a lot of writing. Maybe you're a bit burnt out too? Even if you're excited about ideas, maybe you do need to do some self care after the emotional turmoil?

[msmargarita]

✨🤓Johnathon/🕳️ Spot Headcanons✨

These are some headcanons I wrote for my two fics:

i'm not going to turn into a cosmic anomaly and leave you forever

and

i'm really serious this time, baby

It has !!spoilers!! for both of those fics!

It's basically an AU unless I somehow foresaw the future and guessed what happens in BTSV!

Beware the keep reading button. This is HUGE.

🤓 Johnathon HCs!

HE IS A GEMINI. Like come on. Talks a lot, nerdy, silly guy. He is a canonically silly guy! In his first fight with Miles he pretends to have hurt his nose (he doesn’t have one) to trick him. So silly! I would bet there's Capricorn somewhere in there too. And Pisces. I’ll make this man’s whole birth chart if you dare me. Just dare me. I’m insane.

Jason Schwartzman used to be in a band in the 00s. I think it would be cool if Johnathon also had some sort of interest in music. I think he would have tried to learn guitar in college but only got a few chords in before life got too chaotic and every now and then he thinks of picking it back up. 

He is also one of those guys who fanboys over old ass music, especially from the 60s and 70s. Loves Jazz, Funk and Prog Rock. Look at this man and tell me he is not a prog rock guy. He is a nerd, he might even be *shudders* a math rock guy. I also think he would have one completely random favorite artist that has nothing to do with the things listed above, like, idk Lizzo. Or Princess Nokia. He just looks like the type.

I think everyone agrees Johnathon is at least in his thirties, but I put him down as thirty-three in the end. I did that because Olivia is thirty-five tops in ITSV (according to Peter) and since he was her subordinate it makes sense that he would be just a little bit younger than her. 

“But hey! That's too young to get a PhD!” you might say, but I think Johnny is an overachiever. I think he was one of those super genius kids that got in early in college and lived for academia. A teacher's pet even.

He is a workaholic, so when he quits his job he gets really lost and doesn't know what to do with himself. He might have a new job soon doing what he loves, so you’re going to need to be on his ass so he doesn’t fall back into his old habit of overworking. 

I like to think that Miles would get an internship under Johnathon a few years in the future and they would learn a lot together. Jonathan would probably take a week to figure out he is Spider-Man and would cover for him when the boy needs to disappear. This actually sounds like a fun drabble to write about.

Johnathon may be a genius, but like he said, he is not too familiar with relationships. I think he might've had one or two in the past, but everything slowed down when he started working at Alchemax. “I’ve been told” is referring to those past relationships, in which he was probably told that he works too much and never has time to spend with his partners. He’s not been with anyone for a long time and his game consists of buying the first comic book he saw on a shelf in order to ask you out.

But that doesn't mean he is cold. Quite the opposite really, Johnathon is very touchy-feely. He hasn't been with anyone for a while and misses touching and being touched. He is most comfortable when being at least 70% curled around you. 

He smokes Dunhill Carltons (he likes to feel fancy), but less now that he isn't as stressed from work. Like he said, he used to go on walks to smoke and pass by the comic book store you work at before you guys had even met. I like to think he developed a little crush back then.

Had his tattoos done in college, so they are very faded now. He doesn’t think of redoing them because the mere thought of having to stay seated for hours in the same place feeling pain stresses him out. He was a lot more easygoing when he had them done.

He did have a superhero phase when he was a kid. He would fantasize a lot about having superpowers and flying away when the bullies showed up. Never thought about fighting back. Before becoming the Spot, he wasn't the confrontational type. The hero thing fizzled out as he grew older, but he would always dream about being stronger. Being a better version of himself in a kinda superficial, but understandable way.

He still has a bunch of action figures, he thinks they look cool. If you give him one, he won't even care if he knows the character or not, he just likes them.

Even though Johanthon says he is “good-looking”, he does add “for a scientist” in the end. I think he tries to mask his insecurities with humor, always putting himself down with a joke, always saying he’s too old, too corny, too nerdy. In the back of his head he knows the hair and the glasses are kind of a look, but he doesn’t feel handsome. You help as much as you can, but that’s an obstacle for him to overcome by himself. I think after i’m really serious this time, baby he gets better at this.

🕳️ The Spot HCs!

For clarification: the story of i’m not gonna turn into a cosmic anomaly and leave you forever stretches the plot of ATSV to a few weeks instead of a day. Just think of it like Spot taking a little longer to power up instead of a few hours.

Since he was forced to do crime to survive, I think he would've thought to himself: "Well, since I have to go rob a store anyway, might as well be that one where that cute cashier works at." 

Yes, Spot starts tracking and following you after you two meet. He uses his computer nerd powers for evil. A very unhealthy way of dealing with a crush, I think.

Spot can eat but he doesn't get any nutritional value from food. When you drink wine together or when he burns his tongue (?) from tea it's just a placebo effect. I like to think that Johnathon's mind is still inside The Spot's body, so he eats just for habit. He says he gets hungry all the time, but it's actually a deep need to consume everything around him. The little rascal.

As he powers up, Spot gets more confident in himself. He thinks the stronger he gets the further away he gets from Johnathon, his old self. Which, in the end, turns out to be true.

I think at first you don't really believe Spot is an actual supervillain which is why when you see him after the fight in Mumbattan it's such a shock. In a way, you did the same thing Miles did when he underestimated him, even if for whole different reasons. I think even though he knows you care about him, Spot knows you don't see him as a threat and that makes him want to impress you more. 

Spot knows that the reason you keep getting new jobs is because his own crazy supervillain life keeps interfering with yours, so he tries to keep it as much hidden from you as possible. He thinks what you don’t know can’t hurt you! As Johnathon, he feels guilty at first that you’re changing your whole life to go with him to New Jersey, BUT this time it was your choice! Not because of supervillain shenanigans!

He does love you (even if it was too early to know) and wants to be with you, but his head is so lost in the supervillain game, he thinks he can’t stop now. You never really realized how serious he was about “being stronger”. Which is why you never tried to stop him.

I chose I’d Rather Be With You as a theme song because I think it’s a song Johnathon/Spot would enjoy. But I also like how the lyrics match both their feelings towards you, in both fics. He wants to fly away with you once he gets all powered up, he loves your smile, etc. He does want to be your friend until the end as the Spot, but as Johanthon he is really committed to work on his bad habits in order to be with you. We gon' make it this time, baby! I cry, damnit. 

It’s also a surprisingly gender-neutral song, with no physical descriptions in it! Anyone can put themselves in the lover's place. Bootsy Collins is cool like that.

I like to think that, in the end, Spot didn't erase himself from the timeline. He just reloaded an old save. Does that make sense? Like you said, your relationship will always have happened, just in an old, non existent dimension. And since Johnathon and you still get dreams and deja vu about the whole thing (think of it as dimensional residue or whatever), you do have all the EXP of the old save. Johnathon, after going through the literal end of all existence and then forgetting about it, feels something compelling him to finally take a chance and enter the comic book store. It’s like when your body goes through something and it remembers later, even if your mind doesn't. Here's a (hopefully) comprehensive timeline:

the end.

Thank you for taking an interest in my weird AU! I would kill for you 💖

[redgoldsparks]

March Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 4 by Ryoko Kui

I'm reading these books so fast I can barely remember which parts of the plot happened in which volume but know that I am still having a great time!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 5 by Ryoko Kui

Oh, this story has taken a darker turn, and also just introduced a whole bunch more characters. Will I be able to keep track of them all? I hope so!

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, read by Anne Flosnik 

Unfortunately, this is definitely the weakest Robin Hobb book I've read so far. I was expecting to like it less than the glorious, 5-star previous trilogy, but I actually think I'm going to skip the rest of the Rain Wild Chronicles and read summaries online to get to the next Fitz books. This book follows five main POV characters. This works fairly well for the first half, when the characters are all in different physical locations. However once all of the characters meet up, we start getting the same scene from multiple different POVs, which feels extremely repetitive. Also, almost EVERY SCENE includes a flashback, often a lengthy flashback, sometimes to something that happened only the previous day and could have been told as present-moment action. This writing choice baffled me. It's something I can't remember struggling with in any of Hobb's previous books, but by the end it was driving me up a wall. The book also moved very slowly; the stakes feel lower, and the character far less emotionally true than in the two Fitz trilogies. Disappointing, but I will keep moving forward towards the next part of the series I want to read.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 6 by Ryoko Kui

Damn, a lot of characters get murdered in this volume! Good thing almost everyone who dies in the dungeon can be revived. Also, very excited to finally meet the cat ninja I've been seeing fan art of since before I even started the series :3

Delicious in Dungeon vol 7 by Ryoko Kui

I am still completely caught up in this series. I love the glimpse of Senshi's past revealed in this volume, and the lore of the dungeon that is still being revealed. There was a line in here about how the dungeon leaves you alone if you don't ask much of it, but that if you have strong desires it throws even more obstacles into your way. Our heroes have such big goals right now, but they're marching ahead regardless!

