#and put it in suggestions I'd LOVE IT

[the-beam-order]

All of the gene "bugs" that staff just comes down to say "WEHH WEHH ITS A CHOICE ACTUALLY THAT ON THIS BREED IT LOOKS LIKE SHIT" would feel so less whiny and "ackshually" if they just RAN POLLS.

Imagine. Between site news and the random dragon widget on front page, a little poll

"Do you think [GENE] on [BREED] should be changed [Click here to see the gene in the scrying workshop]"

Maybe it has a vote button, where it links to a post explaining why people think it should be changed

Maybe its just a yes/no or maybe its more nuanced like "yes because its inconsistent" "yes because its not pretty"

and then it lasts for a few days, maybe 5/7 to make sure a lot of people see it and vote

and boom. Staff has a nice idea of what their players want, and if "no dont change it" is the majority then players like me, that submit really inconsistent genes to bug forums, feel more like the community agreed its ok, rather than THE MOD ON THEIR HIGH THRONE OF POWER HAS DENIED YOUR REQUEST.

[fandomregression]

Possible New AO3 Tags!!

So, I think we all know that the ao3 tag situation is...not ideal. You have basically two choices for tags: Age Regression/De-aging (which is technically meant for physically regressed/de-aged characters, not agere) or Non-sexual Age Play (which is...the wrong thing). Both of these tags are inaccurate for our community, but we have used them because its as close as we can get. It's even gotten to the point where Age Regression/De-aging has wrangled everything under the sun for agere (agere, age regression, regression, and every tag we make complaining about our tag situation). So! I have two possibilities for new tags we can use!

🧸Inner Child Therapy🧸

this one is probably the most obvious choice? at least it is to me lol inner child therapy is another, more clinical name for agere, so it would be a good choice. it's also not currently used for anything on ao3 (Healing the Inner Child is a tag, but not currently one with more than i think 3 fics, and it's not a common tag, so it would more than likely get wrangled, but I think it'd be okay)

with this one, we would also have the option to use secondary tags like we use with Age Regression/De-aging currently (think how a lot of fics use "Age Regression Little [Character]" tags, we could use something like "Inner Child Little [Character]" instead)

i think inner child therapy as a term would also help with the stigma around agere because it really...can't be confused with anything else? not as far as i can make out anyway lol

a con toward this would be that not many ppl currently know this as a term, and therefore it would be hard to implement

🖍Crayonfic🖍

i just think this one is cute. like we're all just out here writing our fics in crayon to share with each other hehe

in my head, this would even be able to include a whole tagging system using diff crayon colors to mean different things (when i was thinking of this concept, i was thinking along the lines of pink crayon = fluff, blue = angst, green = whump, purple = romantic, orange = platonic, white = diapers, etc etc etc etc)

it just so cute in my head lol, and it would definitely be easy to separate from the current tags

a con toward this one is just that it could be confusing to try to implement and i could see it getting wildly out of hand and complicated if we aren't careful with it

No matter what, it will absolutely be a struggle to change tags to get away from what we have right now. In order for any sort of new tag, one of these or something else, to work we would all have to agree not to crosstag. When tagging fics, you would *not* be able to tag it with the old tags and one of the new ones because it would more than likely result in the new tag getting wrangled and then we're back to square one. It would have to be a community effort to get it explained *why* things are different, now, and how to find fics. It would also be a struggle to get authors of older works to maybe switch their tags out so that new readers can find them more easily under a new tag.

These are just my ideas, and I'd love to open the discussion up to you guys!! If there's any other ideas for tags, I'd love to hear them!!!

[pearlofthewoods]

Spuffy band-fic ramblings (long-post)

I think about this scene so frequently because…"Well, I sing.” 

Yes, of course he does. That man was a poet, he could write such gorgeous lyrics, and no one can tell me Spike wasn’t an active part of the rock scene in the 70s.

Honestly, a whole Spuffy band fic has been marinating in my brain for like a good 6 months now, (like seriously, it even has its own playlist, that’s when u know it’s getting real)… but since I’m only a baby writer I wanna get some writing practise in before I embark on the project, so that I can do it justice. 

However as I literally cannot keep these thoughts to myself, allow me to invite you into my brain for a while. 

(Be warned I'm basically spoiling half the plot of a future fic under the cut so scroll away if u only wanna read it when, or if, it gets written.)

So in my fic idea, there’s a huge underground vampire music scene (particularly in LA), since because vampires are immortal, they’ve lived through so many different eras of music that they have a really deep understanding of music history. They’ve seen so many famous bands live etc (which obviously is one of the few human experiences open to vampires, since so many gigs take place at night and are tied to nightlife culture). 

