#aka i'm tougher than i look

[yeyinde]

thank you for tagging me @ivymarquis ! i debated between this, the regency fic (fleshed out), or one of the other Price fics i'm working on (home from college for the summer and seducing hot older neighbour Price whomst you had a crush on since sixteen (aka daddy issues, the playbook), DomPrice, etc), but i think the Soap fic will probably be finished before all of those. so, here is the baby trap piece with Soap.

nothing smutty but this def captures their odd, imbalanced dynamic perfectly, i think:

“And you have no cellphone? No satellite phone?”

“Ye can check it—” he makes a flippant motion toward the glove box in front of you. “Deader than ever.”

You hesitate only briefly. Long enough to level him with a searching look that yields no results (every expression hidden behind a thick, unruly forest of overgrown hair jutting out to his Adam's apple) before you reach for the compartment, gingerly pulling it open, and—

Sometimes, things get overlooked by their surroundings. Swallowed in the vacuum. Blending seamlessly into the muddle, the commotion. Or hidden. Can you spot the mountain lion in this tumble of rock and bush?

This isn't like that. 

It sits on top of a manila folder. Sleek black and cold silver. You're not terribly well-versed in guns—the extent of your knowledge stemming mostly from formulaic crime shows aired late at night; CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds—but you recognise this one instantly. Some sort of handgun. Police issued, you think. It's bigger than you'd expected. Looks heavier, too. 

Your heart stutters. The air galloping out of your lungs in a stammering rush. 

He makes a noise, soft and nonchalant, as if keeping handguns in the glove box of his old, burnt umbre truck is perfectly normal. 

“Fer protection,” he mumbles. You catch the jerk of his chin in your periphery. “Forgot I had it in here. Been usin’ the rifle for huntin’ mostly. Or the shotgun.”

Three guns. You swallow. “Why—” your voice comes out in a brittle whisper. You clear your throat. Pretend it helps, that you don't feel as vulnerable as you sound right now. “Why, um, why do you need three?”

“Not fae around ‘ere, are ye?” He echoes your words from earlier with a wry twist of his mouth, eyes slanting in the sunlight. “Tha’,” he takes his hand off your thigh to jab his finger at the handgun. “Is fer wolverines.” His index finger falls, his thumb juts out. He jerks it over his shoulder. “Tha’ is fer huntin’. The shotgun back home is fer bears.” 

You try to move out of the way when his hand falls back to your thigh, but the pain radiating up your leg immobilizes you. There's not much you can do in this situation but endure.

Military. Wounded in action. Three guns. Touchy. 

You're not sure what to think. It would be easier if you couldn't. 

“What do you hunt?” You ask instead, glancing out the window to the barren landscape rolling out around you. There doesn't seem to be much in the jagged hills, towering mountains. 

“Gettin’ hungry? Donnae worry, doe. Go’ tha’ pesky hare I was tryin’ tae shoot on the ledge fer dinner tonight.” 

It's not much of a comfort. The idea of being injured—by accident, he claims—to such an extent over a rabbit makes you feel a little sick. 

“That's it?” 

“I can make a mean steak outta anythin’. Stews fer tougher meat. Fish, too—whitefish, arctic grayling, and lake trout. Learned how tae make a nasty fishfry from the locals in Nahanni Butte. Bannock, too. Got berries ‘round ma cabin. Caribou, Moose. Taste better in tacos or burgers. Mountain goat, Dall’s sheep. Been eatin’ better ‘ere than ah did at home.” 

“And you're—just allowed to hunt them?” The website advised of a permit through some special outfit needed to hunt when you requested your pass into the park. Said that only aboriginals were allowed to do so. “You're not—”

“Aye,” he cuts you off with a small nod. “No huntin’ in the park. But. We're not in the park anymore.”

“Where are we?” You ask again, firmer this time. 

“I told ye. Nearly home.”

“And where is home?” 

The way he sucks his teeth makes you recoil slightly. Wet. Irritated. As if he's tired of this conversation already. 

“Close.”

You don't let his flat tone deter you. “Are we—are we still in the Northwest Territories?”

“Thereabouts.” 

It's not an answer. It doesn't reassure you in the slightest. 

You open your mouth to say so, words curling on your tongue when he jerks his chin toward the handgun, brow furrowed. 

“Thought ye wanted tae check on the satellite phone.”

His tone is severe. A growl curdling the ends, pitching it down, down. Displeasure, irritation, blooms in the gnarled petals of witch hazel when he narrows them into slits. 

[fumifooms]

Marchil crumbs part 3

Part 1 - Part 2 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7

Count of times canon reminds us that Chilchuck is very attracted to blondes: 3rd For context: this is the canon explanation for everyone's shapeshifters

I can’t get over Chilchuck seeing Marcille like she has anime sparkles around her hair. How long have you stared at it. It’s like with the handsome Senshi where everyone is like "no this looks legit and absolutely like the real one" but her hair is shinier/prettier in the changeling than in the actual her

It drives me crazy that Marcille styles her hair every day for herself but little does she know she’s giving Chilchuck the show of his life, daily arranging his favorite thing aka blonde hair into different unique ornate hairstyles. Not that he cares about the details but ohh my god.

It makes sense that Chil would be the first one to notice her hair being all loose and messy then. He’s bothered by seeing her like this and wants her to tie it up again, and is even more unsetled and shocked when she says she doesn’t want to anymore. Though he also recovers from the shock quicker than Laios and takes charge of the situation. HE NOTICED. HE CARESSSS. IT BUGS HIM

^ That is what you call a character arc, of becoming attached to her hair lmfaoo(more like to Marcille and her habits). Or lying. "Man I sure wish she'd shave her hair I'd be less distracted on the job. Her golden majestic hair is so blinding with how shiny and sparkly it is ugh" /j

He chose to do a portrait teehee <3

Chilchuck defending her honor even under mind control that makes them honest zombies

Marcille out there defending his VIRTUE. It’s not just that he didn’t commit infidelity, he HAS A PURE HEART!! Honestly, assigned virtuous by a bicorn would so be the type of novel shenanigan that Marcille would hella romanticize. Which we do see her do lmao but <3

They're so funny together in the golden kingdom chapters. First of all, sitting in front of each other at the table? Nice. Second, them being on the same wavelength all throughout lmao.

Them. Sharing the same numerous braincells, nodding together and making good use of it to make good decisions for the party. Valuing their noses

Also can we apreciate that they like, can talk together. Communicate and debate. Even under tougher situations or more sensitive topics. Shit this would have been a good place to put the pages when Marcille was dungeon lord... But they're lined up for part 4 and part 3 is already full with pics... You guys have no idea how much Tetris I'm doing for these marchil crumbs posts

I wanna do a full compilation of every time he laughs at her but in the meantime have this small imperfect collection as well as this reddit comp. I swear she's the person/thing that makes him laugh and smile the most. Besides alcohol maybe

The gang and Chilchuck both knowing her well and not at all lol. Gotta love Chilchuck's confidence about knowing her favorite meal, and him remembering the bare minimum that even Laios hasn't lol

Marcille infesting his life to the point that, quote, "her delusions" are even part of his adventurer’s bible life timeline. The only picture in fact, in the streamlined canon reference to Chilchuck's life. "Hey is Marcille imagining herself as an halfling and Chil's wife with a mini Chilchuck baby Chilchuck's canon family appearances" canon: well no but actually yes /j

Chil at her bedside <3

Looking out for each other comp Yes thank you Chil captain obvious (he's trying his best and doesn't want to die let's not be mean c'mon). But like you know with that whole scene of the mad sorcerer attacking, for Chil it must have been the most terrifying thing ever. Ancient magic?? By an elf, targeting them with murderous intent?? With only an elf with also ancient magic to keep them safe attack by attack in the nick of time?? His biggest nightmare. I'm also reminded of when Chil talks with Leed about how "our magician held under the mad sorcerer's attack" all fond and 'I am so relieved I can trust her with my life' and Leed is like "That silly looking elf?!" and Chil was like "Yeah she's silly. At least she's strong tho." I'm getting carried away but yes this scene was relationship-defining in some ways

But they keep each other in check too

She was trying to make conversation and sharing her interests aw Chil come on

They're sooo domestic. "Chil are we there yet" "Marcille I swear to god if you ask me that one more time-". Also second time through the manga that Marcille squishes Chil against the ground/wall.