School Trip by Jerry Craft 

A satisfying new installment in the New Kid series from funny, talented, charming Jerry Craft! I appreciated how this volume started to complicate some of the students who had been left a bit one-dimensional in previous books. Several people stood up to and called out a bully; new friendships were built; and Jordan Banks left Paris even more inspired than ever to follow his dreams of becoming an artist. This series has a lot of jokes, but also a lot of heart!

A Frog in Fall (and Later On) by Linnea Sterte 

Minor frog is less than a year old, and is dismayed when winter begins to steal all of the light and warmth from his world. Instead of bunking down safely with his mentor to wait for spring, he sets out on a journey with two vagabond toads passing by on a quest to make it all the way to the tropics. They tramp through the Japanese countryside, encountering tree spirits, new friends, dangers, and views the likes of which minor frog had never even imagined. This is a gorgeous book; every page worth pouring over, an economy of line and detail building a beautiful and mysterious world of talking animals and miniature packaged foods. Made me want to draw.

Dark Rise by CS Pacat read by Christian Coulson 

In 1820s London, orphaned Will tries to earn enough as a dockworker to survive- and evade the killers pursuing him. Violet dresses in her half-brother's clothes and sneaks onto a ship in the Thames to watch a man be branded with his master's mark. Katherine excitedly anticipates her engagement to one of London's richest and most mysterious lords; his gallantry nearly makes up for the fact that he's twice her age. And in the bowels of one of that lord's ships, James tortures a man for information. All of these characters are 16 or 17 years old, but all of them are tangled in an ancient conflict between the Light and the Dark which stretches back into an age of magic before history. This is CS Pacat's YA fantasy debut, and it contains a lot of tropes very familiar to both YA and high fantasy- there are shades of both Tolkien and Rowling in this. Its fast-paced and action-packed, but especially in the first third of the story, the characters all felt fairly thin. None of them have quirks, hobbies, career hopes, relationships outside of immediate family, school, or work; or much more than a brief sketch of past. It took until the mid-way point for what I consider Pacat's major strengths as a writer to emerge: intense, homoerotic interpersonal sparring between characters operating under major power imbalances. Every scene in which the seductive, manipulative, powerful evil gay faced off against the good boy chosen one crackled with energy. Unfortunately, there were only four of these scenes in the whole book. It ends on a cliff-hanger, because of course it does, with a tempting set up for book two; but that doesn't entirely excuse the fact that the first 50% felt like set up. I will definitely keep reading, but long-time Pacat fans should take note that this is toned down version of what I expected based on Captive Prince.

Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls (re-read before event)

What an accomplishment! I savored every page of Feeding Ghosts, absolutely floored by the labor and courage that went into the writing of this book. The inking is gorgeous, the history is clear, digestible, and devastating. This book threads the line between honesty and compassion in a way that I appreciate so much in any memoir, but especially one dealing with family. Hulls lays out the story of three generations of women starting with her grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist who faced intense persecution during the rise of Communism in China, who penned a popular and scandalous memoir and then suffered a mental breakdown. This left her only daughter, Rose, a student at an elite boarding school with no parental figures and no other family to lean on. Eventually Rose earned a scholarship to an American university and in the end moved her mother into her California home. Sun Yi haunted that home during the author's own childhood. The unexamined trauma and codependency of Sun Yi and Rose drove the author to the extreme edges of the Earth, seeking freedom from their ghosts. But in the end, she stopped running from her family history and turned, instead, to face it. Shelve this book with Maus, Fun Home, Persepolis and The Best We Could Do. Re-read it for a second time and got even more out of it on a second pass.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 8 by Ryoko Kui

Laios and company realize that their encounter with changling mushroom rings had more consequences than they'd realized- its the body swap episode! This visual humor is contrasted against increasing dangers from both above and below, as nastier monsters and political machinations begin to close in on our heroic adventuring party. I'm now over halfway through this series and almost feel like I should start reading it more slowly to savor it, but I'll probably just keep devouring it instead.

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham

High school senior Val grew up knowing her family was unlucky in love; for generations, relationships in her family have ended in heartbreak. Her childhood love of Valentines Day ends with a shocking family revelation and what feels like the beginning of a curse. Then her Vietnamese grandmother sweeps her off to a Lunar New Year celebration in downtown Oakland and a pair of cute lion dancer boys catch her eye. Could one of them break the spell on her heart? This story offers a classic and satisfying rom-com, with Val torn between an outgoing, rich, but flaky boy and a broody, shy, loyal one. The story takes several kdrama style twists and includes ghosts, saints, red envelopes, confessions, fights, reunions, tears, and kisses. For a comic, its wordy; the pages are dense with small panels and thick with dialogue, but also illustrated with such warm, humor, and realism. I really liked that the story included as much of Val's relationship with her family and best friend as romance. And the lion dancing scenes practically leap off the page with color and energy!

Witch Hat Atelier vol 10 by Kamome Shirahama

This series remains as visually stunning as ever but I'm struggling with how every single book expands the cast. There are so many characters now that I don't care about that much, and have trouble remembering from volume to volume. I wish the story line would stick more closely to Coco, her classmates, and their main mentors!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 9 by Ryoko Kui

Oh the stories are all converging! The savior at the bottom of the dungeon is probably a demon! Ituzumi saves the day! I am still having a great time reading this series.

A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson read by Abby Craden 

A short, very queer, very poly retelling of Dracula focusing on his coven of enthralled lovers. I liked the way the book breezed through history, as the dysfunctional little family moved from one major European city to the next, with snatched moments of glittering joy interwoven with violence and plague. The story is fairly simple, and has a happier ending than I expected, or honestly think the characters deserved.

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

I DNFed the previous book in this series and just read a summary online before skipping ahead to this one. I think that was a very good choice for me. This third one was more engaging and a bit more action packed, with some cool discoveries about the city of Kelsingra and the nature of Elderlings. But the Rain Wild Chronicles as a whole do not stand up to the quality of the Farseer books. There are so many POV characters that a few of them get only two or three scenes in this whole book. I don't feel that I deeply know any of these characters; while at the same time watching Hobb pair them off at an extraordinary rate- in the last book five sets of characters got together and in this book an additional two couples are developing feelings for each other. Between this and a kidnapping, a birth, a murder, and a lot of blackmail, this series feels like a soap opera.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 10 by Ryoko Kui

Almost two TPKs in this volume, yikes!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 11 by Ryoko Kui

You know shit's getting serious when the character who has been the series main villain up until now is partially devoured by a different, worse villain. Exciting changes coming to this dungeon under it's new lord and master!

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lisa Sterle

When Becca gets invited to sit with the popular girl clique at her new high school, she's thrilled. But the friendship turns bloody and complicated when she learns that her new friends are actually werewolves who need to kill and feed on a human once a month. If she joins them, Becca will gain superhuman strength and a pack; she'll never have to fear a male predator again, because she will be a predator herself. I loved the queer rep and the twist on werewolf lore; I wish it had been a little longer and more developed. Give me multi-page transformations sequences!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 12 by Ryoko Kui

I love seeing all these plot lines come together! Building towards a wild climax.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 13 by Ryoko Kui

I went out and *bought* vol 13 of this series because my library didn't have it yet, that's how hooked I am. And now I have to wait until JULY for the final volume! (But also, thank goodness I didn't get into this series any sooner or I'd have a much longer wait).

[magic-crazy-as-this]

fanon vs canon: we're talking (an essay)

Hiya! I've been seeing a lot on my dash these huge arguments about fanon vs canon in the DC/Batfamily univers, and it's getting pretty heated. People seem to be getting upset about what "counts" as canon, what parts of the story are "real" or "made up by fans" and what is "allowed" to be "real".

Personally, I find the entire argument to be reductive and extremely so.

