#but it's done enough for a digital upload

[zeeph-containment-zone]

VAPORWAVE/SYNTHWAVE LISTENERS:

I need you all to be aware that there seems to be a massive uptick in AI generated "music" clogging up youtube. As someone who's starting to get into writing their own vaporwave music and has wanted to write vaporwave for the past decade, this really upsets me for a lot of reasons!!!!

So I'm gonna show you how to spot these AI generated mixes::

WHILE WRITING THIS BLOGPOST I LEARNED MANY OF THESE SAME IDENTIFIERS APPLY TO WEIRDCORE / AMBIENT MIXES AS WELL!!!!

1) No Tracklist

Many of the AI generated mixes have no tracklists attached to them whatsoever. In my personal opinion, this is one of the biggest red flags. Some uploaders have added "track lists" but the names of the songs are pretty nonsensical even by vaporwave standards (example: "Helicopter Fly") and have no artist credited.

2) Suspiciously Long Uploads

If you're anything like me, you probably have noticed all videos on youtube search if you type "vaporwave mix" into the search bar are 3 or more fucking hours long.

I know there's some lengthy older mixes out there (example: Aisle 420, which has become a group listening background music staple whenever my friends and I play minecraft together!) but if it's fairly new and has a really obnoxious timestamp attached to it, be wary!

3) Extremely Specific Naming Scheme

Going to crossreference back to the images in number 2, one of the many things ALL these AI channels have in common is that they title all their mixes " Ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ Ｉｎ Ｗｉｄｅ Ｔｅｘｔ ［ ＹＥＡＲ ］" Again, this is something older mixes have done before. But there's a very noticable difference between genuine mixes that incorporate a year into the title and these, especially when you look at the upload dates and how the naming scheme is extremely similar across all the channels that exhibit these patterns and AI usage.

4) Year in the Thumbnail Image

Much like Number 3, but specifcally in regards to the thumbnail image. There'll be a four digit number plastered in big text across the thumbnail. I have no idea why they all do this.

5) AI Generated Captions

Not just very likely AI generated, but also copypasta'd across every channel that's like this. Examples will speak better than explaining in text can.

Some things to note here are a weird fixation on copyright, and the phrase "Reposting This Content In Any Form is Strictly Prohibited!" being a shared factor.

6) AI Generated Visuals

This one is pretty easy to spot unless you're running youtube in a tab in the background.

7) Extremely "Samey" Sounding

So if you're like me and let youtube autoplay run while you're working, one of these may have decided to come on without you actually clicking on it. From what I've listened to when this happens, a lot of the music sounds very empty and "samey." As if you're listening to the same song for 10 minutes but it's actually all different songs. There's not much substance to any of the actual songs and also a very clear distinct lack of sampling. I don't want to include lack of sampling as it's own point, because it's entirely possible to compose music in-genre without sampling at all. However, none of these channels use samples. Not a single one, out of any of their several dozen three hour uploads.

8) Very Short Intervals Between Uploads

One of the things that made me start thinking "holy shit, are all these new playlists that're popping up AI generated?" was the upload dates. These channels will seeminly push out a new mix every couple of days, sometimes even every day.

Bro, you are NOT writing that much over that period of time.

9) Sometimes, They'll Just Admit It

youtube has also thankfully started flagging some of them with the tiny little disclaimer in the caption, which imo isn't enough seeing as they paste a whole AI generated novel in the caption half the time but at least it's something.

Channels I Can 100% Confirm Are AI:

•Retropical Records

-alts: Eternal Past (Weirdcore/Ambient) Nebula Breeze (Jazz?) and Dunes of Time (??? I can't be assed to click on any of those videos to find out, not gonna lie.)

•Utopic.Dreamer

•Luminescence

•Music Farm

•dream.surfer

•devs.fm

• FOR WEIRDCORE LISTENERS: aurora.heaven

-likely run by whoever's running utopic and dream surfer

Thank you so much for reading this through to the end. It's such a shame to see this genre go down this path and I hope we as creators can do something to offset it.

May your journey into the eternal mall be pleasant and AI-Free <3

[chocodile]

✨The Last Unicorn✨

Brand new print premiering at Furlandia 2024! Will also be at AWU 2024 and maybe Denfur 2024 if I get a table. :)

[deoidesign]

Doing master studies the only way I know how: Stealing them and making them my guys.

(Barberini Faun)

(The Fallen Angel - Alexandre Cabanel)

(Covent Garden - William Bruce Ellis Rankin)

[canonkiller]

Hi do u happen to sell prints anywhere? If u don't would u mind if I got some made for my wall and sent u monies? 👁👁

I have a few third-party-production sites I host my art on (since shipping everything out from Canada would be a Nightmare), but I haven't updated them recently mostly since Redbubble is my main one and it's favorite thing to do is crash mobile web browsers. There's been a lot of interest lately though so I'm going to try and get them back up to date soon!

I keep all of my shop links on my site to make sure they're always up to date, but for ease of access here's my redbubble ! I've got others but RB's the most up to date

(Side note I'll also be chucking tattoo tickets of some kind up on ko-fi soon! Didn't expect a demand for it and I'm flattered)

[jelloapocalypse]

If warner bros. forced you to at gun point, how would you try and make the dumb Hanabara cinematic universe that scoob tried to start?

This is kind of a hail mary, but I think the best way to pull this off would be to use that Jellystone show that came out a little while ago, which is set in the Yogi Bear universe. I heard that was pretty good? Above average for HB cartoon stuff, anyways, and I know it had a lot of characters from their properties crossing over.

