#i went on deviantart once

[always-a-slut-4-ghouls]

On tumblr when you post you’re just playing Russian roulette with your post getting attention, but it’ll probably get ignored.

On Reddit any comment you make outside of some very niche community will immediately have someone downvoting you and calling you like, three different insults. Then they will wonder why you only log in every couple months. Like, it’s a very helpful website when you have a question for another community you’re in, but you’ll also get someone being immediately hostile when you make an innocuous post on a garden subreddit 😑

At least on tumblr people have to actually seek out your random ass text posts and go out of their way to start shit, and you don’t have the up and down vote system that feels like playing with my self confidence and worth issues.

Both websites are toxic part of the time (what social media isn’t?) and both are actually more useful for weird people, but holy shit does Reddit feel more aggressive about shit. Maybe it’s just the devil you know, but at least on this mess of a website half your hate will be for the most random shit and misunderstandings that people have to seek out finding if your blog is a normal size. Reddit is either posting on a dead sub or getting immediately thrown to the, well, sharks and wolves aren’t actually super aggressive towards humans under normal circumstances, so something else that could tear you apart instantly for just existing in the same space as them.

[brownbirdtown]

2023 / 2019

Wanted to update their looks on toyhou.se with something new

[transgender-catboy]

Question artists who focus on character making and such, what are your thoughts and opinions on closed species?

[darantha]

How to Spot AI images (Hopefully)

So, I did see GailyNovelry's excellent post on this (Link here), but saw that there also were some confusion and they were using a environment image as their example, so I thought I'd do a breakdown that was more character centric.

The key thing with AI images is that the program does not know what it is making. And, arguably, they thrive on that we are currently conditioned to not really look at things for too long before we hit that engagement button and/or just scroll onwards to whatever next the algorithm feeds us.

It's hard to fight that urge, I know, but if you just pause and look, you'll soon start spotting things that just do not make sense, and I don't just mean that the pretty booby elven fighter is sporting seven fingers on one hand. Those are the obvious things. I'll try to cover the general sort of artefacts that tend to tip me off to the fact that a image is generated rather than actually hand-made by someone making informed design decisions as opposed to trust what amounts to RNG. I think this is important as there's those who do not tag their images as AI generated, and try to scam people with commissions.

And, as the saying goes... The devil is in the details.

To start with I picked this image from deviantuser CeiEllem. At first glance, it looks... very impressive. Sharp looking elf lady with killer hair. 10/10 wish I could rock that haircolour.

But, it is AI generated. Aside from the general tell that is this hyper rendered, near photorealistic style that AI images often have, there's a lot of details that tips it off to just not having been made by a human who actually made the decisions.

Since AI is just working off patterns and not actual decisions, things like hair is a immediate giveaway that you're looking at a AI image.

(Deviantart users: daralyth, DavidZarn and lunayokai)

In all these three images you can see just how hair whisps off into weird nonsense shapes or even meld into the background or clothing. Because, again, the AI doesn't know what its doing, just working with shapes. Similarly, background elements that just stop and start randomly is a dead giveaway, like the tail in the first image.

As I've said, details is the key to spotting these images, and another giveaway is the sheer density of details that is just noise.

This is from users Rigtorok7, and the details are so noisy, absolutely miniscule in scale, and hypersharp, yet have no actual design to them. Artists imply details all the time. We don't render out every single nook and crevice, and since we actually know what we want the viewer to look at, we'll pull back and simplify things so you don't want to look at the big chunk of very noisy hair ornament or necklace instead of the face of the character.

For comparison, this is how it looks when I, personally, indulge in doing 'overdetailing' of something (because I am forever weak for painting jewelry).

BUT I want to stress that the key here isn't that detailing equals AI generated. The key is the lack of design choices IN the details. There's a lot of artists out there, and someone painting out all those nooks and crannies in something doesn't mean they are a AI user. This painting by Leighton is super detailed but you see the intent with all the details. You have a focus with the people in the boat and secondary read of the figure in the door, where the details are a lot more implied and less sharp.

AI can't do that, because AI isn't making any decisions.

I couldn't find any good example once I went looking, but if you're into fantasy art: look for people just holding weird 'swords'.

AI is rapidly evolving, so who knows how much this'll help in 3 months, but for now, this is how I spot things.

But, in the end, the biggest giveaway that someone is using an AI generator is that they've filled up page after page on deviantart/artstation/wherever in the past like... six to nine months, and often swing between wildly different styles. If you're unsure, look up the source of a image. Another clue can be generic 'untitled' or just 'elf lady' sort of titles, since someone uploading 30 images a week isn't going to make unique titles for each image.

Also, commissioners. ... you should ALWAYS get a sketch and progress image from a artist that you hire. My art directors would have my head on a plate if I didn't send them a rough sketch and progress shot before finalising the image.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if i wrote a psa about people who broke my tos

✏️⚖️ (< for identification)

i make character adopts on toyhou.se and deviantart. i like designing characters but i rarely ever use them so i put them up for adoption so they can go to good homes. i have a tos for adopting my characters, which everyone is required to read before i go through with the adopt. the tos has rules about giving the character to someone else, which is that the current owner of the oc has to ask me first. there s a few reasons for this:

1 i dont want anyone reselling my character for more money than they bought them for unless they add value to the character by commissioning art or writing because its unfair to me who created the character if someone upsells them without adding value. having people ask first let's me make sure theyre not upcharging my work unfairly

2 i dont want certain people owning my characters. i have trauma surrounding certain people adopting my characters and using them problematically. for example someone ill call A once made my black characters skin lighter even though my tos says you cant change my characters race or body types. someone else, B, put my character into a proship relationship which is TOTALLY BANNED in my tos. i have a public list of people who are NOT allowed to own my characters and the idea of them owning them makes me super uncomfortable because i know theyll use my characters for bad things

3 it lets me make sure that the new owner has read my tos

a couple months ago someone (ill call them C) adopted a character of mine named lupin. a couple of days ago i was looking at my designs and i saw that lupin was now owned by D. i checked the ownership log which said that C traded lupin with D but i dont know what character C got in return. i sent C a message asking why they traded lupin without my permission and they said they didnt think they had to because it was a trade and not a sale. i told them that i have trauma around people giving my characters to others without permission and C said that i should talk to D instead because they (C) no longer owned the character.

i went to Ds profile and on their user page i saw a blocked comment so i unhid the comment and saw that it was B thanking D for following B. this set off alarm bells because i know that B is proship which is why i blocked them in the first place! so i decide to look into D, i find their tumblr and i find out that theyre also proship, they ship incest and they reblog irredeemable media like the coffin of andy and leyley

D wasnt on my blacklist specifically but its against my tos for proshippers to own my characters under any circumstances and its grounds for revocation. i message D to tell them that im revoking the character because theyre breaking my tos but D refused to transfer lupin back to me and blocked me.

i reuploaded lupins profile to my account and reported the original profile to th for being a violation of my tos, and i added C and D to my blacklist.

WIBTA if i wrote a psa about C and D to warn other people about them? i just dont want anyone else to go through this

What are these acronyms?

[boreal-sea]

So something I realized watching a few videos and reading a few articles is that most of us aren’t angry at the idea of AI in general. Many of us are excited to learn about AI systems that can identify cancer better than doctors, for instance.

What we’re angry about is generative AI being used to destroy the jobs of artists (and I mean all creatives here), who have already been dealing with their work being devalued by modern society.

And I’m not sure how to deal with it. I do remember learning that when photography became a thing, many painters were horrified and terrified of would erase the art of painting. It didn’t obviously, and in fact photography because a whole new art form.

I grew up during the birth of digital art. I distinctly remember the phase digital art went through where many people declared it to not be “real art” and that it was “cheating” etc. I’m sure other millennial artists also remember this transition. But graphic designers pretty quickly adopted digital tools, and websites like DeviantArt popped up, and I don’t think there are too many people nowadays who would say a digital painting isn’t “art”. Still, I do imagine there is a gulf between how some people would view the “artistic merit” of a 3 ft tall oil painting hanging next to a 3 ft tall print of a digital painting, even if the subject and styles were similar. So the worries that digital art would erase physical painting was also proven false. And for the record, I think digital art is 100% art. The merit of digital art is equal to that of physical art.

On the other hand, I can’t say these changes didn’t affect older forms of art. Like, photography did affect the world of painting. I don’t have statistics, but it seems like it probably affected the world of portraiture the most. And I wonder if many of the 20th century art movements were influenced by photography. None of my art history classes touched on that and it’s kinda weird to me. There is definitely something about a Dada or cubism or surrealist painting that transcends beyond what a traditional photo of a landscape or a portrait can do. There is no location in the real world with actual melting clocks or people whose faces show multiple angles at once.

And then there was the digital photograph that changed everything again! Film has become a niche art form.