Get squeezed idiot

Part 4 is here!

[dragons-and-magic]

More question time, lol!

Other than James, is there any other hybrid dragons?

How do dragons react to lemon? (LOL)

What’s Emily’s origin?

Other than villain dragons and humans, are there anymore rivals or villains they face against like wolves?

Is Henry gentle to the forest animals and acts like a Father Nature type?

Is there any dragons that loves the beach or the coastal region?

OH MY GOSH. I'M ABOUT TO DROP SO MUCH LORE. THIS WAS MY EXACT REACTION WHILE MAKING THIS.👇 I AM UNHINGED. :D

Anyone reading this, you're gonna want to pull up a seat! This is gonna be long! Lol!

Other than James, is there any other hybrid dragons?: I would say yes. But they are very far and few between. At first. Let me explain a few things! So, in the golden days of dragons, there were many species. And they were all sorted into different classes. Titan, Standard, Dwarf, and Fey. (And there's Leviathan Class, but it's too big to show here.) In addition, they are subclasses like Seadragons, Serpents, Wyverns, Drakes, (Normal) Dragons, Fey Dragons, and Longs (Eastern Dragons). They sometimes also are sorted if they had any kind of magical abilities. And each of these would almost always mate only within their own species.

But then something happened. Humans got even smarter and started using tougher and more deadly weapons. Slowly dragon numbers began to dwindle and dragons began to migrate out of their usual habitats and into other species. These dragons started to find mates from other species in the areas they wandered to. Sometimes it was simply a matter of their species just dying out. Or the smaller territories crossing over. Either way, Hybrids were the results. They weren't super common at first. But by the time this AU's version of Journey Beyond Sodor comes around, they're WAY more common. In fact, Hurricane is a cross between a Titan Class (Gordon's Class) and a Standard Class (Thomas's Class)! EDIT: I forgot to mention! For this same reason, clans made up of multiple species also started to occur. Before, Dragon Clans were usually made up of only one species. But after families got separated and almost whole species killed off by humans, dragons began to bond with others outside their kind. Found family baby! :D

2. How do dragons react to lemon?: Weeeeeeeell...

That's a definite NOPE from Thomas.🤣 Yeah, I don't like they would like them much. Lol!

3. What’s Emily’s origin?: Okay, so here's the thing. She is literally NESSIE. Aka The Loch Ness Monster!

Well, she's what started the legend anyway. Albeit accidental. Lol. Here's the story. Emily is chilling in her Loch one day, minding her own business. She had just gotten up, so she isn't really paying attention to her surroundings. A camera flashes. Emily freezes and looks toward the shore. Two very nervous photographers are standing there. She panics and dives back down! But, she's a bit too late. Because, blurry as it is, that photo is enough to start a whole monster hunting craze. Suddenly the Loch is swimming with boats and flashing cameras, and Emily's whole clan has to relocate! And that's how she ended up on Sodor.😂

4. Other than villain dragons and humans, are there anymore rivals or villains they face against like wolves?: Do ghosts count? Sailor John is a pirate ghost in this story! But he disguises himself as a normal hooman. He has to find his old treasure chest, so he can become mortal again and rain terror across the seas again! Also, there's a few dangerous monsters and such. Trolls, Rock Monsters, Sand Worms, etc. (Beresford the crane is a bridge troll in this!) Sodor is actually part of an archipelago called The Golden Isles. So there's plenty of habitats for monsters to dwell. As for wolves, that's not such a bad idea! Perhaps something like Wargs could exist. They're the giant evil wolves from Lord Of The Rings. Something like that maybe.

5. Is Henry gentle to the forest animals and acts like a Father Nature type?: Absolutely! He loves the animals! And knows a lot about them! Because he's closer to animals than the others, he doesn't like to partake in hunting. And he has a more vegetarian diet.

Of course, most dragons are predators, and need food to survive. And of course, if there was too many prey animals, the ecosystem would be unbalanced. So there has been a compromise made. Any animal located within fifty feet of Henry's den, (Located under the Wishing Tree!) is safe from hunting. Also, one more cool fact about him is he has plant magic! He can grow plants, and has something called Root Connection. He can basically telepathically sync up with the trees communication signals and find out what's going on anywhere in the forest! His horns and eyes get all glowy and everything!

6. Is there any dragons that loves the beach or the coastal region?: Definitely! There's three whole clans that live by the beach! Salty's clan is on the Southern Coast of the island. And you know Salty loves the ocean! His clan is made up of himself, Porter, Cranky, and eventually Big Mickey and Carly. Cranky is a big Leviathan Class Seadragon as you can see. Porter and Salty can ride him.

And then there's Belle's Clan! (This AU's version of the Sodor search and rescue team!) They live on the northern coast and watch out for incoming dragons and ships! They're like the watch men of the island! They live on a sea mount called The Roost! Her clan is made up of Flynn, Harold, Captain, Butch, and Rocky. Don't have designs for them yet. Sorry.😅 (Flynn x Belle is thing in this too!)

And then lastly, we have Duck's clan. And while they live more inland than the others, they are still located on the northern coast! Duck's clan has Donald, Douglas, Oliver, Skiff, Daisy, and Ryan!

I don't have concepts for everyone yet. But here's Ryan, Daisy, and Duck's prototype designs! (Oh, and Ryan x Daisy is a thing in this!❤️)

And that's everything! For now.😉

Thanks for sending in so many questions! I had a ton of fun making this!

[system-splintered]

I think I figured out why my parents were such fucking sadists

Tw: child abuse, Christian abuse, child training, physical abuse, RAMCOA mentions

The book "To Train Up a Child" describes their parenting philosophy to a T, like, explicitly word for word saying things I had lectured to me for hours and hours of screaming and beatings.

An excerpt in case someone's unfamiliar with the book:

“Part of [the child’s] training is to come submissively. However, if you are just beginning to institute training on an already rebellious child who runs from discipline, and he is too disturbed to listen, then you must constrain him. If you have to sit on him to spank him, then do not hesitate. And hold him there until he has surrendered. Prove that you are bigger, tougher, more patiently enduring, and are unmoved by his wailing. Hold the resisting child in a helpless position for several minutes, or until he is totally surrendered. Accept no conditions for surrender— no compromise. You are to rule over him as a benevolent sovereign. Your word is final.”

My dad took it decidedly further than the book says and it's literally explicitly describing how to ritualize abuse on your children starting with beating a 6 month old baby with a 1/8" wide, one foot long wooden rod, and graduating to a "plumbing pipe" or a belt when they get older.

Like even the book says you can stop beating their ass when their crying is just a whimper of pain and not wailing and screaming. He wouldn't stop until we were completely silent.

It explicitly says you have to break down their intellect (via unquestioned obedience), their emotions (via prohibiting the expression of emotion, aka making them dissociate), and their will (via complete compliance including no semblance of "attitude" or show of emotion).

It instructs you to beat your kids for their attitude, and to "be vigilant" in looking for signs of potential future disobedience due to attitude problems... Doesn't that explain a lot? Ha. I can't count the number of times we got beat because of our "attitude" when we were literally just trying not to cry being yelled at, or for making a mistake that takes all of a minute to fix (MULTIPLE beatings for literally forgetting to wipe the kitchen sink handles after doing the dishes...) because it "showed my lack of care about this family" and my "dog shit attitude", "feeling sorry for [myself] so [I'm] being lazy", etc.

Like jeez, I thought he was at least original but it really seems like they probably just read this stupid fucking book and took it as gospel (besides the homeschooling part and they threatened that)

I wonder how much research he did on how to break someone down and build them into his own desired image. He wasn't smart enough to do what he did on his own, I don't think. But I know he didn't have any connections with a group that practices TBMC, so I can only figure it was partly made up, partly researched. He was quite savvy in finding stuff online... I worry that it's worse than I know and that I'll find more developed programs as I heal.

[hashtag-xolo]

the puppies being reabsorbed makes much more sense, I thought it might be unethical like breeding two merles together where the puppy is either still born or with health problems, but also thought it strange how there were so many seemingly responsible breeders breeding hairlessxhairless. Do all hairless xolos have that little Mohawk/tail tuft? (I’ll be honest I prefer a completely hairless look 😅) I also wanted to ask about trainability, are xolos really untrainable? I’ve seen some breed clubs say they thrive in obedience so idk. Speaking of which, them being primitive how are they with recall? And finally what size is Tzapo?(sorry for the mini essay but I’ve gone down a small rabbit hole with this breed, they seem like such great dogs and it’s a shame they’re as rare as they are).

