#Photo and Image Editing Training

[little-dinosaurart]

Six tames long-armed Roger (Parody HTTYD, but it's in Little Nightmares)

[axololtls]

[anaquariusfox]

I spent the evening looking into this AI shit and made a wee informative post of the information I found and thought all artists would be interested and maybe help yall?

edit: forgot to mention Glaze and Nightshade to alter/disrupt AI from taking your work into their machines. You can use these and post and it will apparently mess up the AI and it wont take your content into it's machine!

edit: ArtStation is not AI free! So make sure to read that when signing up if you do! (this post is also on twt)

[Image descriptions: A series of infographics titled: “Opt Out AI: [Social Media] and what I found.” The title image shows a drawing of a person holding up a stack of papers where the first says, ‘Terms of Service’ and the rest have logos for various social media sites and are falling onto the floor. Long transcriptions follow.

Instagram/Meta (I have to assume Facebook).

Hard for all users to locate the “opt out” options. The option has been known to move locations.

You have to click the opt out link to submit a request to opt out of the AI scraping. *You have to submit screenshots of your work/face/content you posted to the app, is curretnly being used in AI. If you do not have this, they will deny you.

Users are saying after being rejected, are being “meta blocked”

People’s requests are being accepted but they still have doubts that their content won’t be taken anyways.

Twitter/X

As of August 2023, Twitter’s ToS update:

“Twitter has the right to use any content that users post on its platform to train its AI models, and that users grant Twitter a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to do so.”

There isn’t much to say. They’re doing the same thing Instagram is doing (to my understanding) and we can’t even opt out.

Tumblr

They also take your data and content and sell it to AI models.

But you’re in luck!

It is very simply to opt out (Wow. Thank Gods)

Opt out on Desktop: click on your blog > blog settings > scroll til you see visibility options and it’ll be the last option to toggle

Out out of Mobile: click your blog > scroll then click visibility > toggle opt out option

TikTok

I took time skim their ToS and under “How We Use Your Information” and towards the end of the long list: “To train and improve our technology, such as our machine learning models and algorithms.”

Regarding data collected; they will only not sell your data when “where restricted by applicable law”. That is not many countries. You can refuse/disable some cookies by going into settings > ads > turn off targeted ads.

I couldn’t find much in AI besides “our machine learning models” which I think is the same thing.

What to do?

In this age of the internet, it’s scary! But you have options and can pick which are best for you!

Accepting these platforms collection of not only your artwork, but your face! And not only your faces but the faces of those in your photos. Your friends and family. Some of those family members are children! Some of those faces are minors! I shudder to think what darker purposes those faces could be used for.

Opt out where you can! Be mindful and know the content you are posting is at risk of being loaded to AI if unable to opt out.

Fully delete (not archive) your content/accounts with these platforms. I know it takes up to 90 days for instagram to “delete” your information. And even keep it for “legal” purposes like legal prevention.

Use lesser known social media platforms! Some examples are; Signal, Mastodon, Diaspora, et. As well as art platforms: Artfol, Cara, ArtStation, etc.

The last drawing shows the same person as the title saying, ‘I am, by no means, a ToS autistic! So feel free to share any relatable information to these topics via reply or qrt!

I just wanted to share the information I found while searching for my own answers cause I’m sure people have the same questions as me.’ \End description] (thank you @a-captions-blog!)

[ms-demeanor]

Why reblog machine-generated art?

When I was ten years old I took a photography class where we developed black and white photos by projecting light on papers bathed in chemicals. If we wanted to change something in the image, we had to go through a gradual, arduous process called dodging and burning.

When I was fifteen years old I used photoshop for the first time, and I remember clicking on the clone tool or the blur tool and feeling like I was cheating.

When I was twenty eight I got my first smartphone. The phone could edit photos. A few taps with my thumb were enough to apply filters and change contrast and even spot correct. I was holding in my hand something more powerful than the huge light machines I'd first used to edit images.

When I was thirty six, just a few weeks ago, I took a photo class that used Lightroom Classic and again, it felt like cheating. It made me really understand how much the color profiles of popular web images I'd been seeing for years had been pumped and tweaked and layered with local edits to make something that, to my eyes, didn't much resemble photography. To me, photography is light on paper. It's what you capture in the lens. It's not automatic skin smoothing and a local filter to boost the sky. This reminded me a lot more of the photomanipulations my friend used to make on deviantart; layered things with unnatural colors that put wings on buildings or turned an eye into a swimming pool. It didn't remake the images to that extent, obviously, but it tipped into the uncanny valley. More real than real, more saturated more sharp and more present than the actual world my lens saw. And that was before I found the AI assisted filters and the tool that would identify the whole sky for you, picking pieces of it out from between leaves.

You know, it's funny, when people talk about artists who might lose their jobs to AI they don't talk about the people who have already had to move on from their photo editing work because of technology. You used to be able to get paid for basic photo manipulation, you know? If you were quick with a lasso or skilled with masks you could get a pretty decent chunk of change by pulling subjects out of backgrounds for family holiday cards or isolating the pies on the menu for a mom and pop. Not a lot, but enough to help. But, of course, you can just do that on your phone now. There's no need to pay a human for it, even if they might do a better job or be more considerate toward the aesthetic of an image.

And they certainly don't talk about all the development labs that went away, or the way that you could have trained to be a studio photographer if you wanted to take good photos of your family to hang on the walls and that digital photography allowed in a parade of amateurs who can make dozens of iterations of the same bad photo until they hit on a good one by sheer volume and luck; if you want to be a good photographer everyone can do that why didn't you train for it and spend a long time taking photos on film and being okay with bad photography don't you know that digital photography drove thousands of people out of their jobs.

My dad told me that he plays with AI the other day. He hosts a movie podcast and he puts up thumbnails for the downloads. In the past, he'd just take a screengrab from the film. Now he tells the Bing AI to make him little vignettes. A cowboy running away from a rhino, a dragon arm-wrestling a teddy bear. That kind of thing. Usually based on a joke that was made on the show, or about the subject of the film and an interest of the guest.

People talk about "well AI art doesn't allow people to create things, people were already able to create things, if they wanted to create things they should learn to create things." Not everyone wants to make good art that's creative. Even fewer people want to put the effort into making bad art for something that they aren't passionate about. Some people want filler to go on the cover of their youtube video. My dad isn't going to learn to draw, and as the person who he used to ask to photoshop him as Ant-Man because he certainly couldn't pay anyone for that kind of thing, I think this is a great use case for AI art. This senior citizen isn't going to start cartooning and at two recordings a week with a one-day editing turnaround he doesn't even really have the time for something like a Fiverr commission. This is a great use of AI art, actually.

I also know an artist who is going Hog Fucking Wild creating AI art of their blorbos. They're genuinely an incredibly talented artist who happens to want to see their niche interest represented visually without having to draw it all themself. They're posting the funny and good results to a small circle of mutuals on socials with clear information about the source of the images; they aren't trying to sell any of the images, they're basically using them as inserts for custom memes. Who is harmed by this person saying "i would like to see my blorbo lasciviously eating an ice cream cone in the is this a pigeon meme"?

The way I use machine-generated art, as an artist, is to proof things. Can I get an explosion to look like this. What would a wall of dead computer monitors look like. Would a ballerina leaping over the grand canyon look cool? Sometimes I use AI art to generate copyright free objects that I can snip for a collage. A lot of the time I use it to generate ideas. I start naming random things and seeing what it shows me and I start getting inspired. I can ask CrAIon for pose reference, I can ask it to show me the interior of spaces from a specific angle.

I profoundly dislike the antipathy that tumblr has for AI art. I understand if people don't want their art used in training pools. I understand if people don't want AI trained on their art to mimic their style. You should absolutely use those tools that poison datasets if you don't want your art included in AI training. I think that's an incredibly appropriate action to take as an artist who doesn't want AI learning from your work.

However I'm pretty fucking aggressively opposed to copyright and most of the "solid" arguments against AI art come down to "the AIs viewed and learned from people's copyrighted artwork and therefore AI is theft rather than fair use" and that's a losing argument for me. In. Like. A lot of ways. Primarily because it is saying that not only is copying someone's art theft, it is saying that looking at and learning from someone's art can be defined as theft rather than fair use.

Also because it's just patently untrue.

But that doesn't really answer your question. Why reblog machine-generated art? Because I liked that piece of art.

It was made by a machine that had looked at billions of images - some copyrighted, some not, some new, some old, some interesting, many boring - and guided by a human and I liked it. It was pretty. It communicated something to me. I looked at an image a machine made - an artificial picture, a total construct, something with no intrinsic meaning - and I felt a sense of quiet and loss and nostalgia. I looked at a collection of automatically arranged pixels and tasted salt and smelled the humidity in the air.