There were specific kinds of jobs lost due to the digital transition, too. I’m thinking of things like murals being replaced by printed banners, or book covers often being done in photoshop. Oh, and that’s another tool that was faced with fear: Photoshop! There was a fear it would destroy the need for professional photographers because everyone could just fix their own photos. Turns out nope, and in fact people skilled in photography and photo editing are still in demand. And of course there’s the loss of 2D animation in favor of 3D animation, the loss of practical effects for digital, etc.

And you might argue that in some of those cases people can tell corners are being cut and that they won’t stand for it, but Marvel movies still make billions of dollars so…

So I don’t know what’s going to happen with AI art. I am NOT saying “all current artists are stupid and wrong, in the future history students will laugh at how stubborn they were to resist this idea”. AI art is not comparable to photography or digital painting.

With a photograph, you still need to compose the image in the frame, you need to position yourself in the real world, you need to know your equipment, whether you’re using film or digital. You also need to know how to process that photo either in the dark room or in Photoshop. These are skills the average person does not have. You cannot tell an AI “that shot was good but can you increase the contrast?” It’ll just produce a completely new image.

I read an article about an art director who was encountering difficulties as the department tried to incorporate AI. They got back first drafts of art ideas from the people employed to work with the AI, gave critique, and the second round was just completely new images that didn’t include the suggestions… because they couldn’t. AI does not understand color theory. It does not have the ability to take critique. It can’t slightly alter the layout of a design.

And all of that applies to painting too. AI (currently) can’t do what a trained art student can do. It doesn’t know that to create a sense of atmosphere you should make distant objects bluer. It doesn’t know how to use human physiology and psychology to draw a viewer’s eyes across a large painting to reveal a story.

AI also can’t replicate INTENTION - and intentionality is a HUGE part of art. WHY an artist chose those colors, that medium, that composition, those tools, why they chose to display it a certain way, why the composition is like this instead of that - all of that adds meaning to the painting that you can’t get with AI.

(Yes, there is an absolutely valid field of art critique that evaluates a piece of art on its standalone value and the message it conveys without the context of the artist’s intent, but that should be compared to the analysis that DOES include the artist’s intent! That comparison can bring about so much understanding!)

Anyway I’m going to end this post now because it has gotten WAY too long. I focused mostly on painting and photography in this post because those are my particular fields of speciality, but this applies to ALL ART. It applies to music and writing and scripting and acting and composing music and just. Everything. All art.

I don’t think there are any forms of art AI doesn’t threaten. Now granted, AI can’t currently pick up a paint brush. It can’t use a crochet needle. It can’t hold a camera. And maybe there will be some sort of return to physical media in response to AI produced digital art. Or maybe there will be a response in digital art to stylistically distinguish it from AI in a way AI can’t reproduce. I’m not sure what will happen. Maybe some proof the image was digitally painted by a real person, somehow. Or that it’s a real photo, or a real article. I saw someone mention there may end up being labels like “100% human made” like we do for organic food lol. Maybe work in progress videos or photo metadata will become more commonplace as evidence of authenticity.

Anyway, NOW I’m ending this post. Whew.

[lowkeyrobin]

Heyy :) Can you please write headcanons of dating quackity, but in his earlier eras? (like 2019-21 maybe) ❤

ooooo yes of course!!! ; fun fact I've been watching him since 2018 or so (I don't mean this in a "Oh I'm cooler than you way) ; thank you for the request!! this was fun as hell ; I tried to kinda do it in a chronological order but yeah, I did like stuff and then more details of relationship if that makes sense yk???

QUACKITY ; 2019-2021 era

warnings ; language, talk of drugs, jokes about sex

genre ; fluff

word count ; 858

masterlist

Raiding Club Penguin with him and Axel was a core memory for you. It was the first true time, however cringe it sounds, that you saw Alex as your best friend.

he'd always try to make you laugh, especially on stream

such a little tease

back in the olden days, we had those Discord server 'wtf is that food' videos

you guys rank some of them and how likely you'd eat them

also ranking Discord memes

so many of them were dumb shit or weird shipart from like 2015 deviantart LMFAO

"guys I know me and y/n are dating but that doesn't mean compare us to Shrek couples!"

"I thought Thanos was your true love?"

"He-He is! Oh my God, stop being so desperate, y/n. ugh"

once he got invited to the Dream SMP, you were all ears and proudly taught him how to play Minecraft

you made his alt skin with the tuxedo, which he didn't wear often, but used in lore some time later

youd often help him with lore ideas

he also got you invited into the SMP where he introduced you to some of his new friends

you knew schlatt and some others, but most of these people were new and it was nice meeting all of them

the fiances are established and then you and quackity are already a think and you also like karl, which creates a weird love rectangle with an open end because you and sapnap are sharing the other two 💀

lore goes fuckin crazy with that

while Karl's off making Kinoko Kingdom and Quackity's running Las Nevadas, you're building El Tropicana, off in the far away jungle biome

Alex would usually stream and translate Mexican soap operas, which you joined in for sometimes

you'd give the characters different voices and twist their words up a bit to make it more entertaining for chat

the amount of drug talk that went into that was wild

also the amount of queer kids bullied in those schools?? yikes on bikes

also the one with that girl who got in trouble for kissing a boy on the playground or whatever that was?? Jesus christ man

youd both act put the scenes on occasion and use Tiger as whatever kid was being yelled at if she was in the room with you

taking a break halfway through stream for him to play guitar and for you to karaoke to fuckin Bo Burnham

also making fake joints out of paper he had laying around and "lighting them up" aka setting paper on fire next to a PC and your faces

Jackbox streams with the Feral Boys until 3am>>>

Paranormal Activity in the middle of the night went so fucking crazy

teaching Bad how to play GTA is your favorite memory with those two

playing horror games and watching him play horror games with Karl while he visited him

how dare he leave you all alone (you couldn't go because you had a busy schedule)

your chats shipping the hell out of you and your dsmp characters

hella fanart and fanfictions man

try not to laugh streams where you always ended up laughing before the ten minute mark because of him

he purposefully does shit to make you laugh

reading fanfiction on stream was a regular activity especially for y/s/n

youd rank the book on a scale from one to ten and how accurate to real life they were

"nahhhh that one doesn't have enough Thanos, two out of ten"

"yknow what... were gonna have our own tier lists... okay?"

"damnit... does this mean I'm not getting laid later?"

"what"

promoting the quackityhq merch religiously

also stealing whichever beanie he wasn't wearing, either the LAFD one or the plain black and blue one

him tying you to a chair and forcing you to laugh was a common stream plot

tweets that were either very inconspicuous about drugs, very sexual, or very old married couple vibes

youd both be frequently trending on twitter

hot wings or dare streams with Bad >>>>

playing girls go games and hoping you wouldn't give his PC a virus

sitting in the inflatable pool fully clothed, playing with children's bath toys

he'd for sure be the type to fall for his best friend

whether it be all the way back then or just now, he could go forever without feeling any feelings but one day they'll show up and the nervousness begins

he'd lend you a hoodie if you were cold in his room and he just straight up begs you to keep it

lots of just staring at you while chat ships you, like genuinley just zones out on your pretty face

would probably doubt his feelings at first and talk to his mom about it and she's like "boy you have a crush. Go ask them the hell out, you're a handsome young man, I'm pretty sure they like you too"

"mOooOooOoOoM"

genuinley spoils you with no good reason and after a while you just accept it

he starts sending good morning and good night texts

he'll repost (or reblog) (he has a secret tumblr) fanart of you two, especially if it's shipart

will constantly send you clips of movie characters making out or kissing and say "this should be us"

[kradeelav]

speaking of tellius week: y'all want to know some deep FE-related krad lore?

I once drew/wrote a comic called Uprising -- how Zihark & Jill & Tauroneo got together with Pelleas, taking place right before Radiant Dawn.

(there were actually two versions of Uprising; one old b/w version that I won't post, but then a painted version that went on for ~16 pages or so; roughly a fourth of the story. Volke was set to appear for a bit, after the trio snuck their way into the castle to find a mysteriously captured Pelleas and Izuka. The rest of the story followed their escape to the deserts.)

Ultimately, since i was still fairly new to comics and using a pretty time intensive painting process along with having no concept of pacing, I had to tap out of this one as well... that said, it was a pretty large stab at an implied part of the Tellius duology.

These aren't all the pages, but I figured it might be a neat bit of nostalgia for those who remembered these on deviantART. :)

[chaifootsteps]

Saw a post that was like: “Absolutely nailed the Vivziepop drama situation with this one” and it was that line from Blitzo in the short that went on about being a bitch online once and someone not liking it.

Sure, just downplay Vivzie’s behavior as just “being a bitch once”. Girl has a history here, I don’t think that was only “once”.

She's literally been like this since her Deviantart days and the only thing that's changed is she's gotten fractionally better at hiding it and a whole lot more reliant on her fandom to silence the people she's abused.