Here's why:

Batman as a property has existed for 85 years. The idea and mythology and story of Batman has been handled by countless writers and artists, been seen in every kind of artistic medium, and has been changed over and over again over the past eight and a half decades. This story has never been told the same way twice and that's half the point of these stories and mythologies we've built up. We've seen Bruce Wayne be morally questionable if not outright reprehensible, a loving father, a staunch loner, a murderer-by-proxy (Batman v Superman, you know not what you do). It's okay to pull ideas from across time because, well, there's a lot of it and things are changing all the time!

There's a lot more there than we can easily comprehend (this is kind of more of a "1a, but fine, whatever, hey) This is something I see a lot where someone is accused of being "too fanon" only for it to turn out to be something pulled directly from the over eight decades of work. Maybe it's not productive to accuse people of this kind of thing when maybe, just maybe, there are sources for this.

Flattening these characters into "allowable" ideas of the character limits our creativity I mean, think about it for a moment: why should we limit what stories we tell and things we create by what other people tell us is acceptable? After all, if we said there were only certain kinds of stories and ideas allowed, we would never have Dark Knights of Steel, Red Son, or even Batman Beyond. Without taking risks, making changes, and telling our own stories, we miss out on so many amazing ideas that would never be permitted to bloom. (ok but the LEGO Batman movies make Damian this cheerful people-pleasing little ball of sunshine and that's not it tbh, there are limits)

People are more nuanced than you think - it's okay to be a little contradictory (this means you!) When I was growing up, I was in an intense and huge music fandom that engaged in something called The Great Poser Hunt of '07 (IYKYK). In what was supposed to be a loving space for the outcasts and forgotten weirdoes of every known high school, we would bully each other relentlessly for "not liking the right thing" or "not being a real fan" and we would constantly test and torment each other over it. It was stressful, it was awful, and it made me and many others like me feel like we had to fit a certain aesthetic, mindset, and media taste otherwise we would be outcast again and this time from a group already ostracised. (And these aesthetics and media tastes that were chosen for us by large corporations but whatever, that's another essay for another day) I listened to Backstreet Boys in secret with my iPod under the blankets, I could let none of my friends know about my secret love of Bon Jovi, and the parts of my heart devoted to 80s New Wave were locked away where no one could see. I felt reduced to what other people wanted from me. I hope you're reading this and thinking "man, that sucked, I don't want to be like that! I want to like all the things I like and proudly!" Which is grand! Please continue to think nice things for yourself! My question to you now is: why would we do this to fictional characters, too? Why can't Dick Grayson be cunning and clever, sometimes kinder than he is wise, friendly and funny and horribly ruthless when he needs to be and all at once? Jason Todd already embodies this kind of thing by being a head-taking badass biker who loves the classics but you know what, he can listen to Slipknot and Britney Spears! That's okay, too! And whatever it is you like, whether it fits a certain aesthetic or scene or mould, that is okay. You deserve to enjoy your things freely and without shame and without shaming others. (So leave Jason's Katy Perry CD collection the hell alone, ya vultures!)

In conclusion:

It's okay for people to make up new ideas for the things you love. It's okay for people to try new things. It's okay for you to disagree with them, too, you don't have to like everything anyone ever comes up with.

But bullying people for their creativity, especially when there's over eighty goddamn years of media to be inspired by, when limiting creativity is stifling and has us miss out on truly special things, and when people in general are more nuanced than you think?

[quinnyundertow]

Can I ask what got you into writing? I love your writing style and I'm so curious about your process as well.

This is such a sweet ask. I love it. This may be way more than what you were expecting haha. But I’m alone in the hospital and this feels cathartic.

I’ve always loved to write since I can remember. When I was in elementary school I remember getting yelled at and crying because I had to write a story about a thanksgiving turkeys adventure and mine was like twenty pages. They said it was too long and hurry up and I was frustrated because I wasn’t done!

I think what really solidified my love for writing is I needed fantasy to escape. In middle and early high school my parents divorced and I was bullied relentlessly. Gum put in my hair, things thrown at me, called fat at every opportunity. I had teachers that bullied me too for being fat. I was SA’d multiple times, depressed and started cutting. I’ve honestly tried to block most of it out.

The point is I had found anime and a few friends who loved it too. So any opportunity I had I begged friends to do writing journals with me. We’d make up a crack fic plots then write self insert and pass a notebook back and forth between classes every chapter for the next person to write. We wrote for Yugioh, Naruto, Dragonball Z, Fruits Basket popular ones at the time. I also wrote poetry, fanfics and original stories to try and escape anyway I could. Writing was the highlight of my teenage years. But other than that it was hell and you could never pay me enough money to repeat them.

I dropped out of Highschool from the bullying and my depression. But I studied and took a test for Highschool equivalency and then went to college and got straight As. College is nothing like Highschool. No one cares what you do. At least in my experience. I wanted to be a writer or manga artist but my father told me I wasn’t good enough and I wish I wouldn’t have taken it to heart and listened. I stopped writing for like ten years except for periodic ideas in notebooks until this last November.

Jujutsu Kaisen had become my comfort anime and then chapter 236 happened. I was so depressed I decided to try and read fanfics again. I’ve always read a lot of published books and was staggered to see a ton of fanfic writers were just as good if not better than published writers. After reading a ton of amazing works I decided I needed a fix it story that was ultimately happy for JJK and here we are.

Sorry if this was boring or too much. But if you take away something from this take this. Life is always changing. Tomorrow will not be the same as today. That much is guaranteed. If you have nothing left to live for then you have nothing to lose by trying something crazy or new. I was broken down to nothing by bullies, family issues, mental and physical health and I was incredibly suicidal. Somehow I found the will to try again. I got on depression and anxiety medication (still on to this day), worked for a higher education and took a shitty paying job to claw my way back up. My life is far from perfect but despite everything I worked hard to now have a boss babe high paying career and after restarting writing and meeting you all I’ve never been happier.

As far as a writing process I pretend I’m not going to post what I write and write it just for me. I ask myself what do I think would be the coolest thing to happen? What would I want to see next? Then I write it. Most of the time it sucks, or I don’t feel like writing it but I force it out. I make myself sit for 15 minutes and just write something. Then I rewrite it. Keep what parts I liked toss what feels off. Repeat. Eventually I’m having fun and loving the process.

When rewriting I’ll name them things like WICYG Chapter 12.2 for the second rewrite etc. I’ll screen shot my google doc so you can see the insanity haha. Sometimes I’ll rewrite four plus times. At the end of the day I want to love what I write and do it for me. Then when I find people that like it too it makes me over the moon happy. I hope one day to have the confidence to write my original stories in my head out. Writing fics for yall has definitely helped build my confidence as a writer.Thanks again for the ask anon sorry for the life story but I’ve never told people all that and it was healing to get out.

My messy google docs 🥹 Madhouse is Sanity Last Stop lol.

[perfectsunlight]

𝐜𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐬 [𝟐]

𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘅 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲, mentions of racism, 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲

𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: 1,971

𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝗶𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲

the shutters and camera flashes were both the bane of ning’s existence and the object of her desire. it was a constant reminder of her status, as well as the biggest downside that came with being a star.

because that’s what ningning was: a child star turned idol.

in all honesty, ningning didn’t care about anything other than being on the stage. even when she was a trainee, the only reason she stuck with it was because she knew that she had the talent. the idol life never was her dream.

truth be told, ning would have rather been a solo artist in america, that way she wouldn’t face so much hate from the koreans.

it used to mess with her a lot when she was younger. being a foreigner in a new country was already hard enough, but to come from a country that was hated by the entire republic of korea? it made everything much worse.

she felt aeri’s arm tug her forward, leading the way for the both of them as they made their way through the crowd of people surrounding them as they made their way towards the company car.

they had a busy day scheduled ahead of them, and the young idol was starting to regret her outing from the night prior.

actually she wasn’t regretting it. she was just upset that she had to deal with so many people shoving cameras in her face.

her younger self would’ve been bowing in every direction, making sure to wave at the cameras even though they were blinding her. she would’ve tried to look as nice and good as possible, because maybe then they would accept her.

but now? after realizing that no matter how hard she tried, she would only be seen as “bad?” ning couldn’t care less.

“ningning is it true you got into a fight last night?”

the idol rolled her eyes behind her designer shades. she may or may not have gotten into a bit of an argument, but the other girl definitely deserved the bottle of beer dumped on her head.

once they got into the car and the doors shut behind them, karina’s head whipped around from the front seat to look at the youngest member.

