#rage bait artists apparently

[fandom-hoarder]

The artist of that post IS the person who you replied to, she's just doing that thing of pretending you're stealing art because it boosts engagement on Instagram.

Wow that's annoying af. I might still block them for being annoying. The only reason I didn't block them already was to give them a chance to read my reblog and reply. This makes me want to delete my reblog.

Imagine spending blaze money to put yourself on blast as an art stealer for "engagement." Yeah, negative engagement. What a way to present yourself. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Tumblr isn't Insta.

[batterfang]

AI Art and Goth

I'm going to be yelling into the void here, I know, but I want to get this out there because it's frustrating and I just need to yell about it okay lol. It's my blog, I'll complain if I want to.

So, recently there's been some discussion online about bands/record labels in the goth scene potentially using AI generated "art" for their album/single covers. Why does this matter, to me? It matters because as an artist myself, I know the time that goes into creating a piece. The hours, months, and years I've spent laboring away at something that means so much to me. A piece of my soul is in every little drawing or painting I make with intention. My art is my mark in this huge world and evidence that I existed. It's an extension of my feelings and thoughts and loves. That's what art means to me.

On the other side, you have ai generators. On top of frankensteining images from the internet at large, they can also steal pictures or artworks and overlay filters on top of them to make them look like the generator made them. (So I've learned today, which makes me very upset and I also learned what "scraping" means.)

So with that said, I'm sure anyone would understand why record labels maybe using ai instead of hiring artists to create an original piece OR using the huge selection of public domain works that are available is frustrating and an ethics issue. Right? Especially those people that are a part of a subculture that is based on an art form - music. Right?? Apparently that's not the case because there was waaay too many people for comfort arguing that it doesn't matter. "Who cares if they're using ai art?" ... "It doesn't look like ai art to me, stop this holy crusade." ... "This is just rage bait." ... "What about sampling used in music? It's the same thing." To that last one especially, NO IT IS NOT, THANK YOU LOL. Artists interacting with another artist's work and transforming it is not the same as a computer stealing images and spitting out a monstrosity. You might tune your inputs to get a certain outcome, but that computer is doing all the work, all the composing, it's placing everything in that image. Why don't people understand what art means?

Whether or not these suspicious cover arts are in fact ai is up for debate, I'm not arguing that. (Though after personally reaching out to one record label about it and having received the most vague answer possible where they didn't even address my questions fully, I'm even more convinced that they're probably using ai.) What I'm arguing here is that it shouldn't be acceptable, from an ethical and moral standpoint. I don't want souless ai generated pictures to become the norm in the subculture. I want artists to support each other. I want the goth community to support it's artists and musicians. The use of ai art cheapens art in the worst way and harms artists and I cannot vibe with anyone who thinks otherwise.

If you read all this, thanks for taking the time.

[nightshadehoney]

I never watched James Somerton's shitty Killing Stalking video because I was trying to be good to myself and avoid something that I knew would make me very angry. In fact, I never watched any of his stuff because the fact that he made a video like that was enough to discount any thing he ever had to say (also I heard about the Celluloid Closet plagiarism).

But man, is the James Somerton discourse bringing a lot of Killing Stalking-related feelings back up for me. Because I'm mad; I'm still so mad. There are a suprising amount of people on social media who are saying they never watched any of his stuff except for the Killing Stalking video. I'm annoyed not just to find out that the vid had that sort of reach and influence, but also because Somerton's unmasking hasn't seemed to make people reasses the validity of the kind of thing he was saying. People are just now being like "hmm I think this guy might have Issues With Women" but that doesn't warrant any reflection on what exactly the motivation is of people who complain about women enjoying a niche webcomic? Because I don't actually believe you're concerned about the influence of some obscure piece of media when you advertise its existence to your large audience many of whom had not heard of it and would never have heard of it but for your transparent outrage porn video. It's rage bait and the target was women that are perceived as straight. A big channel has publicized the fact that they excised a section that endorsed the opinions in this video from their own because they became aware of Somerton's plagiarism and dishonesty (presumably; if it was actually because they recognized his views were coming from a sexist place I would welcome a clarification). And you know, I don't think that's a good look actually. That you needed to be told he was a bad person and couldn't idependently put together that the misogynist man was saying misogynist things.

The comic ended years ago and the fandom has gone mostly quiet, but to this day people are still the peddling the"fujoshi/stupid teenage girls who don't know what's good for them are shipping these characters because they are too braindead to realize it's not a romance; it's a horror, two things I believe are mutually exclusive. I am smarter than all of these cringe degenerates" bullshit. It's in the comments of the hbomberguy video even; one comment was such a gross misrepresentation of the series that my friend needed to talk me down from getting into a pointless youtube comments argument (bless him) because these people are officially making me lose my marbles.

This narrative is full of shit, it's demonstrably not fucking true. You can go on the artist's twitter right now and its full of her retweeting shippy fanart of that pairing readers were apparently never intended to ship.

(I don't think Koogi knows or cares about James Somerton; she just reblogs the works of fans who tag her. This made me laugh though).

Now this is all speculation because he died decades before social media existed, but I think if Nabokov was alive today his twitter would not be full of Humbert Humbert x Dolores Haze fanart. And yet, I have unironically seen people compare shipping Sangwoo and Bum in Killing Stalking with the misreading of Lolita as a precocious sexual temptress more than once.

And this isn't me saying that Killing Stalking is the disgusting"pro-sexualized abuse" comic that tumblr purity police used to characterize it as either. One of these days I'm going to go truly bonkers and end up banging pots and pans on the street corner, yelling at random innocent passerbys about how stories about romantic and sexual relationships are not required to be Hallmark movies. You can make art about the negative, dark, and troubling parts of these feelings and relationships without creating a pat morality tale. You don't need to approach media analysis like your 7th grade teacher has assigned you an essay on explaining what a novel's "message" is.

Nobody, not the author and not the fans, genuinely thinks that Sangwoo and Bum have a healthy or aspirational relationship. This hypothetical person that does not understand the relationship is toxic doesn't exist. Because girls and women, even the ones having cringey fandom fun on tiktok or whatever, are not so stupid and naive that they are unware that breaking someone's legs and locking them in a muder basement is bad. The type of concern troll rhetoric Somerton employed in his video is directed near exclusively at women interested in men and there's a reason for this. Women are not responsible for abuse that men do to them; nobody is responsible for their partner abusing them. If I never saw people spit this bullshit again it would be too soon.

[kismetconstellations]

Recently saw some cool vld art but noticed shiro wasn’t in it and found this :(

I legitimately don’t even know what to even say anymore

With the Lance bit they were talking about him being the straightest character that is a creepy high school senior esc character, which sure there was a lot of that in the beginning

But the shiro being a cop thing??? Legitimately kills me inside :(

This is so utterly preposterous, I almost laughed out loud reading it.

I'm going to be really mean, here, and I apologize for that, but, screencapped OP,

How does it feel to be a raging homophobe? Better inform every single gay man who has ever joined the military that he's straight, now. And, also a cop and cop supporter, apparently.

I legitimately can't tell if this is meant to be bait, because this person is lacking attention in their life and desperately craves it to the point of trying to piss off total strangers on the internet, or if they're actually so proudly willfully ignorant and hateful that they can't accept a gay man who isn't a walking flamboyant stereotype.

Gay male body-builders, pilots, firemen, martial artists, mechanics, adrenaline junkies, and, yes, police officers, have now had their gay cards revoked, per our ever-so astute and open-minded screencapped original poster's brave edict.

How dare the Voltron: Legendary Defender showrunners decide to have a traditionally masculine disabled, neurodivergent trauma survivor who strives to be gentle, noble, and protective to the point of extreme selflessness, and epitomizes true, resolute and unwavering heroism, as their gay representation? It's like they were deliberately trying to upset thinly closeted bigots who reveal their true colors the instant they're met with a gay character that they don't find physically attractive and can't get off to fantasizing about, rather than make a landmark achievement in children's animation.

Seriously. Look me in the eyes and tell me to my face that this is a heterosexual man.

Putting his all into posing dramatically in skin tight pants is totally something your average heterosexual man in his twenties does, am I right?

All heterosexual animated men express anger like a typical teenage girl in any given anime.

Pouting is completely hetero.

Body language-- what's that?

It's very heterosexual of a man to assume a sulky pose that is closer to that of a teenage princess's than his male best friend's.

Straight men are also exasperated by heterosexual nonsense, don't you know.

As is usual with people who hate Shiro, the screencapped OP is demonstrating pure bigoted clown behavior.

And, just as a sidenote, Lance is the one who was excited by the prospect of being "like space cops".

@sockdooe, Please try not to let yourself be bothered by intentionally incendiary b.s.. It's a lot easier said than done, I know. But, if you can, remember, "This is the kids talking. It's not for me, it's for the kids."

