#and created backlash from all corners of the internet

[the-diabolic-acid]

ok i am taking a break from a take home final to blab these thoughts because otherwise they're going to make me insane but honestly it's been kind of wild seeing fandom culture transition to "curate my space for me" and honestly it's a pretty interesting look at how internet culture as a whole has been changing. (keeping in mind im speaking 100% anecdotally so i could just be speaking from my tiny corner of the internet.)

But it feels like there's been a shift in who is expected to do the work to make a space comfortable. Before it feels like there was too much expected of individual people- online spaces were really hard to navigate safely (ask anyone my age and older the kind of horrors we accidentally stumbled into. it was not pretty.) A lot of kids fandoms were overrun with adults who posted horrifying things that was really hard to avoid. Then it feels like there was backlash to that and the internet did what it does best and swung the pendulum all the way to the other side. Now there's a collective responsibility for everyone to make every internet space safe for everyone and this doesn't work either. There is absolutely no way to create a space that is safe for every single adult and child without censoring things to the point of absurdity. It feels like there's an entire generation of kids online right now who have begun to pick up the mindset that other people are responsible for making them feel safe so they're not learning the tools to curate their own spaces and that's really shitty.

ok back to actually being a student

[mariacallous]

Whether you favor classic cream cheese and lox, a BEC or some type of sugary birthday cake cream cheese, a person’s bagel order can be truly personal and sacred.

However, after a controversial video that was posted onto TikTok over the weekend, we learned that it can also spark chaos. 

In the 30 second video, user Taylor Offer recounted his experience attempting to order his preferred bagel in New York City. The Los Angeles native claimed that when he walked into a local deli, he was met with hostility when he asked for a “scooped, gluten-free” bagel, which runs rather contrary to the chilled-out bagel service that he was accustomed to on the West Coast. 

Let me backup and define what a “scooped bagel” even is: It’s a regular bagel with most of its fluffy innards removed, creating two hollowed discs. The argument for some people to order a scooped bagel is to either make room for more toppings, or to remove a few extra calories from your morning deli order. 

Though Offer tells his story with a smile, since uploading the video he and all the scooped-bagel lovers of the world have been facing backlash from every corner of the internet. From commenters claiming to be “team bagel shop” and calling the order a “crime” to people straight-up calling for border control in New York state to weed out carb-averse Californians, it’s safe to say that a scooped bagel is a less than savory choice. 

In my opinion, this is an over dramatic yet very fair reaction. The concept of the scooped bagel is also lost on me. The fluffy interior is the best part — why ask the server to do the extra unnecessary arm work to remove it? Why make an already risky gluten-free bagel even less structurally sound? I’ll also echo other commentators and ask: Why not just order something else? 

As  someone who used to work customer service, what’s extra satisfying about this little debacle are all the people calling out scooped bagel guy’s entitlement. Though I really do think Offer meant well, I wholeheartedly disagree with the phrase “the customer is always right,” because a lot of the time they’re wrong — very wrong. No one is entitled to the thing that they want just simply because they want it, even a scooped gluten-free bagel. While it may seem absurd to refuse service just over differing tastes, this worker was well within their rights to turn away a fussy, unnecessary order on a stressful day. 

The  thing that stumped me the most, as an Angeleno myself, was Offer’s claim that scooped bagels are not only commonplace but celebrated in the city. Don’t get me wrong, Los Angeles bagels are nowhere near the caliber of New York’s, I can admit that. However, this video going viral further propagates the myth that Californians wouldn’t know a good bagel if it smacked them between the eyes. 

With one of the biggest Jewish populations in the country, and an exciting bagel boom of late, I would consider Los Angeles bagels to even be a bagel destination, with places new and established to choose from. 

While it’s tempting to lambast this naive user and call him a stereotypical health nut, don’t take  the rest of Los Angeles or its local bagel enjoyers down with it. I believe in the right to choose: If this man or anyone else wants to eat a really sad scooped bagel, let them. Just don’t expect to order it in NYC without getting a bit of a tongue-lashing, respectfully.

[sbbarnes]

So Stephen King went on twitter and compared criticism of cultural appropriation in literature to book banning. Oh boy.

I've known for a long time that if I am serious about getting my work published, establishing some sort of online presence on social media is an unavoidable evil. Not only am I ambivalent at best about the role social media plays in the world these days, I'm also deeply lazy about maintaining it. However, here I am, giving it by best effort.

Further than that, though, every time some new wave of discourse about a media creator breaks into my relatively small corner of the internet, my first thought is always "why did they have to share this opinion with the world?". Genuinely, sincerely, this post notwithstanding, even if my little cozy mystery about an academic and an auto mechanic finding love in the Hudson Valley does reach anyone someday, I would love if my opinions continue to interest no one at all.

Not that I don't think I have good opinions! They're mine, I'm partial, and I post them online more than is good for me or anyone else. And I'm not here to talk about cancel culture, smarter and more eloquent people have done that to little to no effect. I'm talking more about two things: Death of the Author and the twitter word limit and how they do not mix well.

