#whoops this should have been on my art blog

[fly-chicken]

Actually obsessed w her design tbh. The more I studied her little details the more I love her

Also look at teeny Luffy

[plusultraetc]

what do u think of traitor!mic 🫶 i honestly was confused abt it when i realized how popular it was relatively speaking … there was a lot of it from like? 2020-2021?!?! i wanted to know ur take on him ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )

BESTIE YOU ARE ALWAYS ASKING THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS. OKAY LET'S TALK ABOUT TRAITOR MIC.

The long & short of it is that I SEE the vision but unfortunately, he's just not for me 😭 That isn’t to say I’m not interested in other people’s takes on him (and am super open to post/fic/art recs if anyone has any; I recently saw this piece and had a full-body flinch reaction when I Realized. Like. OMG). I just have like. Zero thoughts of my own lol, because traitor!Mic is conceptually so opposed to my understanding of the character that I can’t quite au about it.

(Before I get into my longwinded nonsense, let me just add that we should have known Mic wasn't the traitor from the very start because if he had been the League of Villains would have been way more successful lmao)

So full disclosure, when I watched the first few seasons of MHA a couple years ago, I heard there was a traitor at UA and the first thing I blurted out was 'IT'S PRESENT MIC.' I honestly am not sure why I thought so at the time, other than the fact that he seemed like an incredibly unlikely candidate, and therefore was Very Suspicious to me lol. Like, I don't even think I knew he was the one who proposed the traitor theory--if I had, it would have been so over for him. I would have been convinced he was the traitor & trying to throw people off his scent maybe for the rest of my life. In reality I probably just thought he was too loud and goofy and therefore must be hiding something (what he was hiding was a tragic backstory, whoops!) But anyway I was actually really surprised when I learned traitor!Mic had become such a prevalent theory!

In many ways, I can totally see why. Mic makes a good candidate for a traitor! He's smart, he has reasons to be dissatisfied with the pro hero status quo, and as we learn, he has very distinct public and private personas--one of which is radio DJ Present Mic, and the other is really, really angry.

THAT BEING SAID. Looking back on it, I feel like the more we learned about Mic, the more the traitor theory kind of... falls apart. I almost feel like he's Too Angry under all that leather and hairspray to be a spy for the League. For example, if I was trying to stay under the radar as a villain spy, I wouldn't turn to the guy next to me and be like ‘HEY let's beat these civilian reporters up for trespassing ♥’

Mic has every reason to be angry. He lost a close friend in a villain attack at a young age, watched the toll his death took on his friends and family even while processing (or failing to process) his own grief, and later had to confront the reality of what really happened to Shirakumo--how intentional and therefore avoidable it was--as the world was falling apart around him. I’ve talked a little bit on this blog about my many Big Sad Feelings about the ‘middle generation’ of pro heroes between All Might and the up-and-coming UA students, but more than anyone else, I think the UA teachers are a very conflicted group. It’s like… not quite ‘former child soldiers raising current child soldiers,’ but a similar concept, especially for characters like Mic, Aizawa, and Midnight, who had such a traumatic experience during their own years at UA. Now they are very much responsible for the children they are going to *checks notes* send into the same, and in some cases even more, dangerous situations that chewed them up and spat them out as teenagers. Very healthy, very mindful.

So Mic does have reasons to be disillusioned, but the thing is, he very actively participates in an often-hypocritical pro hero society. (This is not a criticism of him btw; many characters in the series do, and it’s often what makes them interesting!) Something that’s come up in book club is the fact that Present Mic is a public figure with a platform of his own and absolutely no problem loudly critiquing other heroes and even students, but he like. Really Hates the media. It’s almost funny how much he dislikes them. This is as good a reason as any that traitor!Mic should have been a hard sell, because his feelings about the media are directly opposed to those of the early League of Villains--ie, the iteration of the League when the traitor’s intel would have been at its most valuable. The early League loves the media; they want to use them to sensationalize and legitimize their message. Present Mic, meanwhile, uses his incredibly limited screentime to quite literally get in their way. He could have 100% made better use of his platform & connection to the press to aid the League.

I did try to approach this question from a non-erasermic lens, but I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Aizawa at all for two reasons: 1) unfortunately, Mic is a side character. He doesn’t have THAT many appearances throughout the series, and most of the time, he appears with or somehow-relating-to Aizawa, and 2) you can’t talk about a traitor without talking about who they’re betraying. And honestly, I just can't see him betraying Aizawa--not after everything they've been through together, not after weathering Aizawa's darkest years, and not now, when All Might's imminent retirement (that the UA faculty is aware of in advance) means that big changes are looming on the horizon for all pro heroes. Mic himself acknowledges that the age of All Might has made them complacent--he knows that the end of the Symbol of Peace spells trouble, and that current pros are largely unequipped for a world without All Might. He has a tendency to prioritize others, especially Aizawa and those he cares about, above himself, and right now would be the very worst time to sell All Might/UA/etc out to the League.

And then of course there's the obvious: he really is just. Very kind. We don't get nearly enough Present Mic throughout the series, but what we do get tells us that he's supportive, protective, somewhat-sassy and Doing His Best. Like yeah, he roasts the other characters literally every chance he gets, and he can def be judgmental, but when it counts (when Uraraka was feeling guilty that Midoriya stayed behind to rescue her during the Entrance Exam, when Bakugou and Todoroki needed someone to supervise their remedial training, when Ms. Ikoma became overwhelmed by her students' admittedly poor behavior), he steps up for the people around him. Idk he's just a really solid hero. This is my formal apology to Present Mic for suspecting him in like 2018 or whenever it was.

THANK YOU FOR OPENING UP THIS CAN OF WORMS, do you have any thoughts on traitor!Mic? Any recommendations? Does anyone? 👀

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Brainrot Housekeeping: Updated Schedule!

Hi friends! I've got a whole message under the cut, but here's the important part regarding this blog's new content schedule:

Saturdays: mini-hcs Sundays: answering asks (& maybe some rambles?) Mondays: full-hc Tuesdays: answering asks (& maybe some shitposts?) Wednesdays: Vesuvia Weekly Thursdays & Fridays: rest

You might see some polls showing up in the next week or so about new content types - if you're interested, feel free to vote! ^.^ More under the cut:

While I haven't hit rock bottom, I've been getting some symptoms of burnout recently and I'd like to avoid completely running myself into the ground XD

This blog has really pushed me to see what kind of creativity I have, especially just how much work I'm able to produce and sustain. I thought I'd get tired and burn out at two months tops, and it's been over and year and I have no immediate plans to stop! However, taking a look at my own system right now, I do think I need to slow down.