I’d also say that since vampires have no need to work, if they can get their hands on instruments they'd have plenty of time to practise/dedicate themselves to the craft. 

One head-canon that I have comes from the idea that Billy Idol “stole Spike’s look” from him. What if he stole something else too?

Bear with me here. 

Vampires don’t age, so they could never risk becoming famous in the human world, since people would very quickly notice that they weren’t human. Vampires need to keep a relatively low profile. They also can’t really make money easily from music by playing for other vamps, cause it’s quite unlikely the vampire scene has much money flowing around. Why would it? Everyone can just steal/mug to get what they need.

So in the vampire music world, they’d mostly just be playing for each other to stave off the boredom of eternal life, but with no worries about finances or putting food on the table. 

And dear God that music would be experimental, with none of the usual restraints of human life.

Like I think their music would be very interesting/ outside the mainstream. Perhaps they’d play stuff from entirely different decades which had completely gone out of style, but not amongst vampires who never aged/got uncool (unlike the humans who played it)….

Vampires would also have so many different first-hand musical influences that they’d create the most weird and wonderful sounds. Think Spike’s Victorian musical upbringing mixed with jazz mixed with rock, mixed with… well, you get the picture.

And tbh I think some people would try and capitalise on that, on that raw vitality. Perhaps there’s a demon who records demos secretly in the crowd or steals entire songs and sends them to someone in the know in the music industry. And since vampires don’t exactly have passports, social security numbers or any real documented presence at all, there’s nothing they can do about it. Like what if, in this fictional world, Billy Idol didn’t just steal Spike’s look, but his music too? Frankly, it'd explain the resentment.

Anyway, in my head Spike hasn’t played music for a while, he took a break to look after Drusilla and then got wrapped up in the scoobies and their shenanigans. 

But after Buffy dies? He needs somewhere to put all those emotions. He needs to write goddamn it, he hasn’t felt heartbreak like this for a long, long time. He’s not used to death, he doesn’t know how to deal with it. No vampire does.

So when he’s drinking away the pain in Willy’s one night, some demons he used to know are down from LA and offer him an open spot to sing with them at a new demon club. Spike’s about to turn it down, but they tell him things have changed. Like Wolfram and Hart, demons are all in business now, and this new club will pay.

Spike doesn’t need money… but Dawn does. Tara and Willow won’t tell him anything, (they don’t want to be put in the moral position of whether to accept mugging-proceeds from Spike), but he knows that finances are tight. And this is something he can do for Dawn, and in a way… for Buffy.

So Spike joins a band!

I think he’s probably pretty famous from his past in the 70s vamp rock scene, but this time he wants to change up the music genre. He wants a fresh start. It’s the nineties goddamn it, and he’s certainly not the same vampire he was twenty years ago. He’ll play, but he’ll play on his terms. 

I imagine his newer music to basically be Jeff Buckley’s (my fave 90s musician), which I know might seem a bit melancholy for Spike, but with his current grief, it feels quite appropriate.

Tbh since I basically know nothing about music and can’t even imagine lyrics for toffee, I'd probably even just give him Jeff’s discography and call it a day. It’s fanfic I can do what I like. Grace? Spike wrote it. Job done. 

For example, the lyrics to “Opened Once”?

"In the half-light where we both stand

In the half-light you saw me as I am

I am a railroad track abandoned

With the sunset forgetting I ever happened

That I ever happened"

Half-light = the twilight, the safest time of day for vampires (to quote Edward Cullen, sorry lol). also a metaphor for the place between the vamp world and the human world. A place where Buffy and Spike "both stand", as she’s the slayer and he’s a vampire that can’t hurt people.

‘You saw me as I am’ - After Buffy's resurrection, Spike’s the only person who truly understands what she’s been through, and the experience of crawling out of your own grave. They meet each other where they are.

‘Railroad track’ - ‘railroad spike’. Railroad is a pretty unusual and archaic way of phrasing that word. At least where I’m from. ‘Railroad spike’ is too good of a coincidence. 

‘Sunset forgetting I ever happened’ - Spike doesn’t get to live in the daylight. the sun (and the sunset) are both out of reach for him without the danger of dusting. He doesn’t fully feel like a true vampire anymore, but the human world won’t accept him either. In fact, his human life was so long ago that even the sun itself has forgotten William Pratt.

I also think Spike/ Jeff Buckley is a fitting parallel  since, if I stick to major-canon events, Jeff’s unfortunate passing very early in his career would also fit roughly timewise with Spike’s death at the end of season 7. 

The last unfinished album that Jeff struggled so hard to write? The one Spike wrote when he was getting over his ensoulment and entirely reevaluating who he is, and what that means for his music.

