#going to start archiving more finished commission works here

[ca-3]

Omori Animation Commissions I finished recently ✨️ it was my first time doing these kinds of commissions!!

[sineala]

Are there ANY stony/Star Trek AUs?

Okay. Um. I'm just going to assume this is a legitimate question and not actually a way to express frustration about my progress on the sequel I am writing (I stared at this ask for a while), so I will just conclude that you must have missed the Steve/Tony Star Trek AU I wrote, um, back in 2016:

Straight on till Morning (109848 words) by Sineala Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics) Rating: Explicit  Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply  Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark  Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Carol Danvers, Janet Van Dyne, Hank Pym, Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Clint Barton, Donald Blake (Marvel), Jocasta (Marvel)  Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Action/Adventure, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pining, Angst, Secret Identity, Identity Porn, Sex Pollen, Fuck Or Die, Caves, Sex In A Cave, Technobabble, Happy Ending, Cap_Ironman Big Bang 2016, Community: cap_ironman, Podfic Available  Summary: 

Tony Stark resigned his commission in Starfleet five years ago, after a disastrous away mission, and he swore he'd never go back. He just wants to be left alone to build warp engines in peace. But the universe has more in store for him than that, as he discovers when Admiral Fury comes to him with an offer he could never have expected and cannot possibly refuse: first officer and chief engineer aboard the all-new USS Avenger, a starship of Tony's own design. What's more, the Avenger's captain is Steve Rogers, hero of the Earth-Romulan War. Believed dead for over a century, Steve is miraculously alive... and very, very attractive. 

But nothing is ever easy for Tony. As he wrestles with his secret desire for his new captain and his not-so-dormant fears, another mission starts to go wrong, and Tony becomes aware that Steve has secrets of his own -- and the truth could change everything.

So, yeah, if you actually haven't read that one, that'll keep you busy for a while. It's a Trek fusion with comics Steve/Tony, set in the era of the later TOS movies. (This is important so that you can picture the correct uniforms, and also because it actually matters that the events of Star Trek II, III, and IV have happened.) It was a Big Bang fic, so it's got some great art by Ran and Phoenix -- embedded in the story -- and also M_Samro made a really amazing podfic of it, if you like podfics.

For a charity auction in 2017, I promised I would write a sequel, and I plotted the whole thing out and started writing this extremely epic sequel, which was unfortunately, about a plague threatening the galaxy, and I got about 120,000 words in and then 2020 happened and I decided I needed to not be writing it right now. So it went on an extended hiatus.

But the good news is that I've actually gotten back to it! I picked it up again last month and I've put 40,000 more words in it since then and at this exact moment I am currently working on the last scene of Chapter 4 (out of six total)! I swear it is happening! I've been putting in about a thousand words a day for the past month! It is really happening this time! The sequel is coming! I promise! I know it has been years but it's happening!

See? It's happening! (I would include a screencap of the part that is happening, but all of Chapter 4 is pretty spoilery.)

So that will exist! Someday! I mean that!

And if you're asking about Steve/Tony Star Trek AUs by people other than me, there are some! If you filter the AU - Star Trek Fusion tag by Steve/Tony, there are 25 matches. Several of them are related to my fic (remixes, art) but there is some stuff that isn't my fault! I haven't read a lot of them because I was trying not to read things that seemed like they might be similar to mine while I was plotting my series here, and also I have never finished watching DS9, so I skipped the DS9 ones.

Under Stars by vulcanscully: A fun fusion that I thought was interesting because Steve is an ensign and that's not how this usually goes.

Discovery of the Century by DepressingGreenie: More 616 in flavor than a lot of the Trek AUs, this is basically Finding Steve In The Ice but Make It Star Trek. As far as I am concerned, Finding Steve In The Ice is great every time.

and so we rebuild by raeldaza: I'm probably biased because this one was inspired by my fic, but I also really enjoyed this one for not being how these things usually go. A lot of Trek AUs in many fandoms are written through a TOS/AOS kind of lens and will often do a Kirk/Spock thing and make one of them a Vulcan or half-Vulcan. In this one that's Tony, but also he's a terrible Vulcan! He's found a new way to disappoint his father!

Stellar Love Affairs by AvengersNewB: I honestly had never imagined a Star Trek fusion that was also A/B/O but I think it really works here! It's like bringing pon farr full circle.

Xenophilia by Captain_Panda: Captain_Panda has several Trek AUs but I am reccing this one because it's the longest. And also the whumpiest. Everyone loves some good away-mission whump!

So there you go! Live long and prosper! I promise I am still writing this Star Trek AU sequel!

[eliotlime]

End of September Update

Just as a heads up, I'll be closing my commissions after the first week of October (06/10/2024) just so I can focus on other projects! If you'd like to order a bug from me or get any of my other regular commissions now's a good time to do so!

(Bugstyle | Regular Comms)

I made a really brief post on twitter about what I'm up to but since tumblr supports more text I'll just go into more depth on what projects I'm working on at the moment and general life updates!

I used to write blog posts on wordpress for school and it's just hilarious that I stopped doing that considering it feels like I was born to blog!

In general, I've been trying to crawl out of this very odd mood swing-y state I've been in for the past year. I've been semi-public about it but I graduated with a degree in animation same time last year and have sort of been recovering from the absolute burn out of that as well as watching the animation industry essentially collapse just as I left college.

I'm hoping to get into UI/UX design this coming October and try to piece what little control I have of my life back together. I don't really know what I'm doing to be honest and it feels like I'm just pawing in the dark with a lot of this stuff.

In lighter news I've been trying to get into something I've always wanted to for years which is comics! I'm not sure how much I can speak about it at the moment but I just got into an anthology which is very exciting.

I applied to shortbox last year but didn't get in :( but fingers crossed I'll get in next year! On a related note I've made a Cara profile which I'm using as a comics portfolio and archive.

--

Those of you who've been following me for years know that I've had a webcomic project called, Happenstance (which I've restarted endlessly for about 10 years at this point). While I don't really have a concrete update of that for you guys I will say that the story is more or less fixed and whatever version of it I have now is most likely the version I'll proceed with in the future.

I did try to get the ball rolling with this at the start of the year with a pilot comic but it made me so miserable to work on it I abandoned it and started making an unrelated zine instead haha

I do have plans on finishing this eventually and it'll be up on my itch.io and gumroad like everything else!

Speaking of the zine, I'd just like to thank everyone who purchased Cute Thing! I think for my first independent book project it did pretty well! It was incredibly embarrassing and nerve wrecking to promote it but I'm glad I did it.

I don't know why there's an 18+ warning on this considering this zine is pretty tame.

I guess it also helped that that stupid ass diary comic i made blew up at the same time so I got to shill my wares in relation to it. Even though I think it gave me some kind of psychological damage but every time i gain minor internet fame i shrink back into my shell anyway, this is just the first time i really felt so much.. vitriol from randos lol.

It's just hilarious it overlapped with whatever guilty gear obsession I had at the time as well. Thank you to everyone who stuck around and uh.. sorry! I walk wherever the wind takes me and it's frequently towards my own characters.

But! Speaking of Guilty Gear, I am working on an Abacelsus zine I briefly talked about on twitter a couple months back. The title is sort of pending at the moment and while I did say it might be free as a digital download, I'm probably going to charge a couple of dollars because of how much effort I'm putting into this.

On the plus side that means I'll probably be putting more effort into it! I'm aiming for 24 interior pages of stuff and hoping to release a digital version of it by Halloween 2024!

I'm trying to work on more prints and stickers for conventions as well and I never posted about my convention escapades here all too much but you can check out this instagram post for what I had up the last time I boothed!

That's kind of all for the stuff I'd like to get done within this year but other projects that I'd like to aim to get done by 2025 is a continuation of my Cute Thing zine that I'm aiming to collate by Valentines Day, hehe how romantic.

There's nothing terribly concrete for that at the moment but I do know I want it to have more pages than Cute Thing. It's called My Boy and yes it's named after another Car Seat Headrest song.

I've got a lot of irons in the fire and another iron is that I'm also planning a 4-panel comic series for my band characters that I've posted some pilots about before!

Pretty messy planning but most of my long form stuff looks like this.

A 4-panel comic series is just less intimidating than a fully coloured webcomic series (Happenstance) that I know will be finished decades later. I've also seen a lot of webcomic artists I've beloved just.. abandon their years long project and it's kind of scary to me that will definitely happen to me!!!

--

The long and short of it is that I've got a lot of projects and a majority of it is not making me any money. I'm extremely lucky to be surrounded by people that support my work but it gets hard to just do all of this by yourself with no guarantee that it'll go anywhere.