Or, in this case, "It's for the clowns."

[neveragainfools]

Let’s talk about art since apparently I’m a dumbdumb idiot who knows nothing about it or the internet.

Am I salty? Yes. Let’s get into it. So, you might have seen the Keith Haring AI Unfinished Painting going around with my commentary of disdain, and then a bunch of people reblogging it with commentary on how it’s an obvious troll/bait post and how stupid I and those who chimed in in the same fashion are. Apparently the post made it to trending (though I never saw it there, because I mostly just pay attention to my dashboard.)

Of course it doesn’t feel good to get “got.” I think if someone hadn’t sincerely pulled a similar stunt with the Mona Lisa recently, I would’ve seen it as a troll post. I did actually take a moment to consider that it might be a troll before I reblogged with commentary. But that damn expanded Mona Lisa came to mind, and I thought, “no, there are people out there who absolutely think this is okay” and went on my little rant. Jingle my bells for I’m now the court jester. I took the bait.

Do I still stand by it? Yes, for the most part. One could argue that the troll is a form of art, and I played a part in the performance. Much like Fountain by Duchamp (a piece in which he literally signed a urinal and displayed it as fine art and it nearly burned down the art world), this piece inspires rage, and the rage is the most important part of the conversation. I’ll make no bones about my position on AI art. When the “art” is simply an image generated by an AI tool, that is not art to me. It is a commercial image. The use of an AI tool to “complete” or “expand” an image with the intention to create a vast reaction, and post it in such a manor can be argued as performance art, the same way Fountain is. Machine learning can also be used as a tool in the process to create a piece of art, but a generated image alone is not art.

So then why do I stand by it? A big problem with art types like this is that it’s callous, cold and doesn’t respect the work that it’s “building on” or “elevates.” Whether it’s Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans, Lichtenstein’s rehashing of comic panels, Duchamp’s Fountain or this AI piece, in all cases, it uses the originator without concern for the content of the art itself. Someone at the toilet company had to design that urinal. Someone at Campbell’s had to design the soup can label. Lichtenstein took panels from real living comic artists and re-rendered them with less skill and care. Those works are never co-credited with the people who did the initial designs. The twitter person who made this mess used a heartbreaking piece about a man’s grief and frustration about his own untimely death due to AIDs, and a lot of people weren’t familiar with it before this viral moment. Sure, it starts a conversation into the nature of art, as do all of these “subversive” pieces. But especially with Haring, who was concerned about computers and their eventual intelligence and would likely hate it, especially because we DO know the original artist, and those who are meant to be angered are familiar with the original piece (mainly lgbtq people), it feels especially rude and poor taste.

Other works wouldn’t cause such a visceral reaction. The personal nature of Unfinished Painting why “finishing it” is so controversial. No one says art has to be respectful. No one says art can’t steal, remix or transform works that came before it to create a new meaning. I’m still allowed to hate it. I’m still allowed to think it spits on Keith’s grave. The choice to do something so disrespectful is integral to the point of the piece, all in the name of showing how reactionary people are to AI generated images. It’s still a shitty thing to do. Perhaps something so visceral that causes such bad reaction is necessary for us to find the boundaries of where AI is or isn’t okay to be used in art. I hope for this twitter person’s sake it is.

There are so many things we could take from this debacle: reactionary nature of the internet, the question of consent and collaboration vs. remix in art, whether artists and their art should always be questioned, the list goes on. I’m happy to continue that conversation.

tldr: Sure, I got "got" by the Keith Haring Unfinished Painting AI "finishing". You could classify the act as art. It stimulated conversation into the relationship between AI images and art. But I think it's still a shitty thing to do.

[miniar]

regarding a recent record release full of half-assed rage-bait by a washed up has-been...

Once upon a time there was an artist in the music scene that gained substantial cultural relevance.

Debates about the quality and nature of his work did exist and opinions were "mixed", but at the end of the day, fame or notoriety, he garnered a lot of attention and with them a lot of wealth and stature.

And then... he faded away, at least for the most of us.

A long time ago he played on the radio and Mtv and all that, but the reaction to his new album were, at first, "oh, he's still around?" even before the conversation regarding the contents of the lyrics started.

And while I haven't given it a listen personally, the general consensus so far has seemed to be one of profound underwhelm.

The man played for shock value back in my youth, and so, even people belonging to the marginalized community he seemed to have decided to come for were expecting him to spit some fire only to walk away somehow disappointed that all he appeared to manage was to dribble down his own chin.

If you don't know who I'm talking about yet, that's fine, it's not really important, and while I want to draw attention to the attempt to target trans people, as a trans person, who the target is isn't really important either.

The point I'm circling around isn't about him, or us, specifically, but about what he's essentially doing and how he's not the only one who does it. Sure he's a very recent and notable example (though not for the reason I suppose he's hoping for) he himself doesn't really matter to the conversation...

... which is why the album exists.

Fame is fickle, but incredibly powerful. It elevates a person quickly and to staggering heights, and this elevation is what corrupts a person, whether they're elevated by pure wealth, by pure political power, or by the social leverage given by adoring fans, or any combination there of.

A person thus elevated will inevitably begin to feel as though their position isn't just earned, it's deserved, it's natural, it's fated, it's their destiny.

But fame... is fickle.

And the rising star sometimes falls.

And from that fall is born a human being desperate to avoid a return to obscurity.

The lyrics sounds as though he doesn't know what he's talking about because he doesn't, he doesn't have a stake in the game, he doesn't really have an opinion, all he has is a desperate cry for attention.

He shouts out for Gen Z to cancel him because in order to cancel him they must first notice him, see him, acknowledge that he exists, treat him as though he has some, any, however slight, cultural relevance to the youth that he's desperate to reclaim.

He shouts out to be cancelled for speaking out against trans people in a desperate plea for transphobic people to elevate him like they've elevated other champions of their hateful cause before. He's not making that call because he stands with them of course, that's apparent by how phoned in and bland his statements on the matter are, they're less spicy than mayo on plain white bread tbh. He's making that call because he's desperate to be noticed, to be seen, to be treated as though he's got some, any, however slight, cultural relevance at all.

He's a younger Gen X member who's desperate to feel young and hip and with it again, who's already faded part-way into obscurity despite his name being known by nearly every millennial on the planet.

He's a perfect case study of the phenomenon.

His recent addition to his body of work is thus nothing new, not for him, not for anyone, it's the same thing others have done before him and others will do after him. He's seen what gets a reaction on the internet and he's trying to go viral.

He's basically a white guy with a podcast.

He's an author with no original ideas left but a desperate need to remain relevant.

He's a politician with zero policies trying to cling to their seat in a society that expects them to do the work they were elected to.

He's a washed up celebrity trying to relive the glory days of having fans, any fans at all.

He's a sad human being faced with the reality that he's no more important than the next guy and unable to come to terms with the fact that he's not special, fated to be above the rest, destined for greatness.

And at the end of the day, his name doesn't matter. None of their names matter.

They aren't worth the attention they're begging for.

None of us are worth the sort of attention we'd be willing to sell each other out for. That shit's not worth any of us either. That shit's toxic.

All of them, all of us, can do better than that.

When we do better, we get better, and deserve better.

[acoolchickouthere13]

July 10, 2019- Amazon prime day concert

July 23, 2019- shares likes with Joe on Instagram, shoots the lover music video, releases the Archer single in the livestream, and gets VMA nominations, does an interview with CBS Sunday morning

First secret session in London Friday August 2nd, 2019

Karlie Kloss turns 27 August 3, 2019

I still believe this was taken during the Australia winter 2016 trip, when Taylor was “26”

August 4th, 2019

Second secret session in Nashville Sunday August 4th, 2019(Over 100 fans were in attendance, apparently, as the event was said to include guests from a Nashville session AND an alleged Rhode Island session. (There are rumors the original Rhode Island session was canceled because the date got leaked))

August 5th, 2019 Nashville

“When we talked seven years ago, everything was going so well for you, and you were very worried that something would go wrong.

Yeah, I kind of knew it would. I felt like I was walking along the sidewalk, knowing eventually the pavement was going to crumble and I was gonna fall through. You can’t keep winning and have people like it. People love “new” so much — they raise you up the flagpole, and you’re waving at the top of the flagpole for a while. And then they’re like, “Wait, this new flag is what we actually love.” They decide something you’re doing is incorrect, that you’re not standing for what you should stand for. You’re a bad example. Then if you keep making music and you survive, and you keep connecting with people, eventually they raise you a little bit up the flagpole again, and then they take you back down, and back up again. And it happens to women more than it happens to men in music.

But you also had good things happen in your life at the same time — that’s part of Reputation.

