#Example Ask

[pangur-and-grim]

one thing that took me embarrassingly long to learn is "sometimes when people say things, they will not be true."

I used to tell people about this revelation and they'd be like yeah.....duh.....but like, why wouldn't my base assumption be that you're communicating to me in a straightforward manner. anyway, I get scammed a lot.

[daisywords]

One of my biggest nitpicks in fiction concerns the feeding of babies. Mothers dying during/shortly after childbirth or the baby being separated form the mother shortly after birth is pretty common in fiction. It is/was also common enough in real life, which is why I think a lot of writers/readers don't think too hard about this. however. Historically, the only reason the vast majority of babies survived being separated from their mother was because there was at least one other woman around to breastfeed them. Before modern formula, yes, people did use other substitutes, but they were rarely, if ever, nutritionally sufficient.

Newborns can't eat adult food. They can't really survive on animal milk. If your story takes place in a world before/without formula, a baby separated from its mother is going to either be nursed by someone else, or starve.

It doesn't have to be a huge plot point, but idk at least don't explicitly describe the situation as excluding the possibility of a wetnurse. "The father or the great grandmother or the neighbor man or the older sibling took and raised the baby completely alone in a cave for a year." Nope. That baby is dead I'm sorry. "The baby was kidnapped shortly after birth by a wizard and hidden away in a secret tower" um quick question was the wizard lactating? "The mother refused to see or touch her child after birth so the baby was left to the care of the ailing grandfather" the grandfather who made the necessary arrangements with women in the neighborhood, right? right? OR THAT GREAT OFFENDER "A newborn baby was left on the doorstep and they brought it in and took care of it no issues" What Are You Going to Feed That Baby. Hello?

Like. It's not impossible, but arrangements are going to have to be made. There are some logistics.

[txttletale]

sry to step back from the ai stuff and ask a more fundamental question but what do you mean about both art only mattering in the interplay betwwn work and reader and the stuff about how displaying something turns it into Art?

Like yeah ik both of those points are like super common things artists say but Ive only ever seen them deployed as like a way to shut down Outsiders trying to ask questions ive nerver understood what they actually mean

you see a toilet in a bathroom, you think "thats a toilet". you see a toilet on a plinth in an art gallery, you think "what's that doing there?" and then, if you are able to get past a knee-jerk rejection of 'THATS NOT ART WHATS IT DOING IN THE ART BUILDING', you think things like "what differentiates art objects from other objects? someone made this toilet, after all. it's mass produced, but prints can be mass produced, and they're still art. is a toilet that is being displayed different to one i am meant to use? what do i feel when i see a toilet randomly in the middle of a room while walking around an art gallery, that i don't feel when i see it in a bathroom when i'm going to take a piss?" & so on... the object has not changed, but your reaction to it has, and so it has become meaningfully different!

[genderkoolaid]

CW transphobia

Not sure if you've heard about the recent arrest of Luca Strobel, a trans man, for using women's washroom (after asking permission, because the men's had only urinals). I feel like it's a perfect example of malgendering and transandrophobia. He's arrested for being a man in a woman's washroom, and at the same time, the arresting officer calls him a "little girl."

