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darantha · 1 year

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How to Spot AI images (Hopefully)

So, I did see GailyNovelry's excellent post on this (Link here), but saw that there also were some confusion and they were using a environment image as their example, so I thought I'd do a breakdown that was more character centric.

The key thing with AI images is that the program does not know what it is making. And, arguably, they thrive on that we are currently conditioned to not really look at things for too long before we hit that engagement button and/or just scroll onwards to whatever next the algorithm feeds us.

It's hard to fight that urge, I know, but if you just pause and look, you'll soon start spotting things that just do not make sense, and I don't just mean that the pretty booby elven fighter is sporting seven fingers on one hand. Those are the obvious things. I'll try to cover the general sort of artefacts that tend to tip me off to the fact that a image is generated rather than actually hand-made by someone making informed design decisions as opposed to trust what amounts to RNG. I think this is important as there's those who do not tag their images as AI generated, and try to scam people with commissions.

And, as the saying goes... The devil is in the details.

To start with I picked this image from deviantuser CeiEllem. At first glance, it looks... very impressive. Sharp looking elf lady with killer hair. 10/10 wish I could rock that haircolour.

But, it is AI generated. Aside from the general tell that is this hyper rendered, near photorealistic style that AI images often have, there's a lot of details that tips it off to just not having been made by a human who actually made the decisions.

Since AI is just working off patterns and not actual decisions, things like hair is a immediate giveaway that you're looking at a AI image.

(Deviantart users: daralyth, DavidZarn and lunayokai)

In all these three images you can see just how hair whisps off into weird nonsense shapes or even meld into the background or clothing. Because, again, the AI doesn't know what its doing, just working with shapes. Similarly, background elements that just stop and start randomly is a dead giveaway, like the tail in the first image.

As I've said, details is the key to spotting these images, and another giveaway is the sheer density of details that is just noise.

This is from users Rigtorok7, and the details are so noisy, absolutely miniscule in scale, and hypersharp, yet have no actual design to them. Artists imply details all the time. We don't render out every single nook and crevice, and since we actually know what we want the viewer to look at, we'll pull back and simplify things so you don't want to look at the big chunk of very noisy hair ornament or necklace instead of the face of the character.

For comparison, this is how it looks when I, personally, indulge in doing 'overdetailing' of something (because I am forever weak for painting jewelry).

BUT I want to stress that the key here isn't that detailing equals AI generated. The key is the lack of design choices IN the details. There's a lot of artists out there, and someone painting out all those nooks and crannies in something doesn't mean they are a AI user. This painting by Leighton is super detailed but you see the intent with all the details. You have a focus with the people in the boat and secondary read of the figure in the door, where the details are a lot more implied and less sharp.

AI can't do that, because AI isn't making any decisions.

I couldn't find any good example once I went looking, but if you're into fantasy art: look for people just holding weird 'swords'.

AI is rapidly evolving, so who knows how much this'll help in 3 months, but for now, this is how I spot things.

But, in the end, the biggest giveaway that someone is using an AI generator is that they've filled up page after page on deviantart/artstation/wherever in the past like... six to nine months, and often swing between wildly different styles. If you're unsure, look up the source of a image. Another clue can be generic 'untitled' or just 'elf lady' sort of titles, since someone uploading 30 images a week isn't going to make unique titles for each image.

Also, commissioners. ... you should ALWAYS get a sketch and progress image from a artist that you hire. My art directors would have my head on a plate if I didn't send them a rough sketch and progress shot before finalising the image.

#go forth #be free PSA post

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solarisfortuneia · 11 months

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— grace and coordination? who?

them with a clumsy reader. (ft. kaeya, thoma, tighnari, diluc, alhaitham, ayato, zhongli, childe.)

notes: pinkie swear this'll be the last repost for a while, bc i'm working on some new stuff mwah <3

kaeya's reaction to your mishaps depends on the situation. sometimes he's literal prince charming, the very picture of concern and worry. and other times, when you're not in a lot of danger— like when you've tripped down a set of four stairs, for example— he'll try really really hard to keep a straight face to protect your feelings.

over time, he'll develop a sense of when and where accidents are most likely to happen and take measures to either remove the obstruction, or guide you away from it entirely. however, if the situation is inevitable, he'll try his best to catch you. one downside though— or upside, depending how you see it— is that he'll always hit you with an overused, cliché line.

"looks like you're falling for me all over again, sweetheart."

this sweet, sweet boy is the most worried of all. initially, thoma thinks every scratch and every bruise is a consequence of something serious, but soon learns that they're most probably a result of your klutziness. even if you stumble lightly and regain your balance, he's instantly at your side, asking you if you're alright. he won't just take you at your word though, he'll check you himself from head to toe, and only then will he be satisfied.

he'll also carry bandages, antiseptic liquid, lotion, anything he thinks you might need. his pockets are endless. he'll even have small treats to console you after a bad fall.

"oh, dear! here, let me help you up. no injuries? good. here's a candy to cheer you up."

frankly, he's exasperated. and also very concerned. whenever you bump your head on a branch or fall backwards on your butt, he just sighs and shakes his head before helping you. he knows you're no careless fool, just very prone to unlucky incidents, so he'll spare you the lecture.

tighnari is a firm believer in the fact that prevention is better than cure. so, he'll make sure your footwear is comfortable and supportive and make you change if any parts of your outfit have the potential to be a tripping hazard. if you wear glasses, he'll remind you to keep your prescription up to date. all in all, he'll minimize the possibility of you tripping due to things in your control.

"you'll trip on that robe of yours if you walk outside wearing it. go put on something else, i'd rather not see you fall into a hole in the ground again."

diluc never expresses anything because he'd rather not come off as overbearing, but he's very careful with you. you can see it in the way he brings a hand to the edge of the table to stop you from hitting your head when you bend to pick up a spoon you knocked off the table, the way he keeps any sharp objects out of your reach, the way he's always scanning his surroundings.

he'll find himself doing all that even when you're not with him, and he'll be glad you weren't there to witness that. he'll baby proof his entire house just for you, and if he can, he'll baby proof yours too. he's the type to use the high quality silk handkerchief he carries around to bandage a scuffed knee.

"don't worry about it, cloth can be washed. the injury should be our first priority."

there is no question alhaitham can't answer and no puzzle he can't solve, except, of course, the conundrum of how you manage to stumble over air, or slip on a completely dry surface. he'll observe you carefully, try his best to figure it out but eventually he'll chalk it up to circumstances being arranged against you.

he takes matters into his own hands and just fixes said circumstances for you. beyond that, he knows he cannot do much. he has the uncanny ability to know exactly when you're about to do something where you'll end up with a bump on your head, even if you're miles apart. he's also not too worried, he knows that a tumble isn't the end of the world. the problem only arises when you don't get back up again.

he'll firmly refuse to go dancing with you though, both for his sake and yours. he'll turn you down gently and suggest alternatives.

"dance with you? i'm not sure that's such a great idea. how about we spend the evening at the café?"

kamisato ayato is grace, elegance and perfection. so it comes as a surprise to most of inazuma when they see that his partner is a walking disaster. he's fond of this trait of yours though; he thinks it's endearing. he's also very forgiving if you happen to step on his toes or bump into him. he has no issues replacing anything you break on accident too.

he knows he cannot personally keep an eye on you, so he'll have someone watch over you from afar to make sure nothing serious happens. that's not to say he won't tease you, no. even though he knows the answer, he'll always ask playfully about any recent 'misfortune' you've been a part of every time he sees you.

"ah, there you are. have you fulfilled your daily quota of disaster for the day? now now, don't give me that look, you know i'm just teasing~"

he's unfazed, really. he's seen many types of people and creatures over the years, from the most poised rulers to the most unsteady fawns. one thing he does do for you is carefully consider any gifts he's thinking of giving to you, and dismisses the item if it has pointy corners or is fragile.

zhongli's the type to fall with you so you're not alone. he was once a powerful archon, a little accident in a busy hall is nothing for him. and seeing him mimic you with a stoic face to help you feel better is always a treat to witness. then, he'll dust himself off as if nothing happened, and offer you a hand.

"think nothing of it, dearest. i simply wish to accompany you on any journey i can, even if it is a short one to the floor."

childe's first and foremost reaction is to laugh when you hit your head on a pillar right in front of you, then he'll chuckle at the face you make at him when you're offended. he can't help it! it reminds him way too much of his siblings.

he sincerely promises, with a hand over his heart, to kiss any boo-boos better. and he'll insist on lifting you in his arms, and won't take no for an answer.

"no buts! i'm carrying you home like this. after all, the best way to stop you from tripping is to make sure your feet don't touch the ground, wouldn't you agree?"

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dawnoftime22 · 1 year

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peanut butter.

| N.R

Warnings: None

Summary: Nat was having one of her sleepless nights as she enjoyed her peanut butter, but little did she know, you were awake too.