I liked it.

I don't think that all AI art is ugly. I don't think that AI art is all soulless (i actually think that 'having soul' is a bizarre descriptor for art and that lacking soul is an equally bizarre criticism). I don't think that AI art is bad for artists. I think the problem that people have with AI art is capitalism and I don't think that's a problem that can really be laid at the feet of people curating an aesthetic AI art blog on tumblr.

Machine learning isn't the fucking problem the problem is massive corporations have been trying hard not to pay artists for as long as massive corporations have existed (isn't that a b-plot in the shape of water? the neighbor who draws ads gets pushed out of his job by product photography? did you know that as recently as ten years ago NewEgg had in-house photographers who would take pictures of the products so users wouldn't have to rely on the manufacturer photos? I want you to guess what killed that job and I'll give you a hint: it wasn't AI)

Am I putting a human out of a job because I reblogged an AI-generated "photo" of curtains waving in the pale green waters of an imaginary beach? Who would have taken this photo of a place that doesn't exist? Who would have painted this hypersurrealistic image? What meaning would it have had if they had painted it or would it have just been for the aesthetic? Would someone have paid for it or would it be like so many of the things that artists on this site have spent dozens of hours on only to get no attention or value for their work?

My worst ratio of hours to notes is an 8-page hand-drawn detailed ink comic about getting assaulted at a concert and the complicated feelings that evoked that took me weeks of daily drawing after work with something like 54 notes after 8 years; should I be offended if something generated from a prompt has more notes than me? What does that actually get the blogger? Clout? I believe someone said that popularity on tumblr gets you one thing and that is yelled at.

What do you get out of this? Are you helping artists right now? You're helping me, and I'm an artist. I've wanted to unload this opinion for a while because I'm sick of the argument that all Real Artists think AI is bullshit. I'm a Real Artist. I've been paid for Real Art. I've been commissioned as an artist.

And I find a hell of a lot of AI art a lot more interesting than I find human-generated corporate art or Thomas Kincaid (but then, I repeat myself).

There are plenty of people who don't like AI art and don't want to interact with it. I am not one of those people. I thought the gay sex cats were funny and looked good and that shitposting is the ideal use of a machine image generation: to make uncopyrightable images to laugh at.

I think that tumblr has decided to take a principled stand against something that most people making the argument don't understand. I think tumblr's loathing for AI has, generally speaking, thrown weight behind a bunch of ideas that I think are going to be incredibly harmful *to artists specifically* in the long run.

Anyway. If you hate AI art and you don't want to interact with people who interact with it, block me.

[o-sachi]

Hope They Caught Us ‧₊˚ ⋅ Blue Lock Chars. (Request)

ଳ oh no, the paparazzi has revealed your relationship; what's going to happen now?ଳ characters; isagi yoichi, bachira meguru, nagi seishiro, reo mikage, michael kaiser, sae itoshi, rin itoshi, barou shoei, chigiri hyoma, shidou ryusei ଳ tags; pro player characters, gn reader, sfw

ᯓ Isagi Yoichi

Isagi wasn't really concerned about being "found out" in the first place. He mostly kept a low profile with you for your own privacy and safety.

If you're just starting out, he'd probably dodge questions about his love life. But after a couple of months, he'd gladly reveal it in a press con.

Being one of the top strikers, it became an unspoken rule in media to not be that "trashy" tabloid to mess around with Isagi's private life.

In a way, everyone respected the low profile he wanted for the two of you.

He'd probably be more open with sharing photos of the two of you once you're married. Maybe he'd even post occasional updates about your family.

ᯓ Bachira Meguru

He does the job of the paparazzi for them. Tabloids have no use in tailing him in public because he posts about you on his socials as much as he can.

Seriously. When he needs to promote an upcoming match, he'll use a picture of you wearing his jersey and slap on the caption his management asked him to.

It probably becomes a meme—how obsessed he can be with you. Oddly enough, it earns him even more fans.

When you get married... he will never shut up. Seeing his social media, you'd forget that he was a football player in the first place.

It's a different story if he had kids though. He'd be super pumped to share them and all their milestones, but he's responsible enough to know that they need to remain private for their safety.

ᯓ Nagi Seishirou

His management initially told him to keep a low profile with anyone that he dates. Being a famous footballer meant that he had to protect his reputation at all costs. Romantic relationships could be a slippery slope, so they wanted to safeguard his image as best they can.

He shrugs it off and promises that he will do that. Butttttt, not long after the two of you started dating, the paps already got to him. Suffice to say that his management was not happy.

The two of you were caught out in public getting some food. They could've argued that you were going as friends, but the way Nagi lazily wrapped his arms around your waist (force of habit) told people otherwise.

When the news blew up that he was dating someone—he shrugged it off. Again. His publicist trains him excessively to prepare for the upcoming press con, knowing that Nagi will most definitely slip up again.

The poor guy tries so hard to lie in front of the media, but it was too obvious. It was almost hilarious how he kept mixing up his answers. In the end, the management relented and allowed him to reveal your relationship without mincing words.

ᯓ Reo Mikage

Similar to Nagi's case, everyone tells him to keep the relationship a secret—his management, his parents, his financial advisors, and even a few of his friends.

It was a tougher situation for him because not only is he famous, but he's also disgustingly rich. That only posed more danger for you and especially for him.

There were plenty of close calls when the paparazzi would camp near his house and his usual haunts. But somehow... all the stories and articles get shut down quickly. Reo has his managing team (and some of his parents' connections) to thank for that.

So, people now have a slight idea that Reo might be dating someone. But that's about it. They have no idea about who the person is nor how serious the relationship is. When a photo or two goes under the radar and somehow makes its way on to the internet, people always assume it's edited or taken out of context.

The devil works hard, but Reo Mikage's management team works harder.

ᯓ Michael Kaiser

He's the type of celebrity that the paparazzi always gets ahold of. It's practically impossible for him to get away, so he gave up and accepted his fate. When he was still single—he didn't give a shit about them as long as they kept their distance and turned off the flash of their cameras.

But when you came into the picture... he became so so mean to the paparazzi. Even if they kept their distance from the two of you, he'd always throw a scarf over your head or hand you his sunglasses, so that you didn't have to deal with your face being plastered all over the internet.

He would definitely throw a middle finger or two if one of the paps tells you to smile for them or something. An article about Kaiser—with the now infamous picture of him—would be uploaded the next morning. But, honestly? Who gives a shit?

Grows to hate the paps with a burning passion. He literally can't have a calm day without them on his tail. And best believe that he'll express this disdain on every press con and interview possible.

Fans eventually come to his rescue and throw hate on every tabloid that keeps on hounding him and his precious significant other.

ᯓ Sae Itoshi

Sae is the only one safe from the prying eyes of the public. if he wants to keep you and your relationship private—then private it shall be. It's not that he's embarrassed of you, but he thinks that other people have absolutely no say in your relationship. What' between the two of you, stays there.

He rarely posts on social media. If he does, it's going to be a promotional pub for his next match or appearance. Not a single post about his personal life will be there, especially a post about you.

The paparazzi almost never catches him. Even if they do, it's always just him by himself doing mundane things. Eventually, the paps figured it was useless to track him down and decided to hound a different celebrity (his brother lol).

He secretly loves to mess with the internet by posting the most cryptic shit ever. It has everyone coming up with conspiracy theories, but none of them seem to stick (there's always gonna be that one "debunker" after all). When he randomly sees people debating and fighting on the internet about his posts—it makes him giggle a bit inside.

He'll probably only reveal bits of his personal life once he's retired. Maybe he'll tell people he was married and was with you for a long time now. For a star as big as him, the paps won't let him go even if he retires, but at that point, he could hardly care.

ᯓ Rin Itoshi

He hated the thought of having the public know about your relationship because 1) it will compromise your safety, 2) it will mean that a bunch of random extras would be talking about the two of you, and 3) his business is his alone. Rin's just an incredibly private person all around.

So smug at first because the paparazzi was exclusively going after his brother—being a huge pain in the ass. His smugness was quickly wiped away once the paps started hounding him instead. He definitely cursed his brother in his mind for "being so boring that even the tabloids got sick of him."

He would release a statement in which he tells the public to back off and that it's none of their concern if he was dating anyone. Although, it completely backfires because who mentions that out of the blue? Everyone knew he was reverse-psychology-ing them.

Of course, he was pissed about how his statement blew up in the wrong direction. You, on the other hand, found it quite amusing. To relieve his stress, you suggested to go out of the country with him for a while and enjoy a nice vacation.