Unfinished final album? Yes. Unpublished? No. 

Because when he accepted wearing that amulet, Spike had a pretty good idea he was going to die. So he did something a vampire never plans to do. He wrote a will. 

If he’s dead, there’s no more worries about fame exposing his immortality right? So his music is published posthumously in the human world (with some bullshit about his talent going undiscovered by the industry during life).

And combined, the proceeds pay for Dawn’s college bills, and lift all of Buffy’s financial worries from her shoulders. 

In the end, that’s Spike’s last gift to Buffy, his music, his poetry…and it finally allows her to rest. 

[fictionadventurer]

Considering picking an offbeat (for me) creative possibility to try in the new year.

Radio drama script

Poetry chapbook

Invent a board game

Pick up a musical instrument again

Perfect the bread part of spicy cheese bread

Work on learning a foreign language

Build a kite

Shadow puppet animation

Learn a magic trick

Bullet journal

Collage

Flower arranging

[crescentfool]

What are your ryomina headcanons? I've loved these two since I played P3 FES, and I'm so excited to get back into the fandom^^

hi!! thank you so much for the ask, welcome back to the p3 fandom, it's always a delight to see new and old ryomina fans alike! 🥺💛💙

as for headcanons, here's a "few" i that i tend to come back to a lot! my interpretations of them are influenced from both the source material and other's fanworks, so i've linked to them as i saw fit! hcs in no particular order under the cut because oops this got long (900 word bullet point list, mentions of reload content up to 1/1)

minato's hair is dyed blue (hair originally brown, you can see it in his roots!) and he has a beauty mark on under his left eye. i like mirror imagery and there's definitely a few arts i've rb'd that portray them this way :) (e.g. this one by feliichu and this one by marasschino)

as far as i'm concerned the bathhouse scene from the manga where ryoji's hair down = similar shape to minato? that is canon to me. this art from xierru is a fun depiction of hair down ryoji :D

ryoji is homeless. everyone say thank you foxmulder_whereartthou for this awesome fic it's why i have the headcanon! but like seriously. we have no idea where ryoji lives and i could believe this.

minato dying at the end of the game is sad to an outsider's POV BUT!!! ryomina gets to be together in death for the rest of their lives (this illustration from mafuwara is a gorgeous representation of them as nyx avatar + the seal)!

speaking of the seal, they are like telepathically communicating to me in the great seal together. (mymp3 had a comic wip with this. give it a looksie :D)

ryoji likes cuddling with minato because he's warm :) (something something orpheus has fire affinity, minato is warm by extension and ryoji is cold because he's death)

ryoji's camera roll is filled with pictures of minato! ryoji... loves life, to me. and i feel that photography and journaling are perfect ways of expressing gratitude and capturing the moments in life that are most important to you :3

my other favorite activity for these two is stargazing- i feel like it's something they could appreciate either in life or death (looking at the stars from the great seal...)! they do a bit of this in the fic eurydice's vow by crescentmoontea (P5R spoilers, takes place in third sem it's a very fun fic concept).

between ryoji and minato i feel like ryoji was the one who fell in love first- and it doesn't really click in place for minato that he loves ryoji until december hits (appriser reveal + ryoji transforming into thanatos). its about the realization that ryoji was with him for his whole life and that he gets him like no one else does.

ryoji is like a sad and wet puppy who is so scared minato won't like him back. he is so scared of being rejected by minato to me like. this boy straight up deflates after he does his "i know i said i wanted us to be friends, but... i actually want to be something more." / "what about you?" on 12/1 ???

AND SPEAKING of wet puppy ryoji. ryoji is like. every animal in the world to me. he's a bird. he's a cat. etc. and also ryoji knows every language in the world ever and uses it to express his love for minato. see this fic from superheroics to see what i mean.

both of them are lactose intolerant. "this isn't lactose, it's milk!" i definitely think ryoji would make himself sick eating ice cream and milk he doesn't know what lactose is. (i made a silly poll about this once and the tags were very entertaining.)

i see minato as transmasc or nonbinary depending on the day (schrodinger's headcanons babey they're simultaneously true and not true at the same time!!). either way he's not cis to me and ryoji is like. His Gender. anyway go read this fic by nail_gun for t4t ryomina :D !

ryomina are WEIRD GUYS TO ME!!! they are so strange and they understand each other better than anyone else because of the circumstances of their relationship!!! if you asked them to do the "i wonder what i taste like" meme i think they'd start biting each other (affectionate) tbh but that's just me.