[djarinsbeskar]

HERE, THERE BE MONSTERS: THE MINOTAUR PART 2

A/N: Imagine not updating a fic for nearly two years... hah-- couldn't be me (sweats). But my Minotaur is one of my most darling boys and I just couldn't leave him sitting in my drafts. Special thanks to the #1 Minotaur fan probably ever @astroboots for giving this a look over and for being the biggest hype woman for out hornyed hero. Artwork by machiavellicro on deviantart!

Pairing: Minotaur!Din Djarin x Nymph!Reader

Rating: Explicit (18+ NO Minors)

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: gross misuse of mythology, mentions of unsolicited attention/dub-con, discrimination and prejudice, suggestive themes. Reminder that this is a MONSTER FUCKING fic, so be warned for future chapters.

NOTICE: I learned the new lay of the land, so there's no more taglist. Instead you can turn on notifications for @djarinsbeskar-writes to stay up to date.

Prev Next

Day 1

The stars were veiled.

Something hovered just out of sight that impeded your view of them. They remained dim despite the darkness and shied their faces away from shining down on such a netherworld.

You’d never felt so alone.

Taken immediately from Hera’s court, the guards who had once addressed you as familiars, friends and lovers over the years escorted you to your prison with rough hands and cold hearts. In that moment, they became strangers to you, and you had to wonder if you ever knew any of them at all.

A sprawling void of space greeted you when you arrived. A no man’s land forsaken by the gods as unconquerable, and those that lived trapped within its ever-growing perimeter at the mercy of the beast that prowled with eerie bellows and heavy footfalls.

Half man, half beast. With the horns of a bull and the strength to match, you feared you wouldn’t survive the night as you were pushed unceremoniously through the outer hedge.

You squeaked – frightened – and stumbled through the dense brambles that should have prevented your entry, but instead dragged you in deeper with thorny, greedy branches snagging on soft skin and the wafer-thin linen of your dress.

You fell to your knees on the other side, hands sinking immediately into a morass of mossy, damp earth. Hair falling around you in a tangle, you blew at the strands futilely before giving up and used your hands to push them back instead.

Scrambling to your feet, the dainty sandals you normally wore were useless against this unrelenting land. You’d never had to worry about footwear before… you hardly even needed it dancing under the moonlight or swimming among the stars.

The breathless, euphoric laughter of that time felt eons ago as your lungs constricted with fear.

Just breathe, you coached yourself, in and out… in and out.

It wasn’t working.

Not when your eyes finally moved past the initial, blinding panic to take in your surroundings. What you could see of them, anyway. A coffin of shrubbery greeted you on all sides, so tall they practically eclipsed the sky, the air cloying with a simmering malice you were reluctant to inhale as it tightened around your windpipe with the flex of a brutal grip.

And still, your wracked breathing was too loud in the oppressive silence.

Disturbed carrion birds flying overhead made you jump, squeezing your eyes closed reflexively. A fell wind followed the birds, blowing through the maze ruthlessly. It howled and whipped up the detritus as you folded in on yourself for protection, screaming in your ears with the anguish of those who found themselves trapped here.

However, unlike their torment, the wind eventually passed, and you cracked an eye open warily.

The labyrinth had changed.

Already? You thought with a hitched sob, swallowing it soon after lest you burst into tears and never stop.

There hadn’t been a path behind you where you first fell through the hedging. But by the looks of the narrow stretch of dirt that eventually became clouded by fog, you were deeper into the labyrinth than you first anticipated.

The thought had your stomach sinking.

There went your plan to keep to the perimeter in the vain hope of possibly escaping. You had no choice but to follow the path, deeper into the maze and towards the maw of the beast that inhabited it.

The wind returned intermittently, sometimes changing the labyrinth, sometimes not. Sometimes, it revealed hidden holes between hedgerows that led to another pathway that – while thrilling initially – proved just as complex and endless as the path you escaped from.

Hours of walking and nothing changed.

You were completely lost.

Tears spilled freely down your face now as you tried to stifle the sobs that escaped on every hiccupped inhale when your doom finally dawned on you. No one was coming to save you. Your feet hurt, your dress was filthy, and you were freezing.

You just wanted to go home.

But there was no one to hear your sorrow or respond to your pain. No one to care for you or comfort you or tell you that everything would be okay. You were alone after an eternity of living amongst others.

How little you knew of your own self.

Your vision blurry, you swiped the back of your hand across your eyes to glance at the next intersection of more dreary hedges. Quelling your sniffles, you listened. Trying to pick out any sound that wasn’t the breeze or your misery. A din of chatter or a chime of music, a—

Wait.

You held your breath. Was that—?

There!

A faint gurgle of running water filled your heart with song. There was a river nearby! Or a stream at the very least. You wanted to squeal at just the sound of something other than the wind and rustling branches you’d been subjected to for the last few hours.

And a river meant you could finally bathe.

It was hardly the most useful thing you could’ve done. You should have been looking for shelter, for warmth, for company and safety in numbers, but just the thought of getting clean… it was something familiar and you couldn’t let it go. It was something you would do whether at home among the stars, in the residencies of various deities or indeed, even here, in hell.

Yes, you smiled as bravely as you could, a bath would make everything better.

But you still had to find said river and that proved more than difficult. It was nigh on impossible after several more hours of walking.

Your grand plan of keeping left as much as possible proved fruitless as you came upon two dead ends that forced you to double back until you were confused again. It seemed like the promise of getting clean was growing less and less likely, your feet aching, and spirit defeated.

What a cruel… cruel place…

It was during your pursuit of water, however, that you happened upon the first settlement unfortunate enough to have been swallowed by the maze.

Doors latched shut and chimney’s smoking, you mistook the warm glow behind shuttered windows for warm inhabitants. But this was the labyrinth. No one cared for a sobbing woman banging at their doors for help, whether she was innocent or not.

You carried the condemnation of a goddess and for that you were shunned by even those forsaken by Olympus.

“Please, help me…” you hiccupped, voice raw when your forehead met the cold wood of the last door you tried to no avail, self-pity turning your fear to fury for a white-hot second. “It wasn’t my fault! It wasn’t me… he—”

Your voice broke as it rose, agony bringing you to your knees on the doorstep of indifference.

“Why won’t anyone listen!” You roared at the door, your face a mess of tears and a supernova of hurt illuminating your irises.

“Damnable woman!”

Everything that followed happened in a blur. The door flew open far enough for the man on the other side to shove you off his doorstep where you fell back on your bottom heavily.

“You’ll bring him here with all your wailing.” A frosty, uncompromising glare met you where the human looked down his nose at you. “Take your wickedness away. We might all be prisoners here, but do not think for a second that makes us the same. We were born into this hell, you were sentenced to it, filth.”

“But I—” You scrambled back to your knees only to be met with a bucket of dirty water that chilled you to the bone.

“There, consider it a gift.” He scoffed. “He won’t be able to smell you under all that for a while. Be grateful for this much and leave our village in peace!”

You sat frozen, in shock and unable to speak or move or do anything as the door was slammed in your face once more. Humans had… never treated you this way before and even though you knew their cruelty could rival the gods, it shook you to your core to be on the receiving end of both.

A rank smell made you gag, breaking your stony cage enough for you to get back up on shaky legs and leave.

Suddenly, scattered cottages became bear traps in your eyes, and you fled from them lest you get punished by their fiery teeth once again.

The maze was safer and, perhaps it was coincidence, but when you came across a lazily meandering river breaking the perpetual rows of hedging minutes later, you chose to believe the land had rewarded you for thinking as such. Turning your face up to the kraken-cruel clouds above, tears tracked through the stains on your face gratefully.

How odd… where before gifts of splendour hardly made you bat an eye; you’d never felt more thankful to an environment that was technically your foe for merely leading you to a river.

When you looked back down to take in your surroundings, you were shocked to see trees line the far side of the river in place of towering hedges. A forest lay within the maze, a fact you’d never heard about in rumours before. But then, an endless forest could be as disorienting as the labyrinth itself… so you didn’t count yourself lucky just yet.

But first… you stripped.

Down to the nude, your nipples pebbled at the cool air as you kicked off your ruined shoes to step into the gentle course of the water. Cold! You shivered. Accustomed to more tepid warm waters, the cold was startling on your soft body.

Baths here were less about enjoyment and more about brevity, you supposed.

You gave yourself a hurried wash, scrubbing yourself free of the dirt and grime and who knew what else had been in that water you’d been drenched in. Cupping the water over your hair, the back of your neck prickled from something other than the cold, but when you looked back, only ominous shadows greeted your paranoid gaze.

Right, you swallowed around the bulbous lump of fear in your throat, best not to linger. Something told you staying in one place for too long would spell disaster.

That in mind and with a wrinkle of your nose, you pulled back on your soiled dress with the promise to wash it during the daytime. A soaking dress during the night would only make things more miserable for you, after all.

And that was how you made your way into the forest, for nothing else if but a change of scenery and hopefully, a safe enough place to rest your weary, heartbroken bones.