As fate would have it, that was when the two of you were caught red-handed—being all over each other at a beach in Cancun. Rin was... not impressed when the pictures spread all over the internet. But you were there to cheer him up again! (He still won't give them the satisfaction of admitting to your relationship though).

ᯓ Barou Shoei

Barou's strict with himself and with you. His management team doesn't have to fret over him because they know he has it all under control. He reminds you constantly and teaches you how to be careful under the public eye. He's super sweet and considerate for that !

He asks you if your prefer the privacy or if you'd like to make your relationship public (He cares too much about what you think). If you prefer privacy, then he'd do anything and everything in his power to keep your existence under wraps. If you wanna go public, then he's making a statement tomorrow.

However, you do decide that you want people to know about your relationship; it felt more real that way. He takes note of it and does it in the flashiest way possible: inviting you down on the field to celebrate with him after a win.

The paps have an absolute field day with that moment. So many HD pictures of different angles of that celebration filled the internet for a month or so. Everyone thought it was quite cute.

You still kept a low profile after that. People knew about your relationship, but your safety was still his number one priority.

ᯓ Chigiri Hyoma

Chigiri could give two shits about the paparazzi. Let them follow if they want; it makes them look sad and pathetic shouting for his and your attention after all.

Don't get him wrong though—he's still concerned about your safety, so he does everything else in the background to make sure no one can do anything nasty to you even if your relationship is plastered all over the internet.

There wasn't any need for statement or confirmation from him. There were always paparazzi waiting for you when you go out to dinner with him. He'll still gladly hold your hand and whisper some reassurance into your ear.

HE IS THE TYPE TO RESPOND TO HATE COMMENTS ONLINE. And it's too funny. Chigiri has the best comebacks and one-liners to the haters which has fans rolling on the floor laughing. "That's why Chigiri is the goat," one netizen says.

You two eventually become a power couple that's referenced quite often in media. How cute.

ᯓ Shidou Ryusei

He was involved in an incident once wherein he calmly approached one of the paps, took the camera from him, snapped a photo of the guy right in his face, and said, "Doesn't feel good to be photographed without your permission huh?"

Safe to say that after that—the paps didn't want to do anything to him. I mean, he's already a menace on the football field (which is a regulated place, by the way), so what more if he was out in public without any restraint?

People knew about your relationship anyway. He wasn't shy about it and both of you were like YOLO—having fun over safety any day was your motto. (Thankfully, management was kind enough to make sure both of you were still safe though).

He's the type to overshare on the internet. It's to the point that sometimes you have to whack him over the head and ask him to delete a post because it revealed too much about his life.

Shidou shitposts on the internet way too often. So much so that people started calling his posts "Shidouposts" (affectionately). He also loved sharing memes about himself or about the two of you.

ε( ε ˙³˙)ɜ ｡° ⚬ ｡ likes and reblogs are appreciated

pls do not translate/copy/reupload my work on other platforms.

o-sachi © 2024

[haxkattpress]

Our Objective Remains Unchanged by @citrusses

"Harry Potter, returning member of the Oxford University Boat Club, has two goals for the spring of 2005: beat Cambridge, and beat Draco Malfoy. Perhaps not in that order."

This has to be one of the most creative and meticulously researched fics I have ever had the pleasure of reading. If you haven't read it yet, don't walk— run! Citrusses is an absolute genius, and kindly gave me permission to bind her masterpiece.

The cover of this bind is made out four different shades of Allure bookcloth cut by my Cameo 4, and the centerpiece is printed and hand foiled. The banners were machine foiled in gold and black with hand foiled rose gold shading. The endbands were hand sewn with Gutermann silk thread.

You can find more pictures and information about my process under the cut.

The amount of inspiration this fic gave me was overwhelming, and Citrusses' writing fully immersed me in the world of competitive rowing. While designing this bind, I was struck by the sheer wealth of Oxford rowing memorabilia available to me. I settled on this 1929 illustration from an official publication on the Oxford and Cambridge Centenary Boat Race for the cover.

"How hard could it possibly be?" I thought, foolishly. The answer was HARD, but I'll get into that later.

Due to the wealth of design options, I believe that this may be the best typeset I have created to date. Thanks to the help of my friend @tsurashi-bindery, I was able to learn the basics of InDesign (kicking and screaming all the way). There will be spoilers in the text of these photos, so try not to read them if you haven't finished the fic!

For the title page, I modified To See the Crews in Training by Charles Pears (1930). I believe that this was part of a series of advertisements for the race in the London Underground.

For the chapter headers, I redrew the crest from an Oxford Oars, Flags, and Arms postcard, presumably pre 1914. I also had some fun creating a mock email using La_Temperanza's How to Mimic Email Windows on Ao3. Cormac's email makes me laugh every time I read it, and Citrusses provided an appropriately pompous subject.

I also had lots of fun editing the oars from the official OUBC logo to serve as dividers and decorations for the page numbers.

Additionally, I got to edit a full newspaper page for the fic! I was very excited find an opportunity to slip Leyendecker's The Finish (1908) in.

The fic ended beautifully, so I wanted to include one last element at the end to capture the atmosphere. I settled on L'aviron (1932) by Milivoj Uzelac. It makes me feel as though Harry and Draco will continue rowing together long after I've closed the book.

I of course had lots of fun sewing the headbands, and got to do it with not one but TWO copies!

Things got tricky when I had to recreate the cover. I had a poor understanding of how vector images worked, and ended up having to redraw it three times. Once I finally cracked and taught myself how to use Illustrator, the program crashed...and I had to redraw it a fourth time!

I set the vector to cut on my Cameo 4, and I assembled the pieces together like a puzzle on my Silhouette mat. I used Allure's indigo, skylight, white, and black bookcloth in the process. I will be making a tutorial video on this method, so I will keep it brief here.

I also cut a piece of bookcloth to 8.5"x 11" and fed it through my inktank printer to print the center design. I then cut it out using the print and cut feature on my Cameo 4. Both of these methods were a first for me, and they were very scary!!

To be perfectly frank, the foiling was a nightmare and I don't want to get into it. I machine foiled the gold, and then foiled black lettering on top of it. I foiled the rose gold shading by hand, and then foiled a thin black outline along the edge of the banners to make them stand out more.

I hand foiled the spines (because I'm scared of measuring), painted the exposed board (to hide any gaps in the inlays), and used transfer tape to lift my design from the Silhouette mat and onto the cover.

One more fun detail— my copy and the author's copy are sisters! The dark blue and the light blue are inverted on the author's copy, making it distinguishable from mine. This is the first time I have made an author's copy for a fic, and I was admittedly incredibly nervous. I always worry about what authors will think of my work, but Citrusses gave me an incredible amount of encouragement and support throughout the process! Thank you for trusting me with your precious fic!

This story is a work of fanfiction and can be read on Ao3 for free. My bind and typeset are for personal use only and not for sale or profit. Keep fandom free!

[hiael]

Obey Me! Headcanons that the voices in my head created

The pact marks don't affect the MC in general, but when they are used, the color of the user's eyes tends to change to the color of sin (when Solomon sees the color of his eyes changing to the colors of his brothers, geez, jealousy boy), it happens more often than you think and in addition to the marks on the body, it's a reminder to everyone that you're connected with the lords of hell.

Human beings can speak very quickly and neither demons nor angels can keep up when this happens. Scientifically, we talk fast because of anxiety, nervousness, excitement or the communication conditions that the environment provides. Solomon and MC talking about something they thought was cool during the tea? For the others it becomes a RAP battle and all they can hear is "hum, nah, ha, hehe", the rest is indecipherable. More than once, during a presentation or debate in class, MC was told to shut the fuck up or slow down so that everyone could understand.

All material related to the history of the human world is more or less 100 to 200 years out of date in the library. Satan is slowly trying to update this, but they think that 200 years is almost nothing for humans to change, so unlike technology (which they think they created with magic) they just don't care. A new iPhone ok, now the human being landed on the moon during a bloodless war? Their lie, do you still believe what mortals say?

Humans sleep more than angels and demons, but even less than demons from the circle of laziness. MC, Solomon and Belphie (and sometimes Luke) usually sleep in some places at RAD during and between classes.

All exchange students have their own fan club. Luke's must be the quietest, everyone friendly and kind so as not to disappoint the little angel. Did you see him walking past you today, sad that he hadn't managed to buy a keyring at the RAD art fair? Bitch surprise, his fan club are still demons, the keyring will mysteriously appear on his desk in the classroom written "To Luke, a little big ray of sunshine in our lives" and the person who bought it has left the RAD, anyone know why?