This version of the plan assumes you asked me this question like 8 years ago. My plan would be to attempt to generate a weird, devout following for that show by putting a bizarre amount of effort and money into it. Try to aim for that Friendship is Witchcraft craze online, but obviously not to that degree since that's never happening again ever. But like... maybe 5% of that. Make that your goal so weird, amiable nerds are super into your show and want to get into the lore. Those guys are going to be your ambassadors.

After a season or two of this version of Jellystone is fully established, try to build hype online with mid-sized cartoon YouTubers doing tie-ins and making hour-long videos like "JELLYSTONE IS ACTUALLY AMAZING?!". Hopefully these will generate somewhere in the 100-300k view range and generate word of mouth to more everyday cartoon fans.

It's critical during this time period that there's an official YouTube channel uploading Jellystone episodes in full FOR FREE. You need to have a double digit number of shit up there for everyone to watch. And then you need to have an easy place they can go online to pay money to watch the rest. IT CANNOT BE A SERVICE NO ONE WILL USE LIKE PEEBO PREMIUM+ OR SOME SHIT. But make it accessible enough that a good number of people interested will actually buy the show to watch it instead of pirating it.

Use Bluey's social media team and presence online as a guide. They do a really good job of this.

Once this has all been done, it's time to bring Scooby-Doo into this. Have a tie-in TV movie that runs all the time on Cartoon Network. It's not going to make you a lot of money, but kids are going to watch it when they're home from school. (Do kids watch TV anymore? This is operating on the assumption they still do this like I did in 2004 so maybe this advice sucks. Skip this advice if it sucks.)

Have Scooby and the gang become regulars on Jellystone and do your best to continually create tie-in work. Scooby is going to be your powerhouse to introducing other CHILDREN to Jellystone's universe.

Then once you start making money and you've got 3+ seasons of Jellystone working under your belt, you might maybe be able to launch a side show with someone like Blue Falcon provided he and Dinomutt have already made appearances in Jellystone and people like them. This spin-off will not be that popular but it's fine. You can sell toys.

Keep Scooby as Scooby. Scooby still does his own shows. It's the most popular and recognizable series you've got. You don't want to change that or force the Jellystones in there outside of cameos.

THIS is when you make the SCOOB movie. And the tie-in characters all need to be characters from Jellystone. You can have one or two new ones. I'd say Dick Dastardly can still be your villain. Jellystone should have generated some level of hype by this point so there will be a nonzero number of people going to see the SCOOB movie because of that, and this movie is in theaters so at least a few moms and normies will be introduced to Jellystone through this.

After that, the EU can putter along and generate toy revenue for another six seasons or so if you're really lucky and probably one more spinoff show that kind of sucks provided Scooby has a tie-in movie to remind people your universe exists every two years or so.

That's the best I got.

[kinkyrafe]

sub!rafe kinktober prompts

hello my loves,

I know the sub!rafe fandom is pretty small but nevertheless a couple of people were interested in a sub!rafe kinktober, so let's do it! I know this is super spontaneous and there's not much time to prepare now but even if we get only a couple of drabbles, headcanons, moodboards or digital art posts here and there I'd totally consider this a win. use whatever prompt you like, join in at whatever day you like and tag your work #sub!rafekinktober -- I'd be super happy if you tagged me as well so I can repost your work even if it doesn't show up in the tag.

the prompts

Oct. 01: "Your body wants it, even if you say otherwise." Oct. 02: "You don’t get to decide when it ends. That’s my job." Oct. 03: "Show me how obedient you can be." Oct. 04: "Tied up and nowhere to go just how I like you." Oct. 05: "Does that feel good?" Oct. 06: "You're not in charge here, no matter how much you want to be." Oct. 07: "I really need to get out of my head." Oct. 08: "Are you sure you want to challenge me when I literally have all the control over you?" Oct. 09: "This is impossible." Oct. 10: "You’re not getting free until I’m satisfied." Oct. 11: "I've done worse to you before, come on." Oct. 12: "Be good and spread your legs." Oct. 13: "I can feel how badly you want it, but that doesn’t mean I’ll give in." Oct. 14: "There you go, baby." Oct. 15: "Ready to beg for me?" Oct. 16: "Is that what I think it is?" Oct. 17: "Sit still or I'll stop." Oct. 18: "Every time you listen, you make me proud." Oct. 19: "How does this position feel?" Oct. 20: "You’re trembling. Is it from fear, or from wanting more?" Oct. 21: "I could also distract you from work." Oct. 22: "It's an order!" Oct. 23: "You gotta work for every single orgasm." Oct. 24: "No hiding." Oct. 25: "Let go. Let me take care of everything." Oct. 26: "You’re perfect for me." Oct. 27: "You did so well today." Oct. 28: "Now where’s the fun in that?" Oct. 29: "Hands behind your back." Oct. 30: "How are you so good at this?" Oct. 31: "Make the most of it."

I love quote prompts and I really hope you do, too. I briefly considered providing scenario / activity prompts but even (or especially) within the BDSM community, the kinks are so diverse that some kinks would have been left out and at the same time, I myself just don't want to write certain kinks -- if that makes sense. with the quote prompts everyone can choose the kink and the scenario for themselves.

enough with the rambling. one more disclaimer: you'll probably see me violate my own schedule. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to write 31 drabbles. I'm currently aiming to upload every second day of October, starting on the 2nd (lame, I know). however, to make up for it, I'll try and use two quote prompts in one drabble.

alright. I hope you'll enjoy this -- I sure as hell will.

let's ruin this b**** (with love).

happy kink season, my loves!

xx bab

_______

@yagirlwrites @audzss

[itsabouttimex2]

I just wanted to ask if you have posted these oneshots on Ao3 as i've found a fic posting them and wanted to check its actually you

(That’s me, alright! I went ahead and changed my name there to match my Tumblr! Thank you very much for checking in with me on this! Also, since we’re here… I’ll go ahead and drop a fluff fic I only uploaded to AO3! Also, this isn’t my usual content, so I’m unfamiliar with proper tags- if there’s one you’d like added, please tell me!)