To be honest, fanwork isn't something I've been doing a long time - this tumblr blog is the only fandom creative stuff I've ever done! Before that, most of the things I created were originals - music, art, and of course, writing (though I haven't touched my sketchbook/paints in forever and I haven't done any sightreading in years - whoops).

It gets hard to keep your muscles moving when you only move them in one direction. As much as I love writing headcanons for the M6 in response to people's prompts, there is so much else my mind can do that it misses having the space for. Which brings me to the reason for this schedule adjustment - I miss having that creative freedom.

I still greatly enjoy writing headcanons for you guys and participating in the fandom, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. However, I want to take some time back to get back into frolicking in the stuff my own brain comes up with, and making space for that to grow into something real.

The questions I need to figure out now are 1) how much time is it going to take me to get my full capacity back? and 2) should I keep this as a purely Arcana blog, or expand it for all my creative work?

If you've read this far, you have my sincerest gratitude. I'll see you guys tomorrow :)

Cheers!

brainrot

[poke-of-the-month]

//im gonna be honest i know you said you wouldnt reblog propaganda other than whats put in the form because its "unfair" but tbh? thats wrong. it makes things MORE fair. polls like this are popularity contests. got more followers, especially more active ones + some popular mutuals? congrats! you win! harley ONLY won her poll because it broke containment. genuinely. look through the notes theres non pkmn irl blogs voting for her. deckard swept without that, sorry! another thing that did help though was the memes and drawings and jokes and interactions that harley's owner, deckards owner, and another person were having. harley is an unpopular pokemon run by a less popular blog. she lost without silly memes and drawings and breaking containment, presumably to mutuals of her owner wanting to support their mutuals rp blog. deckards voters DIDNT seem to break containment *and he lost by under 5 votes*

//that propaganda makes more people see the pokemon they dont know. if i dont know both blogs in a poll im just going to pick one at random but if both are drawing images and theyre being reblogged on this blog? well whoevers drawn their pokemon silliest is getting my vote. i only know one? well if the other has some silly propaganda like memes and drawings i might vote them instead!

//no one interacts with eachother on these polls except for small amounts of rbs saying vote this or that but even then on most polls it was one or two rbs. pickle v mightyena and harley v deckard look like the ONLY exceptions. no one is interacting with your polls which is sad! it should be a place for people to be having silly ic arguments about their pokemon and interacting with eachother and coming together!! they cant do that if no ones being encouraged or having their propaganda reblogged! theres no incentive! thats what kills poll blogs like this if theres no reason to be silly or interact with this blog its gonna just feel like an obligation or turn into something no one joins because its just like whoop! the popular blog won by default again! no fun shit happening at all. with propaganda being rbed even if the popular blog wins you still had a good time you still got to make silly art and see silly arguments.

//THE ONLY REAL ENGAGEMENT OUTSIDE OF RBING OF THE POLLS ITSELF YOU HAVE GOTTEN THIS ENTIRE POLL WAS FROM HARLEYS OWNER, PICKLES OWNER, AND DECKARDS OWNER!! THEY WERE THE ONLY ONES I SAW ACTUALLY POSTING ABOUT IT (excluding the few people posting images of their pokemon with the ribbons AFTER THEIR POLLS)

//rbing propaganda (and thus encouraging it) makes things more fair by getting the less popular pokemon and blogs out there, it encourages people to engage with this blog by drawing images making power points writing essays and making memes, and it keeps this blog relevant fun and fresh for so much longer. i have never followed a poll blog SOLEY for the poll itself. ive followed for peoples propaganda and commentary on the polls. hell, propaganda for WHAT THE NEXT POLL SHOULD BE WOULD BE SO FUN TOO!! imagine people sending entire asks trying to convince people to vote for the next poll to be for the fire type or for it to be for bidoof only!!

//i genuinely do not know why it would be "unfair" because some peoples art skill isnt as good? thats on the viewers for judging based on art skill rather than the apparent effort put in or how silly it is or just the fact that the blog runner put in effort to draw their pokemon for the poll. also people might draw their mutuals pokemon as propaganda as well! !!! both pickles owner and someone else who doesnt have a pokemon in the poll draw harley + someone on the pickle vs mightyena poll have been saying they might draw pickle. i also mentioned earlier propaganda that isnt drawn art. making stupid memes like the do it for her memes that both harley's owner and deckards owner made, the drawing of a super smash bros vs screen that harleys owner made with harley and deckard, and thats just scratching the surface of what people did, and a lot of propaganda with other poll blogs tends to be power point presentations with the slides all posted telling people why they should vote their guy and not the other! those dont require artistic skill all the time! you can just use official art or even a meme that doesnt require an image of the pokemon. and then this propaganda can encourage MORE PROPAGANDA AND MORE INTERACTION AND SILLY JOKE ARGUMENTS IN THE NOTES!!!!!!!!! is it "unfair" because some people wont make propaganda? well then thats not unfair. they COULD make a power point or make a silly joke post or just talk about their pokemon more but if they choose not to then its not unfair they just didnt take the opportunity that their opponent took.

//you're reasoning honestly doesnt make sense and i feel like reblogging propaganda and stuff encourages more interaction with this blog making it more of an event for people to interact with each other and just something fun to partake in. it should feel like a friendly competition, not a set of would you rather questions.

Cool then make your own blog instead of sending me a novel about everything I’m doing wrong. If you don’t like how I do my blog then no one is forcing you to participate in it and no one is stopping you from doing the same thing better.

[eruanna1875]

New Pinned Welcome!

Hey there, folks! This is Eruanna, and welcome to my blog! My activity on here is... sporadic, to say the least (meaning I'll forget about it for weeks, then have a burst of posts I saved in my drafts for ages, lol). However, you're welcome to look around anyway!

I'm also a creative type (in... several areas, probably too many, whoops), so here's a bit of a guide to what I do:

I write! You can find me on AO3, or here on my blog (#my writing, #my fanfiction, and #my stories are all available to search through my tags, but #salt and light will probably include everything). I also talk about my stories a good bit, just sort of rambling, so you'll probably find that there too.

I draw! Pretty sure it's #my art and #notebook sketch for tags (and #salt and light). It's a mix of exactly two things: fanart and random stuff I sketched up for my own stories.

I even make music! There's not much out there yet, but I have a few demos floating around. They're in the #my music tag.