Still on the subject of fan clubs, we're not talking about Solomon's. If the number of demons he has a pact with isn't enough of a warning, there are others walking around in capes and blouses as if they were cosplayers and sending letters to his house with phrases like 'roses are red, violets are blue, can we make a pact? Signed: Demon X' should be a better warning

And to end the fan clubs, MC's are trained in the art of being meticulous, a silent army that lives in the shadows - meaning they are in the devildom version of twitter. Lots of photos taken on the sly, fanart of all kinds, fanfics, merchandise and videos edits of (and when were they sheep? There are millions and millions of images circulating out there). Ever wondered why Miss Em sold so much? The MC fandom. They won't compete with anyone for their attention, the sweet human is simply appreciated the way they are (and they don't want to be on the brothers' list to "get away from the MC"). The Human Appreciation Club was not approved by the student council and they removed their devilpedia page, but that didn't erase these demons desire to idolize MCs. Live, love and laugh for MC, the way simps are.

At some point, the Real or Cake trend went crazy until Luke, who started making desserts that looked like everyday things, only stopped after surprising Simeon by cutting a cell phone-shaped cake (Simeon tried to break his with his hand after that, thinking it was cake. He spent 3 weeks without a phone)

Every time MC returns from a trip to the human world, they have to bring a suitcase just with souvenirs from there. Luckily, it can be anything they find fun, like a frog-shaped coaster, a jar of M&Ms with a pinwheel on top, a whole corn cake, a tie with a motivational quote, a children's book, or a coin of a specific year. Everyone just loves the fact that MC was thinking of them and they love using the gift they received. Barbatos's favorite tea set is now a completely transparent one with gold floral details.

Children's cartoons from 1940 still show on Devildom TV and Beel watches while eating or working out.

Lucifer has a family photo inside his wallet, Mammon once tried to steal his credit card, he was so shocked that he ended up screaming, he was caught and punish. Neither of them mention the photo.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Earlier this week, OpenAI launched its new image generation feature, which is integrated directly into ChatGPT and allows users to input more complex instructions for editing and organizing the presentation of the output. The first big viral trend to come out of the new service was users turning photos of family vacations, historical events, and pop cultural images into animated stills in the style of Studio Ghibli films. (The whole thing was a bit of a throwback to the heady days of 2023 when you would see AI influencers sharing photos of famous figures in the style of Wes Anderson films or whatever.) ChatGPT let users “Ghibilify” the images, so we got Ghiblified Hawk Tuah girl, Ghiblified Elon Musk (obviously), and so on. The issue here should be obvious. I won’t pretend to know exactly how Miyazaki thinks about modern generative AI systems—the tool he was commenting on was a cruder prototype—though one might venture to argue that he’d feel even more strongly about tools that further automate human art with greater ease, and often drive it further into the uncanny valley. Regardless, the man on record with likely the strongest and bluntest disavowal of using AI tools for art, is now the same man whose notoriously painstakingly handcrafted art is being giddily automated by ChatGPT users for what amounts to a promotional campaign for a tech company that’s on the verge of being valued at $300 billion. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, not only participated, changing his X avatar to a ‘Ghiblified’ self portrait, but insisted that this was the plan all along. Which in turn raises the specter of copyright infringement. Speaking to TechCrunch, a copyright lawyer very diplomatically said that while it’s unlikely infringement to produce images in the style of a studio, it’s “entirely plausible” that OpenAI’s models were trained on millions of frames of Ghibli films. He noted that it’s still an open question whether or not that in fact violates current IP law, or constitutes fair use, as the tech companies argue. On that front, judges recently dealt tech companies a blow, ruling in favor of Thomson Reuters that a pre-ChatGPT AI system was creating images that competed with the original material, and thus was not in fact fair use. OpenAI and Google, meanwhile, are desperately trying to win this battle, appealing to the Trump administration directly, and going so far as to argue that if they’re not allowed to ingest copyrighted works into their training data, China will beat the US in AI. Now, if—and of course this is a whopping if—OpenAI had consulted Studio Ghibli and its artists on all this, if those artists had consented and say reached a licensing deal before the art and frames from their films were ingested into the training data (as is pretty apparently the case), then look, this would indeed be a bout of generally wholesome fun for everyone involved. Instead, it’s an insult.

[...]

OpenAI and the other AI giants are indeed eating away at the livelihoods and dignity of working artists, and this devouring, appropriating, and automation of the production of art, of culture, at a scale truly never seen before, should not be underestimated as a menace—and it is being experienced as such by working artists, right now.

27 March 2025

[alcrego]

I’m sorry, but the fact that you use ai in your art sorta ruins it for me.

It's curious that until I said I use AI to ASSIST my work, nobody realized. ��👍

I use AIs to generate images from Custom Models trained with my OWN work, idk what is the problem. I neither invented the camera I take photos with, the softwares I use to edit and to animate my work.

I perceive there is a huge lack of understanding of how some of use use AIs to IMPLEMENT and ASSIST the process of our creations.

If we use AIs, wrong.

If people steal our work for more than 10 years ago, is ok? 🤨

Adapt, evolve or omit.

Evolution does not wait for us to understand it.

[oviraptoridae]

research & development is ongoing

since using jukebox for sampling material on albedo, i've been increasingly interested in ethically using ai as a tool to incorporate more into my own artwork. recently i've been experimenting with "commoncanvas", a stable diffusion model trained entirely on works in the creative commons. though i do not believe legality and ethics are equivalent, this provides me peace of mind that all of the training data was used consensually through the terms of the creative commons license. here's the paper on it for those who are curious! shoutout to @reachartwork for the inspiration & her informative posts about her process!

part 1: overview

i usually post finished works, so today i want to go more in depth & document the process of experimentation with a new medium. this is going to be a long and image-heavy post, most of it will be under the cut & i'll do my best to keep all the image descriptions concise.

for a point of reference, here is a digital collage i made a few weeks ago for the album i just released (shameless self promo), using photos from wikimedia commons and a render of a 3d model i made in blender:

and here are two images i made with the help of common canvas (though i did a lot of editing and post-processing, more on that process in a future post):

more about my process & findings under the cut, so this post doesn't get too long:

quick note for my setup: i am running this model locally on my own machine (rtx 3060, ubuntu 23.10), using the automatic1111 web ui. if you are on the same version of ubuntu as i am, note that you will probably have to build python 3.10.6 yourself (and be sure to use 'make altinstall' instead of 'make install' and change the line in the webui to use 'python3.10' instead of 'python3'. just mentioning this here because nobody else i could find had this exact problem and i had to figure it out myself)

part 2: initial exploration

all the images i'll be showing here are the raw outputs of the prompts given, with no retouching/regenerating/etc.

so: commoncanvas has 2 different types of models, the "C" and "NC" models, trained on their database of works under the CC Commercial and Non-Commercial licenses, respectively (i think the NC dataset also includes the commercial license works, but i may be wrong). the NC model is larger, but both have their unique strengths:

"a cat on the computer", "C" model

"a cat on the computer", "NC" model

they both take the same amount of time to generate (17 seconds for four 512x512 images on my 3060). if you're really looking for that early ai jank, go for the commercial model. one thing i really like about commoncanvas is that it's really good at reproducing the styles of photography i find most artistically compelling: photos taken by scientists and amateurs. (the following images will be described in the captions to avoid redundancy):

"grainy deep-sea rover photo of an octopus", "NC" model. note the motion blur on the marine snow, greenish lighting and harsh shadows here, like you see in photos taken by those rover submarines that scientists use to take photos of deep sea creatures (and less like ocean photography done for purely artistic reasons, which usually has better lighting and looks cleaner). the anatomy sucks, but the lighting and environment is perfect.

"beige computer on messy desk", "NC" model. the reflection of the flash on the screen, the reddish-brown wood, and the awkward angle and framing are all reminiscent of a photo taken by a forum user with a cheap digital camera in 2007.

so the noncommercial model is great for vernacular and scientific photography. what's the commercial model good for?

"blue dragon sitting on a stone by a river", "C" model. it's good for bad CGI dragons. whenever i request dragons of the commercial model, i either get things that look like photographs of toys/statues, or i get gamecube type CGI, and i love it.

here are two little green freaks i got while trying to refine a prompt to generate my fursona. (i never succeeded, and i forget the exact prompt i used). these look like spore creations and the background looks like a bryce render. i really don't know why there's so much bad cgi in the datasets and why the model loves going for cgi specifically for dragons, but it got me thinking...