Hands-On Reunion

Macaque is sure that he’ll end up killing Wukong one of these days, absolutely. He’d find a reason (which would probably be very easy), and then he’d find a way (which would probably take a few hundred years).

And since he’s already got a reason right here and right now, Macaque can get to finding his method of execution all the sooner.

Well, once Wukong is done having his fun.

“Sorry, bud!” The Great Sage says, his fingers dancing over Macaque’s ribs. The ebon monkey writhes under the teasing touch, gnashing his teeth in anger and lashing his tail about. “But we both know you’ve earned this a few times over, huh?”

Okay, so maybe he was occasionally taking food from Wukong’s kitchen. And occasionally stealing away his little monkeys for naps and company. And occasionally entertaining himself with his rival’s console whenever the Great Sage was out.

…very frequently, actually.

So frequently, in fact, that he had gotten relaxed, complacent. His shenanigans were soon performed lazily, openly- a sort of self-brag that swelled Macaque’s confidence.

He just hadn’t expected to get caught pilfering snacks as he carried his haul through the forest.

Nor had he expected that Wukong had readied a method of “punishing” him for it.

“D-damn you! Get your hands off of me, you oversized ape! Thihihihis isn’t funny!”

“What was that, bud? I couldn’t understand! Do you mean… this?!” Wukong jokingly asks, digging his fingers into Macaque’s armpits as the ebon demon squeals. “Or this?!” The ginger follows up, wiggling his digits tortuously fast.

“Stohohohohohop! Ahahaha, Wukoooong! Knock- knock it off, you big brute!”

Both of the hair clones around Macaque chitter, holding his sable-furred limbs down as their master continues to relentlessly tickle him. One even snags his shoes and peels them away, leading Wukong to probe the now defenseless feet with his tail- only drawing louder squeals and giggles from Macaque.

The Great Sage pauses and draws back, but not to give Macaque a reprieve. Instead, he plucks out a two more hairs, blowing life into them with a single breath.

Immediately is the shadow demon besieged, his ribs and feet now being toyed with by two sets of hands each.

“You’re gohohohoing to regret this, Wukong! I swear, I’ll-“

Macaque gasps and cuts short his words when Wukong approaches from behind, lightly placing one hand on either side of his skull.

“No, Wukong, c’mon, plehehehehease! Not my ears, anywhere but my ears! I’ll be good- eeeek!”

To the Monkey King’s utter delight, his assault on Macaque’s many ears doesn’t bring forth laughter- but hooting. The umbrakinetic squirms wildly against his restraints, chittering and squealing in a primal show of lost control.

As he thrashes about in an attempt to displace the clones, Macaque kicks his feet and shrieks, hooting out threat after threat.

“Aww, bud! You sound just like a baby monkey, don’t you? That’s soooo cute!”

He’s met only with further gasps and hooting, Macaque having fully lost himself under the king’s playful assault. It’s also impossible to miss how his face reddens under the teasing, then twists back into anger-

And suddenly, purple smoke unfurls from all corners of Macaque, swelling through the air and forming into… his war form, standing tall but hunched as Macaque tried to recover from his breathless fits of laughter.

“N-nice…,” a pause, as Macaque composes himself enough to put on a dramatic air, “nice try, Wukong! But no one gets the better of me. How about we turn the tables and give you a taste of your own medicine?!

Shadowy tendrils rise smoothly from the ground, lashing around as they try to snag at Wukong’s ankles. With the great amount and speed at which they move, it’s likely they would’ve been able to catch him-

If Wukong hadn’t been ready for this moment, that is. He chuckles and casually backhands one tendril, cutting through it with sheer might. Then, using another few as a balance beam, the Monkey King swings himself into the air, pushing higher and higher as he springs off the cold constructions of darkness.

And once he’s high enough, a golden sphere of light bubbles around him- heralding his own war form, aureate and multi-armed. Macaque has precisely three seconds to register what he’s brought upon himself by upping the ante, and tries by the fourth to run.

Wukong catches him on the fifth, beginning to wrestle his rival of many centuries to the ground. Where they fall the ground cracks and splits open, deep trenches illuminated only by the Monkey King’s light.

With six arms to Macaque’s two, the Great Sage takes a quick win, pinning the sable simian’s shifted form to the ground.

“Wukong,” he bellows through the shadows, fear in his voice at the upcoming assault. “Don’t you dare-“

Laughter, loud and deep, roaring from a giant mouth. The trees shake as ponds ripple, both disturbed to their bottoms by the howling shadow monkey.

His arms are pinned up by two of Wukong’s own, the other four pushing and prodding and punching all across his torso and ribs- and again does the king’s tail find his feet, leaving Macaque squealing even louder.

Then Wukong draws a breath inwards, exhaling it across three of Macaque’s ears-

Prompting another massive fit of simian hooting, the sable demon left to kick and chitter wildly. Unfortunately for him, the thrashing did nothing to waver Wukong’s relentless hands- and only really shifted him further into a disadvantageous position.

In a last-ditch effort to escape, Macaque dispels his form shift, leaving him small enough to slip through even the divots he had left in the earth just minutes earlier.

It doesn’t save him- Wukong catches him by the tail, holding the furry appendage between two large fingers. Placing his tired rival in one large palm, he comes upon the already shaking simian with the five hands left free, each pointer finger wiggling and tickling into Macaque’s skin.

There’s a delight to be had in hearing monkeyish squealing and shouting, desperate chitters and squeaks one after the other. Wukong certainly takes a few minutes to enjoy it.

But even the Great Sage knows that there are times to get serious- and when Macaque’s sneaky yellow eyes bead up with fresh tears that threaten to spill, he pulls all hands away, observing his rival.