www. erininthemorning. com/p/trans-man-detained-after-using-womens

After a lengthy drive to the bar, Strobel said he stepped inside to use the men’s room. However, there were no stalls—only urinals, rendering it inaccessible to him as a trans man. At first, an employee warned both Strobel and his friend against entering the bathroom of the “opposite” sex, but after a brief back-and-forth, Strobel said he believed he had permission to do so. He also said he and Frady were the only two people in the restroom, which Frady confirmed to Erin in the Morning. That’s when a man who said he was the bar owner burst into the women’s room, peering over the stall to look at Strobel as he used the restroom. “They're looking over the top of the stall at me without my clothes on,” Strobel said in the video. “They can fully see me naked other than me having my shirt on, and they just start screaming that there's ‘a man’ in here.” He said the owner and employee ejected him and his friend from the bar—grabbing and pushing them out as they reportedly called Strobel anti-trans slurs. The police were waiting at the door, Strobel said. The officer cuffed him “so tight that I can't even feel my fingers,” Strobel said. “I still have a bruise on my knuckle.” Meanwhile, his arresting officer allegedly kept calling him a “little girl.” “We didn't get booked, but we did get cuffed, and when we got to the station, we were asking a bunch of questions that they refused to answer,” Strobel said. “They just kept saying, ‘Take it up in court, take it up in court, take it up in court.’” [...] Strobel says he believes the bar staff knew he was trans because his shirt revealed his top surgery scars. Nonetheless, he said he refuses to “go stealth,” or hide his trans identity, because he believes that trans visibility in the South is important.

Yeah this is literally a perfect example. There was no "misdirected" violence here, they knew he was a trans man and still thought his presence in the women's bathroom was a male violation, WHILE ALSO infantilizing and feminizing him.

THIS is what can happen when trans men use the women's bathroom in a transphobic place. The presence of a trans guy in the women's bathroom is not, in fact, so shocking and incapable of being conceive that transphobes' brains simply shut down and can't do anything—they just direct their transphobia... at the trans man! Shocking! Who could've forseen such an outcome!

Luca now raising funds for him to relocate to somewhere safer, so if y'all can you should send some money his way.

[abd-illustrates]

Sorry to bother you. I wanted to ask if you were willing to give advice on how to avoid the 'Friends Who Never Hang' tropes? Because I'm hesitant to make more main characters because I'm not sure if I can make their bond close between all of them and you seem to have a grip on the Heartless gang's relationship. Thanks.

I had to google what that trope meant haha - but that's a rlly interesting question!

At least for me and my storytelling preferences, I think my stance would be that there's actually no need to worry about making a close bond between *all* of your main characters at all!

It's a bit hard to articulate, and I'm definitely thinking from more of a manga mindset so bear with me lol -- but trying to make sure that everyone on your main cast all get along with everyone else on the main cast, and feeling the need to give a 'proper' spotlight to every possible combination of characters to convince your audience that 'they really are all friends with a close bond, see how they all hang out!?' Can run the risk of looking like this:

and leave your story feeling bland/stagnant as you kinda slog through unnecessary scenes between characters just for the sake of proving that they do all interact an adequate amount.

Whereas - (again, at least in my experience) - building a group primarily around their ties to your Main-main character(s) like this:

is a method that leaves much more room for you as a writer to both focus on the character that's specifically meant to be at the forefront, while also making it easier to explore which other combos could then actually be fun to give more screen time to in order to *build up* those close bonds, rather than worrying about the end result and just trying to make everybody get along right from the get-go!

(Also! Don't feel like if you start out with a bunch of varied colorful connections that they all have to be turned into bright green friendly bonds by story's end! Making some characters a bit closer over time but still not besties is a-ok! They can unite for a common goal but still get on each others nerves forever! There are no rules! Be cringe, be free!)

[dasiesanddarkness]

the fact that Jesper is written to have aspects of adhd beyond the "haha he can't focus" part a lot of people tend to reduce it to is genuinely so important to me. AND that those things actually affect him and his self esteem realistically. he's not reduced to dumb comic relief that has adhd because it's quirky and gets diversity points, he's an actual character, and his adhd is an actual part of him, not a label they slapped on to make him more relatable.

he has time blindness, he's impulsive, he stims/fidgets (and i mean actually fidgets), he's forgetful, he has rsd, he has emotional dysregulation, and he has an addiction (people with untreated adhd are more likely to develop addictions because of under stimulation and seeking dopamine). he is a vibrant, real character, with real struggles that i relate to so deeply. he will always be so very special to me.