"hollow tree in a magical forest, video game screenshot", "C" model

"knights in a dungeon, video game screenshot", "C" model

i love the dreamlike video game environments and strange CGI characters it produces-- it hits that specific era of video games that i grew up with super well.

part 3: use cases

if you've seen any of the visual art i've done to accompany my music projects, you know that i love making digital collages of surreal landscapes:

(this post is getting image heavy so i'll wrap up soon)

i'm interested in using this technology more, not as a replacement for my digital collage art, but along with it as just another tool in my toolbox. and of course...

... this isn't out of lack of skill to imagine or draw scifi/fantasy landscapes.

thank you for reading such a long post! i hope you got something out of this post; i think it's a good look into the "experimentation phase" of getting into a new medium. i'm not going into my post-processing / GIMP stuff in this post because it's already so long, but let me know if you want another post going into that!

good-faith discussion and questions are encouraged but i will disable comments if you don't behave yourselves. be kind to each other and keep it P.L.U.R.

[thanksbutno98]

Flash drive

John Price x fem!reader

Warning: NSFW, smut, oral m!recieving, masturbation, porn. Not edited.

————-

John wasn’t quite sure how things had gotten so out of hand. It started out innocent, just doing some work in his home office that he had been avoiding all weekend. He needed to find an old file on a flash drive he hadn’t used in years. It was sitting at the bottom of a small cardboard box packed up neatly in his office closet.

John cursed himself for his poor naming of files, one being named ‘stuff’. There were over a hundred files and he knew that because for some reason he chose to number most of them instead of name them. His plan of action was to go through each one and properly name them so he wouldn’t run into this problem again. It was tedious and put him in a foul mood.

That was until he stumbled upon one labeled ‘sensitive.’ Clicking into the file he saw it was password protected. Unusual, but he typed his password in anyway. The bar shook and a line popped up saying incorrect password. Again that was unusual. So he tried various others until the only one left was the joint password you two used for important documents. Bingo!

John smiled to himself wondering why on earth he decided to use that password on a work hard drive. The file took a second to load but once opened it revealed photos he hadn’t viewed in years. John choked on his spit as he caught sight of you in nothing but his brimmed hat.

The memories of this file flooding back instantly. He clicked on the first photo of you in his light blue t-shirt, legs spread and your hand covering your cunt. Clicking to the next photo you were in the same position except your fingers were deep inside yourself. It was easy to assume the photos only became more erotic from there.

John flicked through each one. His cock was stiff in his jeans as he admired you. The sight of your ass in the air with the most innocent look in your eyes had him craving for you to come home so he could plow you into the mattress. The one of you in dusty pink lingerie with your mouth wrapped around his thumb and eyes staring up at the camera being his favorite.

There were at least two dozen images, the last one being a video. It was from back when you two were dating and not living together yet. It was taken in his old apartment. The memories of those navy walls and four post bed now visible. John knew he had some work to get done but he couldn’t help how his finger twitched around the computer mouse. The curser floating over the little icon of your devilish grin, your red lace lingerie set on display.

John was just going to watch a couple of seconds of it to jog his memory. At least that was his intention. He did not mean to put ear buds in and have his jeans pulled down below his hips. He was leaned back in the leather office chair, eyes trained on the video in front of him as he pumped his fist lazily. John almost never jerked off at home, you were as needy as him so there was little reason to.

In the video you were on your hands and knees with your ass in the air. Moans of his name echoed through his old bedroom and into his ear buds as he took you from behind. The way your ass jiggled with each thrust had John entranced. If he could have you right now he would, but he was okay settling for this video at the moment.

The camera was set up on a tripod so both your bodies were fully visible. Your blue nails were gripping the sheets for dear life, face shoved into the fabric of the comforter. John was half way through the film and stroking himself at a casual pace so he could watch the entirety of the forty-five minute video.

The scene was erotic and he was being rough, pulling your hair and smacking your ass. Absolute filth dripping from his tongue as he made you beg. Pulling you up by your shoulder you were held tight to John’s chest. It only made you moan louder and babble out pleas for him to let you cum. He had been edging you up to this point. On screen he smacked your cunt hard with his free hand making you wail in pain and pleasure. Sinful words dripping from your tongue promising to let him do whatever he wanted to you if he just let you cum.

John started to tug at his thick length faster as you came on screen, his name falling from your lips once more as your body shook. The noises you were making had him teetering on the edge of release as you were flipped over and now riding him eagerly. Your breasts were bouncing up and down, back arched as you braced yourself on his thighs.

On screen, John started to plead for you to slow done. That only caused you to pick up the pace and taunt him. Telling him he could take it, but he couldn’t and told you, you’d regret it. You didn’t listen and it caused his former self to push up and forward. Having you fall on your back, head now at the end of the bed as he folded you in half. Putting you into a matting press you came again at the change of position and he remembered how tight you felt that night. John was pumping his cock quickly as he focused on reaching his release. He reached for the tissue box on his desk as he felt that familiar sensation tightening in his balls.

That was until his office door opened and you stepped in. It was like time slowed down as John realized he was about to be caught in the act. His orgasm ripped away and replaced by fear. The smile on your lips disappeared in an instant and was replaced with a look of pure horror. The takeout container you were bringing to him falling to the floor with a thud. You let out a gasp then a tiny squeak of surprise. Hands flying to your eyes as you started to babble out apologies for not knocking.

John was mortified, face turning crimson and cock heavy in his hand. He was standing immediately, his office chair banging into the wall behind him as he pulled his pants back into place. You had one hand covering your eyes as you fumbled around on the floor trying to grab the takeout container. Once you found it, eyes still covered, you got up and walked straight into the doorframe. You apologized to it, then left the room red in the face.

“Y/N, wait.” You halted in your tracks just outside the doorway at John’s words. He made a mad dash towards you still fumbling with his pant zipper. His ear buds ripping out in his rush causing them to come loose from the computer.

The sounds of your loud moans and skin slapping rang through his office. Why the hell did he have the volume up so high? John dove for the mouse as he panicked and tried to pause the video. The still frame pausing on him pulled out and cumming on your stomach. It only made him cringe more to see his own face twisted in pleasure.

“Is that us?” You were back in the doorway staring at him. He just stared back at you gobsmacked. Your face was unreadable as you walked over to his desk. He tried to stand in the way so you couldn’t get to his computer but you pushed him lightly to the side to get a look. His heart was beating faster than he ever thought possible as he prepared for you to unleash a rage unimaginable to any man. He was praying to the high heavens to be snatched up and spat out in the trenches of war.

“I-uh.” John couldn’t find words at the moment. He had never been so embarrassed in his life. Being caught with his pants down and desperately fucking his fist like some teenage boy.

“Oh, that is us. I thought you were watching porn.” Your voice was laced with mischief as you moved around him and sat in his chair. John was still stunned and not sure how to act. Averting his eyes to the takeout container sitting on the coffee table.

“I mean-“ Again, John couldn’t get a full sentence out. He was watching porn it just happened to be one you two made together. His gaze fell back on you as you started the video over and turned the volume down to a reasonable level. John’s cock twitched in his pants as he watched you become engrossed by the homemade film. Lounging back in his chair, teeth sinking into your bottom lip and cheeks flushing. You looked even better now in your blue jeans and cropped tshirt than on screen.

“Remember when we made this?” You asked tilting your head slightly to the side to get a better angle. John stood there, shifting slightly in discomfort as his cock fought against the confines of his jeans.

“Now, that’s a fun position!” You giggled eyes fixed on your two naked forms rolling around in the sheets. You weren’t looking for a response as you turned to look at your rosy cheeked husband. You could tell he was still embarrassed and not sure what to do. He was thinking you were mad at him and you knew that. John wasn’t a man who took embarrassment well, he usually turned into a bumbling fool. So you decided to take some pity on the poor man.

Batting your eye lashes up at him you reached out and and tugged him by his belt loop. The fact he was jerking off to a video of you two had your stomach doing flips. A wet pool flooding your panties as you heard his guttural grunts as he pounded into you on screen. Little did he know that video had kept you company when he was gone overseas. Only difference was you had it on your phone while for him it lay forgotten on a flash drive.

John didn’t move until you tugged his belt loop harsher. Once he was close enough you were undoing his belt. The sound of you two going at it in the back spurring you on. It was the part where John was fucking you missionary and you could see John’s eyes bouncing between you and the screen. You wanted to hear his grunts and moans from what you were doing to him now not back then.

“You’re not upset?” His voice was shaky as he watched your hands yank his jeans and boxers down, freeing his large cock. It sprung out and you instantly stuck out your tongue letting it fall against it. You licked the bead of precum leaking out, making your husbands breath ragged.