Macaque lies across Wukong’s massive palm, trembling weakly from the aftershocks of so much laughter and wheezing.

“Alright, alright,” Wukong chuckles, righting his disoriented rival with a single finger, propping him up. “C’mere, ya big baby!” He gives Macaque’s back a few gentle flicks, hoping that it would shock his shaken system back to normal. “Easy, bud… hey, hey… deep breathes, okay?”

“Hnnng… ahhh… huff… huff… Wu- Wukong! You- I-“

“I know, I know. You’ll “get your vengeance”, the king mockingly says, pitching his newly booming voice similar to his rival’s. “I know ya will, bud. Just settle down for right now and breathe.”

“…hmph. You’re the worst,” Macaque huffs, resting his chin against a ridge on Wukong’s palm with an exhausted pout. “Watch your back, you big ape.”

“I will, bud,” he lightly returns, bringing his rival up for a warm nuzzle, much to the latter’s embarrassment. “I’ll keep an eye out for the big, scary, Six-Eared Macaque.” Another few minutes pass with Wukong coddling the sable simian to his cheek, sharing a soothing warmth to help settle Macaque's nerves.

He pulls away slowly, regarding his fellow monkey with kind eyes.

Carefully, he rolls the umbrakinetic onto his well-tickled stomach in spite of angry protests, then starts to run a large thumb down the black-furred back. Macaque immediately relaxes, nearly purring at the pleasant sensation.

The Monkey King knew he would certainly have the favor repaid shortly thereafter, not even a full week having passed… but for right now?

Wukong would hold Macaque tight, close his eyes… and relish the closeness of his “little brother”, just like he did centuries ago.

“…I missed you, bud.”

“…yeah,” sighs Macaque, still laying on his belly and trying to keep his tail from wagging. “I know.”

“…and I missed you too.”

[quijotine]

I binged all of Pantheon amd I have Thoughts.

ok first of all. w h a t t h e f u c k

this show was a mindfuck and like, you know it is because the premise is one of those jargon-heavy sci fis. but you STILL have NO IDEA how mindfuck-y it will get

that being said, I love the premise and the characters, but I feel like the execution kinda flopped.

Spoilers ahead.

I feel a show like Pantheon really lent itself to go buckwild with the animation, especially because you're dealing with digital realities and that sort of thing. In more skilled hands, this show would have been INSANE to watch. I just keep thinking like, what if someone like Fortiche or Science Saru had done this. Indie animation would have had better ideas on how to stick the landing than the standard, boring marvel-like animation.

Then, the story. I know it got canceled and props to the production team for hardly letting it show but my issue with it is in how it handled the characters throughout the show.

So, Pantheon's premise is that there is a company inventing technology to upload brains to the cloud. But there is a catch. They have to laser off your brain in order to do it, so you effectively die, but then you get to live forever digitally. The other catch is that your brain technically still behaves like a brain and it degenerates, making you worse than mortal because as a computer, your brain wears off faster and you end up like a braindead lump for the rest of eternity. So there's this wild goose chase to figure out how perfect the method to save the people that have been uploaded so far, and avoid the apocalypse of these uploaded people suddenly having enough power to end humanity because they're like more powerful than AI or anything ever invented. And at the center of this, there are Maddie and Caspian, two prodigy teenagers. One is the daughter of the second-ever uploaded person who everyone thought was dead. The second is the actual fucking clone of the guy who invented the technology and is now dead/frozen in criogenesis(who is one of the big bads of the show) and was birthed specifically to finish the bad guy's life work.

The premise is super good but the problem is that the show takes itself too seriously.

Off the bat, the tone of the show is too serious without it needing it to be. It hits you with all this jargon instead of easing you into it. It tries too hard to leave the impression it is an intelligent show—and it is, it's just that it does a lot of telling and not a lot of showing at the beginning.

It also tries very hard to catch you off guard with the plot twists when you can smell them MILES away because of how obvious the context clues are and this makes the pacing be slow and even boring at times. But this is mostly an issue in the first season.

The second season's problem is that it has to rush to tie up what looks like four seasons worth of content in 8 episodes, so for a show that was already plot-dense, this leaves absolutely no breathing room for the characters.

Everything is justified by the plot and the moral dilemma it tries to present. The characters, especially Maddie and her mother, and then later on Caspian and Maddie, are vehicles for this dilemma but without tying them believably to realistic human motivation. You could basically plug in any other person and you would wound up in the same situation because they are just that, vehicles that take a guess on how anyone would react without giving them individuality.

Like pretty messed up shit keeps happening to Maddie and Caspian all the fucking time but you don't have time to process it because these poor kids are always pushed to the next event in the plot and their emotions come off as "this messed up thing happened, this is how a person in this situation should feel. you get three seconds before becoming a plot device again, chop chop". There is not one single moment of introspection or buckling under the pressure.

Which brings me to my biggest issue: The romance between Maddie and Caspian.

There was ONE, maybe two moments in all of season 1, where you could tell that these kids would prob end up together. One. And when I tell you that it happens out of nowhere in S2, it truly happens out of nowhere. Like, there were so many opportunities prior to them "confessing" their feelings to each other to build the rapport, and it just doesn't happen. Caspian and Maddie are constantly at opposite ends of a moral spectrum, but when they clash, the show tends to ignore the fact that have feelings for each other. There is not enough interpersonal conflict and this is a pity because the characters themselves have the potential to be wonderfully contradictory and flawed but they're just vehicles for the dilemma.

