#purposely not crediting these so that no one bullies the artists

[redbuddi]

One of my favorite things about Internet Artists is that they are so used to sexualizing every single female that not even a character that is a literal pile of string is safe

[mdzsartreblogs]

Recognizing AI Generated Images, Danmei Edition

Heyo, @unforth here! I run some danmei art blogs (@mdzsartreblogs, @tgcfartreblogs, @svsssartreblogs, @zhenhunartreblogs, @erhaartreblogs, @dmbjartreblogs, @tykartreblogs, and @cnovelartreblogs) which means I see a LOT of danmei art, and I go through the main fandom tags more-or-less every day.

Today, for the first time, I spotted someone posting AI-generated images (I refuse to call them AI "art" - and to be clear, that's correct of me, because at least in the US it literally LEGALLY isn't art) without any label indicating they were AI generated. I am not necessarily against the existence of AI-generated images (though really...considering all the legal issues and the risks of misuse, I'm basically against them); I think they potentially have uses in certain contexts (such as for making references) and I also think that regardless of our opinions, we're stuck with them, but they're also clearly not art and I don't reblog them to the art side blogs.

The images I spotted today had multiple "tells," but they were still accumulating notes, and I thought it might be a good moment to step back and point out some of the more obvious tells because my sense is that a LOT of people are against AI-generated images being treated as art, and that these people wouldn't want to support an AI-generator user who tried to foist off their work as actual artwork, but that people don't actually necessarily know how to IDENTIFY those works and therefore can inadvertently reblog works that they'd never support if they were correctly identified. (Similar to how the person who reposts and says "credit to the artist" is an asshole but they're not the same as someone who reposts without any credit at all and goes out of their way to make it look like they ARE the artist when they're not).

Toward that end, I've downloaded all the images I spotted on this person's account and I'm going to use them to highlight the things that led me to think they were AI art - they posted a total of 5 images to a few major danmei tags the last couple days, and several other images not to specific fandoms (I examined 8 images total). The first couple I was suspicious, but it wasn't til this morning that I spotted one so obvious that it couldn't be anything BUT AI art. I am NOT going to name the person who did this. The purpose of this post is purely educational. I have no interest whatsoever in bullying one rando. Please don't try to identify them; who they are is genuinely irrelevant, what matters is learning how to recognize AI art in general and not spreading it around, just like the goal of education about reposting is to help make sure that people who repost don't get notes on their theft, to help people recognize the signs so that the incentive to be dishonest about this stuff is removed.

But first: Why is treating AI-generated images as art bad?

I'm no expert and this won't be exhaustive, but I do think it's important to first discuss why this matters.

On the surface, it's PERHAPS harmless for someone to post AI-generated images provided that the image is clearly labeled as AI-generated. I say "perhaps" because in the end, as far as I'm aware, there isn't a single AI-generation engine that's built on legally-sourced artwork. Every AI (again, to the best of my knowledge) has been trained using copyrighted images usually without the permission of the artists. Indeed, this is the source of multiple current lawsuits. (and another)

But putting that aside (as if it can be put aside that AI image generators are literally unethically built), it's still problematic to support the images being treated as art. Artists spend thousands of hours learning their craft, honing it, sharing their creations, building their audiences. This is what they sell when they offer commissions, prints, etc. This can never be replicated by a computer, and to treat an AI-generated image as in any way equivalent is honestly rude, inappropriate, disgusting imo. This isn't "harmless"; supporting AI image creation engines is damaging to real people and their actual livelihoods. Like, the images might be beautiful, but they're not art. I'm honestly dreading someone managing to convince fandom that their AI-generated works are actual art, and then cashing in on commissions, prints, etc., because people can't be fussed to learn the difference. We really can't let this happen, guys. Fanartists are one of the most vibrant, important, prominent groups in all our fandoms, and we have to support them and do our part to protect them.

As if those two points aren't enough, there's already growing evidence that AI-generated works are being used to further propagandists. There are false images circulating of violence at protests, deep-fakes of various kinds that are helping the worst elements of society to push their horrid agendas. As long as that's a facet of AI-generated works, they'll always be dangerous.

I could go on, but really this isn't the main point of my post and I don't want to get bogged down. Other people have said more eloquently than I why AI-generated images are bad. Read those. (I tried to find a good one to link but sadly failed; if anyone knows a good post, feel free to send it and I'll add the link to the post).

Basically: I think a legally trained AI-image generator that had built-in clear watermarks could be a fun toy for people who want reference images or just to play with making pseudo-art. But...that's not what we have, and what we do have is built on theft and supports dystopia so, uh. Yeah fuck AI-generated images.

How to recognize AI-Generated Images Made in an Eastern Danmei Art Style

NOTE: I LEARNED ALL THE BASIC ON SPOTTING AI-GENERATED IMAGES FROM THIS POST. I'll own I still kinda had the wool over my eyes until I read that post - I knew AI stuff was out there but I hadn't really looked closely enough to have my eyes open for specific signs. Reading that entire post taught me a lot, and what I learned is the foundation of this post.

This post shouldn't be treated as a universal guide. I'm specifically looking at the tells on the kind of art that people in danmei fandoms often see coming from Weibo and other Chinese, Japanese, and Korean platforms, works made by real artists. For example, the work of Foxking (狐狸大王a), kokirapsd, and Changyang (who is an official artist for MDZS, TGCF, and other danmei works). This work shares a smooth use of color, an aim toward a certain flavor of realism, an ethereal quality to the lighting, and many other features. (Disclaimer: I am not an artist. Putting things in arty terms is really not my forte. Sorry.)

So, that's what these AI-generated images are emulating. And on the surface, they look good! Like...

...that's uncontestably a pretty picture (the white box is covering the "artist's" watermark.) And on a glance, it doesn't necessarily scream "AI generated"! But the devil is in the details, and the details are what this post is about. And that picture? Is definitely AI generated.

This post is based on 8 works I grabbed from a single person's account, all posted as their own work and watermarked as such. Some of the things that are giveaways only really show when looking at multiple pieces. I'm gonna start with those, and then I'll highlight some of the specifics I spotted that caused me to go from "suspicious" to "oh yeah no these are definitely not art."

Sign 1: all the images are the exact same size. I mean, to the pixel: 512 x 682 pixels (or 682 x 512, depending on landscape or portrait orientation). This makes zero sense. Why would an artist trim all their pieces to that size? It's not the ideal Tumblr display size (that's 500 x 750 pixels). If you check any actual artist's page and look at the full-size of several of their images, they'll all be different sizes as they trimmed, refined, and otherwise targeted around their original canvas size to get the results they wanted.

Sign 2: pixelated. At the shrunken size displayed on, say, a mobile Tumblr feed, the image looks fine, but even just opening the full size upload, the whole thing is pixelated. Now, this is probably the least useful sign; a lot of artists reduce the resolution/dpi/etc. on their uploaded works so that people don't steal them. But, taken in conjunction with everything else, it's definitely a sign.

Those are the two most obvious overall things - the things I didn't notice until I looked at all the uploads. The specifics are really what tells, though. Which leads to...

Sign 3: the overall work appears to have a very high degree of polish, as if it were made by an artist who really really knows what they're doing, but on inspection - sometimes even on really, REALLY cursory inspect - the details make zero sense and reflect the kinds of mistakes that a real artist would never make.

So, here's the image that I saw that "gave it away" to me, and caused me to re-examine the images that had first struck me as off but that I hadn't been able to immediately put my finger on the problem. I've circled some of the spots that are flagrant.

Do you see yet? Yes? Awesome, you're getting it. No? Okay, let's go point by point, with close ups.

Sign 4: HANDS. Hands are currently AI's biggest weakness, though they've been getting better quickly and honestly that's terrifying. But whatever AI generated this picture clearly doesn't get hands yet, because that hand is truly an eldritch horror. Look at this thing:

It has two palms. It has seven fingers. It's basically two hands overlaid over each other, except one of those hands only has four fingers and the other has three. Seeing this hand was how I went from "umm...maybe they're fake? Maybe they're not???" to "oh god why is ANYONE reblogging this when it's this obvious?" WATCH THE HANDS. (Go back up to that first one posted and look at the hand, you'll see. Or just look right below at this crop.) Here's some other hands:

Sign 5: Hair and shadows. Once I started inspecting these images, the shadows of the hair on the face was one of the things that was most consistently fucked up across all the uploaded pictures. Take a look:

There's shadows of tendrils on the forehead, but there's no corresponding hair that could possibly have made those shadows. Likewise there's a whole bunch of shadows on the cheeks. Where are those coming from? There's no possible source in the rest of the image. Here's some other hair with unrelated wonky shadows:

Sign 6: Decorative motifs that are really just meaningless squiggles. Like, artists, especially those who make fanart, put actual thought into what the small motifs are on their works. Like, in TGCF, an artist will often use a butterfly motif or a flower petal motif to reflect things about the characters. An AI, though, can only approximate a pattern and it can't imbue those with meanings. So you end up with this:

What is that? It's nothing, that's what. It's a bunch of squiggles. Here's some other meaningless squiggle motifs (and a more zoomed-in version of the one just above):

Sign 7: closely related to meaningless squiggle motifs is motifs that DO look like something, but aren't followed through in any way that makes sense. For example, an outer garment where the motifs on the left and the right shoulder/chest are completely different, or a piece of cloth that's supposed to be all one piece but that that has different patterns on different sections of it. Both of these happen in the example piece, see?

The first images on the top left is the left and right shoulder side by side. The right side has a scalloped edge; the left doesn't. Likewise, in the right top picture, you can see the two under-robe lapels; one has a gold decoration and the other doesn't. And then the third/bottom image shows three sections of the veil. One (on the left) has that kind of blue arcy decoration, which doesn't follow the folds of the cloth very well and looks weird and appears at one point to be OVER the hair instead of behind it. The second, on top of the bottom images, shows a similar motif, except now it's gold, and it looks more like a hair decoration than like part of the veil. The third is also part of the same veil but it has no decorations at all. Nothing about this makes any sense whatsoever. Why would any artist intentionally do it that way? Or, more specifically, why would any artist who has this apparent level of technical skill ever make a mistake like this?

They wouldn't.

Some more nonsensical patterns, bad mirrors, etc. (I often put left/right shoulders side by side so that it'd be clearer, sorry if it's weird):

Sign 8: bizarre architecture, weird furniture, etc. Most of the images I'm examining for this post have only partial backgrounds, so it's hard to really focus on this, but it's something that the post I linked (this one) talks about a lot. So, like, an artist will put actual thought into how their construction works, but an AI won't because an AI can't. There's no background in my main example image, but take a look at this from another of my images:

On a glance it's beautiful. On a few seconds actually staring it's just fucking bizarre. The part of the ceiling on the right appears to be domed maybe? But then there's a hard angle, then another. The windows on the right have lots of panes, but then the one on the middle-left is just a single panel, and the ones on the far left have a complete different pane model. Meanwhile, also on the left side at the middle, there's that dark gray...something...with an arch that mimics the background arches except it goes no where, connects to nothing, and has no apparent relationship to anything else going on architecturally. And, while the ceiling curves, the back wall is straight AND shows more arches in the background even though the ceiling looks to end. And yes, some of this is possible architecture, but taken as a whole, it's just gibberish. Why would anyone who paints THAT WELL paint a building to look like THAT? They wouldn't. It's nonsense. It's the art equivalent of word salad. When we look at a sentence and it's like "dog makes a rhythmical salad to betray on the frame time plot" it almost resembles something that might mean something but it's clearly nonsense. This background is that sentence, as art.

Sign 9: all kinds of little things that make zero sense. In the example image, I circled where a section of the hair goes BELOW the inner robe. That's not impossible but it just makes zero sense. As with many of these, it's the kind of thing that taken alone, I'd probably just think "well, that was A Choice," but combined with all the other weird things it stands out as another sign that something here is really, really off. Here's a collection of similar "wtf?" moments I spotted across the images I looked at (I'm worried I'm gonna hit the Tumblr image cap, hence throwing these all in one, lol.)

You have to remember that an actual artist will do things for a reason. And we, as viewers, are so used to viewing art with that in mind that we often fill in reasons even when there aren't. Like, in the image just about this, I said, "what the heck are these flowers growing on?" And honestly, I COULD come up with explanations. But that doesn't mean it actually makes sense, and there's no REASON for it whatsoever. The theoretical same flowers are, in a different shot, growing unsupported! So...what gives??? The answer is nothing gives. Because these pieces are nothing. The AI has no reason, it's just tossing in random aesthetic pieces together in a mishmash, and the person who generated them is just re-generating and refining until they get something that looks "close enough" to what they wanted. It never was supposed to make sense, so of course it doesn't.