Word Count: 1k

Category: Fluff

A/N: soooo, I've been writing for a while now, and all of my work has basically only been accessible to me. I've decided it's time for me to come out of my shell and post some of them, just because it might actually be fun and not as scary as I thought it would be, so this'll be the first fic that I'm posting. I hope you enjoy! <3

| Started on 27/02/2023, 2:45 PM |

| Finished on 07/03/2023, 5:44 PM |

“In these quiet nights, I found you.”

|——————————— ⴵ ———————————|

It was 3:48 AM.

A redhead sat at an island in the middle of the dark kitchen. The streetlights outside were the only source of light streaming in from a nearby window.

It was nothing short of the usual now. She's had many sleepless nights, and this was one of them.

Natasha opens a jar of peanut butter, doing her best to be quiet as she sets the lid down gently on the island.

She then grabs a spoon, dipping it in the peanut butter to grab a scoop of it out, only for it to go straight into her mouth.

But with the small creak of the hardwood floor, and the soft padding of footsteps growing nearer towards her, she was alerted to look up.

Only to see you in your sleepy state, rubbing an eye, with your messy hair. But she didn't move an inch after she saw you. Either frozen from staring at you in your cute state, or that she didn't want you to notice her. You'd guess both.

"Nat?" You called out. You can see her shadowy figure, and the light making her orange hair glow just a little brighter in the dark, but your mind was filled with fog of being half asleep, so you wanted confirmation on whether you were seeing things or it was actually just your girlfriend.

Your hand went over to the light switch, turning on the dim lighting so you're not blinded like a flashbomb had hit you from the white lights. The orange lights covered the place with warmth, finally letting you see properly.

There, where the figure was, is someone you had correctly guessed it would be. Nat was sat holding the peanut butter jar, while a spoon was in her mouth. You could melt when you realised how adorable she looked.

Slowly, Nat takes the spoon out of her mouth, her cheeks going slightly red at the situation of her getting caught. Eating peanut butter in the kitchen. In the middle of the night.

"Hey. Sorry, did I wake you?" she smiled sheepishly, leaving the spoon in the jar and placing it on the island.

You sighed, but returned her smile weakly. "No... I just... randomly wake up sometimes." You weren't looking in her eyes, and your lips pursed. "Sleep isn't easy to get."

Her smile faded into a look of concern. It was honest. Your eyes then drifted back to her, and that was when she could see the slight eyebags on your face. Her heart ached a little when she realised you weren't getting enough sleep.

She searched your eyes for the emotions that you might have hidden from her. She could see a little hesitation, maybe to ask a question. But you didn't in the seconds that you could. Her head tilted when she looked at you with a now softer gaze.

She nodded her head tiltedly towards the peanut butter beside her. "Wanna join me then?"

Your eyes traveled to the jar, and your lips turned up slightly. "I'd love to." She smiled crookedly in her own little way as she watched you grab another spoon to share with her.

You sat down on the barstool next to her, grabbing ahold of the jar to slide it closer to you, and you scooped up the peanut butter to eat it by itself too.

When you felt her gaze just in your blurred vision that was more focused on the peanut butter, you look up, seeing her beautiful forest green eyes.

You both just sat and stared at each other lovingly. Could it be just because of the late night minds the two of you have that was super sleep deprived? Or the peanut butter having had some sort of love potion spilt into it? But it was neither. Just simply because of how much you adored her and how much she adored you, and loved every part of you.

You could do this for hours.

Sitting and admiring.

If it was anything related to her, you'd do anything for her. Even if it was in silence just like this moment.

She took a breath in, looking down for a second at her fingers, which were fiddling with each other. Then, she let the breath out, and tilted her head back up. "Why didn't you tell me you're not getting enough sleep?"

You slid the peanut butter jar back over to her, wanting to take turns on eating it. You took a second before replying. "I didn't want to burden you when you already have sleeping problems yourself."

She was about to grab her spoon out, but it instead lingered there with her hand. She looked at you when you said your sentence, and you could see how her eyes pinched slightly with sadness. "Детка, you wouldn't burden me at all." She shook her head.

"If anything your presence makes my night better." At that, you smiled. She'd always be here for you no matter the situation. And you'd do the same. The redhead ate the peanut butter before passing it back to you. It was like a game of who'll finish the peanut butter first at this point. You sat thinking about something.

"Hey, just so you know, you didn't tell me either. I thought you were finally starting to get the sleep you need." You take the chance to eat another scoop of peanut butter, but your voice had a hint of concern in it. Nat only looked at the marble island when you said that.

"I guess we both worry about similar things." She tilted her head to focus on you once more. You understood, because not only did you have similar thoughts, you knew why Natasha couldn't sleep through her late nights.

"Let's just maybe... not keep secrets from each other?" You suggested, your eyes twinkling in the dimly lit kitchen while she stared at you for a bit, before an adorable smile comes up on her face.

"No matter what?" You added, your hand sat atop the island, your pinky finger sticking out, making her huff out a small laugh, but her hand went up to intertwine her pinky finger with yours anyway. Maybe it was the sleepiness getting to her, but her heart told her to do it.

"No matter what."

—————————————————————— <3

tagging: @notevenanna

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff fluff #soft natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff comfort #🥀 dawn’s collection

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rad-roche · 1 year

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it's my neo-noir and i get to paint the cover

i'll be making a masterpost when dead woman walking is out, so i figured it'd be cute to make a themed cover for both. this'll be for the first one and i'll fill in all the text later on when it's all ready to go

speedpaint as always. i did this all in one sitting because i'm quite sick at the moment and needed the distraction. i would not recommend doing this. actually, i'd advise against it

#fallout 4 #fo4 #fallout #nick valentine #dead man talking #rochedotpng #gloria will be on the other one and will naturally be red. you know. green n red. red n green #song is 'to you' by badbadnotgood. if you ever wanted jazz filtered through a miserable robot do i have the band for you #you can tell i'm quite sick because i absolutely blundered through that sketch. i'm knocking shelves over things are on fire #but got there in the end

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yanderes-galore · 25 days

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Okay but imagine The Bishops Of The Old Faith having a darling and sharing them... That's my concept idea, thank you! :D

This'll probably be short due to the amount of characters but I'd love to experiment with this :) Idk if you wanted Narinder or not, but I included some sections with him.

Yandere! Bishops of The Old Faith General Concept/Idea

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic - Harem

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Cults/Religious themes, Overprotective/Possessive behavior, Isolation, Disturbing descriptions, Blood, Sacrifices, Violence, Forced companionship/relationship.

For this concept I imagine maybe you're some sort of companion/messenger for the Bishops.

Leshy is the youngest, the chaotic and egotistical ruler of Darkwood.

Heket is the sister of the Bishops, the cruel Bishop of Anura and a deity of famine.

Kallamar is the cowardly ruler of Anchordeep, always submissive to his fellow Bishops... he is a deity of pestilence.

Shamura is the wise yet surprisingly sympathetic ruler of Silk Cradle and deity of war.

Lastly there's Narinder, The One Who Waits, a sadistic/cruel deity of death who betrayed his siblings long ago... he resides in the afterlife but originally had a temple of his own.

Despite this... I HC Narinder was once loving towards his siblings and followers.

The Bishops of The Old Faith are powerful beings due to their crowns.

They are some of the last surviving gods in these realms.

You are a servant of The Old Faith, am enchanted mortal who serves the Bishops.

You have been given a prolonged lifespan... but are still vulnerable to death by other means.

As a servant, you have grown a bond with the Bishops.

Leshy often looks forward to your presence in Darkwood, welcoming you into his temple and growing gardens of flowers for you to enjoy.

As egotistical as he is, the young Bishop adores yours presence.

Heket often orders followers offer food to her so she can prepare feasts for her beloved friend and servant in Anura.

She warms up to you, as you are well loved servant of her siblings.

Kallamar shows giddy excitement when you visit Anchordeep, often supplying you medicine with Leshy's help if you need it.

Kallamar even enjoys creating trinkets from crystals to give you.

Shamura welcomes you to Silk Cradle with a fanged grin, soothing your mind with wise tales as you sit in a silk hammock.

They do hope their siblings have treated you well...

Narinder often invites you to his temple to help tend to the dead and wish them off to the afterlife.

Narinder is the one who has blessed you with a long lifespan... but he wishes he could make you fully immortal to all wounds.

Each Bishop loves you deeply, sharing you amongst themselves as you roam the regions.

Their bond with you often causes fights.

The typical sort of siblings fights... right up until Narinder's betrayal, at least.

For the most part they work together to care for their dear servant.

Followers who do not respect you are harshly punished by their Bishops.

You are a key figure in their faith, worshipped as the loyal servant of The Old Faith.

Even when Narinder betrays his siblings with differing beliefs, he tries to drag you into his prison to keep you away.

The other Bishops, his siblings, disagreed with such a thought.

Now your time with them is different.

The remaining Bishops are more cautious and overprotective of you.

While Narinder, now known as The One Who Waits, pines for you within his prison.