I feel you on that. It's something I've looked into a lot. Thankfully even with the teeth being affected, most xolos live very happily with missing yeah. Tzapo only has eleven now and he can still very happily chew on things and eat kibble. He can even get meat off of raw bones just fine so like... I'm not worried about the teeth thing as long as an owner takes care of issues in a timely manner to prevent infection!

Not every xolo has a mohawk and not every xolo has a tail tuft either. Some have short hair on just their face and look like little wolfmen. Some have no hair. They come in grey, black, red, and piebalded aka butterfly/mariposa. I'm very partial to the ones with blonde mohawks because they look like early 2000s boyband members.

Here's some photos showcasing xolo variety:

For fully hairless check out Oro Bella Iason currently owned by Simply Xolos: https://www.simplyxolos.dog/breeds/our-crew/

And this photo taken by Bullybande of three of their xolos is a great showcasing of color variety. https://www.instagram.com/p/COKKH1Eh6GF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Xolos are not untrainable. However, xolos being a primitive breed they are less *biddable* which means they are not eager to please. It means they require a paycheck of kibble, playtime, and whatever other reinforcement they find motivating because they really don't care about making their human happy the same way a dog breed selectively bred for partnering with humans does. You can train xolos to a high degree - you just need to figure out the right salary to pay them in treats and toys so to speak. I've heard of a few people having marvelous success in Obedience and Rally with xolos, and while they aren't a breed I strongly recommend for service work there's more than just myself who have had success with training a xolo for service work. So trainable? Yes. Biddable? No.

On that primitive breed nature and trainability etc, xolos do have a higher prey drive. Many people have no issues with their xolos and cats. However, some xolos do have intensely high prey drives. This prey drive can make xolos struggle with recall. If a xolo has too high of a prey drive I would not trust it offleash just for safety reasons. But if the prey drive isn't too intense, recall shouldn't be impossible especially because xolos are known to be Velcro dogs. Sometimes I don't even need to recall Tzapo with a cue because just starting to walk away is enough of a recall signal in itself! So I'd say recall is tougher for xolos but not impossible by any means for off leash time as long as recall training is done right. Additionally, primitive type breeds don't really enjoy challenges or brain games/puzzles. They don't want to exhaust extra effort if they don't have to because their brains are way more focused on survival needs. This means you may find you need to break shaping training plans into absolutely minuscule steps because if it's too hard a xolo might say screw you I'd rather put my brain towards Chaos aka turning that envelope on the floor into shreds because that's more fun and less brain energy. Additionally, a good chunk of primitive breed dogs get bored easily with training the same thing for too long. They think that training the same cue for ten minutes is boooorrrringgggg and will try to change to something else due to boredom stress. As a result, I've found that training then requires a more fun and varied approach.

But it's not all bad news on training a xolo: I and other trainers familiar with primitive breeds have found that these breeds are incredible when it comes to pattern recognition. For example, when I went bowling and Tzapo came with me for that, he understood after just a couple of repetitions of asking him to stay while I went up to bowl that the pattern was I went up and came back. So he didn't need any cuing after those two times because he understood the pattern. It was a new activity but he caught on very quickly.

Tzapo is a miniature of the breed. So he's the middle size and weighs in at 29-30 lbs. He is 17 or 18in at the shoulder.

[crow-maki]

Thoughts on AI

Most takes I see on this topic are…heated, to say the least. Understandably so — humans making art is something that ought to be celebrated and rewarded way more often than it is right now. We do, in fact, live in a capitalist hellscape that actively makes people miserable.

I fully expect a lot of people to respond angrily to this without reading the whole thing. But I think there's a lot of nuance in the topic that's being missed, and I really want discussions about the topic to be based in reality and not the overly dramatic version of reality that's been propagated in the last few months.

There is no TL;DR. If you absolutely need one, ask ChatGPT to make it for you or something. (Though it might be wrong; you'll never know.)

The Bare Minimum

I don't know of anyone outside of shitty CEOs who would argue that "not giving artists money is a good thing, actually." I mean that societally — obviously not everyone can afford to throw money at artists, and you shouldn't damage your own financial stability for someone else. Ensure your oxygen mask is secure before assisting others, so to speak. But I think most people, on both sides of the AI argument, agree that you shouldn't have to choose between making art and making a living.

Companies should hire and pay artists to make art.

Most of us aren't companies, and don't get to make those decisions. If you are making those decisions, though, and you could pay artists to make art but don't: what the fuck is wrong with you?

Great. Let's talk about stuff that's a little more nuanced than that.

Common Misconceptions

This section is necessary (and is going towards the top of this post) because I cannot stand seeing people being wrong on the internet argue moral stances based on total fabrications.

Most of these are based on my knowledge of Stable Diffusion and AI for image generation; from my understanding, large-language models like ChatGPT work similarly, but I have way less domain knowledge for LLMs.

Let's start with an easy one:

1. Prompting an AI feeds the AI. This is the easiest thing to clear up. I can download an AI model, take my computer offline, and generate as many images as I want with that model. If I then look at the model file, it has not changed. The AI is a conceptually simple transformation: it takes in text, turns that text into some numbers, does some math with those numbers, and then turns those numbers into pixels. There is no magic involved, no sentience, no upload to Google to let them know what I'm making.

That being said, using common online AI solutions like ChatGPT or Midjourney carries the risk of feeding future versions of the AI; most of these sites have a Terms of Service that say that any inputs you give it can be used to help train future versions, and that you shouldn't give it any sensitive data. This should be common sense in today's "always-online" tech world: read the fucking EULA, and don't send things over the internet you don't want being stored. My parents told me never to write something down if I didn't want anyone else reading it; this is the same concept.

2. AI art models contain stolen art. AI models are trained on absurd numbers of images. Stable Diffusion's dataset consists of over 2.3 billion images. That's something like 115 terabytes of data. The distributed Stable Diffusion model is 4 gigabytes. 0.003% as much data, if I did my math right.

This is a destructive process, meaning that it's impossible to get the original training data from the AI model. Nobody's distributing art, stolen or otherwise; they're distributing a mathematical codification of "what art tends to look like."

3. AI art models are collage machines. This one is a bit tougher to discuss, because it's only mostly wrong. Here's a simplified description of how Stable Diffusion (aka the most common AI art tool) works: it's fed that 2.3 billion image dataset, each image having been artificially "noised" (kind of like how JPEG compression artifacts work, but more so). Each of these images also comes with a text description of the image. Then it's shown the original images, as a goal end result. This is during the training phase, where it tries to come up with the numbers that make up its "brain" (not actually a brain, of course, because it's not sentient).

Essentially, the model is saying "how do I take a shitty image, and make it look right?"

Afterwards, a few images and text descriptions have been held back, and it tries to denoise them itself without having ever seen the original image. The training tool measures how accurate it was, and then changes the numbers inside the model to reduce that error amount. Over hundreds of thousands of iterations, this process repeats, until we decide it's "good enough."

Finally, the end result can be used to denoise an image that is itself completely random noise. We still provide a text input to direct the model, but the AI is essentially hallucinating details that aren't there. It's just not actually hallucinating, because again, it isn't sentient. It also doesn't understand what it's making. AI models don't think about how many fingers a human has, they don't count objects, they just go "here's what blobs of flesh-colored pixels tend to look like."

Now, if the AI doesn't have a lot of training data, it can try to exactly reproduce the art that's been used to train it. Spending too much time training the AI model will lead to this, in what's called "over-fitting"; too much of the training data has been stored in the AI model, and it's now just replicating the original data. The thing is, "over-fitting" is something AI models actively try to avoid. Nobody wants a 1-to-1 reproduction of existing art, after all; the entire point is to make something new.

3.5. Yeah, but signatures show up in generated images! They do! They're also entirely illegible, most of the time. The AI can tell "hey, most pieces of art have these squiggles in a corner, so this piece of art probably does too." It doesn't know what a signature is, how text works (let alone cursive), or anything else. It just sees a pattern and does its best to follow along.

In fact, the most legible watermark I've seen is for Getty Images; they've had so many images with the exact same watermark plastered everywhere on them that the AI was trained to recreate those original images by…plastering the watermark everywhere. Whoops.