It wasn’t half an hour later, though, that the same patch of grass where your dress had lain while you bathed was disturbed anew. A scent, tempered by filth that irritated his nostrils, cut through the bloodlust that guided him every night and caught his attention. That, and a trail of light powder clinging to the grass like morning dew.

It led him to the water’s edge, a great horned shadow that hushed even the rivers gentle gurgle when his eyes fell upon it.

The powder clung to him when he touched it, iridescent specks catching in the reflection of his dark eyes before he brought it to his muzzle and sniffed. His pupils dilated, starlight catching like kindling in the back of his mind, his body responding.

An exhaled plume of condensation sent the dust into the air where it scattered like the spray of blood from his last victim’s jugular.

Stardust…

He crouched low to find the scent again, picking it up over the water where his long tongue moved distractedly over his muzzle to catch what remained of the powder there. Suddenly, lust of a different kind rose to battle with his insatiable desire to spill blood, and the trajectory of his hunt changed.

A star had fallen into his domain, and he was going to find it.

[always-a-slut-4-ghouls]

I don’t know if I’m terminally online (I haven’t gotten out much all winter tbh) or if I just get stressed about online “debates”, but whoever said that “phones never appear in our dreams” is wrong. I woke up twice thinking someone replied to a comment I made yesterday with something weird, only to realize that I had not actually grabbed my phone off my nightstand, checked it, and then fallen asleep again

[fangirltothefullest]

Can I ask a question? I like your sanders sides a lot and you give them a lot of personality in their designs! How do you make them like that? Or I guess I mean, what inspires you to make them the way that you do? I want to draw the sides but I'm not sure how to start other than their canon designs!

Oh my goodness I LOVE this question! For me, it's all about the feelings you get when you see them and the vibes I want to express. The Sides embody, to me, more than an aesthetic it should also encompass personality, role, and intention. In other words, I match their aesthetics to their function and the intent of what I feel like Thomas originally intended for them for their first short videos before they were actual sides.

Let us pick Roman, because even though people say he's not, he tends to be everyone's favourite to reblog fro me because he's pretty.

So I started by drawing him exactly as he was and to me he felt flat- in the show he's exactly as he should be but I am an artist and to me he feels more than what he looks like- it's dreamy, it's romantic, it's like he's giving childhood favouritre Disney Prince vibes, you know?

Inspiration 1: Prince Phillip

Hands down the biggest inspiration comes from him because he IS my favourite disney prince. Just looks a the hair swoop and the eyelashes- perfect. So I went ok my favourite Disney Prince is Phillip, let's start here. Before the CGI movies, there was such a romantic feeling about classic Disney princess movies and I've always loved the romantic feeling of Sleeping Beauty. The backgrounds are stunning, the way she's animated makes my bi ass give heart eyes and I loved that he was the only prince at the time who had a personality (until Beast but that's a whole other can of worms because he started out as an asshole/grumpy). I feel like modern Disney movies miss a lot of the romantic dreamy feeling of the older 2d movies because there was such care into the painted backgrounds being LESS realistic and more a fabulous idea of what a background should be and AHA! MORE INSPIRATION~! Let's make Roman a fabulous romantic idea of what a prince should be!

Inspiration 2: Faerietale Knights in Shining Armour

Our ideas of medieval knights are nothing like actual knights which are more reminiscent of hired military and enforcers. Our ideas of faerietale knights in shining armour are brave knights who would go off to kill a dragon to show their devotion to the one they love. Sword fighting heroes- is that not Roman if not an idealized romantic "royal knight wants to win the heart of the love with courageous deeds, acts of chivalry, selfless devotion" etc. Prince Phillip is a good model of this. Defeats a dragon and true love's kiss saves the day. A perfect romantic dream isn't it? Realistic? No of course not, but Roman isn't realistic he's creativity and romance which absolutely ignores practicality for the dream.

So we have this culmination of dreamy romantic disney prince and faerietale influence.

Now it's about aesthetics- Roman is reds and golds and whites, all royal colours typically associated with bravery, lineage, and strength and purity etc.

Inspiration 3: Media referencing

So let's find some movie or media equivalence I can reference. They came mostly in the forms of Narnia and Once Upon a Time.

So some aesthetic inspirations for belts and textures, missing the epaulets.... so to military garb!

Inspiration 4: Russian royals

Let's face it no one does embellishments like this any more <3

Inspiration 5: Lions

Roman's colours being red gold and white give me lion inspiration too so I looked up royal lion iconography as well (which ended up with a lot of lion king in the search because this was before AI but like.... it's not incorrect and the wavy flowy mane acted like hair. If Hamlet with lions is inspiring then use it, right? that have some AMAZING lion king-style artists on deviantart to get inspired by, it's a whole thing, mad respect) But ANYWAYS it gave me some cool stuff to be inspired by too.

Inspiration 6: Classic Golden Age Hollysood Leading Ladies (Note that this isn't femme fatales, because for Janus I used femme fatales as inspiration)

I knew that I just HAD to give Roman that Marilyn Monroe beauty mark, yes he paints it on every day yes it's in the same spot every day yes it's necessary.

Ultimately this culminated in a checklist of things that I wanted for him:

He must give the feeling of Prince Phillip in disney prince style

I wanted him to have flowey hair that makes him look softer and romantic and can be pulled up into a ponytail if necessary.

Must have a beauty mark and eyelashes that go on for ages reminiscent of old hollywood ladies, and let's throw in nail polish too.

I wanted him to have an outfit that would be his original but embellished to hell that can be like Narnia or OUaT in terms of texture and added stuff. It needed more gold, 100% needed epaulets (the shoulder things with the dangly rstuff), and it needed a belt where a sword could be attached. Danglies not always necessary, but look really good when done and is reminiscent of old fashioned military garb and Russian royalty.

He needed to look like he's used to wearing this outfit every single day and going out of his way to do so.

Ended up with this:

So yeah that's how I got to his design!

[twstedpometea]

Ugigiugi and Tracing

Hello Twst Fandom! I’ve been silently paying attention to the drama around the Ugigiugi situation and wanted to add in something in regards into this topic.

I had to take some time to track down a particular comic, but I do have proof Ugigiugi has traced from another artist i followed on Pixiv. Bear in mind this artist also posted their art collection a month before Ugigiugi made one of her comics. I’ll be sourcing the Pixiv comic below and showing the panels that obviously have a been traced.

https:// www. pixiv.net/en/ artworks/84516818 by 村上. Date of mini comic is September 21, 2020.

As you can see I pulled Ugigiugi’s and the Pixiv’s comic panels to show where the tracing is. The believe this all speaks for itself.

As an artist myself I’m going to state this very bluntly. You should not be copying/tracing someone else's drawings/comics for your own art. This goes for everyone. Older or younger; or even if they post on other social media websites. Tracing and posting things you originally didn’t create shows a level of dishonesty within the community. I checked Ugigiugi’s Pixiv account out of curiosity and a lot of her traced art isn’t hosted there. I can only hypothesize either it was once hosted on Pixiv at a point (possibly reported/taken off???), or she never posted on that website because she’s probably copied from artists there and didn’t want to get in trouble yet went ahead and posted to other social media sites for attention. (  T_T) It should go without saying that Ugigiugi appears to a chronic tracer. I have checked her DA posts and other SM posts but she has never given any artist notes on her submissions about admitting to using references, bases or even if people have “inspired” her with proper links on her traced art submissions. She just submits stuff with little description. There no shame in admitting you use references, game references or even doll bases or use tracing for the sake of learning (and only learning); that being said, giving your resources proper credit is necessary if your going to be using someones else resource for your drawing. But, it’s pretty clear Ugigiugi isn’t looking to even be an honest fanartist. Some of the artist that she has traced appear to be Japanese or of a different country and they may not have a Tumblr/Twitter/DeviantArt or enjoy interacting outside their local language websites. They might not even know their stuff is being traced which us why I am going to go ahead and link two more posts with fanart tracing for references. These posts are made by @crowstales​​ on the subject of Ugigiugi https: //www.tumblr.com/crowstales/709186361712869376/this-is-a-call-to-attention-to-ugigiugi Part 1 https: //www.tumblr.com/crowstales/709555007152963584/this-is-a-call-to-attention-to-ugigiugi-part2 Part 2 Please keep in mind I am also taking the same rule as Crowtales stated. Don't harass the artist but don't continue to support her content! If you can find the original artists she’s copied from on other art peices and can send some form of notification to let them know Ugigiugi traced them. Giving the amount of evidence that keeps showing up it’s pretty concerning how much she’s stolen and it brings to question if any of her art is legit or if it is mostly traced or pure resources that she won’t credit.   (<x<’  )  I haven’t even seen her acknowledge all of this tracing or make a public statement either. It also begs the question of if she’s just going to continue to trace things, and if so; who else’s stuff is going to be traced next? Either way, if people continue to find more evidence or find the artist she’s copied please be mindful enough to help the original artists and not tolerate tracers or any type of plagiarism within the fandom space. Thank you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End note: At this time I am aware Ugigiugi has “left” Tumblr/deleted some stuff and has locked her twitter account. However, she still has everything she’s posted on her DA so she hasn’t stopped submitting copied artwork or hosting her older copied art. Make sure if you know someone or recognize an artist she’s traced please let the original artist know so they can properly report the art wherever else she’s posting her traced art. -TwstedPomeTea

[arisu-artnfics]

“A trip to Paris” 6

Notes: 

Chapter: 6/12 Previous Next (First). Versión en Español

Also on:     A03 || FF || DeviantArt || Facebook.