“ning, you got into a fight?” the leader hissed, disappointment lacing her voice.

the chinese woman turned her head away to face the window. she didn’t want to deal with jimin’s scolding right now.

minjeong turned to look at the younger girl and titled her head to the side. “ningie, is that why you asked for an ice pack last night?” she asked softly, countering karina's rough approach.

aeri’s head also turned her attention to get a look at their younger member. she didn’t say anything, only frowning at the sight of ning’s cold shoulder.

“ning yi zhou,” jimin called out to the vocalist once more. as a leader, it was her job to keep the group’s image from being tainted. however, ning didn’t exactly make that job the easiest. “what happened?”

their manager made their way to the front seat and started driving off. jimin’s eyes never left ningning’s figure. the ambience of the drive, as well as the soft music coming from the radio filled the otherwise empty silence that lingered between the aespa members.

maybe it was 10 minutes, maybe it was 20, or maybe it was 30. but after what felt like quite a while, ninging finally broke her silence.

“she told me to go back to my country.”

karina’s gaze softened, aeri’s heart broke, and minjeong’s body deflated at the revelation revealed unto them. they all knew how brutal the korean fans were when it came to chinese idols. either they were well loved, or extremely hated. ninging was one of the very few who experienced both.

giselle bit her bottom lip, recalling how the koreans had their opinions about her since debut as well, but she witnessed the waves of hate the youngest member received from even before debuting. even as a trainee, the chinese girl was bullied. aeri could not help but think that all those years of training in a country that hated her were catalysts into shaping the person her fellow member became today.

minjeong actually walked in on ning a few times when the youngest member was looking through all the hate comments. ning wasn’t one to care about anything anymore nowadays. except, winter couldn’t feel as if her friend was acting out this way because of her past.

in reality, no one knew what to say. because they all knew that ningning didn't want to get into a fight, but rather the fight was picked on her.

jimin felt guilty for immediately assuming that ning had done something ridiculous again, but as the leader stared at her youngest member, she could not help but feel bad for her.

it was in that moment that karina realized that no matter how much trouble ningning got herself into, it didn't always mean that she deserved it.

the remainder of the drive to the airport was silent, only the road ambience filling the void of space. however, ningning decided to focus on the only good part of this upcoming fansign in LA: the fact that she could party after.

the flight from seoul to los angeles was long, and quite boring. usually ning could sleep for hours on these types of flights, but this time she wasn’t tired at all. in fact, she wasn’t tired even when they landed and got to their hotel rooms.

thankfully each of the members had their own rooms, which mean the chinese woman could relax by smoking. she knew weed wasn’t illegal in california, but she also was not exactly in the mood for marijuana.

the gray smoke flowed from her lips as she exhaled before bringing the cigarette to her mouth once more. the youngest aespa member leaned over the balcony railing and stared at the bustling streets of LA. her room was on the 13th floor, making everything look so small.

thirteen. an unlucky number. was she an unlucky idol?

she had done everything, beat the odds and then some. so why did it feel like she wasn’t happy with the dream she once would’ve given everything for?

the chinese woman sighed as she breathed out the smoke from her cigarette before staring across at the streets. there was a bar directly across from the hotel. she could either stand up here and think about her feelings about her life….or she could grab a drink.

it was obvious which choice she went with.

ningning swirled the liquor in her glass, eyeing the whiskey as it danced in circles. this was her fourth shot of the night. except, she seemed rather tame at the moment. her head leaned against her palm as she held the glass in her other hand.

“rough day?”

her head slowly turned in the direction of whoever was speaking to her, only to be met with bright eyes and a gentle smile.

you took a seat next to her, motioning for the bartender to give you a shot of something.

the idol raised an eyebrow at you. did you not know who she was? aespa was known in the states too, but did you have any idea who you just sat next to?

“i’m sorry?” ning said slowly, confusion laced on her features.

“you looked really down, so i figured i’d come and see if you’re alright.” you smiled softly as the bartender slid a glass in your direction.

ningning stared at you for a few moments, blinking slowly before forming a sentence again. “do you know me?”

a soft chuckle escaped your lips as you downed the glass in your hand. grimacing at the taste of the burning liquid as it shot down your throat.

“i do.” you said, small smile ghosting your lips. “you’re ning yizhuo.”

so you did know who she was. interesting. except why were you acting so calm and casual with her? usually when she met fans, they’d either harass her like the paparazzi or try and flirt with her.

but you seemed to do none of those.

“why are you talking to me?” she asked slowly. “i mean, if you want a photo or something i’m not up for it right now. so what do you want?”

your gaze softened at the sight of her like this. you were a huge fan of aespa, and you knew everything regarding ning’s infamous reputation. but you somehow felt bad for her.

“i don’t want any of those things.” you reasoned quietly, eyes staying locked on hers. ning was your bias actually. you knew everything about her from pre debut all the way until now.

every single moment, every single scandal, you knew about it all. but right now, you wanted to know why your favorite person looked so upset.

“you just don’t look happy, that’s all.”

the idol’s eyebrows raised in response to your statement. “so what if i’m unhappy? what’s it to you?”

you smiled softly at her, already knowing this was part of her personality. maybe you could get her to open up? even just a little.

“you may just think i’m just a fan of your music, but i admire you as a person as well. i want you to be happy.” you explained, hoping she would understand.

admire. that was a word no one ever associated or used in the same sentence with ningning. to hear it from you for the first time in her life?

it felt good. really really good. maybe tonight she would make a friend.

a friend who admired her.

“want to go outside for a smoke?”

you two eventually made your way outside the back, and leaned against the wall smoking cigarettes with each other.

truth be told, this kind of domestic interaction felt nice. you were so easy to talk to, and for a moment ningning felt better than she had when she first landed in LA.

“are you from LA?” she asked genuinely.

you shook your head, smiling over at her. “i’m from seoul, but i’m just visiting for the week.”

the chinese woman raised her eyebrows. “what are you doing all the way over here?” she inquired as she brought the cigarette to her lips.

the smoke escaped through your mouth before you answered her, that bright smile still on your face. “i’m here for your fansign, duh.”

“oh,” the idol chuckled and nodded. “i forgot about that.” she sighed as she tapped her cigarette against her thumb.

“can’t believe i have to get up at 5 in the morning for that shit." she muttered under her breath.

you hummed in agreement. “yeah, hopefully you’re not too tired.”

“i’m always tired.” she scoffed lightly before turning her head to look at you. “what’s your name, stranger?”

“y/n.” you answered casually. “y/n park.”

ning hummed in acknowledgement, giving you the ghost of a smile. “it takes dedication to come halfway across the world for a group you like, you know.”

your smile widened as you took another deep breath from your cigarette. the smoke danced in the air as you replied.

“what can i say? i’m just a big fan.”

the chinese woman narrowed her eyes playfully. “what are you? a groupie or something?”

your eyes narrowed back at her, the tiniest smirk on your lips. “and what if i am?”

“touché.” she chuckled as she threw the rest of her cigarette on the ground before stomping it out with her shoe.

a few beats of silence passed. your eyes remained on hers as she turned and looked at you, pulling her cap tighter over her head.

“i’m going to head back. i’ve got to be up early.”

you nodded in understanding, fully knowing that waking up at 5 in the morning was a rough time for anyone, celebrity or not.

she quickly bowed her head slightly, indicating she was heading out now. the gravel beneath her footsteps gave you auditory confirmation of her walking away from you.

you turned your attention to the alley wall in front of you, putting the cigarette to your lips once more. your head leaned back against the wall behind you, as you closed your eyes.

then that’s when you heard it. the familiar raspy voice from a chinese idol that you adored, and oh you just couldn’t help but smile.

“i’ll see you tomorrow.”

-

𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧: @jiihu @silantryoo @rosiehrs @craftymasterlistcomicsprune @skisk1 @jisooftme @babycubchae @yunjinhart @pandamiswifey @jenoteamo

[alitherandom]

Bad Batch is almost over so I'm going to ramble. If anyone can relate, please reply or reblog. Share what this show has meant to you, share your thoughts, share theories, tag people. Let's give it a send off.

Star Wars has been a massive part of my life for years.

I loved everything about the Clone Wars, the world building, the character development for the jedi, but most of all the clones. As someone who finds it hard to read faces, it was fun getting to know each of the clones as individuals with their own personalities and I actually never had any issues telling them apart. It hits hard, I think that's what makes their stories even more tragic.

Echo and Fives are my favourite Star Wars characters so I was really happy when Echo came back in Clone Wars season 7. That was why I decided to watch the Bad Batch- it then became my favourite series.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do when this show ends. I think the hardest part is not knowing what the galaxy has in store for the batch and where it could go from here. Whatever happens I’ll always be grateful for the experiences I've had as part of this community over the last few years.