In conclusion...

After years of effort, artists have gotten across to most of fandom that reposts are bad, and helped us learn strategies for helping us recognize reposts, and given us an idea of what to do when we find one.

Fandom is just at the beginning of this process as it applies to AI-generated images. There's a LOT of education that has to be done - about why AI-generated images are bad (the unethical training using copyrighted images without permission is, imo, critical to understanding this), and about how to spot them, and then finally about what to do when you DO find them.

With reposts, we know "tell original artist, DCMA takedowns, etc." That's not the same with these AI-images. There's no original owner. There's no owner at all - in the US, at least, they literally cannot be copyrighted. Which is why I'm not even worrying about "credit" on this post - there's nothing stolen, cause there's nothing made. So what should you do?

Nothing. The answer is, just as the creator has essentially done nothing, you should also do nothing. Don't engage. Don't reblog. Don't commission the creator or buy their art prints. If they do it persistently and it bothers you, block them. If you see one you really like, and decide to reblog it, fine, go for it, but mark it clearly - put in the ACTUAL COMMENTS (not just in the tags!) that it's AI art, and that you thought it was pretty anyway. But honestly, it'd be better to not engage, especially since as this grows it's inevitable that some actual artists are going to start getting accused of posting AI-generated images by over-zealous people. Everyone who gets a shadow wrong isn't posting AI-generated images. A lot of these details are insanely difficult to get correct, and lots of even very skilled, accomplished artists, if you go over their work with a magnifying glass you're going to find at least some of these things, some weirdnesses that make no sense, some shadows that are off, some fingers that are just ugh (really, getting hands wrong is so relatable. hands are the fucking worst). It's not about "this is bad art/not art because the hand is wrong," it's specifically about the ways that it's wrong, the way a computer randomly throws pieces together versus how actual people make actual mistakes. It's all of the little signs taken as a whole to say "no one who could produce a piece that, on the surface, looks this nice, could possibly make THIS MANY small 'mistakes.'"

The absolute best thing you can do if you see AI-generated images being treated as real art is just nothing. Support actual artists you love, and don't spread the fakes.

Thanks for your time, everyone. Good luck avoiding AI-generated pieces in the future, please signal boost this, and feel free to get in touch if you think I can help you with anything related to this.

[demigoddaughterofhermes]

THOUGHTS on percy jackson and the olympians episode 1

1) opening narration "don't say i didn't warn you"- sounds more sad than i've always read it, i read it as angry

2) an artist!

3) was that mythomagic the game??

4) i would die for chiron, the statue of perseus was definitely on that work sheet on purpose; the handover of riptide???

5) "not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero and not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster" sally jackson i love you

6) ngl nancy saying "mommy's right here" is definitely the kind of thing that happened in real life

7) grover is an icon and i love him- psychoanalyze the bully; i love the way they pick from each others sandwiches

8) the mist so cute and quirky, i would definitely have lost my mind if that's how it happened to me. i love that there's more witnesses to it- but i kind of wish we got that epic first swing

9) "i didn't touch nancy" technically he's not lying; NOOOO i know why he's doing it but grover selling percy out of such a betrayal but i do love chiron telling percy without indirectly telling percy

10) it feels like chiron is quickly discovering that his usual tactics for supporting students won't work for percy

11) i hate gabe but this sarcastic back and forth is fucking gold

12) percy just absolutely hitting the verge of breaking down as soon as he sees his mom, me absolutely sobbing; chiron absolutely filled sally in on what really happened

i fucking love sally jackson- she is why percy is the way he is, i would kill and die for her too

13) nightmare scene first reaction: hey this is horrifying; really selling the bit that percy's dreams fucking suck

sally really said don't talk about my kid like that

14) she's putting it alll together, and i'm sure chiron told her what happened but she's also hoping she can keep him safe for just a little while longer

15) i LOVE percy's face of "huh what??" iconic and can't wait to see more of it

i'll really love that sally is the one getting to tell percy all of this- i feel so bad for both of them

16) percy saying there's no such thing as monsters

again, grover is ICONIC "so the important thing is not to panic" and "i'm actually 24"

17) i love how much more fast paced it is; i love percy flat out going "is that the minotaur??" super casually

i just realized how much grover must actually be beating himself up, bc not only did his best friend almsot get killed, but his best friends MOM is (for all intents and purposes) dead

"you're gonna need to be brave now" I AM SOBBING SCREAMING- this whole little scene is the best thing i've seen in years

sally is the bravest of us all- percy definitely thinks anyone could be poseidon's son, but being sally jackson's son is the specialist thing anyone on earth could be

18) the raw rage when sally turns to dust- his bravery and "head empty no thoughts, time to fight to the death" energy is amazing

we saw riptide return to his pocket

HE MUST BE THE ONE

WE'VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU

the credits and the title sequence??? *chefs kiss* that was amazing and iconic and i love it- onto episode twoooooo

[outeremissary]

I was really sleepy when I was answering asks yesterday and I almost forgot to check if you were doing the problematic oc ask too!

Balth is your oc I’m most familiar with! But if they’ve already been asked tell me about whatever critter is infecting your brain most rn 👀💖

Ahh, I appreciate the ask!! Somehow, no one did ask about him!! At any rate, I feel like this blog is full of Balthazar's sympathetic moments and not his Chaotic Fucking Evil Moments, happy to finally correct that <3

Lies constantly

Vengeful

Selfish

Past history of gold digging

Former con artist

Endorsement of experiments on animals

Enjoys watching other people suffer

Loves making people worse

Willing to sell out friends when they cease to be useful

Told a suicidal man to do a flip on the way down

Made fun of a suicidal man's family's deaths

Invades woman's memories to see her at her most vulnerable, mocks her for it

In general just willing to kick anyone when they're down

Doesn't like Regongar's puns

Profited from infant sacrifice

Murdered his own cult

Lied about having a cult

Problematic trans rep?

Accepted demonic gifts multiple times

Supported two different Lamashtu cults

Really does unconditionally forgive Tristian

Sincerely thinks Tristian did nothing wrong

(except cause problems for him but see two points above)

Funded demonic library

Misappropriation of public funds for personal projects

Harboring smugglers

Has been called the worst and most evil person in the Stolen Lands multiple times

Had a cult dedicated to him being The Worst (until he murdered them, see above)

Recruits enemies terrorizing area to work for him

Leading on poor Sharel

Frequently manipulates others into killing on his behalf

Takes credit for the work of others

Refuses to help with camp chores

Troll alliance

Hates animals

Obnoxious PDA

Abuses aasimar heritage to take advantage of others' trust

The public executions

The secret executions

Comes from working class family, often uses his success to close opportunities for others instead of opening them

Jaethal minister

Belittles Regongar's mental health problems

Ghosts Regongar instead of breaking up with him

Mocks Linzi's writing constantly

Enchantment specialist. Mind control is the way <3

Endorsement of experiments on nonconsenting wererats

Identity theft

Identity theft coverup

Asshole southern elitist, frequently belittles local culture as backwards

Propaganda

Lying to the public about a plague

Gaslighting rioters into fighting each other

24 year old bullying a 17 year old... Lander Lebeda is literally a minor

Plus that's just high key pathetic

The murders

The assassinations

Doesn't like dessert :(

Funding foreign dissidents

Endorsement of troll torture

Bad at communicating emotional needs

Using other people as shields in combat

Will throw anyone under the bus for anything

Really only heals Tristian in combat

Supports filicide for dark ritual purposes

His friendship with Jaethal in general

Problematic bi rep?

Attempted to recreate Bloom

Everything that happened during the Divorce Era

There's probably still a warrant out for him in Absalom

Due to [redacted]

Defacing a priceless historic tome (only known copy)

Anyone can die if it's for Tristian's sake

Sells out allies when they stop being convenient

Surtova supporter

Covering up Lander's death

Lander Undeath Incident

Torture is fine

I'm not even sure he seriously thinks torture works he's just horrible

Bread and circuses babyyyyyy

Mean to Nok-Nok

Literally kicked a dog

And there's an incomplete list of Balthazar Crimes! I'm sure I'm missing so, so much but honestly he's problematic more than he's not so. You know.

[prompt]

[leomoon65]

The photo/ artwork belongs to @triple-phoenix . I simply just wrote a fanfiction inspired by the art. All art credit goes to them, not me, I’m just the writer.

Warnings: Angst, Slight Bullying, idk flirting?

Written for: AFAB, this fic was for someone and i decided to post it, “M” the best friend is NB so they can be whoever you want.

DNI: *read pinned post*

——————————————————————————

Summary: You are a shy girl who just moved to the Jackson commune with your best friend. While still adjusting to your new-found home and life of being around others, you run into Dina, a girl who rather lightly bully you over telling anyone she has an ounce of attraction for you. (spoilers: her little crush weighs about 10lbs). What happens when, one morning, Dina decides to show her odd affection over a pile of eggs?

——————————————————————————

You and your best friend M have been in Tommy and Maria Miller’s community for about a week. You two traveled like most young people and landed in Jackson, Wyoming, hoping to find somewhere safe forever. So far, besides the Millers, you (and J) have met Ellie, a lesbian with witty humor and awkward tendencies. Her artist girlfriend, Cat, has been begging to tattoo your ink-virgin arm. Jesse is a southern boy with a big heart who is always there for you, especially when you first started, and sisters that you and M have gotten to know… sort of. Talia, the oldest, is an intelligent girl with protective tendencies of her sister but is always down to have a good time and her rude but mysterious… little sister Dina. 

Now, you could say Dina is nice to M, an angel to them per se. When you two first got to Jackson, Dina had the task of giving you two and some other young adults a tour of the community, a mayor per se. After her tour, Dina talked M’s ear off about anything and everything, even battering her eyes. M, while being nice, seemed interested in Dina in a friendly manner but had googly eyes for the older sister, Talia… to Dina’s dislike. You might be wondering how Dina treats you; well, she would rather bully you. Some background, you’re quite shy, having M talk for the both of you at the start, and you also hate conflict. Dina read right through you and now always has something up her sleeve. 

Dina is not a cruel bully, per se, to everyone else, she has a fat crush on you that she REFUSES to acknowledge or maybe she does accept it but chooses to bully you instead of telling you… she’s Dina, okay. Dina’s “bullying” is teasing a rather innocent you over little things. She’ll tell you your flannel is unbuttoned and laugh to herself while you check. She will purposely switch the patrol list so you and her are stuck together for at least 7 hours as she invades everything about your life with questions you answer. It’s fun for Dina and for you; you just want to make peace with a 5’3 bisexual that you think hates you. 

On this particular day, you, M, and everyone else are up for breakfast in the morning. There are Eggs, Bacon, and Turkey sausage on the side with Hash-Browns with some water… that’s all they have for a “healthy” drink in the apocalypse minus beer and other alcohol. You make yourself a plate and choose bacon because you have always liked it. You look to find M, who you usually sit with but is now flirting with Talia while she eats but enjoys it, smiling while your best friend tries to impress her.  You giggle to yourself softly as you sit down at a table. You start to salt and pepper your eggs as you feel a mysterious presence. “BOO!” you hear an all too familiar voice. It’s Dina. She’s sporting her usual maroon shirt (dance scene) with some sweatpants she found due to its fall in Jackson, and she has no patrol today. 

She looks at your plate. “Bacon, huh? Icky,” Dina says, as it is against her religion to eat pork rather than her overall dislike for the pig-like food. “I—i’m sorry, Dina,” you say softly, not wanting to offend her. She smiles as she holds her fork from her own food tray, for which she opts for turkey sausage due to no pork in the links. She gets really close to you (while making you incredibly nervous… but sort of flustered) and says, “Gimme yer eggs, nerd.” She has a little angry arch to her brow as she smiles, giving the impression she wants your eggs, similar to a high school bully wanting lunch money. “D— Dina”! You say, cheeks all blushed, but a worried look, not knowing what to do. Dina stabs her fork on your eggs and puts a small piece from the scrabbled batch in her mouth.  “Mmm, yummy,” she says, enjoying her newfound stolen treasure of your eggs. 