Personally, I think this is a very bad take on King's part. Criticism is not the same thing as banning; people should be allowed to express when they think someone's ideas are bad or harmful. It's not the same as wanting to ban a book, not least because criticism lacks the authority to ban. Especially because book banning is often used to silence minority voices, and criticism of cultural appropriation in books is pointing out that the publishing industry these days elevates white voices and appropriation and thereby also silences minority voices. The comparison criticism and banning not only misses the differing intent behind the two things, it cuts out the structural elements of the industry being criticized and turns it into a "bad people want to ban books" discussion rather than "the system is discriminatory towards minority voices" discussion.

This kind of take has an origin, though. King is from a different generation than a lot of people reacting to his post, and his generation was deeply influenced by the first cultural backlashes to the horrors of Nazism. It created this very single-minded "all book banning is bad because the Nazis did it" type of discourse at the time, which perseveres in a lot of people. I see this a lot in my day job, where I interact with a lot of Germans in King's age group who were socialized to intensely reject anything perpetuated by the Nazis. Which is obviously a good impulse!

But it leads straight into the tolerance paradox where I then find myself explaining that it's not at all the same thing for young people of color to not accept being forced into reading literature in a school setting that uses racist language uncritically, or literature that uses racist language if that racist language isn't contextualized in class. This is a very different starting point for editing a curriculum - it's starting at a point of wanting to protect young, vulnerable people and to educate about and contextualize older texts that reproduce a colonial mindset. And because via repetition the "all book banning is bad" take has become oversimplified to the point of being an absolute, a lot of people aren't prepared to discuss it with nuance at all.

I have no idea where King stands on all these things, because he posted one tweet on the matter, which is a space that just utterly disallows for the nuance of the topic. And that one two-sentence tweet already has several thousand replies and far more people talking *about* it, to the point where any agent would probably recommend King say nothing more on the subject, because it will just create more discourse. Let's be real, King's career will not be affected, especially if he just ignores it for now.

But what I wonder is why he had to weigh in at all and why people had to engage and respond. Twitter killing death of the author is not news, but incidents like these are so starkly representative of how much easier it was to be a reader when you didn't have access to author's thoughts on everything.

#stephen king #racism #nazism #book banning #censorship #appropriation #cultural appropriation #discourse #twitter

[venusstadt]

If you have any interest in the art world or just use social media, you might have heard about “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,” an artificial intelligence-generated image that won first place at the Colorado State Fair in fall 2022. 

That this piece had been created by A.I. as opposed to a human as initially assumed sparked a debate not only about the ethics of A.I. and transparency (Roose 2022), but also the value of art and artists in the age of automation. Jason Allen, who typed the prompt into the generator to make the image, received backlash for what people viewed as him passing off the image as his own work. Defending himself in a New York Times interview with Kevin Roose, Allen declared: 

“Art is dead, dude. It’s over. A.I. won. Humans lost” (Roose 2022). 

Since then, even though A.I. content generators have been around for years, it seems as if A.I. content has begun to flood the internet, ranging from one-off profile pictures to meme fodder to genuinely weird and worrying content.  

Has A.I. killed art? No—and, honestly, I wouldn’t advise anyone to take Jason Allen’s word as gospel. 

Does A.I. have the potential to kill art? Only time will tell. 

If anything, what A.I. content reveals a continued cultural commitment to a pre-existing trend: the devaluation of artists in favor of instant gratification and profit. 

Hello, and welcome to Venusstadt, a channel devoted to discussing women in the realm of arts and culture. I’m Jiana; today, I’ll be widening my scope to throw my hat into the A.I. content discourse ring. 

CAN A.I. MAKE ART?

My working opinion on the idea of “A.I. art” is this. People create art. A.I. creates “content.” 

Feel free to disagree; after all, art is subjective, and is as dependent on socio-historical context as it is personal taste. There was once a time where photography was not considered art. However, we now know that though photography is not the same medium as painting, what it does have in common is that it is the product of human creativity and expression.  

By contrast, A.I.-generated work is just that—the output of A.I. It churns out content quickly and cheaply, using images that have been compiled for it, and spitting out what it is told. 

Like art, people have different definitions of content, but the best explanation I’ve come across is that content is created “for utilitarian exchange” (Bevan 2022). Content is produced quickly and cheaply in exchange for followers, subscribers, engagement, and sponsorships, after which it is rendered forgettable and disposable. The speed and convenience of A.I. makes it excellent at producing content; and thus far, most of the content produced by A.I. is utilitarian, existing predominantly to fill Instagram and TikTok feeds or extoll the virtues of A.I. art over contemporary artworks. 

