#how it feels to talk about Garbage

[forgettable-au]

FORGETTABLE-AU (Page 61-64)

* I-I don't think we were talking about the same thing...

[BEGINNING] [PREVIOUS] [CONTINUE]

[a-glow-in-the-snow]

[Something something Soul and time loops.]

[Song is "Half The Glass" by Allenimations]

[starry-bi-sky]

I'm having incoherent thoughts about clone danny again from the clone/clone^2 au (when am I not?) but more specifically I'm thinking about his reaction to finding out he's a clone. The standalone clone au digs into that a little more than clone^2, which is more focused on Danny and Damian's relationship. But neither (so far) really get into Danny's issues about finding out he's a clone after 15 years of thinking he wasn't.

Because he resents his parents for not telling him for so long. He resents the way he found out; through a trivial school project rather than a sit-down talk. He resents the fact that, apparently, they had meant to tell him sooner. But forgot. He resents the fact that they never told him because finding out feels like something was stolen from him when it had the chance to not be.

Danny Fenton, just fifteen, cloned not even half a year ago, knows what that personal violation of autonomy feels like. He knows what it's like to be cloned and while he loves Ellie, he does, she's his sister, and in this au his twin. But he is still left with that feeling of unsafety after realizing he'd been cloned. Being cloned is violating. The onset realization that it's so easy to get DNA without the other party noticing, and that what was stopping someone from trying to clone him again?

Followed only after with the rest of the inexplainable mix of feelings of being cloned, the rest of that inner conflict and panic that's an ugly mocktail of emotions that range from horror to fear. Trying to imagine what it's like to be cloned from the cloned party, and I imagine that it leaves you with the feeling of needing to crawl out of your own skin with discomfort.

And then he gets put on the other side of it. Danny Fenton, only fifteen, was cloned not even half a year ago, finding out he is a clone. And reactions, I imagine, can vary from person to person. But to him, it feels like something got stolen from him, like someone took a hole puncher and stuck it right into his chest and stole a chunk of himself from him.

It changes nothing about him and yet it changes everything. It's a betrayal on it's own to just find out he was a clone and they didn't tell him for fifteen years -- it shouldn't mean anything, because he's still Danny, and yet it means everything. It's him, it's him, it's about him. It's his personhood. It's about the fact that a load-bearing rock in his identity just crumbled beneath his feet and now there's a rockslide.

Because then he finds out that they used the wrong DNA. Its like pouring salt in an open wound. He's not even related to his parents or his sister, when for years he thought he was. It's the fact that pieces of his identity that he's been so secure in for so long just got ripped away from him in an instant. Then they tell him -- only through his own horrified prompting -- that the person whose DNA they used -- Bruce Wayne -- didn't even know he existed. That they accidentally used the wrong DNA, then didn't tell the person whose DNA they used.

The betrayal of being lied to for years turns really quickly into horror at his own existence. Something very similar to the horror he felt at being cloned and the skin-crawling discomfort that made him feel like his own skin wasn't really his. And then its not. It's actually not. Nothing but his own name feels like it belongs to him anymore -- not his hair, not his eyes, not his heart or his lungs, nothing feels like his anymore and he didn't know what that felt like until it was gone.

It's a question of Nature Vs. Nurture -- where does the line of "nature" begin and where does the line of "nurture" end? What of him is actually his? What of him is Bruce Wayne's? It's not logical, it's not supposed to be. It's a load-bearing wall on the house of his identity being destroyed and now everything else is caving down in on him. What belongs to Danny, what belongs to Bruce Wayne?

[sadkachow]

You cannot claim to be anti-AI while still actively seeking out and using AI.

Once again.

You cannot claim to be anti-AI while still using generative AI, no matter the reason.

(Bold/italicized text: You cannot claim to be anti-AI while still using generative AI, no matter the reason.)

Even if you’re just using it to make fun of it or show how bad it is.

Even if it’s only for your personal use, and you don’t plan on sharing it with anyone.

Even if you’re “just” roleplaying on Character AI.

If you are willing to justify your usage of a system created and profiting off of stealing from artists and writers, a symstem that is destroying the Earth, then you were never as “against that system” as you think you were. Being anti-AI isn’t something that exists only in name. You can’t claim to be against AI if you are willing and able to use it as soon as it benefits you. You can’t say you’re for writers’ and artists’ rights if you’re using the very thing that is causing them harm. You can’t claim to care about climate change and saving the Earth if you are participating in the system that is destroying it.

There is no middle ground here.