4. ChatGPT is lying about (X). Okay, I see this one way too often. ChatGPT is, in essence, a very complex auto-complete. It's like those memes of "type (phrase here) on your phone and press the middle auto-complete and see what comes out." It's just really, really good at mimicking written text.

It does not understand what it's saying. It has no capacity for rational thought, or calculation, or anything. The fact that it appears to do so is a monument to how complicated of a model it is.

Large language models are categorized on the number of "parameters" they have; essentially, you can think of these as variables in a function. For the purposes of basic roleplaying AIs, you can get away with 13 billion parameters. These AIs won't have much "knowledge," but they can carry a semi-convincing conversation about mundane topics.

For LLMs that try to answer questions, models will usually use 30 billion to 65 billion parameters. 65 billion is about the limit for commercially available hardware. This is like training an auto-complete on the contents of Wikipedia. It has a lot of reference points of factual statements, and it can string them together convincingly, and so maybe it'll spit out something correct.

ChatGPT uses way more parameters than even that. It cannot be run on a home computer. It's a massive AI model that's very good at auto-completing text. It is still just a fancy auto-complete. It has no guarantee that anything it says is true. Please, please, do not blindly trust anything that ChatGPT tells you.

Was AI Training Done Ethically?

Here's the thing: there's no objective truth of ethics. We decide what's right and wrong based on our current cultural understanding, and changes to that culture will drastically impact our codes of ethics. Not only that, but ethics varies on an individual basis — there are certainly some people out there who would argue all kink is inherently wrong, for example, and others who disagree. So I can't provide an objective answer here for every single person.

What I will say is this: most existing research regarding the internet has used web scraping. If I can observe some non-identifying data without taking action, then I can use that observation in my research. It's historically been the responsibility of website owners to manage web scraping allowances; they pay for server bandwidth, after all, and it can be difficult to differentiate between a researcher gathering data and a malicious actor launching a DDoS attack.

These AI models have been generated by researchers, following this established code of conduct. The Stable Diffusion model was made freely available by those researchers. Companies took the model, tweaked things, and sold access to it (and the hardware they run it on).

At what point did the ethical issue occur? Does web scraping need to be regulated, ensuring researchers follow a stricter process for collecting data? If so, is there a specific type of data that should be restricted? "Personal data," like names and other information that can be used to identify an individual, is already restricted; maybe we can come up with some rules for web scraping involving copyrighted information?

Maybe instead the ethical issue occurred when the AI model was released to the public — but I'm personally not a fan of that, as peer review and reproducibility are key to the scientific process and probably shouldn't be discouraged…

Maybe it was when corporations sold access to their own versions of the model? Should there be limitations on "fair use" such that not-for-profit research can use web-scraped models, but for-profit corporations cannot? Where does something like ChatGPT fall, given that it has a free access tier (rate-limited, to protect against spam)?

Is AI Generation Art

Yes. Full stop.

Look, there's no way to consider "what makes art" without including things created by computers with human oversight.

If you're going to exclude AI art, how can you do so without excluding:

Glitch art

Procedural generation

3D art

Fractal art

Shader art

If you do exclude those, I think you're wrong…but at least you're consistent about believing digital artists are talentless hacks, I guess?

Is AI Generation Ethical?

Again, I can only really speak to my own understanding of morality. Namely, this:

If you use AI art to replace hiring human artists when you have the capability to do so, you're a piece of shit. Full stop.

If you're an artist who uses AI tools to augment your existing processes: cool! I want to hear more about yourself and your work!

It doesn't make sense to me to say that using Stable Diffusion is wrong just because it was created unethically; if that were the case, it'd also be ethically wrong to use Procreate because Apple devices are created in sweatshops. There's a boundary of usage versus creation, here.

Beyond that, here's the thing: AI generation is a tool. It is not a replacement for humans with actual working brains. You can make art with AI, but whether you can make good art with AI is up to your ability to use your brain.

I find that the way most people use AI art tools has more in common with art direction than traditional art. That's still a skill, and one that has to be worked at. It's what makes me feel weird about claiming the title of "artist" — I don't think art directors call themselves artists?

Finally, AI usage falls under the same ethical qualifications as any other tool usage. It's equally as wrong to use AI to manufacture propaganda as it is to deepfake propaganda as it is to photoshop propaganda as it is to take manipulative photos to create propaganda —

I personally think it's fucked up to mimic other contemporary artist's styles. If the artist's work has passed into the public domain? I think anything created "in the style of Monet" is more about Monet than an actual attempt at forgery. But that's a more personal ethical boundary.

But really, it boils down to this: the tools exist. Don't post other people's work on the internet, whether that's on Wattpad or ChatGPT. But the models exist, and some random person using Stable Diffusion isn't gonna affect whether or not those models continue to exist.

The technology is already out there; the genie isn't going back in the bottle. It's too late to argue over whether or not the tools should exist in the first place. Let's actually discuss what responsible usage looks like.

[yo9urt]

jpmd update number...is it five? nope ok its number 4

LONG POST AS ALWAYS

what i said in the tags on the last post was true: today we met team skull and went to spindas cafe!!!

OBSERVATIONS

team skull's japanese name is ドクローズ which as far as i can tell means "poison rose" ... ??? nothing particularly rosy about them but sure

koffing called skuntank あにき which KILLED me because yes i know in its most basic sense its just older brother/man who is older & superior to you but the only other place ive ever heard it is in the yakuza games and i literally said in the last post that i was half expecting yakuza-esque dialogue from team skull so this made me laugh so much wwwww

skuntank was very rude (さすが). the first thing he says at all is "どけ！じゃまだ！” aka "move, outta my way!" (lit. "MOVE! (YOU) ARE AN OBSTACLE")

zubat was also very rude and called the guild omeetachi

aniki, nioi (smell/odor), and onara (fart) were all in katakana - makes sense

in politer and cuter news, wynaut's japanese name is so-nano and she ends every sentence with nano (or sometimes just no) which seems really punny and cute lol

spinda uses generally the same polite shopkeeper speech everyone else does, with some vowel elongation (practically every desu/masu turned into desuu/masuu) and several words i didn't know (although let's remember i've only played sky once before now so this was extra new to me compared to everything else)

and a couple polite speech notes: loudred speaks informally to diglett but diglett speaks politely to loudred (probably both superiority and age), and the pokemon that the protags recruit in dungeons speak politely to the protags

today was a bit shorter and tougher than previous days partially because of the spinda thing but also because i was SWIMMING in menus and dialogue. when i walked out of the cafe and chimecho came over to tell me about it i was like ohhh my god another string of text boxes...

i also realized it'd be nice if i could play it more often because the longer i go without playing, the more things i forget :P i got confused by a lot of the stuff in my inventory because i couldn't remember what half of it meant and i had to do a mix of jisho-ing and staring really hard at item descriptions until things came to me...sigh

but overall things are still going pretty well. except for the sentry game, today was round 2 of that and i actually failed twice and got like the lowest prize tier!!!! can you believe that!!!! very flop. but aside from that i'm making my way...and learning boatloads of new words!!

GOOD SENTENCES

けっきょくのところはじつりょくだよ。じつりょく。(said by zubat to partner)

somehow i remember this EXACT line in the english version, ~16 years later. this is where he says "it all comes down to talent...pure talent."

lit. "in-the-end NOUNRELATIONSHIP place TOPIC true power COPULA NEW. true power."

へへっ　あにきさえいればおまえたちなんかひとひねりだぜ。(said by zubat to partner)

"hehe. if the chief had been there, we would've beaten you weaklings easily." (aniki isn't chief but that's what they call him in english so that's what i'm using)

lit. "hehe. big-brother only/even exist-COND you-PLURAL the-likes-of easily-defeated COPULA ASSERTION"

あっ！うわさ��すればこのにおい！(said by koffing to...kind of the partner)

"ah! speak of the devil - there's that stench!"

lit. "ah! rumors OBJ do-COND this stench!"