Patreon's a beast I've tried to tackle but it's kind of an ass of a website to use so I'll probably try to use ko-fi a bit more. I've kind of never really liked the subscription model and really do prefer to launch curated PDFs of my work every few months, but again I'm really just clawing at the dark and grasping at anything I can.

Let's wrap up this long post by mentioning that I might want to give streaming a shot! I used to stream a little when I was a teenager but I'd like to give it another go!

I don't think I'm going to have a dedicated persona or vtuber avatar but a small little png-tuber would be frankly hilarious. Maybe something casual to start of with, it gets pretty lonely spending everyday working on images alone.

--

Thank you for reading! It's an extremely long post to all but say that I'm scared but working on projects still! If you'd like to support me, here's my ko-fi page and while I'm working on getting more stuff on there here's my itchi.io & gumroad as well.

As I mentioned before I'm closing my commissions on the 6th of October to work on my Abacelsus zine so if you'd like to get a bug or any of my regular style commissions now's a good time to do so!

(Bugstyle | Regular Comms)

I'm hoping to make more update posts like these in the future and not psyche myself out every time because they're really good for me to collect my incredibly jumbled thoughts. Thanks again to everyone who's followed, supported or even just looked at my stuff it really means the world.

If you have any questions or just generally want to talk to me about my characters, my DMs and askbox is always open! Any professional enquires can be shot towards me email as well: eliotlime@gmail.com

XOXO, Stay weird!

-Eliot :)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Kitchensink callithump linkdump

On July 14, I'm giving the closing keynote for the fifteenth HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH, in QUEENS, NY. Happy Bastille Day! On July 20, I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

With just days to go before my summer vacation, I find myself once again with a backlog of links that I didn't squeeze into the blog, and no hope of clearing them before I disappear into a hammock for two weeks, so it's time for my 21st linkdump – here's the other 20:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

I'm going to start off this week's 'dump with a little bragging, because it's my newsletter, after all. First up: a book! Yes, I write a lot of books, but what I'm talking about here is a physical book, a limited edition of ten, that I commissioned from three brilliant craftspeople.

Back in March 2023, I launched a Kickstarter to pre-sell the audiobook of Red Team Blues, the first novel in my new Martin Hench series, about a forensic accountant who specializes in unwinding tech bros' finance frauds:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

One of the rewards for that campaign was a very special hardcover: a handmade, leather-bound edition of Red Team Blues, typeset by the typography legend John D. Berry:

https://johndberry.com/

Bound by the legendary book-artist John DeMerritt:

https://www.demerrittstudios.com/

And printed by the master printer JaVae Berry:

https://www.jgraphicssf.com/

But this wasn't a merely beautiful, well made book – it had a gimmick. You see, I had already completed the first draft of The Bezzle, the second Hench novel, by the time I launched the Kickstarter for Red Team Blues. I had John Berry lay out a tiny edition of that early draft as a quarter-sized book, and then John DeMerritt hand-bound it in card.

The reason that edition of The Bezzle had to be so small was that it was designed to slip into a hollow cavity in the hardcover, a cavity that John Berry had designed the type around, so that both books could be read and enjoyed.

I offered three of these for sale through the Kickstarter, and the three backers were very patient as the team went back and forth on the book, getting everything perfect. Last month, I took delivery of the books: three for my backers, one each for John DeMerritt and John Berry's personal archives, one for me, and a few more that I'm going to surprise some very special people with this Christmas.

Look, I had high hopes for this book. I dote on beautiful books, my house is busting with them, and I used to work at a new/used science fiction store where we had a small but heartstoppingly great rare book selection. But these books are fucking astounding. Every time I handle mine, my heart races. These are beautiful things, and I just want to show them to everyone:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/albums/72177720318331731/

As it happens, the next thing I'm going to do (after I finish this newsletter) is turn in the copyedited manuscript for the third Hench novel, Picks and Shovels, which comes out in Feb 2025 (luckily, I had enough time to review the edits myself, then turn it over to my mom, who has proofed every book I've written and always catches typos that everyone else misses, including some real howlers – thanks Mom!):

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

Of course, the majority of people who enjoy my books do not end up with one of these beautiful hardcovers – indeed, many of you consume my work exclusively as electronic media: ebooks and (of course) audiobooks. I love audiobooks and the audio editions of my books are very good, with narrators like Amber Benson, Wil Wheaton, and Neil Gaiman.

But here's the thing: Audible refuses to carry my books, because they are DRM-free (which means that they aren't locked to Audible's approved players – you can play my audiobooks with any audiobook player). Audible has a no-exceptions, iron-clad rule that every book they sell must be permanently locked into their platform, which means that Audible customers can't ditch their Audible software without losing their libraries – all the books they purchased:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

Being excluded from Audible takes a huge bite out of my income – after all, they're a monopolist with a 90% market share. That's why I'm so grateful for indie audiobook stores that carry my books on equitable terms that Audible denies – stores like Libro.fm, Downpour and even Google Books.

This week, I discovered a new, amazing indie audiobook store called Storyfair, where the books are DRM-free and the authors get a 75% royalty on every sale:

https://storyfair.net/helpstoryfairgrow/

Storyfair is a labor of love created by a married couple who were sickened and furious by the way that Audible screws authors and listeners and decided to do something about it. Naturally, I uploaded my whole catalog to the site so they could sell it:

https://storyfair.net/search-for-audiobooks/?keyword=cory+doctorow&filter=any

These books are DRM-free, which means that no matter who you buy them from, you can play them in the same player as your other DRM-free audiobooks. You know how you can read all your books under the same lamp, sitting in the same chair, and then put them in the same bookcase when you're done with them? It's weird – outrageous even! – that tech companies think that buying a book from them means that they should have the legal right to force you to read or listen to it using their technology exclusively.

If you let your Storyfair audiobooks touch your Libro.fm audiobooks, they won't get cooties! Audible is like a toddler that won't let their broccoli touch their peas – only that toddler is also a rapacious monopolist that keeps 75% of every sale.

The fight for fair audiobooks is one of those places where the different parts of my professional life cross over: activism, digital media, art, writing the web, and breaking down complex technical subjects for a mass audience. I've just signed up to a six-year project to combine all those facets in a structured way, in collaboration with Cornell University.

Cornell just named me as their latest AD White Professor-at-Large. This is a six-year appointment that involves a series of week-long visits to Ithaca to lecture, run seminars, meet with colleagues, collaborate on research, and do community performances:

https://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/

We've tentatively scheduled my first visit for early September 2025, to coincide with the Ithaca Book Festival, and we've got big plans, roping in multiple departments at Cornell, the local alternative school and local colleges, doing talks at the fair as well as at the university, and (we hope!) squeezing in a stop in NYC on the way home for a day at Cornell Tech. I'm so excited (and honored) to be working with Cornell (and getting a chance to visit Moosewood Restaurant, whose cookbooks taught me how to cook!). Watch this space.

Authorship has always been a political act, but never moreso than today, with waves of book-bans sweeping the country. One of the heroes of those bans is Maggie Tokuda-Hall, who made headlines when she publicly excoriated Scholastic for demanding that she remove references to racism from her kids' books in order to make them more palatable to reactionaries:

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/15/1169848627/scholastic-childrens-book-racism

Tokuda-Hall has stepped up the fight, co-founding Authors Against Book Bans, an org that provides training and support for author/activists so they can fight back against book bans at library board and city council meetings:

https://www.authorsagainstbookbans.com/

Authors Against Book bans is looking for members! I signed up last week, within seconds of having Tokuda-Hall give me the pitch when we ran into each other in Oakland at the Locus Awards. Are you an author? Sign up too! They're especially interested in branching out beyond YA and kids' authors (though they want those kinds of writers, too!).

Book bans affect us all. Even if you personally are never stymied when you visit your library and discover the book that you want to read has been removed by a swivel-eyed loon with terminal groomer-panic. The bans sweeping our country mean that our neighbors and loved ones are being denied literature by these cranks. There are people in your life who are losing out on the possibility of a life-changing literary adventure (which is why the far right hates these books – they want to be sure no one encounters the ideas between their covers).

The realization that you have to live in a society with people who are harmed by injustice, even if you personally escape that justice? It's the whole basis for solidarity.

Americans are living through a multigenerational project of stamping out solidarity and insisting that we only ever view ourselves as individuals, with no stake in the plights of our neighbors. That's how the US got the most expensive, least effective health care system in the world. And even if you are in the vanishingly tiny minority of Americans who are happy with their health care, you live amongst people who are being killed by the system around you.

