#this is angsty as fuck people

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[drunk-werewolf]

[evasive-anon]

Let Danny’s Parents Be Criminals

I hate the reveal gone wrong trope in the dpxdc fandom because we know Jack and Maddie end up supporting Danny and Dani in the end. His parents have some major flaws but wanting to torture their actual child isn’t one. What they are guilty of is going way too hard on any plan they cook up without thinking of the consequences.

If I were writing a dpxdc fic and I wanted Danny in adoptable status I’d just have Jack and Maddie in jail on charges of domestic terrorism after they killed off GIW agents and destroyed the GIW’s bases. They realized their ghost kids were in potential danger and went at the government the same way they went at ghosts, guns blazing and with reckless driving.

They end up in federal prison and they Vlad wins custody cause he’s rich and there is your runaway Danny plot starter.

[starry-bi-sky]

"Stillborn? No, no, still born." -- DPXDC AU

Based off a comment I saw where Bruce knew about Talia's pregnancy in the earlier comivs, and was ecstatic to be a father. So much so that Talia feared he'd give up being Batman for it, so when she gave birth she put the baby (Damian) on a doorstep and (seemingly) told Bruce that the baby was stillborn.

Instead of Damian, that baby was Danny! Meet Daniel Brown, the 14 year old foster kid whose been living with the Fenton family for the last two years. He's about two years older than Damian.

His last name, "Brown", was a generic surname given to him because the note he came with didn't have one on it. It just had the name "Danyal" on it, but albeit 'Daniel' was the one that had been put into the system for, I'll be totally frank here, racism reasons.

(I looked it up to make sure, and it's generally not permissible for foster parents to change the names of their foster kids even if it's a permanent residency, and for that reason Danny doesn't have the last name "Fenton".)

Danny's got ✨~issues!~✨ He's been through a handful of homes growing up, most of them terrible for a variety of reasons. Which has, as a result, left lasting scars. He's generally a very sweet kid, just very distrustful and jumpy. He's got the signs of a kid suffering from PTSD, and a handful of other issues including attachment and insomnia. His inferiority complex could rival Damian's, and that's going to make for an interesting mutual hatred for when they finally meet.

(something I'll get into later)

He still has the blanket he was found in. It's made of a very high quality material and is a beautiful emerald green with little golden thread accents, it's high quality as a result has Danny clinging onto a desperate hope that his bio family might be out there, and the only reason they gave him up was because of some outside factor. It's been taken a few times in old foster homes, and he's flipped out each time.

While he still calls Jack and Maddie by their names, he likes them well enough. The bar isn't that high though, and while they're some of the better foster parents he's had, "better" doesn't equal "safest". Their laboratory malpractice. Basically, C- Fenton Parents. They're negligent by virtue of being engrossed in their work, but they do care equally about Jazz and Danny. So he doesn't hold it against them that much.

He kinda prefers it that way, their loud affection is overwhelming and Danny doesn't know what to do with their attention, even if he craves it. It's a bit of a complicated situation.

They took in Danny because they genuinely wanted another child, but didn't want a big age gap between them and Jazz. It was actually Jack's idea to foster, and they discussed it with Jazz beforehand. She was all for the idea. Thus, a handful of weeks later, a ton of paperwork, and inspection later, and Daniel Brown entered their household with a trash bag in one hand and eyes like shards of stained glass.

His relationship with Jazz is kinda strained, but that's by virtue of her constant psychoanalyzing and helicoptering. Like with the parents, Danny's overwhelmed by the attention and also just, straight up doesn't like the fact that she's telling him that there's something wrong with him. He knows that, thank you. He pushes her away when she does this.

Other than that though? When Jazz isn't smothering him and is acting like an actual sibling and not a third parent, they're pretty close, and Danny really likes her. They've hung out a few times on their own volition, and Jazz showed him how to take better care of his long hair.

His school situation,, pretty similar to canon with the bullying, albeit with a few more instances of him blowing a fuse and lashing out against his attackers. He's a rather angry kid, but it's quiet. It builds up, piles on top of itself, until eventually, like a volcano, it erupts and burns everyone within radius.

Danny's got a fire core, not an ice core. Phantom's hair is made of white magma; thick and heavy, setting itself on fire when his anger runs hot. When he gets angry, his skin begins to char and split open to reveal pulsating lava underneath, and he crackles and pops like a raging forest fire.