The moments of my true story on that album are songs like “Delicate,” “New Year’s Day,” “Call It What You Want,” “Dress.” The one-two punch, bait-and-switch of Reputation is that it was actually a love story. It was a love story in amongst chaos. All the weaponized sort of metallic battle anthems were what was going on outside. That was the battle raging on that I could see from the windows, and then there was what was happening inside my world — my newly quiet, cozy world that was happening on my own terms for the first time. . . . It’s weird, because in some of the worst times of my career, and reputation, dare I say, I had some of the most beautiful times — in my quiet life that I chose to have. And I had some of the most incredible memories with the friends I now knew cared about me, even if everyone hated me. The bad stuff was really significant and damaging. But the good stuff will endure. The good lessons — you realize that you can’t just show your life to people….words are my only way of making sense of the world and expressing myself — and now any words I say or write are being twisted against me. People love a hate frenzy. It’s like piranhas. People had so much fun hating me, and they didn’t really need very many reasons to do it. I felt like the situation was pretty hopeless. I wrote a lot of really aggressively bitter poems constantly. I wrote a lot of think pieces that I knew I’d never publish, about what it’s like to feel like you’re in a shame spiral. And I couldn’t figure out how to learn from it. Because I wasn’t sure exactly what I did that was so wrong. That was really hard for me, because I cannot stand it when people can’t take criticism. So I try to self-examine, and even though that’s really hard and hurts a lot sometimes, I really try to understand where people are coming from when they don’t like me. And I completely get why people wouldn’t like me. Because, you know, I’ve had my insecurities say those things — and things 1,000 times worse….But I can’t really respond to someone saying, “You, as a human being, are fake.” And if they say you’re playing the victim, that completely undermines your ability to ever verbalize how you feel unless it’s positive. So, OK, should I just smile all the time and never say anything hurts me? Because that’s really fake. Or should I be real about how I’m feeling and have valid, legitimate responses to things that happened to me in my life? But wait, would that be playing the victim? ...I needed to grow up in many ways. I needed to make boundaries, to figure out what was mine and what was the public’s. That old version of me that shares unfailingly and unblinkingly with a world that is probably not fit to be shared with? I think that’s gone. But it was definitely just, like, a fun moment in the studio with me and Jack [Antonoff] where I wanted to play on the idea of a phone call — because that’s how all of this started, a stupid phone call I shouldn’t have picked up….I don’t think I’ve ever leaned into the old version of myself more creatively than I have on this album, where it’s very, very autobiographical. But also moments of extreme catchiness and moments of extreme personal confession….

But is the idea that as your own life becomes less dramatic, you’ll need to pull ideas from other places?

I don’t feel like that yet. I think I might feel like that possibly when I have a family. If I have a family. [Pauses] I don’t know why I said that! But that’s what I’ve heard from other artists, that they were very protective of their personal life, so they had to draw inspiration from other things. But again, I don’t know why I said that. Because I don’t know how my life is going to go or what I’m going to do. But right now, I feel like it’s easier for me to write than it ever was.

...I’m not scared anymore to say that other things in my career, like how to market an album, are strictly strategic. And I’m sick of women not being able to say that they have strategic business minds — because male artists are allowed to. And so I’m sick and tired of having to pretend like I don’t mastermind my own business. But, it’s a different part of my brain than I use to write. [THIS IS AFTER SHE SAID DBATC WAS INSPIRED BY “SOMEONE GREAT” ON ELLEN]

You’ve been masterminding your business since you were a teenager.

Yeah, but I’ve also tried very hard — and this is one thing I regret — to convince people that I wasn’t the one holding the puppet strings of my marketing existence, or the fact that I sit in a conference room several times a week and come up with these ideas. I felt for a very long time that people don’t want to think of a woman in music who isn’t just a happy, talented accident. We’re all forced to kind of be like, “Aw, shucks, this happened again! We’re still doing well! Aw, that’s so great.” Alex Morgan celebrating scoring a goal at the World Cup and getting shit for it is a perfect example of why we’re not allowed to flaunt or celebrate, or reveal that, like, “Oh, yeah, it was me. I came up with this stuff.” I think it’s really unfair. People love new female artists so much because they’re able to explain that woman’s success. There’s an easy trajectory. Look at the Game of Thrones finale. I specifically really related to Daenerys’ storyline because for me it portrayed that it is a lot easier for a woman to attain power than to maintain it….for me, the times when I felt like I was going insane was when I was trying to maintain my career in the same way that I ascended. It’s easier to get power than to keep it. It’s easier to get acclaim than to keep it. It’s easier to get attention than to keep it….maybe this is a reflection on how we treat women in power, how we are totally going to conspire against them and tear at them until they feel this — this insane shift, where you wonder, like, “What changed?” And I’ve had that happen, like, 60 times in my career where I’m like, “OK, you liked me last year, what changed? I guess I’ll change so I can keep entertaining you guys….the question posed to me is, if you kept trying to do good things, but everyone saw those things in a cynical way and assumed them to be done with bad motivation and bad intent, would you still do good things, even though nothing that you did was looked at as good? And the answer is, yes. Criticism that’s constructive is helpful to my character growth. Baseless criticism is stuff I’ve got to toss out now….I’ve never been to therapy. I talk to my mom a lot, because my mom is the one who’s seen everything. God, it takes so long to download somebody on the last 29 years of my life, and my mom has seen it all. She knows exactly where I’m coming from. And we talk endlessly. There were times when I used to have really, really, really bad days where we would just be on the phone for hours and hours and hours. I’d write something that I wanted to say, and instead of posting it, I’d just read it to her.

the lyric in “Daylight,” the idea of “so many lines that I’ve crossed unforgiven” — it’s a different kind of confession.

I am really glad you liked that line, because that’s something that does bother me, looking back at life and realizing that no matter what, you screw things up. Sometimes there are people that were in your life and they’re not anymore — and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t fix it, you can’t change it. I told the fans last night that sometimes on my bad days, I feel like my life is a pile of crap accumulated of only the bad headlines or the bad things that have happened, or the mistakes I’ve made or clichés or rumors or things that people think about me or have thought for the last 15 years. And that was part of the “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, where I had a pile of literal old selves fighting each other. But, yeah, that line is indicative of my anxiety about how in life you can’t get everything right. A lot of times you make the wrong call, make the wrong decision. Say the wrong thing. Hurt people, even if you didn’t mean to. You don’t really know how to fix all of that. When it’s, like, 29 years’ worth. No one gets through it unscathed. No one gets through in one piece. I think that’s a hard thing for a lot of people to grasp. I know it was hard for me, because I kind of grew up thinking, “If I’m nice, and if I try to do the right thing, you know, maybe I can just, like, ace this whole thing.” And it turns out I can’t.

It’s interesting to look at “I Did Something Bad” in this context.

You pointing that out is really interesting because it’s something I’ve had to reconcile within myself in the last couple of years — that sort of “good” complex. Because from the time I was a kid I’d try to be kind, be a good person. Try really hard. But you get walked all over sometimes. And how do you respond to being walked all over? You can’t just sit there and eat your salad and let it happen. “I Did Something Bad” was about doing something that was so against what I would usually do. ...a couple of years ago I started working on actually just responding to my emotions in a quicker fashion. And it’s really helped with stuff. It’s helped so much because sometimes you get in arguments. But conflict in the moment is so much better than combat after the fact.”(x)

Third secret session in LA Tuesday August 6th, 2019

Also does a livestream announcement

August 10 LA Party with YNTCD and ME! Costars #drunktaylor -purple nails

[prixmiumarchive]

Don’t Hug Me I’m Confused

Disclaimer: The following post contains some personal critique of certain fandom patterns and habits that I personally find strange, don’t relate to, or don’t enjoy. However, this post really isn’t that deep in those areas, and so while I’m not talking about kink at all, just kind of consider this a sort of KINKTOMATO disclaimer. What you enjoy and how you enjoy it is not my business, and your art and cosplays are things that a) seem to be of high quality and b) I could not actually accomplish so kudos to you for doing it even if it’s not my thing in its expression. You do you, and I’ll do me, and I’m not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. This is just a personal blog post / semi-review that I’m tagging in case anyone else who has watched dhmis wants to read it. This post may likely come across as pretty “anti-shipping,” but rest assured that I probably ship some weird stuff in other fandoms so I’m not judging you, or whatever.

Nursing a headache better and responding to a text, I was reminded of the existence of a weird web series on YouTube that, apparently, was released over the course of several years. The first installment of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared was shown to me by a former friend sometime after its release many years ago now. Naturally, I was pretty unsettled by it at the time in a sort of nervous-laughter, later-haunted-nightmares sort of way. However, at the time and with its sole initial video being around, the way I processed the video and its purpose was quite different from the way I process it now. I had seen that there were a couple more videos over the years, but I had never actually managed to watch the little series to its sixth installment because at some point I got disturbed ever time and quit. However, in a state of resolve and slightly greater desensitization, I finally finished it up. And I’m strangely satisfied and intrigued, particularly after watching a couple of commentary videos about it.