The health system is a perfect example of how monopolization drives more monopolization, and how that comes to harm the public and workers. Health consolidation began with pharma mergers, that led to pharma companies gouging hospitals. Hospitals, in turn, engaged in a nonstop orgy of mergers, which created regional monopolies that could resist the pricing power of monopoly pharma – and screw insurers. That kicked off consolidation in insurance, which is why most Americans have a "choice" of between one and three private insurers – and why health workers' monopoly employers have eroded their wages and working conditions.

A new study in American Economic Review: Insights puts some quantitative spine in this tale, tracking the relationship between hospital mergers and skyrocketed health-care prices:

https://harris.uchicago.edu/news-events/news/consolidation-hospital-sector-leading-higher-health-care-costs-study-finds?itid=lk_inline_enhanced-template

The researchers investigated 1,164 acute-care hospital mergers, finding that while the FTC only challenged 1% of these, they could – and should – have challenged 20% of them, based on the agency's own criteria for merger scrutiny. The researchers blame the rising costs of hospital care directly on these mergers, and point out that Congress has historically starved the FTC of the budget it needed to investigate these mergers. The annual additional costs to the American people from these mergers exceed the entire annual budget of the FTC.

It's not just hospitals: the entire investor class is hell-bent on spending their way to monopoly. Nowhere is that more true than in AI, where hundreds of billions are being poured into bids to attain permanent dominance through scale. Writing for their excellent AI Snake Oil newsletter, Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor inject some realism into the AI scale hype:

https://www.aisnakeoil.com/p/ai-scaling-myths

Narayanan and Kapoor challenge the idea that throwing more data at large language models will make the better: "With LLMs, we may have a couple of orders of magnitude of scaling left, or we may already be done." They are skeptical that this can be fixed with synthetic data (whose use is limited to "fixing specific gaps and making domain-specific improvements"). They also point out that if returns from data slow, then returns from adding more compute or making bigger models might also be throttled.

They reserve their most skeptical take for "AGI" – the idea that LLMs are going to achieve consciousness. This is a fundamentally unserious idea, one that they unpack in detail in their forthcoming book:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691249131/ai-snake-oil

One thing I'm hoping for from the book is some analysis of the material usefulness of AI hype – what purpose does the hype serve? I mean, obviously, hype is useful if you're looking to suck up investor capital, or flip an investment to a greater fool. But there's a specific character to AI hype: namely, the claim that AI will displace labor, which is really a claim that a bet on AI is a bet on the increasing wealth of capital at labor's expense.

In other words, AI is a bet on oligarchy. In America, that's a pretty safe bet, and the odds just got even better, thanks to a string of brutal Supreme Court decisions that legalized bribery, banned most regulatory enforcement, and made being alive and unhoused into a crime (Poor Laws 2.0):

https://prospect.org/justice/2024-06-29-whos-gonna-check-supreme-court-chevron-separation-powers/

But amidst all those gimmes to the rich and powerful, there was one notable exception: the SCOTUS ruling on the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy. Purdue was the family business of the Sacklers, a multigenerational dope-peddling dynasty that went from super-rich to stratospherically rich by kickstarting the opioid epidemic with their blockbuster drug Oxycontin.

The Sacklers sold mountains of Oxy the old fashioned way: by lying. The lied about its efficacy and they lied about its safety, and they helped kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. Eventually, this caught up with them, and Purdue lost a bunch of court cases and was forced into bankruptcy.

That's where things get gnarly: the Sacklers took the already-sleazy world of elite bankruptcy to a whole new level, with a set of breathtakingly sleazy maneuvers that ensured that their case would be heard by the one judge in America who would let them off the hook:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

That judge was Robert Drain and the Sacklers were the blow-off to a long and shameful career in public "service." The Sacklers incorporated a subsidiary in White Plains, NY (in Drain's turf) precisely 181 days before filing for bankruptcy, then claimed that this empty small-town office had been the company HQ for more than six months. Then they hid machine-readable metadata in their filing that tricked the court's database into assigning the case to Drain:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#shoppers-choice

The reason the Sacklers were so horny for Drain? He was a notoriously generous source of "nonconsensual third-party releases." These would allow the Sacklers to permanently end every lawsuit against them without having to declare bankruptcy. Instead, they could take their (ruined, hollow) company through bankruptcy, throw a small fraction of their personal fortunes into the pot, representing fractional pennies on the dollar of what they owed to their victims, and walk away with tens of billions and eternal protection from any future suits.

In other words, they could stiff their creditors and keep the loot. Which is exactly what Robert Drain gave them – before retiring from the bench to get a two-orders-of-magnitude pay raise at a white-shoe firm that specializes in representing corporate mass-murderers like the Sacklers.

That's where it would have ended, but for a surprising ruling from the Supreme Court, which threw out the nonconsensual third-party release deal and put the Sacklers back on the hook to pay the victims of their many, many crimes.

As ever, the best source of analysis and explanation for elite bankruptcy shenanigans is Adam Levitin of the Credit Slips blog:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2024/06/purdue-pharma-decision-a-big-win-for-mass-tort-victims.html

Levitin has a prediction for what's going to happen next. He rejects the predictions of Sackler apologists, who say that this is going to add years or decades to the already too-long wait for compensation that the Sacklers' victims have endured. Instead, Levitin says that the Sacklers will almost certainly transfer billions more from their personal fortunes to the settlement pot and beg for consensual releases from their victims. In other words, they'll go from dictating terms to asking for them.

So the settlement will stand, but it will be larger, and victims who don't want to take it won't have to – they'll be able to sue. In other words, this ruling "does not prevent deals in bankruptcy. It just changes the terms of what those deals."

This has implications for other mass-murderers and corporate criminals, like Johnson and Johnson (who tricked women into dusting their vulvas with asbestos):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit

And the Boy Scouts of America, who let pedophiles abuse children for decades:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/05/third-party-nonconsensual-releases/#au-recherche-du-pedos-perdue

Both J&J and BSA carved out nonconsensual third-party releases in the mold of the Sacklers' deal, and both briefed the Supreme Court, warning that if the Sacklers were forced to pay what they owed, J&J and BSA's victims would also be entitled to far larger sums. Go ahead and threaten us with a good time, why doncha?

The Sackler decision is a real bright spot at a dark time for corporate impunity. It's always nice to see big corporate bullies getting a bit of a comeuppance. Another one of those comeuppances was just delivered thanks to a classic fatfinger error.

A Microsoft engineer accidentally released the sourcecode to Playready, the company's flagship DRM product:

https://borncity.com/win/2024/06/26/microsoft-employee-accidentally-publishes-playready-code/

Microsoft's DRM doesn't do anything to protect the interests of creative workers or even the companies that employ them. As a Microsoft rep admitted on stage at a presentation in 2006, the purpose of Microsoft DRM is to prevent small startups from entering the market, ensuring that Microsoft and its "rivals" can safely divide up the world without worrying about disruptive competitors:

https://memex.craphound.com/2006/01/30/msft-our-drm-licensing-is-there-to-eliminate-hobbyists-and-little-guys/

I was there that day and reported on the remarks, prompting both Microsoft and its rep to furiously deny that they'd ever said this, despite multiple witnesses who heard it. This was just a couple years after I gave a viral talk at Microsoft about why the company shouldn't use DRM:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/18/greetings-fellow-pirates/#arrrrrrrrrr

By 2006, it was clear that the company was all in on DRM, and today, DRM is the centerpiece of Microsoft's anticompetitive strategy, and Playready is the centerpiece of Microsoft's DRM. The source-code leak is doubtless going to give rise to lots of grey-market tools for stripping DRM from all kinds of media:

https://security-explorations.com/microsoft-playready.html

You love to see it! Now I'm doubly looking forward to this summer's security conferences, including Defcon, where, for the first time, I'll be emceeing the charity poker tournament to benefit EFF:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/betting-your-digital-rights-eff-benefit-poker-tournament-def-con-32

This should be very fun – and funny – especially given how little I know about poker (I have been specifically selected on that basis, for the comedy value). Every player gets a custom EFF poker-deck, and the winner gets a treasure chest filled by EFF board member Tarah Wheeler, including "emeralds, black pearls, amethysts, diamonds, and more."