“Dina?” you say, gaining some confidence. “Um, those were my eggs; why didn’t you put more on your plate if you wanted some”? You say with a friendly but still worried smile. Dina turns her head and gets close to you again. “Because I enjoy watching pretty girls like you get all flustered over some eggs.” She boops… yes, she boops your nose as she takes another bite. 

You just sit there in so much confusion. Does she like you? Is she playing games with you? Is she bored? So many questions rush through your head. Soon, your cheeks go red out of embarrassment/confusion. Dina puts her hand on your shoulder to take you out of your deep thoughts of what this girl could possibly want. “Hey, they’re just eggs, pretty girl, no need to get all scrambled up,” she says as she has finished her plate and gets up to put her tray away, ultimately leaving you with butterflies in your stomach over this mysterious Jewish girl. 

End A/N: I lowkey forgot I had this account, let alone fics and such. I hope you enjoy this shorter angst read with you and Dina. I did proofread this for once, but still, any errors, please be kind. Again, the artwork is done by @triple-phoenix // Please read the pinned post if you want a fic yourself. Anyways, thanks again. See you in the next one- c

[manicpixxiedreambitch]

When I was eleven, my fifth grade teacher was ableist to me, not that I believe he was doing it intentionally. But he knew I had ADHD and got mad at me when I showed symptoms. He called me lazy and disobedient. He told me not to use my ADHD as an “excuse to be lazy”. He nicknamed me energizer bunny because I was showing symptoms like talking too much, going too fast, etc. One moment that stuck with me the worst though was when he pulled me into the hallway and towered over me (this part might be a little biased though, seeing as he was a grown adult and I was a small child) and he yelled at me, threatening to fail me.

For doodling on my papers. Said that even if all my work was done correctly on the assignment, if I doodled on my paper he would fail me.

And so I cried because what else was I supposed to do? I was eleven. And looking back, I know now that the doodling was a compulsive thing I did to help myself focus.

But when he saw the tears he just yelled “I don’t care if you cry!”

And I remember saying in a small voice “I know.”

I stopped doodling so much on my papers after that. Sure, I’ve drawn the occasional flower or eyeball on my papers, but not as wildly, not as freely as I used to do as a child. He engraved that fear of failing in me so bad that for years I was terrified of doodling on my papers.

Now I am in my senior year in high school. My last semester. And I just realized, that he can’t hurt me anymore. He can’t fail me. And because I’m starting a new chapter in my life, I want closure on something that hurt me for years. So last night, I sat down, and I respectfully wrote the teacher a four page letter. First I explained who I was. How I knew him. And then I apologized, and explained that this was probably not the kind of letter he was expecting. How I was writing the letter for closure. I let him know I do not hate him, and that I do not expect a response, nor do I want him to feel any guilt as a result. The letters main purpose was for him to know he hurt me.

I explained that I understand that a lot of my childhood actions had deserving consequences, however I did not deserve to be treated the way I was in his class. I told him how I was being bullied a lot, and had no friends at the time. I told him how I had ADHD, and how the way he treated me for showing symptoms was wrong. I said I felt like an alien, and I was treated like one. I brought up the nickname he gave me, how to this day I hate it. I wrote about that horrible day in the hallway, how it was from my perspective and how what he said stuck with me. How I did not realize teachers could be bullies until I entered his class. I stated that I did not deserve that. I was a child. How I am not being sensitive or a “snowflake”. How I am not saying he should have let me get away with doing anything I wanted, but he could’ve handled me as a student a little better. That my teacher was supposed to help me swim, not scold me for drowning. I was not a bad kid. I was a troubled kid. And yeah, I know you can’t help everyone, but it still hurt me.

And then I explained once again that I was sorry that this wasn’t the kind of letter he expected to receive from a former student. That perhaps to another student he might have been Mr. Falker, but not to me.

I am not lazy, I am not willfully disobedient, I am a human being. I have a human voice, and human emotions. And he did not treat me as such that day in the hallway, or when I was in his class. How the phrase “I don’t care if you cry” will forever sting at me any time I am upset.

I told him that I am in my senior year in high school. I am looking into a career in the field of art. And I write books, I am an author. And unfortunately, I can give no credit to that man for these accomplishments.

And after I finished writing the letter, I started doodling all over the margins. It was uncomfortable at first, it felt like I had artists block for doodling. But then I remembered all of the doodles I used to draw all those years ago, and I started doodling more. And as soon as most of the margins were covered, I know this sounds dramatic, but I swear I heard my fifth grade self laughing. She was saying “You’re gonna get in trouble! He’s gonna fail you!” And I was hit with the most sobering thought. “He’s not.”

[fiercehildr]

I read something about someone stealing one of your commissions but I haven't seen anything about it on tumblr. What happened???

Hello, nonnie! ❤️

That's going to be a long post... so buckle up.

Basically a commissioner took one of my old elucien piece (one where we see Lucien and Elain's head as a ying and yang and features related to their characters like flowers or autumn leaves circling around them and linking together) as "inspiration" for a commission of theirs except it became a complete plagiarized piece.

It looked like it could be the other side of the mine and the commissioner took all the credit for the "concept" in the comments.

To explain the whole situation:

I)

I woke up at 6 am to an artist friend of mine sending me a DM telling me to "not stress but someone plagiarized you" and my first thought was "leave me the fuck alone *sigh*". I went and checked it out and yeah, indeed.

I showed it to like 10 persons to make sure I was not crazy, some of them being family members who have no idea that this fandom even exists, and they all confirmed the uncanny similarities.

So at first, I was mad and made a story about it. I was sure that this person was one of my old bully since their IG name were so close. Turns out I was wrong here.

The story was made in anger ( but no name dropping or picture) and so I deleted it when I realized my mistake. I was also just... exhausted? Like... here we go again. Obviously, that was done on purpose.

_______

I decided to send this to the artist and basically told them "here is a piece which I think was plagiarized from our commission." and she ended up making the relation between the "shipwar" and "trying to bother me" all by herself and she's not even in the fandom.

I wanted her to decide by herself about the best course of action. Do we do something? Does she? Do we keep silent? All up to her. I care little about this shipwar now so it obviously wasn't about this stupidity but about the audacity and the nerve of it.

In all honesty, except for a few game polls in my instagram story or some gwyn mermaid commissions, I have little to no interest in this book series and even less in the shipwar now.

Our conversation was like... 6 messages and I never talked about how this person and I had conflict. I didn't even talk about the commissioner themselves.

II)

Now I'm saying this because the other commissioner then made a public story (sent to me in DMs by friends who were following the story) which accused me of unfairly antagonizing her.

I had to unblock this person to go check for myself becauseI had them blocked for days now (I like "curating your own internet experience" by blocking accounts my for you page propose and which are not my jam. Shocking I know.)

In this story, they basically accused me of spying on their account. Now I found this funny because:

1- I couldn't give less than a fly's shit about their entire existence.

2- Clearly I have more relevance in their life than they do in mine and it's very funny to me that they thought the contrary. Sorry but who stalked and copied here? Hmm?

In this story, this person also said I made this fandom toxic (me, not the person who plagiarized an artist to purposefully get a reaction) and that I was basiclly a shitty person for telling the artist about this situation.

They also said that they needed to write this story because they basically found it incorrect to involve artists in shipwar situations which was ALSO very funny:

This was only a shipwar situation for them. I don't care about elriel. Do your stuff, love what you love. I don't give a fuck anymore. I'm only a low key elucien shipper who mostly made this commission for a friend of mine (@amandapearls). If my commission was Slauren initially and they had done this with Emilia and Wrath, I would have STILL told the artist.

If the roles were reversed they would have done the same as me and possibly worse.

They should have thought ot the artists (and the consequences of their actions) before pulling this.

They also provided pictures of references that they apparently used. As a commissioner of some time now, I can assure you that these pics would not have given this piece in the end. It was pretty clear to everyone, sadly for them. And I just know that every single person who defended them did it as a loyalty move because you can't be that blind.

III)

When I realized the commissioner had brought this in their stories, where everyone could see, I figured that shots were fired and I had to defend myself and my honor.

I made my own stories, where I said everything I said here and even showed the two commissions next to one another. I repeated again and again that I tried to handle this discreetly (in DMs and between the artists) but that she wanted otherwise (obviously, I suspect it was bait ayway)

Then came the friends of them. Here are the stuff they said:

*goes on with the same repeated arguments no matter my answers*

*implies that I'm an horrible person for answering their public story*

*implies that I shouldn't have opened my mouth*

*gives infomation about how the artist handled this which don't concern me anyway and with no receipts of course*

*tells me a friend of mine vague posted about the commissioner in their story and it's super mean and scared her*

*implies that me letting the artist decides of the steps to take was no good and I should have go to the commissioners' dms*

*tells me that the commissioner is considering leaving the fandom because of me*

*insists on my past experiences and how I'm 'not like that for real' (turns out they don't follow me at all and only know of my past bullying because they were friends with my bullies lol)*

*tells me that for someone who was bullied, I bully too (refers to me answering the story by one of my own)*

*implies that I scare her and insists that she's full innocent and that I have no proof that it's copied (it's a copy paste and several artists and commissioners reached out to me that it was "fucking wild")*

So yeah, I blocked these people and that's the end, really. So just another bait to insult me over and my mental health took another hit but I don't hear much about it, funnily enough, so I'm just answering this one ask. I think everything is here anyway.

Thank you to everyone who supported me, even when I was feeling really low at this moment. You all rock ❤️

Have a lovely day, Nonnie. ❤️

[alexhandersenblog]

Hi 🙂

-I HAVE to find a wife sometime

-we HAVE to move in together anyways

........😶

Most of the things that happened so far didn’t surprise me. Johanne was very easy to read and Alex situation too. Me and a few remaining Alex-fans observed everything for a year and if it’s ok for you I would like to share my predictions and opinions.

-Alex made up his mind already, he believes Johanne will be his wife and mother of his kids

-he loves the idea of them being a singing, acting, working, successful couple

-he thinks Johanne is easy and his best friend at this point

-he will do the whole thing: dog, kids, marriage, maybe a house

-HIS MOTHER involving on New Years, liking Johanne’s friends comment under her shit portrait was a huge sign already, 6 month before Johanne followed them

-his parents are pushing him to have a wife, to have a family no doubt

-all his friends are in serious relationships and busy with their own lifes

-Alex will be loving, supportive and a great dad

-Johanne will post a lot about her pregnancy, go on Line‘s podcast, write cheesy over the top inauthentic emotional captions 🙄🤮and continue her own podcast, she also appears to prepare to push the home decoration, family, food IG shit in the future, so prepare

-if you stick around in the fandom, you will have to endure all of these things sooner than you think because Johanne is fast!

-remember when he made fun of cheesy pregnancy pictures on IG with Alexander in Italy? Well Johanne and Alex will pose and post just like that one day haha, he already turned into a cheesy famous IG boyfriend and I believe his mom loves it

-her IG will be unbearable for fans who are able to do something called „critical thinking“

-Alex will continue to mostly work in Denmark but not much, sooner or later he will bring Johanne into the Red Cross too

-he will involve her in his future projects too

-they will look like a happy couple on the outside

-sooner or later all the good fan pages will become inactive

-she will love the stans and the stan fan accounts though-of course

-You have to imagine that Johanne emotionally manipulated him so cleverly that she got so much from him in such a short time that she will be smart enough to know that a child will be the ULTIMATE key to keep Alex emotionally attached to her forever

BUT her shamelessly lying to a fan who asked her to credit the artist, her copying art for likes or stealing art for likes, her demonstration her „power“ over his fans by doing the post & delete after Portugal, that caption….., her pretending to accidentally post Alex and her at a party, the thing with her ex, the short timespan between her ex and Alex, the immediate need to make it public, her obvious desire for people to think she is a certain „pinteresty“ way, the bullying, the trolling( for example her posting her bed but pretending to post her mug), the manipulations(acting like someone sponsored her for example), her posting all the couple pictures before he does, the love bombing, her following everyone he ever talked to first, the IG games with her friends… all of it is not genuine love. Her posting mugs, following ceramic brands and makers immediately after his sister followed her( his sister is into pottery). Her posting one single picture in the gym because he posted the gym several times, her copying other people’s stories. The way she got Malte to follow her 😂. The way she got others to follow her. Yes we saw how…

The quick social upgrade, the applying for a blue check earlier this year after the red carpet. Using him for her podcast( I believe she made him think she is trying to find her own studio and kept telling him about her „dreams“ a lot on purpose). Her obsession with Instagram. Her following a shit ton of female Instagram influencer since she has the blue check. She will get her receipt for all of that one day.

