I saw a reblog of the anonymous ask someone sent you about using character ai, and someone responded saying something about how it’s disgusting to even ask that, which is a liiiitle harsh, but I digress.

The issue here, is that there are more people who don’t understand what AI is doing than people who do understand.

ChatGPT, Open AI, Character AI, Gemini, etc ALL steal from published works on the internet. It cannot be prevented, no one can stop it from happening.

I’m not an artist & I don’t publish my writing, but I do genuinely care about the artists and writers who are having their work stolen and receiving absolutely zero credit.

Please, please, please, do not put someone’s work into AI.

If you want to create a character, or a storyline & use character ai, by all means, go for it. But PLEASE, don’t disrespect or disregard these artists by feeding their work into an AI. It completely diminishes all of the hard work they put into their art.

oh boy, nothing like having a post you made in fucking january suddenly gain a fuck ton of attention lmao.

while i understand where you're coming from, i think you completely missed the main point of my response to that anon.

1: i literally explained that ai steals work to that anon. i said it's a pale imitation of what a real human would write. that it takes works that people put so much effort into and regurgitates it out. i told them not to put stuff into ai. i informed them, and i wasn't rude about it either. emotional, maybe, but i wasn't being rude.

2: the main issue i had with that anon, besides the ai grossness, was the insinuation that i'm not "creating enough content" for them. "the readers can interact more with the characters" comment from them really grinds my gears. even if ai didn't steal from creators, and it wasn't a godawful abomination, them wanting me to put my ideas and works into something that they can interact with that isn't through me completely disregards the entire purpose of me having this blog in the first place. which i ALSO explained to them. why would i want to put my work into a 3rd party source and not interact with my followers when that's literally my favorite part of creating? bonding and talking about the shit i put effort into? i had every right to be upset about that, and so does every other writer.

3: i have no control how people reblog my posts. so idk why you're coming in my inbox about what someone else reblogged, really, just to tell me everything that i've already explained to that anon. i know who you're talking about too, because they're a mutual of mine, and honestly, i agree with them. it's disgusting to suggest someone should put something into a third party source so they don't have to wait for me to "churn out works" or whatever. i know people aren't well informed. which is why i informed them on that post and left it at that. i also explained why it's frustrating to receive asks like that, to hopefully prevent them from doing that again.

also, while i have whoever is reading this, i'd also like to mention that the anon who sent that ai ask sent a response back (that i didn't bother to respond to because i wasn't trying to make this a thing) somewhat apologizing and said they asked me that because other blogs on tumblr were doing it too. don't do that. don't assume that just because some people are doing x thing, that means you can suggest it to someone else. it's rude, and comparing blogs is just frustrating in itself.

anyway. i will not be making this a thing. do not come into my inbox debating the ethics of ai or whatever, as i will simply not entertain it. (:

i will forever think about this panel and how it shows usagi's character

Sleepover shenanigans

was talking to friends over dinner about how i really want a meet cute and for someone to slip me their phone number on a napkin while i'm reading at a bookstore. and one of them was like "you really want that???" bitch i covet it

How do you generate ideas for both plot and characters? I’m one of the hundreds who is swooning and getting her breath caught at the “what’s this, Granger?” moment and I’d love to know how you came up with the idea for this in particular + how you usually come up with other wonderful moments that constitute the glorious Lionheart saga.

Oh, gosh, you're lovely. When writing is good — and this is a big conditional, because sometimes writing is like riding a horse and sometimes it's like wrestling an octopus, and you can rarely predict which — I don't necessarily think about the Process. It's sinking into the world and going, "Okay, action." There's an outline lurking behind it, and latently I'm considering some miscellaneous higher-order ideas about theme and structure, but I'm not writing the book in order to talk about those themes; the themes are in the book because I'm writing it and I'm interested in them. I can't very well help it, they're gonna end up in there no matter what. I don't have to worry about the architecture when I'm doing the upholstery, if that makes sense.

Discovering the more specific character beats and exchanges like the one in Chapter 64 are one of the ineluctable joys of creation. Sometimes, I think of a line while I'm walking down the street, jot it down in my Notes app, and carefully, meticulously develop a context where I can deploy it. Other times, I'm standing there in the scene and a guy does a thing, and I'm as startled as anyone.