I like to close these linkdumps with something fun and uplifting, and I'd planned to end things with the poker-tournament, but then my pal Raph Koster announced that his game studio Playable Worlds had dropped its first announcement of Stars Reach, an open-world MMO like no other:

https://www.raphkoster.com/2024/06/28/announcing-stars-reach/

Raph is a legend in MMO design circles, whose credits include Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. He wrote the definitive text on how games work, A Theory of Fun, that's does for games what Understanding Comics did for comics:

https://www.theoryoffun.com/

Stars Reach is stupidly ambitious. It consists of truly open worlds, modeled to an absurd degree of fidelity:

We know the temperature, the humidity, the materials, for every cubic meter of every planet. Our water actually flows downhill and puddles. It freezes overnight or during the winter. It evaporates and turns to steam when heated up. And not just our water — everything does this. Catch a tree on fire with a stray blaster bolt. Melt your way through a glacier to find a hidden alien laboratory embedded in the ice. Stomp too hard on a rock bridge, and watch out, it might collapse under your feet. Dam up a river to irrigate your farm. Or float in space above an asteroid, and mine crystals from its depths.

The game is fundamentally a climate story, whose lore has humanity seeded around the galaxy by a powerful alien race called the Old Ones, only to have humans bust through the planetary limits of every world they were given. Now the Old Ones are giving humans another chance to try smarter ways of sustaining ourselves on new worlds, with the aid of powerful robots call "Servitors."

Because this is a Raph Koster game, it's got a bunch of extremely satisfying play dynamics:

A classless skill tree advancement system, where peaceful play matters just as much as combat

An intricate player-driven economy where players can craft their way to fame and fortune

An accessible yet deep combat system, where you can choose whether to play using action aiming or more forgiving homing shots or lock-on targeting

In-world player housing that lets you build and customize your home and form towns… and enough room for everyone to have a house

A single shardless galaxy, with both space and ground gameplay… in fact, you can build that house on an asteroid, if you want

The ability for a group to govern a planet, and define its laws, whether you want a peaceful home or a PvP free for all

Stars Reach is not playable yet, but the company's looking for gamers to give them feedback and steer the development:

https://starsreach.com/

OK, that wraps up the week's links. I'm gonna get one more edition out on Monday, god willin' and the crick don't rise, and then I'll be off for a couple weeks. Enjoy your summer!

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/29/pasticcio/#professor-at-large

Image: James St John https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/40894047123

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[couch-house]

2023 baybeeeee. havent done an art summary in a while since i basically stopped drawing early 2020 and didn't get back on the horse until mid-2022 (i wonder... what could have caused that!) i dont feel like my art has really changed this year, only in the ways that I draw specific sonic characters (looking through my archive is fun bc i can see the progression of the diseases known as Giving Them Big Eyebrows and Drawing The Monoeye) and--more exciting 4 me--my practice with paneling comics! :)

i think the progression is much more noticeably when you line it up with last year's sonic art... i can see all the Milestones.. more talking abt that under the cut

May: couch gets into sonic. June: Yucky Sonic 1.0. this was also the month when i Heard Of fleetway super. July: couch comes back from brazil, having read stc. this is also when i start dong actual short comics. compare may -> june -> july. (also please forgive whatever tf i was doing with skintones. i needed some practice)

august: merger au takes shape. dog invented. also i just really like that speed racer sonic mspaint picture. its fun :) september: deep in the fleet mines. october: i lose a lot of steam and mostly just doodle. another comic comparison for those three months:

november: frontiers comes out. i go crazy mode and make that sonic + knuckles comic with the pretty backgrounds and LOTS OF TINY TEXT. december: winter break AND im tired. january 2023 i come back insane crazy mode and write some fanfiction?? still havent finished that LOL. made some nice cover art :) february: i shift into knuckles mode fora month. make another comic. this one is much better i think :) november -> february

march: i shift into transfem metal sonic mode. also just stick to a lot of doodling. also write more fanfiction. crazy. april: transitory period as i shift back into stc/exit: sonic mode. may: more fanfiction. more comics. i really like how both of these turned out :) while the last two were definitely taking a lot more notes from stc, i think around here i start paying attention to and trying to learn from more creative panelling from artists i admire. like @/superemeralds THOAM and @/starrjoy's pandora au.

june: i play sa2 and it's good. july: i play unleashed and it is both miserable and good. i get in kind of an artistic frustration zone and wiggle my way out. august: idk i think im just chillin. super react dot jpeg happens. it's not even named that, it's named after the other image on the canvas, which was maria holding baby shadow. more comics.

september: i burn out for a bit. get real tired. eventually get back up and make more comics. the goal here and last month has become "try to make more interesting panel shapes. I've noticed other artists don't just use rectangles--try playing with irregular polygons and see where it gets you." well it gets you mixed results as you learn :) also i think after that pause i accept the monoeye into my life. sigh...

october: oc showdown starts and @/neurotypical-sonic asks me to make some halloweeny art :) feels like i dont do much this month bc i focus on those. november: A LOT OF ART?? INSANE. more oc showdown stuff. i play shadow the hedgehog (2005). it's good and i love it. i draw a ton of shit on one canvas for it. Fucking Dember: i have shifted back into stc/EXIT mode. motivation's a little weird bc work's a little weird. doing commissions also makes it weird. well im having fun and being myself :) a final handful of comics from this month:

idk maybe ill do something sicko crazy b4 the end of the year. mayb i'll follow exit sonic's example and #GetWorse. who knows :) well this is fun i love looking at my art and seeing and noticing things. thank u all for your support and I hope we all have a great 2024!

[suzukiblu]

bestie im sending this message bc im concerned for you! in regards to the crowfunding fic i mean,, and the ao3 rules. i hope you get all the money you need bc u deserve it!! but im unsure if ao3 allows you to do what you’re doing? and i dont want you to get in any trouble w ur account etc etc. like i know you cant have any link to any sort of donations or even allude to getting paid on the fic proper. but i dont think ive ever seen a crowfunding fic or any similar situation... have you researched the ao3 rules? maybe you can post the chapters here on tumblr or on patreon and then when it’s finished / the crowfunding is done you can post it all on ao3? i really dont know orz

Thank you, but I just don't talk about that kind of thing on AO3, obviously, and I'm technically trying to classify this goal-funding less as "commissioned writing" and more as "thank-you gifts for donations" anyway, since a) it IS being done through a donation platform and b) it's not like I'm writing custom pieces to order, I'm just doing more work on a story I came up with myself. But I HAVE done custom commissions and crowdfunded fic before, and either way the line there is thin enough that it might as well be gossamer.

Basically, I figure as long as I'm not asking for money through AO3 or specifically posting there ONLY to try to earn money somehow--and at this point, most of my fics I start posting on Tumblr and only put up on A03 later anyway, and I just about never post art there--it's ethically fine to me, and legally shouldn't present a problem that AO3 would have to deal with. Like, what I'm doing off their site is not something I'm involving them in or shoving in their faces, I'm just using them as an archive as god and the internet intended.

YMMV, but frankly it's kinda silly to me that fanart and even sometimes fancomics are considered "okay" to get paid for to the point that both mainstream and small-time artists can sell prints publicly and post fanart commissions on any site they like without worrying about it, but getting paid for fic is somehow the work of the devil? So I'm not gonna go around throwing the existence of fanfic commissions in AO3's face, but I do consider them to be as ethical as fanart commissions are and don't tend to worry about doing them past avoiding doing anything I think might make trouble for other people.

[topaz-witch-tea]

OMG HIIIII

FIRST OF ALL I LOVE UR WORKS SM I THINK IM LOSING MY MIND FROM THE CUTENESS

SECOND OF ALL I GOT A BRAINROT TO SHARE WITH YOU!

Ahem- So yk how Yingxing was told to be like, very workaholic and so consumed with his work to the point he forgets to eat, drink or sleep?

I headcanon that sometimes he goes back into this old habit for a week or two just working to the point that Yanqing has to alert Dan Feng and Jing Yuan to drag the guy outside of his workshop LMAO

They force him to take care of himself or Yanqing will cry (HES SO CUTE I CANT-)

Aww thank you so much!!! I really enjoy getting asks and having people interested in it!!!

This is absolutely adorable.

***I hope I did your brainrot justice. The draft has been in progress for a while and I am now finishing it at 1:30 AM

Yingxing has his own private forge in the manor so he can work on his own things and also so he wouldn't have to stay in the Artisanship Commission all day to work on things. The problem is that now his commute from his home to a forge has been cute, he can spend more time on personal projects.

He becomes a ghost, just meandering the halls for food and water before returning back to his work. He is gone for so long that Yanqing misses him. He's also a bit scared since his father looks like he died inside.

Yanqing would absolutely go running to the other two about it. He's too young to understand what's actually happening to his dad but something is wrong and he doesn't like it. Dan Feng is displeased due to his inability to take care of his health but also the distress it is causing Yanqing. Jing Yuan is more concerned as to the lack of care Yingxing is participating in. While Yanqing just wants his Baba to get better and play with him again.