No, feeding prompts into an A.I. does not count as creative rigor or expression, and does not make you an artist. It is the A.I. that brings the prompts to life, not the user. There is no human effort, and ultimately no human interpretation, neither on the part of the artist and certainly not on the part of the viewer, since the search for meaning is reduced to a guessing game about the prompts used or the artists the A.I. “borrowed” from (Hilliard 2023). The content produced may look beautiful, but art is not just beauty; if it were, we would have missed out on a lot of good art.

But A.I.-generated work could be used by people to create art. Lone A.I. content is not art any more than a paint brush sitting on a table is. Generators like Midjourney and DALLE 2 are a medium. It’s what you do with the tool that matters. 

The pessimistic part of me knows that while A.I. generators might be marketed as the next wave of human creativity and artistic talent, like any supposedly promising invention, it’ll mostly be used to cut corners and screw a lot of people over.

WILL A.I. KILL THE ARTIST?

Will A.I. kill the artist? No; photography didn’t kill the painter and video didn’t kill the radio star. 

Still, artists are justified in worrying about what these content generators mean for them, despite the articles that downplay their concerns (or outright demean them) while platforming so-called “A.I. artists.”  

To the media, in the face of applications that will revolutionize fast and inexpensive content generation, the voices of the artists who rely on work and fair wages to survive are irrelevant. After all, this is an attention economy, where catering to short attention spans and providing instant gratification can make or break a publication or a creator. They are content as long as they receive engagement on social media. 

Meanwhile, these A.I. have been trained using the work of historical and contemporary artists that have been scraped from the internet. If you use the internet to host a portfolio, it’s likely your art has been swept up in this scrape as well and is being used by A.I. to reproduce cheap images for other people to increase their social media engagement or to earn money. 

Because it has mashed together the work of actual artists, some of this A.I. content is indistinguishable from that of digital art created by humans. Even if the A.I. is terrible at teeth, hands, and arms, those details can be edited away in Photoshop or eventually ironed out by developers. 

“Who cares?” A.I. art proponents say. “Artists are simply angry because they aren’t special; anyone can do their jobs!” 

A.I. content makes people feel like they can call themselves “artists” without the rigor of creativity, of learning when to add and when to take away. Here, everyone is an artist. This isn’t inherently bad—everyone has a capacity for creativity. Everyone has the ability to pick up a pen and pencil or Blender or GIMP, hone their craft, and start expressing themselves creatively. But there are people that wish to be instantly “good,” and thus do not have the patience to hone this talent, or simply do not have the patience to commission an artist to do the work for them. Ultimately, if we can pass off the ability to feed a prompt to an A.I. that does the work for you as “creativity,” then no one is truly creative. If anyone can call themselves an artist, this naturally decreases the value of artists and of creative work—something that the cruelest of A.I. content supporters have already picked up on. 

But this is par for the course. Many creative fields are already maligned as useless, and artists demeaned and devalued. To make a living, you must either have 1.) many social media followers and a high rate of engagement, 2.) go to an art school and network, or 3.) live in a major cultural center where there are many creative opportunities available. 

If A.I. does replace human artists for many functions (video game design, stock images, commercial art, etc.) and work opportunities do decrease, in addition to harming those already in the field, it may discourage new, fresh voices from entering creative spaces. Since it is those who are poor and/or people of color who often don’t have access to the aforementioned necessities for artistic success, this could lead to a loss of working class and racially diverse voices that are vital to a functioning democratic society. 

In a world where A.I. replacing human artists, these new “tastemakers” who type the prompts (or buy it from a company) will produce even more content that’s prompt and profitable, without much emotional stake, for people to consume and readily forget. It will not teach; it will not convey human experiences. It will simply look interesting. 

Or worse.

CONCLUSION.

If you feel like this is doom and gloom, remember: it’s only my opinion. A.I. content generators are still being developed; no one knows what direction it might take in the next few years. As such, my opinion on this subject, as with any other, has the potential to change.

If you liked this video and would like to be notified for more videos like it, be sure to click the subscribe button. I also provide updates via the social media links listed in the description below. Thanks for watching!

SOURCES.

Bevan, Thomas J. “Content Versus Art.” The Commonplace, 23 Dec. 2022, https://thomasjbevan.substack.com/p/the-day-manager. 

Hilliard, Wesley. “AI art generators targeted in lawsuit for intellectual property.” Apple Insider, 16 Jan. 2023, https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/01/16/ai-art-generators-targeted-in-lawsuit-for-intellectual-property-theft. 

Roose, Kevin. “An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy.” New York Times, 2 Sep. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html. 