What if we cuddled (and were robots) (and were gay) (and were in a qpr) (and happened to be trapped in space together for a few years) (and-

real cool to see theyfab shit on my feed guys. I know that its an internet brain poison thing that irl has such little impact. I get that human nature is that when we are harmed we want to spitefully hit back where it hurts. but the lack of understanding/lack of caring that using the word theyfab WILL hurt others that you dont intend, especially on a site where the posts are the content and there is a large, mostly silent audience, sucks. It's so much the energy of like "I was bullied, and now I get to be the bully" as opposed to "I was hurt but I want to limit how that hurt affects others as I heal." And no, I'm not asking for people to be a perfect victim, but there are consequences for instigating and perpetuating hurt. People say the term only applies to those who weaponize their agab, and I find that argument weak considering I've already seen the term used against people literally the exact same way trender and tucute were and are. I think a lot of the use of the term is social posturing to feel good about being in the in-group. I get why, because many trans people are isolated and desperate for a place to belong, but doing it via throwing others under the bus makes things worse for everyone. The solution to transmisogyny will never be enbyphobia, idk what to tell you :/

help I'm suddenly waxing extremely emo abt Enid "friendless lone(ly)-wolf but at least free to exist as her truest self" vs. Rad "having friends but at the cost of being completely-utterly trapped by Their opinions/expectations of him", wahhhh,,,,,

I went to read your comic on Ao3 and I noticed you'd started back in 2020. Aside from your clear and beautiful art progression, what can you tell me about the timeline of your comic?

Thank you! And yes, started this webcomic in January of 2020. “I sure hope nothing bad happens in 2020 that will hamper my ability to focus on a large personal project!” — me in January 2020 with all the naivety of youth. Top ten images taken minutes before disaster. This comic is like a deeply personal diary of my mental state, complete with the long empty hiatuses that are sort of like that part of Twilight where months of depression are represented by blank pages.

One of my favorite things about webcomics is how you can often see an artist’s style grow organically over time. I think it’s something that’s getting lost in the age of “Webtoon Originals,” where people are starting to expect webcomics to be produced by an actual production studio with a team of artists behind them and to maintain a consistent highly curated art style throughout. These professionally funded comics are fun, but they do lose the messy personal organic growth that used to separate webcomics from traditional print comics? But i could go on a whole tirade about webtoon haha 😂 !

The Hobbit is partially a story about someone learning how to express themselves. Bilbo starts the story as this stuffy little guy who is repressing a lot his own personality; he ends the story as a skilled artist writing elaborate prosy poetry about his adventures. I deliberately chose to start drawing the comic before I went to college, knowing my art style would change a lot of over that period!

Anyway here's the timeline as I remember it: Pre-development: I was working on sketches of the comic itself as early as 2016. Chapter 1 (A Bedtime Story/Tooks and Bagginses): (Posted on Tumblr in January 2020, on Ao3 later): Published shortly before I went to college. I was drawing in Paint Tool Sai, and hand-writing all the words instead of using a font. I set out to adapt at least the Unexpected Party chapter, but thought I'd probably adapt the entire novel within a year or two. ("It's a webcomic Michael. How long could it take? twelve months?") Chapter 2: (A Very Respectable Hobbit): Posted like a week after Chapter 1. This was when I still thought I could post a ten page chapter every week, haahahahahahahahahaha Fs in the chat.

HIATUS #1: DANCE BREAK: TIME FOR A GLOBAL PANDEMIC. The exact timeline of 2020 is a blur for obvious reasons, but I do remember the updates became very sporadic over this period. Chapter 3-5 (Very Old Friends and An Unexpected Party chapters): there’s a global pandemic. During Spring Break my college abruptly kicks us all off campus and sends us home. I keep looking at the “post dates” on these chapters like what??? Really? I posted that at thAt time? But there was a global pandemic happening and I was so busy and overwhelmed with college???? When did I have the time? I have no memory of drawing these. My memories of all 2020 are so blurry. I think these chapters just manifested spontaneously.

The weekly/biweekly update schedule has been tossed to the wind, never to return. Alas. Chapter 6 (An Enormously Important Dwarf, aka Thorin’s intro): I was back “at college” during our “hybrid” year, so in practice I was extremely isolated. this was posted during a year after the first chapter, in 2021. I would never have found the motivation to continue if I wasn't so excited to draw Thorin! I also joined a "comic club" at my college which was comprised mainly of awkward video calls with like three people. On a weirder note, this chapter was posted a few weeks after the January 6th attempted coup. I was drawing in a a weird headspace.