after ryoji gives minato the music box in 12/31 on reload, minato listens to the music box every night in january. this boy has insomnia and also chronic illness to me (things that housing death does to you). but i think he finds comfort in the melody and memories he made with ryoji.

in general, i think it's fun to imagine minato taking ryoji to places and show him things he's interested in! i feel that ryoji takes a lot of interest in minato's life, this isn't really a hc because in reload, minato DOES give ryoji a tour of the school (11/9) and possibly port island (11/12). but ITS CUTE OK! (tangentially related fanwork: this series of doodles from vinnigami: 1, 2, and 3)

not a hc but minato's kindness is like the backbone of their relationship and i think we would not have the ryomina we know and love today if minato wasn't such a kind soul. oh minato.... we can learn so much from you... like ryoji did!

anyway! that's all the hcs that i could think of, thank you for the ask! i had a lot of fun answering this, these two mean a lot to me 💛💙

i hope you don't mind the links to the fanart and fanfic as well, the fanwork people have made for ryomina have really made an imprint on me! if you want to see more of them, i definitely recommend looking through my tag for them because oh. i got a lot of them reblogged alright 😂 (<- SOOO NORMAL)

[luci-z-wont-shut-up]

I'd like yalls help w something, please

Regardless of its intelligence level, how many non-human creatures have Arthur and John had an emotionally positive experience with?bc I am wracking my brain and the only ones I can come up with are the lamp-eft, the buopoth, the cana, and the owl (I have yet to figure out if cana is a species or a job title but yall know who I'm talking about)

If anyone can fact-check/correct/update me on this I'd appreciate it so much 🙏

[patchwork-crow-writes]

85 - Neverending Reverie

(Inspired by Catroic's work on AO3, Beautiful Reverie. Thanks for the inspiration and giving me permission to riff on your ideas!) (Warnings for mild gore and suggestive themes)

"Pacify."

The command arrived to him as little more than a whisper, as though spoken through gritted teeth and strained throat. It was a nonsense; the enemy was not tired, and such a spell would have no effect.

"Pacify."

The word fell softer upon his ears this time, quicksilver laced with a mercurial edge that set his heart ashiver. The strings of his scarf seemed to tighten around his throat. He wanted to do as they asked, he wanted to trust in them that this was the right thing to do. He wanted them to be proud of him.

But...

His hesitation emboldened the enemy, and they launched their assault at his unprotected form. A blur of blue and black leapt out in front of him - his beloved knight, rushing selfishly to his defence, took the full brunt of the attack and slumped to the ground, akin to a marionette whose strings had just been sundered.

Despair turned his blood to ice. Heal them... he had to-

But the voice stopped him short. 'Pacify.'

An invisible hand squeezed the air from his lungs.

'Pacify.'

The enemy advanced again. There was no time, there was no time-

'Pacify.'

This wasn't-

'Pacify.'

He couldn't-

'Pacify.'

The enemy reached their prone body, poised to deliver the killing blow-

'Pacify.'

'NO!'

Magic welled up from deep within his core, galvanised by a tension he had never experienced before - the anguished ecstasy of coming to know the true extent of his devotion to their Knight, colliding with the terror of realising he was about to lose them forever.

To protect his precious lightner from harm, there were no lengths to which he would not go; no depths to which he would not sink.

With both hands thrust out before him, the prince unleashed his spell - silence and stillness condensed into a physical force that slammed into its target. Its expression turning glassy-eyed, the colour draining from its form, the enemy fell into a slumber deeper than the darkness itself - a reverie from which there would be no awakening.

He could not bear to look upon his sublime work. Breathless, sick with dread, he gathered up his knight in his arms, hoping to find absolution for his impiety and unbelief. Still did his heart beat frantic in his ribcage, and still did his limbs quake, his adrenaline refusing to release its death-grip upon him.

Their body was so cold, and the smile on their lips was bright and sharp as a razor.

'D-did I do well?' he babbled, stroking their face with his trembling paw. 'Did I... please you, my light...?'

Their lips moved, and his own moved to meet them. And in the icy throes of his desperate passion, the lonely prince found his answer.