Chapter 6: “Introducing akumas”

Marinette shook off her embarrassment, there would be time to freak out about that later, right now, she had a job to do.

“Oh, no!” Marinette cried, checking her phone. “There is an akuma close by!” She turned to her new friends–or, rather, temporary friends… she knew they were just here on holidays. “You should stay here, it will be safe.”

“Safe from what? What’s an akuma?” asked Jazz. She didn’t remember reading anything about that, and she had done a lot of research before coming. 

“Oh, um, well an akuma is a person…” Marinette began. Danny raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t planned to have to explain this today, and she was doing a poor job of it. “Well, a possessed person—” 

“Wait, you mean like overshadowed?” Sam asked what all three Amity Parkers were thinking. She didn’t think his ghost sense had gone off, but they couldn’t be too careful. 

“Over– what?” asked Marinette, confused, this was not an English word she knew. She shook her head, “No, I don’t think so… it’s more like control by, as if someone else brainwashed them.” Then she remembered that “possessed” could mean something totally different to them than it did to her.

“That’s horrible,” Jazz commented with a sympathetic look. Knowing that it was done by one human to another made it worse in her book.

“It is, that’s why it is better to stay inside, and let Ladybug and Chat Noir do their job. They will defeat it, don’t worry!” said Marinette. Her smile was a bit too wide, stretched thin. Ladybug would save the day, but first she needed to leave and transform into Ladybug. She just had to figure out how to slip away from them. 

“Marinette is right,” said Sabine. “Our store safety policy includes customers in these cases of emergencies. Please stay inside of the store.” Her accent was stronger than Marinette’s but they could understand her English well enough. 

“Okay... ” said Danny hesitantly. He didn’t think that he could do much against an akuma. As far as he knew they were just people, mind controlled people but still people, as wrong as that sounded. And although it may be killing him inside to know more about it so he could at least try to help, with Jazz and Sam and even the Parisians so close by, he wasn’t about to go ghost.  

“Good,” said Tom, nodding approvingly. He never liked when Alya went to record the battles and he liked it even less when his daughter took the risk too. Although normally Marinette was trying to stop Alya. 

Another explosion shook the bakery. The pastries bounced in their displays and some of them piled up at the edge of the containers. Things were falling off shelves, everything was out of place. Everyone in the bakery ran for cover, and Marinette took the opportunity to escape and 'hide' in the house rather than the store. 

She didn't lose any more time, quickly transforming into Ladybug and swinging out through a window. With the help of her trusty yo–yo she made her way to the roof. Once there, she spotted Chat Noir, who was already watching the villain and trying to understand the situation.

Meanwhile, inside the bakery, Danny was trying to see what was going on from a window since the attack wasn’t that far away. Sam stood next to him, a gentle hand on his shoulder to keep him calm. Even though he didn't even know if he could do something against an “akuma,” he was sure there was still some way he could help. 

Jazz was watching her little brother from further in the store, she could tell that he was itching to get out there and help, that was just his nature. She knew her little brother, if things got bad enough, he would try his best to help, even if that meant breaking his promise. 

The fight had gotten even closer to the bakery and that wasn't helping Danny’s stress, he knew he could try to help, but didn't want to break his promise or expose himself.

Then when nobody was expecting it, the battle was over. As fast as it had started, it ended. 

As soon as Ladybug found Chat Noir, he told her what he’d seen and she knew exactly what to do. The akuma was a demolition contractor who got fired for unsafe practices. His boss said he was using too many explosions, but he had a plan, it wasn't his fault that the higher ups didn't like it. He was throwing bombs all over the city, destroying lots of buildings, when Ladybug and Chat Noir found him. Using their awesome teamwork, the pair of heroes quickly found the akuma hidden in a remote detonator and put a stop to his rampage. Then Ladybug launched her miraculous cure and everything went back to normal.

Back in the bakery, Tom and Sabine were smiling at the foreigners’ shocked faces. They had become so used to akuma attacks that it was almost normal to them. It was nice to be reminded of how magical it all really was.

Danny, Sam, and Jazz were more than a little surprised when everything suddenly went back as good as new, the fallen pastries were back on the shelves, toppled chairs were set to rights, and they could see previously damaged buildings from the window with not a scratch on them. It was like the akuma had never even happened. 

It wasn't long until Marinette was back downstairs and she was just as amused by their shock as her parents. The three Parisians explained to their guests that it was always like that for them. An akuma would destroy almost everything in their way, and then Ladybug with her Miraculous Magic would restore it all. Good as new! 

Danny silently wished that was something he could do back home, maybe then people wouldn’t blame him for all the property damage. 

It was at that moment that someone's stomach growled and the Amity Park kids suddenly realised how hungry they were.

“Wow, is it really that late?” Danny wondered aloud. He checked the time on his phone; even without a local service provider, the time was still correct.

“You're always thinking with your stomach, aren’t you?” said Sam. She laughed and gave him a teasing smile. Even though she was also hungry, she wasn’t going to admit it. The hours had really flown by. 

“Let’s go and find something to eat, it’s about time for lunch,” Jazz suggested. She looked around at the Dupain–Cheng family, “Marinette, thank you for all the tips,” she held up the notebook where she’d written everything down, “and thank you, Sabine and Tom, for letting us stay here during the akuma attack. We’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“You are very welcome!” replied Marinette with a big smile. She was happy to know that everything was coming up good for the foreigners. 

“Glad to know that our daughter has helped you kids that much! Have fun in your holidays and please come back!” said Sabine, she wrapped an arm around her husband and the two smiled proudly at the kids.

“We will!” said Jazz, grinning back. It was a nice place, and they could come back for sweets any time during their stay. 

And so, just like that, Jazz, Danny, and Sam waved goodbye to their new friends and headed out into the Parisian sunshine once again. They had passed by some stores and restaurants earlier and Marinette had told them where they could have lunch at a very good price. The restaurant that they ended up going to wasn't the cheapest that they saw, but at least it was on budget for the day. 

Just when they were finishing lunch, their Fenton Phones rang. It was Jack and Maddie calling to check on them because they had learned about the akuma attack. They knew the kids could handle themselves in dangerous situations, but they still worried. Plus, their curiosity was piqued. 

Once the adults finished peppering them with questions, the kids took turns telling them about what happened, Danny explained that no, he didn’t use his powers, and no, he had no clue what that was, and yes, they were all good. Then Jazz took over the story and explained how and why they ended up hiding in a bakery of all places. Sam completed the explanation, saying that it seems to be like magic of some kind, at least that’s what the Parisians believed.   

Jack and Maddie were glad to hear that the kids were okay and hadn’t gotten into any serious trouble. It was enough of a pain dealing with insurance back home, they really didn’t want to do it here. As far as the possibility of magic, the scientific side of them wanted to deny its existence, but they couldn’t explain what would fix all the damage that easily. 

Danny confessed his wish that they had a magic fix back home, and to that, everyone agreed. Then he suggested that maybe next time another akuma attack happens, he could just observe from a closer distance than today.

That made everyone ask if he was planning to transform, to which he responded yes, but just that. No other powers, except maybe invisibility. It would be a stealth mission, reconnaissance. He didn’t want people to give himself away or cause people to panic even more. 

They all talked it over and decided that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay, just this once. So they could see exactly what was going on here. The rest promised to stay far away. The local heroes seemed more than capable of dealing with those akumas, after all. They had just witnessed that practically firsthand, or learned on the local news – even though Jack and Maddie couldn't understand what the reporter was saying, they could guess, and then a quick check online using the hotel wifi confirmed their observations. 

With their plan in relation to akumas now made, the three teens continued exploring the city. Then, later, they met the rest of Team Phantom –except for Tucker, Valerie, and Dani, of course– back at the hotel to relax and try to call home. It was weird to think about how many hours difference there was –damn time zones– and knowing they would need to wait until late afternoon or evening before they could talk to anyone back in Amity. Thankfully, Mr. Gray answered after just a few rings and they were able to check in with him, easing some of their anxiety. 

The two girls were doing all right, Danny talked with Dani and asked her how she was doing and if she'd had any ghostly problems. Dani told him that he was worrying way too much and he should just relax– he was on holidays and that far away for a reason. 