Rather than rehashing someone else’s explanation, I’ll simply refer to The Film Theorists two videos on the subject. I think that this YouTube channel sometimes gets a lot of raised eyebrows and bad press for reaching really hard to get shock-value, click-bait-y ~dark theories~ out of benign or extremely popular media. I haven’t really consumed their other material, so I can’t speak to that, but I can say that the two videos on DHMIS are not reaching for even more darkness and edge. Rather, they seem to be well-researched, well-reasoned explanations for what is otherwise a strangely difficult work of art to process. I say “work of art” not terribly lightly nor terribly dogmatically because I really don’t know what else to make of something that intrigues, bothers, pleases, disturbs, and fascinates me that is intended to communicate something even if that something is the particular sense of unease I am describing.

As is my custom when I don’t really know what to do with feelings about a particular work of fiction, I opened a tab to AO3 to see if fanfiction exists for that “fandom” to see if a quantifiable fandom is actually there. To my surprise, DHMIS actually had over 100 fics. So, I scrolled through the first couple of pages to see what they tended to be about or whatever. I had no particular craving or desire to read fic about this at the moment; I just wanted to know what the environment was like. And what I found was really, really deeply not what I expected.

A major part of the fandom seems to be something called “p/adlock” shipping which I’m censoring so that I’m not picking on someone’s OTP. Again, disclaimer, not judging, simply commenting. It seems to be shipping the Sketch Pad from the first installment with the Clock from the second. I really don’t know where people came up with this or why it seems to be so passionate, but I am not here to judge. It just seems like it is strangely misaimed and sort of misses the central themes of whatever the hell is going on in DHMIS. Even if I’m not sure what is going on, I’m pretty sure that it is not a romantic love story, subtextually or otherwise. Of course, there’s shipping in everything. Before you get mad at me, let me also say that it reminds me of another fandom I’m involved in in which I am one of the weird maybe-missing-the-point shippers, so I’ll get back to that.

Perhaps one of the reasons that this is such an interesting experience for me is that I feel like I’m experiencing my discovery of this fandom much the way those who discover the Portal fandom and poke around not knowing what to expect must do. I came looking for commentary or elaboration on the universe that seems to have been established in these little shorts. Instead, I find shipping that I cannot really find the thread for at all. Now, of course, I would argue that I do find subtext and reasoning and so on in Portal fandom and “chelley” (Chell/Wheatley) shipping. I also find reasons to believe that Wheatley being in a humanoid or android form makes sense in some cases. I don’t see why there are humanoid forms of already anthropomorphic set pieces and characters in DHMIS. See the above videos for a theory I’ve pretty much bought into, I think, that these characters represent props or animations or such anyway while only Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck are real characters/people/performers. (I realize they have names, maybe.)

Anyway, digressing a bit from the strange experience of seeing how a subset of fandom that is really transforming the original work (again - kudos even if not my thing, I think) being the majority when you don’t really get it from the other side of it, I also want to comment on how worth-it I found finally finishing DHMIS. It went from what felt like a strange, occasionally darkly humorous, occasionally dark-dark-dark exercise in internet meme-y nihilism to something that became so much more. Initially, watching the first couple of episodes, it felt like something that existed that sort of titillate and affirm that particular vein of teenage, edgy, oppositional defiance-y, XD-random, I wear black as it is the color of my soul, I have fantasy colored hair despite it not being goth because I like color secretly and because it bothers some conservative people, I’m angry at societal structures that have failed me and am determined to throw all the babies out with all the bathwater because I’m so angry frustration. Now, I still relate to a handful of those things. If my life allowed for it I would be a pink-hair-but-wearing-all-black kind of person some of the time. However, I find that the depth of that particular soft-laughter rage that comes with being a teenager with the experiences to develop it sort of off-putting as someone who has both been-there and has become a teacher in my adult life. I see myself in it, but I also see things that I hate both on their own merits and that I hate in the form of hating it for a person who has to go through it or go through the steps to have gotten there. In the end, though, I found that DHMIS was less late night Cartoon Network programming is the pinnacle of artistic expression and more some kind of play on nostalgia, capitalism, anxiety, power structures, creativity and its opponents, institutionalized violence, and even, maybe, the meat-packing and commercial food industries. In a way, watching it all the way through sort of felt like going through a fast-motion montage of going from being a sort of disturbed teenager to being an adult on the other side of it with a whole other set of frustrations and anxieties that can still be found in the same sort of imagery. It felt like growing up in a weird way.

Still in episodes I had seen before, I remarked to mentioned texting friend that Red Guy was my favorite when she indicated that she was watching a bit of it. I wasn’t even sure why, but in particular his reactions to the clock in the second episode really sold me. All of the characters had strange reactions to a lot of things, but his deadpan, monotone confusion, and the way in which he complies to this-might-as-well-happen sorts of circumstances until he cracks in the end and has some kind of epiphany really resonated with me. Then, I realized, it was because he was, in fact, that avatar of the adult in this situation, and that is its own kind of mind-blow because initially one does not really conceive of these characters as anything but ageless muppets. Which is its own layer of unsettling. In any case, I am really impressed with this little series. Whether or not the “film theory” is right, I feel more satisfied in the end. However, I would really recommend those videos because it totally flipped my perspective on the ending of DHMIS from “there’s no hope and not escape from this hell” or, possibly, “you might escape hell but you’re dooming someone else to replace you,” to something entirely and much more hopeful bout the drudgery of a creatively inclined adult trying to slog through the obstacles and soul-drains that our present societal pressures place on us. I really hope I figure it out in the end like Red Guy.

One final, mostly off-topic note: upon a glance, I think that maybe that film theories youtube channel is, perhaps, more genuine in its efforts to dissect internet memes than in the clickbait it produces for blockbuster movies. But then again, in a a world dictated by ad revenue, whatcha gonna do?

Given that our focuses on what we like about the series seem to be wildly different, I doubt that I’ll be hard-joining the DHMIS fandom for the most part. I enjoyed some of the content in the tag, and if you’re reading from outside it, you might check it out.

If you like or hard-relate to Red Guy and enjoy scifi (Doctor Who, The Expanse), other web series (Carmilla), or other common fandom stuff (superhero shows, DC/Marvel, select anime), you might consider messaging or following me. I’d love to talk about Red Guy with someone who kinda gets it, but again I’m not really interested in shipping in this fandom.

If you read this far, thanks and have a lovely day!

[stargleeksil-blog]

Criminal Minds s02e09 The Last Word review - or more aptly named, how dare they replace Elle like that, oh shit I fell in love with Paget Brewster from the two scenes in this episode, never mind, continue, my lovelies XD

Episode 09 – The Last Word

So last episode played on every bit of emotion I had – happy, sad, fucking crying like a baby because Derek put himself in harm’s way just to comfort a victim who could be blown to smithereens like Cooke and he was completely dependent on fucking Cassie to do her job and not fuck it up. I was in emotional shambles! I swear!

So I hope this episode would be better in that it gives me some humor fodder, but I doubt it, cuz the title is very cryptic and not helpful. And the opening shot is kids running in a park and we all know by now that if you watch Criminal Minds, something fucked up is going to happen to whoever is the first shot. Fuck.

Aww! The guy ran with a Dalmatian!

Wait. They’re playing catch with their daughter like a dog? Oh my god, they’re so cute!

Oh fuck. That girl just ran into the woods on her own. Uh oh.

Hey! That guy played that fake head of S.H.I.E.L.D!

Wait, so you’re just following this guy who popped out of nowhere into the forest? Oh my god.

Oh my god, I knew this guy was gonna be awful. Shit!

Why is he seeing his mom in her bra? Come on.

And she’s blaming him for not waking her up on time?

I’m with this kid, get a fucking alarm clock. And I’m not even mad at him for being sassy.

He gave his baby brother pizza and milk? Oh my god. That mom is awful.

Aw, she’s the worst mom ever. Not bringing him pancakes when she promised.

Oh god, she’s a hooker? Oh baby.

Oh shit! He just shot that hooker! Damn!

Okay, that’s a new face. Emily Prentiss. Cute name. She’s a daughter of an ambassador. Nice. And she went to Yale? Wow! Smarty!

Oh my god, there is something we’re not getting, Hotch.

What? She’s supposed to work with the team? What? But. They haven’t gotten over Elle yet! What are you doing???? No!!!!

Wow. He just blew her off. Wow.