“Would I be doing this if I was upset?” You grinned devilishly as you rolled his office chair closer. Grasping his heavy length you looked up watching John’s eyes go wide as you spat on him and spread it around his head and length. You littered gentle kisses from the base to the head and took his heavy cock in your mouth, bobbing eagerly. Then pulling his foreskin down you sucked on the head like a lollipop. The groan he released was from deep in his chest. Staying like that for awhile you felt a sense of pride wash over you as your husband chose to look down at you instead of your home movie. It spurred you on to take as much of him in your mouth as you could. Your hand wrapped around what you couldn’t fit and your other massaging his balls firmly just how he liked.

“Fuck, you’re too good to me.” John’s voice was gravely his eyes flickering between you and the video playing now. Your mouth was tight around his throbbing member and you bobbed your head fast not giving him a chance to even think.

“I’m already close, love.” John was ready to burst. You had walked in right before he was able to finish making him much more sensitive. The feeling of your wet mouth sucking him tight and being so eager to please had his eyes rolling to the back of his head. in that moment he swore he’d never felt anything so good. You doubled your effort excited to make him come undone so quickly. It was an ego boost and had you happily choking yourself on him. Your gags joining the sound of skin slapping had John seeing stars. A stream of drool dripped from your chin and onto your tshirt. You removed your hands and placed them on his hips as you tried to fit every inch in your hot mouth. The action had Johns jaw going slack as he felt his orgasm about to rip through him.

“May I?” John was fixing your hair into a messy ponytail. Looking through your eyelashes you hummed in approval. Squeezing his balls for emphasis. John’s cock twitched in your mouth as he began to shallowly thrust down your throat. Letting you adjust to his impressive length. The thickness stretching your mouth so wide it almost didn’t fit.

His pace picked up when you tugged on his belt loops to encourage him. Between the noises of you moaning his name from the computer and the way you kept eye contact with him as he fucked your pretty mouth, he was done for. Releasing a harsh breath through his nose John rutted against your face then ending with a few harsh thrusts until he spilled himself down your throat. Tugging your hair tight as he pushed you fully down, making you take him fully down your throat. Your nose met his pelvis, the office chair rolling forward slightly as you squeezed your eyes shut. John grunted and babbled out how much he loved you as he continued to cum in strong waves.

You placed your hands on his thighs bracing yourself as you accommodated for his length. You knew your throat would be sore tomorrow but you didn’t care. Sputtering and choking as tears pricked the corners of your eyes you stared up at your loving husband. John’s hot cum was chocking you more as you tried to swallow it all. There was so much it began to leak down your chin joining the mess on your shirt. You were beginning to feel a little light headed from the lack of air as you continued to gag around your husbands cock. Your eyes widened when you realized he wasn’t going soft.

“So fuckin’ good to me.” John praised, thumb grazing your cheek bone lovingly as you swallowed again. John kept himself fully down your throat as he tried to sear the sight of you like this in his memory. Removing his hands from the back of your neck and hair you pulled off with a harsh gasp trying to catch your breath. His cock still standing at full attention only a few inches from your flushed face.

“You alright darling?” John was leaning down to kiss your cheek sweetly, still catching his breath. Grabbing a tissue and wiping the drool and cum from your chin he then pulled his pants back into place. He always checked on you after moments like this. One of his biggest fears was accidentally hurting you because he didn’t understand his own strength.

“Uh huh.” You giggled breathlessly. Your throat burning in an unpleasant way. Whipping your chin with the back of your hand you eyes flickered down to the obvious bulge in his jeans. John couldn’t help but chuckle as he reached around you and paused the video.

“We should make a sequel.” You suggested spinning slightly in the office chair.

“No idea where that tripod went.” John chuckled giving you his hand as you stood in front of him. Lustful eyes meeting as you ran your hand over his neatly groomed facial hair.

“Little POV shot on your phone might be fun.” The words barley left your swollen lips before a shocked squeal was forced out of you. John bent down grasping your hips firmly and threw you over his shoulder with ease.

“Better get to it then.” With a firm smack to your ass John was heading for the bedroom.

[chukys-mouthguard]

broken memories - pt. 2

sequel to kinda tempting

3k words | loosely proof read

genre: fluff/angst

featuring: mat barzal x female reader x matt rempe

warnings: mentions of loss of pregnancy

previous chapter

It had been a month since you had broken the news to Matt about your baby. He was temporarily living with Jonathan Quick as he continued his offseason training to prepare for camp. The two of you kept in touch, often checking in on one another as you both navigated the stages of grieving.

You still talked on the phone at least twice a week, things remaining very cordial between you, which you appreciated. Never wanting to lose Matt entirely, hoping that you could remain friends despite everything.

Mat Barzal on the other hand, wasn’t being much of a friend as he’d yet to return any of your texts. Including your text you’d sent the night of the fight with Matt when he packed his things and left.

While you understood he was engaged and happy with someone else, he did promise that you could still reach out to him whenever you needed. Yet maybe that was simply a meaningless comment of comfort at the time, not something that held any true intent behind it.

You had finally started to feel like your normal self, getting fully back into work and preparing for the upcoming season. The organization pleasantly surprised you as they did not intend to fire you despite your relationship with Rempe, of course now that wouldn’t pose a problem. But you were happy that you could stay with the organization after you had become so sure this would be where you stayed for the foreseeable future should you and Matt have had your baby to raise.

Checking the time you had a little over an hour left in your work day, figuring you’d use the time to go get some footage of the recent renovations of the locker room to start making a few posts for the socials.

As you exited the elevator your phone was buzzing in your pocket, an image of Rempe brightly filling the screen. A smirk found its way across your lips at the sight of the photo. It was after his debut stadium series game, his eye black slightly smeared as he flashed a goofy smile at the camera. You’d never forget the excitement surrounding that day, but more importantly meeting Matthew.

“Hello Matthew Rempe, how can I help you?”

He chuckled at your sing-song tone as he greeted you. “I am actually getting in the car, just leaving training. But, I realized I need some stuff from the apartment, well your apartment. Can I swing by?”

Heading into the Rangers locker room you pulled your work phone from your pocket, snagging some photos and a few videos to ensure you had plenty of content to use in editing.

“Um, yeah sure. I’m finishing up here at MSG within the hour, then I’ll be heading home. I would say I can be there in like an hour or so? If that works for you?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably hit traffic on my way so that would be fine. I’ll see you soon!”

“Sounds good, see you in a bit.”

-

Dropping your bag on the island you headed down the hall to throw on some comfy clothes, which ended up being some shorts and a Rangers t-shirt that Matthew had left behind. You figured this wasn’t an item he was in need of so he wouldn’t mind you wearing it.

Before you could even get fully settled in from work there was a knock at your door.

“Matthew Rempe, what in the world is this?”

You eyed the boy as he carried in a box of food, setting it on the island as he wrapped you in a quick hug.

“Well, I knew you probably hadn’t eaten dinner yet. And it could be like old times, when we’d get our favorite takeout place for dinner.”

You smiled at the gesture, thinking back to how Matt’s diet surely took a turn throughout your pregnancy once the craving for Chinese food kicked in. Weekly Matt found himself bringing home whatever dish it was you craved, but he never once complained. Well, that is except for when you ended up with a better fortune in your cookie than he did.

“You really didn’t have to do this, I could’ve just made some leftovers or something.”

He shot you a playful smile as he held up the container of steamed dumplings.

“Really? You’d pass on dumplings for leftovers?”

You licked your lips as you stole the container from his hand, moving around to the other side of the island as you pulled out some plates and silverware. Passing some to Matt so he could serve up his food before the two of you found your familiar spots on the floor at your coffee table.

“So, how are you doing? Everything good?”

Nodding your head you reached for a napkin, wiping your mouth before you answered him.

“Yeah, starting to feel like my normal self again. It was a little rocky there for a bit. But, I’m starting to feel good. Able to make it through the workday without crying, which is a big plus. How about you?”

He also nodded, adjusting how he sat on the floor as he rested back on his hands.

“Yeah, same here. I mean, I still have my moments where I do the why me sort of spiel. But I would say I’ve gotten past a lot of the frustration and anger I felt for a while. And training has been freaking amazing, I’m so excited for camp. I’ve been working so hard, the boys are really impressed.”

The smile on his face as he told you about his offseason training schedule warmed your heart. A smile formed on your lips as you saw how excited he was, talking about some of the different workouts he’s pushed himself through. Matt was like a kid in a candy story as he talked about the upcoming season. He’d already come such a long way from the rookie you met at the stadium series.