DANCE BREAK #2: IT’S TIME FOR A YEAR LONG HIATUS:

I've started to often dislike the word “burnout” when it’s applied to art. It implies that the problem is that you were drawing too much or that you can’t find inspiration, when often the problem is much bigger than your art-- it's wider economic anxieties and social circumstances outside your control. It is very hard to think clearly and create things when you are worried about your future, about work, about housing, about a global pandemic, about constant demands on your time, and about being extremely isolated. In hindsight, I wasn’t “burned out”— I was in a situation where I could not think clearly or produce anything. Chapter 7 (The Lonely Mountain): posted a full year after chapter 6. For a while I considered having this be the “last chapter” of the comic!

Changing art styles was a thing I was really motivated to do, and was my last “bucket list” item for the comic.

HIATUS #3: I get really busy with junior year of college! I grow more and more disillusioned with Tolkien as I learn more about The Hobbit Law crushing labor unions and worker's rights in New Zealand, and how Amazon takes advantage of that. The Tolkien Estate also releases a statement saying they disapprove of any unauthorized use of Tolkien's works for profit or not, which isn't really legally enforceable but is also just an act of pure contempt XD. Chapter 8 (A Tangled Web): I get sent to the emergency room in an ambulance for Reasons and begin drawing this in the weeks after, as I realize I don't care about the Tolkien Estate or Amazon or Warner Brothers or whatever hollow marketable products they produce under the tolkien brand. I think this is the weakest chapter of the comic, both in writing and art, and in hindisght think the comic works better without it pacing-wise. However!!!! I was drawing it in a weird mental state, so. XD

Also, at this point I am drawing entirely in Photoshop. Chapter 9 (Ash and Smoke): Back at college for senior year— time for dragon! The comic starts updating with something that resembles a "regular schedule!" this year had more and more people on campus in person, and I started to slowly make college friends :). Also, at this point I am the President of the comic club, and we are now meeting in person and rebuilding our comic empire. Chapter 10 (The Heart of the Mountain): Some funky bits of writing I'd like to revise at some point, but I enjoy the art in this chapter. Chapter 11 (Polite Nothings): If I were to do this all again I'd shorten this chapter and combine it with chapter 12. One important note is that originally, I tried to keep all chapters under ten pages. This made it easier to post them to Instagram and Tumblr, because tumblr still had a “ten image limit” at the time. However at some point I realized that was more trouble than it was worth, and really made the pacing difficult/slow as I struggled to split the story into ten page chunks.

A lot of webcomics often fall into what I call a “wheel-spinning” phase, where the author is so focused on finishing smaller updates that they lose the pacing of the larger narrative—- and so the story stalls out. I feel like I dealt with a lot of “wheel-spinning” while I was at college, both in my life and in my comic XD. Chapter 12 (The Quest): My internship company gives me an offer to work full-time, which I accept. in the last semester of my last year of college, I take the most helpful elective class I have ever taken: a class on using 3D models in blender to aid with blocking out illustrations. This is the first chapter where you see one of those backgrounds! From this point on my background art will improve dramatically. I also have lots of internet friends and college friends!

As I grow more confident in my art I also make the decision to change the character designs, something I’d wanted to do for a while. Chapter 13 (The Necromancer): I graduate college! It's time for some Lotte Reiniger art. I stay in my student housing until my lease ends. The art starts to grow more elaborate as I have more time to spend on it. Chapter 14 (Terms and Conditions): my summer is free, so I spend it drawing gay little hobbits. I move up North to live with my grandmother until my work start date. This is the very last “normal-sized” chapter of the comic, where I hold myself to keeping it under 10 pages. I also think this is where my new more elaborate character designs actually start to look a lot better XD.