I haven't decided yet on how he meets the batfam -- i've got two ideas but they're both in opposition to each other, and drastically alter how the rest of the plot goes. But I do know that him and Damian hate each other in the beginning. And it has nothing to do with inheritance or "being the blood son" -- although their blood relation absolutely plays the major role in their disdain for each other.

Simply put, they're jealous of each other for the same thing: thinking that the other was wanted.

Damian hates Danny because, unlike Damian, Bruce knew about Danny since conception and wanted him from the moment he heard about him. He had a whole nursery set up, and still does. He never took it down -- just locked the door. Damian was thrust upon Bruce without warning, and he feels like he forced himself into the family. And while on some level Damian knows and understands that Bruce wants him and loves him as much as his other children, that doubt and feeling of inferiority still remains. He looks at Danny and sees him with what Damian always feels he needs reaffirmed.

Meanwhile, Danny hates Damian because he looks at him and sees him with everything Danny's ever wanted. He hates him because Damian grew up knowing both of their parents, with one of them for most of his life, and then moved over to the other. There was never a moment where Damian was (seemingly) left to doubt his place within the family. Damian was raised with the very same woman who left Danny on a doorstep, with no clue to his identity beyond a little green blanket and a note with only a first name. Damian was wanted everywhere, and Danny was wanted nowhere. Damian is Danny's replacement in his eyes.

(It's the little revelation that Damian grew up with their mother that elevates Danny from being quietly envious of Damian to downright despising him. What did Damian do, that Danny didn't? He could live with Damian living with Bruce -- Bruce didn't know Danny was even alive. But him living with their mom? Are you fucking kidding him?)

Damian never outright attacks Danny physically, but it's not like he hides that he didn't like Danny. Meanwhile, Danny, in all his repressive anger, quietly despised him from a distance until finally one wrong snide side-comment has him blowing up and it becomes a screaming match. They're both just enough similar to each other that when they look at each other they really just see a mirror.

They'll work it out together, eventually. But it'll be ugly and cruel and explosive, and they'll start mending the bridge to become brothers in more than just blood relation in the end.

But yeah, stillborn Danny has... a lot going for him.

[icywolfos]

whaaaat I'm actually slightly elaborating on this joke au???

Anyway heart sharing au- the gist is that loop made an oopsie and accidentally made a wish while having their little meltdown and it was fulfilled.... in an unexpected way. And also they didn't even realize that they made a wish in the first place.

Good news is that Loop and Siffrin are both still alive! no dissolving into light for loop!

Bad news is that siffrin now has a star in his chest too in a slightly more gory version of Loops chest star thing- his just also breaks reality a little bit and gives people headaches when they look at it. also now his heart is what is keeping both of them alive, somehow, Siffrin is not freaking out about this, or just... not as much as Loop is. call that playing heart potato with how they yeet that thang back and forth to survive

there... isn't really plot figured out I'm just making doodles for fun that happen to be au stuff?

click for higher quality

[youngpettyqueen]

Julian would take a bullet for Garak because thats just a fundamental part of who he is as a person and I think you could count on one hand the amount of people he WOULDNT take a bullet for. Garak would take a bullet for Julian and it would be entirely because he's so hopelessly and desperately in love with him and he would be fucking MORTIFIED about it. Garak gets shot for Julian's sake and when he wakes up later he's genuinely mad that he survived because now he has to live with the mortification of having gotten shot for this goddamn doctor for the rest of his life

[revvethasmythh]

Reminded again, as I periodically am, that there's a fair number of people in the fandom that think of Nott the Brave and Veth Brenatto as two different characters, and not fundamentally the same woman. In the absolute literal sense, this is false: Nott the Brave, returned to the body of her choice and using her real name once again, is absolutely precisely the same person she was before Caleb cast Transmogrification on her. This is, incidentally, one of her main sources of angst towards the end of the campaign! A part of Nott must have both feared (and, in some ways, hoped) that when she was changed back into a halfling, she would also be a different person. That the person she became traveling with the Nein would be an easy identity to shed, which she may have hoped for because it would be easier to fit herself back into her home life with Yeza and Luc--and because it would be easier to say goodbye to the Nein if that were the case. And she feared it because she liked this person she became, no matter how transgressive society would label her for it. And she loved the Nein and didn't want those feelings to be altered.