Then when they spoke with Valerie, she told Sam and Danny that she had heard the mayor was planning a little ‘meeting’ overseas. They pressed her for more details, and she said that Tucker was obviously planning a trip to Paris himself. He had used his power as mayor, in one way or another to make it happen. The public had been hounding the local government for more information about Amity Park, and until now, Tucker had declined a press tour. Recently though, rumours had spread that he'd accepted an invitation from the mayor of Paris. What an incredibly well-planned coincidence! The two teens laughed at their best friend’s antics, but couldn’t be happier. Only Tucker would manage to plan a special meeting halfway across the world just to come hang out with them. 

Jack and Maddie weren't too happy with his idea, but couldn’t really say much knowing that the old mayor did much worse than that. Tucker was also still a kid, and he wasn’t going to be mayor forever. The next elections were coming up soon and would decide the next mayor, after all. 

Hearing news from Amity lent some normalcy to their routine and they talked for quite a while, before saying goodbye. Even though they had only been gone a day, there was already a lot to tell each other.

While the kids were talking, Maddie and Jack looked up local attractions and found that a science exposition was being held not far from their hotel and would be opening the next day. Danny and Jazz expressed their surprise when they learned it wasn’t some sort of ghost convention, to which their parents sheepishly confessed that it was related to ghost studies… in a way. After all, people all over the world were talking about ghosts and learning about them now. 

Of course, the elder Fentons weren’t about to miss the opportunity to talk about ghosts with a whole new city of people that hadn’t already heard all of their theories. They did agree that they were going to just listen to the presentations and such though, even though they weren’t sure how much of it they would understand, it likely being in French and all. 

Just as his parents promised to try to keep a low profile at the convention, Danny once again promised to keep Phantom's presence in Paris a secret, even while invisibly spying on the local heroes. He hadn't really been around other heroes and he was curious about their powers. They were all very intrigued by what they could learn from them and considering that maybe they could use the knowledge later on, it was worth the risk. The others were calling it spying because that was basically what it was, even though Danny refused to call it that. 

Once all were in agreement as to how they would conduct themselves while gathering information during their stay they decided to get back in the vacation mindset. Jack and Maddie prepared themselves for their science exposition, while the kids planned their next outing. The Eiffel Tower was one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris after all and it was high time they went to check it out. Thanks to Marinette’s help, they, or, more specifically, Jazz, were able to quickly look through the bus schedule and find the best time to visit when it wouldn’t be as crowded. Once Jazz had fully planned out their day, from how and when to get to the Eiffel Tower and then what to do afterwards, she called it a night.

After Jazz went to bed, Danny and Sam decided to look into getting their phones on the Paris cellular network. They couldn't keep using the Fenton Phones for all of their communication. Sam took the lead in setting that up, since she had experience doing that sort of thing before, but Danny was the one to suggest that they still used the Fenton Phones to communicate with Amity Park, since it would be cheaper than international roaming. In no time at all, Sam managed to help Danny and the rest of the Fenton family to get a temporary local line. Jack and Maddie were very grateful to Sam for helping them with that, since they had been putting it off for “later.” Using the Fenton Phones had been working for them so far, so they might have never gotten around to it.

And so, with a very productive first day in Paris under their belts, they called it a night. It was getting late after all. 

Over the next few days, Jack and Maddie enjoyed their convention, if nothing else, at least they learned the French word for “ghost,” and the kids took turns choosing which tourist attraction to visit. They would only be there for two weeks, so everyone wanted to make the most of their time in the City of Lights. In addition to the most popular locations, they also found some quieter places frequented by the locals that they all could enjoy. Before they knew it, the day for Tucker to join them was just around the corner.   

“So,” Jazz commented, “Tucker finally said that the official reason he’s coming is for him to supposedly speak at a bunch of conferences about the ghosts from Amity.”  

The kids were sitting at the park that afternoon, just enjoying the beautiful day.  

“Yeah. We finally managed to get ahold of him, and it’s like Valerie said, he was supposed to do an online, long distance conference… thing. But you know Tuck, he managed to change it so that he could come to Paris personally.” Danny shrugged. “Although, I also think that he mentioned once that he had a few different cities around the world trying to book him. So, why, Paris? Who knows. Probably just because we’re here.” he shrugged again.

“Why am I not surprised? You guys have always been good at playing the system, haven’t you?” said Jazz. She, like the rest, had suspected that to be the case, but hearing Danny say it out loud just confirmed it. At least Tucker wasn’t really abusing his power… that much. They had invited him, after all.

“Well, it’s Tuck, what do you expect?” said Sam with a shrug. She wasn't going to deny the obvious.

“Valerie and Dani said he’s arriving tomorrow, right?” asked Jazz. They had managed to talk with the girls back home the day before; but it was more Danny asking about Amity and confirming the lack of ghosts than anything else. She hoped, for Danny’s sake, that things stayed okay over there. 

“And I believe that he is staying in the same hotel as us, it seems like the ‘Grand Paris’ always receives important people… ” Danny added, recalling the details of his friend's travel plans. Even though, now that he thought about it, Tucker probably shouldn’t have shared those details with anybody other than his parents, who were coming too. It could potentially be a security risk.

“Yeah, he’s staying in the presidential suite, or whatever it’s called,” continued Sam. She had been the one to confirm the information, but didn’t care enough to remember the name of the room. The rooms had numbers, after all, and that was the important part.

“So I’m guessing you two will want to see him as soon as he gets here, right? The three of you will probably want to catch up tomorrow...” said Jazz. She already knew that Danny and Sam would jump at that opportunity to spend time with their best friend. Even though she was with them and they were having a good time, she still felt a bit awkward, a bit like an outsider.

“Probably…” Danny hummed, half listening. He was watching a group of children playing in the distance and listening to the pigeons coo. He was very much enjoying the holidays so far. As he should.  

“Hey Jazz, you know even though we don’t mind your company, you could go do your own things, too,” said Sam. “You don’t need to stay with us.” She didn’t mind the other girl, but she also knew that Jazz would probably like to do some other normal teen stuff, without her little brother and his girlfriend tagging along. Like maybe check some of the local universities or something, even though she would never want to study that far from Amity. Honestly, Sam was starting to feel a bit odd being around Jazz when they weren’t battling some kind of danger.   

“Oh no, it’s all right! I have the key card for the room, so we all need to stick together… ” replied Jazz. She was the oldest and therefore the one entrusted to keep track of their copy of it. She knew that Sam didn’t mean anything by it, but none of them were dumb enough to miss the awkward feeling between them. 

“Yeah, but you know I don’t necessarily need a key...” said Danny, obviously pointing out his ghostly abilities. He was still oblivious to the mounting tension around him. 

“True, but remember: no powers, little bro. Plus mom and dad trusted me to look after you two, and even though you don’t need it, that doesn’t mean I should just leave you guys! What if you got lost? Or went to the wrong room?” Jazz pointed out. With their limited communication here, getting lost wasn't something to play around with. That thought made her feel better about being there for them, even when they didn’t necessarily need her. 

“All right, all right...” Danny raised his hands in surrender. He had finally noticed how stressful the situation was becoming. “We are going to stick together, and no powers, means no powers...” He sighed. He might actually be starting to miss the ghost attacks.

“Well, with our luck another akuma will attack soon, and you can go spy on the heroes,” Sam teased.

They had found the blog run by Marinette’s friend Alya. The 'Ladyblog' had an English translation on it and explained that akuma attacks were completely random, usually varying between two to three per week, but sometimes as frequently as two in one day, although that was very rare. So, in other words, they happened when you least expected it.  

“Hey! I thought it was just ‘observing from a closer distance…’” 

Jazz and Sam both gave him looks that said ‘not even you believe that.’  

He sighed. “Fine, spying it is… ” he paused, “Let’s hope I don’t get in trouble for that…” he murmured. Even though he knew it was spying from the start, he didn’t want to say it like that, in case it was illegal or something. And he didn’t even know if he would understand anything. 

“So, what time is Tucker supposed to get to the hotel again? I can’t remember what Valerie said, since you guys, or well, you, little brother, were hogging the Fenton Phones the whole time and I had to ask you about it later on…” said Jazz, with a twinge of annoyance, reminding him about his worrying over the phone about whether Amity was doing okay or not. 

If they were going to do something tomorrow to meet up with Tucker and his family, it was best to plan ahead. And Jazz needed all of the information in order to do that planning.

“Well, his flight should land at around 5 p.m. He did a lot of complaining about how he was going to be spending a whole entire day on a plane. He may be a tech genius, but seriously, he didn’t get that if he leaves Illinois at midnight that’s 7 a.m here, then when you add the ten hours flying… ‘voilà’ you get to Paris at 5 p.m.” explained Sam. They had something similar happen to them when they flew over, although it wasn’t as bad because they arrived around 11 p.m. and then slept through the night. 

“If I remember correctly, even you were confused about the time zones when we were travelling...” Danny teased her with a playful grin and Sam just glared at him in return. After all, that Monday night was hard for all of them. 

