discordiansamba

[discordiansamba]

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

[discordiansamba]

The devastating difference between how much time it takes to write something vs how fast people read it lol

[discordiansamba]

There's not much going on in West Garrison.

It's a sleepy little town, that time has kind of passed by. It used to be more prosperous, before, ironically, the Galaxy Garrison was built nearby after the end of the war. They thought it would bring more prosperity to the area, but it just did the opposite. It'll probably take another half century or so for it to turn into a ghost town, but it's clear the population has been dwindling. Most folks have moved further west, towards Plaht City.

Heath Kogane has no intention of leaving.

He was born and raised here, in the shadow of the Galaxy Garrison. He took a job as a firefighter in Plaht City, but he has no intention of moving there. He's got too many memories in that house out in the desert, of that town that wasn't quite so sleepy yet when he was young. He wants to raise his kid here, too.

There's almost no kids Keith's age in West Garrison. The local elementary school is scraping by, but everyone figures Keith's class will be the last before it shuts for good, and everyone has to bus to Plaht City. Same with the middle and high school- hell, they don't even need a full staff anymore. They make do with a skeleton crew.

When he's not working, Heath's always in town, helping fix something for the old folks that live there. Keith always tags along, following in his footsteps. He's an odd, disquieting child in many ways, who smiles more like he's baring his teeth in challenge. No one knows who his ma is. Heath's mum on the subject. There's some rumors that say there were some strange lights out in the desert by Heath's place years ago, but no one knows who started them.

When Keith is eight years old, a fire rips down the main street of West Garrison overnight. It's devastating. The fire department couldn't make it over from Plaht City in time. The town is all but wiped off the map in one night. For all that, there aren't as many casualties as expected- only a small handful of souls.

One of them is Heath Kogane. He was off duty that night. His quick actions are credited with saving countless lives... but costing his own.

West Garrison limps on for awhile after.

It doesn't survive Sendak's invasion.

#good evening. have some world building I guess.

[discordiansamba]

Of all the planned Voltron fics which one are you most looking forward to writing/excited to show everyone?

Hmmmm, I'd probably say I'm pretty excited to get what's hidden next to you (will soon be seen) out there proper. That and probably the ATLA AU and the commander and druid au!

#asks #of course. this changes entirely depending on my mood lmao

[discordiansamba]

what's your writing process like?

I honestly can't give a good answer to this because my writing process is literally just "sit down and write".

#asks

[discordiansamba]

I know you've moved onto Voltron and it's been a long long while but I wanted to thank you for your fics you've written about Heiji and detective conan ^^ I actually found your account on ff.net first before I saw it on ao3 but when I say I was ecstatic to see your Heiji Centric fics, I'm not lying, I was so so happy! I don't know if this is what you'd want to hear when you've already moved on but I sincerely thank you for writing those!! Although they're incomplete, I will forever be thankful you kept them up!! The ideas of your fanfics are so creative and the plots are so intricate and detailed! I'm not into voltron currently nor have I ever watched it but, if I ever get into it, you'll be in my thoughts!! Also, the rate you produce your fanfics is honestly incredible and I admire how you do that! :D Thank you for everything and take care!

I haven't really "moved on" because I never abandon a fandom, I just go through phases. But thanks, glad to hear you like the detco content!

#asks #the DP fandom is the exception bc of bad experiences I had in it personally

[discordiansamba]

Best Pokémon Protagonist Tournament- Round 2: Match 3

Red has been touted as a favourite to win by some, so it's time to put him to the test! Can he overcome the sheer girl power?

Lyra on the other hand accomplished no mean feat last Round, beating Lucas for a spot here. Will she exceed people's expectations?

#vote lyra for cute girls everywhere. don't you want to support cute girls? #anyways objectively Red means nothing to me because I've never played a game where he's the protag... #and actually he'd still mean nothing to me bc I always play as the girl so none of the male protags mean anything to me. in general

[discordiansamba]

[discordiansamba]

Keith finding out that King Lubos was living in the lap of luxury while his people starved and his reaction to that was what sold the 'Keith grew up poor' headcanon to me other than you know. Logic, since he was in the foster system for a long time. He was so ready to lop of the man's head himself.

Don't believe for one second that in the future, with Keith as leader of the Blade of Marmora, that their new 'humanitarian' mission doesn't involve aiding the people of oppressed planets in overthrowing tyrannical rulers. He doesn't need thanks for that, he just does it for fun.

anyone who thinks Keith grew up in any economic bracket other than working poor is wrong. Heath was a single dad doing his best but they were definitely on a shoestring budget. He would have needed a scholarship to get into the Garrison even in a universe where his dad survived.

#shiro: one thing that you have to accept about being friends with keith is that when the class war happens. he will kill me #keith: i'll feel sorry about it though #pidge: what about lotor? #keith: I would not fucking hesitate

[discordiansamba]

Round Two: D

#i am once again asking you to vote for Yona

[discordiansamba]

Still working on the Voltron/Pacific Rim Crossover, but i decided I’m keeping the different alien species

so the Galra lost their planet (and king and queen) to the kaiju, Altea barely kept their planet and they’re working to help other planets.

they find earth and Altea geeks out because Earth has the same plan as they did with the jaegars (though Altea only has Voltron and finding five people compatible with each other and the lions is more difficult than they expected), and are quick to help fix the brain frying problem.

there are differences in how each species can drift, but solo piloting is a bad idea for anyone regardless of species

alteans can drift with anyone with no consequences, but there are exceptions (Coran can’t, much to his frustration, he managed exactly once with Alfor but can’t repeat the process) and Altea isn’t going to risk their princess, no matter how much she wants to fight.