______________________________

The Dark Menagerie No. 85

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[notsosecretlyalesbian]

"Nothing like the smell of cigarettes and vinegar. I don't smoke or nothin'. Just, I like being around it. It reminds me of my chidlhood"

Lisa Ann Walter as Melissa Schemmenti in Abbott Elementary | 02×01: Development Day

[reallyhardy]

Sorry what’s up w the Ethan slater stuff? I know him only from your posts / SpongeBob stuff

HI HELLO please buckle in

yep -- the same guy from the spongebob musical, and my posts abut the spongebob musical.

he blew up completely and now the general public knows him as 'ariana grande's new boyfriend' - their relationship seems to have started off the back of co-starring in the upcoming wicked musical film adaptation.

it's just been like. a monkey's paw curling sort of a way for him to get catapulted to fame, as i had always really enjoyed him as a performer (as spongebob, yes, but also in the other roles i'd seen him in,) and my biggest hope back around 2017 was that he would continue in and be really successful in theatre, get a lot of broadway roles, maybe take on some existing parts i thought he'd really suit, like seymour in little shop or ogie in waitress.......... but instead he booked the role of boq from wicked in a massive hollywood film production instead, where he met ariana grande. THE ariana grande.

and then yeah. at some point, he and grande broke up with their respective partners, (slater leaving both his wife AND newborn son) jumped into a new relationship, and now the whole wider internet knows who he is but certainly not for the right reasons.

there's been speculation regarding whether or not grande and slater had cheated on their previous partners before their relationship began with various sources coming out of the woodwork saying "yes they did" and others saying "no they didn't" -- humans are all perfectly capable of making stuff up, the media especially, so i simply don't know who to trust and i admit it had completely shattered my whole good impression of him - PLUS it gave the wider internet an absolutely awful first impression of him, resulting in, yeah, the (frankly, unflattering, sometimes downright cruel) memes of him popping up on twitter and, as i discovered yesterday, in non-theatre youtubers' videos who would literally never have heard of him if not for the slater-grande romance 🥲

FULL COVERAGE of the situation as it was happening can all be found on the lovely @notasimpleslater's blog under the tag 'ozgate' if you want to delve deeper!

[volivolition]

!! SHIVERS IS A MUSE OF DOOM.

[puppetsoftomorrow]

my pitch for a legends s8 would be the multiverse, because we all know if the legends met their alternate universe selves their first discussion wld be an debate about the ethics of having sex with your alternate universe self

[mermaidsirennikita]

People are ridiculously entitled and it’s genuinely so disheartening. Books are someone’s ART. You don’t just get to alter a name in someone else’s creative work. (I’m appalled people out there think this is remotely acceptable - writers are not court jesters nor do they exist to please everyone - no human being nor their creative work does, in fact!) Thanks for putting your various responses out there! Here’s hoping people learn to respect and appreciate artists and creators once again

Quoth Nora Roberts:

I am not here to be a slave to certain reader’s wants, needs, whims. Again, I write what I write, and these are MY characters, in my books. Not yours. They are yours to enjoy or not, but they belong to me, they come from me...

You don’t have to agree, but I’m not writing for your particular point of view. Again, I’ve explained my reasons for this. I won’t do so again. My characters, my books, my decision. If you want something else, read something else.

And yes, I said that, too. Blast away, it changes nothing. I am not obliged to meet an individual’s demands.

So.

First off:

If you're really super chill about the idea of being able to change what writers write just because you didn't like a detail you think is small and irrelevant, I would sincerely encourage you to read La Nora's full thoughts on similar issues... and yeah, I'm gonna equate something as "small" as a name with what Nora's talking about here. Because it is ALL the author's domain. I've never personally subscribed to the idea that a work "isn't yours anymore" once it's out in the world. The way people interpret and interact with it isn't yours, sure. But it's still your creation, and you should be the only person with control over the content.

... and sometimes, I, as a reader, don't like what authors do with their content. I get it. I don't like that Lisa Kleypas edited her work years after publishing it, because I'm big on the "own what you wrote originally even if it's uncomfy" train... (for the most part--editing the fetishization of Cam and Kev would've made sense to me). And I don't think there's anything wrong with readers pointing out problematic shit in a writer's work, offering critique in an open forum, as Smart Bitches, Trashy books did when reading Hello, Stranger, which I speculate may have prompted some of Lisa's edits.

But! I can't say that it would ever be my right as a reader to, say, use future technology to tell my reading device "edit out the times Cam says shit that reads super fetishized". It's just kind of repellent to me to imagine rewriting someone's work in any way without their permission. Fuck, I don't even like the idea of estates releasing sequels or revised versions of books unless the author indicated that such was in their wishes in their will. (See: the TWO official Gone with the Wind sequels/prequels/whatever authorized by Margaret Mitchell's estate.)

We, as readers, have our lanes. The writers have theirs. And sometimes, as writers, they do tiny things or BIG things in their lanes that we dislike. (I love Tiffany Reisz's Original Sinners series, for the most part. I really, REALLY hate the most recent book in the series. HATE. IT. But the only thing I can do about that shit is just pretend that book never happened, which I actually can fairly efficiently because I do in fact control what my brain does. Or, seek out books that give me what that series didn't with that most recent book. Sierra Simone's do a bangin' job.) But you know... Not only do I not think it is safe for me to merge into their lane... I don't want writers to feel like they have to submit to demand and give away pieces of their work in order to keep selling.