(when i read "うわさをすれば" and looked up うわさ i said out loud, "hmm, if you do rumors...OH! is this like speak of the devil?" and I WAS RIGHT! BITCH)

そんなことより。おまえたちかねになりそうなしごとはあったのか？(said by skuntank to the gang)

"never mind that. have you guys found any jobs that look like they'll pull in cash?" (i can ALMOST remember what the real english line is but not quite...)

lit. "that-kind-of thing from. you-PLURAL money result.in-seems-CONN.COPULA work TOPIC exist-PAST の QUESTION?"

side note: かね was in katakana here

[LEADER'S NAME]がやられたというのに。。。なさけないな。。。(said by partner to technically themself)

"even though they treated LEADER like that...i'm so pathetic..."

lit. "[LEADER] SBJ do-receive-PAST QUOTE-say.NONPAST のに... pathetic SELF.DIRECTED..."

this one is maybe the hardest one for me to wrap my head around in the entire group...i still struggle with recognizing the receptive form/telling it apart from the potential and having it combined with という and のに which i understand decently and more than decently well (respectively) but not entirely, that was hard...

i was about to say that if i didn't know the english equivalent dialogue i might not have gotten this one but actually i have なさけない hard-memorized (it's in one of my all time favorite JP songs) so i probably could have gotten it from context lol but understanding the grammar helped a LOT

すきなしょくざいをもってくればおいしいドリンクをつくってくれるんだって。(said by pachirisu in spinda's cafe)

"if i bring ingredients i like, i bet (spinda) will make a tasty drink for me!"

lit. "pleasing-CONN.COPULA ingredients OBJ carry-and-come(bring)-COND tasty drinks OBJ make-and-give(down-to-me) EXPLANATORY QUOTE (?)"

still working my way around だって...

きざきのもりのときのはぐるまがぬすまれたんですってね。(said by teddiursa to protags)

"the time gear in treeshroud forest got stolen, didn't it!"

lit. "[treeshroud forest]* POSS time CLASS gear SUBJ stolen-receive-PAST EXPLANATORY-POLITE-COPULA QUOTE SHARED."

*for the life of me i cannot find きざき on jisho. the only reason i know what forest teddiursa means is because, of course, i played the english version

SHOUTOUT GROVYLE I CANT WAIT TO MEET YOU

どうせ　「いいえ」　えらんでも　けっきょくは　「はい」を　えらんだのと　おなじ　けっかに　なるんじゃないかとか。。。 (said by chimecho when she offers to have your teammates wait at the cafe and you say no)

"in any case, even if you choose 'no,' in the end you'll wind up having the same result: choosing 'yes,' right...?"

lit. "in-any-case 'no' choose-even-if in-the-end TOPIC 'yes' OBJ choose-past(?)-NOM QUOTE same result TARGET become-TE.COPULA-TOPIC-exists-NEG QUESTION QUOTE QUESTION..."

yeesh chimecho do you have enough particles yet????

i really wanted to see this dialogue because she breaks the 4th wall in english and i don't think i even know about that as a kid and it made me laugh when i found out :3

[the-firebird69]

Had a bunch of stuff when I was 19 and it's a lot and I don't want to see how much but he doesn't know anything this kid and they're not even digging they're just dumb retards who want to make fun of people and they think they're in fifth grade or something fourth grade I use their bunkers to create a huge clan hair and I did Hera and I did she did most of the work I didn't connect with it you guys missed it and missed the whole thing. So I see this f**** harassing me bothering me and so we can make kids and they probably have some already that they make that we're going to piggyback to make regular SUV into Ferrari or Lamborghini etc Porsche and it's not really hard at all it all look close there's only a few things you have to change and it goes on there mostly with the door and body panel you don't have to do really any work to the machine except we suggest you use the high performance package and rims and tires I'm going to use this red one as a model and there are several SUVs that look like it

Zues Hera

He says right away he doesn't care but he does he's a dick and they have kids like this and they suck and people are going to buy them and they're going to keep buying them cuz he's going to keep selling the other ones and his own people who get to get the sucky ones and you can see these everywhere he's going to start doing it and so are we you need cars and vehicles that are tougher that have speed kit for the suspension too well it's a high performance suspension kit but it does add speed with the tires and rims and the exhaust and top end and the body panels I've had a it's a smaller Cadillac type vehicle it's really a Chevy it's not a blazer and it's not a big huge one suburban so he's wondering what model well it's a blazer and those have bigger motors he says than they do and I put it on there and it's one of their kids and I did the performance and the rims tires and suspension and you're trying to get tires that fit the wheel well they don't even tell you cuz her assholes and take a measuring tape and it looks awesome and when I first got the vehicle it was pretty good it was so 6-cylinder and it went about 180 did the modifications and it goes like 235 and it's a big difference in acceleration because of the top end the exhaust and I added some cooling didn't need it but someone suggested it and it helps it went faster 240 miles per hour out of a Chevy Blazer it's a new one and they look close to this so I see what you saying and we were producing them and our kids were much better and his kids will be much better and we will beat the s*** out of these losers he showed up as John and remillard today at Publix and everyone was booing no they saw him and he walked by our friend called him a f**** and no our friend called John remillard a f**** and was flipping them off and you say there is John remillard and they picked up on it and he's trying to apply for a job and people are telling him you can't he has been kicked out of Publix but he still has stock so he's threatening people the last I heard when I left and they're telling me they're not going to hire him and they're going to leave his application there and they're going to try and fire his other characters for doing it and we are going after that piece of s*** he came here as Charlie Manson and that means that he is Asian against Sean Mason and his other connotations but Terry cheesman looked at it and other people looked at it too and said you're going to be Asian against all of us and we weren't ready for what he was doing and other people seem to be helping but they weren't now he's the body snatcher guy and it's outac

Mac daddy

What is that John remillard so you got four times you have to die today

Zues Hera

And we're going to make that happen to John remillard AKA Trump and he needs to be in court and stuff he's going to miss it and warrants on him and he's going to get killed

Thor Freya we're activating the Stars program we think that's why he goes ahead and tries to find the stick our son also left a note in the faggots it's locker he's always looking for motivation. Says the last note was for people who are addicting with him to identify who and it worked this note is similar but it's directed to John remillard who was at the time Billy Hicks the big f**** and it does say stuff on there and it is a real note and nobody went into the locker and the sticks were already removed and Dave used the third one on him and it's still out there people say they've had it but he did not and our son did not see it at the house and Peter audette was asked and he said no it's not there now this guy is going to get the s*** kicked out of him for his performance today

Olympus

We're signing people to continuously kick the s*** out of you John remillard you're a nobody and nothing and you demand to get hit and we're going to hit you everywhere you go and everything you're doing you're going to be hit you say it about our father and mother so we're going to nail you you see your ships heating up and we hit them let me see your idiots in space gasping for air and it makes us feel better

Savage oppress it wasn't a bad sight to see your daughter dying cuz she's a huge b**** but we kept her around because she gets rid of you and we need that she knows it now too and others too

[caediteosa]

my favorite dutch saying is: i'm not made of doll-shit

[speedofsoundsketches]

How to draw Elise

Ooo sure!

When starting with any human, I always begin with a basic outline of the figure. Since I draw Elise with Anime proportions versus realistic ones like her original version, I can bend the realism a bit more to get that effect I want.

Just a note, I can mostly eye things at this point due to just drawing so much for so long and having done many studies of realistic and anime figures, that this sort of thing I can whip up thanks to having a trained eye for it. I recommend reading up figure drawing books and tutorials for learning from real life first before studying into anything stylized like Anime. Learn the rules before breaking them!

Satisfied with the base figure proportions, I start roughing out the clothing and facial features. Normally I'd do the hair with the face but for the sake of this tutorial, I felt it's easier to see the face without adding it. The base outline helped me know how to fold the clothing around her so it looks believable as to how it drapes on her body. Note that I'm forgoing any details as this is just about charting out how it's functionally going to look before I define things too much.

The face is a tougher subject to explain since it's all based on my collected knowledge gained from studying the human figure. I tried to condense it in this little diagram but I strongly recommend doing studies of your own to improve your internal visual library on how faces work. Broadly speaking, this is about how it's broken down from realism to Anime-ish proportions. (I hope this spaghetti makes sense haha)

Since I'm pretty satisfied with her face, I'll roughly outline the hair and get that sorted out. Elise is a very dainty character with wispy features so her hair should be close to the head versus having too much volume. It ties well with her overall theme of "feathers" and lightness, like someone who is easily guided around by the wind (aka Sonic).

Thematic things like this are informative because for me the artist, I want to capture that quality of her since it's strongly indicative of how she's presented. Too many harsh, dark lines or clunky details could easily make her appear too heavy which takes away the "airy" aspect she emits, if that makes sense.