Obviously, I reblog things, because this is the reblogging site XD Sometimes I make lengthy comments, and sometimes I just add a quick react and some tags, but yeah. I reblog stuff.

I also have (a million) sideblogs, so maybe check those out? @long-live-the-gobop is my technically main blog, because I made it first, but it's specifically an AIO fan blog. I also have @saved-for-me-own-stories (other stuff related to my writing), @marching-tall-through-it-all (Tangled/TTS stuff), @the-gifts-he-has-given-me (art stuff, mostly tips but a few art posts as well), @new-tag-oc (reblogging from the deactivated ones), @tpc-tangled-au (my Tangled AU featuring all my characters), and @less-lost-than-you-realize (my OTGW sideblog).

Yeah. And that's not even a third of them.

Well, I suppose that about sums it up for types of content! Oh, and just a reminder, you'll also see quite a bit of the tag #salt and light on here, because I'm both very much a Christian and very much a creator of content that flows from that.

And, because I'm a Christian, I decided it would be best to tell you where I stand from the Bible itself, so it's clear that this doesn't come from me alone but from God:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." ~ John 3:16-19 (KJV) and "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." ~ Acts 4:12 (KJV) (that one pretty much speaks for itself)

"...That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." ~ Philippians 2:10-11 (KJV) (a key word, every) "For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well." ~ Psalm 139:13-14 (NKJV) and "I was cast upon You from birth. From my mother’s womb You have been my God." ~ Psalm 22:10 (NKJV) (a key phrase, from my mother's womb) "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." ~ Mark 10:6-9 (KJV) (some key phrases, man and woman, and man and wife)

Obviously, all the words and phrases are key, because it's the Word of God, but this is just to emphasize, so it's clear what my beliefs are.

I'm rooted in what God tells us, about Himself and the world He made. Thus - regardless of what the world says God is or what the world says people are (or aren't) - I'm not going to move. This is where I stand.

As I said in my previous pinned, I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm not an argumentative person by nature, and I'm not going to try and provoke things or send people hate asks or anything. Even if they think I'm a psycho for believing the things I believe.

If that's you, just know I'll be praying for you.

And, regardless of whether you agree with me or not, I hope you find something to enjoy on this here blog o' mine! I'm just here to spread a little salt on the stories we devour and light on the shadows of this world. :)

[scarlet-alleyway]

Hey again! I hope you’re doing alright. I hear that things have been rough for you, but hang in there; I believe in you!!

I wanted to let you know that I LOVE this blog and your engagement with everyone on it. Shout-out to the anon artist for their amazing drawings, but your art style is also so good?? Being able to write AND draw is like, not fair honestly. Save some talent for the rest of us :p

Wait, I should ask a question, shouldn’t I? Formalities and all that - okay, how about this:

Do you have a favourite ROTTMNT episode, and if so, why?

Vincent, you are such a delight and i would gnaw at your enemies for you

i was keeping this in my inbox for a while because i couldn't help but keep staring at it, but to answer your actual ask at the end (whoops):

It's so hard to pick an actual favorite episode!! I think my hands-down favorite ROTTMNT experience has to be the Movie in general, but One Man's Junk (S1, EP23?), Mystic Library (S1, EP20), Pizza Puffs (S2, EP5), and Jupiter Jim Ahoy (S2, EP24) are really fun for me to re-watch too ^_^

I'm not actually sure why those are my favorite re-watch episodes, but considering Raph rotates in my mind like an action figure at all times, that might be part of the reason- scenes where his 'big brother' attitude shines just make me feel so cozy

[crazy-grrrl-on-the-computer]

Okay, sorry for suddenly appearing, but I'm too curious for my own sake. There are posts you tag with some of your OC and now I'm interested in Dark and Justice. Both are that kind of pair I would love.

I AM SO SORRY IT HAS BEEN 84 YEARS AND SO MUCH HAS CHANGED, BUT I PROMISE THEY’RE EVEN COOLER NOW!

JUSTICE TRANSED HIS WHOLE IDENTITY AND IS NOW A VAMPIRE NAMED DAMIEN, AND DARK MURDERED HIS EVIL EX AND STOLE HIS NAME //WHOOPS

Aaaah, thank you for asking about the murder babes!!!!! ;;3;; But please, you never have to apologize for asking about my OCs~ I love talking about them and I’m really glad you were curious for more information even if I somehow entirely forgot to post the original reply I had typed up before everything changed and only just recently rediscovered this Ask still floating around in my inbox!

Dark is my OC and Damien belongs to my friend @dirtflavoredcoke (you can find more OC-related stuff on their @kieranocemporium blog)

The ship has a new tag on my blog now to represent the new era and also because of just how much has changed about Damien’s backstory!

Warning: There is a massive chunk of text with accompanying art below the cut! ^^

Damien was born human to a farming family in Geneva, New York alongside his sister, Quinn, sometime during the early 1900s (1896, to be exact). Their father had hoped for many children, particularly boys, to help out around the farm but was disappointed that it appeared he had two daughters. “Appeared” being the keyword because little did they know that the promiscuous boy-crazy eldest who was caught on at least one occasion with the hired farm hand in the loft was a boy the entire time. This, of course, Quinn knew and accepted even if she didn’t fully understand her brother yet.

Although their father would have preferred him to “focus on becoming a proper lady and wife”, Damien began a career as a sex worker despite the growing risk of imprisonment that came with the US government’s rising concern about prostitution and the spread of venereal diseases brought on by the first World War. Also, he may or may not have endured some pregnancy-related trauma (miscarriage or abortion) while working that job. Either way, it is safe to presume that this wasn’t the first or last era where he would serve some amount of jail time for offenses including but possibly not limited to public intoxication, obscenity, and patronizing speakeasies during Prohibition.

But by the 1920s, Damien was dying from tuberculosis and, short of better options for survival, he allowed his vampire partner at the time to bite him and save his life. Damien had hoped that turning would allow him to spend more time with Quinn, since he had always felt quite protective of her (an understatement for sure), but he wound up having to leave her behind for her own protection, so his family assumed he had simply died from the illness. (He would later find out that Quinn would run away in grief and be turned without consent by a different vampire that same year, but they wouldn’t reunite until many decades later.)

Unfortunately, Damien’s taste in men had proven to be less than stellar, so after getting what he wanted (the bite) he left his asshole partner in the dust to figure out life as a vampire on his own. This was much easier said than done, but it did allow him to finally start transitioning socially and later, as gender-affirming care advanced in the states, he would begin to transition medically too. At some point along the way, he took up escort work until he decided to “retire” from the working life because he is admittedly too lazy to work and doesn’t think he should have to.