“I’m really proud of you Matt, and I can tell you’ve been working hard. I can see it for sure!”

“Oh, so you were checking me out eh? The biceps are looking pretty good if I do say so myself.”

He shot you a wink as he flexed his bicep for you, making you roll your eyes playfully as you reached over to steal a bite of his sesame chicken.

“Seriously? Some things just never change I guess.”

He slightly chucked as you shrugged your shoulders. Stealing Matt’s food was always something you’d do after telling him you didn’t like his order. Which would always lead to a silly argument once you’d stolen almost half of his chicken from his plate. Leaving him with mostly rice and veggies, which were obviously not the reason for him ordering the dish. But he never complained, always happy as long as you were.

That was something you’d always appreciated about Matt. He was selfless, always willing to sacrifice anything for you, to put himself in difficult positions for you. But you always felt like you couldn’t give him the same, your heart being pulled in the opposite direction for a guy who clearly had moved on from you like it was nothing.

You hated that you’d hurt Matt, of course losing your baby wasn’t anything you’d ever done intentionally. But to know he still felt as though it was never him in your heart, that you were solely with him for your daughter and not because you liked him enough on his own, it hurt. Because maybe you were both wrong, maybe somehow things could have worked. Had your relationship not began the way it did, if you had simply walked away once you knew Mat had cheated. Maybe you two could've had a happy ending, rather than him moving out with you both left to pick up the pieces separately.

“Y/n!”

Snapping from your thoughts you looked up at Matt, his hand holding out two fortune cookies.

“You pick first, remember?”

It was always tradition for you to pick your cookie first, Matt’s rules. He said that your intuition was better than his, and most of the time your fortunes did suit each of you perfectly.

Taking the cookie on the right you playfully smiled, the two of you ripping open the packages as you each cracked open the cookies. Pulling out the small piece of paper, you read your fortune to yourself, biting your lip as you looked at Matt, seeing him already looking back at you in anticipation. He could see the tears welling in your eyes, immediately moving to your side to comfort you. His arms holding you tight as you cried, trying to pull yourself together as this wasn’t supposed to be a night for the two of you to be sad.

“What did it say?”

You took a deep breath as you sat up, wiping your tears as you read the message out loud.

“If you want the rainbow, you have to tolerate the rain.”

You softly chuckled, now realizing it seemed silly to cry over such a cliche message. But as you looked up at Matt he was fighting his own tears, sniffling as he tried to pull himself together.

“I think that was exactly what you needed to hear right now. Like I’ve always said, your intuition is a hell of a lot better than mine.”

He gave you a smile as he stood up, collecting the dishes and taking them into the sink as he began to clean them off. You then tossed the throw pillows back onto your couch before joining him. Taking a seat on the counter as you watched him dry the dishes before placing them back in the cabinet.

“Well what about you?”

He tossed the dish towel over his shoulder as he turned to look at you, crossing his arms as he leaned against the counter.

“What about me?”

“Your fortune!”

“Ohhh, let’s see, where did I put it?”

Typical Matt. He’d always put his fortune on the table, or in his pocket, the most random places thinking he’d lost it only to find it twenty minutes later.

“Here it is!”

Stuck to the bottom of his sock, that was a new one.

He playfully cleared his throat as he read from the tiny paper.

“A lifetime of happiness is in front of you.”

His eyes flashed up to meet yours, the words ringing in your ears and making your heart skip a beat. Though surely Matt didn’t see it that way, probably interpreting the fortune to be an overall meaning of the future, not literally right in front of him.

He simply shrugged as he placed the dish towel back onto the counter, “guess I’m gonna have to wait for happiness I guess. Unless, right in front of me.”

Looking down he stared at the sink, then flashed his eyes to you.

“This, washing dishes. It’s my future. Is this a sign that camp isn’t gonna go well for me?”

You rolled your eyes, practically falling off the counter at his god awful joke. Searching the apartment for your phone as he continued on, trying his best to make you laugh, which you always appreciated.

Looking at the screen you saw a multitude of text messages, all from none other than Mat. You’d immediately set your phone down, rejoining Matthew in the kitchen as you had no desire to talk to Barzal. It had been a month since you saw him, and you were not in the business of being friends only when it was convenient for him.

“Well, this has really been great, for the both of us I think. But, I gotta grab my stuff and head out. I’ve got an early training session tomorrow.”

Playfully you frowned at him as he headed to your previously shared bedroom, pulling a few things from the closet as he tossed them into a duffle bag he’d brought. Then he moved to the bathroom, and finally ended up in the living room grabbing a few books from the shelf.

“If you ever wanted to come over, not just when you need to grab some of your stuff, you can do that too you know?”

Matt softly smiled at you, appreciating the fact that you were open to still hanging out with him despite everything that happened. He felt awful for the way he left things, for accusing you of not necessarily having feelings for him or ever seeing yourself with him. It was pretty harsh when he thought back on it. And he wished things could’ve played out differently. But to even get an open invite from you to spend time together after the things he’d said, he felt that was a step in the right direction.

“I know that now, and I will definitely keep that in mind.”

He wrapped you in a hug before heading out the door, out of habit kissing your head before awkwardly apologizing. To which you’d told him you didn’t mind, it still felt so normal for him to do so. He promised to text you once he got home, but told you not to wait up as he might hit traffic on his drive and you need your rest for work in the morning. He truly did know you way too well.

Heading back into the living room you heard your phone buzzing on the coffee table. A photo of you and Mat Barzal filling the screen, one you’d apparently never changed after your breakup.

“Hello?”

“Hey, um, is everything okay?”

You scoffed at his somewhat annoyed tone as you took a seat on the couch, pulling a throw blanket over your legs as you spat back at him.

“Like you care? It’s been a month since I saw you and this is the first I’ve heard from you. What about the five other days I’ve tried reaching out? You didn’t care until now?”

He sighed on his end of the call, realizing he’d come off wrong, trying to apologize and start over as he explained himself.

“Well, you’re right. I should’ve responded sooner. But, Ava was in town, I couldn’t have her seeing me talking to you. But, I mean I texted you back now. You’re the one ignoring me now.”

He playfully chuckled, though you were not amused, Mat always thinking he could use charm to move past any wrongdoing.

“First of all, what good does texting me now do if I reached out weeks ago? Maybe I needed you then. And second of all, I wasn’t ignoring you. I was busy. Matt came over to grab some of his things and he brought dinner.”

Mat’s line of the phone went silent, eventually you’d heard him take a deep breath before he spoke.

“So, the guy packs up his things and walks out on you, but suddenly you’re hanging out and having dinner together? Are you two broken up or not?”

His tone was annoyed and angry, though you weren’t sure why considering he was happily engaged, which you didn’t think you needed to remind him of but clearly he’d forgotten.

“Last time I checked, you’re happy with Ava. So why do you care so much? I’m not allowed to have dinner with him? He and I were literally going to have a child, you think that everything between him and I just goes away overnight because I’m no longer pregnant?”

You found yourself laughing, the conversation seeming silly to you. There was no need for you to explain yourself to him, but part of you felt like you owed him something. After all, you did the same thing right back to him that he’d done to you.

“There was never anything between you two! Stop trying to pretend like there was. I get it okay, I fucked up. I should have never cheated on you. Do I think it gave you the right to do the same to me, no. But I could see how I pushed you into the arms of someone else. What I won’t let you do, is try to tell me that even for a second there was something between you and him. He got you pregnant after one night, and you two had to be together for your baby. That’s not love, that’s nothing close to what we had. So don’t you dare try to say it’s anything similar.”

You tried not to take his words personally, knowing they were coming from a place of hurt as he’d clearly not gotten over everything that happened. Rather just tried to mask it all by jumping into an engagement he clearly wasn’t satisfied with. But you weren’t going to just accept the things he said, letting him act as if there were never any feelings felt between you and Matthew.

“Mat, you have never once been in the same room as us. You’ve not been around Matt and I, you don’t know the feelings that are there. You don’t know how we feel towards one another, so you can’t tell me how I feel or how I don’t.”

“How you feel? So what, you still supposedly like this guy? After he packed his shit and walked out on you during one of the hardest moments of your life, you still have fucking feelings for someone like that? You’d want to be with the guy after all this?”

“Well I stayed with you during your shitty moments didn’t I?”

The comment was harsh, but you didn’t care. Mat always thought he could do no wrong, that the way he spoke was justified, and you were sick of him trying to make you feel bad, regardless if you’d hurt him or not.

“Why do you fucking care so much Mat? Must I remind you, you’re engaged! You chose her! So why could you possibly care so much if I still have feelings for Matt or would consider trying to do things the right way with him?”