********

Yanqing waited patiently at the door for what has been 30 minutes now. In his hands was his white lion plushie sporting a very noticeable tear on its ear, a result from a play fight with Mimi. On the other side of the door was his father's private forge- a place for the Furnace Master to pursue his private projects. Yanqing was never allowed in without permission lest his father accidentally pour molten near him or accidentally harm him with tools of the trade.

He had knocked quietly to request his father's aid and was told to stand outside quietly for a bit as his father cleaned up the forge. Yingxing had looked tired and a bit frazzled. His usually neat hair was knotted and messy and he had bags under his eyes. So engrossed in a project after getting his hands on some rare materials, he had forgone daily care and even the pleasures of life. He ate when his stomach growled louder than the sound of his hammer and he drank when he would develop pounding headaches and his vision would get blurry. He would sleep on his chair so that he may continue his work when the sun rose.

Yanqing was quite distraught upon laying eyes on his father. He hadn't seen him in a week and a half and did not dare to call for him, not wanting to disturb his important work. So there he stood until 10 became 20 which became 30. His feet started to hurt and he couldn't help but feel upset. Did he forget about Yanqing?

Yanqing wanted to go and knock again, but he was always warned about disturbing his father in the forge. So he settled for the next best option. Running down the courtyard, he made his way to the archives where his other 2 fathers engrossed themselves in a book that was gifted to them.

Walking up to Jing Yuan, Yanqing tugged on his clothing in an attempt to get his attention.

"Yanqing? What are you doing here?" Jing Yuan picked the child up and put him on his lap.

"Baba is really busy. I asked him to fix my toy and he made me wait outside for a long time."

"Oh, did he now? Doesn't he know its wrong to make Yanqing wait at all?" Jing Yuan teased before tickling his son, causing the boy to squirm.

"But I haven't seen Baba in forever and when I saw him, he looked really scary?" Yanqing exclaimed.

"Scary?" Dan Feng inquired

"Mhm, he looked like a zombie! Like those monsters in that movie you watched!"

"I see. Do you miss Baba?" JIng Yuan asked.

"Yes! Baba hasn't played with me in a long time." Yanqing said leaning into his father's hold as he observed the High Elder exchange a look with the General.

Dan Feng reached patted Yanqing on the head. "Why don't you go to the kitchen for a snack? A-die and I will get you Baba to play with you, okay?"

"Really?" Yanqing beamed.

"Really, now run along." Yanqing hopped off his father's lap and raced to the kitchen.

Yingxing was fast asleep when a heavy weight landed on his chest. He quickly shot up to see Dan Feng peering over him, his eyes cloudy with annoyance and a bit of anger. Jing Yuan stood next to him, an amused smile present on his face as always.

"What was that for?" Yingxing exclaimed.

"Playing dumb doesn't suit you. You know exactly what it was for!" The tail swished back and forth, threatening an even harder hit if he asked another stupid question. Though it seemed that sleep and lack of care was making Yinxing's brain run extra slow today.

"You're doing it again." Jing Yuan jumped in, saving him from another whack. "No eating, drinking, and barely any sleeping. Yanqing hasn't seen you in over a week."

Yingxing's slowly connected the dots.

Yanqing...Yanqing...

"Oh! Is he still waiting outside? How long has it been?" Yinxing pulling out his phone to check the time.

"No, we told him to go to the kitchen for snacks. You should join him for some, and maybe for a nap as well. He misses you."

Yingxing rubbed his eyes and slowly collected himself, exhaustion still very present. "Yeah, I'll definitely need a nap after."

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK!!!

I hope you like it and feel free to send more and send any questions you have regarding the AU.

[beamiesbuddies]

Web Update #3: Final Gallery Section & Commission Updates!

Hello all! Happy Fall! 🍂🍁☕🍄🌰

As the cooler weather approaches, it’s time to bring my big website gallery overhaul to a close with the final (for now) section- the Passion Projects Section! Here I’ve documented 3 of my bigger projects (including my most recent doll of Mr. Dream).

You will find the finished photos, as well as more in-depth commentary on how I made them, materials, fun facts, WIP photos, & more! I hope you will enjoy reading them. Go to beamiesbuddies.com, hit the Gallery > Passion Projects

With that section, my Archive Gallery is more or less complete! As I make more dolls going forward, I will update the galleries from time to time. Follow me on IG and/or Tumblr to see the most recent creations!

Now for the big one- Commission Updates!

As longtime BB fans know, I’ve been opening commissions on a bi-yearly basis, to give myself the summer to finish my own projects (or even -gasp- have other hobbies!) This year, the summer has been focused on beamiesbuddies.com, as well as working on my first new line of original dolls (which I PROMISE I will start sharing soon!)

The summer was also full of activity lifewise for me, most good & some not so much. As such, I’m a little behind where I wanted to be at this time, & more than a little burnt out. I wanted to open up commissions this month for the upcoming holiday season, but being realistic, I don’t think I would be able to deliver my best work with so much still going on/needing finishing. (One of the things needing doing is the shop on this website, after all!)

Therefore: I will be opening commissions as of January 2025, for the winter season. Big apologies to those who wanted to commission me for Xmas gifts & such, but this will allow me to get a good head start on my ready-made dolls & hopefully have them up by late fall in time for holiday gift purchasing time. So you may not get a personalized character, but you could have another very cool original themed doll ;)

November 1st I will be opening up slots for the January commissions, which I will announce at that time. So, if you wanted to grab a gift for a friend, maybe you can give them the gift of a Beamie’s Buddies Custom Commission Slot? 👀

I can’t wait to share my upcoming dolls with you as I think they are looking super cute & I have so many ideas for future ones. In all my years I have never really gotten to let my imagination go & make my own characters, I feel like I’m unlocking new potential as a doll artist.

Thank you all for your lovely support on my work over the years & to come!

Love, Beamie 💖

[demon-dm-22]

The Fuck AI/Chat GPT Fanfic Commission openings!

I've never quite done this before but I'll do my best! Paypal payments only!

3 Slots open as of 9/1/24!

Experience with semi-professional writing is between 7-10 years now.

For references here's my A03? Like what you see? Commission me!

Fandoms as of now that I'm aware of:

Homestuck, Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Animal Crossing, Xenoblade Chronicles 1-3, Shadow of the Collossus, Okami, Spyro, Kingdom Hearts (multiple games), Delicious in Dungeon, Final Fantasy-multiple titles, (But not 14 as I am not a player), Pokemon, many more. Please ask beforehand! I cannot write a fanfic if I'm not aware of the material!

Opening written fanfic commissions starting at 20$-capping at 100$. 20$ for fics between 1-4k words

Base rate: 40$ for 5-6k (average)

+10$ for 7-8k (total of 50$).

+25 for 9-10k (total of 75$).

Want to have it published on AO3? Add $15.

If works are between the amount estimates, I WILL ALWAYS CHARGE LESS FOR ACCIDENTALLY GOING OVER ON MY BEHALF. Sometimes ideas don't quite always flow into neat word counts!

Price estimates will be based on length of work requested. I will not write more than 20k at this time.

What I'm willing to write:

-**Smut, NSFW Fetish (minus a few see additional notes below)

-Gore, trauma, horror, angst

-Fluff, OcxCanon, slice of life

-Multi-chapter fics (within reason, I do have my own personal projects still!)

WILL NOT WRITE:

-ANY Animal sexual encounters. Even anthro, sorry!

-Any sexual encounters/lusting/non-consent or purposeful attacks on characters intended to be minors

-Alpha/Omega/Beta universe/sub-universe.

Other General info:

I will always discuss with the commissioner what they are comfortable with especially if it involves an OC. I understand certain language and mentioning of things can be very personal! Please tell me what big no-nos to avoid!

Please allow up to 2 weeks for a finished product. I will not work until I receive 50% payment up front. Once I am completed, I will provide the first two paragraphs of the fic for approval. These will not be shared/peer reviewed. Any editing mistakes once sent (via email) will be fixed ASAP. If wanting published to AO3, please let me know what tags/characters/etc you'd like as well.

All sales are final!

THE CLEARER YOUR DESCRIPTION THE BETTER I CAN WRITE IT!

[braveblackbutterfly]

BBB Butterfly is doing writing commissions

Hello Tumblr fam, friends and associates!

I am making my second attempt at writing commissions! Click the keep reading for all the details!

I'm making writing commissions for two reasons.

Reason #1: my uncle recently passed away and I'm learning as an adult how freaking expensive laying a person to rest is. He had life insurance, but it's not going to cover everything, especially the burial. And the remaining amount will be on my parents' shoulders since the rest of the family can't really help.