“Well, if it helps, none of us had experienced crossing so many time zones like that before...” Jazz paused, “That means that Tucker would get to the hotel at around 6 p.m.” she commented, getting them back on the topic of planning for the next day. 

“Yep,” said Danny, pronouncing the ‘p’ more strongly than needed, “so he should be free around six-thirty or seven tomorrow afternoon,” he finished with a nod. He was excited that he and Sam would get to hang out with their friend after such a long time. They had only been in Paris a week, but even before that, it had been hard to see him because of his mayoral duties. Actual ones, unlike this trip… Mostly it was fixing problems that Vlad left. 

“Okay, so let’s just say seven, to be on the safe side, that’s when we should be looking for him,” said Sam. She would never admit it, but she had missed her friend; she was really thankful to have him in her life. After all, the three of them were the original trio, the original team Phantom.  

“Sounds like a plan!” said Jazz and wrote it all down in her notebook that she was still carrying around.

Danny and Sam just rolled their eyes. Sometimes it seemed like Jazz was being a bit extra, but they knew she always had good intentions. And even though they would never tell her, they knew they were going to miss her when she went to Amity Park University in the fall. 

The three teens fell into a peaceful silence, each lost in their own thoughts. 

Danny was actually really enjoying his time in Paris. He never thought that travelling like this would help so much, but with Sam next to him so close their shoulders brushed, and Jazz at his other side, near enough for a teasing elbow to the ribs, he felt the tension slowly melting away.

Sam slipped her hand into Danny’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. She was so glad to see him actually relaxed for once, and she was enjoying every second she got to spend with him. A breeze blew through the park, rustling the leaves on the trees, and she took a deep breath of the sweet summer air. 

Jazz was quite pleased with how everything was going so far. She mentally ran through their itinerary again, they only had a little time here and she wanted to make the most of it. Although, she supposed, always thinking of what they were going to do next was probably not the best way to enjoy the moment, was it? She shook herself out of her thoughts and instead watched the way the dappled sunlight danced across the ground at her feet.

“Well, now that we know when Tuck is getting here,” Danny began, breaking the silence, “and we’ve changed our plans for the weekend to include him–” 

A sleek black car had pulled up at the park, causing some commotion when a bodyguard stepped out of it.

“Okay...” said Sam, noticing what distracted Danny. 

Jazz finished writing down some more ideas for what they could do tomorrow, making sure to account for how they were going to ‘just say hi’ to Tuck. Then she glanced up from her notebook and saw what Danny and Sam were looking at. “Is he supposed to be a teen celebrity or something?” she asked. It did look a bit like it was out of a movie, in a way. 

“I don’t know, it just looked like something was about to happen, with the way those people were acting. I didn’t expect it to just be some guy, I thought for a second that maybe an akuma was coming or something,” Danny explained. After all, they were expecting an akuma to happen sooner or later. 

“I thought the same thing,” said Sam, “but that blonde guy doesn’t seem like an akuma, does he?” She watched the way he was being shielded by his bodyguard. He didn’t seem like much of a threat.

“Oh!” exclaimed Danny, after seeing the guy a bit better the closer he got. “I think I know him!”  

“What?” asked Jazz and Sam, equally confused. They had never seen him before in their lives.

“Well, all right, all right. I don’t, you know, know him know him… but I’ve seen him. In ads. I think.” said Danny, trying to remember where exactly he had seen the ad, or if he knew what it was about.

“In ads, you said...” Jazz hummed thoughtfully, trying to remember what advertisements they had seen around the area.

“I mean, I guess… I don’t remember exactly where, and now that I think about it, I’m not even sure what it was for. I mean, how could I know, it was probably in French!” Danny said with a shrug. There were plenty of signs with people on them, both here and back home. Normally it was because of publicity, someone trying to sell goods or services, or worse, according to him, it was politics.  

“That makes sense,” Sam allowed. 

“He seems to be very popular… well, at least among the girls,” commented Jazz. She had been watching the crowd and noticed that most of the people that were now gathered at the park seemed to be teenage girls.

“Well, I guess, that’s our cue to go. Look, they’ve got a photographer over there now,  they probably came here to work… ” said Sam, unimpressed. What else would a famous teen do if not work in one way or another? It was either that or just be ‘annoying’ in her book.  

“Alright, let’s go,” Danny stood up from their bench. “I’m here to rest, not work!” Well… unless you counted the “definitely-not-spying” he would be doing on the local heroes. 

“Hey, isn’t that Marinette?” Jazz pointed out a familiar set of pigtails in the middle of the crowd of what they could only assume were fans.

Sam followed Jazz’s line of sight and found their new friend talking animatedly with another girl. “Yeah, I think so...” When she turned back, she noticed how Jazz seemed like she was ready to go ask Marinette for some more Parisian advice.

“Uhh, Jazz, I don’t think we need to bother her and her friend right now...” said Danny, picking up on the same thing Sam had. Knowing his sister, she would try to get as much information out of Marinette as possible, even though they didn’t need it, they were planning to spend time with Tucker tomorrow, after all. 

“Hey, just because I’m gathering my stuff and especially the notebook doesn’t mean… ” she trailed off when Danny and Sam both raised a sceptical eyebrow at her. “Okay, okay… fine. So maybe I thought we could ask her a few more questions… ” She sighed. It wouldn’t be that bad to get ideas of what else to do, right?

“Let’s just go,” Danny groaned. He stood up and stretched his back. It felt nice after sitting for a while. 

“I’m right behind you,” said Sam. She would have been happy to stay there and admire the sunset, it was getting late and would be going down before much longer, but the idea had lost its appeal when so many people showed up.

“Fine” grumbled Jazz, outnumbered and defeated. She finished packing up the last of their things in a small bag.

And so the three of them began making their way back to the hotel. They would probably go up to the roof and enjoy some time at the pool while continuing to plan what they would do with Tucker once he arrived. However, as soon as they started walking, a huge flock of pigeons zoomed past them, flying in formation. A scream went up from the crowd of fans, many of them running for cover.

“Uh, that’s weird, right?” Danny asked. “Like, I’m no bird expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not normal.” To be continued :D :D

[nova--michael]

How the My Little Pony Fandom ruined my mental health (long rant(/essay?))

TW: sexual themes, gore, trauma, self harm, suicidality

I will go in-depth in alot of sensitive topics, please proceed with caution

I got into My Little Pony when Season 2 aired. In 2011, I was 7 at the time, 2nd grade. English isn't my first language, I didn't even know other languages were a thing. That is until I got access to the internet. We had a family computer that I used basically daily. I mostly drew on MSPaint and played Animal Jam. I was a happy little girl at the time. Eventually, I discovered YouTube. Which became my new obsession. I consumed content like an addict. And eventually, I stumbled upon My Little Pony, where people uploaded whole episodes. The first episode I watched was "Fall Weather Friends", S1 E13. I was hooked instantly. Bright colorful Ponies! It reminded me of the Fillys I collected. So I consumed more. Was able to find a playlist with all episodes in order. The only thing is, they were in English, which I didn't understand. But I didn't care. I wanted my magical colorful ponies! So I watched it and had an overwhelmingly fun time. It was "Bridle Gossip" S1 E9 where the language just...clicked for me. I can't explain it, but it felt like I suddenly could understand almost every word and my English knowledge expanded from there. Which was a yay for me, because now I could watch my colorful Pony cartoon and actually understand what they were saying. It gave me a big heads up when we started learning English a year later in 3rd grade. I never learned English in that class, knowledge wise I already knew what I needed and was very far ahead of everyone. All thanks to My Little Pony.

But I think it is also the start of when everything went downhill for me.

I explicitly remember holding paper in front of the screen to trace the Mane 6's outfits from the episode "Suited for Success" S1 E14 with a pencil. The show made me really get into art. I drew My Little Pony left and right, and it eventually led me to DeviantArt, which I still have fond memories of. I found out that people made original characters. So I did so too. One of my first ever character was "Starshine" which I still love dearly and sketch when I'm bored. But this also led me down the Brony Fandom rabbit hole. Once I realized people made their own My Little Pony content it was over. I literally obsessed over fan content. I consumed everything that the Fandom could offer. And when I mean everything, I mean Everything.

I don't know what the first gore or nsfw content I consumed, I really do not remember. But it was ultimately this content that shaped me or....better say traumatized me that still affects me to this day.