It is also a pity because of the way the show ends. Especially because of how the show ends. The satisfaction of the end hinged on the relationship between Maddie and Caspian, which is not well executed because other than a few "tell-not-show" scenes, you can hardly tell they're in love. So the ending, while mindfucking and really cool, is simply not as satisfactory as it could have been. It's not a "in all the worlds, in all the timelines, only you could show me this" moment, when that's actually what it's trying to sell you.

All in all, I do still recommend it because it's a very brainy show and the characters still do have a moment or two that make them endearing. The ending is buckwild, and it is worth a watch.

That being said, I know that the show is based on "The Hidden Girl and Other Stories," but the show actually fleshes things out more than the short stories.

Anyway, I hope this show eventually gets more traction so that I can have my fill of character-driven conflict on AO3 lol.

[zosonils-art]

rewatched the sonic ova a few months ago. since then i've thought a bit too hard about the only loosely explained way that hyper metal sonic was created, been irreversibly changed by the idea of a sonic who wakes up in a body that isn't his and discovers that all his memories and friendships and adventures belong to someone else now, rekindled my obsession with the various metal sonics of pre-reboot archie, and finally learned how to care about sonic heroes

photon is basically every version of metal sonic ever, a few of the charmingly edgy aus i wrote when i was 11, and a few sonic cd fan theories all thrown in a blender and kicked down a flight of stairs, and i'm kind of obsessed with him. really, REALLY long infodump and some supplementary scribbles under the cut

WELCOME TO THE PHOTON ZONE

a little after sa2, eggman lures sonic into some trap that pins him down long enough for an electronic copy to be made of his brain. sonic trashes the place and escapes with only a mild headache and a bruised ego, but all the data eggman scraped is intact. as he's creating neo metal sonic, eggman uploads this digital ghost of sonic into him, with the intention to upgrade from having a fancy bootleg to a truly 'perfect' answer to sonic, who can simulate his entire psyche in real time and know everything he's going to do before he does it

[eggman would love to steal a hedgehog, actually]

unfortunately for eggman, his latest copy is too perfect, and sonic's indomitable will and sense of self easily overpowers any feeble attempts the rest of neo metal sonic's programming makes to keep him in line. pretty much the moment he's booted up, he books it outta there as fast as possible to go find his friends and fix things. with all of sonic's memories embedded in him, the thought that he isn't the real thing doesn't even cross metal's mind - as far as he knows, he made an embarrassing blunder in a dingy old egg base, had something done to his brain, and then woke up miles away in a robot body that eggman must have stuffed him into somehow. he just has to find tails and amy and knuckles and the rest, make sure he didn't hurt any of them during that mysterious gap in his memory, and slap together a plan to get his body back and shove eggman into a puddle. no sweat!

so naturally, it's a bit hurtful when none of his friends believe for a second that he's who he says he is. and it's a LOT hurtful when the real sonic shows up, in the body that's SUPPOSED to be his, and metal suddenly has no idea who or what he is

even though it's not enough to override the sonic personality, eggman's programming is still twisting metal's thoughts. an angry killer robot is an effective killer robot, so any negative emotion or violent impulse is forced to the front of his mind. metal is angry at eggman for doing this to him, and at his friends for not trusting him, and at sonic for existing in the body and life that belong to him, and all of this gets mixed in with the existential despair and knee-jerk denial of what's happening to him and then magnified tenfold. a version of the sonic heroes storyline takes place as metal's mental state worsens exponentially, and he begins to lash out more and more violently at everyone and everything around him in increasingly desperate attempts to prove [mostly to himself] that this other sonic is a fake.

this culminates in the metal overlord battle, where metal [who's escalated from 'prove himself superior to sonic' to 'defeat sonic and force him to admit the truth' to 'literally just kill him, since he's obviously a hyper realistic android sent by eggman or whatever and not a real thing that can feel pain and die'] harnesses the chaos emeralds in a last-ditch effort to prove his strength and reduce the 'fake' sonic to ashes - only for his body to twist and mutate into something so utterly, viscerally Wrong that the fear and confusion cause what's left of sonic in him to just shut down from distress, finally leaving only the mindless killing machine eggman set out to make in the first place and forcing super sonic to step in and kick metal overlord's ass. defeated by the power of friendship, depowered, and severely damaged, metal finally accepts and admits that he isn't the real sonic and probably never was, and doesn't fight it when his systems fail and he loses consciousness

contrary to what his anger had him believe, though, metal's [former?] friends did see that he was suffering and needed answers, and so sonic and tails take him back to the workshop in mystic ruins to shed some light on the whole situation. when tails finds a disturbingly perfect resemblance to an organic brain in the program map, everything finally clicks - what that weird Beam Of Give You Headache sonic got hit by a couple months ago was, how eggman made a metal sonic that knew so much about the real thing's life, why this metal seemed less mechanically violent and more genuinely emotionally distressed. with eggman's loyalty programming scrubbed from his system, metal wakes back up confused and upset but much more 'himself', and even manages a few natural-feeling responses as tails explains what he found and apologises over and over for not being able to help sooner.

he still doesn't like sonic.

metal leaves pretty much as soon as he's in working condition. even when sonic isn't there reminding him that he isn't himself anymore, he can't stand being around a tails who isn't his brother. he takes to wandering the world directionlessly, trying to figure out who he is now and find a place in a world that doesn't remember him. he's not sonic anymore, and it'd be easier to list the things he doesn't hate about being called 'metal sonic' or just metal, so after a while he settles on introducing himself as 'photon' - another intangible fast thing, like sound, but comfortably distant from his old name. [it's also a stupendously petty means of one-upping sonic, light being faster than sound and everything. drama queen.]