Wait. Someone went over Gideon and Hotch’s heads to enlist Prentiss? Uh oh.

Yup. That was is St. Louis, someone is killing hookers and moms. Yikes.

Wait. Emily is officially on the team? Okay. Welcome, Paget Brewster. I’ve seen a lot of her on the web, so she should be ok, right?

Elbert Hubbard: “If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate.” What? That made no sense. I guess I’m tired… so in order to wake up a bit, eating schnitzel with noodles.

Aww, groggy, pensive Reid is the cutest.

I’m jealous of that cup in Derek’s hand.

One of the killers wrote a letter? Oh lord, that is sick.

Oh my god, Derek talking to children is the cutest thing ever. I swear. She’s so adorable! I can’t believe Shemar is still unmarried, but it makes me beyond happy.

Oh god. She’s dead? Fuck.

Wait, the killer is still visiting her? Oh my god.

Oh god, I am totally grossed out right now. He’s actually putting lipstick on her lips, brushing her hair, and making out with a corpse. I’m sorry, but I really am trying not to judge here, but that is so disgusting to me. I know she probably is alive, but the whole acting thing is way believable.

Wow, that old lady creeps me out.

Oh, she’s the hooker’s mom. Hey! That’s no way to treat your grandkids. Oh my god, the baby is crying, do something about him.

Wow. That lady is seriously jaded.

Great. Humanizing the victims. It’s a great season, emotionally speaking.

Wait, they only have one file about the guy who killed the hooker? But three boxes on the freak who kills women, buries them up till their necks and makes out with them? Oh boy.

I like that reporter. He’s hot.

They found the mom. Thank goodness. But seriously, oh my god.

Oh shit! That taxi driver, who is apparently the Hollow Man just killed two hookers at once! Dang! He’s a quick-shooter. Fuck.

And he put the paper that glorified the Mill Creek River, ha. He was pissed.

It’s not a guessing game, dude, JJ is as much a profiler as the other guys, come on! Trust her, jackhole.

Graphology. Interesting. It’s awesome.

So he’s oppressed in his job and feels it’s draining him and he’s underappreciated and underpaid? Shit, I could be a serial killer with that profile, Reid, I’m not really feeling it.

An attention whore. Got it. That’s the Hollow Man.

The Mill Creek River is disturbed on the inside. Got it.

Another death. Fuck. The Creek Killer. Shit.

That’s him! That’s the killer! Please let them find something on him so they don’t find more bodies. But he’s too smart for that. But seriously? Hiking with no water or food supplies? That’s seriously suspicious.

So he’s familiar with the woods? Oh god.

“Now that is an awesome place to dump a person.” “Come on, Garcia.” “What? I’m just saying, angel fish … Evil knew what he was doing.” God, I love those two.

“What? Forget … No, no. I don’t want to know that. Bye-bye.” Oh sweetie, you’re so adorable, but I agree, I wish I hadn’t known what that meant either. But I do. Gross. I actually giggled over that sentence like a little girl.

They call a sniffing dog Brownie? Aww, those tough FBI agents are softies.

Well yeah. If it’s imperative that he comes to see her, he’s gonna come see her, and if they set up a trap they can catch him.

Wait. That’s the reporter guy! What the fuck?

The Hollow Man told him? What the fuck?

A news chopper? Oh no.

Oh god. He’s gonna get her on the street? Oh god.

Hey! Leave her alone, you dick! God, you are amazing, lady! So brave! And he’s such a coward.

Fuck.

I’m pretty sure the Hollow Man is an inside man. I’m suspicious he’s inside the PD.

LOVE YOU REID!

They’re talking in the personals in codes? Oh my god. The two serial killers corresponded using Catcher in the Rye names! Fuck! And dude, no offense, but every white guy/girl knows that story. Wait what, it’s a loved book of sociopaths. And Mark David Chapman quoted it after offing John Lennon? Oh lord. Wait. They know who killed him? I thought it was a random shooting. Oh lord. I have so much to learn.

“Hey, sweetness. Make me smile and tell me you got a name.” “Oh, I got scads of them, babe, but none paid for these personal ads. They went with cash, totally old school. I hate it when they’re smart. Two separate accounts in good standing.” Apart from the psychos who are outsmarting them, I love the interchange. Someone kiss someone already!

Fuck. Why pressure Reid? Damn.

Oh god, they’re using a doppelganger to bait him. Oh my god. She’s so brave. I love her. Ew.

So the Mill Creek Killer bought it. You go, Reid. Oh my god, he’s sick as fuck. Damn.

YES! They got the fucker. You go, Derek! I love watching him cuff those assholes. Thank you, Criminal Minds writers for doing it.

Oh wait, they want to give a show now? That’s impressive. They want to show the Hollow Man they caught him. And he didn’t. Ha.

I hate that guy so much. I mean, again, the character. I liked him as Mace in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

So he’s denying it? After they found him about to apply lipstick to the poor woman’s lips?

Oh he’s good. Gideon is trying to goad him into confessing by admitting they thought they’d never catch him and by implying automatically that they know it’s him.

And he’s just trying to seem nonchalant but he’s describing himself (the serial killer) as an artist, come on.

Oh snap! He just gave himself away! He just totally implicated that he belittles the Hollow Man’s work, he think there’s no imagination there in simply shooting the hookers. He thinks he’s the artist here. Oh god.

Seriously? He’s just giving it all away. Except for confessing. Damn.

Hey! Don’t tell Gideon to shut his mouth! He’s goading you into confessing!

Ha! He just confessed. He killed them. He doesn’t want them to know about his fetish? Oh come on. Give me a break.

So they’re just separating them and completely dismissing him as a dumbass? I love them. They’re just goading him into submitting himself. I love it.

I love this show.

Shit. That’s the killer. Damn.

What?! Oh god.

He just totally knocked that security guard to the floor. Damn.

Shit! He just walked into the police station like nobody’s business with a gun pointing at the security guard. Come on, man!

Yes! They got him! You go, Morgan! I love you so much!

Bah. That was awful.

Aww, Meyers sent them an article remembering the victims. So great.

They don’t need to mention the shooter. The victims are important. The assholes are now behind bars.

Mahatma Gandhi: “Remember that all through history there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.” Great, that’s very wise, Gandhi. But what about the period while they are raging terror? Huh?

Hey! What is Prentiss doing waiting in Hotch’s office? Come on.

I already love her tenacity.

Okay, I just fell in love with Emily Prentiss. I love her.

 Oaky, so let’s recap. Sickos killing people, really hate that part. Introducing Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss, of course, fell in love with her immediately, even though it’s super hard for me to get over Elle leaving. Gideon was awesome as per usual. Lovely Derek and Penelope scenes. Though they were few. And overall? Just yuck over the entire case. It was weird, but won’t go unappreciated. See you all tomorrow <3

[acespnminibang]

2016-17 Masterpost

Wow, my bad. Forgot to post a masterpost of all the stories for this year!

Below the cut is the full masterpost for the 2016-17 round of the Asexual Supernatural Mini Bang. Work includes Destiel, Sabriel, Wincest, Lucifer/Michael, ace!Cas, ace!Dean, ace!Sam, demi!Sam, demi!Dean, polyamorous relationships, canon-fic, AUs, and more!

You can also check out our ASMB collection on AO3.

An Ace Up Your Sleeve

Author:  ayyysexual (cynder713 on AO3) Artist: kuwlshadow Rating: M Pairing(s): pre-slash Dean/Cas Warning(s): (apparent) mind control, canon-typical violence Word Count: 7270 Summary: Cas, determined to prove that he can take the lead on a hunt, brings a case to the boys. It’s a siren, of course it’s a siren, and despite Dean’s protests they take it, with Cas offering to play the bait. Author Notes: Thanks to weasleychick32 for betaing for me, and for catching all my weird Aussie slang that I didn’t even realise was slang. This fic is infinitely better because of you! All remaining mistakes are mine, naturally.