I believe he is madly in love with her currently, yet I believe he doesn’t love her in a genuine way. He loves the idea of them, he loves that she is singing and working and always bubbly and nice to him. He LOVES the way she makes him feel currently and believes everything she says and does. He loves not being alone. NOW stans will say I’m just a hater, he simply fell in love with her. And I say yes maybe but if he genuinely loved her, I believe a loooot of things would have been different, evolved differently and their chemistry would’ve been better from the jump. Johanne wouldn’t have had to „manipulate“ and push, speed, stage things so much. But now she is in charge in the relationship anyways. He wants that security so badly. The wife, the kids, the dog (I believe she even followed a page about huskies). She knows that. She also knew that she NEEDED the support from all his friends early on. She collected them all on several accounts within weeks.

In a couple of years, when Johanne reached the level of „having everything“. The ring, his money, kids, dog, attention, maybe a house (in whatever order it comes) and the admiration from her new IG followers, she will become „not easy“. She will not be as happy as she is currently making Alex believe that she will be. Alex will be very confused and tortured by this and it will take him a looooong time to separate from her. Especially with kids involved. Alex won’t understand what happened. But best believe his bubble will burst.

I’m pretty sure that if he would chill and date her for a few years without the feeling of „I need to start a family soon“, they would break up in about 2-2.5 years. But that’s not Alex. He has a plan and she has one.

That’s why I say : We won’t see them break up, unless we stick around for the next 4-6 years. Karma is not always a quick punishment, nevertheless what goes around comes around and one day in the far future Alex will wonder wtf happened. But at least he will feel happy for the first years.

Hi! Okay, wauw! 😄 Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your reasoning!

As for the future/karma we can only wait and see, I guess…

I must say that i also have the feeling he loves the idea of them, he loves that she is singing and working and always bubbly and nice to him, like you said.

I have no valid arguments why or if it is true. It's really just my personal feeling (no hate at all just thoughts). He has been single for a long time and I imagine (as with many peers) the pressure to move on to the "next adult steps" in his life is high… so the ‘He loves not being alone’ seems valid.

I think it seems to us that everything has moved very quickly in their ‘relationship’. The 'pushiness' of her hasn't done much good to it either, I think.

I hope he is wise enough to chill and just be together in a normal way for a few years and doesn't let 'I need to start a family soon’ influence him.

In the meantime, I still wonder who he "really" is. For he is becoming more and more 'avocado toast' man (the man he says he will never be…)

Like always time will tell i guess…

[the-creative-industries]

IP and their importance in the creative industry

What do we mean by the term IP?

IP or intellectual property is a creation from the mind that is protected by the law. Some examples of material that could be intellectual property are a character, a story, an artwork or an invention. You own intellectual property if you created something and it meet the requirements of a patent or copyrighted material, if you have bought intellectual property off of its creator (or from a previous owner), if you own a brand that’s trademarked.

Why do IP rights in the creative industries matter?

IP rights on an artist’s work means that it is legally owned by the holder of the IP and it has legal protection placed on it preventing its misuse. IP prevents the theft of a creative work meaning someone else couldn’t come up and take an artist's work for themself and twist it for their own purposes such as a person taking an artist’s character and then using it in their own story and claiming it as their own original work. IP means its creator (or owner) gets to dictate who can and can’t use their protected property and on what project it may be used for. It’s creator/owner can receive royalties from the IP’s ongoing use by others and they could sell it off to whoever they want and for however much is deemed reasonable giving an artist an income boost whenever they see fit to sell it.

Does IP stifle creativity?

I can understand that some may argue that it prevents the ability to take and learn from each other due to the nature of IP being about strict ownership and control but i don’t believe that to be true, if someone wanted to study another artist’s drawing they could still do so they just couldn’t claim it as their own creation and artists are largely nice so most would love to share tips and inspiration if asked.

My views on intellectual property and it’s theft

I see IP as a valuable tool for artists as the protection it affords them is invaluable as well as the potential to sell off IP to others can give artists a great source of income, especially when artists find themselves in some sort of bind such as sudden hospital bills or upcoming rent and need a quick source of income.

Art theft is a huge problem and has been for quite a while whether that be tracing someone else's work or when AI models scrape through an artist’s library of creations to feed it’s own algorithm, the harm that it brings to an artist can be immense.

Tracing has been an issue on the internet for a long time from causing confusion on who actually created an artwork, larger creators bullying smaller ones into being quiet about their art being stolen and the destruction of someone’s reputation when they were found out to be tracing. Recently there has been a bit of a switch from tracing being seen as purely evil to a relatively ok thing to do, this could be due to a ‘bigger bad’ showing up (AI) or simply people have just started to see it as a tool to create, I personally lie somewhere in the middle. I can see tracings use in helping an artist improve through its use as a way to learn anatomy, figure out posing or how clothes interact with a character’s body but I can also see how it leads to an artist becoming lazy and stagnant and never learning how anatomy truly works for themself. Tracing also has the issue of other artists claiming a traced piece of work as purely their own creation; here's an example from a steven universe fan artist having their drawing traced. I think artists can be allowed to trace but it should really only be used for learning but if the tracing artist really wants to show it off they should have both the permission of the owner of the artwork and credit to the original artist.

AI art is created through the use of word prompts that are then generated from an algorithm into a visual format and there are many controversies that come into that process. One problem artists see with people trying to create art this way is that it is just lazy and souless, the people that want to create in this way are doing because they usually think stuff like ‘i don’t have enough skill for this’ or ‘i don’t have the tools to make art’ but there are many free tools to create and art can be made from anything it just takes practice, artists don’t start out as amazing and super talented they build up their skills through hard work here’s some examples of my art evolving over time.

Another issue is when someone wants a piece of art and they choose to use AI to make it they are then not hiring artists and taking away work that could’ve been gone to artists, someone may think it’s not that harmful for just one little artwork to be made by AI instead of an artist but if a lot of people think that way then it just becomes a mindset shared by many people and then lot of work that artist don’t get and anyway even one bit of work can help a struggling artist.

The biggest issue with AI is its use of artists IP in their training models without the consent of the artist, it takes images scraping through them for all that makes them up and then uses it all to reproduce something else ignoring that it belongs to someone else.

[parfumieren]

Drakkar Noir (Guy Laroche)

Drakkar Noir came out in 1982, the year before I became a freshman. This means it had three hundred and sixty-five days to infiltrate the halls of my high school before I even set foot in the building. Once there, I was obligated by various authorities to stay until I graduated. That gave Drakkar Noir approximately 1,460 days to scorch my nasal passages and permanently scar my psyche.

To be a girl in 1983 was to be perpetually under siege by an army whose stench heralded its approach hours before it actually hoved into view. For in those days, boys didn't just wear Drakkar Noir. They marinated in it-- slapping gallons of the stuff on their necks, chests, underarms, and god only knows where else. It blended with the acrid output of their overactive adolescent glands until their very sweat smelled like napalm.

The boys who liked Drakkar Noir best wore tight-fitting sharkskin slacks, torso-hugging cashmere sweaters, shiny leather loafers, copious amounts of hair gel and gold jewelry, and facial expressions of the most consummate blankness. They all lifted weights -- not in the gym after school, but at night in the local sports club -- and they all seemed to be named Todd. Each placed a proprietary monogram-ring-adorned hand on the small of his girlfriend's back when ushering her through the halls. Said girlfriend -- big-haired, short-skirted, with three coats of Bonne Bell Lip Smacker and a 14K gold nameplate necklace -- never spoke except to get into screechy catfights with her rivals. If she wore perfume, no one ever knew. Todd's killer cologne drowned out every other odor within five hundred feet.

But the Todds weren't the only centurions in the Drakkar Noir army. ALL of the boys signed up for it-- even the mohawked and combat-booted ones who would have otherwise pinged big-time on my punk-rock radar. Adopting a hardcore "straight-edge" ethos -- no drinking, no drugs, no meat, no smoking, and above all, no sex -- was shockingly easy with Drakkar Noir around. (This phase lasted all the way into my twenties, when CK One finally slew the dragon with its sword of lemony-freshness.)

If you are so lucky as to never have smelled Drakkar Noir, drop to your knees and offer thanks right now-- for even the angriest and least forgiving god showeth more mercy than this fragrance. Drakkar Noir doesn't give you time to figure out whether it's a fougère, an Oriental, an aftershave, a cologne. Just like the steroidal bullies who wear it, it skips straight to the finger-breaking part, smirking silently while you scream uncle. Seldom have so many innocuous fragrance ingredients been recruited for the purpose of violence; if I were to choose a signature scent for a sociopathic date rapist, Drakkar Noir would dominate the list.

And yet, to this day, Drakkar Noir unaccountably retains its reputation as a chick magnet. From the bottom of my heart, I cannot understand this. I would like to think that anyone with the smallest sense of self-preservation would avoid it (and its wearers) like the Black Death-- but who am I to argue with success?

Even so, I must lay credit where credit is due. I believe that Guy Laroche is the major reason I became an artist-- for while his unholy creation spread its miasma over every other classroom in my high school, the art studio alone seemed immune to the stench. There, I met boys who preferred "sensitive" smells like Clinique Aromatics Elixir-- hell, they could have worn Brut and I would have loved it.* I subsequently put my name down for every art class I could find, even earning independent study credits during lunch hours and after school... all to obtain sanctuary.

Years later, when I first bonded with my future husband over a pile of Pete Bagge comics, I leaned in and smelled… him. Just him. "I know this may seem like an odd thing to ask," I said. "But did you ever in your life, even for one day, wear Drakkar Noir?"

He looked at me as though I had lost my mind. And that was how I knew it was forever.

*Despite its sad status as a drugstore cliche, Brut is actually a solid vanillic fougere. It's good unisex stuff, as is Old Spice, Ralph Lauren Polo, and my husband's favorite, Geoffrey Beene's venerable Grey Flannel. All that is gold does not glitter, etc. etc.

Scent Elements: Lemon, tangerine, lavender, rosemary, artemesia, basil, lemon verbena, bergamot, coriander, juniper, cinnamon, jasmine, leather, fir, amber, sandalwood, vetiver, cedar, patchouli, oakmoss, and SATAN

[unmaskedagain]

Mean Queens

            This was for a prompt I mentioned earlier today. I decided to test my hand at Loyal!Alya fic to see how it plays out. Hope you like it.

           Marinette had officially been exiled to the back of the class and excommunicated. Lila and most of the class had been waiting for Marinette to arrive; each with cold looks on their faces. The bluenette had looked for Alya, hoping her bestie could tell her what was going on. But there was no sign of the glasses-wearing girl yet. So she had tried to catch Adrien’s eye but he had refused to make eye contact.

           Then it all came out.

           The class accused her of being a mean and horrible to Lila since the day the Italian girl came to class. Nino told her she’d become even worse of a bully than Chloe. Alix had called her a jealous bitch. Most of the class agreed. Even Sabrina who usually followed around the blonde Queen Bee now clung to the coattails of the newest golden ticket.

           The end result? They weren’t going to be her friends anymore.

“Cool,” Marinette had shrugged and took her seat in the back.

           Chloe got to class just as it happened, took one look around, snorted, and joined Marinette in back; claiming the left seat next to her. She knew the difference between diamonds and fools’ gold. And diamonds are a girls’ best friend.

           Alya arrived not long after. She had been late on purpose. The entire weekend, the class minus two (Marinette and Chloe) had been firing messages back and forth in a group chat about Marinette. It had started Friday after school. Nearly everyone had bashed their once favorite bluenette while Alya had been the only one to defend her. Adrien just said he wanted to stay out of it. Things took a dark turn when Alix admitted and joked to tripping Marinette as revenge. Then Mylene admitting that spilling coffee all over Marinette’s sketchbook hadn’t been an accident. It got worse from there. However, they all claimed it was in defense of Lila. Alya was left stunned. Nothing Marinette could’ve done deserved any of what they did. How could she be so blind as to not see that the so-called “accidents” weren’t accidents at all.

           No matter what Lila said, Alya just couldn’t believe Marinette was capable of such things. She had known the girl far too long. And honestly, she was a little surprised the kids who she knew had known Marinette since like pre-k and then suddenly they could think the worse of the so-called “Everyday Ladybug”.

           To make it worse, the things they said about Marinette were terrible and just mean. The girl who had done so much for them deserved better. So Alya kept fighting for her friend, trying to convince her friends that something wasn’t right. Maybe Lila was a bit confused or something.