But this is where the backstory gets a bit blurry to my knowledge, so I will leave that up to Kieran to clarify.

Dark, birth name Ezra, is a poltergeist. I’m still working out the details of his backstory from when he was alive, but so far I’ve decided that he is descended from Italian immigrants who came to US America during the first Italian diaspora (+ he’s Irish on his mother’s side) and he died sometime in 1960s New York.

A combination of unchecked mental health struggles and a repressive Catholic upbringing during a high-tension war era already rife with racial prejudices bred just the right conditions for a rebellious streak in him. He gravitated toward the greaser subculture and acted out in ways that didn’t exactly win him many points with his contemporaries, but he was less concerned about fitting in and more focused on proving that he was his own person. Ezra had his eye on a girl, but her older brother did not approve of him and consistently tried to get between them. Eventually, in the heat of a confrontation, Ezra snapped and killed them both. While on the run, he was ultimately killed in a shootout with the police.

In hindsight, he realized much later that he had probably been trying to use the relationship to get close to her brother too but had mistaken that desire for jealousy and acted out in rage. That rage connected with his violent end is what wound up turning him into a poltergeist, which has ironically given him a lot of time to reflect through the decades and discover himself as a person via unhindered exposure to different types of people he had previously never been able to know or conceive of.

At some point, he wound up drawn to a psychic alongside four other poltergeists. A psychic’s purpose in what I call the Extended Monster Universe is more or less to act as a therapist to spirits who need to move on, but given that Lexy was only in high school and barely aware of this ability… she wasn’t exactly the best at it. But because she was determined for them all to get along and wasn’t picky about what she called her new poltergeist friends, Ezra started using Dark as an alias to avoid the irritating ordeal of being known. Unfortunately, there was an exorcist-in-training at her school who sniffed them out rather quickly. It took Dustin a while to bypass Lexy’s determination to keep her friends safe, but he eventually managed to trap them all in a spirit orb and pass them off to his older siblings – Lila and Brentley, two bounty hunters who specialize in artifacts.

It was in transit that they literally bumped into Jesse, a nobody trying to escape a bad situation, accidentally breaking the spirit orb and allowing the weakened poltergeists to seek refuse in his body. Terrified and confused, Jesse continued running and only later found out that he had somehow become a share soul for five very different poltergeists with very conflicting personalities. What this meant was that, in their desperation for safety, they had temporarily attached themselves to his soul for stability until they could regain enough of their power to figure out how to leave… and they were fighting for control. Sympathizing with them to an extent and realizing that they were on the run from the same people, Jesse made a deal with them that he would help the poltergeists find a way to escape if they helped him to avoid the bounty hunters who might do him harm for winding up in the middle of their mess.

A cross-dressing rom-com adventure unfolded from there as the poltergeists took turns attempting to resolve the “bad situation” Jesse had initially been running from and help him seduce Brentley once they realized a relationship could garner them access to artifacts that might release them from Jesse’s body. The romance wound up being more real than anyone was expecting and once again Dark was pushed to come to terms with his own sexuality. In any case, Jesse pulled through for them and the poltergeists made a break for it back out into the world at the first opportunity. From there, Dark no longer cared what happened to the other four or where they ended up (he would later on learn that at least three of them found their way back to Lexy for old time’s sake) – he felt more powerful than ever and he was going to make that the world’s problem.

This is more or less when Dark met Damien.

[This is where I would insert art of them together, if I had any recent ship art for them, but I wanted to get this reply out there sooner rather than later. ;;n;;]

One night, Dark happened to interrupt a vampire’s dinner. Seeing as he was already dead and harboring his own urge to kill, he decided that the smartest course of action would be to use the threat of exposure to blackmail Damien into letting him in on these hunts.

Of course he didn’t realize it for a long while, but practically from the moment he opened his mouth Damien already wanted a piece of him. The way Damien saw it, it was real cute that a cocky poltergeist thought he cared about something as inconsequential to him as exposure, but he did prefer his men to be the “take charge” type and what better aphrodisiac could there be than bloody murder.

Playing his newfound partner for sport seemed to be exactly what Dark wanted… until their accompliceship turned into a flirtationship (no thanks to Damien’s dirty mouth), which found its way to the bedroom (figuratively speaking). To say that Dark wasn’t the best at flirting/relationships would be an understatement, as most people think he is too awkward and blunt, but he’s a quick and willing learner. If he hadn’t recently spent so much time in the body of someone who was very accustomed to casual friendly flirtation, he might have picked up on Damien’s attraction to him sooner.

But eventually it did slip out and Dark figured that, if playing house together satisfied Damien enough to give him what he wanted, he could make this  new development work for him. Damien’s feelings were initially just another way for Dark to maintain control of the situation (or so he thought), but Damien was hoping it would only be a matter of time until Dark finally made a romantic move that didn’t involve the bedroom. Living in such close proximity to Damien and Quinn meant getting used to their personalities, habits, and routines… and feeling some way about it. Soft things.

The first time Dark noticed that he was smiling fondly at Damien, he spiraled into an intense and prolonged internal debate. Fondness wasn’t an emotion he was familiar with and it was making him lose sight of his goals. The solution was simple: Damien was ruining him, so Dark needed to kill him. But… he shouldn’t be so hasty. Perhaps Damien was still useful. Did he… care?!

After grappling with the realization that Damien’s feelings were apparently contagious, he is currently satisfied with his decision to not kill his partner because if this is what love feels like then he’d just have to be okay with it. As it turns out, it’s really nice to feel comfortable enough with someone to let them watch his back for once instead of pushing them away. This is what he’d been missing out on all those years, so maybe he can allow himself to want it.

There is more to this story (more characters and more development), but this summarizes how their found family got here pretty well.

If you have a Toyhou.se account, you can take a peek at Dark’s current in-progress profile and see more images of him here, and you can also find Damien’s profile/gallery here. They’re a bit threadbare right now, since we’ve only recently gotten started on that site, but we’re making progress!!

More art can be found on Kieran’s instagram: kieranology.artz

Kieran also made an in-character aesthetic blog for Damien, which you can find here if you’re interested in seeing what kind of blog he would have (nugoth and vampires; warning for blood, suggestive, and simulated gore content): @damienxdeadly

Aesthetic Moon Divider found here.

[beesinspades]

oh my god I haven't been tagged in one of these in what feels like AGES. thank you @the-13th-battalion!