The line went silent, and it felt as if minutes had passed before Mat finally confessed to you why’d he become so frustrated with you admitting you might truly have feelings for Rempe after all.

“Because I called off my engagement.”

[forsaire]

delusional ghostsoap AU ideas based on these handsome images

College!AU where Soap is a young gun, full of life, bit of a player (rides motorcycle???), meets bartender!Ghost one night and instantly falls in love, coming up with random excuses to see the pretty boy behind the bar again and again

Businessman!AU where Soap controls an important company looking to make mergers, looking for money moves, calm cool collecting controlling, but his rival company is led by one Simon Riley who knows the right ways to always get under Soap's skin. They try to iron out their rivalry for the sake of both companies, maybe over some late night negotiations, a couple glasses of scotch, warm lighting hitting the two of them just right... it's only natural something would start to stir inside Soap

Model!AU where Ghost is a photographer and Soap just happens to be his perfect muse

wait this ones giving me some Pirate!AU vibes 😏 (is this actually him or is it someone that looks like him or is it a weirdly edited photo??? cause its giving me some weird uncanny valley feelings???) but yeah... pirate!AU who is first mate to Captain!Ghost

ghost and soap in gym influencer!AU. no ideas about this one, just handsome muscular men

lmao prison!AU??? (with that shaved head of course) both Ghost and Soap have been wrongfully convicted and must break themselves out of prison to clear their names

Boxer!AU with retired coach!Ghost trying to train Soap to win one last glory

[sweatyracoon]

Hair Extensions k.sm

A/n: I saw a whole bunch of edited photos of Seungmin with long hair, and I literally died. It suits him so well! Pic isn't mine

Warnings: Suggestive, cringy ig

Summary: Your boyfriend came home one day from a photo shoot, still carrying all of his accessories, including hair extensions.

You sat at home quietly reading, waiting for you boyfriend to get home. He was shooting late, which meant he probably skipped dinner.

You had made pork earlier, leaving some left over, just in case this happened.

You knew he would be tired, but you still wanted to greet him. He always liked it when he saw you as soon as he opened the door.

Thirty minutes later, the door lock clicked, unlocking, and opening.

"Seungmin! How'd it go?" You jumped up from your spot on the couch, rushing towards his figure in the kitchen.

"Took forever. They kept messing with my hair," He scoffed, making you look at him for the first time.

You paused, shocked at the addition. Seungmin had always preferred short hair to the longer locks, but seeing the extensions nearly made your knees buckle.

They let his natural color bloom, opting not to dye it for a while due to damage, making the brown hues shimmer in the terrible lighting in your home. And normally, his hair framed just above his cheeks, but now, it ran past his jaw, hugging his neck. The loose strands pointed every direction, making him look like he had just woken up.

"Wow...They really know how to do hair, huh?" You breathed, bring your hands up to pay it gently. "It's so soft!"

He grinned, displaying his braces as you played with his hair. "You like it?"

"Do you?" You asked, eyes trained on his beautiful hair.

"It's starting to grow on me," He said, making your eyes snap to his, seeing that he was staring at you.

Your face flushed a deep red, pulling back your hands.

"Sorry, it's just that it really looks good on you," you giggle, wrapping your arms around his torso.

"Thanks," he returned the hug, burying his face into the crook of your neck. The extra hair found its way to your face, tickling you.

"Maybe I keep it a little longer, yeah?"

"Yes!"

Bonus: Images I saw!!

[rainbowsky]

Hey RBS.. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead. Do you think Globalfever fansite is being managed directly by someone from GG/DD’s team. Many a times I wonder how that site able to get tickets to all of our boys events and capture such close up candid shots of GGDD unless she is part of their inner circle?

Example today - https://weibo.com/7320958826/OydEkDN0w

not sure if it’s original or edited.. from that video it looks like XZ acknowledged her words of Jiayou and bye bye

Hi Natashayishan, thanks! I hope you're well, and that you have a wonderful week too! 😊

Here's the video for those who don't have access to Weibo.

To answer this question I'm going to start by explaining a bit of background about fansites and how they function (I'm by no means an expert, but here's my understanding of how it all works).

Part 1 - Fansites in General

There has been a lot of talk about fansites over the years, and some have faced accusations, criticisms, confusion, suspicions, theories both positive and negative for a very long time. I think they're largely misunderstood by a lot of fans.

For example, it's not uncommon for people to believe fansites are stalkers, or that they shamelessly profit from the unauthorized use of a star's image or footage, or that they're organizations that exist for the purpose of exploiting stars.

This isn't really how it works at all. In general, a fansite is just one fan who follows a star's career and enjoys sharing photos and videos they take of that star. Plain and simple. Some fansites involve more than one person, but most are just made up of individuals.

Yes, they sometimes make money selling photo books and other merch, but that money tends to go back into supporting the star -buying endorsement products, arranging events and giveaways, buying or upgrading equipment needed to create fansite content (cameras, computer equipment, software), paying for tickets (many of which are overpriced reseller tickets) and travel/accommodations to attend events, etc.

It might seem glamorous - and there's undeniably a glamorous aspect to it - but to me it looks very stressful, like a huge headache. These fans generally have their own lives and careers outside of fandom, so coordinating everything, waiting in lines, standing in the rain outside appearances and events, not to mention the pressure to attend events and post regular updates, and all the haters and antis they are constantly dealing with, the amount of stress and frustration they deal with must be immense.

It's a lot of work, and for this reason, fansites don't always stay fansites. Some retire as their real life interests and obligations shift. One of my favorite GGDD fansites - Midnight Dream - retired a few years ago. 😢

Fansites are an important part of any celebrity's support system. While no - they aren't part of a celebrity's team or on their payroll, they do play a huge part in helping to bring attention to a star and build buzz around them, their projects, their appearances, events and other activities.

If you want an analogy that might help it make more sense to you, just look at some of the sports fans across the globe who will follow all the matches, follow team developments, team picks, managers and training, and share all that info on blogs, podcasts or dedicated sports fan sites.

This is very similar. They're just really dedicated fans who build a following by being where we can't be, and sharing their experiences so that we can feel like we were there, too.

And they provide the fans and the stars an immense, immeasurable service IMHO, despite what we might agree or disagree with about the way fandom culture works. The content they capture and share is almost always far more intimate (generally without being invasive), and of a far higher quality than that of the professionals hired to cover these events on behalf of media agencies and management.

Fansites do get some official support from time to time. For example, there are events where fansites can get approval - almost like a press pass or a security pass - to attend and be in certain locations within or near facilities to take photographs, video, etc., but they are not hired or compensated by the star or their team.

A lot of it is also largely unknown/unknowable, so it's hard to be sure of the details. There are always going to be rumors and claims. For example, there have been claims that during SDOC Yibo was allowed to invite 4 fansites to come to the finale, and of the 4, he chose 3 BXG fansites and only one solo site. I haven't seen proof of that, but the claim was making the rounds a lot at the time.

One thing we do know - he chose a fansite photo to give to Yangkai when he was courting him to join his team in season 4. (Of course, solos made a huge stink and Youku ended up editing the footage to remove the photo, but we saw what we saw).

There are other examples of GG and DD interacting with or showing acceptance of their BXG fansites. I started looking for some references and then realized it was not something I have time for or interest in. I'm not here to give a comprehensive analysis anyway, I'm just here to give a simple-ish answer to your question. If others want to discuss that in the notes, that's fine.

So, hopefully some of that background info will have answered parts of your question, and gives you more tools to evaluate things on your own moving forward.

Part 2 - Global Fever

As for Global Fever specifically, well... Global Fever is one of the most treasured BXG in the entire fandom. This dedicated fan has been following GG and DD BOTH, since they debuted. She is more than just a CP fan, she's been a supporter of their individual careers since day 1.

Yes, since back when Yibo was still the White Peony.

She became a CP fan in the natural way - by seeing her faves work together on The Untamed, by watching them interact and by following them and their careers. No, she doesn't work for their teams (they both have dedicated teams of their own, and they don't need to pay fansites who - after all - will do this stuff for free). It's just that she's recognizable to GG and DD because she's been a fixture in their lives for so many years.

And this is something solos need to get their heads around: BXG are fans too. I think there's this conceit among solos that THEY'RE GG and DD's fans and BXG are something else, but in reality (and, no doubt, in the eyes of GG and DD) BXG are their fans too.

Never could that be more apparent than when a dedicated fan like Global Fever jiejie is calling 'Zhanzhan, jiayou!' and 'byebye!' as he's boarding an elevator on the way to the stage. Of course GG recognized her and smiled at her. Of course.