Leshy holds you close in the gardens of Darkwood, unable to see you due to his gouged eyes.

Heket keeps you fed, but conversation becomes harder for her.

Kallamar is now even more fearful than ever, hearing dulled due to Narinder's torment... he never wishes to let you go and begs you to stay with many crystal gifts.

Shamura is now less sane, yet still wise... always speaking in riddles and keeping you wrapped away in Silk Cradle for long periods of time.

The remaining Bishops keep you under close watch, protective yet thankful Narinder never got his claws on you.

Meanwhile Narinder plots his escape... planning to have his revenge for being imprisoned.

As lamb after lamb is slaughtered... growing fear makes the Bishops' obsession worse.

Your freedoms are restricted the longer things go on...

Soon your only relief may be Narinder's release at the hands of The Lamb.

Only then will your ties with Leshy, Heket, Kallamar, and Shamura will be lifted...

In exchange for possibly an even worse beast... changed from his previous self due to years of imprisonment.

#yandere cult of the lamb #yandere cult #yandere cotl #yandere leshy #yandere bishop leshy #yandere heket #yandere bishop heket #yandere kallamar #yandere bishop kallamar #yandere shamura #yandere bishop shamura #yandere narinder #yandere bishop narinder #yandere the one who waits #yandere bishops of the old faith

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triple-starsss · 25 days

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Hopping off my hiatus for a quick sec to make an announcement?? SORT OF??? (shadow the hedgehog is a bitch ass motherfucker- (i'm so sorry))

less than 20 followers away from 500 so i figured i'd start working on the interview a little early to get ahead (and so there's not a huuuuge time gap between actually getting to 500 and posting the damn thing abdsjh) OH AND YEAH TRIPLE S INTERVIEW WON THE POLL SO DOING THAT!!!

ESSENTIALLY, FEEL FREE TO START SENDING QUESTIONS IN FOR ME TO USE!!

hell doesn't even need to be a question, could be a 'fan' interaction or a paparazzi shot, be as creative as you like :]]

feel free to mention other characters too! questions don't need to be limited to being about Sonic, Silver and Shadow, so if you wanted to ask about one of their friends or relatives (something in-universe fans may not be aware of), go ahead!! this'll be like some weird mix of canon but not quite if you get what i mean.

I'm planning on compiling everything into a video- think the twitter takeovers, it'll be something like that however i plan on not necessarily animating it, but making it a little more visually interesting (especially since there isn't gonna be any voice acting, GOTTA DO SOMETHING TO COMPENSATE)

oh and i can't guarantee that i'll do every single question i receive, this'll take me a while as is but i'll try and do most :)

#triple☆s #sth #sonic au

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shantechni · 8 months

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This hit me out of nowhere like a water balloon left in the refrigerator for 3 hours so bear with whatever madness you're about to see because I don't even know what I'm going to say but I do know I'm 100% reaching like crazy with some stuff

It's common knowledge that Splinter spends the least amount of "lesson time" with Mikey, and it's a common consensus that Splinter doesn't need to spend much "lesson time" with Mikey considering how he tends to figure things out for himself. But I don't really see much acknowledgement of their scarce amount of "lesson time" greatly impacting Mikey over the course of the series. Unless I'm not treating this enough like a "Where's Waldo" game, idk-

Putting aside Karai's Vendetta, it takes a grand total of 31 episodes for us to see Mikey get any one-on-one "lesson time" with Splinter.

We see throughout S1 that Mikey is likelier to go with the flow of one of his brothers' plans or suggestions during a mission than doing something major on his own. It's simply the more favorable option for everyone than him screwing things up or getting himself in trouble. His "friendship" with Bradford was his first time landing himself and the team in hot water, and he's evidently remorseful near the end of the episode. Not only did his actions cause trouble, but he was being used by who he thought was his first human friend, and he learns that every human isn't so accepting like April.

He screwed up, and everyone had to pay as a result.

That could be part of the reason why Mikey was so adamant about befriending Leatherhead; he saw good in the alligator and wanted his brothers to believe that he wasn't screwing things up again. The guy's a mutant like them and he's fighting the Kraang, there's no way this'll go like the Bradford incident.

Meanwhile, his moments of silliness are often reserved for lowering the tension of a situation, or because the urge is there to be given into, but his brothers tend to view this behavior as him being the typical goofball they know him as. Which unfortunately painted a permanent image of himself that rubs him the wrong way.

That leads us to Parasitica, and it's quite the significant episode because it's the second time we see Mikey express blatant frustration at his skills and mental fortitude being underestimated. He proves to his brothers that he's capable of finishing a job on his own, following directions to a T, and making things work with his own plan of action. But his earlier soiling of Leo's comic ruins his moment of accomplishment and the episode ends on a comedic note. It show us that the guys are sometimes reluctant to praise Mikey because of his tendency to let things go to his head and, in the process, Mikey sometimes doesn't feel respected by them, something he expressed to Bradford way back when.

Come S2 though, Mikey immediately screws things up and adds to his brothers' list of reasons to not respect him because he doesn't quite read the room when he admits their wrongdoing, nor does he expect April to react so strongly to something he sees as an innocent mistake on their part. He's used to joking around or speaking lightly about serious manners to ease the tension, but not only did that not work this time around, it served to make things worse in a way.

We don't see Mikey get reprimanded since he was right to tell her that their mishandling of the mutagen is why Kirby was mutated, but I'd believe it if Ciro Nieli randomly stepped forward and said it did significantly affect him. His slip up doesn't affect him too heavily though, at least not enough for him to avoid aiding the team in finding mutagen and fighting the Foot clan. Not only that, he saves the day with the help of popcorn and a septic tank when they're attacked by the squirrelanoids, and the guys willingly praise him for his actions.

But we don't get anything really centered on Mikey until the fifth episode of S2.

He has a moment of enlightenment and he chooses to dabble in some mutagen off screen to be cooler and less like the typical goofball his brothers often label him as. Of course, this greatly backfires on him as the mutagen that makes up his body becomes unstable and threatens to explode in an unpleasant manner, so the turtles spend most of the episode focused on curing him rather than trying to work through what made him resort to such measures in the first place. They even prove Mikey's point in one particular scene when he makes a suggestion that goes ignored and adds to his disappointment.

Once they finally cure Mikey and prevent him from meeting an untimely demise at the hands of mutagenic acne, Splinter is the one to reassure the youngest turtle that he needn't change himself to appease his brothers. Mikey moves on from Splinter's wisdom to gloat about being right when they didn't believe him, to which Leo tells him he just took a gamble because had no idea he'd be right about it, and the episode once again ends on a comedic note with Mikey being the one who again saves the day.

I said near the beginning of this that Mikey's usual behavior during missions was to go along with whatever was asked of him, and he has the tendency to go in the same direction that those around him appear to be going.

Post the acne incident however, there's a noticeable shift. Maybe Splinter's words really resonated with him, or maybe his learning experience gave him the realization he needed, I don't exactly know.

Either way, Mikey changed.

This happened with the giant wasps and squirrelanoids as well, but it's not until S2 is halfway over with that we see Mikey really start to trust his instincts more and become less reliant on his brothers to help save the day. He still seeks their strength and smarts when in a rough spot mind you, but when he sees an opportunity to deal with something on his own, he takes it and doesn't wait for permission or looks of mutual agreement.

His use of Ice Cream Kitty in their second confrontation with the Rat King could count as one such instance since he enacted his own whimsical plan, but I'd be inclined to include any other instance of him doing something similar before then. A better representation of the point I'm trying to make is his solo endeavour into Dimension X. It takes 19 episodes after his acne incident for this to happen, but it's our first huge instance of Mikey initiating and going through with something that goes completely against his brothers' wishes.

One probably thought Mikey would sit tight and somehow manage to involve himself in Leatherhead's rescue later on, but Mikey catches his brothers off guard by running off into danger head first without waiting for anyone. And we see when the guys find him that he miraculously adapted to the new universe; he could take care of himself, he knew how to handle these otherworldly enemies, and he repeatedly helped his brothers and educated them.

This becomes a recurring pattern whenever they enter Dimension X, but Mikey's whims pulling the others into a direction they don't expect to go happens more with each season. The same thing happened when he ran away and found Napoleon, though not to quite the same extreme; he quickly became acquainted with him and acclimated into the group of mutant frogs.

He got by in these situations by being himself. Not like a cooler version that his brothers would probably prefer, but his usual, outlandish, and unorthodox self.

Other than an astounding sense of adaptation that's far above his brothers', he sticks with his gut in the face of retaliation and doubt. He was the only one to sense something wrong with April's mom, and he isn't subtle about it at all, even when his suspicions get him on everyone's bad side. He could've easily laid low for an opening or gone along with everyone else's acceptance of her, but he doesn't. He isn't going to change his mind just because his claims seem crazy and make him look paranoid.