#ai art #ai art generator #digital art #Youtube

[cockyhorror]

hey friends I've been feeling like the internet is a really negative place for a while and I know that's not always true so if anyone would like to share some positivity pls do

#i posted a fun and genuinely non controversial comment on a scishow video and had to take it down this morning because i got so much hate #people were so mad at me for using prise instead of pry lol and fighting with each other over it #then someone called me a weirdo for saying i was joking which i only did because i didnt want someone to take me seriously and give me hate #then some random dude announced his love for me which from someone whos only seen my profile picture feels like an online catcall lmao #its different from followers or people who consume my content but i just dont like it when it comes from nothing but my face #and like its not that im thin skinned and my feelings are hurt its just that im so disenchanted with the internet rn #it feels like i can expect backlash from absolutely anything i post like including this #i created this blog to be a fun and positive corner of the internet so id like to thank you guys for keeping it that way #it just seems like people are angry all the time and its impossible to have an opinion without aggressively defending it #like when its not a matter of anybody's rights why cant we just peacefully disagree #how are you going to get riled up about pry vs prise smh

[anamatics]

Your opinion on old fandom forums vs, fandom today?

I didn't answer this one last night as I wanted to be able to type out a proper response, and one that's partly adapted from an essay I wrote back in 2016.

As a fandom old, I’ve spent a long time in fandom spaces. I did my time with writing slash and het ships, but I always loved writing stories for me about people like me. I have witnessed first-hand the rise and fall of listservs and live journal as places where people who liked femslash gathered to discuss their favorite shows. I know a lot of fandom history. When I comment on the events in fandom, it still comes from my position as a fan, not as a creative. I want to preface all of these thoughts with this.

Fandom used to be something that you didn't talk about. It was secret, never mentioned in public, zines and stories mailed back and forth across the country. The internet changed that, people's attitudes toward things like queer and trans identity changed that, people's want to see diversity on their screens changed that. Yet, at the same time, there is a whole new generation of young queer creatives emerging onto the writing scene who have grown up witnessing the rise and fall of these great, monolithic fandoms that exist beyond the space of shows themselves. More and more, networks, writers, and producers are paying attention to what the fandom says and to what they react to.

This is why I don't really like fandom these days, because I've seen both sides. I struggled with this working on Carmilla as someone who had been, and in may ways still was, a fan. I know fans have power, I've done things because I know fans have power. And yet, I felt like I'd lost my place in a community - in old fandom - because of this realization. And I myself asking questions about my place in new fandom. Questions that, most of the time, had no answers.

Is it valid to be both grateful for the acknowledgement of fan desires within the creative side of television and web writing and a little horrified by the amount of entitlement that any capitulation by those productions seems to engender within fans? Am I valid in feeling trapped by this feeling of wanting to be the best possible arbiter of representation and knowing that I can never be perfect because the perfection demanded by the queer community isn’t achievable? Does my voice even matter in fandom circles anymore because I’ve “crossed over” to the other side? Am I allowed to continue to speak critically about representation in shows that are not my own because I haven’t “fixed mine yet”?

I struggled with this when Carmilla was airing. I still struggle with it now, too, because I see how trolls on Twitter and Tumblr have reacted to folks like me speaking out about problems we see in our communities or within fandom. People like me aren’t allowed to criticize fandom, or fandom culture, because we’re no longer seen as truly a part of it: by being creators who can’t always live up to fandom’s sometimes unreasonable standards, we’re now considered just part of the problem. We can’t critique behaviors and call things out within this fandom community that should also represent us because when we do we’re hurting the fandom community.

Every queer creative out there has shouldered some of this hurt, I know I have. I stand by what I’ve said despite the backlash. If you cannot believe in the truth you speak, what good are you to a community looking to you for change?

Those who speak to the internal problems of fandom culture are shouted down. People with years of fandom experience, who are far more knowledgeable of the history of fandom (and especially the femslash corners of it) and presence in media than the present-day narrative setters, are shouted down and told that we are part of the problem. Creatives who speak out and criticize other works are treated equally poorly. The problem is that in refusing to look at the problems within our fandom spaces, and saying that everyone outside the group is to blame for the problems of poor representation, we are sticking our fingers in our ears and refusing to look at what’s wrong with us. We eat our own.

The queer community – and by extension the queer fandom community – functions like an ouroboros as far as I can tell. That’s the snake from Norse mythology that eats its tail, representing infinity but also representing the inevitable crush of our own bullshit as it comes down around us with the hopes of becoming a better community. There should be a place within this community for everyone, and yet it’s this same space that is preoccupied with gatekeeping characterized by constant infighting, identity policing, and silencing or invalidating opinions that don’t perfectly align with this vision of what is considered acceptable in the eyes of the thinking of the day.

Queerness is messy. There’s a lot of nuance to it. And there will always be people who want their own community within that umbrella of queerness. That’s a valid want. You want to be around people who are homogenous, because it’s when variety is introduced that feelings get hurt. But the existence of a community for marginalized people should not come at the detriment and degradation of other vulnerable people, nor should it come at the expanse of dismissing intersectionality within our community.

But instead, we eat our own. We dismiss trans headcanons like people in old fandom used to dismiss queer headcanons. We're doing the same bullshit, just rinsed and repeated, directed at a new set of people whose voices are smaller than the small specks of power new fandom has granted (cis, white) queer people.