I just want to help my parents out in some ways, even if it's just using the money for everyday essentials in the house, like the bills or groceries.

Reason #2: I just finished my tutoring job for the school year. And I don't really plan to reapply for the next school year since it's a part time job and I need a full time budget to achieve my personal goals. Plus, I don't believe tutoring/teaching is for me. But even if I was to reapply, I will still be unemployed until the end of August. And the money I currently have isn't going to last forever.

My commissions are only fanfics this time, which I know will probably limit the amount of commissions I get. But I feel a little more comfortable writing fanfics at the moment than an original short story or poem.

The two fandoms I'm writing for are The Owl House and Steven Universe. I might add more fandoms to the list when I start writing more fics for different series.

What I'm willing to write: romance/romantic ships (happy ending or light angst) and non-romance fics (ex. a platonic or familial centered story)

Ratings: General Audiences to Teen (maybe Mature if it's an adult couple ship)

What I'm not comfortable writing: strong violence/death, explicit sex scenes (I will write suggestive and "fade to black" type of sex scenes but only for adult couple ships), no adult/minor ships

TOH ships I will not write: Luz/Hunter, Boscha/Willow, Amity/With a male character, Belos/With anybody

SU ships I will not write: Jasper/Lapis, Steven/Any of the gems

I may add other ships to the list depending on how (not) comfortable I feel about the idea of that particular ship.

Prices (may adjust at a later date):

1,000 words or less: $10

1,000 – 4,000: $15

4,000 + words: $20

$2 discount on my favorite ships (lumity, amillow, willuz, willumity, lapidot, connverse)

Payment source: Right now, PayPal, but I might use an alternative payment service like cash app or venmo later on.

It might take me some time to get started on these fics since there is a lot going on in my life right now. But I will get to them as soon as I can.

If you want to read my posted fics on AO3, here's the link:

Please send me a message if you are interested or have any questions! Again, please be patient with me since this is my second attempt.

[choicesficwriterscreations]

CFWC's Writer of the Month:

Lucy-268

Each month CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers, and this month’s writer of the month is CFWC's very own, @lucy-268! We hope you will enjoy learning more about her and her work below! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page.

Quick Links:

Tumblr Blog: lucy-268 Blog Masterlist

1- When did you start playing Choices? What was the first book you played? 

During the COVID quarantine in 2020. I played Bloodbound and Bloodbound 2. Then High School Story. I finally got tired of PB/Choices asking me if I wanted to try Open Heart.

2- When and why did you join Choices fandom?

Because Facebook keeps track of things you search for, it asked me if I wanted to join a Choices group. There was a post about Open Heart fanfics on Tumblr. So I dusted off my old Tumblr account.

3- How did you pick your blog name? 

I am a cat person, but Lucy was the best dog ever. She was my Mom’s dog that mom brought with her when I moved here from PA to VA to save me from having to drive back home every other weekend. 

4- Pull up the first post in your archive, and tell us about it!  

I am an introvert. A lot of people around me overwhelm me and I had an aunt who always made comments like, glad you decided to join us. Similar to this post.

5- How long have you been writing fanfiction?

For choices, since 2020. In a previous life, I wrote Harry Potter fics. I wrote Hinny stories that are still available on fanfiction.net and Livejournal. But with few exceptions I won’t tell anyone the username I used then. 

6- What is your favorite Choices book, and what is your favorite Choices book to write about?

Open Heart.

7- Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it, or would you change it if you were writing it today?

This is the first fic I posted. I had an HC for Charley’s backstory and the brother she was close to, along with some of the brother’s friends. I think I brought the friend back in one other fic. At one point, I thought about bringing him in as an LI for Sienna. I would probably change it.

8- What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

I Would Not Change a Thing. It’s personal to me because I know a couple of people who have semi colon tattoos. After I posted the fic, someone who has since left the fandom shared with me that she got the same tattoo that I gave Charley.

9- Do you have a fic that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to be but found could use a little more love?

My first one was well received. The fandom was more robust then, and I felt welcomed into the community.

I think some of my Tobias/Samantha fics are better than others I’ve written, but because of the size of the fandom and the pairing (not Ethan), they aren’t well-read.

10- If you could write only angst, fluff, or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why? 

I don’t often write smut, so we can eliminate that. I generally get more ideas for fluff, but I'd hate to not be able to write angst when the mood strikes.

11- Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?

Yes, There are a few pieces of Charley, Samantha, and especially Maggie (I even used my grandmother’s name there). Even a little bit of Emma from TNA.

12- What element of writing do you struggle with most?

The ideas for fics. And dialogue. And time.

13- Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?

Did you look in my google docs folder? I have about 100 docs in there. Some are saved in files labeled Sunday Six that I need to go through and pull ideas from save fics together. I have three artworks I either commissioned or won that I need to write fics for, including a cat T/S adopted, a winter fic for T/S, and E/C’s wedding.

14- If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first? 

Nope.

15 - Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing? 

They aren’t active in the Choices fandom much, but two who were very welcoming to me when I started writing were @openheart12 (who asked to be tagged even though she had never read anything I wrote!) and @anothermansjeans (formerly oofchoices), who did some of my first moodboards. Thank you both for the kindness you showed me.

@jamespotterthefirst - Your fics were some of the first I read, and I was so happy when you started to read my works. You are a true friend, and I feel blessed to have you in my my life.

@jerzwriter -  You are my go-to person when I need someone to talk to. I love your ideas, and I wouldn’t want to run CFWC with anyone else.

@genevievemd - You always find the best David Gandy photos. I admire your dedication to completing two series of Smiles. And did it daily.

@liaromancewriter - You are always willing to help with everything. Your Ethan x Cassie is great, but I love Maxenna. (And I still need to finish your original!)

@potionsprefect - I love Victoria as an MC. I admire how you have developed the personalities of your twins (and I’m jealous that I don’t think I have accomplished that yet.

@bex-la-get - It took me a while to find you, and I miss you now that you are on a hiatus. But I love your bookstagram accounts. I can’t forget to mention your cat videos of Percy and Odin.

@danijimenezv - Thank you for giving me the story idea for I Scream, You Scream. Thank you for sharing your stories of your vet internship.

@writer-ish - You always pop up with just the perfect comment or gif. I just wish you’d do it more often.

@a-crepusculo - Another fellow cat person. One of my favorite fics is your When It Rains. I love the idea of Ethan being free enough to stop and dance in the rain.

@storyofmychoices - Thank you for all you do for the fandom in general. Your writing inspired me to read both Mother of the Year and Save the Date.

@burnsoslow - See the above comment. Your Drake and Alyssa inspired me to read The Royal Romance, at least the first one. I was avoiding it because Choices kept trying to make me read it. I miss wackydrabbles, even though there are plenty of fic prompts around.

I am sure there are so many others I should mention, and I’m sorry for anyone I forgot.

16- Which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series? 

I would not change a thing; see question 8 above.

17- Do you write original fiction? 

I have some stories started.

18 -  What other hobbies do you have?

Reading, cooking, baking, and playing with my cats.

19 - What’s your favorite emoji? 

💚😻🤦🏼‍♀️

[gaviicreates]

Craft week in review

Good Morning, and Happy Sunday! Here in the US, we just caught up with the rest of the world with that twice annual clock adjusting we do. Those of you without daylight savings, you know where it's at. In any case, Northern Hemisphere means we got extra sleep today, so not too many complaints from me here. Even the dogs accepted the lie in, which was amazing.

I'm still figuring out how I want to use this blog space. My impulse posts I can't put here, because I used a log in type that requires me to be on my laptop. That means you get the nice pictures, the reflections, the organized WIPs updates, but none of that is helpful in keeping the space active. What are you, blog? An archive, a journal, a gallery?

Please bear with me while I figure it out. I get that the pictures of the finished objects are what tends to inspire people, but I like writing and sharing the journey, even if those musings are not as entertaining. I'm still working on the balance.

~*~

Doilies

Last week, I primarily worked on blocking some finished doilies I had to work on over a couple of days. I only have one set of blocking boards with the circle lines for me to properly measure out the doilies evenly. I'm fine throwing my own stuff on the normal boards and eye-balling it, but not for commissions. With those finished I decided to open up some more local commissions, which quickly filled with family members, and posed the question a bit more in general to the online audience. So four more commissions have joined my schedule, though not all of them need to be in by Christmas.

In the meantime, I started another tree doily, and I plan to take pictures of those pieces soon so I can share them. Here's a phone one to hold you over.