Again, we see something similar whenever everyone second guesses his knowledge of chemicals and compounds. Donnie nearly had an aneurysm when he found him tampering with the retromutagen before their big fight with the Kraang, but he was soon delighted to see the positive results of Mikey's tampering. And when Mikey accidentally bumped a bit of the mind control cure onto Donnie in The Creeping Doom, he decided he should be the one to fix things and made an antidote for Donnie. It's a bit funny how Mikey did both of these things without truly knowing what the result would be, and even he was surprised to see that his concoction worked to cure Donnie of his slow decay of intelligence.

Either way, he usually knows when he's right. He knows he can do so much more than his brothers believe he can at times and he goes out of his way to prove it.

This is getting long (could've been extra long if I really wanted to go in-depth), and I already briefly mentioned something similar for S5 in this post, but I just really like how apparent it is that Mikey embraces who he is more and more as the show goes on. Electric powers? Boom, I'm using them. Seal's broken? Boom, bubblegum. Mutagen bomb ended the world? Boom, I'm making a map that only I can understand.

Fr tho, he once felt insecure about his weird way of behaving and thinking, most notably when he's in a situation that would usually call for the types of planning and actions his brothers are better known for.

But now it's something he utilizes and even holds over everyone's heads at times.

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pumpkinheadspacestation · 2 months

Text

Back with another age guide post! Feel free to check out my other posts! I'll be making age guides all the way up to 13!

Intro to the age guide posts

One year age guide

Two years

Three years

I'd also like to just add in here, the goal of these posts is to help regressors find their regressed age(s) and to help caregivers help their baby when they are regressed to that age. I'd also like to add in that even if you regress to a certain age, you may not identify with every trait, like or dislike that this post has listed because regression is very individualized and each and every baby is different.

Now on to the post!

Agere Age Guide

4 years edition

Traits and Behaviors

☠︎︎ These cuties are learning how to count up to ten and learning how to tell stories and also recall certain parts of stories, they can also how confidently recall and identify certain things they want, most of the time these babies can also string together a coherent sentence "I want to read Goldie locks and the three bears for bedtime"

☠︎︎ You've made it past the terrible twos and threatening threes! These tots should be better at sharing, taking turns and following the rules of simple games. These tykes also enjoy the company of friends a lot more than they have before the fours, they love to chat and okay with babies their age

☠︎︎ Toddlers this age are starting to develope their own personality, they start to have a sense of humor, they become increasingly independent and they love to brag and show off what they can do

☠︎︎ As far as baby babbles go, that should be in the past for these fours, they're starting to tell longer stories and their pronunciation of words should be 100% clear and not just to mama or dada

☠︎︎ Running, jumping and playing are all exciting things for these little ones! They love to jump around and play catch and they're better at it than ever before. Be prepared to chase these babies around the house because they are filled with energy and they have some to spare

☠︎︎ Along with these new and exciting developments, you have to keep in mind that these tots are still toddlers and now that they have more complex personalities, you may start seeing more complex behavior. You're still going to see tantrums and defiance, these babies are still learning how to cope and feel their feelings.

☠︎︎ These tots are fully potty trained and have been for a little while! They no longer need help on the potty and can do it all on their own. Along with this, they can pick out their own outfits, and dress themselves

Activities!

These teeny tykes can play lots of different games but now is the time to spark imaginative and creative play! They love lots of imagination and creative activities, follow the lost bellow to find an activity you or your baby will love

☠︎︎Dress up! Dress up is a great way to let your tot express themself, they get to try crazy new styles and costumes they don't get to try that often, this is a great way for your tot to get creative, missing and matching makeup looks and clothing to make costume is an activity packed with fun

☠︎︎Dance and Sing! Write and perform songs on your pretend stage with your tiny tot, let them sing and dance their heart out, pretend to be a famous singer who's touring the world or get a little crazier and pretend to be an astronaut performing for aliens! Either way, this'll be a fun activity for any rocker baby out there

☠︎︎Craft time! Preschool crafts are easy to look up and find, drive your baby to the nearest craft store and pick out some supplies, fancy paper, tiny pompoms, popsicle sticks, markers, and crayons, then, have a blast with it! See what silly crafts you and your baby can make, you'll have to put the amazing craft they did up on the fridge to show how talented they are!

☠︎︎Imaginative play is peek fun for tots in there fours so toys like barbies, calico critters, action figures, ponies, doll houses, shopkins, lol dolls, baby dolls and much more are all super fun toys for a growing imagination, they can out their toys in a bunch of different scenarios and play it out. It's their own little world and it'll be tons of fun for them to let their imagination run wild!

☠︎︎As stated earlier, these tots can play just about any game and it's time to experiment! These babies are forming their own preferences and individuality so getting them to try and have positive experiences with lots of different activities and games is super important, take them swimming, play catch, play rock star, and barbies, and dinosaurs and sharks, play trains and have crafting time, out together puzzles and cook together! Anything you can imagine, they have space for in their heart

Food!

☠︎︎The palate of a four year old is simple and you don't want to overwhelm them with too strong or too many flavors. A simple grilled cheese or ham sandwich will do and they'll eat it happily. It's hard to make three meals a day for tots and so you don't want to make a four course meal and you don't have too. These babies are happy with oatmeal and cereal, they like gold fish and pop tarts as snacks, give them some carrots and ranch and they'll be a happy baby.

Dinner time foods may get a bit more complicated but dishes like meatloaf and pasta are great choices for babies in their fours. Cook up some cheesey spaghetti and these babies will be happy

As far as sitting down three times a day to eat a full meal, that might be the hard part, so instead of forcing a small to sit three times a day for an hour or more, try offering small snacks throughout the day and serving smaller meal portions, this makes everyone happy because your baby doesn't have to sit down as long, mama/dada doesn't have to cook big meals and you're both fed

Shows and Movies!

Shows and movies that interest these tots are very individualized so you may want to ask your baby what their favorite shows and movies are but even with that being said, I'll still list some shows they may enjoy.

These tots fall into the same category as the twos and threes, they still enjoy bubbly, easy to follow cartoony characters, they also enjoy somewhat educational shows and movies at this age, their brain is super curious and wanting to soak up information like a sponge so try putting one of these shows on for your tiny tyke:

☠︎︎Octonauts

☠︎︎Doc mcstuffins

☠︎︎Story bots

☠︎︎Sid the science kid

☠︎︎Bluey

☠︎︎Word World

☠︎︎Daniel Tiger

☠︎︎Blippi

☠︎︎Bubble Guppies

☠︎︎Curious George

These aren't all the shows you could put on for you tiny tot, just a short list and a quick goggle search or scroll through your favorite streaming app, you can find a bunch of tiny shows for your tiny to watch!

Boundaries and Safeties

Now that all the fun stuff has been said, it's time to talk about the most important thing, knowing your babies boundaries before they fall into a headspace around you. Your main goal is to keep them happy and healthy and Safe so talk to them about what they like and what they don't Prior to them getting into baby space around you. Care giving is exciting but only when we're helping Not when we're harming.

Be open to listening if your baby has an issue or a need that's not being listened to or met. Your regressor is not attacking you when they talk about their needs, they're feeling hurt or neglected, they tell you about it because they Want to make your relationship work not because they're trying to hurt you.

That concludes this post! I hope this was helpful to any caregivers out there or heck even any age regressors trying to find where they fall on the age spectrum. Thank you for supporting my blog and reading my post!

#age regression community #sfw littlespace #sfw age regressor #agere little #sfw smolspace #sfw agere #sfw age regression #caregiver #agere sfw #age regression sfw #agere guide #age regression guide

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mazeinthemiroh · 1 year

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Headcanon how skz would confess to their crush?

how stray kids would confess to their crush

genre: headcanons; fluff

word count: 1.7k

warnings: cursing, i got emotionally invested in hyunjin's and jeongin's so ignore me

pls like and reblog if you enjoy <3

bangchan

there's not a lot helping this man honestly

he spends days racking his brain for a good way to tell you that he is completely and utterly in love with you

should he make a grand gesture?

should he be smooth and nonchalant with it?

he's a libra so his indecisiveness is sort of a given lmao same bro

he even consults stays on his weekly channie's room live, only to be spammed with various ultra cheesy pick-up lines

if you were a transformer, you'd be Optimus fine

he ends up trying to do it on a whim

which is unlike him. he tends to plan everything to a T

but he feels that with feelings like love, there's not much to plan. he forces himself to be impulsive

and it works!

he makes it a casual affair: just two friends hanging out in a familiar setting (chan needed the familiarity to calm his nerves a bit)

and he just came out with it

"listen, i know we've been friends for a while. but i can't help the romantic feelings i now have."

he'd give a little shy smile, his eyes trying to look into yours but he can't hold your gaze for long enough.