I think that's what's great about being part of a fandom. Seeing all the different ideas and projects that get put out there every day as well as knowing everyone else is in just as much suspense as I am. I haven't interacted on here that much until the last few months, but I check the tags a lot and all the fanart has been immaculate. The writers and artists are crazy talented and work so hard, I admire the level of dedication and aspire to be like that. 😂

I'm also really grateful for the three seasons we got with Clone Force 99.

Seeing Echo go from a shiny in the Clone Wars to becoming who he is now. (I could talk about that for ages, but I'll save that for another post.)

Seeing Crosshair regain his trust in the batch and get to change.

Seeing Hunter step up for his brothers and Omega.

Seeing more sides to Wrecker's strength.

Seeing Omega go from that kid who'd never seen dirt before to learning from her brothers and proving how brave she is.

And lastly, seeing Tech make the choice he did back in season 2. It wasn't easy to watch, because he deserved more time and there was definitely a massive hole in season 3 without him.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to any of them.

My favourite episodes in season 1 were the last few, when Kamino fell. It was the end of an era as well as a new beginning.

My favourite episode in season 2 was episode 8. I was really proud of Echo, plus he got a hug from Omega which I have admittedly rewatched far too many times.

My favourite episodes in season 3 were episodes 13 and 14. The stakes have been so high and it's been great seeing Echo's ARC skills in action again. (Plus the dialogue with Rampart was top tier. Hate that guy, but it was hilarious.)

I'm well aware of all the theories for the finale. I'm choosing to ignore most of them, but I’d like to present my own.

I hope Echo gets to finish what Fives started and the clones can finally be free, including Tech if he's CX2. I hope the batch gets to burn Tantiss to the ground and fly off into the sunset with Omega and the kids from the vault, and then I hope they continue a lifetime of bullying Rampart. I also hope Emerie gets to whack Hemlock with a steel chair, and then the Zillo beast can eat him.

…After all, Star Wars is based on hope, right?

If anyone actually ended up reading this to the end you're a real one- have a great final Bad Batch eve, and may the force be with you.

[ryujinya]

Castiel headcanons🎸

★彡He has a tiktok account where he covers trending songs with his electric guitar and changes the melody to a rock/emo rock sound 

★彡I feel like he would have a pink gaming setup. He loves black and red outfits but secretly owns a pink cat headset from Razer 

★彡Castiel and Su love going to local-themed expositions. Japanese culture festival, alternative clothing exposition, etc. There are always exhibitors who sell handmade jewelry so it’s a great opportunity for him to stock on some chokers and rings. And of course, he spoils Su with everything she likes.

★彡Castiel and Armin would have gaming sleepovers at Castiels place except they would only play Roblox and bully kids all night for shit and giggles .

★彡Speaking of Castiel x Armin dynamic they are going to the concerts together. Even if one of them doesn’t even listen music of the artist they are going to the concert they will be down to go just for making memories together.

★彡He loves traveling even though he doesn’t like meeting new people. I think he loves to be in his comfort zone but being a rockstar comes with concert tours so he needs to travel a lot from place to place. A new environment would give him inspiration and space to grow up as an artist. Especially in places where music is rooted in culture like Tokyo or London. That’s why he would collect guitar picks from every country that he has visited to remember all the great opportunities that he had.

★彡Each time he has concerts he shouts out Su in different ways. Of course, he can’t say “Before singing this song I want to you all know that I wrote it for my lover girl” but he does some gestures, staring straight up at the camera whenever he sings really intimate lyrics (Su is obviously watching all of his concerts when she can’t be with him). Also, Su chose each time the guitar picks for Castiels concerts.

[littleststarfighter]

May I ask if there’s any mcr fics that you would recommend

These are what I’ve enjoyed so far. All Frerard (Frank/gerard) fic recs. I have many more to read (saved about 100 fics yikes) so will have more recs in the future if anyone is interested? A lot of supernatural, spooky and ghosty ones here. And, lots of Danger Days as that’s what got me into reading them in the first place. Of course I started with what is seen as the holy fic trinity. These are just my tastes. I can’t promise that they’ll be yours, but hope there’s something you like XD

Unholyverse by Bexless

“He thinks I have stigmata,” Frank said, because what the fucking hell, it couldn’t get any worse. He might as well just lay it out.

“Oh, well,” said Brian into his hands. “Of course.”

The Anatomy of a Fall by novembersmith

The unholy union of a high school AU and a ghost story. Gerard's life takes a strange turn when his family moves to a small town in Vermont and he discovers the locals aren't all what they seem to be. Also includes: unexpected nature walks, murder, pining, improper treatment of crime scenes, a number of bone-related puns, high school bullies, and a short-range shrub named Ferdinand.

A Splitting Of The Mind by Shoved2agree (Gaiamdma)

Gerard Way sees the world differently. Alone and institutionalised, Gerard claims that he is being hunted, and that his mind holds the key to existence. Does Gerard really hold such a powerful secret? Or is he just insane like everyone else in the institution?

Run by vesna (mrsronweasley)

Being a secret teenage werewolf is hard. Frank should know. He is one.

James Cameron Got It Wrong by ladyfoxxx

In which 2005!Frank and Fun Ghoul get it on. Then Frank accidentally winds up in 2019.

Shadows In The Parking Lot by Cellphonecharm_au

In which there’s a mass grave under Frank and Ray’s apartment complex, Frank doesn’t believe in ghosts, & Frank’s ex-boyfriend is, conveniently, a paranormal consultant.

The Science of Sleep by chimneythunder

It’s 2011 and Frank Iero’s life is pretty average until the night where he starts getting dreams about a strange, apocalyptic California where there’s rayguns, grey corporations and terrorists who use art and colour as a weapon. Interesting and fun at first, but the more he dreams about this world, the more he starts to wonder if it really is a dream... and the deeper he gets into this futuristic world, the more it seems to affect his life in the present day.

And just how exactly does everything all seem to link in with that douchebag black-haired artist who sits in Starbucks every day?

The Calypso Initiative by theficisalie

AU: A rise in technological and medical advancements combined with an unexpected surge in mutations around the globe can only mean one thing: superpowers. As a child born before the information boom of 2010 rocked the world with the official news of these "SuperHumans", Frank Iero was kicked out onto the street at nine years old. His power seems to be more of a curse than a blessing: his body creates and leaks a net of energy that sets those who are unaware of it on edge. He is saved at first by a rogue agent of the government who understands the plight of the homeless children, and then by a small team of government agents who bring him into The Institute: an underground compound set up by the government to teach those with emerging superpowers how to control and use their gifts.

Frank finally has a place where he seems to belong, and a group of friends: Mikey Way, a telepath; Gerard Way, whose body is a vacuum that neutralizes energy; and Ray Toro, a healer. All is far from perfect, however. Frank’s powers and training are put to the ultimate test when he has to fight both evil and betrayal to save not only the world, but also the best family he’s ever known.

synchronicity (cut me open, cut you down) by BackyardOwl 

Party Poison glares like Frank’s mere presence could’ve jeopardized the game. But then the scowl melts off and is exchanged with a smirk.

“I’m so glad you came tonight!” he says in the fakest sugary tone possible. “It’s important for a novice to observe, because you learn so much. And surely you learned from this, because that?” He motions to the arena behind him. “That’s how you play GridSlam.”

Frank is shaking. He’s this fucking close to decking the motherfucker. Novice? He hasn’t been a fucking novice since age fucking 11!

(a story about heated rivalries, mourning your loved ones, and cheating death)

Strange Things Happen At The One Two Points by lovebashed 

1930s. The Dust Bowl. Having no place to turn after his mother's death, Frank joins a carnival. By doing so a chain of events commence, that lead him to Pete. Frank and Pete couldn't be more different, but they both possess strange powers that gain momentum as their journeys unfurl. Both their lives, and that of those they know, will be irrevocably changed before the end. Carnivale AU.

I Believe We're The Enemy by Test_subject_306

"You know what?" Frank snaps, glaring at the person who used to be Party Poison. "You know, sometimes I wish they'd just killed you instead."

[erika-xero]

A small guide to commissioning artists: how to avoid getting scammed by people who use image generators

Because “Ai-art” is not art and everyone can use image generators for free.