With everything now charted out, I can THEN start refining the edges of things with heavier lines where it'll help for eventually rendering this if I choose to do so. For a sketch though, I think this is enough. I changed her left hand to suit the angle her arm was at and to feel daintier/more comfortable.

Her feet and hands are larger than a regular person's simply because that's the Sonic way :^)

I also keep in mind that Elise is a teenager. I'm not a huge fan of how elongated and tall she looks in Sonic 06 because it makes her feel too adult for her age (This is mostly due to how small her head is compared to her body). I gave her more youthful features like a bigger head, slightly shorter figure and large anime eyes to hint that she's quite young without being AS young like Maria.

I'm at a point where I can do most of these things without breaking it down into such specific steps but for a beginner, it helps to try doing things in this way to help you learn how everything is built on top of basic shapes without getting overwhelmed with details and busy work. Build it up a step at a time. Over time you get a feel for how you're doing it!

[a-v-j]

Okay, I'm still worried about the whole yanberry stick you posted. Like, is Averse going to be okay?! Also, what does Auto and Snap think of this since their Bluetooth's parents, right?

i choked on air

lmao NOOOOO, auto and snap arent bluetooth's parents, whtf XD XD XD

bluetooth is an auto variant(aka a version of auto) and snap kinda dont like him

as for averse, he's fine. that yanberry comic was forbidden spaghet #12

forbidden spaghetti's are NOT CANON.(some peeps in it are bound to get nerf-ed to fit the scenario)

and averse is a whole lot tougher than he looks and he could easily take down bluetooth without effort, just so you know.

[valiantlyjollynightmare]

ahhh your fics are so good!!! i love them!!! i was wondering, as a fellow miraculous ladybug writer, do you have any favorite fics??? ♥

Oh my god thank you so much!!!! This means so much to me!!!

I do!!! I read a lot of fanfiction and I like to think I have quite the extensive library, hehe XD

I don't know if you like M and E rated stuff too so I'll include stuff like that but at the end.

The works are in no particular order, just the order I remember them in, but there are many, many more that slipped my mind right now. Just imagine that I have over 700 bookmarks XD plus, i managed to close tumblr 2 times wothout saving the draft. I thought i'd die XD I hope you,ll like at least some of these and please make sure to check out the writers' entire list of works because most of them have a loooot of amazing works!!!

1. poppy seed lilies by @fragileizy

“The woods are dangerous, fair maiden,” he calls out to her, like he always does.

“Be my familiar and I’ll be protected,” she replies, like she always does.

2. Once Upon a Time by kao_rei

(In which Marinette is Little Red Riding Hood, Adrien is the Wolf, and they fall in love somewhere between deliveries, flower fields, and shiny red apples).

3. Gestalt by @miabrown007

Hakwmoth had finally been defeated, secret identities are out in the open, still, the future has never been so uncertain. Adrien is grateful for Marinette’s efforts to ease the knot in his stomach on the eve of the trial, but there is something else they need to untangle.

Caught in the whirlwind of different dynamics, who are they really to each other?

4. Save You a Seat by @miabrown007

Alya once read that you should invite random celebrities to your wedding — with the more than likely assumption that they won’t attend, only send you a card and an overpriced coffee machine.

Luckily, the chances of Hawkmoth’s son reading his mail and showing up to the event are microscopic. Marinette will be busy enough trying to get to know the boy behind Chat Noir’s mask — if he does decide to come — she doesn’t need to worry about being able to look Adrien Agreste in the eyes.

5. Those Benevolent Stars by @peachcitt

i think this is literally my favourite fic. I can't get over how beautifully it's written.

adrien meets his soulmate, a thief who calls herself ladybug. he falls for her, but she seems determined to maintain a space between them.

6. To Hell with Propriety, For Now and Forevermore also by @peachcitt

This is probably my second favourite fic and is the main inspiration (in terms of fics) for my own witch au. You should really check out all of Peachcitt's works because they're literally amazing!!!

adrien is trapped in a cage made of performance and propriety. as the hallow's festival approaches, he finds himself befriending a benevolent witch and breaking free from his cage one night at a time.

7. I'm Here to Dance by kisstheprincessofpurewhite

aka i'm a sucker for break dance aus

Alya drags Marinette to the hot new club "Miraculous" where it's winner take all on the dance floor. After an embarrassing first encounter, Marinette dons a costume and challenges the champ, Chat Noir, as Ladybug. Marinette embraces the Paris break dancing scene, but times are getting tougher and competition even more so.

8. Dance with me, Chaton by @chocoluckchipz

Adrien had always been an obedient son, allowing his Father to manipulate him every which way. Once an adult, Adrien isn't sure any more he wants to remain locked in his gilded cage as a brave stranger defying his father's authority catches his attention.

9. Where Have All the Heroes Gone and Where Are All the Gods by Amethyst

On their fourteenth birthday, the Agreste triplets' world is turned upside down. Their government has been overthrown, their city taken, and superheroes all over Europe have suddenly and mysteriously vanished-including, to their shock, their parents. They'll need to work together, and become the heroes Paris needs, if they're going to save both their parents and their country.

10. Marinette, the Teenage (Sassy) Witch by piscesroyalty

this is very very crackish but i love this fic a lot lmao

Meet Adrien. All he wanted to do was live his life being the most powerful wizard in the kingdom. Except he's cursed and a cat. Meet Marinette. All she wanted was to summon her idol, Adrien Agreste, save him from whatever spell he's surely under, have him fall in love with her, get married, and live happily ever after while also being heralded as the greatest witch to ever live.

Instead, she gets a cat.

11. Seal It With a Kiss by @mostlovedgirl-writes

It has been months since Adrien started lodging at a farmhouse on the edge of the woods with a charming young woman and her three adopted children.

In that time, he has yet to answer an essential question: would kissing his landlady awaken ancestral witch powers in her, thus making her a danger to herself and the children?

And also, who the hell thought it was a good idea to plant a vegetable garden at the intersection of two ley lines?

12. Your Hands Are Cold by certainasthesun (lionofsounis)

Marinette locks herself outside in the cold. In her pyjamas. Again. (Aged up/married adrienette)

13. Chasing the C/h/atwalk by Inkkerfuffle

Paris. The city of lights, love and fashion. Follow the progress of Marinette Dupain Cheng as she enters the extremely competitive world of Reality television for a chance to be the winner of Project Runway: France.

14. Elle me dit by @msbricolage

She stares at the little plus sign and enjoys approximately 3.6 seconds of joy before reality hits, like a sledgehammer with the words dread etched on the side. Because now she has to tell everyone. Everyone. And Marinette really isn’t exaggerating when she says she’s the least dramatic in her circle of friends and family, and she’s just spent nearly a half an hour sitting in a bathroom stall thinking up various rebuttals to the fictional argument her boss is going to have with her. In rhyme. You never know when your life is going to turn into a musical after all, and this is Paris.

Marinette’s bad. Everyone else is so, so much worse.

15. new marinette by @rosekasa

marinette may not remember their first kiss anymore, but she has no doubts that adrien is the man she will spend her life with.

amnesia has nothing on her love.

16. Sixty Minutes by peonydee and mikochan_noda

Alya Césaire, award-winning pursuer of truth, is honored with an intimate interview with Ladybug and Chat Noir. However, she doesn't count on finding out certain things that are making her regret asking in the first place.

17. Photograph by abbysue - If I wished myself a superpower, I would make this moment last for hours

 Or, Marinette deals with the fact that she will someday lose her memories, and Adrien is there to comfort her.

18. Now Kiss by KrazyKyStaHatter

A year after leaving school, Marinette is living her dream. Never could she have imagined working alongside Adrien and his father, let alone living with them. But with closeness comes clashing, which results in explosive tension and confused emotions. And now with her in front of the camera with Adrien... Oh god. She was doomed.

19. I think it's time i told you (i'm a fan of your universe) by @clairelutra and a_miiraculer

Years after Hawkmoth’s defeat, Ladybug and Chat Noir have a conversation about life, love, and marriage.

20. What is a Name by @thenovelartist

It's far easier to fall for a name than an identity. It's a lesson Ladybug learns the hard way, but she isn't sure she regrets it.

21. Save me from heroes by whatarubberchicken

(AU YEAH AUgust -17- Sidekick) In a world where the Ladybug Miraculous was never activated, our heroes are having a hard time dealing with the akumas. But Marinette has to deal with both akumas AND heroes! And sometimes, she's not sure which one's worse....