"so, i was thinking maybe we could... go out? i'd think we'd be really good together."

lee know

my gosh

it takes so freaking long for minho to confess to you it's actually frustrating

infuriating, even

you guys are practically dating anyway with the way you flirt and feel comfortable with each other

people see you guys together in public and assume that you're already dating

so YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE

but nothing was confirmed

no words solidified a definite bond

so things felt a bit uncertain, even with the definite mutual liking between you both

minho takes his sweet time that's for sure

he just wants to be certain that you like him the way he does too. sometimes he has a hard time differentiating between people who are being friendly compared with people who are actively taking a romantic interest

he wants to make sure his feelings are being reciprocated in a genuine way

it's hard to read people sometimes

once he's certain that you like him the way he does, he will just come out and say it

"hey, you wanna go out with me?"

he would say it with a little, shy side grin. i mean how can you say no to that??

changbin

changbin is not-so-subtle about his feelings for you

it's written all over his face from as soon as you walk in the room

he's wrapped around your finger

and he's confident in himself too

so there's nothing really stopping him from just going up and asking you out

but he needs to know where your heads at before he makes THE move

considering he hangs out with you a whole lot anyway, this comes quite easily to him

"are you interested in someone at the moment?"

he'd ask. and you'd answer, "yes actually." and his plan goes downhill from there.

does that mean you're interested in someone else or... or maybe it means you're interested in him??

"oh? who's that then?" he'd ask, a jealous tone not well-hidden

"oh i can't say," you'd shake your head playfully.

he's suddenly quiet when he figures out what you're trying to insinuate. he'd thought this'll be easier.

you'd give him some help at this point

"but he's got an outgoing personality. big muscles. and a handsome face, too." you'd smile at him knowingly, hoping he'd take the hint.

he almost laughs at himself for not realising before. that's all the reassurance he needs.

"well, from what i hear, he likes you too. a lot."

hyunjin

oh, my precious hyunne

this man would only ever fall for someone who is really close to him

i'm talking best friends, joint at the hip, couldn't live without the type of closeness you share

you're his no. 1

and you know it

spending a lot of time with hyunjin on a regular basis and you know that, just by the way you catch him looking at you, there is something much more than friendship taking place

one time you were sitting on the living room floor with him, laughing your heads off

it was late and night and obviously, the perfect time for hyunjin to do your makeup

because why the heck not

he's making you look like a clown. why did he choose that shade of eyeshadow? and why is lipstick on your cheeks

"you look so much better like this" hyunjin teased in between hysterical laughs

"shut uppp hwang hyunjin!" you tried to push him away and prevent him from doing any more. "just you wait until i do your makeup."

after the laughter settled down he looked at you with a loving gaze. that was when you both realised how close you were together. there was such an immense fondness in his eyes that told you everything you need to know

and soon, his lips were connected to yours

his confession.

han

being close to han is your gateway to his mind

it's hard to imagine that someone like han, who can be quite hesitant and awkward with getting too close to people despite being loud and usually the first one to break the ice

that he could be so naturally himself with you

even as a friend, he's quite touchy. usually reaching out to hold your hand or pulling you in for a cuddle on the sofa

that's how you know that he likes you before he even confesses

he's not like this with anyone

it'd be when you are cuddling up together, pizza all eaten and anime playing on the tv

this was perfect.

han would let out a big, content sigh and nuzzle into you

the absent-minded phrase of "i love you" would slip out in this peaceful moment

and suddenly you both forget how to breathe. you raised your head off his shoulder.

"huh?"

...

the silence was unbearable

"i mean uh... i love this anime. yeah. it's my favourite. i've actually watched the whole thing so i don't know why i'm watching it again. anyways *fake yawns* it's getting late, i might go to bed."

you just chuckled at him, feeling so relieved of his feelings for you.

very smooth, han. very smooth.

felix

i'm so on the fence about him

like i can totally see him being hella romantic and thinking the whole thing through

he'll end up buying you flowers and a box of chocolates, you know, the cliche things that a cute af

and he will knock on your door and present you with these things with a beaming smile and some sweet words to serenade you off to the land of romance

he will confess to you all at once

no warning, no coherent reasoning, no thought behind those eyes

just felix's enfp brain going absolutely haywire, we love to see it

i usually go with the latter for him. because, while he is super duper romantic and wants his feelings to come out in a perfectly curated way, the likelihood is that his intense feelings for you will get the better of him

he can't hold himself back before he even thinks about it

"you're so gorgeous"

he'd say as he looked at you from across the kitchen. the both of you had just finished making brownies together and felix couldn't help but find you the most attractive you have ever been right now

"oh?" you'd say, taken aback by his forwardness

felix's heart dropped for a second. but that feeling was momentary. he soon felt light and happy, and a smile breezed over his face

"yeah" he'd reply, warmly, "so gorgeous, i might even give you a little kiss"

seungmin

seungmin is so precious CAN WE TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE THAT

he is just so ;-;

anyways he thinks long and hard about confessing to you

which, in other words, means he puts off confessing to you for like so many stupid-ass reasons

what's putting you off seungmin? the candles? the moonlight? the fact that your venus isn't in retrograde???

like JUST DO IT

he builds up to it though, bless him

it's just in his nature. he wants to pace himself STREAM MY PACE BTW

he might warm up to it. perhaps becoming more bolder with his compliments for you

"that colour really suits you"

"you should style your hair like that more often"

"i find it so easy to talk to you, which is a rare feeling for me, honestly"

and soon he's buying you cute little gifts

"i saw this and thought of you"

i mean that's code for 'i love you' anyways but whatever

he finally gives you a very personal gift for you, with a note attached to it: "to the person i love most. you deserve it"

why you gotta make us cry like that seungmin, gosh??

jeongin

jeongin found it harder talking to you in person

he can be a shy bean at times

an absolute cutie-pie

but he didn't want you to just know him for his shyer side. he didn't want his social hesitance to push you away from getting to know the real him

luckily, you had each other's numbers

and the texting was constant

staying up all night just talking to each other. you both got zero sleep but the rush, the joy, the familiarity of these texts were more tempting than any type of sleep was

you got to see his witty, intelligent personality. his sense of humour. you got used to the way he teased you, and boy did you like it

these interactions made it ten times easier to talk to each other in person

but one night, jeongin confessed to you

"i fucking love you btw"

he wasn't drunk. he supposed he was sort of... caught up in the moment. it came out of nowhere.

waiting for your response was torture

he waited, and waited

and waited some more

nothing.

until the next time you met face to face. he was dreading this interaction until you grabbed him swiftly. your lips connected in passionate bliss until you both pulled away

"i fucking love you too"

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bruhhhh-huhhhhh · 2 months

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i need some… junkerqueen x (T)male reader where she just kind of comforts him with his eating disorder.

i sometimes literally can’t bring myself to eat, not cause anything is wrong i just… can’t? food is icky.

thank you adrien, truly. you are everything.

anything for you pookie (I'd like to formally apologize for that)

Y'all see that trigger warning in the ask? Yep, that carries over into this piece. Crazy, right? Anyway, this'll have themes of eating disorders and unhealthy relationships with food. If that isn't the thing for you, then please don't read this. I don't want people getting triggered by this. I love y'all too much for that.

Odessa pushes the bowl towards you once again, trying to get you to eat the food that she had made. "Love, you really gotta to eat something."

You pushed the bowl back, just the thought of picking up the spoon and putting the soup into your mouth made you want to vomit. "I can't, Dez," you respond quietly.

Your girlfriend sighs, frustrated, and you could feel tears welling in your eyes. The two of you had been at this for almost an hour. Something wasn't right today. You couldn't understand why she couldn't get that you just couldn't eat. If you did, you'd just throw it right back up.

"Love, I'm really trying here. You haven't eaten all day. You really, really need to get something in you before the day is over."

Biting your bottom lip, you tried really hard not to let the tears spill.

You failed.

The warm tears glided across your cheeks and Odessa's face softened. She scooted her chair so that she was sitting next to you instead of across from you and wraps on arm around you, pulling your face into her chest. "Oh, y/n," she said, rubbing a hand up and down your back.

"I'm sorry," you cried.

"Nah, don't be sorry. It ain't your fault. I know you don't want things to be like this."

You gripped onto your girlfriend's shirt for dear life, trying to convey how you were feeling without saying anything. Before you could try and stop her, Dez picked you up and held you bridal style. "We're gonna lay down, m'kay? Maybe you need some time to chill before trying to eat again."

You nodded weakly and let her take you to your bed, the bowl of soup forgotten on the table.

Dez laid you down before climbing in herself, letting you rest your head on her chest. She ran a hand through your hair, and another wrapped around you protectively.

"I don't do it on purpose," you said.

"I know you don't."

"It's just that sometimes I look at food and just feel sick. Doesn't matter if it's my favorite food ever, I still feel like I'm going to hurl if I eat it. And I hate it. I hate it so much because I just want to eat like a normal person."

"I know."

"Why can't I be a normal person? Why can't I just eat food like most people do? Why do I have to be so fucked up that-"

Odessa cuts you off. "You're not fucked up. It ain't your fault. Yeah, sometimes you feel sick when you try to eat. That don't mean that you're fucked up. You just need some help. Every good warrior needs help sometimes. I need help sometimes. Don't mean I'm weak. You think that makes me weak and fucked up?"

