rustcoloredraccoon

[rustcoloredraccoon]

I decided I'm gonna write multiple of the Portfolio chapters/photoshoots in advance, so when I start working on my next multichapter, I won't disappear without a trace. Except I didn't calculate for how excited I am to post the things I've already written before the dates I chose for them.

So because I apparently have no self-control, have a little snippet from the first JayTim photoshoot in Portfolio. It will be uploaded next Friday (29th of August).

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Ao3 subscriptions are so fucking wild to me. Every time I write my silly fanfictions and post them 124 people get an email just to let them know that this idiot is posting their fanfictions again. I send 124 people an email every time I write smut. Imagine sending 124 physical letters out just to be like “hello everyone, I put some guys we made up in our heads through the horrors again.” Absolutely absurd. I am kissing all of you on the lips.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Last night, I fell back into a fandom I was in around 2014, but it had its peak around 2009-2011. Now I'm back on my Livejournal account I haven't used in 11 years and I'm so lost. I can't find shit, and when I do find it, it's either unavailable or just plain deleted.

I salute my younger self, she truly worked to read fics. And I'm grateful for AO3, because this is hard and AO3 makes my life so much easier now.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Like to charge reblog to cast

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Raccoon's Dumpster of Ideas: Elements

So, once again, only concept idea, no plot. I also have to clarify, that I have never seen that animated movie Elemental, so I have no idea how they solved the romance aspect in that. This could end up in Robinpile, but the main concept for me is JayTim.

So the idea is, that Bruce is like a handler for the personifications of the main elements: Air (Dick), Fire (Jason), Water (Tim) and Earth (Damian).

They could use their powers if they wanted to, kinda like in ATLA, but at the end of the day, their main job is to keep the state of the Earth balanced. This leads to a lot of personal issues with them: Dick suppresses his emotions, because whenever they go unchecked, he causes tornadoes. If Tim is too depressed, it causes floods all around the world, and so on. Bruce enforces a lot of rules on them, he keeps them in check and doesn't let them be people outside of their roles as the Elements. (Just like in their vigilante life, the "mission" has to come first. We can also add their vigilante personas if we want to let them use their powers ATLA-style. )

Jason obviously hates it. He hates having to be a perfect little doll that can have no negative thoughts and how Bruce uses them to keep the Earth to a certain image he deems correct. Jason is also the only one who remembers the fact that they used to be normal people who passed away tragically and then gained their powers that correlate with their death.

Air - Dick fell with his parents

Fire - Jason still got blown up by the Joker

Water - Tim drowned in a flood after the Quake caused a tsunami

Earth - Damian died in the rubbles of Nanda Parbat after an earthquake levelled it

Jason's fights with Bruce always cause wildifires, so Bruce and the rest always try to subdue Jason, but the problems truly start to come up when Tim and Jason start getting closer to each other and they fall in love. (Again, I have no plot for this, so let's just accept that they fall in love.)

When Jason first came to be with the Bats and he was angry, he always took it out on Tim, and there were many close calls where they almost ended each other. So everyone knows their relationship would be mutually destructive: Jason puts out enough heat so he can evaporate Tim. If he were to lie down on top of him and stay for long, Tim would be gone soon enough. But similarly, if Tim wanted to, he could put out Jason's fires. Tim's control of his power is much more refined than Jason's, so he could do it. (Jason is more powerful in terms of raw power, but Tim is much more agile and precise with how he wields his.)

But they long for each other more than they could ever describe. Jason wants to feel Tim's cold hands on his face, because it makes the eternal fever inside quiet just for a few moments. Tim is the relief in the hell that Jason feels raging inside of him. Similarly, Tim wants nothing more than to huddle into Jason's side and let the man warm him up inside and out. He wants to be next to him the same way a person wants to sit by the fireplace during the cold winter nights.

At the end of it, I can only imagine this romance to be doomed. I really hope that if someone likes this idea enough to adopt this plot bunny, then they can find a way to give them a happy ending. Maybe they can all find their freedom and look for their memories together. Maybe the four of them help Bruce see the light and he gets them into therapy instead of emotional manipulation. I don't know. Maybe I should watch the Elemental movie to see how they worked it out, but that's for tomorrow's Raccoon, I guess.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

one of the things I dislike about AI is how it also makes people suspect/question real artists/real writers if their works are AI generated.

it’s so discouraging for real artists and real writers to hear someone ask or suspect if a work they spent months (or years) working on, putting so much love and dedication into, are AI generated, done by soulless robots in less than one minute.

(it’s just as discouraging even if they didn’t spend months working on their works, because it is still something they created out of love and passion.)

if a real human-made art looks AI to you, that’s because AI was trained on human-made art and programmed to mimic human-made art.

if a real human-made fic reads like AI to you, that’s because AI was trained on human-made fics and programmed to mimic human-made fics.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Hey brother, do you still believe in love? I wonder by Rustcoloredraccoon on AO3

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: M/M

Fandoms: Batman (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)

Relationship: Tim Drake/Jason Todd

Characters: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake (DCU), Bruce Wayne

Additional Tags: Dick Grayson is Good at Feelings, Dick Grayson is a Good Brother, English Is Not The Author's First Language, No Beta

Words: 7,733

Summary: Despite what the others might have said, Dick liked to think that he was a good older brother.