[tiredbitchposts]

Speaking of a lesbian Shen Yuan, let's just get it out of the way this woman would NOT know how to act after transmitgation. Like, all it took for a male Shen Yuan to start acting like the world's biggest babygirl was dying and being reborn into a villain's body, what do you think would happen if he was a closeted lesbian who religiously consumed either porn or male centric media? She'd commit war crimes on the poor women who had the luck of interacting with her. This woman would squeeze Liu Qingge's biceps and playfully say she can always depend on her strong shimei to protect her, she'd U-haul a marriageble age Luo Binghe into her side room and treat her as one would a wife, she'd host her sect leader to talk about her peak's budget wearing exactly two layers because it's just so hot and we're all women here shijie, she'd invite Gongyi Xiao to her peak with a smile and too much subtext for it to sound like a simple discipline invite to anyone hearing it, she'd call Zhuzi-lang fascinating to her face with no type of irony or mockery. This woman would would do all that AND still think think someone means lebanese when they say they're a lesbian, again, the system doesn't know what type of evil they unleashed upon the PIDW world

[genderqueerdykes]

Went out with a friend today in a local “queer friendly” cafe. We were talking about her new girlfriend and a woman decided to force herself into the conversation, trying to turn the conversation on me while asking about my girlfriend. Told her I don’t have one and then made a pointed show of ignoring her.

A few minutes later my friend asks how my transition has been going so I told her about my T dose upping and my new goals to get to for my surgery. Same lady comes right back into the conversation to ask why a “nice young lesbian” would be taking testosterone. She asked if there was something “physically or mentally wrong with [me]”.

Now I’m just blatantly uncomfortable. I tell her I’m not a lesbian, I’m just a man. She says “so it’s mental then.” She continued trying to talk about my genitals, my “broken attraction,” and a few other bullshit things. None of this would be a big experience if not for the fact that when my friend went to find the manager or someone who could handle the situation better, we found out that she’s the daughter of the owner and is set to take over the place next year 🙃 and we got kicked out for “causing a scene”

people genuinely do this shit. i'm so sorry holy hell. what the fuck is wrong with people. why do people view transmasculinity as a fucking mental illness. thank you for sharing, however

[bunnyboy-juice]

"people are doing WHAT?? well i NEVER knew--" shut up. we get it. u dont pay attention to a single thing that doesn't affect you & act like simply knowing some shallow meaning of a term means that bigotry doesnt exist anymore unless its the most exaggerated, dramatic, TV trope of violence. the fake ass pearl clutching is tired

[heyimkana]

A compilation of Sung Jinwoo being a soft, gentle, protective, warmhearted gentleman 😌

(Eng Dub because Aleks' gentle voice is unmatched)

[demaparbat-hp]

Smooch

[bi-writes]

whats wrong with ai?? genuinely curious <3

okay let's break it down. i'm an engineer, so i'm going to come at you from a perspective that may be different than someone else's.

i don't hate ai in every aspect. in theory, there are a lot of instances where, in fact, ai can help us do things a lot better without. here's a few examples:

ai detecting cancer

ai sorting recycling

some practical housekeeping that gemini (google ai) can do

all of the above examples are ways in which ai works with humans to do things in parallel with us. it's not overstepping--it's sorting, using pixels at a micro-level to detect abnormalities that we as humans can not, fixing a list. these are all really small, helpful ways that ai can work with us.

everything else about ai works against us. in general, ai is a huge consumer of natural resources. every prompt that you put into character.ai, chatgpt? this wastes water + energy. it's not free. a machine somewhere in the world has to swallow your prompt, call on a model to feed data into it and process more data, and then has to generate an answer for you all in a relatively short amount of time.

that is crazy expensive. someone is paying for that, and if it isn't you with your own money, it's the strain on the power grid, the water that cools the computers, the A/C that cools the data centers. and you aren't the only person using ai. chatgpt alone gets millions of users every single day, with probably thousands of prompts per second, so multiply your personal consumption by millions, and you can start to see how the picture is becoming overwhelming.