the timeline gets way fuzzier after all this overdetailed nonsense, but things do get better for photon. he has an identity now, and it's fragile and cobbled together and still missing pieces, but it belongs to him and nobody else. he strikes up a few odd but sincere friendships - he hangs out with big when he needs a calm and comforting presence, and has a fierce friendly rivalry with shadow underpinned by their quietly shared experience of not knowing whether to trust their own memory, and much later down the line he bonds with belle over the mundane frustrations of being a robot [and, privately, because she's the best fit so far for the tails-shaped hole in his heart]. he keeps up the drifter lifestyle, making new memories to replace painful old ones, finding ways to use his robot abilities for fun or to help people rather than purely as tools of destruction. it's not perfect for photon, he's still deeply bitter and existentially lonely and missing a sense of purpose, but it's Better, and that counts for something

photon is like some of the earlier [western] depictions of sonic in personality - rougher around the edges, more sarcastic and much less sincere, often brushing up against the line between playfully teasing and just being a bully. whereas sonic has grown into the generally kinder and more patient person he is these days thanks to the friends he's made and the adventures he's had, photon split off from him when that character development was just barely starting, and the trauma from his loss of identity made him regress instead of moving forward. he's still a kind person at heart, but that period of artificially inflated anger and despair has left its mark on how he handles his emotions, even if the programming that first caused it is long gone.

powers-wise, photon is pretty much identical to neo metal sonic, albeit with some limitations. he's as fast and strong as the real thing, can shapeshift or use chaos control if he's got an emerald with him, and with all 7 can take on a super form - though since the metal overlord incident, he's refused to try. [i'm leaving it open whether metal overlord is his innate super transformation now or if it was caused by him tapping into the negative energy of the chaos emeralds rather than sonic's usual positive, since both are really fun ideas. either way, becoming metal overlord was way too traumatic for photon to have any interest in trying again for now.]

he can still copy the biodata of living beings that he comes into contact with, but most of his storage space is taken up by the entire organic brain being simulated in realtime, which he's definitely not willing to modify or delete, so he's effectively limited to only the most recent two or three powers he's copied. he shapeshifts a little to reflect the data he's pulling from, mostly because it's fun to imagine what it'd look like. also because i'm a mega man guy. once again it all comes back to worlds collide being peak fiction

this concludes THE PHOTON ZONE, if only because this has been in my drafts for 3 days and i just want to make my damn post already. if the 1400 word infodump didn't make it clear i am VERY obsessed with my sad little metal sonic amalgam lmao. all this and i still had to cut a ton of details to prevent this infodump from being do you love the colour of the photon, so if my unhinged ramblings have convinced you to care about him even a fraction as much as i do i'd be thrilled to answer any followup questions here or on my main!!!!

[writingquestionsanswered]

how do i ‘sigh’ contracts with agents and/or publishers if i live internationally? as writer from the literal other side of the world where the currency isn’t comfortable enough for me to simply get on multiple flights to the US/UK and back, how does any of the querying and publishing process happen with an international writer?

Working with Agents and Publishers Internationally

You don't have to be face-to-face with an agent or publisher in order to sign with them. Meetings are typically done over the phone, or more frequently nowadays, through a video call. Contracts can be sent through the mail and signed, but they can also be signed digitally.

It's not a requirement to meet your agent, publisher, or editor face-to-face. They won't fly you out, and they won't expect you to fly yourself out. In fact, most authors never actually meet their agents, publishers, or editors.

These days, querying is done digitally, meaning that you upload and/or e-mail relevant documents rather than mailing them physicall or handing them off in person. For that reason, querying agents or publishers in another country works the same as it does for people within that country. Research agents and find ones who represent what you write and have open submissions. Carefully read through submission guidelines and put together your querying packet. Then submit it either through the web site or via e-mail, depending on what they ask for. Due to the fact that everything can be done over the phone, e-mail, and video call, it's very common for agents and publishers to have clients all over the world.

I hope that gives you some reassurance!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

LEARN MORE about WQA

SEE MY ask policies

VISIT MY Master List of Top Posts

COFFEE & FEEDBACK COMMISSIONS ko-fi.com/wqa

[longing-for-rain]

This is unacceptable behavior

So this morning, I found this blog who has apparently taken it upon themselves to “call out” anyone they suspect of using AI in either fan art or fanfics. No proof needed; just send them an anon ask and they’ll start throwing people under the bus.

This person is harassing artists, writers, and anyone who questions them. They’re even demanding that artists upload videos of themselves drawing by hand to “prove” they’re real.

Reading their blog gets even more disturbing. Apparently “suspicious activity” for artists can be something as simple as experimenting with a different style, having trouble drawing hands, improving too quickly, uploading too quickly, or even using digital watercolor. So essentially, artists deserve harassment for being too good, not good enough, or if they don’t use 100% traditional techniques. Do you really think that’s helping artists? All you’re doing is intimidating people away from their hobbies and encouraging toxicity. Cut it out.

For context, yesterday @azula-brain messaged me in my DMs to accuse me of AI usage. I explained that a) I don’t consider my images “AI art” in the sense of “push a button and it makes a picture” because I only use it as a filter over my existing work, b) that I’ve posted detailed explanations of my artistic process before and that still didn’t stop people from harassing me over anon. She also accused me of charging people for art, which I very clear state in my pinned post that I do not accept commissions.

I’m committing a crime by not using fully traditional art, and by having a tip jar (keep in mind, many blogs simply use the built in tumblr feature which is easily understood to be for tipping bloggers they like, not art commission payments). I told her I suggest she simply block and move on if she was unhappy, but apparently that wasn’t good enough, so she called me out by name instead along with the above noted misinformation after I refused to bow to her threats over DMs.

But anyways, I’m done caving to threats, and so should the rest of you. Nothing you do will ever appease the mob, and I’m sick of these literal children making blogs like this thinking they’re saving the world, when literally they’re just stirring up drama and harassing random artists who were doing nothing wrong.