We fight ourselves amongst because we feel as though we cannot fight the forces of our own oppression. We censor ourselves to make sure that we don’t say anything to upend the proverbial apple cart. We do this not because we’re afraid of the problematic elements outside of the community that could come into our community, but rather because we’re afraid of those within our own community who have the power to kick us out from under our own umbrella and back into the rain.

So when I think about fandom these days, I imagine this moment of losing community. I imagine the hurtful message sent, the dismissive post on the forum, the hateful tweet, actions that cost nothing when they are directed at creators, fan writers, fan artists. These people exist to create content that is to be consumed. They aren't human. They aren't even real. They're just the producers of content that fandom sucks up like a vacuum cleaner without bothering to engage with the creators except to demand more or demand better. Nothing makes you feel alienated from your community like realizing you only exist to produce for it and when you don't produce to standards, you are attacked.

What's worse is that a lot of folks in fandom don't even think about this these days. There's no risk in blasting off a message or a tweet. But social media is an echo chamber. It’s a hive mind, and it’s a place where people can get hurt, very badly, and very quickly. Social media should not be used as a weapon to badger the people trying to get into positions where they can create change, which is what I feel new fandom has done. But at the same time, new fandom has also become a space where voices can be uplifted, where people can be seen and heard who maybe weren't before.

So TL;DR, I think social media ruined fandom, I have a lot of baggage/trauma from working on a show as fandom was transitioning from old fandom to new fandom, and like... we have to be better to each other.

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #writing #fandom #some commentary that I'll probably delete

[kavat]

I've been thinking a bit about Kids These Days and why they are Like That. This might be an Old woman yells at clouds thing, but I dont think so.

We millennials were the first generation to grow up online. Depending on how old you are and when you got access to the internet it might differ, but for many of us the internet was an early escape from a boring or not great reality.

We were the first generation to be kids online, when the internet still was a place for nerdy adults. The internet was dangerous for us, stranger danger was real. We learned (either from informed adults or because of our own mistakes) to not give any personal information or trust anyone. The image that anyone you talk to could be an old pervy man in a basement was very much real, because that was who our parents thought the average internet user was. Many of us never used our real names online until Facebook came along and changed the game completely, before that anonymity was the norm.

10 years ago there was a prevalent nerd culture online, meaning that most communities or forums was still mainly populated by nerdy guys. They had (have...) a certain jargon and humor based on being outcasts of their irl environment. The memes of that time was trollcomics, Bad Luck Brian, Socially Awkward Penguin, non mainstream pop culture references. It was based on superiority and elevating themselves by punching down. It lead to an online culture of racism, misogyny and homophobia in so many online spaces. If you found my old username on some forum you would probably find some shitty things, because I wanted to fit in. It wasn't safe to be anything but a straight white man online unless you created your own space.

But the internet isn't new anymore, it has become a lot more accessible and widespread and the majority of people depend on the internet daily. You can't see the internet as dangerous because you have to use it every single day. And I think that's why so many of the warnings about it feels either unnecessary or out of touch to younger people. They don't see the internet as a lawless wild west, it's their backyard where everything should be and is nice and safe.

The past 5 years or so there has been a lot of progress in online spaces, where racism, misogyny, queerphobia etc is less and less tolerated. And not without a fight, real people have had their lives destroyed because of the online hate campaigns (see gamergate). If you stood up for feminism you would get death threats. It still happens, but the internet is in general a much nicer place now than it was 10 years ago.

The younger people don't know that. They haven't seen the foul hate that was commonplace in every single comment thread. But they have grown into the backlash of that, where social justice is very widespread and seen as a virtue. Which is good! We should stand up for what's right! But the kids will often misdirect this energy towards undeserving people.

They will go after someone who said something problematic in 2008, without having any clue about what the culture was like then. They will shout "think of the children" without acknowledging that there are now measures in place to protect children (like age restrictions, tags, mute functions). They will claim someone as problematic because of one small misunderstanding rather than going after actual racists, because they feel it's the easier target. And it makes them feel good and like they've accomplished something. We chased off another person from the internet because we didn't like the particular thing they did, cheers all around.

Meanwhile, in the other corner of the internet, where the nerdy bro jargon has lived on and festered from feeling attacked for a decade, bigotry has grown so strong that we get mass murders in the name of a gaming youtuber and people storming the capitol. They should be the real enemy but no, the younger generation know that regular people have a conscience and are easier targets.

My point is that the modern purity culture on the rise among young people is the backside of the social justice coin. When you don't see the actual threat and just the weapon, you end up fighting the wrong people.

I have no solution for this. I just think that it's important to talk about the full context in which different generation of internet users grew up, and do our best to share our experiences.