Purchases/Acquisitions

I had a couple purchases last week - and some quick turn arounds. In the yarn world, I placed an order for some Hobbii Rainbow Lace which is one of my go-tos for when specific colors are requested. The yardage is not as much as one might get with Aunt Lydia's from the local JOANN or Michaels, but the shades they carry are so rich and varied. Plus, I'd been eyeing up a rust color I needed an excuse to add to my cart. I also grabbed some dark reds and soft greens to play around with Christmas shades.

Of the hand-dyers, one of the brands I follow is Hue Loco out of Colorado. As with hand-dyed, you're paying for what I consider a luxury material, so as much as I would like to buy everything I do try to splurge sparingly for the sake of my wallet. But I stumbled upon a colorway that was perfect for a project I'd been planning, and since it was going to be a gift for my husband, I didn't mind going the hand-dyed route. The colorway is called "Magpie" and it's a beautiful blend of blues and greys with a sprinkling of browns. SW 100% Merino in worsted. This one came in yesterday, and I couldn't resist working it up right away.

I may have also purchased something for myself while I was on their site. Shh.

I also splurged and ordered some Furls wooden streamline hooks I'd been wanting - in Ebony. One of my dogs got ahold of one of the nice resin colors that were no longer in stock, so I couldn't re-order it when it made unusable.

Expensive week for me! But it'll be the last for awhile while I budget instead for Christmas and start working on the projects these materials were purchased for. For a last hurrah before the holidays, I'm happy with these selections.

Upcoming

The sock DPN class I signed up for starts tomorrow, and knit night at my LYS on Tuesday.

I have one more more doily to block, the next tree one to finish, and the commissions pending.

The new Furls Hooks should arrive next week. Hobbii is enroute.

WIPS: My sky blanket project is making great progress - I've been able to keep up with it and the goal will be to provide an update monthly around the middle of the month. Chevron Scarf was put on hold this week, but maybe I will work on it some today to give me a knitting break.

[a-revised-history-of-erdas]

Welcome to a new Erdas 𖥔

Hello and welcome to the official source for A Revised History of Erdas!

You can call me Bay (she/they). This blog is for all things regarding my revision and expansion of the Spirit Animals series. Here, I discuss the project from a professional standpoint, accept asks and announce new uploads.

Included in A Revised History of Erdas

Here is a rundown of everything you can expect from this project.

A master document (henceforth simply referred to as the "masterdoc") detailing everything there is to know about the altered world of Erdas, from the geography and religion to the plot changes and character designs. This is intended to serve as the reader's guide to ARHoE.

The revision of the main series, arcs one through three. These will be referred to as the original book name, followed by Revised (e.g., Wild Born: Revised).

Tales of the Four Heroes, a collection of short stories that offers a glimpse into some of the unseen adventures of Conor, Abeke, Meilin and Rollan during and after the Second Great War.

Vow, an additional chapter of The Book of Shane that reveals how the Redcloaks came to be.

The revision of Essix's chapter in Tales of the Great Beasts, in which she befriends one of the first Greencloaks in Amaya.

Wyrmslayer, a novella centred on Abeke and Uraza in the aftermath of the War with the Wyrm.

The fourth and final arc, Path of the Heroes, in which the Four and their spirit animals must face a new adversary with their bond tokens.

An as of yet untitled book that jumps forward in time to the next generation -- the Four Heroes' children.

Standalone short stories set in this universe.

AUs that branch off from this primary AU.

Art that is commissioned for this project.

Things you might be wondering

Who is this blog run by? This blog is run entirely by myself, @bayofwolves. I write the posts, answer the asks and manage the account overall.

When do you post? Posts are scheduled for Saturdays (and sometimes Sundays) at 4:00 p.m. PST. There will not be a post every week, but when there is, it will fall on one or both of those days.

Why are you making this project? I have wanted to continue writing for Spirit Animals ever since The Dragon's Eye was released and the series was concluded. Fourteen years old at the time, I was unwilling to part with the world and the characters that had been a huge part of my life for the past four years. Additionally, I wasn't entirely satisfied with where they left things. In fact, I wrote to Scholastic to tell them so, and to request that they continue. I never heard back, of course, but that didn't stop me from taking matters into my own hands and beginning to work on the idea for a fourth arc that had taken shape in my mind. That original idea is now abandoned, but many years later, it inspired me to re-imagine what a continuation of my beloved childhood book series could look like. I created the concept for Path of the Heroes, and one thing led to another until I had plans to rework the whole universe of Spirit Animals. This all started because I never wanted it to end, and because I was unhappy with where and how it ended. A Revised History of Erdas is my attempt to make it feel more complete, to reconcile with my brokenhearted child self. Essentially, this is a passion project that was many years in the making, and a love letter to the books that shaped my childhood.

Where can I find samples of your writing? My Archive of Our Own is currently bare, as I haven’t written a standalone short story in a while. I do have some in the works, however. In the meantime, you can read the final chapter of The Return: Revised here.

When are you going to release [x part of ARHoE], and where can I read it when you do? At this point in time, I cannot predict when I will finish writing any part of ARHoE. This will likely change as work on the project progresses. I lead a busy life as a young adult and write when I can find the time (and motivation). This means that progress will be slow. However, rest assured that this project will be completed before I die. All stories will be posted (chapter-by-chapter, if applicable) on Archive of Our Own. As was previously mentioned, I will announce new uploads right here on this blog.

How does the content of this blog differ from that of your main? The most important difference is that this blog is dedicated exclusively to ARHoE. My main is where you'll find more varied and personal content, as well as discussion of the original Spirit Animals series. I do sometimes talk about this project on my main, but those posts are simply me brainstorming and coming up with ideas. It's casual, and nothing I say on there is set in stone. On this blog, however, my posts are polished and final. All the topics you see discussed here are fixed elements of ARHoE.

Can I send you an ask about [x]? Questions about anything in the universe of ARHoE are very welcome, but keep in mind that there are some things I can't reveal before certain volumes are released. Anonymous asks are on for those of you who prefer them. Send in as many as you want; I love answering them.

And just for fun...

How long have you been a fan of these books? I first started reading Spirit Animals in 2014, at around the same time Fire and Ice came out. I was ten at the time!

Favourite character? My favourite character is Abeke, followed by Shane, Irtike, Drina and Conor. I have identified strongly with Abeke since I was very young; she will always be close to my heart.

If you lived on Erdas, what animal would you summon? It's a hard question for me because I love so many different animals, but I think my spirit animal would be a sea wolf.

Useful links

Archive of Our Own (TBA) Ask a question Main account

Thank you all for your endless kindness and support! Each and every one of you in this little community means so much to me. I hope you enjoy my work!

[mint-yooxgi]

so I read Morning Mist (dragon Au) and Tempting Fate (trickster god au) AND I ABSOLUTLY LOVE IT, OMG.

So I wanted to ask (pure curiosity. I don't want to pressure you or anything similar) if you would consider them discontinued? It's been a while since you updated them, so just wannting to check.

Stay healthy (both body and mind) and be happy and proud :)))

(ps. i love all your workes. I basicially devoured Hotel California and Paradise Gardens. Even got my friends to become a fan of yours. She is curretly starting Hotel California and is already obsessed.)

Hey, omg this is like, the third or fourth ask I've gotten concerning this. So, I'm going to make one thing very clear:

Just because an author hasn't updated a fic in a little while, does not mean it's been abandoned or discontinued.

I made an announcement a little while ago which you can find Here sort of explaining why I've been a bit inactive lately. That, and I just haven't had the motivation to write in a little while.

But yes, fear not! I haven't given up on any of my fics. I still have a lot planned. I've just been busy, cause, you know... life. Right now, my blog is on a sort of back burner so I can focus on the commission, too. I'll make sure to link the update post on my Current Series Masterlist so other people know as well!

I promise I'm still here, things have just been very slow lately! I don't like using the term hiatus, cause I'm not going anywhere or anything, I'm just busy and suffering a bit of writers block lol

Anything I've truly 'discontinued; is either on my archive masterlist, or I've made an announcement about. Thus, it would also be properly labeled. So, don't worry! I have every intention of finishing those series. I've got them all planned out, anyways! The only way I wouldn't finish them is if I suddenly got a publishing deal for them lol, or something drastic happened in my life which prevented me from continuing the series.

For now though, I'll try and do some drabbles to slowly dip my toes back into writing. I hope you all can look forward to that! I do also plan to try and get two more fics out by the end of the year, but we'll see how that goes!

Happy reading!

[jayorsaiic]

This was originally posted on my ao3 account! It was made back in 2022 so I'm not THAT eager about it but it's still a work that doesn't make me want to rip every organ out whenever I reread it.