I was finishing up apartment-hunting at this time, so both Bilbo and I were goin over contract terms. Chapter 15 (Unattached): summer free time!! More gay little hobbits. I move into my New apartment and sleep on an air mattress for a while. I have a lot of time to draw and the art gets far more complex; this chapter was also twice as long as my usual chapters. I am still proud of this chapter, honestly, even though it's gotten less attention than Chapter 16/17-- it's one I'd been excited to draw for a while. A lot of this chapter was drawn on my beautiful powerful beloved air mattress. Air mattress, my beloved. Chapter 16 (the Song of the Lonely Mountain): I start my new job! I get a BED. Lots of exciting things are happening. I was really excited to draw and post this chapter, because it’s one id been dreaming about drawing from the beginning-- it was surreal to see it "posted" because part of me never thought I'd get this far. I even started a tiktok and posted the chapter there, certain that people would enjoy it. However, tiktok basically ignored it, alas! This is why tumblr is the only social media site. Chapter 17: I continue my new job. My roommate surprises me with the news that they will move out at the end of our lease, making me realize that months have somehow passed. I make a post asking for anyone looking for roommates in Milwaukee to contact me via dms (that offer is still open, if you’re looking to move here in early June.) I privately am very confused about why anyone would ever want to leave a comfortable settled home to go off on an adventure and then realize that I am behaving exactly like pre-quest Bilbo Baggins.

Chapter 18: the chapter I am working on now!!! Another chapter I have been excited to draw forever!! It’ll feature studio-Ghibli-inspired backgrounds, exciting landscape art, and so much fun! I’ve also started a Patreon where, if you want to see “one page a week” instead of “twenty pages every Mystery number of Months” you can subscribe there. (The first page of Chapter 18 has already been posted!)

But yeah! The TL:DR:

I think the moral of all this (to me) is that it’s hard to make art if you’re just not in a position to do it, and you have to allow yourself time to grow and change as a person XD. Sometimes you need to spend a few years thinking and getting better before you're ready to go on an Adventure. I started this comic when I was very Young and Naive to the Ways of the World. The quality (and dips in quality) reflect my wildly fluctuating mental/emotional states while trying to draw each chapter in the midst of a global pandemic. My art has improved a lot lately, and I think a large part of it is really just being in a situation where I *can* improve— having a decent job, not being in the middle of a global pandemic with no vaccine in sight, not needing to live in constant fever-pitch anxiety, having friends, etc etc. I am completely different person now than I was while drawing chapter 1.

Not to be dramatic, but I think you can see there’s a lot more joy in the recent chapters than there is in some of the older ones. It's weird to look at your art and realize you've gotten happier. XD

Okay I just read Zayne's "Still in Dark" anecdote, and now I'm crying and also my jaW IS ON THE GROUND, WHAT IN THE FUC-

----

enjoy the tags, I just needed to vent....

And I'm scared 🤣

Gotta ask for geno, please!

I was looking at core photos for reasons before this so pls enjoy this photo of Geno and his husbands

since you asked for just Geno tho have a celly thats just him

"Your heart is the only one I care about, anyway."

I would give him the head of his life Jesus Christ

such like kyle garrick to say the most romantic shit ever while trying to fuck you in a dressing room and the two of you aren't even dating lmfao

hey cryp what do you MEAN a strange door appeared in yr house

ok uhh basically when i was like 7, i moved into a new house and a couple months later a door appeared in my bedroom. it was, looking back, rather small and painted over completely (even over the doorknob and tim) covered in heavily applied white paint. at the time it was, of course, exactly the right size for me to fit though.

I don't remember exactly what happened but I think i told my parents about it and they told me in no uncertain terms that i was never allowed to touch it, much less open it. I obeyed and after a couple weeks or a month or two, it vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Now the funny thing is that it should have opened into the attic. I've been in the attic. Not only is there no doorframe anywhere on the walls, there is nowhere where the doorframe could have been. That wall is just exposed beam, too close together to fit a door between it and too old to have been replaced so recently. Also i could see though to the drywall in some spots, and none of it looked like there had ever been a door there. I know there was though.

I have no idea what was beyond the door or if it even would have opened but i did sometimes find myself in front of it late at night with my hand on the handle, ready to pull. I'd also have dreams that i was stuck on the other side of the door, clawing at it to get back out and then I'd wake up with scratched fingers and i think i was clawing on my side of the door but i never figured out for sure.