(And honestly? For the vast majority, I don't think it would make enough of a difference anyway--writers are often sold bills of goods with new strategies or tech. "This will change the way you sell books". Most writers won't ever be able to write full time anyway, and I find the way that this fantasy that you'll be able to do otherwise with THIS TECH optimizing your writing time, or THIS SUBSCRIPTION increasing the eyeballs that will see your book... Scammy. Not all of it's bad! But the selling strategy that you'll make more money... If you're selling on KU, if five extra people buy your book you're still making pennies, so it's gotta be more than one thing that converges to create the sale, and a lot of that, I gotta say, is word of mouth and people just LIKING YOUR SHIT. And I'd argue that they're more likely to like your shit if you're invested as a writer.)

Second:

No need to thank me! I honestly think that the majority of readers do appreciate what writers do (or don't feel either way about it and just read like people have always read lol) but I don't know. I can't really tell what it is--the sort of "fandom" that's been created around books (and like, author fan clubs and such have always existed, but obviously the accessibility is so different), new tech developing very rapidly when for centuries books were relatively stagnant technologically speaking, the fanficification of EVERY type of media it feels like... But the sense of entitlement that certain readers feel does seem to have grown. Or maybe it's simply become more visible. I mean, Nora Roberts has from the dawn of her writing career taken off had fans that can communicate with her, and I'm sure many have written letters like "Go give these characters a baby :(".

My biggest thing is always going to be this: some books ain't gonna be for you. There are books that sound so Caroline. I read them, and for whatever reason--writing style, one character choice, something ephemeral I can't name--they aren't. Everyone else loves these books. I'd love to love these books. I'd love to discuss these books. I'm not in the party. And that's FINE. Not every party is going to be a party I'm down for! One of my best friends loooooves Tessa Bailey and Tessa-like contemporaries. Tessa, by and large, doesn't work for me. So my friend and I can't discuss a lot of books in depth. Do I wish historicals worked for her so that I could nerd out with her? Sure! But I can't make something that doesn't work for her work for her, and I can't make Tessa's books work for me.

And I know that people will be like "it's just a name bitch", but... it's a slippery slope to me, just like ALL of AI and AI-related tech has been a slippery slope. Like, y'all said AI wasn't gonna be a big deal and would just make things easier, and people are now selling AI-written books under their names. Everyone said that authors would have control over how AI interacted with their books, and books are being scraped for AI on the daily.

I do not want anyone to have final control over what is and isn't in a book but the person who wrote the book. I do not want writers to feel like they need to cede any amount of control over the copy in that book over to readers in order to succeed.

And I honestly think it would be a lot healthier for everyone involved if we as readers (viewers, general audiences) just accepted that we don't get everything we want, and creatives are not here to dance to our tune. They are people, and they want to tell the stories they want to tell. Your power? Is in your dollar. If you don't like that shit, don't buy it. If you don't want to support it... don't! Fuck, if you want to talk shit on the internet about how the most recent book in the series was absolutely not for you, that's your right, too.

I don't want you fucking with a single word on the page, though. Feel free to go write your own shit--prosper! But that part of what Nora said that rings true to me most is "they come from me". These books come from writers. You have them because of those writers. So, I don't know, dude. Just take what's there, and if you dislike it, spit it out and move on to the thing you will like. Authors aren't churn factories to produce what you want, and ROMANCE as a genre, however commercial it is and however much it does have that One Rule that defines it as a genre... Is still something that writers should be allowed to experiment with. That's the work writers put in. The work readers put in? Finding shit that works for us. And I'm telling you... With a little practice, it ain't hard. How do y'all think I have all these books to recommend? Lmao

[b4kuch1n]

I'm not gonna screenshot it bc 1/it really doesn't matter that much and 2/the person who made the comment is a kid but: a while ago I made a comic that's supposed to be a genuine study and reinterpretation of someone else's sprite comic (made in the spirit of authenticity too - to recreate the vibes of the sprite comics from that era, iirc very specifically because it's funny) and I got a comment on that comic's post that's like "glow up"

which is a compliment obvs. and the commenter probably didn't mean anything by it, it's a common expression. but I've been trying to find a way to gracefully put that comment away ever since it appeared lol