And a huge thankyou to kuwlshadow for the amazing art! You picked such a good moment to bring to life and I’m just so honoured to have such lovely art be drawn for my little fic! Artist Notes:  Thanks to Ayyysexual for the writing the awesome story and glad I was able to provide the artwork for it. :)  It was a pleasure to do so. Links to fic and art: Fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10899768 Art:  http://kuwlshadow.tumblr.com/post/160637136603/title-an-ace-up-your-sleeve-author   http://kuwlshadow.livejournal.com/82147.html

Come and see

Author: mariaghost Artist: lux-tuli Rating: T Pairing(s): Lucifer/Michael Warning(s): disturbing imagery, smoking Word Count: 6977 Summary: Mikhail is happy to simply live his life, teach ancient languages at the University for ridiculous salary, play with his cat and have small talks with his flatmate. Demons, hellhounds and four horsemen of Apocalypse are only part of the scenery. Link to fic: [x] Link to art: [x]

Of Fake Boyfriends and Bad Pick-Up Lines

Author: weasleychick32 Artist: deadpoolspdickwarmer Rating: Teen and Up Pairing(s): Gabriel/Sam Winchester; Castiel/Dean Winchester; past Sam/Jess Warning(s): Gross desecration of perfectly good Chinese food (mentioned); Word Count: 34k Summary: Sam is sick and tired of Dean and Cas being nauseatingly lovey-dovey and having sex literally everywhere. In the name of revenge, he comes up with a plot to 1) Fake date the only person who can consistently and without fail get under Dean’s skin and 2) Obnoxiously flaunt the relationship in his face every chance he gets. He pitches the plan to Gabriel (who else could be up for the task?) and between one blink and the next everything has spiraled out of control; One dinner date turns into dozens and, what the hell? They aren’t even double dates anymore, they’re just… dates.

How did this happen? More importantly, why hasn’t Sam put a stop to it? As the weeks pass, his list of Reasons Sam+Gabe Could Never Ever Not-In-This-Lifetime Ever Work grows larger and so does his unwillingness to put a stop to their prank.

It is still a prank… Right?

Author Notes: While this is technically the sequel to Of Notecards and Bad Pick-Up Lines (a strictly destiel get-together fic) it can easily be read as a stand-alone.

Link to fic Link to art

From Two Different Worlds

Author: lux-tuli Artist: emmatheslayer Rating: Mature Pairing(s): Lucifer/Michael Warning(s): non-penetrative sexual content Word Count: 5,084 Summary: [AU] The Darkness is unleashed from its prison and a truce is proposed between Heaven and Hell in order to defeat Amara. The only problem is that the truce entails that Lucifer must wed his older brother Michael to solidify the alliance, which would be fine and dandy if he wasn’t asexual. Link to fic: [x] Link to art: [x]

Craigslist For The Holidays

Author: Lasafara Artist: Thette (bold-sartorial-statement) Rating: PG-13 Pairing(s): Castiel/Dean Winchester (main), lots of side pairings Warning(s): acephobia, homophobia, mentions of past child abuse, horrible family, religious intolerance, ableism, neurotypicalism, asexual!Cas, bisexual!Dean, happy ending Word Count: 10216 Summary: Castiel Novak has been attempting to avoid his family for years, but the holidays are coming, and he’s expecting to make an appearance at his family’s Thanksgiving dinner. When he finds a Craigslist ad that suggests that the poster will come to his family’s dinner and be an awful houseguest under the guise of being his boyfriend, Castiel thinks that perhaps he will have a way to avoid further family gatherings Dean Winchester seems like an answer to his hopes. But that’s before everything goes horribly horribly wrong. Or maybe… Maybe they go just perfectly. Author Notes: This is, ultimately, the story of a man confronting his manipulative, abusive family. Be warned. It was super cathartic to write, but it may be difficult for others to read. Also, thanks so much to my beta, @stupidbadgers and my artist @bold-sartorial-statement ! Link to Fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10938474/chapters/24337317 Link to Art: http://imgur.com/KBhTSQZ and http://imgur.com/AbjsCd7

Our Hearts’ Desires

Author: acme146 Artist: cenedrariva Rating: T Pairing(s): Dean Winchester/Castiel (queerplatonic), Sam Winchester/Eileen Leahy, Jody Mills/Donna Hanscum (background), past Bobby Singer/Karen Singer, past Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore Warning(s): None Applicable  Word Count: 5,136 Summary: Dean Winchester will never fall in love. Castiel will never feel desire. Profound bonds, after all, tie people together in many different ways, and no one needs to be lonely.  Author Notes: This is a wonderful Bang to be a part of, I’m glad I had an opportunity to take part. Thanks to cenedrariva for being both my artist and my beta.  Links to fic and art:

fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10946733/chapters/24360450

art: http://cenedrariva.tumblr.com/post/160846389621/our-hearts-desires-by-acme146-dean-winchester

As Good as it Gets

Author: JhanaMay Artist: Kris Rating: Mature Pairing(s): Castiel/Dean Winchester Warning(s): None Word Count: 19,827 Summary: It’s been three months since Dean’s strange relationship with his next door neighbor changed yet again. It isn’t what most people would consider normal, but nothing about them really is. While Dean is happier than he’s ever been, he’s ready to take the next step beyond chaste make-out sessions and platonic cuddling. Courting Castiel hasn’t exactly been easy, so Dean shouldn’t be surprised when their physical relationship hits a few speed bumps.

Link to Fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10954626

Link to Art: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10952856

The fallen and the burdened

Author: redheadandslytherin Artist: lux-tuli Rating: Teen an Up Pairing(s): Sam Winchester/Gabriel Warning(s): major character death, violence Word Count: 5171 Summary: After the Burning of the Dolls, the city of New Albion became a police state. The strict regulations are enforced by the Blood Red Dogs, a military group that does not fear pain and does not have any qualms about handing it out. In this harsh time, Sam hides away in the old family home, hiding a Doll, Gabriel, in the attic. As they try to get by without the Dogs finding out about Gabriel, Sam wonders if there is a future for them in New Albion. Author Notes: AU of Paul Shapera’s Dolls of New Albion Artist Notes: art coming soon Links to fic and art: FIC ART

Brutal Honesty

Author: nomercles Artist: emmatheslayer Rating: R Pairing: none (past Sam/Dean) Warning(s): brief discussion of noncon, dissociation, unreliable narrator Word Count: 7365 Summary: Set during 1.10, “Asylum”.  Dr. Ellicott’s “rage therapy” has a few side-effects.  The Winchesters are men of action, but they know words will do just as much damage.  This time they’re going to say all the things they’re thinking, whether they want to or not.

Links to fic and art: emmatheslayer’s art  nomercles’ fic

The Big Picture

Author: Dean-broken-winchester Artist: NarretTwist Rating: General (all audiences) Pairing(s): Dean Winchester/ Castiel Novak, mentioned Megstiel Warning(s): Noncon kiss (mentioned) Word Count: 10,099 Summary: Castiel Novak is a freshman photography student attending one of the  trendiest arts colleges of the year, seeking out new experiences he’s only ever heard about through others. When he meets his new roommate, a body painter infamous for breaking the hearts of numerous partners, he quickly finds that their relationship is to be anything but what he expected. Links to fic and art:

Fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10983489/chapters/24459696

Art: https://narrettwist-art.tumblr.com/post/160995311638/the-bigger-picture-story-by

A Measure of Honor

Author: orange_8_hands // oranges8hands Artist: Cenedra Riva Rating: PG-13 Pairing(s): Gen (Emma & Kevin; minor: Josephine/Krissy, Kevin/Channing) Warning(s): ritual suicide, suicidal thoughts, past patricide (aka dead!Dean) Word Count: ~16k Summary: Emma’s spent the last seven years on a random outpost at the edge of the Federation, doing work no one else can for Starfleet as she serves out her punishment. When a routine supply drop-off by The Hunter turns into anything but, Emma must decide just how she wants to restore her honor in the face of overwhelming odds.  [Star Trek AU]

Links: Link to Fic at Ao3; Link to Art on Tumblr

The Search for Paradise

Author: HiddenViolet Artist: Kuwlshadow Rating: general audiences Pairing(s): Castiel/Dean Winchestor Warning(s): None Word Count: 5081 Summary: Castiel and Dean are progressing in their relationship, but trouble in the form of Sam and Crowley looms on the horizon. Everything is going to be fine though. Because of Bobby. Like usual.

This is a continuation of last years story. It has Dean and Castiel exploring their new relationship and life. Dean is ace specifically and it is implied that Castiel is as well, though never outright mentioned.

Links to fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11000073

and art: Tumblr: http://kuwlshadow.tumblr.com/post/161047223428/title-the-search-for-paradise-author LJ:  http://kuwlshadow.livejournal.com/82971.html

Once a bee learn to fly (is unstoppable)

Author: ifonenight (AO3)/buckybee (tumblr) Artist: Thette (AO3)/bold-sartorial-statement (tumblr) Rating: Mature Pairing(s): Dean Winchester/Castiel Warning(s): // Word Count: 5193 Summary: Cas, ace as they come, hand makes sex toys as a job-slash-hobby, and wears things that make him feel pretty in his spare time. He’s doing well all by himself, but when a client, impalabatmobile-67, asks for a special tutorial, Cas will find himself intrigued. Author Notes: I wanted to write a story where Cas didn’t care for sex at all, but still enjoyed some things that society associate with sex. And how he lived it. Hope I managed to. Artist Notes: // Links to fic and art: FIC/ART

Broken World

Author: OhWilloTheWisp Artist: Kuwlshadow Rating: pg-13 Pairing(s): Ruby/Castiel, past Sam/Ruby Warning(s): Ace!Castiel, pregnant!Ruby, brief discussions of sexual feelings and boundaries. Word Count: ~5k Summary: the apocalypse comes and goes leaving Michael and Lucifer trapped in the cage, along with their vessels Sam and Dean. The world is broken and the survivors are left to pick up the pieces. Ruby is pregnant with Sams child and together she and Castiel set off to see what’s left of the world and find there are somethings left saving after all.