But she didn't change. Veth Brenatto is Nott the Brave and Nott the Brave is Veth Brenatto. This was always the point. That's why it's an anagram. It's just that when she's Veth Brenatto again, she is much more focused on the why of what she's doing. Why am I still with the Nein? Why am I still adventuring? Why do I have this reticence to return home to my family? Why don't I long for that quiet, domestic life the way I once did? Her emotional journey becomes intensely personal, sometimes subtly/quietly told, and wholly about what kind of future she wants for herself and how her choice could affect those around her. Her two families become anchor points pulling her in different directions and she has to deal with that. Which is a different story than what she was telling when she was still Nott the Brave. Nott's story was much simpler--I am a goblin and I hate it and I would like to be a halfling again. I would like to be able to be with my family again. It's straightforward and it's achieved! But that's not where it ends, because she still needs to figure out a real, functional future for herself once her goal has been achieved.

All this to say, I think when people say they prefer Nott over Veth, it's important to remember that you are reacting to a certain story arc for the character, not an entirely different character. It may also pay to ask yourselves why you think they're so different. Was "Nott" funnier than "Veth" to you? Does her ability to serve as comic relief fundamentally change whether you like her or not? Did you appreciate "Nott's" themes more than "Veth's"? Or did you even notice the themes being explored in Veth's later game at all?

[thearvariblues]

Joe 1.0 vs. Joe 2.0

You know, I keep seeing posts that are like "oh, My Stand-In is doing it all wrong, we should see the face/body of Joe 2.0 more often, not just in random reflections, we should see Joe 2.0 when other characters comment on his appearance, it's confusing, we should–"

Guys. You are looking at it all wrong. You don't understand. You just don't fucking get it.

It. Is. All. On. Purpose!

Because Joe's story is told from Joe's POV. It's the story of the first Joe, the stand-in Joe, who, yes, is currently residing in the body of Joe 2.0, but his mind is the same. From Joe's POV, he's still the original Joe, you see? Maybe his hands look different to him or whatever, but unless he sees himself in the mirror, he isn't the model Joe, he's just Joe.

Like... You know that feeling when you dye your hair, you're well aware you've dyed your hair, you can sometimes glance the different color from the corner of your eye or whatever, but then it's two days later and you randomly look in the mirror and once again go "woah, hold on, that's right, my hair's bright red now".

That's exactly what's happening to Joe. He knows he is in the body of Joe 2.0, but his brain isn't really comprehending it unless he is literally seeing himself. That's when it hits him. That's when he realizes, again and again and again, that his old body is gone. But when he's just talking to other characters? He's still him.

(Unless they really need to drive it home that he's not, like when he meets Ming in that elevator for the first time.)

See, they are not failing to tell the story by not using Joe 2.0's face enough. They are actually telling it exactly the way they want it.

And it's fucking beautiful.

[glitter-stained]

Red Hood!Jason gets platonic hanahaki for Bruce. He hides it from everyone, coughing up blood-stained white petal after petal until he dies choking on flowers in his apartment with a rosier sprouting out of his chest.

Hours later, he awakes. His lungs are empty, and the only sign something happened is a strange, ragged scar stretching all over his chest. For the first time in months, he takes a deep breath, greedily gulping down the ashes of the gotham smog. Finally, he can breathe.

The next day, he sees Batman while patrolling. Bruce doesn't know anything happened -he talks to him as usual, informs him of a takeout happening later today, tells him to turn his comms back on. Jason snarks back as usual, but the memory of the taste of roses lingers on his tongue.

On the way home, he starts to cough.

[bet-on-me-13]

Metahumans Anonymous Pt.2

Continuing where Part 1 left off

(This is Damian Robin)

(Also I need to add one more thing about the previous part. This is an Anonymous Meeting Place, so to protect their identities even more, they wear Masks or Face Covers to try and stay hidden)

Robin was hopping across rooftops on Patrol, going through an area that he has noticed they have been accidentally avoiding, when he sees a strange light coming out from a skylight.

He wanders over and sees an average looking man shooting Fire at another man, who seems to be shooting Ice right back at him in some sort of battle. They even have technological weapons and masks.