"No."

"Then there's your answer. Just cause you need some help don't mean nothing. Now, shut up and take a nap. We'll try again later, and if you still can't eat then we'll figure something out."

You nodded and stayed silent for a little while. "I love you, Dez."

"I love you too. y/n."

#junkerqueen simp supreme #junker queen x reader #junkerqueen #junker queen #queen of junkertown #overwatch junker queen #bean writes

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thatlittleegyptologist · 6 months

Note

I'm doing nanowrimo this month, and i've already run out of puff after 600 words :( any advice on bashing out 50k+ words in one evening? love your fanfic <3

Thank you! Uhh I can't give advice on 50k words in a day (the most I've ever managed was 15k in one day) but as someone who's written both long ass fanfics and a long ass PhD thesis, but I can give some general writing advice (as much as I can while being some rando with no real experience).

Try to set a goal for the amount of words in a day, but don't be bound to it. For instance, with my thesis I had a very low goal of 500 words a day because it was a long project and I needed to research a lot. More often than not I would write more than that, and sometimes I'd write less. It didn't really matter as long as I'd written something. With fanfic, I tend to set a goal of 2k words a day, which I find pretty manageable, but that's mostly because of how I structure my own writing. I don't beat myself up if I don't hit that target I set for myself.

That being said, with nanowrimo there's a time limit, so you've got to learn to manage your time without being obsessed with the word count. The more you obsess about the word count, the less you're going to be able to write because you're too busy thinking 'uhhh I've only written X number of words' and not actually focusing on the story you're writing. You have to let the story take you where it's going rather than worrying about 'is it enough'. When I switch that part of me off I end up finishing a scene I was writing and seeing that it's 1.3k words and I hadn't even thought about it.

Don't be afraid to scrap things if they're not working. Sometimes you've got this whole plan and you think 'yeah no this'll be good' and then the characters won't go there. You sit and slog trying to get them to go along with what you want but they don't move and neither does your word count. At that point, you have to decide if this is because you've hit a bit of a block, or if it's something the characters shouldn't be doing in this story. If it's a block, go do something else and rotate the scenario in your mind like a daydream and you'll likely figure a way out. If it's something the characters shouldn't be doing because it no longer fits with the story you're telling, then you'll have to do the classic 'kill your darlings' and remove it. Don't kill the idea entirely! Keep it in a different file for another story if it works there. I've had to do that with my own work, where I'm trying to make something fit because I thought it was cool and the characters don't want to do it, so I scrap it and take it in an entirely different direction that feels natural and thus becomes easier to write.

Description is key. I say this with all the love in the world, but some people have taken the fact that 'it was a dark and stormy night' is a trope and just gone in an entirely different direction where they fail to describe anything at all. Description of a room, the lighting, the mood, the atmosphere, people's feelings, the actions they take between speaking all add to your word count, and they're important for helping your readers see the world you're in. For instance, there's a difference between:

He entered the hall before him, taking in his surroundings. There she was at the end of it all, sat on her throne, looking angry with him. "So you finally decided to show your face?" she said spitefully. "You know I would not be this late if I had any other choice," he replied.

and

He entered the vast hall before him, taking in his surroundings. The light was dim through the stained glass, casting a gloom over the walls. As he walked purposefully forwards, his footfall was hushed by the length of carpet underfoot, making the clink of his armour echo louder in the alcoves. There she was, the woman he sought, slouched lazily on her throne, a look of bored disdain crossing her features as she eyed his approach. When he was almost upon her that look turned to fury as she sat up, hands clasped in front of her, her green eyes blazed with the anger she was yet to release upon him. "So you finally decided to show your face?" she asked spitefully, one eyebrow raised in condescension. "It's a wonder you dared to come back at all considering your behaviour." He sighed. It wasn't as if he didn't deserve her ire, but he wished she'd let him explain himself first. "You know I would not be this late if I had any other choice," he replied, stepping closer to her. "I would never willingly hurt you this way. You have to believe me."

See how, with a little description and set up, you go from 54 words to 193 words without much effort? I've not said anything new really, I've just set the scene a little more so it matches the mood of the characters and the tone of the scene I'm writing. I mean I've just made that up on the spot, but you get a better feel for the characters I'm dealing with than you did in the first example.

5. Take breaks. Sometimes it really isn't going to come to you in the next few hours. Go away, do something else, and come back to it later. In fact, it's okay not to come back to it at all if you're just not in the right frame of mind to do it. Forcing yourself won't help you or the story you're trying to write, so always take time to reset your brain at come at it in a better frame of mind. 6. Plan where you want to go with what you're writing but don't bind yourself to that plan. I always have a rough outline so I know where I want to go, but as my beta can attest, I won't always stick to it if either it doesn't work or I think of something better as I'm writing it. If you bind yourself too hard to where you think the story should go, you can cause problems in moving forward (see again: kill your darlings) 7. Re-read what you've already written. You have to sit there and ask yourself 'is there any way I can improve this?' 'have I used the same adjective twice in as many sentences and can I use a synonym to break that up but still convey the same meaning?' 'Would the character really say that?' 'are they yelling when really they should only have a raised voice?' etc etc. I go through my own work, regularly (again my beta will attest to the googledoc we have where I will re-read a chapter and just go to town) editing how things are phrased or dialogue to tighten it up. I know fanfic is posted chapter by chapter initially, but eventually it will be complete and someone is going to experience it reading it all in one sitting without having to wait for the next chapter. So it's important, at least for me, to make my chapters make sense as chapters, but also make sense as a whole story read from beginning to end. Re-reading also allows you to find little threads you'd woven in previously and pull those through, making a more cohesive narrative rather than having people wonder 'huh they never did follow that up'. 8. Remember you can edit later! A key thing I had to learn when writing my PhD is learning to move on when something isn't quite perfect yet. I used to get stuck because I'd be mad at it not being right first time and thus my word count would go absolutely nowhere. PhD taught me I can't do that. Sometimes you've got to write a really shitty paragraph, put a comment next to it saying 'fix this later' and move on. If you don't move on you'll never get anywhere because you'll be stuck in a mess of your own making without writing the story you've got in your head. Be a little bit messy, write that terrible dialogue, and then keep going with the story you were telling. The dialogue can be fixed, but losing your momentum can't. 9. Let yourself be a little more wordy! School, or at least my schooling, wanted us to be very precise with what you were saying when you wrote things. It discouraged explanation and more verbose paragraphs in favour of succinctness and writing to marking schemes. If you want to describe something, describe it! Tell your audience what the room looks like, what the person looks like, what something smells like. You don't have to purple prose it, or go over the top, just a little more description allows you to see things better in your head and writing often comes easier for me when I can see it. One of the compliments I've had on my writing is that people say they can clearly see the thing I've described, and they love it or hate it based on that description. Letting yourself fall a little into your created world with your description allows you to feel it better when writing it, and in turn allows your readers to imagine it. Words are good! Use them! 10. Have fun! And don't be like me and write a very long response to an ask about writing very long things.

#there are better writers than me following me here #but this is the best advice I can give from my perspective

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things-about-cars-in-posts · 4 months

Note

hello! as a celebration of me finally getting my driving license (shoutout to my instructor, he is an absolute saint and has forever changed my perspective on cars and car nerds), i thought i'd ask about your opinion on the cars my family owns — the Škoda Fabia I (the specific one we have is a combi from late 2004. slowly perishing, mainly of rust) and Kia Cee'd (2013??). is there anything remarkable about these two?

Ah, the Ceed, as Kia cowardly renamed it in 2018, in a decision I deliberately reject as I keep on referring to it as Cee apostrophe d, as Top Gear liked to call the earlier model they gave celebrities to go try to get themselves killed on tape, Tom Cruise getting the closest because of course it would be him.

Notice how nary an ounce of steering was given up whatsoever. Man was just balancing the car with the throttle in the true racing driver spirit of "If I die I die and if I don't this'll be a good time".

However, this is a bit of a sidetrack, as that's not your car - that'll be one o' deez, which whether as a 5 door...

...station wagon...

...or its bafflingly named coupe version (Pro_Cee'd????)...

...looks sharp as a goddamn tack in my books. In fact, wanna know how that's not just cheap flattery? That station wagon was actually the car I was pushing for our family to get when ours needed changing! Life didn't grace us with the opportunity, however, and so we ended up replacing our grey Citroën Picasso MPV with another (the ole' Xsara Picasso to C4 Picasso pipeline) which served us decently over a couple years before developing woes and getting passed on to family friends more willing to deal with them. Weird car, that C4 Picasso. Most of the steering wheel didn't turn.

Now, you may ask why those French folx would do that. And the answer is in the word French. I can just imagine the designers asking feedback about the handbrake and getting all giddy as they look at them struggle to figure out where it is. Actually, go on, you try!