humans need to be drift compatable, but can recover from losing a partner. they are a bit more prone to chasing rabits compared to the other species

galra are only drift compatible with one partner, and losing that partner leaves them unable to drift with anyone else. those that lose their partner become part of the blades, a unit of Galra who are on earth to help monitor the earth’s rift and fly small ships to support the jaegars in combat. Krolia loses her husband and keith’s father and is the only galra who is stubbornly retesting to see if she can become drift compatible with her son if something happens to Shiro. (there are also concerns about Keith, which makes his ability to connect with others not Shiro a surprise)

the exception to both Galran and Altean is Lotor, but unfortunately, it’s not a good thing. he’s had multiple partners but they all break it off if they don’t get killed. his last partner before story was Romelle (here a cousin to Allura), who when kind describes him as all take and no give in the drift. when ticked off she’ll call him a royal brat, which everyone finds a bit rich given her new partner is her younger brother who is a brat to everyone that isn’t her. (her partner before Lotor was her older brother, but he went mia after a bad battle ripped their jaegaer in two)

Lotor takes his leave in roughly end of the begning start of the middle of the story, giving up on earth and doing something with the druids he says will stop the kaiju for good. He takes his jaegar and a few other hybrid Galra with him. unsurprisingly this ticks off everyone including the blades who remain on earth.

it later turns out he and the druids were making robeasts, and Romelle and her little brother both get angry when they realize Lotor used their mia older brother to make one, while lotor fails to read the room and explains the use of kaiju sized warriors is better than jaegars and voltron, and seriously damages the galra’s relationship with other races

still working on exactly what happens when, but our paladins will be sealing the rift on earth and taking voltron to help other planets under attack by Kaiju (and Lotor’s Robeasts who aren’t helping matters) and title is still tbd

#submission #voltron #pacific rim #crossover #sounds like interesting stuff!!!! #love that you've given thought to the differences in drift compatibility between the three races #good luck with your AU!

[discordiansamba]

I do think the VLD fandom as a whole has a problem with wanting things in the series to stay stagnant. This is why it got so up in arms because characters (checks hand) went through character development. Like they're supposed to do. Which is a good thing. Could that development be clunky at times? Sure. We all know VLD's writing wasn't the best. But a character going through development and reasonably changing as a result of that isn't the character being OOC. They've just grown and changed.

#this was most notable with Keith and Lance #it's actually wild that the fandom was so against Lance growing as a character. I guess bc they were projecting hard on him #bc of his insecurity so when he started to grow past that he was suddenly 'OOC' #no hon. that's called growth. #consequences of letting fanon run rampant in fandom really

[discordiansamba]

What do you think about the lion swap in VLD?

I think while it had some execution problems (especially with Lance), generally as a whole I liked it. I think this fandom gets way too wrapped up in the first two seasons and got really upset for no reason when things changed, but there's no reason to fundamentally hate the lion swaps.

#asks #with lance it was a very 'too little too late' kind of vibe with him #like. they finally got around to having him bond with red in s7! #...several seasons after the lion swaps happened

[discordiansamba]

she would not fucking say that (a female character, made to act motherly in fic when nothing in the source material implies that she even wants to take a maternal role in any capacity)

#saw someone say that Azula ATLA would want kids #incredible. fantastic. wrong in every single way

[discordiansamba]

Hunk's family is solidly middle class. They're not living paycheck to paycheck, but they're far from rich either. He got an engineering scholarship to pay for half of his Garrison tuition.

Lance's family is also middle class, but that specific flavor where they have to make things stretch because they've got five kids to take of. Lance did not get a scholarship to get into the Garrison, but if a relative is already an employee, you can get reduced tuition costs.

Pidge is solidly upper middle class. They would have been able to pay for both Matt and Pidge's Garrison tuition in full without having to worry about budgeting.

Shiro's the only one I don't have a firm headcanon for. It's very much 'whatever works best for the story', but also it is fun to think of him of him as a rich boy from a very old lineage. Some people think he took shortcuts to get to the position he's in at the start of canon, but while he acknowledges he definitely had a leg up, he worked hard to get there.

Allura is a princess. She's the ultimate 1%. Except I have a strong feeling Altea didn't have much economic disparity to begin with so that's like. irrelevant.

anyone who thinks Keith grew up in any economic bracket other than working poor is wrong. Heath was a single dad doing his best but they were definitely on a shoestring budget. He would have needed a scholarship to get into the Garrison even in a universe where his dad survived.

#romelle voice: what's money. we bartered in the colony #pidge voice: we'd always fly back to visit family in italy once every year #lance and hunk: that sounds nice. we mostly took domestic vacations #keith: ...i need to leave this conversation at once

[discordiansamba]

anyone who thinks Keith grew up in any economic bracket other than working poor is wrong. Heath was a single dad doing his best but they were definitely on a shoestring budget. He would have needed a scholarship to get into the Garrison even in a universe where his dad survived.

#which. he'd obviously get. bc it's Keith

[discordiansamba]

My personal opinion on the "humans are space orcs" trend in the VLD fandom is that I think people overdo it. It's funny if there's shit about humans that's weird to the other aliens, but it's also funny if there's shit about the aliens that is deeply weird to humans. The Galra can eat almost anything and have a contact sport that makes football look like a kindergarten brawl. Alteans canonically have a weather condition that's boiling, sharp rocks falling from the sky. Humans can't just be the weird ones. There has to be balance.

also it makes Keith's entire existence even funnier.

#keith combining weird shit about the galra with the weird shit about humans. harmony.