Disclaimer! This post will include generated images which were originally uploaded on DeviantArt and Twitter by people who generated them. Some of these images are of erotic genre but censored out. I beg you, do not bully these people. This post wasn’t written to call anyone out, it was written to help human artists and their potential commissioners. While some of the “Ai-artists” out there may be real scammers, others are not, and I strongly believe that no one should be bullied, doxxed, stalked and no one deserve any threaths over some silly ai-generated pics. And - as always! - scroll down for the short summary.

Commissioning an artist in 2023 may be scary, especially if you are not experienced in working with artists and have a hard time to distinguish artworks from images generated by neural networks. But even now, with the tech evolving and with neural networks generating pics with multiple characters and fan art, there are still quite a few ways to avoid scammers.

The creator you are going to commission must have an established gallery

This doesn’t mean that you should not commission someone who is new to platform, someone who started drawing in 2022 or later or someone who didn’t upload their work online prior. Image generators actually forced some of the artists to remove their work from social networks. In addition, image generators can generate thousands of images within hours, which means that the scammers may have quite a lot of works uploaded. What I mean is that real artists grow. Their skills gets better over time – even if they are already established artists with huge experience. Their artistic approach constantly changes and evolve. It means that if there are hundreds of images in the artist’s gallery but their skill is always the same level and their artistic approach doesn’t change over time – this definitely might be a red flag. As an artist with a tendency to nuke my galleries on certain platforms (such as DeviantArt, VK and ArtStation), if I get asked to provide my commissioners with examples of my early artworks I will do it with no hesitation. 

You need to look through the artist’s gallery and analize their work

Searching for some decent examples on DeviantArt I stumbled upon a gallery which is four weeks old but already has 660+ deviations all of which look the same way in the matter of skill and artistic approach. While stylization may vary from image to image (some of the artworks look like typical anime-styled CG artworks from visual novels and others have semirealistic proportions), the coloring, the “brush” imitation, the textures on the backgrounds are absolutely the same on every image I analized.

There are a lot of images depictinioning conventionally attractive white or sometimes asian girls in this gallery, some of which seem familiar or resemble the characters from various media. Yes, image generators can now generate fan art. But what they can not generate is diversity. There are of course living artists who tend to draw only conventionally attractive white or asian people too, but now when the image generators gain popularity this lack of diversity automatically raise my suspicions. Drawing a crooked nose or dark skin is not hard and living artists who use references rarely fail at it. It’s image generators who fails this task constantly.

Here is an image titled as a commission. The person who uploaded it also have some content under the paywall and I do not see their images being tagged as Ai-generated too.

Remember the golder rule: spotting an Ai-generated image is the same as spotting the evil faerie in a dark folklore tale. Look them in the eyes. Count  their teeth. Look at their hands and count their fingers. Check if they have a shadow and if that shadow is of human form.The devil is in the details.

While this image may appear like a hand-painted artwork of the conventionally attractive girl at the first sight, however it has quite a few clues that may help you to realize that this artist is a scammer and his entire gallery is just a selection of most-decent looking images they managed to generate with neural network. This elven girl is insanely tall, and the shore behind her back, the stones, the grass and the trees are insanely small compared to her. The piece of jewellry is attached to her nips and it’s design makes no sense. What is the gold chain under her breast, which doesn’t seem to be attached to anything? Where does this piece of cloth hang from? Why does her head cast a triangular shadow on her arm?

Many details are easy to be spotted when an image is in high resolution. I do not recommend artists to post their works in high resolution online to avoid feeding the Ai-monster and also to avoid people using your works to produce pirated merch if they draw fan art. Yet in my opinion posting close-ups might become essential - because people who call themselves ai-artists are usually hiding the artifacts under filters and upload their image resized. So yes: avoid commissioning artists, who never post high resolution faces or overuse filters and blur. Because analizing the characters’ faces is now essential.

You may look at this picture and think: how is this possible for a neural network to create such a detailed image and not fail at it (if you also ignore the fact that the girl on the horse doesn’t have legs). Luckily, the person who uploaded it uploaded it in high resolution, so we can zoom in and... yeah.

The artifacts on these evil faeiries’ faces (especially eyes) and their hands speak for themselves.

Image generators have a tendency to either give characters extra fingers, phalanx or nails or hide the hands completely, if the person writing a prompt decide to to so. I do not know whether and how fast will the algorythm learn to generate normal human hands, but for now you should pay attention to these details to spot a generated image.

Like this randomly nakey fellow with two palms on a single wrist and with some extra fingers on their elbow...

...Or this Asuka Langley fan “art” I had to censor out, with her fingers twisted and crooked.

If you are up to commission an artwork and are in search of an artist who will actually do the job you absolutely must pay attention to small details on their works: the clothing, the jewellry, the tattoos, the anatomy.

While Ai-generated images may appear photorealistic at first sight, the neural network usually misses small details, creates artifacts and makes mistakes if there are too many similar objects or repetative patterns. For example, the infamous MidJourney Party Selfies depicting girls with roughly fifly teeth, extra collarbones and green watercolor spots instead of tattooes (and don’t forget to check the ginger lady’s hand). The hair dissolwing in fabric folds? Image generator. The clothing designs which makes no sence? Image generator. Jewellry dissolwing into character’s hair? Image generator. Moreover the image generators also make mistakes while generating interiors and architecture, since the algorythm is not aware of perspective and space and once again fails either at perspective and object size or with repetative objects and patterns. 

Like this image here: the bed, the window, the picture on the wall. The perspective on this image makes absolutely no sense: two walls and the bed all exist in different dimentions, while the character is once again of enormous height.

If you try to analize the background on this one, I swear, you can go insane. Look at the window and then look on the corner above it. 

There is also another red flag which makes it easy to spot a scammer: dozens of iterations of the same image, which usually happens with people who can’t choose the best image out of the bunch generated with the single prompt.

There are, of course, artists who do series of works, and sometimes these works may have similar ideas and themes, but they hardly ever look this similar to each other: they may differ in angles, poses, character designs and even the artistic approach (lineart, brushes, rendering and etc). The posting time is also important: drawing an actual artwork requires time and effort - for example, I need at least two weeks to finish an artwork with two or three characters and detailed background. So a bunch of ten similar images that are uploaded at the same time it is definitely a red flag. The ai-generated images have a lot of problems with anatomy, details, perspective and other basics human artists have to learn long before they become professionals. All while having glossy semi-realistic render which can only be achieved with years of practice. I’m not saying that there are no living human artists, who may make mistakes (everyone makes mistakes now and then, even the professionals who works in this industry for DECADES) or who choose not to give much thoughts to backgrounds while focusing on characters and rendering (it is okay too), but the combinations of various red flags listed above is something you definitely have to take in account while deciding whether or not you are going to commission an artwork from this creator.

Another example (this person openly admits that they use the images generators for funsies and I did not find him mentioning paywall anywhere). The image generator even imitated the watermark.

Red flags you may spot while working with the chosen artist

Image generators are tricky: they can generate multiple iterations of the same image, imitate WIPs and many more.

First of all, the artist should provide you with WIPs on every stage of work, not when the work is already done. We artists, do it for a reason. We need your feedback constantly, even if you grant us artistic freedom to chose the idea, the character pose, the medium and technique. There are always changes to be made, and we need to make them at proper stage: for example, change the pose or angle of your character while working on a sketch is thousand times easier than to do so while rendering the image. However, the minor changes are usually possible on the later stages (some of artists may require you to pay a small fee of a few bucks, others may not). While the living artists can easily change small details such as the character’s eye color (or other small design changes) not touching the rest of the artwork, image generators simply can not do so not rerendering the whole image. If an artist does not provide you with WIPs or only provide you with them when the work is done, if an artist refuses to make any changes  -  these may be interpreted as red flags. If an artist agrees to make any change, even the drastic ones, at a late stage, when the piece is almost finished - it is a red flag too. Ask for a small change every single time you need one. I know that there are artists out there who prefer to only provide their client with the finished image once it is done, but now when image generators gain populatiry his may be misinterpreted as if you are a scammer.

Here is a good example of image generators generating WIPs for an existing image: it might actually look scary both for many artists and many commissioners.

I know that some of the artists are panicking that the only way to prove that you really did the artwork is a timelapse recording but this method is not for everyone. Not everyone has a setup which allow them to record a timelapse for an every single commission (my laptop will simply explode if I try). Ask your artists which software/setup do they use, ask them whether or not they can provide you with a timelapse video, ask them which brushes do they use. I know that not everyone like sharing info on their pipeline but at this point it is essential to provide your clients with information on the information about your pipeline, tools and software. For example, if your artist works in Procreate (which is available in Ipad) they have all the timelapses recorded automatically. But please, mind that not everyone have such a privilege.