#whatever cat #i was going to make a twitter thread but it grew out of hand lmao #anyway good morning

[oddlyhale]

I really feel like CRWBY interacts too much with its fans in a way that I never see the crews of other similarly sized or bigger media productions doing. Honestly I think there’s been some extreme irresponsibility with the things the crew has said. I think it’s totally fine that Barb and Arryn love bees, but I genuinely think that BB wasn’t planned from the start and that CRWBY was kind of forced to go with it because of the things Barb and Arryn were constantly posting without clarifying that their statements weren’t canon, which is why Blake’s relationship and development with Sun was just dropped completely like it never happened and why BB development has been so slow and awkward, giving us just crumbs for years. Because they don’t know what they’re doing and it wasn’t planned but they realized during v5 that fans so earnestly believed it’d be canon that they couldn’t NOT do BB without severe backlash. Thoughts?

This is what I've always wondered about if RT has a backbone or not. Do they just bend over to any demands in hopes that it'll please the crowd of fans that'll still demand more things?

The thing with fandoms is that you give them an inch and they'll take a mile. Not just with the RWBY fndm, but fandoms in general. You have to ultimately create a healthy distance between creator and fan, you can't always be every fans' friend, but that's not the creator's fault. If a fan thinks you're an asshole for never talking with them, or just giving them small talk, it's still not the creator's fault.

I remember (back in my day) when creators were practically untouchable, unreachable. You forget half the time they even exist. With such close contacts, we have now with the internet, I feel as though every creator should practice distancing themselves from needy fans. Any fan that's trying to pry into their business. Quite honestly, as much as fans love you, they have no reason to be prying into production and changes, unless it's absolutely necessary. But other than that, creators should take what fans say with a hefty grain of salt.

If RWBY was truly "planned from the beginning," there should be no need for the obvious fanservice fodder that they've been feeding viewers. It'll bump the flow or just unnecessarily twist the story. I still believe nothing was planned from the beginning, the clues of that become clear over time when you watch the show itself.

I do see what you mean when using BB as an example. This ship is the embodiment of "give them an inch, they'll take a mile." I feel like this ship had a manufactural setup, rather than being organic and true to a normal relationship. An organic relationship growth was BlackSun, no contest. It was setup, it was aimed to become something more, but then the manufactured BB ship came along and things began to look bleak for BlackSun.

Not saying I am a fan of BlackSun or BB. Honestly, Blake doesn't deserve either sun, haha. She's become too aggressively moody, it mucks up positivity that these two radiated (or Yang used to). These sunny dragons deserve a better outlet in their lives.

Now, I do know that it happens a lot within production crews: how they happen to have a favourite pairing from the show they're working on, and they'd like to express it online. That's fine! They're entitled to show that! But also, they shouldn't shove it on the creators to make it canon. While they're free to ship whatever, whoever they want, in no way should they demand the creators to make it happen.

I feel as though that's where RT should've grown a backbone. It's dumb to even force a ship to become canon when the real focus should be about the story and characters. And if they have an established ship (BlackSun,) and they were aiming for that to become a thing then, by all means, they should've buckled down and kept that route ongoing.

They wouldn't even have to be mean about it. Demeaning fans for liking a ship won't solve anything. All you can do is politely, but firmly, ask that the fndm respects all ships, respect what someone ships, and please respect canonical ships. That's really all you can do. It's not the creator's fault if the fans want to throw a fit until they get what they want. Continue with the canonical ships and be done with it.

Sometimes you can't fight fire with fire, because somebody's going to get burned in the end.

How they went about deconstructing BlackSun was more of a stain of Blake's character. She's nasty to Sun, something I seriously won't forgive the writers for. Not because it's Sun, but because Blake shows a terrible side of being an abuser. Using this horrendous writing as a way to spit on BlackSun to please the BB fans was a slap to the face.

I've got better ways of how BlackSun could've been put down, but the point is, RT has the backbone structure of a noodle. They just twist and bend to whatever fans want and push aside the criticism that they get for doing so.

I also don't think RT knows what they're doing with BB. It's just been a very awkward trek to make them an official pairing. There's nothing wrong with liking BB, but I do wish the fans of this ship would've been given better representation than just scraping for whatever they see. Then again, aggressive BB fans that demanded this ship and were influenced by Barb and Arryn's shipping should always be ignored. You don't want to give the spoiled kids what they want. Because again, you give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

Now it seems like Yang and Blake are paying the price in the writing. Yang is terribly moody and Blake just stands in the corner being sad. They don't have any motivation, other than to be each others' girlfriend. I don't know about you, but that's a really sad existence. It's even sadder when the fans don't seem to notice or realize it, they're just also in the narrow mindset of "oh all they need is a girlfriend and they'll be happy."

#rwde #toxic fndm

[bloodstained-ballgowns]

Hello, sorry to bother you but I was just curious about the Scarlett Johansson vs. Disney lawsuit and I saw a lot about it from your tumblr and thought you might know it pretty well. 😅

I read somewhere that she was requesting a 80 million additional pay (which with the addition of her 20 million base salary would be 100 million total) when the simultaneous release was announced, which was based on a hypothetical box office figure similar to Captain Marvel. With the pandemic and all going on, I read a lot of comments saying she was asking for way too much. Added with the supposed Russo brothers' contract worries, I also read comments upset with her for causing this issue.