22. Caught by AmaVix

Gabriel rounded the corner, fully prepared to wedge himself between the two arguing adults, just in time to see his son push his intern against the wall and snog her senseless. It hardly took a second for the girl to recover and yank him even closer, tangling one of her hands in his hair in the process. The blond reached down and hooked his hand under her knee, pulling her leg up to wrap around his waist, giving her slight leverage from being pinned against the wall.

This was probably THE most aggressive and terrifying make-out session that Gabriel Agreste had ever accidentally witnessed in his entire life.

23. "5 Reasons Why You Should Agree to Marry Me" A PowerPoint by Chat Noir by Hey_its_Laura

Adrien should really learn how to organize his computer files better.

24. Shared Characteristics by SailorChibi (@tsuki-chibi )

Out of all the things Nino and Alya could've inherited from their kwamis, it would be a heat.

25. scoreboards and banter by breeeliss

Ladybug bit her lip and tapped Chat Noir on the nose. “I do fear that was a euphemism.”

“Slander, my Lady. As if a gentleman such as myself would stoop to such a level.”

“Hm. Such a shame. I rather enjoyed that euphemism. And emphatically agree with it.”

26. Spotty connections by @agrestenoir

I love this chat fic specifically because it's not just a chat fic with text messages and nothing else. It has legit prose too and it makes it really really nice

Marinette sends a text to the wrong number, and things progress from there until it becomes the right one

M and E rated fics:

27. Life Pact by rosebud100 - by careful if you read this one because it deals with depression and suicidal thoughts, but if you do read it, also read the poems linked in the fic

Going back to school was surreal. Adrien had thought he’d never set foot in the building again.

"Are you glad it didn't work?"

28. Green Tea by icingsugar

after making love, chat noir always has a cup of green tea. ladybug hates it.

29. The Pole Kit and Kaboodle by @chatonne-rousse

When Adrien tries to make getting undressed a bit more entertaining for Marinette, he ends up revealing more than just his underwear.

30. C.A.U.G.H.T. - unfortunately not finished ,but there was only one more chapter until it would've been complete so it's quite satisfying as it is.

Inspired by F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Adrien and Marinette learn that hiding their identities from certain people and their relationship from everyone is not as easy as it seems.

31. The Well Dreased Series by ThornQueen

This series is an exploration of the sensuality and sexuality that comes along with a relationship that has grown out of love, trust, and superheroics. No matter the masks they wear, they are the same people, but they bring different aspects of themselves into their encounters with each other when in and out of armour. Their multifaceted relationship offers a unique dynamic that is entirely too fascinating not to explore.

32. For Your Eyes Only by Talktoself - it's a wip that updates almost daily and i'm living for it!

When Adrien receives an email entitled “For Your Eyes Only” he definitely wasn’t expecting it to be a video invitation to the apparently weird and wonderful sex life Marinette and Luka share behind closed doors.

33. Midnight Roses by piscesroyalty

It's abandoned and it doesn't even end in a satisfacatory point, but god, do i love this fic.

They say that something's happening in that town that's haunted by its decaying dreams. They say it's something dark, darker than midnight. They say it's something they've never encountered before, something they don't know. But she knows exactly what it is.

Vampires.

[theroomofreq]

THEROOMOFREQ'S MASTERLIST

AO3 ACCOUNT

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

James/Lily, minor Harry/Ginny // T 400 words // Parents who embarrass their children are cool, right? - Asking for some friends.

THERE'S NO BETTER VERSION

James/Lily // T 900 words // For clarewithnoi's november prompt challenge "I think you're severely underestimating how long I've waited for this." & chasing pavements by adele

PERSONALITY BEFORE PUNCTUALITY

James/Lily // T 10k // Muggle AU, In which Lily is always late and James looks tougher than he is. Baker!Lily & Musician!James

IF LOVE RETURNS

James/Lily // T 700 words // Bitter-sweet drabble collection. Lily and James letters to one another throughout the war.

THROWING CHANCES

James/Lily // T 4k // Coffee Shop AU, written for august jilychallenge, “I’ve spent the summer climbing through your bedroom window so no one sees, please won’t you give me a chance?”

ALL AROUND YOU

Harry/Ginny // T 4k // “Your sister is a professional football player?”

Ron stops and turns around to face Harry. “Yeah? I thought I told you?”

“No. Ginny? Ginny plays professional football?”

BEMUSED FRIENDSHIP *(WIP)*

James/Lily // T 2k* // Lily Evans wanted the person next to her to know she was hell-bent on living up to a challenge.What challenge, you ask?A challenge presented to her by two incredibly frustrating Gryffindors, two Gryffindors who didn’t realize the precarious situation of going against Lily Evans and her intensely stubborn personality. *unpublished to ao3*

CHANGE OF PACE

Harry/Ginny // G 500 words // Missing OTP moment, written for clarensjoy's hinny ficfest

HER

James/Lily // T 5k // Shirtless JP may, but FEM. But what do you say to a dorm mate turned friend who you might be a little bit gay for? Fem!Jily

ALL I THINK ABOUT IS YOU

James/Lily // T 2k // James and Lily are both aware of their changing relationship but oblivious to each other's feelings. AKA, they are pining fools, your honor.

SIMPLE THINGS YOU DO

Harry/Ginny // G 400 words // Harry and Ginny let the noise fade out post-war.

ADORING FANS

James/Lily // G 900 words // Tumblr prompt: I'm sorry to bother you but my son thinks you're famous and he wants your autograph.

WHOSE PARTY IS THIS, BY THE WAY?

James/Lily // G 3k // Jamie has one more year of attending these fancy balls and then she will be free. While she isn't exactly royalty, she can't really escape suffering through these events year after year. Her only hope is someday she might meet someone else who doesn't care much for nicely dressed men either. Fem!Jily

NOT IN THAT WAY

Lily & Remus // G 1k // “We are both in love with a friend-” Lily’s voice came out quieter than she had intended. Despite the softness in her words, Remus flinched. Fem!Jily

DRAWN CLOSER TO YOU

Ron/Hermione // G 400 words // The crack of overburdened branches in a near-silent forest, a missing Deathly Hallows moment.

SNOWY COMPETITION

Harry/Ginny // 300 words // Winter prompt: Being unable to go anywhere because you were snowed in.

MILDLY UNCOMFORTABLE

Harry/Ginny // T 700 words // Harry and Ginny get happily drunk from spiked eggnog.

WE LOST TRACK OF TIME

Harry/Ginny // G 800 words // We accidentally got married in Vegas, Oops. Male!Ginny Female!Harry

2 AM

James/Lily // T 2k // Becoming close friends with Jamie Potter had never exactly been on Lily’s to-do list, but seeing the way Jamie laughed reminded Lily that it was one of her favorite accomplishments. Fem!Jily

ARE WE ON A DATE RIGHT NOW?

Harry/Ginny // G 6k // Harry is abandoned at the Three Broomsticks and gets some unwanted attention, shenanigans ensue as Harry tries to escape.

NOT TOO SUBTLE

Harry/Ginny // G 600 words // A missing HBP moment ficlet. Harry is rather obvious about his feelings toward Ginny, but it’s Luna who helps her realize how he feels.

[jaythefox7]

Just a cut

Characters: Quintin Beck/Mysterio, Montana Brice/Shocker, Phineas Mason/Tinkerer (Mentioned)

Plot: What was supposed to be a simple assignment goes horribly wrong when Quintin gets injured.

Notes: The main pairing is Quintin/Montana but they aren't in a relationship yet. Also, Quintin is dating Phineas while Montana is dating Fancy Dan and Ox. (Poly for the win)

There's descriptions of a pretty bad injury, So be advised of that.

Takes place post series. Probably.

There's some swearing, Mostly from Montana though.

I love writing, But I'm also not the best at it. So this probably isn't gonna be that great, But I liked the idea.

Quintin Beck, Aka Mysterio, Had recently started working with The Enforcers after they escaped prison, With varying results. He was more of an illusionist than an outright hand-to-hand fighter. But Montana knew Beck shouldn't just rely on the fancy gadgets his boyfriend, Mason, Helps make for him, Not against any serious threats.