What book are you currently reading? I started the sun and the star but I've been way too distracted with fics, writing, and drawing :(

What's your favorite movie you saw in theaters this year? in theaters? I haven't seen many, but I'd say suzume!

What do you usually wear? ever since I tried cargo pants for my milo thatch cosplay earlier this year, I've been wearing almost only that, with a teeshirt or a tank top. I also got my first pair of combat boots and I'm obsessed with them even though I still haven't managed breaking them in. but also I love jeans and a good shirt paired with a waistcoat! and when it's not hot I almost always wear an old man's cap

How tall are you? 5'7 (173cm)

What's your star sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event? scorpio. I share my birthday (not the year though) with the fall of the berlin wall. but also with lillium from countdown to countdown which is a webcomic that you all should read :3

Do you go by your name or a nickname? yes

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child? i didn't know who i wanted to be as a child and i still don't. but i do believe teen me would think I look cool at least!

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one? eternally single, and I haven't had a crush in years #greyarostruggles

What's something you're good at vs. something you're bad at? I'm good enough at writing (it's the only thing I've got going for me alongside cooking hahaha), and I'm very bad at keeping in touch with friends, especially if we don't share an obsession over the same special interest to start conversation about. which sucks because interests aligning like this doesn't happen often :') i hate how my brain works

Dogs or cats? love dogs but i'll always be a cat person :3

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what's your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year? this year and one favorite line? mmh maybe this one: “I'm a priest, remember? I’ll show you all the other ways I can worship you.” also I'm really proud of my ace vash pride art!

What's something you'd like to create content for? baldur's gate 3! I'd like to write a fic with my tav and astarion, but ah, I'm not sure I'll manage with all the trigun stuff I already have in the works.

What's something you're currently obsessed with? [glances at current state of my blog, then at my reflection in the mirror: tristamp vash hair, vash glasses, vash teeshirt, vash's gay earring, vash tattoo] do i really have to answer this one

What's something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year? nah it's fine so far in terms of things I was excited about

What's a hidden talent of yours? i can blink and whoop i've impulsively spent money I shouldn't have spent again!

Are you religious? nope

What's something you wish to have at this moment? a hug and a miracle cure for my stupidly resilient acid reflux issues

I tag @curiosity-killed, @piyo-13, @wrathyforest, @graphitedemon, but no obligations of course~

[escape-from-arcadia]

Oh btw I don't think I talked about it here (tldr at the end):

My internet use is a lot more sporadic than it used to be. This goes for Tumblr, Discord, and Instagram. Life is chaotic now as I scramble to finish summer assignments, fit my life into boxes to be unpacked in an itty bitty dorm room, and manage some family matters. My social battery is also dead. Like, I fill it up for a little bit to get me to say hi, but as soon as I start talking to someone, it dies.

But aside from life things and my social battery that desperately needs replacing, I don't want to be online as often as I used to be. I'm still going to be liking and reblogging content here from time to time, but I'm not going to be combing through tags (or my dashboard) as often as I did, say, a year ago.

This mainly stems from me learning to draw things for myself without sharing them with anyone (internet artist culture is whack sometimes). Also, rather than mindless doodles or faces, I'd like to incorporate more narrative/symbolism into my art, and post that. Kind of like that one Claire request I did, actually. Idk, I'm seeing art I'm inspired by in different fandoms right now, and I want to try my hand at it.

But, uh, maybe important thing to mention, my hand hurts from holding a pencil these days. When I say I've been drawing almost daily for extended periods of time these past two or three months (4-6+ hr...), I am not joking. My (over)work ethic for different projects this summer may or may not have had physical consequences on me. Whoops. Art can't exactly happen right now no matter how much I want it to.

ALSO, I do want to note: I see the two requests sent back in July still sitting in my inbox and I think 'SHIT I need to finish those.' I'm probably putting in more effort than I should trying to come up with interesting compositions, narratives, outfits, etc. etc. But I want it to look good!! Because I love these requests!! I need my hand to rest first though.

TLDR; I'm not going to be online much + this blog isn't going to be as active anymore. Working on liking/improving my art + finding direction. Hand is DYING though. Will finish requests when aforementioned hand is NOT dying.

[vafibrearts]

Hello Friends and Happy Tuesday!

This week, I don't have a usual post on the Fibre Arts blog due to an injury to my hand which has prevented me from sewing recently. It's not very serious and just needs a few days to heal up!

In the meantime, I'm thinking of sending my machines in for maintenance since I can't really use them right now anyway, and their last annual check up should have been in February or March, whoops!

And though I can't sew right now, I can still work a mouse and keyboard, so I'm hoping to get started on my label stencil plan. Wish me luck!

[aelaer]

“Nobody asked about my writing” meme

Thanks for the tag, @tea-understands :) Thankfully I have a small handful of folks who ask me about such things but I do love these memes.

 1: what are you currently working on? 

The Big Boy Fic! The finale of Earth-197320, which I'm 99% certain I am calling Above the Shadows. And I'll have a fun update on Write Every Day June in a couple days.

2: summarize your current project 

It's the fifth and final fic in a series that I started 4 years ago from an anonymous prompt sent to @amethyst-noir. I really clicked with it and she gave me her blessing to pursue it as a full-fledged fic, and here we are today.

Here's my first stab at a proper summary that I wrote for this questionnaire (tell me what you think y'all??):

2019 starts off in crisis-mode as rifts within the borders of reality begin spiraling out of control, drawing the resources of the Masters of the Mystic Arts thin. Tony now juggles the problems of a suddenly-absent Stephen, keeping his work with the sorcerers a secret, and Pepper's uncertain future. Stephen does what he can to maintain the stability of reality while keeping the promises he made. And somewhere out there, the other Stephen Strange is still hiding, putting his own plans into play.

3: summarize your current project poorly 

An author split up what should have been a single work into five separate stories because she wanted to fulfill Bingo cards in 2019, leading to a series that the readers are probably going to need to reread because there's so much detail in Fic 5 that calls back to stuff that happened in Fics 1-4. Fics 1-3 match the length of Fic 4, and Fic 5 is well over the length of Fics 1-4 combined, making for even poorer fic splitting choices. Whoops.

4: describe your favorite character or characters

I mean. Do I really need to? If you're on my blog you know who my faves are.

I guess quick summary as they are in the series in particular:

Stephen Strange: Has an enormous guilt complex that he's been working through a lot. He got better with the help of new friends. His work has endeared them to him quite a bit.