           But they wouldn’t listen.

           Then Alya thought maybe if she could get Marinette to realize how amazing Lila was then everything would be fine. She just needed to show Marinette proof.

           …There was none.

           There was literally no evidence backing up any of Lila’s stories. Not even the ones about her mom being an ambassador. The only real information about anything fantastic the Italian girl did came from the Ladyblog. And Alya had deleted that video within seconds upon the realization that Lila hadn’t been telling the truth.

           Alya didn’t hesitate to create another group chat about trying to explain that maybe something was a bit fishy about Lila. She spent most of Saturday just trying to get them to listen to her. But she just got accused of being biased. Even Nino had blatantly told her that she was too close to Marinette to see what she was really like.

Was this how Marinette felt, she had found herself wondering.

“Can you prove she doesn’t actually know Ladybug?” The words tasted sour in Alya’s mouth. The more she thought about them, the worst the taste and feeling in her stomach got. Though she had remained silent the look Marinette had given Alya was like the bluenette was questioning her sanity. Or maybe her intelligence.

           Because Alya was officially questioning both about herself.

           Of course, Marinette could prove Lila didn’t know Ladybug! She was the one who originally helped Alya get her first big interview with the hero.

           And when Alya realized (remembered) that, she also remembered that fact Marinette knew Jagged Stone very well and could easily dispute Lila’s cat and plane story. Her bestie also knew Clara Nightingale and managed to become friends with the superstar; there was no way Marinette wouldn’t ask the singer if she knew Lila Rossi. She probably already had. And the answer was probably no.

           Alya pinched her nose to fight the urge to slap herself. The idea that Clara Nightingale stole Lila’s dance moves was obviously a ridiculous lie; one she had eaten up.

           By Sunday morning, Lila had subtly hinted that her classmates’ chances of meeting all the celebrities she knew and the opportunities they stood a chance for were decreasing. Or as Lila texted:

No one wants to be associated with a bully. (sad emoji)

I’d hate it if people thought you were one too.

They’d never work with you then.

           That was all it took for the class to agree to drop Marinette like a hot potato.

           And that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Alya was concerned.

           She was at Marinette less than half an hour later. Alya apologized for not believing Marinette about Lila. She had taken off her glasses when she began to cry. She handed her phone over, and let Marinette read the group texts. The hurt that flashed over the Asian’s girl face nearly broke Alya’s heart.

“You’re my best friend,” Alya had stated firmly. “I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve had your back. I’ll do better. I’ll be better.”

           Marinette wiped tears from her face. “You had my back when it counted the most.” A cold look appeared on her face. “Tomorrow, we’ll find out who’s really my friend.”

           Alya agreed but wanted to point out that friends didn’t do what they did. She couldn’t stop herself from remembering all the nasty words and mean jokes they made about her bestie. “Okay, but then we get revenge.”

“Nothing to mean.”

“No promises.”

           Alya looked at the faces of the kids who she was once her friends; to be clear, they weren’t anymore. She couldn’t trust them. If they could turn on someone like as awesome Marinette for a few sickly sweet promises and false tears, then they’d drop Alya, who could admit to herself she wasn’t nearly as nice as the bluenette, in a hot second.

           She didn’t bother saying good morning to them. Alya shook her head and promptly walked to the back of the class and sat in the right (in more ways than one) desk next to Marinette’s. To her credit, Alya didn’t blink twice at Chloe’s new chosen seat; as she far she was concerned Marinette needed all the friends she could get.

Alya crossed her arms and glared at the class. A cold fury filling her. Still, she gave her ex-friends, Nino (her soon to ex-boyfriend), Lila a small smile and a chuckle, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

           There would be hell to pay for they did her best friend. This wasn’t war. No, War meant the ingrates in her class actually stood a chance. They didn’t. It was Marinette, Alya, and Chloe versus everyone else. This was a war, it was an execution.

           First thing first was they had to plan.

           After school, the three girls met up at Marinette’s.

“No matter more being a doormat, Dupain… Marinette,” Chloe corrected at the last second.

           Marinette frowned, “I’m not a doormat.”

“You kind of are girl,” Alya said, despite the part of herself that hated agreeing with Chloe. They were on the same side, she reminded herself, the same team. “You’re are constantly running around to help everyone. You’re constantly doing favors; handing out free custom design clothes, banners, food, the works. And they treat you like dirt. They’ve been treating you like dirt, and yet you still help. It’s not right. I never thought it was.”

At first, Alya hadn’t said anything because she was too new and didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. But she should’ve.

“It has to stop,” Alya continued. “They’re not your friends anymore; you don’t owe anyone anything. Even if they were; your designs are way too badass to be giving them away for free.”

           Marinette nodded. She could agree to that

           Chloe put a hand on her hip, “The three of us are the most formidable girls in class; possibly the entire school. Outside of class, most of the school loved Mariette; the artists, the geeks, the fashion club, bakers’ club. Thanks to the Ladyblog, Alya is the most known girl at school; people trust her because Ladybug trusts her. Me? I’m the richest girl in school and I throw the best parties; the elite follows me because they have no choice, and the popular because they don’t want to risk not getting an invite. As hot and as smart as we are, we are ruling that hellhole. You know what our problem is?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Marinette’s too nice. I’m too bossy. Alya’s too stubborn.”

           It wasn’t the first time or the millionth that someone calls Alya stubborn. “We need to work as a unit; they come at one of us, they come at all of us. Lila isn’t done yet.”

“She lied her way to the top,” Marinette said. “As long as she thinks I’m any kind of threat to her, she won’t stop.

           Chloe nodded, “Mostly because of the tops a long way from the bottom and it’s her social status, her reputation, everything she got since she came to school that’s on the line. The fall will kill her;”

“Then let’s make sure she takes our ex-friends with her,” Alya said darkly. “We got nowhere being nice and honest. Lets’ try mean and ruthless.”

           Marinette wanted to protest but the texts from her so-called friends still tore at her. They had said so many hurtful things; about Marinette, her designs, her parents’ bakery. It was terrible. “What do you have in mind?”

           Alya smirked, “We’re going full scorched earth.”

           Revenge is a dish best served cold.

           They let the class think they were safe; let the worry of any potential consequences slowly fade from their minds. It took weeks before their ex-friends would stop reading themselves for an attack whenever Chloe, Alya, or even Marinette entered the room. And during those weeks, the girls assembled their powerbases; slowly but surely, they took their rightful places at the top of the social hierarchy.

           A few of the so-called Queen Bee of the school took afront of this and did their best to sabotage each other

           But what none of the other social climbers expected was for the three to combine their forces. Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were cold and merciless in defense of their new positions; each one using their own unique still to remove or outright destroy their competition and anyone else that got in their way.

           However, it was until Olivia Knight, the former most popular girl in school, popularity fell to just above the Goth kids that people finally got the message.

           There were Three new queens in their school. Call them the Lannisters, Call them the Tyrells, or the Baratheons’; whatever However the message was the same. The Queens would do anything it took to keep their thrones.

           Two months; nine parties, one school election, a dance (where Chloe was elected Queen) and joining seven clubs between them Marinette: Fashion and Art. Alya: Track and Comic Book Club. Chloe: Mathletes and Drama. Finally, all three joined the World Travels’ Club. That way they had a foot in with the nerds, jocks, the geeks, the loners, the goths, and (by way of throwing awesome parties) the popular kids. And Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were officially the most popular girls in school.

           Marinette and Alya were surprised to learn the kids from Bustier’s class were lower on the overall school’s popularity scale than the creepy loner kid that hangs out behind the gym and smokes. They only really hung out with each other and seemed to have more problems than any other class in school. The main idea seemed to be that Bustier’s class was black hole no one ever managed to crawl out of until Alya, Chloe, and Marinette surfaced. Or a budding cult. Now that they had broken free, the three could see how they had gotten that idea.

           When they were in class, it was like they were in their own world. They were all in high school now but most still acted as they did on their first days of middle school. It was like they refused to grow up, mature mentally and emotionally. Bustier never seemed to mind.

           She was a hindrance. She blamed the victim and protected the bullies.

           It was why Bustier had to go.

           Getting Bustier fired was remarkable easy. A week’s work of videos of what life was life every day in her class, and she was gone.

           A substitute didn’t come to replace her. No someone (Chloe) had leaned on Damocles hard to get the entire class split up until a permanent one could be found. Thus they were in for a hard lesson.

           The first? Who really ruled the school?

           The best part was for that ditch the girls were planning on leaving their ex-friends in, those morons brought the shovel themselves.

           It took a few days for Bustier’s class to settled into their classes and schedule but once they did, they immediately tried to go back to their old ways.

           The teachers shut down most of it; making it clear they would NOT be tolerating any crap.

           Still, that didn’t stop everyone.

           Bustier’s students, as they would be known by the students and teachers, yelled out they’re answered, frequently disrupted the class, argued loudly with each other.

           Lila tried to spin her stories again but Marinette and Alya already spread the truth about how much of a liar she was so one bought anything she said. Most just ignored her. Lila didn’t like that. She thrived off attention. No attention meant Akumas. Unfortunately, this just caused Lila to look even more immature than she already did.

           When Alix “accidentally” tripped Marinette. Marinette let herself fall, crash, and spill all her school supplies. Alix and Mylene snickered.

           Aurore who had witnessed the event didn’t hesitate to call them out, drawing the attention of the other students. They saw Marinette on the floor, Alix and Mylene laughing and came to the correct conclusion. Marinette’s new friends rushed to help her, glaring viciously at the two girls while she did so.

           Word spread quickly. And then Alya “accidentally” let it slip about the mean texts about Marinette. And then Chloe “accidentally” revealed all of the classes’ dirty little secrets; things that had only be known by Bustier’s students. Rumors flew.

           It wasn’t long before most of the student body would rather be seen with the creepy loner smoker kid than with any of Bustier’s students.

            No one realized just how true that statement was until Marinette announced yet another fantastic party. Chloe, Marinette, and Alya had become known for them.

           …This party was different.

           Usually, it was a mass invite; welcoming anyone and everyone.

           This party was an invitation-only which was strange because it seemed like everyone in school was invited. Until they got to the party that Friday night and realized just who wasn’t.

           Bustier’s students.

           It was the worse sentence the Queen could’ve delivered to their ex-friends. It wasn’t just a drop on the popularity scale. It wasn’t social exile. The message was clear; Marinette, Chloe, and Alya would not tolerate their ex-friends whatsoever.

           No one wanted to get on the girls’ bad side. No one would even consider risking it. No one wanted to be the next Olivia Knight. Olivia who never fully recovered her reputation or her social status; most of her old friends wouldn’t even speak to her anymore. They were not about to put their necks on the line for losers Bustier’s class.

           They’d only lose their heads.

           The (Demon) Queens of school decreed it, by next Monday, the students of Bustier’s class would be deleted.

           And yet that still wouldn’t be enough for them.

           As far as they were concerned they were only just getting started.

           Move over Heathers, Plastics, the Queens have arrived.

[seercayder]

No but I feel as though artists are probably experiencing one of the most hostile years of posting art online that they’ve ever experienced for maybe forever. And I mean this for both amateur artists and professionals (with maybe a lil bit of bias since I also do The Art).

Tumblr’s nudity ban has crippled any piece that is either NSFW or uses nudity as artistic expression and it ultimately drove away both the artists themselves and a lot of their fans, which destroyed any remaining traction for the artists who managed to remain. Tumblr is no longer an artistic freedom-friendly site and it shows, which is a fucking shame bc they genuinely have one of the better tagging systems than other sites and I believe that most feedback on art there has been positive and friendly, which has now gone the way of the dinosaur much like Deviantart.

Twitter has problems with image compression but their biggest issue is toxic abuse, which I find to be the most damaging to artists out of all the other problems i’m listing here. Both the lure of anonymity and the mindset that ‘Speak Loud In Little Words To Make Point Means You Are Important And Right’ has fuelled the absolutely vile comments I have seen directed at artists on the site. Although it’s mainly aimed at fanartists and ship artists, I have noticed unwanted (even rude) criticism on immaculate, well-done art pieces, which is extremely belittling and insulting because the artist (although they may be open to criticism) if they haven’t asked for criticism then that means that they are not in the right mindset to receive any, and therefore it is not your place to throw disparaging comments at them.