Link to full on ao3!:

Preview ahead :)!

As the traveler finally finished doing his daily commissions within the nation of Liyue, he had a thought.

"Paimon, how about we visit some old friends before we set off to Sumeru in a few days?"

This gained a pleased and excited reaction from the other, kicking her feet in mid air with a squeal.

"Ooo yes! Paimon would love to eat another tasty dish of Xiangling's!" She pauses, realizing that's the only reason she got excited in the first place as she gives a guilty look to the traveler. "Uhmm, but it would also be nice to see Xiangling without the tasty dishes included! Eheh…definitely!"

The traveler couldn't do anything but laugh at her, shaking his head in the process as he acts disappointed. "Sure Paimon, but I won't believe you until you say you're the best travel companion in all of Teyvat!"

Furrowing her eyebrows, she starts waving her finger in the traveler's face as she gives one of her usual Paimon lectures. "Heyyy!! You can't force me to compliment you and steal my line! Be fair at least!!"

Aether admittedly laughs even more by how serious she was.

"Alright alright, we'll see if Xiangling is in town. After that I get to choose the next person, deal?" As much as the other wants to say nothing out of spite, she agrees nonetheless.

"Fine…deal. Now lets hurry before we miss Xiangling!"

"H-hey! Wait!!" Flying in a random direction, he quickly runs to catch up with Paimon.

_ _ _

It was close to noon as the two were approaching Wangshu Inn. Before now, they managed to catch up with a good amount of people.

Yunjin had another opera to practice for, Chongyun and XingQiu were hanging out, Ningguang was doing her usual duties, Xiangling made the two of them a "parting dish", and Xinyan had a moment to spare to treat them to a new song of hers.

"Paimon is starvingggg, do you think Smiley Yanxiao could fix up something quick for us?"

"Paimon, you ate not too long ago, how are you already starvingggg again?"

"Pleeeeease traveler?? It's not right to let others go hungry!! Oh how the world is so cruel…"

Sighing, he complies.

"Fine, but this is your last meal for today."

"Yayyy! Thank you!! You're the best travel companion in all of Teyvat!!"

"Don't try to butter me up now!"

Eventually, the two get their meals and sit down by the tables next to the bridge. There were only a few people out by that time so there wasn't much commotion.

The two travel buddies chatted for a little until the other thought for a moment as he proceeds to stand up.

"Hey Paimon, I'm going to see if Xiao is here. Is that okay with you?" She perked up, acting as if she remembered they came here for Xiao in the first place due to their small detour distracting her. "Oh oh! let me go with you! I want to talk to Xiao too!" He chuckled.

"No, it's alright. How aboooout, you watch over the food to make sure no one else gets into it?" He recommended, snapping once he got to his conclusion. The little one simultaneously whines and pouts, acting like a small puppy who's getting left by their owner. "This just sounds like you're trying to keep me away from whatever else you're trying to do! Are you trying to trick Paimon?"

"No no no!" He sighs. "I just wanted to talk to Xiao alone is all. It would be a pretty boring conversation for you to be there for, so I'm technically saving you time and energy." She rolls her eyes but complys nonetheless. "Fine fineee, but if he's there let him know Paimon said hi!"

"Will do!"

With that, he set off for Xiao's usual spot, and to his surprise, he actually was there. The Yaksha was scanning the area for any signs of danger to the civilians of Liyue per usual.

As the traveler approached the other, he perked up and turned his head slightly once he heard footsteps.

"Oh, it's you."

[ashboy-3]

I'm Finally Me

Written for DabiHawks Week 2023 Day 1 Prompt: Genderswap Fandom: BNHA Characters: Dabi, Hawks Words: 1007 Summary: Hawks never felt right in his body. How could he? It was the wrong one. Then one day Hawks wakes up and his body felt different. . .it felt right. Featuring FTM Hawks

“Ugh my body feels weird,” Hawks complained as he flew through the sky, landing in his apartment.

“Welcome home Birdie,” Dabi greeted, wearing an apron as he cooked the two dinners. If Hawks’s meat was too undercooked well who was he to judge?

“Hey Dabs,” Hawks greeted with a yawn, walking over to the kitchen to steal a few bites of food as Dabi swatted at his hand.

“Stop trying to steal bites! It’ll be ready in a few minutes. Go change,” Dabi ordered as Hawks sighed and walked into their bedroom, getting a change of clothes. Finding one of Dabi’s oversized t-shirts he unclipped his binder, a specialty ordered one that was made with his wings involved, put on the t-shirt, and put on a pair of sweat pants.

When Dabi first started staying here he never wanted to take his binder off, scared that his body would scare the scared man away, but Dabi just loved him more. Telling him how manly he was, how handsome he was. Never calling him things like cute and pretty. It made Hawks preen for the attention.

Now after living together for over a year, he’s gotten comfortable being without his binder. Dabi never pointed out how he looked without still calling him handsome. The first time it happened Hawks cried tears of joy. No one ever treated him the way Dabi did. All he ever had was the commission who only let him have the binder because they thought that the public would be more accepting of a male hero than a female one. It made him want to throw up.

Rumi didn’t even know what he was going through every day. Just assumed that he was born a male at birth and while it brought a smile to his face sometimes he wanted to yell at her to not be happy. That he’s feeling like shit because of the actual real weight on his chest.

Dabi, he never had to think about it. If he was feeling like shit he could just tell him why and Dabi understood. It made him happy. It ruined his position within the league. He tried, but he couldn’t work fully for the commission, not after he realized how wrong they all are about what a hero is.

“Are you doing okay?” Dabi asked, setting the plate of food down on the coffee table as he sat down on the couch, looking towards Hawks.

“Yeah. My body just feels weird. Nothing really out of the ordinary for me,” Hawks shrugged as Dabi frowned at him.

“You’re allowed to be sad or upset about it you know?” Dabi asked, taking a bite of his food.

“Yeah I know, but it just seems pointless sometimes. I know that it won’t change anything so I can either push it to the back of my mind or feel sorry for myself,” Hawks shrugged, taking a bite of the food, as Dabi glared at him.

“Just be upset for once okay?” Dabi asked.

“Yeah, when I have the time,” Hawks promised.

The two quickly finished eating before heading to bed, Dabi holding Hawks in his arms, as he told Hawks how wonderful and perfect he was. If it brought a few tears to his eyes and made him sleep a little bit better well who was he to complain.

The next morning Hawks awoke first. He still smiled every time he woke up to see Dabi still laying in the bed, meaning he stayed. It was so much better than when they first got together, Dabi never staying the full night. Always waiting till Hawks fell asleep before leaving.

Feeling sleepy still, he yawned as he walked to the bathroom, bringing his clothes with him to get ready for his day at work.

Taking off his shirt he looked in the mirror only to blink a few times before putting his hand on his chest. His chest was extremely flat. Now being more awake he moved his boxers and looked inside before looking in the mirror again.

Suddenly a full-blown smile was on his face as he ran towards the bedroom screaming in happiness.

“Dabi! Dabi wake up!” Hawks yelled running into the room as the fire user rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“It’s too early in the morning for this bird boy,” Dabi groaned.

Hawks, in his excitement, ignored the fire user's complaints as he grabbed his hand and put it to his chest.

“That’s nice birdie,” Dabi said, slipping back into the land of sleep.

Hawks rolled his eyes before an evil gleam formed its way into his eye. Placing Dabi’s hand in his pants the man's eyes went wide and awake.

“You have a-” Dabi said, yanking his hand away, fully awake now.

“Yep,” Hawks smiled, shaking his head up and down.

“You’re a-” Dabi asked as Hawks once again shook his head yes.

“Hawks- Keigo! This is amazing! How did this happen?” Dabi asked, an actual smile on his face.

“I don’t know! I got hit with a quirk yesterday but I was warned that it wouldn’t really do anything bad,” Hawks smiled.

“Wait does this mean it’s not permanent?” Dabi asked, a sad smile forming on both of their faces.

“Nope, I was told about the quirk beforehand. It was done by a child, it was an accident and all. It’s called wish maker. It causes someone's wish to be fulfilled. Since wishes are often things that can’t be undone they are permanent unless asked specifically to be limited,” Hawks explained.

“Well, Birdie this causes for celebration. How about me and you have a day in?” Dabi asked, a smile on his face.

“We can do anything?” Hawks asked, a smile on his face.

“Anything and everything,” Dabi agreed as Hawks smiled, kissing the scared man in a body that finally felt right. In a body that was finally his. A body that made him the happiest man alive, because a man is what he is and always has been.