Wait, wait, we're once again getting sidetracked, we've still not addressed the Fabia! And that's a crime, because it was a hugely important car for Škoda: as Volkswagen's involvement with the company had turned from shareholder to owner its involvement in the cars had turned from help to codevelopment, making the Fabia a humongous departure from Škodas of old. However, for the latest Octavia, no closer to those hunksajunk, the rave reviews had been no match against Škoda's brand image, which was so terrible that even Wikipedia feels comfortable saying they were laughing stocks.

So for the Fabia, Škoda turned to marketing agency Fallon London for a very bold advertising campaign. So bold in fact that I didn't even stumble into it through my passion for cars, but through my study of marketing. And it's so simple you could miss it. (...it's in the lower right.)

This simple idea, and how hard they doubled down on it...

youtube

...completely turned Skoda's fortunes around, in a brand repositioning so successful that all of Fallon's Škoda-related ads received awards. Including this one.

That's not even an ad for Škoda. That's an ad for themselves.

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question: if you liked this post, you might like those - or the blog’s Discord server, linked in the pinned post!

#i've heard great things about the spaciousness of the Fabia wagon #also sorry for making you wait well over a month - see one of my last posts about why #anyhow so cool you got your license!!! how's it going? and please do tell us about the instructor!#kia cee'd #skoda fabia #skoda octavia #the great catchup

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pokelolmc · 4 months

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The Ultimate Enemy is a Disappointment (and How I'd Fix It) (Part 2)

Here I am, back with Part 2 of my analysis on The Ultimate Enemy. If you haven't read part one, I suggest you check it out. But I suppose this one works in isolation, too. This time we're going into everything to do with our main villain/the episode's attempt at the "alternate villain self of the hero" trope. This one's a doozy, so be prepared! Unfortunately this post got too long, so this'll be the criticisms and the fixes will get their own post. But I have some interesting headcanons in mind, if that's any consolation!

I think I got a bit too heated with this one--I was running on frustration while trying to figure it out. Oops.

(Part 1), Part 2, (Part 2.5)

Part 2--The Problems with Dan’s character/story arc:

The writers minimised Danny’s moral responsibility in the events of Dan’s existence/creation.

So I noticed a pretty glaring pattern with this episode, but I don’t think it was intentional on the writers’ part, probably just subconscious:

Any time we see our hero doing supposedly bad things, which are supposed to lead to his own villain origin story, the writer’s minimise Danny’s responsibility as much as possible.

They insist that Danny’s going to become evil/turn into Dan, but the events that lead to Dan’s timeline (as far as we get to see them recur in the main timeline) essentially drag a very passive and reactive Danny behind them on a leash. It comes off as very hollow. Like they want to do an “alternate timeline villain self” superhero plot, but couldn’t actually commit to the bit when they wanted to show our Danny having the “seeds” of Dan’s immorality (or the events that lead to Dan’s timeline gradually coming to fruition because of Danny's actions, and risking Dan's creation again).

Exhibits A through C:

“Danny cheated on the CAT”! Except he didn't. The idea didn’t occur to him on his own, nor did he break his own moral code to steal the answers with his ghost powers. The fucking Master of Time just GAVE them to him! Danny just basically just accepted someone else’s offer (his own choice, but reactive and minor). He doesn't even think about cheating until Clockwork drops the answers in his lap. And we'll never know if he would have without them.

And after that, he never even actually GOT to cheat. He didn't get to finish opening the envelope (he was interrupted), and the one who actually cheated in his place to make the story happen was the main villain.

By the end of the episode, Danny had still never seen the answers! He could’ve sat the CAT right there at the very end, without handing the answers to Lancer, and it would’ve been totally legit!

(Keeping the answers with the intent to cheat was still a dishonest move…but a fourteen year old kid doing that, especially when he never got to actually go through with cheating, is extremely minor. That's not evil, ladies and gentlemen. It’s petty academic misconduct at best. Compared to Dan’s actual crimes, it’s laughable.)

Being a victim in the deaths of his loved ones was totally fair…but then we find out how Dan was born. Danny didn’t spend the next ten years spiralling into grief or madness and becoming a villain alone. Instead he had his ghost half fused with an already established villain and Vlad’s evil overwhelmed his mind.

In theory, the writing team had the freedom here to write it however they wanted. They really could’ve just written the “alternate villain self” trope straight—“Dan is literally just Danny, but he’s older and had a massive shift in his personality and moral compass for (insert reasons)”.

But instead, the writers gave us “Danny fused with an already-villainous character and absorbed their evil”. Seriously?

There could be plenty of alternatives—“Danny dealt terribly with his trauma and took it out by abusing his powers (starting small, but escalating) and got corrupted by them”. “He spiralled into madness and split himself in half to try end the pain, but his ghost half ended up with all his negative/toxic traits (or emotional pain) and no restraint (so it went evil on its own)”.

Heck, maybe you could even throw in a toxic relationship with Vlad, for good measure—becoming Danny’s “new father”, clinging to him as “the only person who could understand him”, isolating him, manipulating him, teaching Danny his own bad coping mechanisms and cutthroat philosophy (because Vlad also had trauma, don’t forget) and using Danny to carry out his errands as a gateway to villainous behaviour. Think Silco and Jinx’s relationship from Arcane.

Or, use the idea of fusion, but at least acknowledge Danny’s not the only person responsible for Dan’s creation and explore that in the story.

If they wanted to show Danny at risk of becoming evil, they should've actually shown him more actively making/resorting to immoral decisions instead of dragging him into those situations and calling it "evil".

2. Dan being a fusion of Danny and Vlad’s ghost halves means he can’t be the same person as Danny. He has to be either a mixture of both of them, or a new person born from them combining (they're basically the ingredients for somebody new).

We don’t know how halfa fusions work, but it wouldn’t make sense for a fusion to be the same person as only one of the components. Dan By the episode's logic, Dan was a "future version of Vlad" then, too. But the episode refused to acknowledge that. Dan only acknowledged his relation to Vlad from Danny’s point of view, as “his cheesehead archenemy”.

Physically, it’d be impossible for Dan to exist without Vlad. He was physically comprised of half-Plasmius. His physical design reflected a hybrid of both Danny and Vlad’s ghost halves (and in Vlad’s case, also his human half). His blue skin, ponytail, facial hair and cape (and likely also the red eyes) drew from Vlad/Plasmius. Dan, as he was, could not exist without both of them.

Vlad’s recollection of Dan’s backstory also implies that most of Dan’s “evil” came from him. And we know from Identity Crisis that separated halves aren’t just one or two pure emotions—they have some self-image, or level of awareness and personality. When Plasmius was separated from Vlad in TUE, he would’ve had some self-image or identity of his own to carry into the fusion. It wouldn’t just have been “Phantom’s identity plus Plasmius’s evil”. It would’ve been both of their identities mixing. If whatever constituted as Plasmius’s “evil” (rooted in his memories/backstory, emotions and personality traits) was able to “overwhelm” Phantom, it’d only make sense for his whole mind to win overall. But for some bizarre reason, Phantom is Dan’s dominant identity--and treated as his only one.

How could Plasmius overtake Phantom in the battle of wills enough to flood the latter with his malice, but somehow Danny’s identity or memories were dominant enough that THEY won?

Besides, in a mental battle between a mentally stronger, older man with more experience with his ghost powers, and the fourteen-year-old kid who was still too weak to beat him directly one-on-one, it’d make no sense for Danny to win. They were both in grief over losing the only people they truly "loved" (Maddie, for Vlad) and Vlad as twenty other years of built-up, unresolved pain to stew in first (not to mention his already strong maliciousness/selfishness). So Danny probably wouldn't win out on negative emotions alone.

Though, we are taking Vlad on his word here, which was rather dubious and vague in canon…but I personally trust him on that statement because he’d have little motivation to lie about this to Danny. That statement directly incriminated Vlad in Dan’s villainous nature to Danny, only giving a reason for the latter to further oppose him or be outraged. If he had any reason to lie, it’d be to make himself look better or avoid directly admitting fault. He already seemed to do that in previous parts of the same flashback.

We absolutely know the fusion happened, though—because Dan’s mixed design outside of the flashback was undeniable and alternate Vlad was in ruin without a ghost half.

And if we want to say that Danny still technically counts as "becoming Dan" because his and Vlad's ghost halves both became Dan together (assuming Dan is an active combination of both halves back-and-forth, rather than a new person just made from both of them) I don't believe it's fair to say that Danny's crimes were Dan's, or hold him (main!Danny) primarily responsible for Dan as a problem. This is because of the disconnection of identity and moral control between Danny Fenton and Dan.

It was never clear, not even in Identity Crisis, what happened to the original, whole halfa’s sense of self or consciousness when split into two. Danny obviously didn’t have much, if any, control over his halves in Identity Crisis—they had to cooperate like two separate people, and their personalities and behaviours were distinctly exaggerated and out of character for his whole self. Individual parts no longer controlled or regulated by the larger whole.