Author Notes: I had the great pleasure to work with kuwlshadow again this year as my artist! Like last year she really outdid herself with her art and made the whole process well worth it! I’m in love with the art she provided for my story and I’m honored to be able so post her picture with my story. :)

I had a lot of fun writing this story. I’ve wanted to write something with Cas and Ruby together for sometime and this challenge finally gave me to motivation to follow through. I’m still not entirely happy with it how it came together. I feel like there’s still more I could write in verse. I’ll probably keep coming back to add to this and i already have a sequel planned :)

Artist Notes: I worked with Polleekin previously and was great to work with her again. :) I enjoyed this story just as much as last years story she wrote for this same challenge. Links to fic and art: Lj>|AO3 (coming soon) Art

Extended Family

Author: feartheophanim (TheAuthorGod) Artist: dragonpressgraphics Rating: Teen Audiences (for language) Pairing(s): Castiel/Dean Winchester, Anna Milton/Charlie Bradbury Warning(s): Dean thinks he must be broken for a bit, but he isn’t. Word Count: ~20k Summary: Dean has been uprooted and replanted in so many places, in so many communities, that he wonders what it feels like to truly belong somewhere. When he moves into his family’s newest place, he figures it’s just another pit stop before he’s off to another, however things change when he sees the boy next door and his colors start to come in.

But if Dean’s just starting to see in color, what does that really mean? When people meet their soulmates, all of their colors are supposed to show up. Whatever it is, Dean’s intrigued.

Author Notes: This was so much fun!  I had an amazing beta, ambersagen, who worked quickly and reliably.  I really enjoyed working with dragonpressgraphics.  I couldn’t believe that the art looked so amazing and so true to what I was imagining.  And I can’t wait to do this again next year.

Artist Notes: This bang has been an awesome one all around. As soon as I heard of it, I had to do it and I was lucky enough to snag feartheophanim‘s story. It was a lot of fun working out how we were going to approach the art for this story and how we would tie it all together. Thank you!

Links:  Fic and Art

Lavender and Blue

Author: @cenedrariva Artist: @fvckingcastiel Rating: G Pairing(s): Hannah/Castiel (fake relationship), Castiel/Dean Word Count: 6309 Summary: Hannah had always been rather close to Castiel. Growing up together would do that. They had been neighbours since they were children, when his family moved to her small town from New York. Fast friends, they were close enough to be brother and sister. They shared everything. Hopes. Fears. Joys and despairs too. One thing they had never shared, however, was crushes. Not because they were shy, or anything like that. Simply because neither of them had any.

Link to fic

Link to art

[thephantomporg84]

Oh god. This. You and me both.

Between online gaming and running into fucking crazies across different fandoms for so long this chick is bush league on a good day.

Like I’ll laugh at her, abso-fucking-lutely, because it both a.) shuts her up because she doesn’t know how to handle non-anger and rage-filled responses and b.) is mildly entertaining to do, but holy shit.

The people that keep fueling her (the ones that know about her) aren’t helping the problem, either. Like. We absolutely need a warning post passed around since tumblr does all of jack shit for moderation (Referring to the one from the other day) that’s got plenty of notes, evidence, etc. Easy to find and refer to. It’s really important in this case since the DMC fandom essentially came back from the dead/is still relatively small in comparison to some other currently popular circles. With new fans/artists/writers/etc poking their head in, I don’t want her souring something that’s supposed to be fun and new and exciting for a new fan. So yeah. That’s basically a necessity — for now, at least.

But a lot of people take it way, way, WAY too fucking far and personal, and — despite the awful shit she said — it ain’t that serious. This is what internet trolls do. I get so many Anons asking if I’m going to try and like... push this bullshit angle that I feel threatened and/or stalked because she (apparently) checks in on my main account to the point I just like... am almost fed up? I guess? I mean I actively laughed at all of the (actually readable) gross shit this headcase sent me but I’m supposed to apparently lie and/or falsify a police report (totally illegal and also a felony in many states, for any non-U.S. folks, btw) and/or say I now feel threatened because other people kept poking a fight with her and got their feelings hurt?

Which brings me to my other problem: I’m totally down for laughing at the troll, in general (like on here) or directly if she approaches me, not actively going to her or putting shit out there to start drama. It blows my fucking mind that so many people get mad for her randomly attacking others, yet they send me blatantly aggressive, inflammatory, and cringe attempts at bait regarding her religion/sexuality/etc. — wanting to do the same goddamned thing she does AND saying some of the same shitty things she does.

It gets doubly annoying because people will go pick fights with her and get their feelings hurt and then send me messages or screenshots or whatever of the entire thing and it’s just like... you knowingly went and picked a fight with her, totally aware that she’ll say whatever nasty thing comes to that half a brain cell she has left. I’m not going to try and make you feel better/shit talk about her — my sympathy is not extended to dumb dick decisions like that.

But yeah. I’ve literally said it in Anons at least two or three dozen times by now between here and on my main account: Legitimately arguing with her and trying to seriously stir the pot and provoke her/debate her is totally fucking pointless. The only way to stop a troll like that is to have your laughs if you wanna/gotta have ‘em, obviously, but ultimately a.) completely ignore her and b.) warn the content creators she goes after if she tries to start something with them and they seem unaware of her (not pick fights on a post — that’s just tacky). This stategy works especially well in this situation because she’s a fucking moron who shoots herself and her argument in the foot once a post, at least, if not more. She can’t see past her own rage, and that’s about the biggest Achilles heel you could ever have in an argument.

[Sorry, btw! I didn’t mean to go on and on in a reblog, I’m just... annoyed. I just feel like I’m almost alone half the time because it feels like only a few know how to troll right back and then basically be done with it. There’s a bloodthirsty/vengeful, hypocritical tinge to quite a bit of this shitshow and I don’t like that shit at all + refuse to support it.]

Derelict-Stranger has been pulling this bullshit for nearly a year now, wonder when she’ll shut up and stop

I know. December will be a year since I’ve first dealt with her.

It’s probably going to take being fully ignored/blocked on sight for her to stop.

[voluntarydemise]

The 100 S3 Hiatus Diary

Once again, let me present to you a chronicle of our fandom’s most glorious hiatus moments. In truest hyperbole fashion we did not scale back after last year’s already impressive BS recordings. Here’s all the drama we managed to fit into the 257 days between the Season 3 finale on May 19, 2016 and the Season 4 premiere on February 1, 2017:

FYI: Entries are mostly focused on the Twitter fandom unless otherwise noted. Also beware, this diary deliberately generalises from the loud few to the many. 

Day 2: Emma Caulfield of EW writes a *love letter* bashing Bellamy into a verb and adjective. Half of the fandom cackles, other half is ready to “bellamy” her. 

Day 3: Ongoing belittling of Jasper’s PTSD in tandem with outrage from same people that show didn’t depict enough PTSD victims.

Day 6: #GiveBellamyBlakeABoyfriend circulates and is amusingly shared by lovers and haters.

Day 7: Kass Morgan is confronted with fandom members defacing and even burning her books. Because we are classy.

Day 10: Tumblr heats up when Johnny Depp beating Amber Heard gets compared to how Bellamy treats Clarke. Because bisexuality. Oh yes.

Day 11: Devon zings Harry Styles - and popstars in general - for trying to act. Somewhere Shawn Mendes cries a tear. 

Day 12: The Fandom-is-Broken article hits. Outrage everywhere, while our fandom is like “yup, sounds about right”. 

Day 15: Bob at Phoenix con says Bellamy wouldn’t have sided with Pike had Clarke returned earlier. Somehow he gets hate for that. Still unclear why. Most likely for no reason at all. 

Day 16: More Phoenix con: Bob utters word “YET”, causes avalanche. Emma Caulfield tweets her and Bob’s are besties now. Fandom responds in typical forgiving ways. 

Day 18: Tumblr has Brollexa gaining traction among BCers, the polyamorous turn it into Clexamy. Not appreciated by the CL fandom. Devon tweet-deletes, shits on cast members for making money off cons instead of donating to charity.

Day 21: Eliza and Bob get nominated for Teenchoice TV Chemistry. Disgust in CL fandom as entertaining as surprise in BC fandom. 