"Are you sure about this..?" Quintin asked Montana as the two stood near their secret base's door. "You can't rely on yer' fancy robots and illusions forever." Montana carefully adjusted the shockers on his wrists, Making sure not to accidentally set them off. " 'Sides, This'll be real simple. You heard of the Green Goblin?" "A little?" Quintin shrugged a bit.

"After his demise, Some of his goons are still causin' a heep of trouble." Montana explained. " 'Specially round my bar. All we've gotta do is show 'em we don't play around." "And I have to fight them without..." Quintin grabbed the ends of his costume's cape, Going silent before he could finish his own sentence.

"Yer' gonna be alright." Montana reassured him before putting on his mask. "They're just thugs, So it'll make for good combat practice. Trust me, We'll be outta there in a jiffy." "Alright..." Quintin put on his fishbowl looking helmet. "I might be able to use what I learned in stuntman training, I guess..."

Shocker led Mysterio to his bar, Where about five people wearing pumpkin masks were about to vandalize it. "Alright, You vermin!" He yelled out to them. "You have 5 seconds to mosey on outta here before we turn you into a bloody mess!"

The toughest looking goon turned around, Pulling out a beam gun. "How about we paint the walls red with your blood instead!" They laughed maniacally. "There's five of us and two of you! There's nothing you can do against us!" "Yer boss is nothin' but dust now, And 'yer about to join him!" Shocker then faced Mysterio. "I'll handle the tougher lookin' three, You handle the rest."

As Shocker went after his set of the goons, Mysterio faced the two smaller ones, Who pulled out their pumpkin blades. "You think those mere blades will be enough to defeat Mysterio, Master of the arcane arts!?" He spoke in character. "Such foolishness!"

One of the goons growled lunged forward, Which Mysterio managed to avoid, Causing them to fall over. The other goon tried to get him from behind, But Mysterio shot his leg out. He managed to kick back the goon, Causing them to hit a wall nearby, Knocking them out.

The one that was on the ground pulled on his cape, Which almost caused him to fall over himself. But at the last second, Mysterio grabbed his cape and yanked it, Flipping them over his head and landing them on the ground, Which knocked them out too. 'I... I actually did it!" Mysterio thought to himself excitedly. "Let this be a lesson to you!" He went back into character. "Nobody gets away with underestimating Mysterio!"

Meanwhile, Shocker had already done quite a number on two of the goons. But he seemed to have lost track of the toughest one. "Where in sam hell did he..." He looked around for a second and saw a proud Mysterio. He chuckled to himself a bit before he suddenly saw the tough goon zoom towards him from behind.

"Hey, Look out!" He yelled. Mysterio glanced over at him confused before he felt a burning pain on his side.

SLICE

The goon used one of their pumpkin blades and sliced it down Mysterio's side, Tearing that part of his costume and causing crimson blood to spill from there. "BECK!" Shocker yelled out to him, Panic in his voice.

Mysterio fell to his knees and placed a hand on his wound. He looked at the hand and saw the red liquid staining his glove. He wanted to scream, But panic and adrenaline kept him from doing so. He only breathed heavily, Threatening to start hyperventilating. He knew it was only a matter of time before the pain really began to kick in...

"That was too easy." The goon held the blade, Now dripping in blood. They didn't get very long to relish in their victory before they heard footsteps running their way. They looked over and saw a pissed Shocker running towards them, Shockers fully activated and with rage in his eyes.

"Don't. You. Fucking. TOUCH HIM!!" He cried out. He punched the goon with all of his might, With the force of the shockers sending them flying into the nearest garbage dumpster.

Shocker took a few seconds to catch his breath before he ran over to Mysterio. "Beck! Partner, Are you alright!?" He kneeled down to get a closer look at the injury. There was a long cut from the left side of Mysterio's midriff down to near his hip. It didn't look too deep fortunately, But it was bleeding quite a lot.

"I-I'm sorry..!" Mysterio shakily breathed out, Tears threatening to pour from his eyes. "Th-They caught me by surprise..!" "No, No! Don't you dare apologize!" Shocker clenched his hands into fists. "That bastard! They're lucky I didn't hit em any harder, Or they'd never see the sunshine again!"

Mysterio weakly laughed, Mostly to hide his panic. "I-I don't wanna look at it..." He just looked up. "D-Do I have to look at it? Is i-it bad..?" "No, Ya' don't have to look at it." Shocker stood up and pulled Mysterio up carefully as well, Having him lean on him for support (His non bloody side thankfully). "It ain't that bad, I promise. It's... It's just a cut."

The two walked away from the bar as the heard police sirens. "Don't ya' worry, Okay?" Montana kept Quintin close. "I'll get us both back to base and Mason can patch ya' up. That's what he usually does anyway." "I... Really blew it... Didn't I..?" Quintin's adrenaline was now replaced by drowsiness. "No, You were doing great." Montana reassured. "Ya' took out two goons by yerself. You were just caught by surprise. If anythin', I'm proud."

Montana couldn't see it from behind the fishbowl, But Quintin began to blush. "Thanks..." He muttered. "However." Montana spoke. "You're gonna need some more training before I send ya' back onto the field. 'Specifically after what happened today." "Good call..." Quintin weakly laughed. "Now let's get back before I bleed out, Okay..?"

I'll admit, This is my first time actually writing with these characters, So it's definitely not perfect. But I hope it turned out alright.

[patamon]

5. 6. And 10. :)

AHHH HELLO FRIEND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING IN PROMPTS FOR THE ASK GAME!!!

Question 5: What is your all-time favorite episode?

Ohh I thought this would be a hard one, but then I realize NOPE! My favourite episode is Ep 12 of the 1999 Adventure series: DigiBaby Boom/Adventure! Patamon and Me (aka the one where Patamon and Takeru hangs out at Primary Village like buddy cops)

Reasons:

MOST OBVIOUS REASON, Takeru and Patamon are my FAAAVVVOURITE. I love my smol boy and his flying hamster. And finally, we get to know the real Takeru, like who he is independent of Yamato, we learn about the dynamics between him and Patamon, which for me, establishes why their bond is my favourite out of any Digimon/Chosen pair, but hey that's just me. I might be bias

Honestly, the most compelling reason: when I rewatched OG Adventure, I'm shocked by how good the writing was for the episode. Especially if you know of what happened to Angemon and the eventual trauma it gave Takeru, a lot of the dialogues in the episode just gave me chills, and at the end, Elecmon has a line about a seed of pepper and something about the outside and the inside (basically, don't judge a book by its cover/people are tougher than the look etc...), I started feeling really emotional for some reason? Like dang, that's dramatic irony at work right there

Question 6: Which crest best represents you?

I wish I could say the crest of hope, but if I'm being honest, probably cynicism. I'm a cynic at heart so yay for me with the crest of cynicism!

Question 10: Of the 10 Legendary Warriors, whose spirits would you like to have?

Ughhh so I'm gonna be honest, I'm a bit rusty with my Frontier knowledge. It's next on my list of rewatch! But based on my limited and very blurry memory of Frontier, I'll say Wind because I would like to be a kickass air-bending fairy. Like who wouldn't?

Send me prompts for the Digimon Ask Game!

[achilleanwizard]

7 and 18 for any of your ocs? 💚

Hmm... I haven't talked about Bishop in a while, so here you go! Bishop aka Gambit!

7. Who do you look up to?

"Ugh, I thought I told the press to get lost." They spit out, willing their voice to go hard, straightening their spine to make themselves as tall as possible.

Huh, that usually works. This reporter must be a little tougher than the average one. Or a whole lot stupider.

"Fine. What do you want to know? Who I look up to?" They repeat, looking the person in front of them up and down. Not a threat. Just an annoyance. Maybe she'll go away if they answer a couple of questions?

"I don't look up to anyone. There's no one worth looking up to in this city. Not even me."

They nod over at the crowd growing nearby. "You can tell all those fans over there that too. Tell them to try asking the Marshal for his autograph. I'm sure he'd love that."

18. What's the best way to cheer you up?

"Are you trying to get on my good side now? Because you're not doing a very good job so far." They huff, arms crossed as they shift their weight back and forth.

"You know what would really cheer me up? If the people in charge of keeping everyone in this city safe actually did their jobs for once, and didn't just spend their days trying to line their own pockets."

They lift their head, looking back and forth as they scan the area. The crowd is getting much too big for their tastes. Time to flee before the LDPD gets here.

"Now beat it. Before you really piss me off."

OC Interview Questions