But the biggest issue with abuse on Twitter is obviously aimed at fan-artists, especially those those that draw NSFW or “problematic” content. I could go into a whole spiel about how a drawing of a fictional character doesn’t affect reality but in short: If you find disturbing art of a non-existent character (or hey, even non-disturbing art, it’s just something you don’t like) then ignore it. Don’t go and fucking bully the artist you psychopath. If it is truly illegal then report the piece and then see if it gets taken down. Because 90% of the time it won’t be taken down because it doesn’t go against guidelines and you’re just trying to police the site like you’re the thought-police, monitoring other peoples art as if you have the god-given right to. And if you’re a minor stay the fuck out of 18+ accounts. Don’t comment, don’t follow, don’t even look. I am absolutely amazed by the mindset that some children have to waltz into a space not made for them and having the balls to insult the 18+ artist, who have specifically said “no minors”, for posting icky content. It gets even worse when you see how they abuse the Privatter or Curiouscat links the Twitter artists provide, made for anonymous feedback or for being the final barrier for an adult piece that says “hey this stuff is NSFW, don’t click if you are underage, last warning”. I’m gonna go into this more when I cover TikTok in the next few paragraphs. But ultimately, the artists on that site are having to be constantly vigilant against abuse, and it’s not unusual for them having to spend hours going through their 1K+ followers and having to block every underage follower who just didn’t fucking listen to their warnings. Imagine how exhausting and irritating and down-right uncomfortable that must be; having to monitor every fan that sees your work out of fear that they’re a minor seeing adult content or that they could throw abusive comments at you. Horrible.

Instagram is saturated with bots attempting to steal your work or advertise it on their own page and feedback isn’t really a ‘thing’ on there. Also, their algorithm (which may have also been implemented on Twitter, I believe that the Twitter algorithm now avoids promoting popular artist terms, but I can’t be certain bc the Twitter post that pointed this out is long-lost in the depths of my timeline, bc again, no tagging system) is based more around sharing than likes, which can be a huge barrier to artists. Sure, you may like someones art and even leave a nice comment on it, but do you really want to share every piece you come across, especially if it’s not something you would show dear Aunty Susan who follows you? It’s infuriating that a whole site dedicated for images is so difficult to use for artists, and with Instagram implementing features that are similar to Snapchats ‘stories’ it’s clear they’ve moving in a different direction, focusing on momentary attention-grabbing photos. This is simply because Instagram is advertising itself as more of a promotional influencer site nowadays, and anything that could sully their reputation has to be thrown into the algorithm trash. NSFW art or just plain ‘bad’ art? Trash. If you’re not gonna make money for them then why should they bother? You wanna promote your art? Pay for it because the algorithm will absolutely be working against you.

Now, the biggest fucking offender for worst art-sharing site of the year is TikTok (no surprise there), which is absolutely rampant with reposts and uncredited artwork and a gateway for abusive comments against artists. Like the Ouroboros snake, it goes through the same pattern every time; People (usually minors) find art on Twitter or Pinterest and repost it, usually without credit or going against the artist’s wishes about reposting. Then it either goes two-ways: Firstly, if the piece is SFW it will get about five-seconds of interest, a like for the reposter and people will then just move on. TikTok is built entirely around short bursts of satisfaction, feeding a a constant loop of serotonin for a few seconds before you move on. So ultimately, people rarely then hunt down the original artist, especially if their credit isn’t readily available, and usually the original artists doesn’t see any rise in likes, followers or popularity and are usually unaware that their art is even getting any attention on TikTok.

Or, if the art is NSFW, it can go down the second way. It is reposted and, as the majority of TikTok users are under-18, many users find the image uncomfortable, especially if it is a bit more ‘out-there’ or of a ship they don’t like. The reposters sometimes find the image off of Privatter, which is even worse since the piece has been posted to Privatter not just as a final barrier against minors, but also as a form of directing the piece to a specific and niche audience due to it’s... spicer than usual NSFW content. I’m talking really specific pieces with really specific kinks. Now that piece is floating around TikTok, widely seen by the general fans of a fandom, who again, are usually underage. The viewers grow uncomfortable, as the piece is not made for them, especially since sometimes the reposter only posted the piece for shock-value, and would even encourage insulting comments by only posting the credits for the purpose of getting fans to throw abuse at the artist (”The artist is ***** but they ship **** and are icky”) and so the viewers finally decide to make the effort to hunt down the original artist, only to throw insulting and bullying comments at them, made worse by the fact that they are children who don’t have the sense to hold back and have been fuelling their mindset in the echo-chamber that is TikTok.

And as a result of a lot of this hostile feedback for artists, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a space for amateur artists who are just starting out, since the art community is becoming a little bit scary. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that new (or not even new but recently promoted) sites such as Artstation are becoming a better place for professional artists only, but it is very intimidating for learner artists. That’s not necessarily a bad thing - I believe that part of the reason for Deviantarts decline was that the tagging system was horrible, so good art was being drowned out by amateur, fetish content, so more advanced artists were distancing themselves from the site, especially if they were trying to build a portfolio for employment. I also find that fanart usually gets far more likes than more original art pieces, even if the original piece is amazingly good, which isn’t a criticism against fanart but posting your original piece on a site more aimed at professional pieces may help you reach your target audience better and improve likes and interaction. However, that does mean that if you are an amateur, or hell, just an average artists who is still learning, your best bet for exposure is posting your piece across multiple sites and very, very regularly, braving any abusive comments if you try anything slightly “spicy”. Which, obviously, become a very potentially toxic atmosphere and it’s not uncommon for artists to feel burn-out or depressed at their lack of attention or the cyber-bullying they may receive.

I’m not trying to say that posting artwork has always been easy, but there is definitely a more aggressive culture surrounding it and I think artists have to be aware that chances are they will face insulting comments, reposters, frustrating algorithms, cyber-bullying, a lack of interaction and burn-out as they try and appeal to websites that would do the bare minimum for you in terms of promotion.

This isn’t meant to be a post to scare away artists, I just wanted to point out that there is a big fucking problem and it feels as though it’s getting worse. Nowadays, websites have become a bit too comfortable targeting creators rather than fans when it comes to monitoring content and artists have been put under more and more pressure as they face more and more abuse that is rarely addressed, especially by the sites themselves that host the content. Things that are a huge punch in the face for artists, such as NFT’s, are becoming more normalised and it’s honestly just sad.

[lorcxn]

Artist Profile: Lorcan d’Eath

Character Basics

Name 

Lorcan Henri d’Eath

Pronouns/Gender Identity

He/They

Birthdate

23 September 1958 (during the equinox)

Blood status 

Halfbreed

3 key positive traits 

Charming. Observant. Artistic.

3 key negative traits 

Mysterious. Self-loathing. Broody Musician. 

Faceclaim 

Maxence Danet-Fauvel

Academics

Primary Wizarding School & Graduation Year

Homeschooled; then he attended Puddlemere for a year until transferring to the Siren School of Fine Magical Arts class of ‘78

Hogwarts Degree & Cohort

Undecided

House & Year

Hufflepuff; First year; Class of ‘84

Rooming Request

Private room please. 

Extracurricular Activities

Quidditch Announcer(Silky smooth voice— smartass commentary)

A Brief History

Lorcan has spent his life never truly knowing which world he fits into. Shunned by the vampires for being vulnerable and too human, and feared by mortals for being not human enough. Lorcan’s father was a French vampire who didn’t stick around very long after he was born. A name— this is all Lorcan has of his father— and a dumb one at that, but it serves it’s purpose, it answers the questions people are too scared to ask of the pale boy with hair as black as night and blue eyes that seem to pierce your soul. 

Lorcan has always been drawn to music. It had been his one solace in life. There is a song for every emotion. Hundreds even— emotional expression in a way that Lorcan has never been able to speak plainly. When Lorcan discovered that he had a talent for music— instruments, vocals. That he could write words and hear the music in his head— his life changed. He no longer simply consumed music— he created it. Lorcan sold his first demo to a record label at age 15.

TW: Bullying. Raised by a single mother who had no idea what to expect of her half-vampire son. Daisy Cooper did her best. Her local wizarding community turned their back on her for the abomination she birthed and Daisy wanted nothing more than to shield her son from the shortsighted, narrow minded people who so openly hated what he was. 

In his first year of school at the tender age of 5— after Lorcan repeatedly came home battered and bruised— Daisy pulled him from school until he decided he wanted to try again. Sending him to Puddlemere, it wasn’t long before the bullying started again— only this time, Lorcan had no qualms about fighting back. This however ended with Lorcan’s expulsion from Puddlemere— the reason being stated was violence against other students but it was clear to Daisy that it was because he was half-vampire. The following year, Lorcan found his place at Siren School, where he was more or less accepted for his differences rather than hated for them.

Little is known about the half-human offspring of vampires, and Lorcan has learned that each child is different. They receive different traits, some inherit more, some less— some receive none at all; there didn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to how the half breed children turned out— and the ministry appeared to have no interest in investigating, lumping them all together with their special classifications and bigotry. 

Vampire bois characteristics; very pale skin, survives on as little as 4 hours of sleep a day, usually between the hours of 4am-8am(he doesn’t need more than this but will sometimes not leave his depresso bed until well into the afternoon.) There is an obvious point to ~those~ teeth. Does not need blood to survive but it does provide certain benefits. It makes him noticeably stronger, and more personable, if not slightly more chaotic. Honeydukes Blood Pops are life saving, but also damning. For part-humans, it becomes an addiction. Withdrawal is survivable but an absolute bitch. 

Lorcan went from primary school graduation straight into tour after the song ‘Necks to You’ from his 2nd studio album spent 19 weeks at #1 on the charts. Taking a break from two solid years on tour to work on his next album and entertain the idea of a university degree, Lorcan has enrolled at Hogwarts. 

Hatstall; ambitious and cunning but chaotic af— his heart is bigger than he gives it credit for, he just isn’t willing to let anyone see it— not even himself. HUFFLEPUFF for you, for she takes all the rest. 

TLDR; Angsty sad boi musician who has severe trust problems and bigtime daddy/abandonment issues. 

[studiopeachz]

Task Brainstorm & Research

What am I passionate about?

Food

Cultures

Traveling

Music

tattoos/illustrations/designs

art/painting/drawing

Mental health

Self discovering/acceptance/explorations/expressions

What do you wish more people understood?

I wish people understood more about the different forms of self expression through different ways such as art, design, fashion, literature, etc. 

I wish people understood more about human rights, or general personal choices without judgement

What do you feel strongly about?

I feel strongly about self love and acceptance because the factors of accepting ourselves can be hard but can make us flourish, and gives us opportunities to express how we feel 

What makes you feel good?

Art in different forms makes me feel good has it drives my curiosity to learn and dig deeper for meaningful things

Beauty and self acceptance, embracing our imperfections

Wise words/sayings that inspire and impact me and others in a positive way

What makes me unhappy?

As an empathetic person, I feel unhappy for the one who also feels unhappy or any certain unstable emotions.

Making mistakes also make me upset as it is hard to admit our own wrong doings

Stereotypes, because it gives us an invalid label to individuals which do not define us as a whole

I don’t like when people judge you right away without knowing you

If you could fix something, what would it be?

I would want to fix the past mistakes i have done, wishing i could of done better

I would of want to fix the moments that I wish i could of done or fulfilled which leads to present regrets

What would you like to see in the future?

I would like to see everyone in the world to be kinder, and more understanding towards each other as it gives opportunities to get to know individuals truly, without having to judge them right away.

I would also like to see people normalizing natural and imperfect things and different creations of forms of self expression without any judgement, but curiosity instead. 

What would you like to shine a light on?

I would like to raise awareness about the beauty of differences and self expression, even in peculiar artistic ways

What do you see that others don’t see?

As an optimistic person, I like to see the good in everything, therefore I have this willingness to listen and to understand situations, stories, and journeys of others.

I find the most imperfect things to be beautiful. 

Things about Gen Z

https://www.livingfacts.org/en/articles/2020/meet-gen-z 

https://danschawbel.com/blog/39-of-the-most-interesting-facts-about-generation-z/ 

Demographics

Gen Zers are also the most diverse generation. Research by the Center determined that nearly half (48%) of 6- to 21-year-old Gen Zers are racial or ethnic minorities, compared with 39% of Millennials in that age bracket in 2002 and more than double the percentage of early Baby Boomers in 1968.

Attitudes

In many instances, the youngest generation’s views follow Millennials’ social attitudes, and are in stark contrast to the oldest group, the Silent Generation, with Baby Boomers and Gen Xers falling in the middle.

