#how we meet our needs

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Good morning, Sleepyhead.

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[raynewolferune]

Battle of the Not It

Just me pushing my personal agenda that the Battle for the Cowl makes no freaking sense once again.

I want to see the Battle of the Not It, Nose Goes, Worst out of 126+ Rounds of Rock Paper Siscors Takes It, etc. Basically, the Batfam throwing down in Bruce's absence to Not Be The One Who Inherits (TM). No one wants dear dad's emo fursona but they all agree someone has to take it. The resulting Loser Gets Batmanned sibling war throws Gotham into chaos, Oracle's keeping score of everything, the one with the lowest score at the end of every week is stuck with Batman Duty the following week.

Damian hates loosing his swords everytime he gets stuck doing Batman. Tim can't stand losing his tech. Jason misses his guns. Cass hates having to talk on can't use words days. Staphanie hates doing the voice. Dick can't tolerate being unable to smile. Duke needs his freaking sleep. The list goes on because they've all agreed they hate to embody Bruce's Batman, no one can put their own flare on it (Gun!Batman will not happen on their watch and they won't risk any other equally horrible variation either.) The resulting sibling war takes place 24/7 in the masks and the criminals and citizens of Gotham are as awed as they are horrified by it.

The strangest alliances form and disolve week to week. Dick cheats whenever he gets close to loosing and dips out because "Bludhaven needs him." Cass flits off to China on a last minute mission when too many of her siblings start forming up an alliance against her. Steph breaks her leg (she says it's an accident but Tim has very vocal doubts about that). Tim, Duke, and Damien start teaming up against Jason frequently and Red Hood gets stuck doing Batman practically every other week. Other weeks, Jason picks one of them as Robin for his Batman week (rotating between them as revenge) and forces a temporary alliance to make another of them Batman for the next week. Alfred encourages the four's little rivalry and manages to finagle them into all staying in the manor full time with him.

Just Batfam bonding shenanigans over how much they all Do Not want to be Batman.

And when Bruce comes back Babs naturally has a highlight reel waiting for him. Some of the gems include: Steph in a cast with crutches say "oh no, I broke my leg, however will I be Batman now" in the most deadpan voice. Dick 'answering' an obviously turned off cell phone pretending it's an emergency calling him back to Bludhaven. Cass saluting the security camera as she leaves with a full duffle bag in the dead of night. Jason in the Batsuit, minus cowl, storming into the kitchen shouting "you little shits are conspiring against me!" As Tim, Duke, and Damien are crowded around the island with a bunch of documents clearing planning something. A heated game of Rock Paper Scissors between Dick, Jason, and Tim with the rest of the batkids watching (having already won their freedom from the cowl for the following week). Duke wearing the cowl and asking Oracle repeatedly over coms if it's time for bed yet. Damien throwing a full on tantrum trying to get out of wearing the physical cowl "it's unnecessary and impractical!"

Oracle sends him the reel a day after his return during the standard Justice League team meeting, helpfully projecting it so everyone can see. The reels starts with an argument in the Bat Cave between all of Batman's (previously unknown to the Justice League) children:

"Well, Dickhead, I guess this means you're it now." The clip starts with a red helmeted man speaking.

"The fuck?" Nightwing asks on screen.

"You're Batman now." The teenager with yellow bandoliers replies from where he sits in front of an enormous computer. A girl in purple and another in black both nod. (At this point, it begins to dawn on members of the Justice League that this is footage from the fabled Bat Cave they're seeing.)

"Oh, fuck that!" Nightwing answers. "Not it!" He shouts. The boy with the bandoliers jolts and then says seemingly reflexively.

"Nose goes!" Bandolier boy calls out hand shooting up and touching his nose as he speaks. Both girls and Nightwing react immediately following suit. A smaller boy with a sword copies them a half second later. The red helmeted man sputters.

"Wha-that-NO! NO NO NO NO NO! I am not the one! Fuck no!"

"You snooze you loose, Bro." Nightwings tells him.

There's a pause, red helmet starts laughing, pulls the helmet off slowly to reveal a red domino underneath, and lazily touches his nose with a sharp grin.

"You're right, Bro." He says teasingly. "And Signal's still sleeping." A short pause and then all the people on screen are laughing.

"Oh," bandoliers gasps out between giggles. "He is gonna be so pissed in the morning."

[imthursdaysyme]

Guinevere convincing the officer she can chill her husband out

[sparklingchim]

[miodiodavinci]

im being so so brave but also i am gripping you by the shoulders and leaning in and letting you know i am so tired of being brave

[merlinemrys]

sometimes u just have to think about how gwen is thee it girl in camelot 😌 favoured heavily by morgana, courted by arthur and then became queen (not to mention that arthur was willing to forsake his entire kingdom just to be with her), lancelot loved her at first sight and he carried that flame of his affection until he died, gwaine stopped in the middle of the street to flirt with her, leon basically goes and shoots his shot while arthur’s dying, merlin’s willing to disguise himself AND die for her at any turn… nobody does it like thee babygirl ever <3

[detective-piplup]

aug h .