[sporadic-maunderings]

So, I was recently reminded of the TMA episode, Web Development, with the "Web" site where people would upload a target name along with a spooky story, and, if their story was 'good enough', the target would be eliminated.

And I realized that THAT is what the OIAR in TMP is basically doing, though without story submitters choosing targets. We don't yet know who chooses the targets that the "externals" go after, or how they inform Lena (now Gwen) of this, but the pattern otherwise fits.

Other factors pointing to the OIAR being Web-alligned: - there is no issue with recording true supernatural stories to digital media, probably because the Web runs most (all?) of the digital media in this iteration of the world. - Colin's fate in the TMP season finale: Freddie is basically a giant spider in the world-wide-WEB. - the OIAR only operates at night, though there's no particular reason that this data analysis task couldn't be done during the day.

Obvious questions if this is correct:

Why aren't the OIAR employees bound to the Web? We know Teddy was able to quit (though whatever he got interrupted from telling Alice could negate that, or confirm it, or... who knows). Maybe only the person directly responsible for Freddie needs that connection, and they haven't found anyone who can deal with it?

In TMA, the Web was making sure certain people made it to the Magnus Institute to tell their stories. Why is it still collecting stories? Before, it was to ensure Jon did get marked by all the entities. Now... maybe it's to make sure that no other entities come into ascendance? We haven't seen any "cults" associated with the entities like we did in TMA; the OIAR itself is the closest thing to that in TMP.

[minty-playhouse]

Hey kid, you want access to 23 whole Who DVDs totally free to download?

✧˖°.IT'S YOURS!˖°.✧

Hello, I was cooking this project for a bit (took a while due to the time it took to copy and upload everything) but it's finally done!

Through the years, i amassed a pretty decent collection of Who DVDs, and in the interest of sharing the wealth, I decided to copy all of them into ISO files, put them in a GDrive folder and share them with all of you!

Some things of note:

Every DVD is in a separate folder (except for the Ox's Tale one because it didn't really NEED one) and inside you can find the ISO + a txt file with the song/video listing and a few extra notes (when necessary, some didn't really call for a txt)

Due to me being Brazilian, a few of these DVDs have PT-BR menus, but they are easy enough to navigate (I noted which ones have non-English menus on the txt files)

Sadly, I coudn't get my Charlton DVD to copy no matter how hard I tried, so that one is missing /sad face I'll update this if I ever figure out what's wrong!

This collection has both official and bootleg DVDs, as follow:

Official:

Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who

Quadrophenia and Tommy Live

The Kids Are Alright

Live At Killburn

30 Years of Maximum R&B Live

An Ox's Tale - The John Entwistle Story

Classic Albums - Who's Next

Houston Summit 1975 [Remastered]

Live At The Isle of Wight 1970

Who's Better Who's Best

Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2000

The Rock Story of The Who

The Who Live In Vegas 1999

Bootlegs:

Houston Summit 1975 + Bonus

Purple Hearts and Power Chords

Digital Beat Club Videos

John Entwistle Band - Itchycoo Park 1999

John Entwistle Band - Woodstock 1999

Tanglewood 1970

Woodstock 1969

Glastonbury Festival 2007

Live From Toronto 1982

Seattle Kingdome 1982

Also I highly recommend using VLC Media Player to open the ISOs, since it can open them without you having to go through the process of mounting a virtual CD drive and so on! It also often skips straight to the main menu of the DVD when you open the file, which is very dandy!

Without further ado...

Have the link to the GD folder!

If there's any problem with the link/files, let me know!

Remember to reblog/share this post so it reaches more Who fans! Also, like my dubbed Monkees files, these are all free to download forever, but tips via ko-fi are highly appreciated!

Happy watching!

[whetstonefires]

hey, random question! what platform/method do you use to keep your robust digital media when ripping CDs? i havent done it since i was a kid with itunes (when itunes let you upload your own stuff....) and wanted to start again

Platform...they are files?

Like, mp3s; I keep them in my hard drive and thumb drives and so forth. My 'music' folder has subfolders, mostly by artist, which have subfolders per album. I just. Have the files. In my computer. Very basic method.

I organize and play them through VLC mostly. Or, on devices that still have it, I have kept using Windows Media Player, because I'm comfortable with the UI and why not, but they're actively phasing it out so I can't recommend adopting it lmao. And ofc if you're in the apple ecosystem it's not remotely an option.

I don't know that much about macintosh tbh but afaik they do let you have a file directory where you put your files that you own, which is definitely what I consider to be the most sensible baseline, if you have a device with enough memory. And memory has gotten pretty cheap.

I don't know of any cloud client service that's actively catered to letting you upload stuff you own and then stream those files on any device you please without having to jump through extra hoops, and suspect it might not be a thing at this point because there is no profit in that and it's not free to provide. They really want you to have to pay money to access content that you don't own. Sorry.

I bet you could figure out a way to keep a reasonably large music library in the amount of free storage google gives you with an account, and then play from there, but I don't think it would be very seamless. Maybe even less so on iphone.

But if your phone of whatever type has or can be modified to have sufficient storage space, you really can just. Keep your music in it. And then play it. VLC is open source and very good, and they have it for apple; I definitely recommend it.

But you don't like, keep files in it, it's just a player and sorter. So it doesn't feel like it answers the question you asked exactly, sorry.

[kaalypsoooo]

I have food for the showtime fans! Of which I am one myself and I just couldn’t resist-

Full fic! ~ (Slight angst,fluff) (Showtime!🎩✨❤️)

Contented ~

Pomni awoke in a panic, sitting up as she heaved out sobs. This alerted the attention of Caine, the Ringleader and caretaker of the digital circus, without a second glance he had simply appeared in pomni’s room, eyes scanning her upset figure.