I just very much don't want my art to be taken as trying to one-up someone else's art when that's not the piece's intention. especially when the piece that inspired my art is perceived as "low effort" or "shitpost" or stuff like that. I did mention in the tags of that post that my considering it a study is entirely genuine, and I can legitimately write pages about the cool stuff I find in it other than and inherent in the haha funneys, but that's not for you guys that's for me. I just think that approaching art competition-first like that is a miserable way to do it, and (tipping into overthinking here if the whole tiny-comment-got-stuck-in-my-brain-for-almost-a-month part hasn't given that away yet lol) I really don't want that to be the takeaway from my own art. at least generally. if I actually think the source material is trash and what I'm doing is genuinely categorically better I'd just come out and say it lmao

[ubercharge]

i've done a ton of thinking about mia's world's lore (it's meant to be a casual and fun mix of some fantasy and some contemporary elements) so i'll probably answer some asks, though they might not all have fancy drawings as a reply. here's a preview while i'm here

[sporco-filth]

Superhero to superslob: pt. 1

(I really need to come up with better titles)

Anyway, this story idea was actually suggested to me by @thespiderpig1999 (thank you!)

The request: "I had an idea for a story about a neat looking, athletic built superhero who gets hit by a ray that at first appears to do nothing but over time he starts to get lazy, fat and becomes more slob like! Eventually he loses his super strength and becomes an obese lazy slob and powerless!"

Now, this has to be the most amount of writing I've posted on here with barely a single slobby thing in it. This part is really just exposition and if you don't want to read it, that description above would give you the basic idea and you can wait for part 2.

I couldn't decide on whether to make the villains really evil or more comical, but I ended up making them a bit silly to make it more fun since there wasn't any slob in it yet. But I mean, they are still villains and I mean they probably will still be quite evil in the end. Boh, I don't know. The story will go where it tells me it wants to go, I'm just the author.

Anyway, if you want to read my silly comic opening to this story, read below.

It was a sunny afternoon in Cascade Falls. The crowds cheered as the city's protector, Jupiter, Flew overhead. He had once again foiled the plans of the dastardly villain Corruptor and was on his way home to his secret hideout.

Jupiter landed on the top of a nondescript apartment building and pressed a button disguised as a brick. A hidden trapdoor slid open in the floor, and he stepped down into the passageway beneath. After a few twists and turns, he arrived at what looked like a dead end. Pressing a few bricks in the correct order, the 'wall' opened to reveal a lounge room furnished in a clean, modern style. Jupiter shut the door behind him, removed his mask and sighed.

Back home in his hideout. Or rather, the apartment he used as a 'hideout'.

When he wasn't fighting crime, Jupiter was a regular office worker, his real name being Justin Steele. He undid his supersuit and placed his sweaty clothes in the washing machine. Being a superhero was a demanding job, and Justin was proud that he managed it while also maintaining a perfectly clean house and a perfect body. He flexed his bicep in the mirror as he stepped into the shower and grinned. Of course, having super powers helped, but he still made an effort to go to the gym and eat properly. And unlike some superheroes, he didn't have butlers to handle the menial tasks for him.

After he had washed himself clean and gotten changed into his sharply-pressed silk pyjamas, Justin sat down to enjoy the healthy meal he had cooked for himself. Another win against the forces of evil, he thought, picking up a novel to read while he ate. If only I could defeat Corruptor once and for all; he keeps evading me. I wonder what he's planning now…

Hidden away in his lair underneath the town junkyard, Corruptor paced angrily. This was the fifth time this month he'd lost to Jupiter. "I should've listened to my mother and gone into podiatry," he muttered. "At least with feet you don't get kicked in the face once a week." Corruptor pondered the validity of that statement and then shook it from his head. "GLOB!" he yelled. Immediately, a runty, greasy-looking woman rushed out from the room next door. "Yessir!" Glob replied, saluting. "What's wrong?" "What do you mean 'what's wrong?' Didn't you see that failure out there? It was miserable! Your stupid giant mecha froze up!" "But it's summer?" "Jupiter has freeze breath! I told you, you need to account for these things!" Corruptor sighed and collapsed onto the worn-out sofa, closing his eyes in frustration. "I, uh, have a new plan…" Glob stuttered. "If it involves another giant mecha I don't want to hear it." "It doesn't, it's a giant ray gun." Corruptor sighed again. "Didn't we do that idea a fortnight ago?" "Yes… but this one's different. This one I've designed to make Jupiter weaker and lose his powers." At this, Corruptor perked up. "Really?" "Well," Glob cleared her throat. "It's experimental still. I haven't quite determined if it will have that exact effect but in theory it should." "That's good enough for me!" Corruptor rubbed his hands in glee. "Get it set up! We'll test it out tomorrow!" He rushed off before Glob could utter another word. "I need to work on a new monologue!"