Wong: Has taken a leadership role, but not the title of Sorcerer Supreme for reasons not yet established to the readers. Carries his own secrets. Excellent poker face, but not emotionless.

Tony Stark: Has been blatantly ignoring the Accords ever since he went against Ross's back to find Steve in Siberia and has been continuing that trend since. Seeing the feds turn their eyes on Peter changed his opinion quite strongly. The Steve Issue is still difficult.

Other Strange: He thinks the Avengers and Masters of the Mystic Arts have failed their duties and that he can protect all of reality by himself. He just needs more power.

5: post a line from your current project without any context 

Closed my eyes and scrolled and went to a random page. This is what came up.

Oh, Jesus Christ. This explained so much about the man.

6: how do you get through writers block?

If it's not something health-related which just makes it physically very hard to work on items, I'll switch projects with my shorter fics. For a long fic like this, I'll put on a sprint and just power through 15 minutes at a time to get the harder bits out.

For health-related stuff (including mental), you sometimes just need to work on that first before you can be in the right space to write.

7: would you want to live in the world of your current work? 

Hell no. Superhero worlds are terrible for normal people.

8: briefly discuss your outlining process, if you outline 

I write an outline with the main beats of what I want in that chapter. Then when I get to the actual chapter, I'll sometimes expand the outline with more detail in that chapter section itself. I often go back to the main outline and add new things as I come up with them, or switch around elements in the story to a new chapter. This is how the planned outline has grown from around 12 normal chapters and 1 interlude chapter to 18 normal chapters and 2 interlude chapters (with potential for more growth seeing as I'm getting into some areas that have original outlining that I no longer am certain I want to use as they were ideas from over 2 years ago and the story's evolved a lot since then).

9: what is the aesthetic of your current project?

So much plot. Rewriting a lot of the end of phase 3 to push my Found Family agenda. Fix it vibes, but I think it's a natural fix it arc from the canon drama that could have happened in canon if the Russos gave a damn. A lot of character exploration into their own separate journeys and growth arcs. Pretty accurate on Marvel tones with action, drama, a bit of snark and humor. An itty bitty dash of canon romance but we all know I'm including it only because it needs to be there due to the plot and character arc reasons and not because I'm all googly-eyed for the genre.

10: what song sums up your current work the best?

Each chapter in the series takes a song lyric from a specific song and I identify that song with the story pretty heavily. For instance, Illuminating the Shadows took "The Light" from Disturbed.

For Above the Shadows, it's "Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy (who I'm seeing live in concert in a couple days, yay).

Tagging those who I know are writing/trying to write: @mckiwi, @sobeautifullyobsessed, @burglarhobbit, @amethyst-noir. No obligation either way. Also if I didn't tag you please feel free to take this (and you can poke me here if you'd like as a reminder that you're still actively writing fic regardless of the fandom and I'll try to remember for these sorts of things).

[divineerdrick]

One Piece Live Blog: Episode 49 and Chapter 98

Does Luffy even need to worry about falling? Knowing him, he's probably sweating more from the fact he would have had to start over. Again, we see Luffy lacking creativity in dealing with a problem. He should know by now that he can just haul himself up to the platform with ease. It's not like he cares if people know he's got the Gum Gum power.

Yeah, Luffy was always going to be fine with that XD

Wait. What in the world?

Okay, so he extends his leg behind the platform . . .

Smoker dodges it . . .

It wraps around the fountain.

Then here's when things get awkward. Luffy's left the frame even though we're seeing both points of his leg.

Now we're seeing him spinning around in the air in a really weird trajectory.

I think the animators just kinda dropped the ball here. I might know more after reading today, but I think what they were trying to show is Luffy's leg having wrapped around the fountain, when it unwound it caused him to spin through the air and get flung. But they either ran out of time or money to animate that, so they just repeated the scene where the leg got wrapped, then part of the animation for the kick, then just kinda move a cell around over the backdrop to try and depict it. Ouch! Won't lie, this looks really bad!

Sanji . . . Imma slap you. Yeah, she's not the one you're looking for, but you could have been a bit more polite there. Plus she's still really cute.

Also seriously! How can you miss that heart motif?

Oh! This actually fits really well! Buggy is using poker cards to do a reading. Fortune tellers were big in circuses back in the day. So this is a good thing to add to his motif.

Yeah, he really doesn't do fall damage.

So here we're establishing her right away as the Sergeant Major of this Division.

I'm a little surprised here, but not too surprised. Zoro is probably really hesitant to get involved with the Navy again. But he's still an upstanding guy. He's going to pay the Sergeant Major back, even if this is how he has to do it.

There's the connection again. Laying it on thick.

Wow! They're really giving this guy no poker face here XD

Cool! Here they're just letting Zoro recognize the sword for what it is.

Laid it on a little thick there XD

I find it interesting they did the whole thing with the glasses and the Navy office and then still did the swords, but the Sergeant Major still doesn't recognize him. I'm curious why they felt the need to add more to this arc.

I like how they're going about all cloaked, except for our "mystery" woman, but Richie is just out in the open XD

We have a name!

Alright! Time for some reading!

Sheesh, Koby!

Here, Sanji has given up on pursuing our "mystery" lady, and is instead actually getting some shopping done.

Nami's also showing off why she's such an excellent navigator.

And see! No problem!

Also, we're just jumping right into it! Looks like we've got some serious Shonen padding going on in the anime. We're getting right to who our "mystery" woman actually is. And wow is she laying it on thick! She's clearly enjoying the attention she was obviously craving before.

So our new Devil Fruit is the Slip-Slip Fruit. Apparently this prevents her from being struck and has also changed her physical appearance, though she of course only considers it the loss of a few freckles. We're also jumping straight to the sudden, but inevitable betrayal. She wants Luffy as her man. But she's going to let Buggy get his shot at him at least.

Well that certainly wasn't a thing. No real art or anything for it either. Just, "Whoops, Cabaji caught a Luffy!"

"White Chase" Smoker, huh? And apparently, this isn't a Division but Navy HQ. Smoker's also not lone wolfing it here. Instead he's actually deploying his men to make sure the pirates don't make a get away. We still spare some time for "My pants ate up all your ice cream," though. Oda knows the Navy hasn't looked good throughout the bulk of his manga so far. Smoker needs his moment to establish he isn't like the goons we've seen so far.

We have a slightly more Naval title for Tashigi here, as Master Chief Petty Officer. My understanding is Master Chief is an honorary title outside of the normal chain of command. I'm still not even close to convinced this isn't Kuina. But I want to know what the story is here.