that is energy consumption alone. we haven't even talked about how problematic ai is ethically. there is currently no regulation in the united states about how ai should be developed, deployed, or used.

what does this mean for you?

it means that anything you post online is subject to data mining by an ai model (because why would they need to ask if there's no laws to stop them? wtf does it matter what it means to you to some idiot software engineer in the back room of an office making 3x your salary?). oh, that little fic you posted to wattpad that got a lot of attention? well now it's being used to teach ai how to write. oh, that sketch you made using adobe that you want to sell? adobe didn't tell you that anything you save to the cloud is now subject to being used for their ai models, so now your art is being replicated to generate ai images in photoshop, without crediting you (they have since said they don't do this...but privacy policies were never made to be human-readable, and i can't imagine they are the only company to sneakily try this). oh, your apartment just installed a new system that will use facial recognition to let their residents inside? oh, they didn't train their model with anyone but white people, so now all the black people living in that apartment building can't get into their homes. oh, you want to apply for a new job? the ai model that scans resumes learned from historical data that more men work that role than women (so the model basically thinks men are better than women), so now your resume is getting thrown out because you're a woman.

ai learns from data. and data is flawed. data is human. and as humans, we are racist, homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, divided. so the ai models we train will learn from this. ai learns from people's creative works--their personal and artistic property. and now it's scrambling them all up to spit out generated images and written works that no one would ever want to read (because it's no longer a labor of love), and they're using that to make money. they're profiting off of people, and there's no one to stop them. they're also using generated images as marketing tools, to trick idiots on facebook, to make it so hard to be media literate that we have to question every single thing we see because now we don't know what's real and what's not.

the problem with ai is that it's doing more harm than good. and we as a society aren't doing our due diligence to understand the unintended consequences of it all. we aren't angry enough. we're too scared of stifling innovation that we're letting it regulate itself (aka letting companies decide), which has never been a good idea. we see it do one cool thing, and somehow that makes up for all the rest of the bullshit?

[genderkoolaid]

why are people so willing to throw young transmascs under the bus :( feels like our own community still sees us as hysterical girls that can’t be trusted to make our own choices

the spectre of "transmasculinity as a disease which corrupts the purity of cis girlhood" remains strong I see.

Also "testosterone works just as well at 25" GIRL THE GROWTH PLATES. GIRL THE HIP BONES.

[solargeist]

Do you have any tips for drawing children? I feel like they always end up more chibi when I try

hmm ! well ! they are sorta chibi... small n cutesy lol, i do have a cartoony style, so this is how i do it-

"(for elf characters i draw adults with long thin ears, and kids with short chubby ears.)" "[adults] have even features, head matches his body." "[children] have squished features. kids usually have squished, low faces, with big foreheads. their heads are big in general compared to their bodies. their necks are also short." "the logic still follows with a chibi style, the kid has a smaller face, features are closer together/lower. big forehead."

for bodies--this changes drastically with age in such a short time, but in general they have super small shoulders. They'll usually have small hands and feet, and chubby arms/wrists. Small kids and toddlers typically have potbellies too. Since these are also normal features in chibi art--the height and ratio is important.

[stompandhollar]

I am kissing you on both cheeks. Fat doesn't always mean "kind, cuddly and unarmed".

YES!!!! Exactly.

fat is literally just a body type, as much as skinny or mid sized or absolutely everything else. People treating Martin and other plus-sized characters with kid gloves on, or acting like they’re just sweeties and only sweeties, feels so…. infantilizing?

Especially given that Martin “kill bill” Blackwood is one of the bitchiest punks in the series lol. He successfully manipulated multiple avatars and outsmarted Elias. He’s snappy and pragmatic and he plays nice exceptionally well, but I don’t think I would ever use that word to describe the man who was completely chill with damning every other universe in existence just to stay with his boyfriend. He’s selfish and cool and sexy about it. And he’s also fat. THE character of all time.

not to mention my all time biggest crush but that’s neither here nor there.