By that logic, Danny couldn’t be held fully morally responsible for the actions of his halves while separated, since they weren’t under his conscious control/he wasn’t of his full mind (similar to the reason insanity pleas exist in court, or you can't properly consent when under the influence of drugs/alcohol). His responsibility would be there somewhere, but unclear and debatable. It’s possible they could be separate identities from him entirely. The only thing fully his responsibility is the decision to split in the first place, which facilitated their actions (since he did that while still of his own sound mind).

That creates a degree of separation between Danny and his split halves before his ghost half even fuses with another person. Adding a literal separate individual into the mix would make Dan two degrees of separation away from the original Danny Fenton. Alternate!Danny could be held fully responsible for requesting/going along with Vlad's Ghost Gauntlets procedure (facilitating Dan in the first place), but after that, his moral responsibility is in doubt from the moment he's split apart. And considering that this hyperspecific method for Dan existing is relatively easy for our main Danny to avoid (as long as he's informed), I highly doubt it's even REMOTELY fair to accuse past/main timeline!Danny of everything Dan has done. The episode's repeated assertions of "this is what Danny will do...in time" when referring to what Dan did is just not correct.

3. The episode’s plot does so much telling the audience that Danny and Dan are the same person, and that Dan’s crimes are consequently Danny’s, mostly through character dialogue. Dan's backstory throws all of this into question, and the plot does NOTHING to explore or remedy the apparent complexity/contradiction.

While “Dan is Danny’s future self” could be “technically” true—in the sense that the Phantom half mixed into Dan is the only remnant of Danny in the future—it’s not true that he IS Danny as a person. He’s a fusion with an entirely separate individual, who was already villainous before the fusion. The question remains as to whether Phantom and Plasmius are both intact as identities inside of Phantom, or he's a new person entirely.

But the episode repeatedly had a handful of characters spell out that “Dan was Danny but evil”, mistake past/main timeline!Danny for Dan, or accuse Danny of what Dan's done. And even when characters have a reason to be wrong in-universe, the sheer repetition of their mistake in the script (out-of-universe) serves as a framing device for what the narrative wants us to believe.

Clockwork and Dan himself both have every reason to know of his origin as a fusion, and yet they still refer to him and Danny as if they’re the same person.

In the light of Dan's nature as a fusion, this rings hollow. The situation is more complex than anyone is letting on.

And when Vlad reveals Dan’s backstory, NOTHING is made of this information. Danny doesn’t even verbally react to it, to show that he’s processed it. It doesn’t change how he sees Dan or lead to him trying to figure out what Dan is. He doesn’t react to the “my evil overwhelmed you” comment from Vlad. He still goes into the final fight with Dan insisting “I won’t become you!”. The episode says nothing of it—the only thing Danny takes out of his encounter with Vlad is the Ghost Gauntlets.

#danny phantom #the ultimate enemy #danny fenton #dp rewrite #tue analysis #10 dp episodes with missed potential

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julionasurbonas · 4 months

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Theres a few quotes from alternate universe Cave Johnsons in Portal 2 that I love, here are some of them. "I've just been notified that one of our test subjects may have angered the Sentient Cloud by beginning testing early. Now, as you all know, the cloud has banned all camera technology—hates getting its picture taken. So this'll have to be on the honor system: Will whoever started testing early please go outside so they can be consumed by the Cloud." "Test subject, can you hear me? Congratulations! You are the world's first half-man, half-machine police officer! Well, first batch. There was a pretty big shootout. Bought all your caracasses off the mayor. Anyway, you should be proud to be a part of Aperture's android law enforcement initiative. Or, as someone who's good at naming things, i.e. me, would call it, ROBO – No. [suddenly coming to him] Robot-a-Cop! Oh, that's much better. Now, before we get you solving crimes, we gotta getcha to solve this test. Promised the mayor I'd make sure you weren't all unstable potatoheads before I gave you all guns." "Hello, test subject. As you are no doubt aware, the President is being held hostage inside the giant super-prison on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean . Every science facility in America has been tasked with producing a Tough Guy capable of breaking into SuperMaxLantis. That's where YOU come in. I'm nominating myself and I'm gonna need some references. A test associate should be around soon to get a quote off you, so be as glowing as possible." "Pure Intellect Cave here. Not to brag, but while you were cat-assing that last test, I rewrote the collected works of everything ever. I figure, if I gotta read this garbage for eternity, I may as well improve it. Next time you curl up with a time-honored classic and think to yourself, "Man, I do not remember the Brothers Karamazov busting so many ghosts," you can thank yours truly." "Cave again. What is the one thing that could never ever ever ever in a million years get boring? If you said "busting ghosts" tragically, you'd be wrong. I was almost all the way through the W's when the bloom came off that rose. Heathcliff was defending Moonbase Wutherin Heights from the crafty poltergeist, when I realized exploring the vast realm of pure intellect is… boring. It’s boring! You know what I'd really like to do? Scratch my nose." "Cave Johnson again, just a heads up, you are currently in a tiny test chamber floating around in my bloodstream. Remember, if you see a giant set of car keys, those are mine. Lab boys shrunk 'em part way down before I could stop 'em. No idea if it was for science or if they're just having one on at ol' Cave, but either way, if you don't find those things pretty soon, I'm gonna have to call Triple A."

#Portal #portal 2

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formulaorange · 29 days

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2024 Spring Anime

Kaiju No. 8 This series started the same time as SpyxFamily and I've been waiting years for it to be animated. It's a series I was instantly hooked on. The animations in the teasers were incredibly sus but I'm glad to see it's pulled together. This is a must watch for this season. Noteworthy On-going Shows: Delicious in Dungeon - Episodes 13-24 A Character based comedic fantasy that honestly has me hooked. New Seasons:

Demon Slayer - Hashira Training Arc I can't believe we're already here. I think this will be one of the last 2 or 3 seasons of the show. This is one I'm not sure what to expect in terms of story but I'm looking forward to it regardless.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime - Season 3 One of the Og's is back baby. This is one of my all time favourite shows, one of the original fantasy/isekai series. This series gets better and better and I'm so hooked to each character. 100% biased opinion but if you haven't seen this, go check it out.

My Hero Academia - Season 7 This is one that I haven't caught up on the anime for so I'm not 100% where we are but I'm pretty sure it's about to get real dark. I think lots of people have put this show on the backburner or have dropped it entirely. But I really have to say we're starting to head into some of the peak of the series. It gets much darker and more serious and starts to shift from the original shonen high school style.

Additional New Seasons: Mushoku Tensei - Season 2 Cour 2 I won't lie, this arc honestly doesn't look very appealing to me. That said, I have faith in the writers and will be watching and updating if it picks up. Both of these shows from 2008 coming back were not on my bucket list but here we are: Spice and Wolf - Looks to be a re-make of the original series Black Butler - Public School Arc - New continuation of the og series Also: The Misfit of Demon King Academy II - Part 2 The Irregular at Magic High School - Season 3 Laid-Back Camp - Season 3 New Noteworthy Shows:

Wind Breaker A new series about a delinquent who moves to a school where it's all about being the strongest and beating each other up. Honestly it reminds me a little of Food wars but if it was actually about fighting instead of food lol. The animations look stellar, I'm actually pretty excited to check this one out. ( I'd also say it looks completely different to Tokyo Revengers so I wouldn't compare the two.)

Mission:Yozakura Family A newer shonen jump series about a kid who tries to integrate with a mismatched family of spies. Looks like a lot of fun and has a similar vibe to some old school SJ series.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger Why does this look so good. This series genuinely looks so cool, the animation look out of this world and the story looks killer. From what I can gather it's a guy who always plays the villain and is sick of his role. The story shows the heroes as villains and gives me a bit of Invincible vibes. (This is a Disney+ exclusive) The Fable I've heard that this is one of the most legendary comedies. I know there's a few live actions for it on Netflix but I haven't had a chance to check it out. I feel like the trailers don't seem to get anything across so this'll be one I'll follow up on.

Going through the extra shows is now the bane of my existence. I want to go back to before all the isekai light novels were being animated. After doing this I feel defeated that some of these look half-decent. Whisper Me a Love Song Wholesome girl's love series about figuring out what kind of love they feel for each other: 3 Episodes The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio 2 girls who's offline personalities are total opposites, their rivalry in a brutal industry. Looks like it could be a fun slice of life series: 3 Episodes Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night Looks like a really well done series about a group of girls forming an anonymous idol group: 3 Episodes

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability The animations actually look amazing from the trailer and this series could be cute: 1 Episode An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride I think this might be a guilty pleasure show. I like the idea of the awkward romance between these two. Likely wouldn't reccommend this for a normal watcher: 1 Episode Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again Animations and concept look fun: 1 Episode Notable OVA's: Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture A prequel to the original series. The animation looks just like the OG and I'm so stoked that this is coming out.

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