And with everyone meeting up for the confrontation, I'm going to have to pause the manga for a bit XD

In the anime we have another story going on with Usopp in the next episode. Instead of just helping with the shopping, it looks like he's going to have to fight his own bounty hunter. Usopp is an amazing shot when he needs to be, but that tends to only be in practice or when someone else's butt is on the line. I'm curious to see how that will go down.

I'll pick up the manga again when we get to the fight at the scaffold.

[nolanrossblog]

Game Hammers

HELLO! This is the first-ever-world-renowned Game Hammers blog. There are 2 Developers on this week's post, they are hopefully going to be on future blogs as well. The developers of this blog will track their progress in the week and whatever difficulties they encountered. The mission of this blog is to create a good environment for learning and exploring. Nolam This week I was working on a witch game, so I started by creating a new unity project with some cubes. I want to set it up to be a 2.5D sort of space, where you can move left and right but also see the depth of scenes, kinda like Tomba. In this project, I set up some core mechanics like wall jumping, ledge grabbing, moving, regular jumping, and some scaffolding for more complicated things like combat.

Here you can see the little block guy finding his way in life. In my progress towards moving, I thought it would suit the game to add a sliding mechanic for rails. So you can like, slide on rails. For this, I turned to splines - which I would later regret. If you don't know what a spline is: it's a bendy line. Bendy lines are very useful but very complicated as well.

This was an attempt at a homemade spline made with the help of chat GPT. It was very rudimentary and I abandoned it after realizing unity has built-in splines. All of this so that I could make a bendy banister. For about 4 days I farted around and wasted my time with this, realizing that it's probably better to just do an easier straight line anyways. Whoops! After that cr*p, I tried to find a new productive avenue - so I went towards making some art.

The game is about a witch who has to clean a house with her broom, and crossing my vision with Flodo's, I was able to come up with a model of the character, after an interesting attempt.

that attempt ended up having cool hands, but they likely are to forever rot on my hard drive. This attempt, however, was much nicer despite having no fingers to speak of.

The character ended up having a poofy outfit that looks very warm on her - which I like a lot. I did lots of new things making this like faces and hair, and have been trying to improve my topology. Yesterday, my parents left on vacation and I am in charge of my 3 siblings. It's going to be a difficult week ahead - going back to school and stuff - so I'm excited to see what progress I can make in school and with modeling and game design. PS. Grammarly on tumblr is booty.

Spebby Hey there! This is the Spebby section of the weekly Game Hammers Blog. Like my compatriots, Nolam and Flodo, I’ll be rattling on about what I’ve been learning and doing this week of my life. It’s midterm season, and I’ve been hard at work on studying up. My focus has mostly been upon Calculus, with a focus on Parametrics, Polar Graphs and Surface Area of Rotation. I’m feeling pretty good about my study actually, I have a pretty good grasp on Integration and Convergence, and this midterm’s topics are pretty similar, so I think I’ll be all good! While studying Polar Graphs, I came across a pattern I particularly like, which I’ve dubbed “The Lotus”. Not a super original name, but I think it fits. I accidentally stumbled across this one, the function that creates it is 4cos(5θ/13). A render of it can be found below.

Outside of Calculus, what else have I been working on? As a stinky Comp-Sci major, I’ve been working on that. I’m still fresh meat. I very much appreciate my CS professor. He’s quite willing to throw us into the deep and push the limits of what our little brains can think of. I’m pretty brash, so I don’t quite give each assignment the thought I probably should. Learning about in-line assembly arguments and how to effectively use them, proper memory management, creating truly class-agnostic functions and how to write fast and efficient code. I find programming quite fulfilling and therapeutic honestly. Making something run faster and figuring out why something wasn’t working quite how I suspected is always quite the reward.

I’ve unfortunately not had much time to work on programming in the lens of game development. Perhaps Nolam has better time management than I do, he always seems to find time to crank out another prototype. Prototyping is quite the art, I’ve never really had to write something from scratch like that, Flodo or Nolam have always beaten me to the bunch in regards to these sorts of things. At some point it’s on my todo list to get cracking with a prototype. I’ve found it frustrating being limited on what I can feasibly do in a project, but to be honest that’s given me some liberty to get the creative juices flowing and try something wacky within my limitations.

Continuing the theme of academics, outside of my STEM major, I’ve been trying to take some interesting humanities classes. Anthropology has been an interest of mine for awhile, at first I thought only Cultural Anthropology would interest me, but Primatology and other Biological Anthropology subdisciplines have proven to be even more interesting to me. Learning about how odd humans are from an evolutionary perspective, and the adaptations that were taken in order to allow for our unique form of movement or perhaps our ancient ancestors, those of Selam, Toumaï and Platyops. Anthropology is such an interesting subject; If you have the ability, enroll in an Anthropology class, they’re super interesting and can teach you a lot about the world and perhaps change your worldview. 

I could go on and on, but I feel it’s best to bring this entry to a close. Be catching you next week. Perhaps we could have a longer chat, no?

[momo-crome]

Pinned post ! !₊˚⊹♡

Hello! My name is Momo, but you can call me just about anything that you’d like! I also use she/ he/ they pronouns. I'm a very much beginner artist / writer but hopefully with this site I'll be able to get better. You may not remember following me but that's just because I had previously gone under a different alias b4 so that's proballlly the reason ehehe ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀)

Oh and before I forget! I feel like it's important for me to state that I am in fact a minor !

Accounts !!

ˋ°•*⁀➷ pinterest

ˋ°•*⁀➷ ao3

ˋ°•*⁀➷ c.ai

ˋ°•*⁀➷ discord : Momo_Crome

Side blogs !!

ˋ°•*⁀➷ @momo-reblogz

ˋ°•*⁀➷ @momo-ramblez 

ˋ°•*⁀➷ @momo-doez-art

Main info :

┈❥ Alr so im gonna start off with my art! My art style does change every five seconds but I'm working on it. While I hope to get at least 1-2 pieces posted per week, I am open to any art requests that people give me! Granted, i cannot promise that i will do them since i'm not getting paid BUT i do plan on doing royale high art coms! This post will be updated once I figure out commission prices !!

┈❥along with art, i do in fact dapple into writing every now and again! Not to say that i do it as consistently as my art but i've been trying to do it more. If you're interested in more then check out my ao3 page ! its pretty blank right now but I have ideas for a whole lot of stuff i cant wait to share!