For example, 70% of Gen Zers say government should do more to solve societal problems, rather than leaving it to businesses and individuals. By comparison, 64% of Millennials and only 39% of Silents say government should do more. Similarly, roughly 6 in 10 Gen Zers and Millennials say increasing racial and ethnic diversity is good for society, compared with about 4 in 10 Silents.

Gen Z’s as consumers 

55% of Gen Z would rather buy clothes online and 53% would rather buy books and electronics online. [JWT]

Their favorite items to spend money on are food and drink (36%), going out with friends (32%) and clothes (18%). [Visa]

66% want to own both houses and cars in their lifetimes. [Deep Focus]

Gen Z’s most used tech devices are the smartphone (15.4 hours/week), TV (13.2 hours/week) and a laptop (10.6 hours/week). [Vision Critical]

50% would look on their phone to look for a better price while shopping at a retail store. [Gen HQ]

63% are concerned when it comes to protecting their identity when paying with a debit or credit card online or in a retail store. [Gen HQ]

Gen Z values

76% are concerned about man’s impact on the planet. [JWT]

79% of display symptoms of emotional distress when kept away from their personal electronic devices. [University of Maryland]

90% would be upset if they had to give up their Internet connection while only 51% would give up eating out and 56% would give up downloading music. [JWT]

84% multitask with an Internet-connected device while watching TV. [Forrester Research]

They have more than 10 apps on their smartphone with 10% having more than 40. [Visa]

60% of Gen Zs say “a lot of money” is a sign of success. [Deep Focus]

What are some general Gen Z issues/behaviours/values: 

Social anxiety (mental health)

Racial equality

Gender identity

Self esteem

Political and social issues

Technology/ social media content

Personal beliefs and values in comparison to older generations 

Speaking up/inner voice

Stress response

Optimistic attitude “it is what it is”

Three Campaign Ideas relatable to Gen Z demographic In Aotearoa:

(self expression)

gender identity / fashion & style / art & design / illustration / ink / skin art - tattoos

(self acceptance & confidence)

Body Image & Positivity / cultural roots / growth / well-being / 

(cultural diversity)

Culture / tradition / ethnicity / foundation / 

Research Gen z with self expression, self acceptance, and cultural diversity

WHAT DOES SELF-EXPRESSION REALLY MEAN TO GEN Z?https://www.havaspeople.com/project/what-does-self-expression-really-mean-to-gen-z/ 

We always knew that Gen Z would be distinctive. They are the first true digital natives, and grew up during times of uncertainty (the wake of the last financial crisis and Brexit in the UK). But over the last year the identity of this generation has been further shaped in a profound way as some of their most formative years are taking place against the backdrop of a global pandemic, with the significant interruptions that has wrought to school, university, and early working lives, as well as social connections. Gen Z were on the precipice of progress when COVID hit “pause” on life. And yet many Gen Zers are emerging as resilient, energized, and eager to express themselves and have their voices heard.

Rinsta (real) and Finsta (fake) social media accounts, often to keep certain aspects of their life hidden from family, potential employers, and others outside of their close social circles). Yet – on the whole – they trust the technology brands and platforms themselves.

69% of Gen Z believe that brands should make their stance on social and political issues known publicly. I believe this is what Gen Z mean by brand authenticity. 

showing us that authenticity does not just mean having a clear point of view, but also using your clout as a brand to share and amplify the causes that matter to you. 

showing your own alignment with the purpose and intent of a brand. Gen Z see the brands who they follow, ‘like’, and buy as a personal reflection of them as individuals, which is why they are prepared to pay more for brands that they believe support sustainability. If that’s how profoundly Gen Zers believe the impact of their consumer choices can affect the way they express themselves, it stands to reason that this will cut even deeper with regard to career choices, which is one of the reasons

This seems an important aspect of self-expression. Gen Z share a willingness to discuss issues in an open reflective way, and to seek out different opinions, which is one reason social channels are increasingly viewed as credible sources of news. To give another example, Gen Z are more comfortable talking about mental health issues than previous generations. While this can be attributed in part to the overall rise in awareness and acceptance of mental health issues over the last fifteen years, it is a noticeable shift from previous generations.

https://extremereach.com/blog/for-gen-z-consumption-is-about-self-expression/ “Consumption for this generation is an expression of individual identity.”

“Some people are angry and resentful because they feel like their voice isn’t heard, so clothing is a space where they can be self-governed.”

They’re experiencing brands in every corner of their online life and so these same “brands need to beware this generation’s discernment because they have a bloodhound-like nose for inauthenticity.”

We’ve been more empowered than ever, so why are Gen-Z the least confident generation yet? https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/gen-z-least-confident-generation 

Indeed, statistics show that, instead of a defining feeling of hope among Gen Z, there is a groaning sense of pessimism - of hopelessness. Long running research from University College London, revealed earlier this year that depression levels are two-thirds higher than millennials. The study found 14.8 per cent of 14-year-olds in 2015 said they were depressed, compared to 9 per cent in 2005. While 14.4 per cent of young people said they had self-harmed, compared to 11.8 per cent a decade ago.

“I feel like Gen Z and millennials occupy a really interesting place in politics,” says Nogia, 20 “- we’ve only known austerity, we’ve only know casual work, we’ve only know life long sentences of debt for getting an education and we’re living in an age of populism and hatred in politics.”

So, is this having a detrimental effect on a generation’s mental health and personal confidence? Pretty much.

Youth Engagement Officer at YoungMinds, “Young people today have to navigate a huge range of pressures, from school or university stress, to worries over their career and housing prospects, to the rise of social media, which can make problems like bullying or body image issues more intense than they were in the past.”

Social media is - predictably - a major cause of generational anxiety. Not only is it connecting us to the world’s most depressing news stories, it is also connecting us to a plethora of airbrushed, Facetuned accounts making us feel terrible about ourselves. No wonder confidence is low.

Gen Z demands more diversity and inclusion from brands https://www.campaignlive.com/article/gen-z-demands-diversity-inclusion-brands/1705491 

Gen Zers made clear throughout the study that they want brands to step up their efforts around representation. For example, 76% of Gen Zers said they feel diversity and inclusion is an important topic for brands to address, compared to 72% of millennials, 63% of Gen Xers and 46% of Baby Boomers who felt the same.

“Consumers don't want to see brands making an effort to be inclusive just for means of publicity,” said Jenna Stearns, researcher at quantilope and lead on the report. “They want to see something that's authentic and consistent.”

But brands that resonate most with Gen Z consumers are consistent in their support of social justice. Target, for example, has been vocal around LGBTQIA awareness and Pride month for years, said Steph Rand, senior research consultant at quantilope. 

“These brands are rising to the top because they are sustaining and consistently making [these issues] a priority, either in their communications or around the content they produce,” Rand said.

Responses regarding representation also varied by race, gender and sexual orientation. Individuals responded they feel their gender is more represented in mainstream media (70% male; 66% female) and brand advertising (71% male; 68% female) than their sexual orientation or ethnicity.

In 2021, consumers hope to see more individuals with disabilities represented in advertising and media, as well as more authentic PR backed up by action.

Integrated Awareness Campaign Examples:

Self Expression Campaign example: https://www.lsnglobal.com/youth/article/24865/a-kombucha-campaign-that-celebrates-self-expression 

Los Angeles – Health-Ade Kombucha’s latest campaign targets a new generation of health-conscious drinkers.

The campaign, You Brew You, introduces the brand’s new flavour and packaging concepts, as well celebrating the popularisation of kombucha. Diverging from traditional drinks advertising, it features a series of young models in bright clothing with colourful, neon-lit backdrops.

While kombucha brands tend to communicate in a way that focuses on health, wellness and fitness activities such as yoga, Health-Ade Kombucha is on a mission to change the image of the beverage and target a new generation of digitally-native consumers.

As the younger generation look to the future and consider how drinking impacts their health, they are turning towards soft drinks with additional health benefits. For more, explore the insight section of our macrotrend Anxiety Rebellion.

Self love/acceptance Campaign Example: https://fredandfar.com/blogs/ff-blog/banksy-made-me-do-it-transforming-everyday-ads-into-self-love-campaigns 

This stunt can have multiple meanings, as Banksy often uses his art to comment on such structures as capitalism, power imbalances, and corruption. 

Wrapped up in the Banksy frenzy ourselves, we started questioning art and its subjective worth. What makes art valuable? What qualifies as art? In what way can art be used or manipulated to impact our everyday lives? We live in a world saturated by advertisements, media and marketing targeting and manipulating us to be passive consumers. Thinking about what we are subjected to daily by multimillion dollar companies is eye opening, as is Banksy’s take on copyright laws and advertising.

Banksy urges, “any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.”

So let’s take back the power. We got the ball rolling by taking some campaigns and slogans you might recognize, and turning them into campaigns for self love and acceptance.

Join us by creating your own better slogan and use the hashtag #banksymademedoit. What we need is more self love in the world. Let’s saturate the world with our mission.

Cultural Diversity Campaign Example: https://www.refuelagency.com/blog/examples-of-brands-who-got-multicultural-marketing-right/ 

Rihanna’s brand, Fenty, is all but synonymous with authentic inclusive marketing, created on the foundation that everyone woman is beautiful and should feel included. In 2017, Fenty Beauty launched 40 shades of foundation, and that has since grown to 50. Chaédria LaBouvier wrote in Allure that Fenty Beauty’s sheer number of foundation colors is “a statement that women of color deserve complex options”. 

Rihanna shared that, “It’s important to me that every woman feel included in this brand.” Once this campaign launched, it had a ripple effect called “The Fenty Effect”, a movement calling for brands to challenge the status quo in advertising.

[trevorbarre]

Shane McGowan: Part the Second

I was always of the opinion that Spider Stacey’s tea tray head-bashing was as much a part of The Pogues’ magic as MacGowan’s poetese. The band’s subject matter could be boiled down to (i) London and an accompanying nostalgie de la boue (ii) The immigrant Irish experience and identity (iii) Booze. The melding of these three was the particular genius of the band and MacGowan’s lyrics. It undoubtedly filled the vacuum after the demise of post-punk and the musical  non-event of ‘New Romanticism’. The Pogues, The Fall and The Smiths (the ‘The’ bands?) offered us hope in the mid-80s (as did, to a greater extent, Americans such as Sonic Youth, Big Black, REM, Big Black, The Replacements, Husker Du and The Butthole Surfers).

The Crock of Gold goes some way to explaining Shame McGowan’s pathology: the film starts with him being unconscionably rude to the film maker, boorish, spoiled and out of it (natch). Like it’s meant to be somehow pathognomonic of Shane’s essential ‘honesty’ and ‘telling it as it is(n’t)’? A great start to the film, and nothing after this made me alter my opinion as to his essential smallness of spirit, whatever the ass-kissers say. The first part is possibly the most interesting: I found it noteworthy that there was a lot of hand-held video film of the MacGowan family available, very unusual in the early 70s, and somewhat contradictory to the narrative of noble rural poverty that is being actively  promoted in the narrative; the young Shane’s proud boast of being introduced to booze and fags at a very early age is left unquestioned (it obviously adds to the epater la bourgeoisie de l’angleterre image?); the admissions of bullying at school (clearly designed to avoid being bullied himself) leave a nasty taste in the mouth, delivered as they are with the typical MacGowan snickering, aversive cackle / ‘death rattle’. Punk basically validated his antisocial tendencies and gave them shape and purpose. (Even if only to form the entirely forgettable Nipple Erectors, the ‘controversial’ name of which was entirely in accord with the ‘headline grabbing’ shot of our hero with his ear being compromised by a female fellow attention-seeker., the point at which most of us became aware of ‘Shane O’Hooligan.) But Punk did, for a very brief time, offer misfits like our Shane a way in.

The Pogues, like The Libertines and The White Stripes later, are very much a ‘Greatest Hits’ band. 1984′s Red Roses for Me remains, for me at least, the quintessential original Pogues vinyl  product. It has the most solely MacGowan -composed songs (six in all), more than on any subsequent Pogues album. In  Temple’s film, Bono and Depp slaughter ‘Rainy Night in Soho’, as does Cave with, of all songs, ‘Summer in Siam’, one of MacGowan’s lesser songs. It all goes to show how fragile the magic was. His later band, The Popes, were mediocre in the extreme (with The Pogues’ essential spirit being leeched out in favour of a mere ’rock band’), only a shadow of The Pogues’ essence, i.e rock syncretic with Gaelic music, bonded by a ‘punk attitude’. By my reckoning, MacGowan was responsible for 16 songs on the first three albums, only half of the total tracks. Without the input of Spider, Jem et al, the magic was gone. As the man himself opined, after releasing such rubbish as ‘Fiesta’ on the third album, “I hated what we were doing - we became what we hated, the basis of my self-hatred” (apparently the excuse needed to get fully into Siam’s most popular exported product). 