The next morning, Justin was watering his plants when the alarm went off. It sounded innocuous, anyone else would've thought it was just the microwave, but Justin dropped his watering can and rushed to his bedroom (super speed wasn't one of his powers, per se, but his super strength gave him a boost nonetheless). This was his Jupiter Alarm: a warning signal that something bad was going down in Cascade Falls and his help was needed. In his bedroom, he opened a secret compartment in his wardrobe and typed a code into a keypad. A panel slid aside to reveal his supersuit, freshly washed and perfectly ironed. Justin slipped it on and became Jupiter, defender of Cascade Falls! "It seems Corruptor is up to his old tricks again," he muttered, looking at the intel from a screen on the wall. "It looks like he's… stealing coins from the park fountain?" It was suspiciously mundane, and Jupiter's intuition told him not to underestimate Corruptor and his evil plans. Leaving the apartment via his secret exit tunnel (different from his secret entrance tunnel), Jupiter flew off to the local park to confront his nemesis.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Corruptor," Jupiter said, landing softly on the grass. "Looking for trouble? I thought you would have had enough of a lesson yesterday to know better. Today you're days of evil end!" Jupiter was about to leap forward when Corruptor, who had been grinning to himself in a decidedly suspicious manner, cried out "NOW GLOB!" From behind Jupiter stepped Glob holding a strange-looking ray gun. Before he could do anything, he felt the ray beam strike him, causing an odd tingling sensation and a mild case of pins and needles in his left leg. Corruptor laughed. "MWAH HAHA HAHAHA HA! You've fallen for my trap, Jupiter! Within moments my brilliant depowerifier ray will take effect, sapping you of all strength and rendering you weak! WEAK! A mere mortal! For too long you have laughed at me and my failed plans, but now it is I who will do the laughing! HAHAHA! I am laughing! HAHAHAHA! See! It is I who is laughing! HAHA―OOF!!" Corruptor lay on the ground, curled over in pain after one of Jupiter's famous Galactic Kicks. "I think you need to work on your ray guns, and your choice in evil invention names, and your monologues," Jupiter said, standing proudly over his defeated foe. "But this farce has given me my chance to put you behind bars once and for all!" Before he had a chance to grab him, Glob zipped out from the bushes she had been hiding in on a scrappy-looking, oddly-shaped hovercraft-y device. She scooped up Corruptor and flew away, spraying a thick cloud of smoke to obscure her from Jupiter's vision. "Hack! Gah! I can't believe he got away again… maybe I need to cut back on the monologuing myself…"

Meanwhile, aboard their escape vessel, Corruptor was berating his henchwoman. "Your stupid ray gun didn't work! It did nothing: that was one of the hardest kicks he's ever given me!" "I tried to warn you I didn't have empirical evidence of its effects!" Glob shook her head. "This is what I get for choosing to work for a man who majored in theoretical villainry…" After the rest of the ride was spent in an angry silence, they were soon back in their lair. "Well, what are we going to do now?" Corruptor asked. "Don't worry," Glob said. "I've been looking over my calculations again and I think I've worked out there's a 70% chance it still worked, but the effects are just delayed." Corruptor smiled. "I like those odds! How delayed are we talking?" "Between one week and about a year. Two years max." "Ugh! I can't wait that long…" Glob quickly pulled out a small device with a screen on it. "Well, maybe this'll cheer you up? While you were distracting Jupiter with your monologue, I stuck this tracking device on him. We can follow him and discover his hideout." "Yes! Great thinking Glob! This is why I hired you." "I've sent out a spybot, and it's seems he's stopped somewhere. Look!" The two peered over the screen that showed grainy footage of inside Justin's apartment. He was carrying a basket of laundry with his supersuit in it and was beginning to iron it while watching the news on TV. "That's Jupiter?" "I guess so." They watched more. "Wow is this guy boring," Corruptor yawned. "Why don't we just ambush him?" "No! We'd give up our advantage! If he really is losing his powers, we need to wait for the right moment." Corruptor scratched his chin. "Hmm… I suppose so. Plus I'll need a bit of time to recover from that kick to the gut." He rubbed his stomach and grimaced. "A period of surveillance sounds like just what the doctor ordered."

Back in his apartment, Justin looked up when he heard the news reporter mention the altercation in the park. A ray to depower me? he thought. I definitely felt something, but surely it didn't have an effect, right? Jupiter shook his head. When do Corruptor's plans ever work? I'm sure I'll be fine…

[canine-teethed-sheets]

have some designs about the cubeverse i've been talking about!!

i haven't thought about crack's outfit yet but i wanted to show you guys what i'm imagining on!! :D