┈❥so something i feel like would be somewha important to say would be interests of mine! As for now i am very into dialtown (especially the au i have started to make for it) so expect a lot of that! Also, I'm a real big fan of breaking bad / better call saul so expect the occasional fanart or two of that! Also can't promise no deltarune content rn whoops-

┈❥ lastly! My inbox / dm’s are always open to everybody! I love making new friends, even though im a bit weird and socially awkward at times eheh

Other info : 

┈❥ i am in fact panromantic and still figuring out my gender at the moment, my pronouns may change so im just putting it out there! May even start to experiment with neos one day ehe

┈❥ i have an amazing partner who i wouldn’t trade for the world sooo :3

┈❥ you can expect me to post about my pets too! I have the worlds stupidest cat nad i love him so yall have to do <3

┈❥ i want to just say rn that i am a Marla Crown fickin ! i also do selfship heavily with callum crown as cringe as that is,, just sayin since i know that there are others on here who are just like this and i wanna be friends w em !! :D 

This is my main oc i use to draw myself with! I do plan on doing a better reference at one point or another but to me its fine rn sooo were sticking with it!

Feel free to ask any questions about em!! If you care anyway- im just itching at the chance to say more hehe

I dont really have any sort of dni !! as long as youre not being an arse to me or any of my mooties then go wild lol! but sadly due to recent events i have had to block certain people who actively support and interact with individuals who dislike me. it isn’t personal but rather i don’t feel safe knowing that fact so please forgive me

important : i don’t care who interacts with my content but if you’re gonna interact with me personally i would prefer you’d be around my age (13-17) ! if you don’t fit into then i won’t really stop you but please keep that in mind!

Although i feel like i should just warn real quickly that i have auDHD and dyslexia so i'm not quite the sharpest tool in the shed! Plus um a few other disorders i suffer with tend to aren't so sigma, mainly BPD n PTSD (i want to add udd)

Thats all for now! Tysm for reading though everything!! Have a good day / night ૮꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱ა ♡

[fartburger29]

Howdy Howdy!

Your monthly update! More below….

So…

Well I’ve been gone for almost two months! I promised myself I’d stop doing that…I draw so much, and then I hardly archive it here! Sort no need to though, your girl has been mostly doing gesture drawings and anatomy practice. In between hellish finals that is, thank god it’s over! Going to a big Uni fresh out of highschool wasn’t such a fresh idea! My plan now is to work on raising my gpa and building a better portfolio! All at…..*drum roll* community college!

Which…I really should have done in the first place but that’s OKAY!

little drawing of me from a while ago…good page breaker or whatever i dunno!

And so….well I obviously haven’t worked on my website or toyhouse yet, whoops! Haven’t had the damn time…but I think working on a Straw.page might be best for now instead of a full blown website! The link will be on my blog once that’s done…another thing I just remembered! I need to link my blogs together…I really wanna keep my *main* blog and my side art blogs separate, so I may delete or rearrange some things…I really hate having such a spread out presence on the internet, it’s a bit daunting! I think my art blogs may merge into one, and my other socials may be deleted or just kept private! Yeahhh…

A note to myself and others in the future-

my blog(s?), twitter, website (or straw.page), toyhouse, ko-fi, and youtube will all be under the name kisunyah! anywhere else im on is either private or just not associated with my art! I say this (again..I know I already posted about it) so that my art is more easily findable and easier archived! (Maybe one day I’ll have another try at a public art Instagram account…but it’s rough though…everytime I flop :’)…)

I’ll work hard to link everything when I have a chance :D I really want to share my art and make it an easy and enjoyable experience to share! - ps! I’ll be working on that test comic still! Hooray!

- Itzel, signing out againnnn! > :•3

[blur-from-the-north]

AI training statement

I don't usually do text posts on this blog, much less random rants.

Anyway, Tumblr recently decided to do a Business Move where they sold image data to AI training companies.

First, I was like "Ha ha ha ha HA! Tumblr really is a good source for that stuff." I mean, this blog of mine is deliberately an outlet of mediocre photography.

To be perfectly clear: This blog is my outlet for publishing photos that i've deemed neat. They're not necessarily my best work. Some may be excellent like that. Some may be good. Some may be not. Many indeed may be not.

So I was kind of torn about this. Should I keep opted in to this shit? Contribute to the eventual model collapse where people ask AIs to generate good pictures with tags "Nikon D780", "Stylistic", "black and white", and end up with random nonsense?

Another thing was that I actually believe in open sharing of my work, and I really don't mind people reblogging my stuff or even sharing my work elsewhere (with proper attribution/back links).

But I ended up disabling the third-party sharing.

Why? Well, primarily, because I didn't consent to that in the first place.

Also, second thing to consider:

I was actually reminded that this thing was a thing when I was watching Super Eyepatch Wolf's The Bizarre World of Fake Video Games. One Tumblr blog mentioned by the author had disappeared. Commenters said that that could have been due to Tumblr's AI policy change.

OK, so there are art blogs in Tumblr that take art much more seriously than I do, obviously. And they might not even be aware of this policy change.

Dammit.

So:

Granted, whatever AI company is foolish enough to download Tumblr data is going to get a whoooooole lot of incomprehensible nonsense shit, outright Content of Halfassery, and Weird Nerd Shit, and go "whoops! Didn't mean to add any of that!"

But they might catch an occasional bit of brilliance.

Without them knowing it.

Tumblr did a booboo. The usual way websites do this stuff is to recognise that users have the ultimate rights under copyright laws, and that the websites ask limited rights to do whatever they need to do to operate technically, and whatever exceptions there are are specified explicitly. Tumbrl's TOS already tried to cover their butt:

You also agree that this license includes the right for Tumblr to make all publicly-posted Content available to third parties selected by Tumblr, so that those third parties can syndicate and/or analyze such Content on other media and services.

An example of what it means to "make all publicly-posted Content available" to a Tumblr partner for distribution or analysis would be licensing the Tumblr "firehose," a live feed of all public activity on Tumblr, to partners like search engines.

...and despite that policy change, this thing was not added to the "examples". The examples are just about things that you expect Tumblr to do as part of third-party integration, like analytics and search engine stuff. Not stuff like, oh, agreeing to send all of the data to AI companies, and adding opt-out feature afterwards. Funny how that works!

Maybe it's high time Tumblr clarified this particular part of TOS. I'm not a lawyer, I'm a software developer nerd an an an amateur artist, I've learned a lot about intellectual property stuff as a consequence, but this stuff is still murky and Tumblr just straight up deciding to "donate" content to AI companies without users' explicit consent is straight up wrong.