“Pomni? What’s wrong, my dear?” He floated closer to her, his hand reaching up to rest on her cheek, which Pomni reacted to with more crying. It became hard for her to string together a sentence, her words coming out jumbled and broken.

“I-I’m sorry- I-I don’t w-want you to see me like this-“

She tried to gently push him away, but he remained fixated on her, thinking of anything he could do to ease her sadness. He took her face in his hands, leaning her forehead against his upper set of teeth. He let out a sigh, his gaze piercing hers with nothing but love and affection.

“Ah, it seems like you’ve had another nightmare, don’t worry, I’ll stay in here with you for a while! Okay?”

He gave her a reassuring look, noticing how her gaze softened at his words. He couldn’t help but blush, she was so cute, even crying, he couldn’t get enough of her.

“…Okay.” She looked at him with pleading eyes, her tears slowly but surely stopping in their tracks. “Could we…”

“Hm? What would you like? I am here to provide!” He exclaimed, excited at the thought of being able to spend more time with his little jester.

“Could we cuddle..?” His heart skipped a beat, he wasn’t even sure how that was possible, seeing that he was an AI. With an ever growing grin, he swooped her up into his arms, sprawling out on her bed with her wrapped around him.

“Comfy?” He chimed into the silence of the room, his hands now wrapped around her waist. She nodded, nuzzling up to him like a little kitten. Oh my god, this girl would be the death of him.

She let out a relaxed sigh, beginning to pepper kisses along his jawline. He fully embraced this, drawing her closer to him in a tight hug as she left kiss after kiss on his face.

He chucked at the lips attacking his face, nuzzling his face against her face in an attempt to kiss her back. It was a bit awkward trying to kiss her with just teeth for a face, but she was smiling anyway, obviously enjoying the attention.

After a while of them just lying together in bed, enjoying each other’s company, Pomni began to doze off in his arms, a smile returning to his face as she cuddled up to him sleepily.

“It seems my work is done, perhaps I should go..” He whispered, leaning in to awkwardly kiss her forehead. But apparently, she wasn’t going to let him leave that easily. She tightened her grip around him, as if he couldn’t just teleport away from her right now if he wanted to, but…he didn’t want to. He was truly drawn to her, enamored even.

“Ah- Alright..” He decided to stay, gently patting her head as she conked back out, drooling on his arm as she slept. Others would find it sort of gross, but he found it cute, just watching her sleep for a while as he does not feel the need to sleep. He felt contented in that moment, he had no idea what he had done to deserve this, but he definitely wasn’t complaining.

|Should I upload the second part for yall?

[minyare2906]

[RELEASE] CHIISANA SHIMA NO YASASHII KOI FULL VOLUME

Title: Chiisana Shima no Yasashii Koi | Sweet Love in a Small Island | ちいさな 島 の やさしい 恋

Author/Artist: Asakura Kamui

Rating: +18

Summary: A small clinic on a small island.

This is a story about Kurasawa Shizuka who took over his late father’s clinic, and his childhood friend Tsutomu, a high school student, who works there part-time.

Tsutomu always has a poker face, and Shizuka is sure Tsutomu knows nothing about romance. Shizuka kisses him just to see Tsutomu’s reaction, and something changes in them…  It was only out of curiosity but now his desire is fired up…?!

In the meantime, Tsutomu has to leave the island with his father who is transferred to another location. What will happen to them after being apart…?

A tender love story that takes place on a small island, starts here…

Chapter 01 Read online: Gdrive

Chapter 02 Read online: Gdrive

Chapter 03 Read online: Gdrive

Chapter 04 Read online: Gdrive

Chapter 05 Read online: Gdrive

Chapter 06 Read online: Gdrive

Chapter extra Read online: Gdrive

Note: 

Hello!!! How’s it going? Are you okay or are you living in Spain? Jajajaja! Really, we should change the name to “HellSpain”, it should be forbidden to live in a place where it’s a miracle if the temperature goes below 40… 45ºC we had the other day and 32ºC at night, we can’t sleep!! I sleep in a pool of sweat.

Well, stupid weather aside, I know it’s been more than 2 months and I’m also sure that you’ll be saying “Where’s Hanakoi?! We want Hanakoi!!”. Don’t despair, it’s in our outbox (I need my digital pen for a little surprise before it’s released) but we left it aside for a moment because we left this project aside for far too long due to Hanakoi, and SlutSQ was kind enough to provide the raws and I didn’t want to leave her waiting for its release anymore. Plus, life happened along the way...

So here it is, a full volume. It has a second one that is still in its translation phase, I have a bit left to clean as well (I go slow as a turtle with the mouse). It’s a very sweet story that Adamay recommended in the group. When I saw that it was not done by anybody, I told her if she wanted to do it and when SlutSQ offered the raws we were ready to go. And don’t worry, even if it’s sweet, it has a lot of smut. I don’t know how many d***s I’ve drawn!! Aaaaand, just a small note, don’t let how the uke looks distract you, it’s not shota-con!! It happened to me at first, I thought that the seme was a paedophile, but that’s just how the mangaka decided to draw him. Also, as a person who doesn’t look her age, I feel totally represented by this. I'd love people to stop asking me if I’m of legal age…

Full volume in Mega will come later, you know how it goes. I may lower the wait to 2 weeks instead of a month if I don’t forget to upload it…

I’m so happy to have another project done with the wonderful duo made by Adamay and Toshirodragon! Real life delayed this release this time (it ALWAYS comes first, sorry) but they are always ready to come into action when the group needs them, I’m really thankful. I’m also thankful to @slutsq, as I’ve mentioned before, she’s the provider for this project and she bought it right away when I asked her about it, thanks for your kindness.

I hope you all like it and enjoy reading it. Wait patiently for the release of volume 2!! Cheers!

@cm-scans