As a commissioner you can ask an artist for screenshots of their workspace with all the interface visible. If they refuse providing you with that or have a hard time answering the questions about the software they use it might be a red flag. I would also suggest you not to force your artist to draw everything on stream, especially if these streams are public, because there are already cases when people took screenshots of the work in progress, used the image to image generator to apply the shiny rendering to it and accused the original artists of plagiarism. It is a risk for artists and it is okay to refuse such a request. You can also ask an artist for .PSD file of the commission, but the artist have a right to refuse sharing it online for copyright-related reasons. The original .PSD file is a best proof of authorship in court for residents of many countries. Artists can still provide you with the resized .psd file with some of the layers merged or with the background/character png with transparent background without putting themselves at risk. Of course there are artists who draw on the single layer - but without a timelapse recorded this may indeed seem suspicious that the artist does not have a .psd file with layers at all. Always ask your artist to provide you with high resolution image when the commission is finished and fully paid for. There are artists who works on smaller canvases, but working on the canvas smaller than 1000px wide might be interpreted as a red flag, since it is easy to hide artifacts on a resized image. I myself prefer working on larger canvases, from 6000 pixels wide to 10000 pixels wide (300 DPI) because I had an experience with printing my images out to sell them at conventions. While I do not sell commissioned works as prints I still give my commissioners a right to print the finished images out for non-commercial purposes. Thus, I always make sure that it is possible to make a wall print of a decent size out of the finished product. Avoid working with platforms which do not support refunds. It must either be a payment system which support sending invoices or an established platform known and used among the art community (patreon, buymeacofee, boosty, Paypal and etc.). Most artists do not do refunds for finished works — which is absolutely a right thing to do - but sometimes an error might occure. I know people who accidentally paid for their commissions twice and the artists still had to do a refund. Yes, you must respect the artists Terms of Service, but ithas nothing to do with unrelyable platforms used to scam people.

To sum it up

Search for an artists with established galleries,which has a believable amount of works and the visible artistic progress/evolution;

Analyze the artist's gallery, carefully inspecting their work for anything that might be interpreted as a red flag. Excessive fingers, crooked hands, broken perspective, clothing designs and jewellry that makes no sense, extra collarbones, lack of diversity, excessive teeth, artifacts in the eye area, interior and architecture elements which makes no sense — all while the images being glossy, fully rendered as if the artist have decades of experience;

Avoid people with too many iterations of the same image in their profile;

Avoid people with too many images being uploaded at the same time (it is okay to upload a bunch of prevoulosly done artworks when you start running your account, but uploading hundrends of images every week for a long period of time is really suspicious);

Ask for constant WIPs. Give feedback at a proper time. See the reaction;

Ask for a small change when the image is almost finished: it is impossible for the image generator to do so without fully rerendering the image, at least for now;

Ask your artist which software and assets do they use;

Ask (if it is possible) for a timelapse recording — either if the commissioned work or at least of one of their previous works (if they had an opportunity to record it before);

Ask your artist for in program screenshots with visible interface and history (if possible);

Ask your artist to show you the layers of the artwork — at least character/background only layers (mind that the background might be less detailed/wonky at the places which usually are hide but the character's figure). Ask for a resized .psd with some of the layers merged or a gif animation of each layer being added on top — this is what I usually do;

Ask for high resolution file of the commissioned image once you paid for it and it is finished. If the artist doesn’t have it and claim to work on the canvas smaller than 1000 px wide and/or claim that they intentionally delete the original file somehow - this may raise suspicions. Of course a person can delete the file accidentally or have their hard drive crushed, but if you have already spotted some red flags while working with this artist it might be a sign of a person trying to scam you too;

Many of the stuff listed above might be interpreted as a red flag , but I strongly advice you not to judge anyone by one or two points from this post. For example, a person can draw on one layer and mess up the perspective on a drawing entirely! However, if you've played a bingo and suddenly won — you have most likely encountered a person who try to fool and scam you;

Avoid working with suspicious payment methods. If you never heard about  a platform before — google it and see whether or not other established artists use it. If not - it might be a scam;

And remember! People may use the images generators for various reasons: for fun, to create references of their characters to later commission reall artists artworks with said character (for example, the art breeder is a useful tool to create arealistic image of the character, even though I find it slightly limiting). Yes, image generators are unethical and trained on copyrighted data, but a person using it may not be aware of this problem. Not every single person who call themselves an “Ai-artist” has malicious plans to scam people or to gain wealth using their funny little tool. Sometimes they do it for fun and do not pretend that it is anything more that a game. Thank you for reading this far and good luck with your commissions!

Have a picture of an absolutely normal and realistic woman, generated by the neural network!

[troutfur]

New book binge complete! I'll spare you the thousands screenshots of Tigerclaw I took to share on the live-reading channel of my friend group Discord server and get straight to the review here:

I think the graphic novel was a fantastic adaptation. The graphic novel medium conveyed much better than Erin Hunter's prose all those little details of cat mannerisms and expressions that I think really aided in conveying the story so much better. It really helps that the artists are clearly incredibly well-versed in the visual language of comics and are masterful in packing as much information as possible in every panel.

It also helped a lot to give it all a sense of geography and environment which, admittedly, is more of a me problem because I have a lot of trouble parsing out environmental descriptions from text. I really liked that one panel showing a bird's-eye view of ThunderClan camp and the full page spread that served as a dual purpose ThunderClan territory map and as a way to montage through Firepaw's tour of the territory. They're my absolute favorite panels.

The book skews heavily towards Into the Wild over Fire and Ice. About 70% of the book is Into the Wild. I personally feel it's completely fine to truncate Fire and Ice like that because it's a forgettable book TBH. The Prophecies Begin doesn't get good until Forest of Secrets anyway. But the artists did say here on Tumblr that they have plans to add the cut content back in for the second graphic novel, so that's something to look out for.

There's also the little signs this adaptation may be being approached more as a reboot/alternate continuity. Most significantly is how Swiftpaw and Lynxkit seem to have been turned into Frostfur's kits in place of Brightheart and Thornclaw. Presumably this is a way to clean up the family tree and it leaves me intrigued as to what happens to those two in future.

Also there's a scene that's apparently an addition but I don't remember TPB well enough to really tell: Sandpaw apologizing to Fireheart for her bullying of him. I only know this is presumably an addition because of a friend who mentioned it being one of the changes they always want to see in fanworks in order to sell the FireSand relationship better. Once again, encouraging sign that if this moves forward this may result in more significant rewrites later on.

Also, although it's only a few panels, the early introduction of Princess alongside Smudge and the shuffling of her further appearances into the Into the Wild section are also very welcome changes. It really helps sell these two as having a close sibling bond and it will really help sell Cloudkit's hand-off once we get to that part. I think Princess's part in this whole plot is part of what was cut in Fire and Ice, but I think we will for sure revisit it considering Cloudkit is coming and with what we already got in the TPB section it makes up for it.

Overall, I really liked it! Glowing recommendation from me.

[nikethestatue]

Shipwar can be fun and entertaining, that can help pass the time while waiting for the next book. But the intensity we have here in this fandom is ridiculous. Crack shippers are very sensitive and loud. They brewed hate and bullying. It just makes the waiting for the next book unbearable. Something I have noticed- readers that started reading SJM books when they first came out are much more rational and well elriels. Even tho, I see a lot of new casual readers that are elriels. Ive seen gleeriels overlords preached about mental health even tho they are the ones that caused the harm. I’m just tired.. this isn’t fun anymore. This is supposed to be a place to escape from the reality. The world is stressful enough. I want to escape to this fandom and enjoy the fantasy of the world, but alas it’s no diff from what’s happening out here in the real life. I mean SJM team has to know about this. Why can’t they just do something to help tone down the hostility of this fandom? How do you cope all this? I mean im sure you get attacked a lot… I’m friends with some elriel artists, they started out making elriel art for fun, no commissions, and they got attacked. It’s just not fun anymore so they quit.

I honestly think that what's helped me is minimizing the amount of online exposure that I get. I don't have TikTok, I don't get constantly bombarded with anti messages and videos and 'theories'. I don't get involved in the art drama, which is basically constant.

I think knowing what matters to you and how much of yourself you want to invest is important. Could I have a much larger following? Be on IG? Sure. But I don't want to. This is enough.