[transingthoseformers]

Silly idea for the Time Travel Fx It Rodimus AU: Rodimus figures out the best way to make sure that Getaway doesn’t go full on crazy and evil: seducing him.

Rodimus contracts ‘I can fix him’ disease. More at 11

That would be hilarious, especially since I was worried the Getaway stuff would be worse in Round Two but if he puts his mind to it I believe he can at least try to fix Getaway (maybe even prevent the mutiny with the right treatment)

Will he fix him? Probably not fully, IDW Getaway is distinctly a bastard and we see that in MTMTE and LL. But, they managed to help give IDW Megatron a redemption arc. They can totally foster a bastard who's trying now dynamic in Getaway.

Getarod is an interesting ship in my opinion, and I hope a more psychologically mature Rodimus would handle the relationship better than a round one Rodimus would

[sassyandclassy94]

The Boys in the Boat fandom is not ready for my Don fic🤩 you’re not. I’m tellin ya right now, you. Are. Not.

It’s a LIIIIIIITTLE longer than I originally planned on, 6,000+ words and counting BUT, my hopes are that y’all will love it regardless of how long it is! It’s basically romance with a little bit of angst if you squint your peepers real tight but agh!! I’m so excited about it!! I’m even thinking about making it a lil series😏 a series of Don oneshots y’know? His first date, cute little random dates in between, their deep little talks, his proposal, his wedding, you name it! All snuggled into a little series of oneshots🤗

And for the Bobby fans: you’re gonna love it too!! (I hope!!) It BEGINS with Bobby, it has a little mention of Bobby in the middle, and then it ENDS with Bobby. Why? Because it wouldn’t be a TBitB fanfic without our very own favorite lil coxswain😉 Plus I’m a people pleaser and try to keep everyone happy, eheh! Buuuut we won’t talk about that right now

Oh yeah, and I am *very* close to being done with it. Like, as in, should be posed by tomorrow night kinda close😏

[dmclemblems]

“Claude in Hopes is exactly the same way he is in Houses! He’s always been like that and has the same feelings/morals!”

Claude in GW/Hopes:

Claude, literally, in Houses:

Let that speak for the fact that Claude was written with a 180 characterization in Hopes.

Claude wants peace and to bring everyone together; not to tear them further apart. That is his character.

[kaylazer]

back on my bullshit (meeting men im in love with). Ben Schwartz is so kind and tall :-) I didn’t totally freeze like when I met the Jonas brothers but the selfies we took are blurry so 😔

(at least I have these bc I told sam to record the whole thing heheheh)

[4aceclover]

I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER

Yes major spoiler warnings

The most recent chapter of shadows has came out as if the previous one wasn't making the timeline and story of this awesome manga confusing enough then we get this information drop and I have no words just read this

Apparently the one who started all of this nonsense to begin with with the fairies and them attacking the mirror house family which includes Kate's mom by the way was all caused by this guy named Joseph (I'm mostly focusing on Kate right now I don't even want to begin to talk about my feelings towards the twist about Anthony)

Now doesn't that name sound familiar

It would explain a lot to be honest but man the story just loves stacking more and more on Kate shoulders as if dealing with the adults and Anthony wasn't bad enough now we got this nonsense give me a break

And here I thought this manga was going to follow the simple anime structure: 5 protagonists with five antagonists, each corresponding to one of the protagonists we see, and they're going to have to battle each other. Heck the Manga and anime even hinted at this, but nope let's just keep on making things harder for poor Kate! As if things weren't already bad enough.

(The poor girl doesn't even know what she is and now we're just giving her more problems to worry about, give me a damn break)

And while my theory about Anthony / Christopher being siblings with Rum / Shirley was confirmed non Cannon (thank God) that doesn't mean the choice of making him siblings with somebody else wasn't off the table

This story has gone from very clever to making me very angry but for very personal reasons it's still clever just in a way that's going to make us all get whiplash

[swan2swan]

Annual reminder that Aang wasn't a terrible dad, that one episode was badly written and had poor perspective. Aang was a busy, working dad who had a lot of stuff to do, and then suddenly his third kid was a full-on Airbender and he was literally the only one qualified to teach this baby, so then he finally had an excuse to put his family before his duties ("My family IS my duty now, suckers!!!"), and so Kya and Bumi were all "What the heck, Dad???" because they were now teens (iirc) and they missed out on all that stuff.

It was basically Aang going from "my family has 20% of my time" to "my family has 40% of my time". Still not enough, probably, but Aang could finally go and explore his own culture without feeling guilty about leaving the rest of the world to fend for itself.

[teathattast]

They don't really need to know our business

They don't really need to know what we do

They don't really need to know where we go

When it's just me and you

🌛🌟🌜

Baby, it's no secret, we can't hide it anymore

I wish they knew just how I felt

Oh don't they know that I adore you?

How could they call this bad love when all I want is more?

[disdaidal]

I wanna thank my irl friends who follow me here and also my beloved mutuals as well as followers who still send me kind messages and try to interact with me and my stuff even if I'm bad at doing it myself.

Honestly, things haven't been that great with me lately, so... it means a lot to me. Honestly. <3