Looking around the room more, there are potentially dozens of Metahumans battling in the room, all with small weapons and Masks. At first he thinks they are being made to battle by somebody else, like a Fighting Ring. But then, the two from before call for the others to wrap it up.

Obviously, those two are leading the others, and all of them are there of their own free will, he can tell that from their body language.

He is convinced that they are a group of Metahuman Criminals training to take over the city using their powers. He was raised in an Assassin Cult, and he inherited his dad's paranoia, so he doesn’t even consider the idea that this is completely harmless. He also just recently moved to Gotham, so he doesn’t know the real reason for the No Metas Rule, he just assumes the rumors were true that his dad didn’t like Metahumans and never brings it up.

In his eyes the only reason they could have for using their powers secretly in a warehouse at the edge of town using weapon-like machines against each other, was because they must be training. And if they are training, then they must have a reason for it.

He sees the two people that seem to be the leaders of the group. An average looking man with Fire Powers and a tall but thin man with Ice Powers.

He decides to look them up on the Bat-Computer, after Stalking them and getting a glimpse of their faces.

The Fire Guy looks like he had led a perfectly normal life, a little too normal in his opinion. He must be hiding something, this was obviously a fake profile. It was too clean. (this was actually because he didn’t want to be noticed for his powers, so he tried to keep under the radar as much as possible his whole life)

The Ice Guy was more interesting. He comes from a small town out in Illinois, and moved to Gotham for a job. His parents are registered as People of Interest in the Bat-Computer for their research into other dimensions, and they seem to lean a bit too far in the Mad side of Mad Scientists. He must be the one supplying their weapons.

There’s also some interesting reports from his hometown, a large amount of Powerful Metahuman Villains who recently stopped attacking the city and started living there peacefully. Even the Mad Scientists, who once proclaimed that they would skin the villains alive, had changed their Tune and started advocating for the Villains rehabilitation. Something was definitely up with the Ice Guy.

Robin doesn’t report this to his Father just yet. He only just recently joined the Bat-Family a few months ago, he’s still 10, and he really wants to prove himself by taking down an extremely dangerous Metahuman Villain Group by himself. Maybe his father would cement him as his one true heir then?

He decides to get creative. He can’t defeat all those villains by himself in a straight fight, and he knows picking them off one by one would put them on edge, but maybe he could...outsource their destruction.

He anonymously contacts the Rouge in the area that the Warehouse was in, and tells them that a group of Metas was going to try and take them over soon. He hopes that the villains will just kill each other, and he could pick off the leftovers. It would be two birds for the price of one, taking down both of the Villainous organizations at once and leaving him the sole victor.

The night he initiates the plan, he returns to the cave to rest for a few hours before he can go back out to deal with the leftovers.

Then Batman rushes in, yelling that they needed all hands on deck. Apparently a Civilian Assembly that he was in contact with was under attack by a Villain Organization. He and Robin rush out to help, but the closer they get, the more Robin realizes they are heading in the direction of the Metahuman Villain Group.

Did they make their move? Tonight of all nights? He had perfectly set up a situation where he could get all the credit, but now it was all going to collapse because he didn’t anticipate that they would make their move so early!

They get to the Assembly and see the two different Villain Groups battling. The Civilians must have been caught in the crossfire! He had caused this hadn’t he? (more than he knew)

He decides to take action, and defeat the biggest threats on the field. That of course, meant taking out the most powerful Metahumans in the battle. He goes for the second Leader, the one with Fire Powers, and knocks him out.

Before he can move on, one of his brothers calls out “Robin! What are you doing! Those are the civilians!”

By the time the battle is over, and the Villains have been repelled, Robin has realized what happened. The Civilian Assembly that was being attacked was the Villain Group that he had set up.

Of Course Batman would have known about the gathering of Meta-Humans in his City. He had met up with them months ago and made a deal with them to protect them in return for keeping their head down.

Thankfully nobody had been hurt to badly in the attack, and the Metas with healing powers could fix up most of the damage, but now that one Villain Organization knew about them, every single other one would know within a week. Their little slice of Heaven had been taken from them.

Danny is happy that none of their Masks were taken off or ripped, so none of the Villains will be able to see their faces, but they would need a new location if they ever decided to do in-person meetings again.