A JayTim love story told in the moments Dick decided not to meddle.

Things you should know before starting this fic:

- I'm very feverish as I edit and upload this,

- I've been running this fever for a good 2/3 of the writing process,

- I wrote this on a whim after someone pissed me off and I needed to channel the energy,

- I had no plan for this fic going into it,

- no beta, I die like the sick, Victorian child I feel like I am in this moment,

- yes, I know that in the original Avicii song, Hey Brother it's the sister he asks if she believes in love, but this fit the fic better, so I took some liberties with it.

And last, but not least, this is more of a love letter to Dick than a JayTim fic.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Reblog if you're a writer who re-reads their own work for funsies.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Fic writers, put in the tags what the difference in hits is between your most and least viewed fics. Mine is 7,720 (7,779-59).

[rustcoloredraccoon]

I'm trying to brave my oldest fics, because they are probably in desperate need of a renewed grammar check and edits, but damn it's a battle to get started on them

[rustcoloredraccoon]

If ANY of yall EVER do this shit to me, im deleting every single fic out of spite.

If I ever catch one of yall doing this to another author and I know youre a follower of my work I will block you personally on every platform

None of yall are the fic police. I DESPISE genai. I think its an insult to art, humanity, and the planet itself. But aint not a single fucking person here qualified to pick apart a strangers fic looking for a gotcha moment to make yourselves feel superior. If you think something is ai you can ask the author (most are proud of the ai use and will just tell you straight up) if they say yes you have your answer and can warn people. If they say no and you dont believe them you block and quietly keep it between you and maybe a close group of friends. Spreading misinformation is DANGEROUS. And NONE of you doing this shit are anywhere near qualified to do it.

THIS GOES DOUBLY FOR ARTISTS.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

I just looked at some of my earlier writings and while despairing at grammar errors, a new question popped up:

WHY THE ACTUAL HELL IS TIM ALWAYS FULL NAMING HIS LOVE INTERESTS?

It's always Dick Grayson this. Jason Todd that.

I'm like, son, I know you tend to idolize them, but there's no need for full name. They're not your favourite singer or something, they literally saw you naked ten seconds before this!

In turn, I think I could count on one hand how many times Jason had called Tim his actual name to his face and not some distortion of it. And I don't think I ever actually used Tim's full name, but now I might need to check.

[rustcoloredraccoon]

I actually just had conversations with a mutual about this exact topic a few days ago and how it seemed entirely random which story ended up popular. In our case, the two stories were similarly tagged and had similar summaries, posted just a few days apart.

I'm sharing part of the rant I went on in our DMs because I feel like it's important to add this, even if it is just rehashing what has been said a million times before

The other things I talked about but will not share due to other topics and information present in the texts:

- more about tropes, as soulmates will always outperform a less popular trope, even if it is shorter and you put less time and effort into it;

- timing, especially during event weeks when a lot of really popular writers are also sharing their works, so yours might get lost in the sea of the other works if you're not one of the big ones. This should not discourage you, because eventually people will come back around and read yours as well. Maybe sometimes you just need to be patient because eventually the readers will find you and realise they have overlooked a diamond in the rough.

- not everyone will write the next fandom epic. The words I specifically said about this were: "some people are just looking to spend the afternoon reading an accidental baby acquisition or omegaverse fic, and I'm here to cater to them."

Sure, we all hope that one of our fics will be the Next Big Thing, but it's okay if it's not. What you think is just a mid work might be someone else's favourite fic they constantly return to when they had a bad day.

I hope this whole message doesn't come off as arrogant or full of myself. I'm not one of the biggest writers in my fandom, nor have I been in it the longest. But I have been fortunate enough to have several people who I know like to read my fics and will leave comments as well more often than not. And even if it was just one person (other than me) who enjoyed it, then posting it was already worth it. If it made their day just a little bit better by offering a distraction, then my time and effort had not been in vain.

And for those who never gathered the courage to comment, but still reread the story 50 times and could only leave 1 kudos, I see you and thank you and I love you.

My friend said this about AO3 and it’s honestly so true

[rustcoloredraccoon]

when I comment on a fellow writer's fic and they, in turn, comment on one of mine

[rustcoloredraccoon]

Some more Caroline and her smitten bodyguards

Spoiler alert: Dick also goes for the jugular

GIVE DICK HIS 3KM LONG PLUNGING NECKLINE BACK! DC YOU COWARD!!

The face of a smitten man.

(Yes it's Jason's jacket on Caroline's shoulders)

[rustcoloredraccoon]

being so staunchly anti generative ai while everyone around you is "i used chatgpt" and "i asked grok" and google search is useless and every company is implementing ai and every single celeb is taking ai money and partnering with ai is like... it's so jarring. why can't you see the harm like i can? why are you so lazy? why are we making society this stupid? can we please stop? it's killing people does that not matter to you?