So I just wanted to ask your opinion on a few things.

1. Do you think there might be a shift in support after more details are released, will people side with Disney more because of the amount asked for during this pandemic?

2. And with more details being released, do you think the lawsuit playing out in public may end up hurting her side more than Disney's?

I just loved reading your previous answers regarding this topic cause it was all so well written and explained, I hope you won't mind me asking this, thank you in advance!

I'm all for her getting her contracts worth but the media releasing articles of how there is no going back for Scarlett and Disney makes me a bit sad we won't be seeing her version of Natasha anymore. Hopefully the whole character doesn't get shelved though.

Hi anon! You're no bother! Thank you for your questions!

I don't know about the $80 million ask based on a hypothetical box office based around Captain Marvel, as I didn't think specific amounts were negotiated before box office actually came to fruition. For example, she earned $15 million up front for Avengers: Endgame, which swelled to $35 million when it earned as much as it did, because back-end deals are based on percentages of revenue (I'm pretty sure). I can imagine the $80 million as a prediction, though. I only know that $50-60 million are the numbers circulating from how much she could win from this lawsuit.

I've seen the same comments "upset with her for causing this issue", and their ignorance is really fascinating to me because she didn't create the issue? Disney created the issue? She's speaking on the issue that's been growing since streaming services were born, she's increasing awareness around this issue, she's putting it in the spotlight. People somehow seem think that holding corporations accountable will mean that they stop producing the media so many enjoy (I legit saw a post that said, almost word for word, "scarlett shouldn't have sued because if disney pays her all that money then they won't have any left for loki season 2" and the stupidity of that statement is breathtaking).

1. Do you think there might be a shift in support after more details are released, will people side with Disney more because of the amount asked for during this pandemic?

No, at this point in the case, I don't think more details will shift allegiances. If people are not already siding with Scarlett, knowing her claims, having read Disney's defence, and realising the larger implications of the case, I don't believe any more information will change that. If she wins, there may be a shift, because people love to say they were right, but otherwise, no.

From what I've seen, and this may just be my corner of the internet, or because discourse has died down a bit, but I would set the support margins at about 60/40 in Scarlett's favour so far. The 40% seems to mainly be made up of people who either are uneducated on the topic, think that being 'problematic' means she deserves mistreatment, or are misogynists. They are accounts with 13 followers arguing in comments sections. Inversely, the 60% is made up of people who matter. She has the support of the industry behind her, the endorsement of her coworkers, and new projects lined up to prove it (e.g. the star-studded Wes Anderson picture and Ghosted with Chris Evans). The Star Wars writers including Alan Dean Foster who went up against Disney last year with similar allegations have also thrown their support behind her.

So I hope you can see where I'm coming from when I say that there may not be a shift, but it doesn't really matter because Disney is not the only hand that feeds her. In fact, the others are eager, it seems.

2. And with more details being released, do you think the lawsuit playing out in public may end up hurting her side more than Disney's?

It's hard to say, anon, but there's a reason Disney's filing for the case to go to arbitration instead of court. They want it settled quietly, because it's making them look bad and from what details we do know, Scarlett's case is legitimate. These lawsuits are compromising their whole "happiest place in the world" family-friendly image. The curtain has been dropped and now that much of their insidiousness is out in the open, it will change how people see them. Many won't let them hide behind Mickey Mouse when they issue statements calling their actors "callous".

However, none of the consequences will lead to the destruction of the Disney corporation or something. It's not going to go up in flames. They'll be fine.

Scarlett is walking a much finer line. As a person instead of a company, and as a woman, she is in a much more vulnerable position (not at all as vulnerable as a woman of colour though). There was a very real possibility that she would be rocking the boat so much that she would fall out and no one would help her back in (also, she's rich, but losing $50 million, probably more, would put a huge dent in her bank account). There's also a reason why she, her team, and her lawyers wanted it public, anon. A) If this was done all very hush hush, it would be a lot harder to hold Disney accountable next time something like this happens. She knows exactly how much this could change things, a cover up would limit the fallout. B) Online backlash matters very little to her. Her lawyers/PR team probably estimated exactly how much support (or lack of thereof) this move would garner, but it's not like tweets saying "scarjo is greedy and selfish" are going to have any bearing in court, so I expect that she remains unbothered. In short, she has more to lose, but her 'side' probably won't be hurt more than Disney's by this.

I'm glad you found those posts informative! I try :)

I know, it's sad that the door on MCU!Natasha is truly shut and bolted. I have the same fears of her being shelved. I just hope they continue with old characters in new animation, like What If...?, and that at some point in the future, the MCU either gets a reboot, or a Black Widow story is curated for the silver screen outside of the Disney-Marvel umbrella.