If they ever felt anywhere near "safe" again.

Basically, Damian f#cked up...

[freshwarrior757]

They Never Learn

Amy, Britney, Miley, Justin, Aaron, Nick, Lance, Chester, and now Liam.

Some made it out alive, but many didn't.

How many more people have to go through this?

And every time, people act like they loved them all along. They act like they loved them. They tore them down and then they tried to play the victim.

[hemo-goblin-a1c]

#arcanespoilers but I am so so so fucking sick of jinx. I'm sorry, I think she's SO lame and #harleyquinn quirky and mEnTaLlY IlL in a really flat way I hate her so much like can you please just leave I'm trying to watch the Violet show. I mean I guess she's a fun villain in theory but every time she's on screen the writing quality drops by like 200% they really could not be bothered to think about her as a real person outside of. Well She's CRAZY!!! (<- only character trait)

[yujeong]

what can u say abt people who says korn cheated tonkla cheated.. because now that i know that they were in a relationship and not just a sugarbaby fuckbuddy thingy then cheating really took place but in korn's place don't u think tonkla allowed it... im sure he knows abt fasai... dont u think theyve talked abt it before.??

I'm going to be real with you anon, I need people to calm down about the cheating allegations at both Tonkla and Korn and the reason for that is because it doesn't matter in the slightest: based on what we've seen so far, Korn and Tonkla's relationship is far more complex than what it's been given credit for. First of all, the relationship has remained a secret since it began. That's what Korn's promise is based on - he knew he had to be in a higher position than the one he was back then in order to have the power to support his relationship with Tonkla publicly. What he never accounted for, though, was what his gaining power through his family would entail. That's where Fasai comes in. We only got 2 scenes of them together, but they were enough for me to understand at least the basics of their dynamic. Fasai helps Korn run his part of the business and Korn, in return, submits to her. This takes the form of sex, but again, sex is not the point. The submission is. Tonkla knows. Tonkla has always known. It's what his "You said it." was about, his hesitation to get Korn's pinky finger interlaced with his own, because he didn't quite believe Korn when he promised. Now, I have to make something perfectly clear here: Tonkla didn't allow anything because it wasn't his place to. He doesn't have a say in what Korn does and he knows it. He didn't show any hints of surprise when Korn mentioned Fasai to his father on the phone, because he knows and he has to live with it. That's why it hurts him and that's why he hooked up with Win and continues to keep him close. He's lonely, his needs with Korn aren't met, so he has to look for fulfillment elsewhere. Did they both cheat? Technically, yes. Does it matter? In a narrative sense yes, but not in the way people talk about. Do I care? No, because I'm interested in other things about their dynamic.

[sweet-potato-42]

Another thing, The reasons tubblings were annoeyd at qphil (all in rp obviously) for the answer to the egg question during the therapy thing:

it annoyed sunny. there was clearly a reaction from her ot it and we know she doesnt like when people talk shit about her pa. like its just a feeling bad for sunny especially since she spent the whole day in prison without tubbo

philza (probably coincidentally) chose both of sunnys parents tubbo and gegg (slime) so that probably made her feel worse sicne sunny could have thought it was targeted (it probably wasnt btu she doenst know that)

Some people dislike the comment about him not doing anything since he spends a lot of time on the server making stuff for others. It probably meant nothing to qphilza but its a significant thing to say for qtubbo

Basically its like qphil didnt mean any real harm but the comments he made were kinda sensitive for both sunny and qtubbo so the tubblings cared. We dont mean any harm to the cc obviously or for it to escalate but like we are allowed to feel bad for our cubitos and be annoyed at another

[redshoes-blues]

Do you understand how impeccable the writing has to be for me to go feral over a canon m/f pairing??? Like it’s one thing for me to occasionally ship a m/f pairing that are never canon who I enjoy the potential unexplored dynamic for, but it’s so rare that I actually like canon m/f pairings, it’s basically the highest praise a writer can receive from me if I’m losing it over one

[sobeksewerrat]

stop reducing Lute's character to just her relationship with Adam stop reducing Lute to just her relationship with Adam stop reducing Lute to just Adam's girlfriend or lieutenant stop reducing Lute to just Adam FUCKING STOP-