Just like many people in the Fandom, I found out what "Cupcakes" is. A creepy, gore fanfiction that was about Pinkie Pie dismembering Rainbow Dash and turning her into Cupcakes. One of the many fan content I consumed but I remember this being one of the first experiences I had with gore. I watched the original video from ocarinaplaya. I was, I had no idea what gore was. But it was MLP, so I watched it. And this was the first straw that altered my brain. It was like a car crash, i couldn't look away. The way Pinkie tortured and cut up Rainbow Dash. And I consumed more. Smile HD, Cupcakes SFM, My Little Paradox, Pony.MOV, Lil Miss Rarity, My Little Amnesia, Elements of Insanity (that I still unironically love to this day), and so much more. You name it, I watched it. Things like Elements of Insanity and Cupcakes SFM all led me down the SFM rabbit hole. SFM = Source Filmmaker. When I see SFM models of the MLP characters now, I swear I get flashbacks. Because through SFM I found sensual MLP content. Of course, not all of SFM was sexual or gore. Some masterpieces like Doors, Fluttershys Dream, The Walk, Remembrance, Nightmare Night, all are so good.

But of course with SFM came very...sensual MLP content. Ponies kissing or Making out or even going as far as almost having sex. And something changed in my brain. I started to...actively search out these videos. Rarijack, TwiDash - Hearts and Hooves Day, Appledash, those freaking Fart and Vore videos. I watched it all. I don't know what I felt at the time, I don't remember or more so I don't want to remember. All I know is that I started to seek them out. Like actively searching for it. Which also led me to non sfm sensual content. Twilight Sparkle Pantsu, Friendship is Benefits, Concerning Pegasi, Fluttershy gets BEEPBEEPED in the Maze and infamous Banned from Equestria.

Remember I was a child. 9-10 at the time. And 99% of these videos didn't have any warnings. Nothing. And even if they had a warning 80% of those were joke warnings.

I consumed alot of My Little Pony porn and gore in my childhood. Unrestricted Internet access traumatized me to no end.

It was Banned from Equestria which had changed a lot for me. Because I found out that it was a game. An actual game you could play. And I sought it out. I played a lot of Pony games too, especially the ones on the very old Hasbro website. But Banned from Equestria was almost too easy to find. I found it on a website mainly for bad porn games. And it had a category that was purely for My Little Pony. I just went to search for it. I only needed to type "mlp porn games" and it was instantly there. 2 clicks is all that it took. Yes, the website is still up sadly. That website led me down another awful rabbit hole of My Little Pony porn games. Again, I was 10, I had no idea what porn was. Or sex. But it was this (and a separate event that happened in my family) that taught me what it was. And again, I searched for those things actively. And played those games religiously. By 10 years old I was a freaking porn addict. Not even gore (which I developed PTSD from), but Porn was the thing that caught my attention. I also learned what masturbation was thanks to that. And I did just that. I masturbated almost on the daily. Found my Mom's toys, stole them, and used them. Now, masturbation isn't a bad thing by any means. It's good to explore your body and what makes you feel good but I was just an innocent kid...

My parents never found out. My Mom eventually caught on I stole her toys but never did anything against it. Nor did she educate me. She let me do my thing. So I basically masturbated daily, sometimes more than once. What being horny was, was something I didn't even know. I only knew I wanted to do this because is saw my colorful ponies do it.

But these porn games made me spiral. I lost so much of my childhood innocence through this. I spend most of my childhood and early teen years (I started puberty when I was 9) by watching porn, playing porn, and the occasional gore. It has twisted what sex even was for me. The whole concept was ruined for me. To this day.

Throughout the next years, I learned more about porn, and went through many different rabbit holes. My Little Pony Porn, actual porn, Furry Porn, it didn't matter. If it was Porn, I consumed it.

I would also blame this addiction was the reason I became/am hypersexual.

And now, over 10 years later, what changed?

Nothing. I have grown so disgusted by Sex, it's why I'm AroAceflux now. I know. Hypersexuality and AroAce? Pick a struggle. But I'm serious. I consume a lot of Porn to this day. Masturbation had died down but it still happens occasionally. The people I follow on Patreon mainly do nsfw content. Hell, I was on Nsfw-twt a few years ago too.

Porn has ruined my whole mental state. It's scientifically proven that subjecting children to porn and gore at an early age can severely damage their development and I think I'm no exception.

My mental health has been very bad since 2016. I started to cut myself frequently and get suicidal. I still carry scars to this day and I do blame a lot on this addiction. I've been self-harm clean for about 3 years now. I was severely suicidal again in 2021 where I almost killed myself has it not been a friend calling the cops i still struggle with being suicidal to this day though, despite having finished therapy.

I also struggled with a lot of identity stuff at the time. I have it figured out now and am openly out as a trans man by a lot of people in my life. And I have an amazing support system now. But I never really had the opportunity to talk about THIS. How the My Little Pony Fandom ruined my mental health due to the content that was created, without any content warnings. I say I also developed my PTSD from this.

Obviously not just that, it was a lot of trauma family and school-wise wise that made me develop PTSD but I also will blame these types of MLP content for this as well.

Now, I love the Brony fandom. I still do. So many people I have met who are in this Fandom are so incredibly nice, but the awful stuff just stands out even more. This was an innocent kids show about colorful ponies and the magic of friendship. Many children with unrestricted internet access watched it. And watched this type of content. The Fandom should have been a lot more critical about the type of content that they post

I know I'm not the only person that was subjected to gore and porn. Many children from 2010-2017 were traumatized by this type of content. And I wouldn't be surprised if many also developed mental disorders because of it, whether it be Depression, PTSD, Hypersexuality, etc. Many of the young fans are scarred

And we still are

And we are still trying to heal as young adults

Hell, I'm turning 20 very soon, and I still struggle so hard with my mental health and the scars I got in my early childhood and early teen years.

I should've spend those years so much differently

But I didn't and know I'm left to pick up the pieces.

I hope this shines some light on the cruel side of the Brony community, I recommend Raymundo2112's video "The SINS of Bronies", it goes also in-depth about the psychological effects of children being subjected to porn and gore

Please be careful what children consume on the internet.

Now

I apologize for this length, I just wanted to talk about it

I'm open to any questions that may come up, and I'm sorry for my irl people who see this

Thank you for reading, it means alot

[sewinrat]

Randal x cousin Frank’s pet ferret?

Might be an odd request but I thought it would be funny if little frank had a pet who acted more like a babysitter for him than an actual pet

This Takes place before he got kicked to the moon, also the reader is female

I'm sorry but I'm not really in the Ranfren fandom long enough to know who cousin Frank is. I try to find source but all I found was a link to a deactivated deviantart where the comic was supposed to be and few fanarts so instead I changed it to you being Randal's pet/babysitter.

*Reader implied female and a ferret. Don't get confused with cat or dog behaviours. Also I added Lucid 6 and 12 separately technically

"You are an idiot." You told Randal as you bandaged him up. You make him put tissues up his nose to stop his nose from bleeding more. Luther told you to bandage him up while he go set up a game for the family. "Heh heh~ I just want to play with Sebastian~" he laughs it off and wrap his arms around you while he rubs his face/cheek against yours. "Leave the poor boy alone, he's still new- Stop, you're still bleeding." You hiss at him as a warning.

"Awh~ But your tail is wagging! And that's rare!" He points out and you look down behind you, sure enough - it is wagging. You're embarrassed but you hide it and push Randal away from you. "I feel more like a babysitter than a pet," You retorted. "But you're still the best pet! You play with me, you can keep up with me, not so quiet like those two cats and you're not as fragile as Sebastian!" He has a big cat-like smile on his face as he thinks about all those times you play games with him without you getting tired. Although he lets out small laughs when he remembers times you accidentally ran into furnitures because of your poor vision as a ferret.

You sighed in defeat and continue on with trying to still stop the bleeding nose that you both momentarily ignored. After you successfully did, you put on Mickey mouse ears headband on him for some reason. "There. Now come on," you grab his hand, "we have a family game to get to." You ran with him, holding hands to get to the others. Randal laughs joyfully seeing you being so hyper for no reason.

—

"Randal this is stupid." You say while the boy in statement digs out a grave of some kid named 'Winston Hansen'. "Your brother is going to catch us." You told him the obvious. "It's fine~ I just want to see~" he keeps digging with a smile. Not even over 2 minutes, Luther caught him with Nyen as the catman restrain him and cover his mouth. You hiss aggressively at the catman and your tail poof-out at him. Unfortunately, you are around the same age as Randal so you aren't really intimidating him but you tried.

Luckily Luther told Nyen to let Randal go but that didn't stop you from still trying to intimidate him, glaring deathly as you can at him and he glares back twice as harsh but neither of you are going to do anything with the king around.

Anyways, you all get in the car and you started to wipe away the 'dirt' while moving your legs back and forth(also not trying to hit the front seat) but it seems that it's affecting and fusing into him, the filth spreading, making him rot by the hands. You almost hit him when you hear what he wants to order at a drive thru. Fortunately, he got the kids' meal instead but he's unable to pick up the fries so you had to hand feed him.

Once you arrived home, you both went towards Randal's room with Luther. You lay down on your own bed that was beside Randal's coffin. You didn't bother to listen to the brothers' conversation and instead started to doze off, you lean your head a little bit against his coffin before you went dead asleep. You may not see it after but Randal also leans against the in/other side of his coffin where your head was against.