I think sometimes people allow themselves to be swallowed up by all the fandom things and then they burn out quickly. You know how many new Elriels Ive seen come and go? Go not because they were attacked or something negative happened, but because they got involved in EVERYTHING and just got too tired very quickly. It's usually the same thing--dozens of posts a day, high fiving everyone, being really excited, only to post 'I am leaving the fandom' message in 5 weeks. You gotta guard yourself.

Those of us who have longevity, and who've been in the fandom consistently for years, I think follow the same pattern--we are active on one, maybe two platforms and that's it. And we stick to the positive side of the fandom mostly. With every argument and fight you choose to get involved in, you have to ask yourself, what am I getting out of it? What's the endgame here? And you know in advance that you'll accomplish nothing, or very little, then there is no need to insert yourself into the situation.

You always gotta think of Number One. Which is you. Be like Lucien! That's the only time I'd suggest this--but he only cares about himself. And don't be a dick to others--I think that's important as well.

[raiasintended]

Scraper Bots, Fuck Off! How to "Opt Out" of Your Artistic "Data" Being Used in "Research"

How can artists protect their work from being used by art-generating "AI" bots? How can we take a stand against this continuing, as more and more programmers build their own forks and train derivative models?

Here are a few steps artists can take to keep their work from being used to train new art generators (and one step non-artists can do to help). For the reasoning and explanation behind these steps, click the Read More.

The Method:

Remove images that do not have watermarks. Take down every one of your images that can be accessed publicly and does not have a watermark. (In fact, if you have the resources, take down every image, even those with watermarks, and reupload them with new names or URLs).

Add watermarks to your images and re-upload them. Put a watermark on every image you intend to share publicly. It doesn't have to be huge and obvious, but for best results, it should have text, and if you really want to be a pain in some engineer's neck, it should be colorful. I explain why below the cut. @thatdogmagic has shared an absolutely brilliant watermark method here (https://www.tumblr.com/thatdogmagic/702300132999397376/that-your-audience-wont-hate-this-is-a-method).

Watermark everything. From now on, any image you share publicly should have a watermark.

One host domain only. Strive for keeping your image files on only one domain—for example, tumblr.com, or your personal domain. Again, I explain below the cut.

ADVANCED: Configure your domain's robots.txt. If you have administrative access to your host domain, update your robots.txt file to contain the following: User-agent: CCBot Disallow: /

ADVANCED: Configure your meta-tags. If you have administrative access to your web pages, update your meta-tags to include the following: <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">

ADVANCED: Configure your .htaccess. If you have administrative access to your host domain, update your .htaccess file to prevent hotlinking to images. There are a few ways to achieve this, and a simple tutorial can be found here (https://www.pair.com/support/kb/block-hotlinking-with-htaccess/).

Bullying Campaigning. If you do not have administrative access to your host domain (for example, if you host on tumblr, or deviantart), ask your administrator to block CCBot in the domain's robot.txt, disable hotlinking, or take similar actions to prevent image scraping.

Aggressively pursue takedowns on image sharing sites. The best known sources of this issue are Pinterest and WeHeartIt, but especially focus on Pinterest. The image takedown form for Pinterest can be found here (https://www.pinterest.com/about/copyright/dmca-pin/), and the image takedown form for WeHeartIt can be found here (https://weheartit.com/contact/copyright).

Non-artists: do not reupload images, do not share reuploaded images (no, not even to add the source in comments), do not truck with re-uploaders. If you see an image without a watermark on image share sites like Pinterest, and it doesn't look like the artist themselves pinned it, give them a heads up so they can file a takedown.

The Reasoning:

Why watermarks? Why meta-tags? What good will any of this do?

Below the cut, I explain how these art-generation bots are "trained," and how we can use that information to prevent new bots from training on stolen art.

Those Who Can't, Program

Deep learning models capable of generating images from natural language prompts are growing in both capability and popularity. In plain English: there are bots out there that can generate art based on written (and sometimes visual) prompts. DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney are examples of art-generating "AI" already in use.

These models are trained using large-scale datasets—and I mean, large. Billions of entries large. Because teaching a learning machine requires a lot of examples.

Engineers don't make this data on their own: they acquire datasets from other organizations. Right now, there is no better dataset out there than the Internet, so that's what most engineers use to train their models.

Common Crawl (https://commoncrawl.org) is where most of them go to grab this data in a form that can be presented to a learning model. Common Crawl has been crawling the publicly-accessible web once a month since 2011, and provides archives of this data for free to anyone who requests it. Crucially, these are "text" archives—they do not contain images, but do contain urls of images and descriptions of images, including alt text.

The Common Crawl dataset is, in some form, the primary source used to train learning models, including our art generators.

Nobody Likes Watermarks

Watermarks are one of the easiest and most effective ways to remove your art from the training set.

If the model is trained using the LAION-5B dataset (https://laion.ai/blog/laion-5b/), for example, there's a good chance your art will be removed from the set to begin with if it has a watermark. LAION-5B is a filtered, image-focused version of the Common Crawl data, with NSFW and watermarked images filtered out.

Using this example provided by the LAION team, we can determine what kind of watermark will ensure your art is filtered from the dataset: partially transparent text placed over the image. Bots trained with data filtered similarly to LAION-5B will not be trained using your images if you use such a watermark.

As a bonus, if you include a watermark in your image and it somehow still makes it into a training set, the additional visual data will skew the training. It will assume any images it generates that are “inspired” by yours should include similar shapes and colors. The bot doesn’t actually understand what a watermark is and assumes it’s a natural element of the image.

404 Art Not Found

The reason we want to remove and re-upload images with new URLs is simple. The datasets these models study do not have actual images, they have the URLs pointing to images. If your image is no longer at that URL, the model can’t load your image, and any models trained with out-of-date datasets will not be able to locate your images.

However, this is only a temporary fix if you can’t prevent Common Crawler from recording the image’s new location in its monthly archiving of the internet.

Unusually Polite Thieves

The slightly more advanced tricks we can use to keep crawlers from recording the URLs of your images rely on the etiquette of crawler bots.

Firstly, keeping all your images in one domain has a chance to reduce the number of times models training from filtered datasets will reference your images in training. Crawling or scraping that results in significant negative impact on a domain’s bandwidth is bad. Like, legal action bad. The people behind the learning model generally want to avoid pissing off domain admins. So, there is a narrow chance that simply having all your images hosted on the same domain will prevent a model from trying to access all of them. It’s a bit of a stretch, though.

Something that is much more likely to see results is to plant the equivalent of “KEEP OUT” signs in your domain. Common Crawler, for all its presumption, follows bot etiquette and will obey any instructions left for it in robots.txt. Common Crawler’s bot is named CCBot. Create a robots.txt file and place it in the top-level folder of your domain. Make sure robots.txt includes User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / and CCBot will not archive your pages.

Using meta-tags in the headers of HTML pages on your domain will also help. Adding <meta name="robots" content="nofollow"> will tell any crawler robots not to follow any of the links from this page to other pages or files. If CCBot lands on your page, it won’t then discover all the other pages that page leads to.

The more advanced tactic is to disable hotlinking for your domain. When someone accesses an image hosted on your domain from somewhere other than your domain, this is called hotlinking. It’s not just a bandwidth sink, it’s also the exact process by which models are accessing your images for training.

This can be tricky: it involves creating and configuring a hidden file on your domain. The tutorial linked above in the step-by-step gives a simple look at what you can do by editing your .htaccess file, but searching “htaccess hotlink” will provide a bunch of other resources too.

Fucking Pinterest

Let’s cut to the chase: a majority of images in these training sets were scraped from Pinterest. Not DeviantArt! Not ArtStation! Literally 8%, of the billions of images collected, were from Pinterest. Image sharing social sites are the worst.

There’s no easy way to prevent people from resharing your images there, but between your new watermarks and the Pinterest takedown form, you can potentially keep ahead of it. 🫡

Now for the Downside

This won’t work on the models that already exist.

Unfortunately, we can’t untrain DALL-E or Midjourney. We can’t do anything about the data they’ve already studied. It stinks that this happened without common knowledge or forewarning, but all we can do is figure out how to move forward.

The good news is that while the current models are powerful and impressive, they still have some significant flaws. They’ll need more training if they want to live out the bizarre pie-in-the-sky, super fucking unethical dreams some of these weirdos have about “democratizing” art (which seems to mean eliminating trained artists altogether).

If we educate ourselves on how these models are trained and how the training sets are compiled, if we continue to make noise about artists’ rights to their own data, we can make sure this art-generator trend doesn’t somehow mutate into a thing that will genuinely replace living, biological artists.