actually you know what? my last message to da world (not really): play ULTRAKILL now

it has robots like the dca except its sexier because the machines contain flesh and guts inside. all machines run on blood; blood is fuel, as part of the game's tagline. all living things contain blood. the machines are very, very alive—and they make for great entertainment, as Hell Itself would agree

you play as one of these blood-fuelled machines, out on the endless hunt for more fuel. its. im gonna be honest i love its design so fucking much. the goober. bloodthirsty for the sake of survival AND fun

it also has the sort of gameplay that seized me by the throat immediately. i love it. the longer you play, the more you understand the game's mechanics, the greater the ego boost. there are so, so many ways you can use your weapons, and your style will depend on the kind of strategies you lean into

like, for fuck's sake, the strongest weapon in this game is a COIN

i have done absolutely crazy things with coins and there's people who are more batshit insane and better at this game who can utilize it more effectively. and it feels GLORIOUS to watch enemies get absolutely DEMOLISHED because of YOU

you will suck when you start out. that just seems kind of universal. but its so SO fun to see your own improvement as you get better. i started off being unable to parry or hit my coins, but now i do that regularly + a lot of other crazy things too

dont worry if youre not good at fps games or anything, the game tries its hardest to be as accessible as possible. there are easy difficulties and accessibility options you can turn on, one of them being aim assist. you can just have aimbot on and the game doesnt punish you for that

anyways. play ULTRAKILL

sorry if you're getting SPAMMED with omega Genesis asks, BUT. your baby fever post got me thinking.

what would Genesis be like while pregnant. how would Angeal/Seph be around him (I imagine when Angeal found out he was just absolutely weeping while Sephiroth stood there processing with this face: 😀)

lots of love!! ♥️♥️♥️

ah no don’t worry! i’m not minding it all! if anything i’m actually kinda surprised my interpretation of it is liked enough that i have gotten multiple asks about it :) if anything i’m just more worried i won’t be able to answer the way people want lol <3

as for my thoughts on how genesis is during the pregnancy:

- definitely the ultra emotional type, he will cry over everything whether it be happy, sad, or angry

- more clingy than usual, and he needs near constant love and support from angeal and sephiroth

- all of his insecurities and anxieties kick into total overdrive, especially the further into the pregnancy he gets, furthering his need for support from angeal and sephiroth, which also makes him feel worse because he hates the feeling of bothering them by always needing reassurance

- closer to the end of his pregnancy he’s not able to be as independent as he would like, and he absolutely hates it, not because he dislikes having angeal and sephiroth’s help, but because he hates needing to be so dependent on them, and at times he feels almost guilty for it

- but sometimes he is also just so fed up with being pregnant, or angeal or sephiroth will do something he doesn’t like, and he will make angeal or sephiroth do things for him with the excuse of “you’re the ones who did this to me, its the least you can do” just to be petty

- he gets ridiculous cravings, except half the time it’s for inedible things

- he gets ultra protective over his unborn baby and does everything in his power to keep it as safe as possible, and is constantly worried about the babys wellbeing

and as for angeal and sephiroth:

- finding out genesis was pregnant, i also definitely think angeal was super emotional, like the most emotional any of them have ever seen angeal, and it’s the best moment of his life

- angeal immediately goes into full dad mode though, and he is the dream “will do absolutely anything for genesis and their unborn baby” husband kind of guy

- sephiroth definitely takes a little longer to process it, and he definitely has much more he needs to learn about pregnancy and whatnot, but he’s just as happy as angeal (even though he doesn’t show it like angeal)

- sephiroth definitely tries to be as supportive as he can possibly be for genesis though, even if he’s unsure how exactly he’s supposed to go about it

- while angeal obviously does a lot for genesis, i feel like the things sephiroth does to try to help genesis are a lot more subtle, just small things that in the long run make life easier for genesis

- angeal is just as protective over the unborn baby as genesis is, to the point he refuses to let genesis do a lot of things in worry something might go wrong and it’ll hurt genesis or the baby

- angeal and sephiroth try their best to keep genesis comfortable, which gets harder the longer the pregnancy goes on, but neither of them mind doing whatever it takes, even if it inconveniences them

- neither of them ever complains about needing to do things for genesis, or needing to comfort genesis, even if sometimes they do get a little tired of it

- i think surprisingly, not only does genesis get super clingy, but angeal and sephiroth do too, the three become more inseparable than usual

- they both commonly cuddled genesis while subconsciously resting their hands on genesis’ stomach, which also meant eventually they would feel the baby kicking, and the first time sephiroth felt it i think he probably looked like a confused kid at first, wondering if it was supposed to do that, but after having it explained to him they got to see a rare sephiroth smile! and when angeal first felt it, i think he immediately got super giddy about it (and i’m entirely convinced angeal is the type to kiss genesis’ stomach and try to talk to the baby)

thought I'd share this tweet from yours truly bc it's still making me giggle