Day 23: Fan at Oz Comic Con asks Eliza about Chemistry nomination and gets booed. Bob speaks slloooowwwhhhuuurr to the iddiiiooootttss on twitter. Most likely entirely unrelated. 

Day 24: Eliza gets called fake/lost/drunk by BC fandom for voicing opinions about Bellarke. Beware of having opinions about ships.

Day 25: Bob replies to hate tweet. Backfires into him getting criticised for passive aggressively focusing on negativity only. 

Day 26: First hiatus hack! Eliza’s instagram. Leads to Alycia unfollowing her. Fandom entertained for a while. Plus the gem of someone comparing Lexa’s death to the Orlando shooting.

Day 28: Alycia cancels Brazil con. In a roundabout way it’s Bob’s fault.

Day 31: On the shipping front Bob  & Shampoo compete against Lexa & Bullet. Because why not. 

Day 33: Somehow BC fandom hits jackpot by criticising both Adina and Mike on same day. For not being pro-BC enough. Adina! Mike! 

Day 35: Layne Morgan attacks Ben Batemen for elevating himself to lgbt+ spokesperson. Fanbase first stunned, then divided. 

Day 37: Second hiatus hack! Layne’s phone. Apparently private numbers get leaked, some idiots message Jason’s wife.

Day 41: Third hiatus hack! (@)emiliascara hacks into Marcus Catsaras’ (Alycia’s boyfriend) icloud, finds footage of him cheating. Catsaras deletes his twitter/fb accounts. Because hell has no fury like a riled-up CL fandom.

Day 42: Lindsey jumps in to fight hackers, (@)morleydebnam jokes about hacking Lindsey.

Day 44: Hacker exposed as guy from Toronto (Michael Brand/Bahramian). 

Day 46: CL fandom overruns and impressively wins 9 of 11 E!Online polls. Still peeved over other fandoms bonding and voting against them. 

Day 48: Jarod speaks up after Alton Sterling shooting. Ends with him getting attacked over *representation* issues. 

Day 52: Eliza vs Alycia in Radiotimes quarter finals. Which fosters minor drama.

Day 56: Layne officially disinvited from clexacon. 

Day 57: Some panelists boycott clexacon after Layne’s exit. Meanwhile the gullible have a clickbait-freakout over O killing Bellamy. 

Day 58: Ben Bateman steps back from clexacon allies panel. (@)riserellamy makes it their mission to get all Arryn-haters blocked by Bob. 

Day 59: Eliza talks freely and excessively about Lexa and Clexa at Brazil Con. BC fandom really wishes she wouldn’t. 

Day 60: From the fanfic policing front: Author gets such harsh attacks for writing Lexamy they pull the fic. 

Day 61: S3 DVD is out! Deleted scenes reheat old rage. While Ricky retweets shade about him not being in the bloopers.

Day 62: #OlicityMafiaExposedClexaParty happens. CL fandom first fandom ever to cheat in a poll. 

Day 64: She said “ship”.

Day 65: Whole fandom aflame over the shit/ship debacle. Shit memes everywhere. Aaron doesn’t give a SHIT. Eliza probably avoids her mentions. Tumblr births Bellarke Drags. The best of days.

Day 66: clexasources promotes WB survey asking people to criticise show. Eliza shall be saved by cancellation. 

Day 67: ELSchaaf claims Eliza speaks condescendingly of Bellarke because she’s threatened by Bob’s popularity. Fandom appalled. In conjunction CLs figure out ELSchaaf is involved with Unity Days. 

Day 68: ELSchaaf on tumblr rampage, invites haters to call her names at con in person. Unity Days reacts swiftly and removes ELSchaaf. 

Day 70: Bellarke Shit necklace sparks controversy. 

Day 73: Wizard Con: Marie says Clarke has *nappy* hair which Eliza laughs at. Racism outrage in some fandom corners. 

Day 75: Jason’s SDCC talk about bi-Clarke getting “with everyone” resurfaces. Not the most well received. clexasources deactivates after Bob+Eliza photo post leads to attacks by followers.  

Day 78: Supposed insider troll Jason Blue stirs up rumour drama of Octavia dying. 

Day 82: Bellarke fanart repurposed as Braven fanart. Bob-birthday charity criticised for being organised by a BC shipper. 

Day 84: Pedowitz stands behind show at TCAs, does neither criticise nor cancel it on the spot, as some had hoped. 

Day 103: Fanfic policing, part 2: Bellamy goes down on Clarke in the commander’s throne. People - ignorant of the concept of *fanfiction* - are mad. 

Day 106: Eliza posts candid pic with guy-boy-friend. Apparently this makes her a lesser lgbt+ ally. 

Day 111: Fanfic’s blowjobgate! Briller&Harper fic on kinkmemes ignites long and nasty Bellarke fanfic community wars. Who gets to and with whom and with how many is not the author’s choice alone. 

Day 125: Tumblr aflame over Bellamy hating Aurora Blake, with usual shades of misogyny and racism. 

Day 130: HYPE article about ADC at Copenhagen Con calls out fans for slightly inappropriate fan behavior. More inappropriate fan behavior in reaction leads to article edits. 

Day 132: Kim retweets Fa Panini’s cute Becho fanart. BC fandom takes that as confirmation of things to come. Mild panic. 

Day 135: A clearly mangled and misrepresented SDCC comment about Clarke and love interest in S4 causes freakout. Because fandom will forever step into all clickbait traps willingly. 

Day 144: The usual bi-monthly kerfuffle about Clarke being forgotten as bi-rep in article. 

Day 145: Layne Morgan sick of TV bi girls ending up with men. Not that stats have discredited this stereotype at all. 

Day 155: Supposed insider troll Jason Blue claims insider cancellation knowledge. Insider arguments quickly debunked. 

Day 159: Photoshopped Variety tweet circulates, claiming show cancellation. Mo Ryan refutes it. 

Day 165: Lindsey stumbles into sexypilgrim drama. Apologises later for wishing people would get involved in causes beyond online outrage. 

Day 166: Press day! Drama day! Fandom-uneducated Nadia voices “Luna is stronger than Lexa”. She may forever feel the consequences. 

Day 167: Nadia tweets “Fiction”, deletes account. #NadiaDeactivatedParty follows. Eliza and later Arryn claim account is fake. Fandom thinks Eliza would rather lie than defend Nadia and her anti-Lexa statement. 

Day 170: Meanwhile in the fanfic warzone: “Bellamy rapes Lexa” gets countered with “Lexa castrates Bellamy”. 

Day 190: Bob reaches annual patience-for-twitter threshold, carries out annual twitter deactivation. States he was made to join. Fandom: lol, ok, see you in a bit. 

Day 199: Bellarke and Clexa both in same Hottest-Ships-of-the-Year list. But fandom can’t share nice things. 

Day 201: Guess who’s back on twitter, guys?

Day 216: BC-shipping jewellery artist called out for making money off Clexa art. Not allowed in the age of receipts. 

Day 219: In spirit of Christmas, Aaron issues Lexa apology. Fandom - less spirited - counters it’s 9 months too late, and never enough. 

Day 221: Katie affirms in slightly too bitter way that show is more than just Clexa. Bad move, girl.

Day 222: (@)bellamysbriller - whom Katie retweeted the day before - is exposed for catfishing and bullying. 

Day 228: More jewellery controversies, as jewellery donations to charities can only come from people who’ve never made controversial statements. 

Day 233: clexaspoilers surfaces, claims access to screeners, reveals Clexa parts. Fandom calls it baiting to make them watch, even though account claims now they DON’T have to watch. 

Day 238: BC fandom gets high on SHE HAS BELLAMY, and actually manages to trend for once. Stunning friends and foes alike.

Day 241: Unity Days report of Lindsey supposedly saying Bellarke is boring. Lindsey gets attacked and goes on twitter detox. BC fandom to blame.

Day 243: Fourth hiatus hack! Ricky’s phone. Beware of Ricky nudes. 

Day 245: Alycia’s management removes The 100 from “known for” section on IMDB. BCers shocked, CLs shrug. 

Day 248: BCers think 600 cookies might be helpful for show renewal. Laughs and eyerolls all around.

Day 249: S4 poster arrives. Cast, writers and fans partake in a who’s-who guessing game with silhouettes. Body shaming leads to #titsoutforeliza, someone leaks S4 callsheets and Funko whitewashes Raven and Bellamy. A busy day.

Day 252: CLs set up White House petition to get Jason fired. A single signature last we checked. 

Day 257: Final hiatus day: (@)the100leaked pops up to generously leak part of the Season 4 finale script and cause mass hysteria. Tadaaaaa! 

And that’s it! See you all next hiatus! Just kidding. I accept more entries, if you can link me to the evidence.