There is no “Oh, but I-“.

If you have the knowledge of what generative AI is doing, of how it is hurting people, and you choose to use it anyway, you aren’t  against it. You aren’t fighting against that system, you’re upholding it.

You can say how much you hate AI and how horrible you think it is, if you choose to use it anyway, then your actions and your words are not lining up, and the former reveals so much more than the latter.

Stop pretending like AI is something you can condemn only in name, while using it to your heart’s content in your free time. All it does it tells writers and artists that you don’t really care about us, and that any actions you claim to be taking to protect us are performative at best and lies or even outright malicious at worst.

You are—and I mean this in the kindest way possible, even with the fury that generative AI invokes in me—a complete and utter hypocrite. AI is not your friend. It is a tool, and it is a tool that steals from writers and artists in order to function. It is a tool that is using levels of energy and emitting amounts of polution in order to be maintained that are actively damaging the Earth. No matter how much you try to justify using it to yourself, that doesn’t change.

Stop hiding under the guise of being anti-AI while continuing to use it yourself.

[nyc-pizza-rat]

.

[microwavetoaster-selfships]

I think I need that "Wow, I haven't stubbed my toe in five months! I was then shot fifty-seven times." Audio again

[jupitersflytrap]

god the people who don't care about academic integrity or getting good marks must have it so easy

[yaekiss]

hearing about how many students/peers my age actually use chatgpt is terrifying

[kaiserouo]

i need more rhino heirloom art

[the-owl-tree]

I won’t lie the funniest part is almost everyone in my inbox being like “yeah I can’t remember oots that well but-“ as if we all collectively blacked out during that arc. it’s a fucking void you read and then never remember anything from

[kingsofneon]

im soooo fucking sick of people acting like you're heinous if you like the TT03 Lex+Kon retcon, like. Can you get off your high horse? You're not any better than someone else just for a Personal Preference. Holy fuckkkkk

Do I think Geoff wrote it shit? Yeah bruh 😂 the genetic absolution was insane and that's not what a clone is, oh my god. Why were you stupid and why did you explore The most boring possible choices.

But Paul Westfield? Who the fuck even is that anymore, my guys. Don't be acting like comics simplifying plot in order to streamline themes ain't a common thread. And also, I know comics do it bad but people engage with it on such bad faith..."everyone who likes the retcon likes it because of clex!" Nope, next. "It implies Kon is evil because of his genetics!" Yeah that's Geoff's fault and it don't mean that's the part I'm interested in about forcing the relationship between them. There is so much to be explored in the violation of that - Lex wanting a Superman he could control, Lex and his freakshit biodeterminism, Superman and the violation of an enemy, one of his greatest, one of the smartest, can you not imagine the strain? - and then how does it feel to be KON? I'm not talking about genetics - but socially, emotionally, no matter what is said to your face, Kon has learnt judgement from a TV screen, he knows reporters and stories and being in the fucking spotlight. Can you not think about how it adds an extra layer of hurt to the relationships he finds most important?

There's no one-to-one on familial relationships within the superfam, but to act like the Lex retcon does not have the opportunity for fascinating ✨ drama ✨ (LEX HAS SO MANY FUCKING MEDICAL ISSUES. KON DOESN'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT HOW LEX HAS CURED HALF OF THEM.) is an asspull.

Biodeterminism is fucking stupid! That doesn't mean there isn't interesting goddamn plots to explore about HOW OTHER PEOPLE TREAT KON BECAUSE OF IT.

Do I think other stories have told it better (Artemis, Steph, Joey?) Duh. DOES THAT MEAN I DON'T WANNA SEE IT? NO.

Also jfcccccc. It's been canon for longer than the OG SB run at this point. 1994 - 2003 (9 years) and then 2003 to 2025 (TWENTY-TWO. Bitch is old enough to drink).

Have your personal preference. Acknowledge the comics did a shit job actually making it Good. But don't get your panties in a twist if other people want to explore that fucking plot.

[royalarchivist]

If there's one request I can make of you guys, it's that you please please please let me know if I upload something and it doesn't look right (ex: the audio is desynced, the visuals are glitchy, etc.)!!! It's embarrassing!!!!

[ellivcca]

fucked up in the crib watching Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Obscure Korean Port)

[shikai-the-storyteller]

It's been such a bad frickin week man

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[quirkle2]

as a huge spyro year of the dragon fan i Hate the reignited trilogy they took all the charm and nostalgia out of it BUT ... spyro's walking/running animation ? they perfected that.