I’d have more sympathy for Shane MacGowan if he wasn’t so clearly a rather unpleasant individual. However, judging from the fawning below the line comments about the film, I’m very much in the minority. Full credit to Julian Temple for making a typically generous account of the man, with a mix of family shots, those of Irish life in general, and of vintage live material across the years. As he did with The Sex Pistols, revealing the the less ‘rotten’ side of John Lydon and the less ‘vicious’ side of John Beverley. Temple is surely the true artist here.

[astroismypassion]

Hi I'm the June 17th birthday. I couldn't respond to your message on Kofi but I am totally fine with you putting my reading on your blog. Thank you for doing your best to work around the messages issue!

Hi!

Thank you for buying me this delicious hot beverage. I drank irish cream black coffee with rice milk while writing your interpretation. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did writing! I listened to some old George Ezra while writing. ;)

Your dominant planets are: 1. Sun, 2. Jupiter and 3. Pluto. Your dominant signs are: 1. Scorpio, 2. Gemini and 3. Leo. Your main mode is Fixed. You are Water dominant.

FAMILY, SIBLINGS, EARLY LIFE

You have Aquarius IC. You had an unconventional, unique upbringing. Your 4th house is in Aquarius and Pisces. You like to play on your own. Or you created an imaginary world for yourself. Or you could have escaped through music, arts, TV series or film. You were sheltered from what was really going on around you. You might have a hard time establishing healthy boundaries with your family members. They seem to completely merge with you and rely on you emotionally or be completely cold and detached. There were many traditions and superstitions in your family that might have been passed down through generations. If you have any siblings, they are Capricorn, Aquarius or Pisces. In your elementary and high school years you might have been drawing a lot during classes you didn’t find stimulating. Or you daydream often. You were a mature and responsible student. You seemed a lot older than your peers. You might have viewed your schoolmates as weird sometimes, but they viewed you the same back. You might have often asked yourself if you’re the “weird one” or they are. You have Uranus in the 4th house. You may have changed residence or moved around often, even change schools. There were a lot of unpredictable, sudden changes and events in your early life that were hard to control (and to grasp). You have Sun square Moon. Your mother and father have different personalities and traits. They did not agree on the parenting style, how to raise you. They might have had different views. You have Sun conjunct Mercury. Your father emphasized the importance of communication or that you keep good relations with your siblings. This is also a writer’s placements! You can flatter or cut deep with words. You know how to appeal through words and find exactly the right words. You can sometimes think you “feel” words, because some words would be funny to you or have a “weird” sound to it. You might visualize a lot in your mind. Words, think in imagery and pictures and you have a strong, vivid imagination. You have Sun conjunct Mars. He probably met your open emotional expression with resistance.

PARTNERSHIPS AND FRIENDSHIPS Your friends are Pisces, Aries, Cancer, Sagittarius, Libra and Virgo. In your romantic relationships you attract Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Virgo and Aries. You have Taurus Venus in the 7th house. You desire, respect and value (also attract) stable, loyal, stubborn, highly opinionated people. Those who like to debate with you. People that have “go to” phrases and are polite, kind, have good manners. You might easily sense fragile egos, self esteem and weak points of other people. You have Gemini Mars in the 8th house. This is how you take action. How you approach your crush. You like to play mind games a bit, use a bit of world play and double entendre. You like to know everything about them and how their mind works. You wonder how they are thinking, what their thought process is. You like to have shared learning experiences with potential partners or dates where you go to an escape room or take a cooking class together and learn a new skill. You like to constantly evolve, expand and regenerate. You need a mental connection and great mental rapport to introduce physical intimacy into a relationship. You have Aries Moon in the 5th house. You have the potential of a serial dater. You need some passion, excitement and playful energy to get the connection started. But even in the early stages of your love affairs, you need a great deal of emotional comfort. You have to feel safe and secure around the person, like they are your family already. You know what you like and you might cut off people instantly when you notice red flags or just something that you don’t like. You know you can’t save people, so you understand the person needs to help themselves first. Otherwise, they would become another one of your problems. You have Venus sextile Jupiter. You might be very generous when you’re in love. You like to spoil your partner and take them out for dinner often. You might be over generous or over loving. With you money, time, affection, attention, praise and compliments. You have Venus square Uranus. You might like some odd, quirky, hard to figure of people. You are fascinated by those. You might have a long distance relationship at some point. Or you could date your friends or online date. You might even have a platonic connection with someone before it being romantic. You have Venus trine Neptune. You might idealize your partner or they do that to you. You might view them through rose tinted glasses. You are attracted to musicians, artists, singers, creators and people who play instruments.

CAREER, PROFESSIONAL LIFE, PUBLIC IMAGE

You have Pluto in the 2nd house. You fear poverty, homelessness and being hungry. You are very private when it comes to your financial matters. You don’t discuss it openly or ever. It’s a weird topic for you. Sometimes you fear it, it’s like you’re scared of what it can do. You are very passionate about gaining financial stability. Sometimes your dreams scare you or you might think “too big” or see just the bigger picture and forget to focus on the now as well. You have Sagittarius and Capricorn over your 2nd house. You might be over indulgent and flashy when you have money to spend. But with Capricorn there you also work hard for it. You have Leo MC. You might gain recognition for your accomplishments. You could also be attracted to film, theatre, drama, modelling. Or politics, governmental jobs, administration. Even publishing, media, public relations and public affairs. You could be a representative for a company. You might like to post on your social media. But you perfect your image, caption and you check for grammar errors. You like to be seen as creative, funny, healthy, bright and hard working. You have Virgo North Node in the 10th house. This indicates your life purpose. In this lifetime you are called to organise, to establish healthy boundaries with others, routine, daily habits. To take care of your daily duties, responsibilities, your health and even your pets if you have any. If you don’t. You’d benefit from owning a pet greatly, so that it calms down your Virgo mental restlessness. You could work in accounting, counselling, therapy, even health fields, such as nutrition, dietetics, nursing etc. You could be interested in physical and mental wellbeing. You could be into fitness and wellness. You might like communication, publishing, bookkeeping or even library work. You could use your keen eye for details. You have Leo and Virgo over your 10th house. You will shine and be in the spotlight, yet you’ll have to learn humility as well. Sometimes you might feel underappreciated or undervalued by authority figures, such as your parents, mentors, teachers, bosses. You might feel like you are putting much more effort in your responsibilities and work than you get credit for it. You have Aries and Taurus over the 6th house. This means you like a stable job, because it means stable income (Taurus in the 6th, Capricorn in the 2nd). But at some point in your life, you might desire to be your own boss, be self employed or become a businessperson, since it gives you the freedom of expression, expansion you value (Aries in the 6th house, Sagittarius in the 2nd house). You might even do something athletic or sporty daily or even as a part of your job! You have Cancer Mercury in the 8th house. You need to communicate a lot with your intimate partners. You like to think about your family, siblings, your home, your comforts and safety. You like talking about deep, occult and taboo topics. You might entertain the idea of conspiracy theories as well. You have an excellent memory. You can remember scents, colours, how people made you feel like no other. You have a long term memory. You have Mercury square Jupiter. Sometimes you might be a bit judgemental or be prone to overthinking and overanalyzing. You might also read between the lines. You have Mercury sextile Saturn. You have great power and focus to concentrate for long periods of time when you have a tunnel vision.

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS

You have Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn currently transiting your 3rd house. You might spend more time alone and less with your friends, siblings and family members. You might have to work hard daily or commute to another city for work or just travel daily to a different part of the city. You might reevaluate and reconsider, rethink and transform your attitude to the local community, neighbourhood, city, to your siblings, peers, schoolmates. You might meet some new people, some new friends too, when Jupiter enters the scene since it’s a one and a half to two years long transit. You have Scorpio Chiron in the 1st house. You might not like your own name, or there is a visible spot, mark on your face, body that you don’t like. Or you could have been picked on by others for that. You might not like your physical appearance and you’re self conscious about it. You often nit pick it. At some point in life you might have had an identity crisis or just really doubted your personality, ego, self worth, character and traits. You might have been bullied or the power was taken away from you. You often felt powerless. Or scared of your own potential and power. You have Taurus Ceres in the 7th house. This represents how you wish to be nurtured and how you nurture others. You like to cook for them, buy them food, share meals with them and buy them little gifts. You like to listen to them. You might be a therapist for many. I’m sure you received compliments as “you’d be an excellent therapist”. You might empathize with them and really try to understand the other’s perspective and where they are coming from. You like to put yourself in others' shoes. You have Virgo Juno in the 11th house. This indicted your “ideal soulmate”, ideal partner, be it platonic or romantic. You like someone friendly, intelligent, who isn’t afraid to discuss social issues, society and question it all. You like someone who is clean, smells nice and grooms themselves. You like platonic, friendly connections at first. You need a lot of mental simulation. You have Libra Lilith in the 12th house. You might have been accused that you lack ambition. But you just don’t like competition that much or participation in the rat race. You value the inner core and being. You have rich inner workings. You have Leo Part of Fortune in the 9th house. This is where you experience good luck and charm. You might be praised for your views, beliefs, opinions on life. How you choose to constantly expand your horizons. You are at your happiest when you travel, even when you get lost in a good book, TV series or a foreign film. You like to constantly learn something new and you’ll be a life long student.

CHART RULER

Your chart ruler is Pluto. The chart ruler of the 1st house is in the 2nd house. Your ego is directly tied to your self worth, financial status, your talents. You might develop your personality, character, ego, self esteem through 2nd house topics, such as working on your talents and pursuing new skills, earning money and becoming financially independent, self care and developing your own set of values.

HOUSE RULERS

The house ruler of the 1st house is in the 2nd house. The way you look depends on your self-esteem. Life is oriented to discovering personal values and creating self-esteem. Appearance is a source of security issues. The house ruler of the 2nd house is in the 5th house. You use your money for artistic projects. You are possessive of creative projects. Financial security depends upon your personal creativity. The house ruler of the 3rd house is in the 6th house. Daily conversation revolves around work and health. Your mind is oriented to daily life. Thoughts are oriented to daily routine and work. You are curious about diet and nutrition. You have an efficient mind. You take information and organize it. You have an actively curious mind. The house ruler of the 4th house is in the 4th house. You want a home of your own. Private time is spent with family. Home and family bring up strong core feelings, for better or worse. You want a family for the sake of having a family. The house ruler of the 5th house is in the 3rd house. Creative talents and gifts are hidden. Hobbies revolve around the taboo or occult. The house ruler of the 6th house is in the 8th house. The daily work environment must serve your need to form deep relationships. You use your knowledge of diet, nutrition and exercise to help other people transform. You want an intense work environment. The house ruler of the 7th house is in the 7th house. The partner needs to be willing negotiate and cooperate with you. Marriage partners are business partners, business partners are marriage partners. You want to be with someone who is cooperative. You want a partner who is a good negotiator. The house ruler of the 8th house is in the 8th house. You enter sexual relationships for sex. You get emotionally entangled with other people to form deep connections. Your attitude to life and death affects your ability to deeply connect with other people. The house ruler of the 9th house is in the 5th house. You are philosophical about the way you raise children. You find meaning through the creative arts. You like to take romantic getaways. You enjoy the artistic expression of other cultures. Traveling is for leisure and pleasure. The house ruler of the 10th house is in the 8th house. You bring a professional approach to depth psychology. You find your true vocation by exploring occult subjects. Your career revolves around the need for intensity of experience. Your career involves working with other people’s emotional baggage. Your true vocation involves depth interactions with other people. You achieve recognition as a researcher. You receive awards for your work with people on the fringe of society. The house ruler of the 11th house is in the 8th house. You associate with people who are involved in the occult. Your friends have emotional baggage. You keep your group involvements hidden. You don’t talk about your long term hopes and wishes. The house ruler of the 12th house is in the 7th house. Your partner desires to escape from reality as much as you do. You lose your boundaries when it comes to significant relationships. Your grief and sorrow affect your relationships. The desire to escape reality affects your ability to maintain a serious relationship.