Sorry this was so long, I struggle with concision. Again, thanks for dropping into my ask box, anon! Hope this was in any way helpful.

#replies #scarjo vs disney #scarlett johansson #disney

[creativitycache]

ngl asking for people who self-identify as "antis" is already biasing your results because the term originated from fans being defensive over getting called out (eg the types who sincerely think fandom culture is ""puritan""). fair number of people started to use the term ironically and it might be evening out but overall the post calling for responses on the survey still comes off as something written in bad faith?

I wrote a rather long and involved response and then tumblr ate it. Goshdarn.

Fair warning, this is a hyperfixation and I’m coming off of a migraine so this may not be very cogent. Please read this in the over excited tones of someone infodumping about emulsifiers, with no animosity intended.

So, tl;dr and with a lot fewer links, I’m incredibly interested by your perspective that “anti” originated as a derogatory term.

As far as I am aware, the etymological history of the word “anti” being used pejoratively is coming from some very new debates.

I’m also noting that you had no feedback regarding the content of the questions themselves, which I would be interested in hearing as I am genuinely coming from a place without censure.

The term “anti” actually is a self-descriptor that arose in the Livejournal days, where you’d tag something as “Anti ___” for other like minded people to find. (For example, my cursory google search pulled up 10 Anti Amy Lee communities on LJ).

I’m a self-confessed old. I was back in fandom before Livejournal, aaaall the way back in the Angelfire days. Webrings children! We had webrings! And guest books for you to sign!

I’m going to take a swing for the fences here Anon, so if I’m wrong please let me know, but I’m going to guess you became active as a fan in the past 5-8 years based of your use of the term puritan.

There’s actually a HUGELY new debate in fandom spaces! Previously, it was assumed that:

a) All fandom spaces are created and used by adults only.

b) If you were seeing something, it’s because you dug for it.

These assumptions were predicated upon what spaces fandoms grew in. First you had Star Trek TOS fandom, which grew in 1970s housewives kitchens. They were all friends irl, and everyone was an adult, and you actively had to reach out to other adults to talk about things. (By the way- a woman lost custody of her children in the divorce when her ex husband brought up to the judge she kept a Kirk/Spock zine under her bed. The judge ruled this as obvious signs of moral deficiency. That was in the 80s! Everyone is still alive and the parents are younger than my coworkers!)

Time: 1967-1980s. Is Anti a term? No. Who is the term used by? N/A Is fandom space considered Puritanical? No.

Then, when the internet came about, it was almost exclusively used by adults until The Eternal September. 1993 was the year that changed the internet for good, but even years after that the internet was a majority adult space. Most kids and teens didn’t have unlimited access if their parents even had a home computer in the 90s.

This is the rise of Angelfire, which were fansites all connected to each other in “rings”. You had to hunt for content. If you found something you didn’t like, well, you clicked out and went on with your day because you’d never see it again unless you really dug. This was truly the wild west, tagging did not exist and you could go from fluff to vore in the blink of an eye with nothing warning you before hand. All fannish spaces were marked “here be dragons” and attempts were made to at least adopt the “R/NC-17″ ratings on works to some limited success, depending on webmaster.

Time: 1990-1999. Is Anti a term? No. Who is the term used by? N/A Is fandom space considered Puritanical? No.

In 1999 LiveJournal arose like a leviathan, and here is where the term Anti emerges as a self descriptor. Larger communities began to form, and with them, divisions. Now, you could reach so many fans you could reach a critical mass of them for enough of them to dislike a ship. The phrase “Anti” became a self-used tag, as people tagged their works, communities, and blogs with “anti” (NB: this is at far, far smaller rates than today). Anti was first and foremost a tagging tool used and created by the people who were vehemently against something.

You could find content more easily than in the past, but you still had to put some serious elbow grease into it.

In 2007, Livejournal bans users for art "depicting minors in explicit sexual situations”. The Livejournal community explodes in anger- towards Livejournal staff. The account holders/fans view this as corporate puritanical meddling. The outrage continues as it is revealed these bans were part of a pre-sale operation to SUP Services. SUP Services, upon taking over Livejournal in 2008, proceeds to filter the topics “bisexuality, depression, faeries, girls, boys, and fanfiction”.

The Great LiveJournal Migration begins, as fans leave the site in droves.

Time: 1999-2009. Is Anti a term? Yes. Who is the term used by? People self describing, seeking to create communities based off a dislike of something. Is fandom space considered Puritanical? No.

Where do fans go? Well, in the last decade, they migrated to Tumblr and Twitter (sorry Pillowfort- you gave it a good try!)

What’s different about all of these sites? Individuals are able to create and access content streams. These are hugely impactful in how communities are formed! Because now:

a) finding content is easier

b) finding content you dislike by accident is easier

c) content you dislike requires active curation to avoid

d) truly anonymous outreach is possible and easy (for example, you anon! Isn’t it much easier to go on anon to bring up awkward or sensitive topics? I’m happy you did by the way, and that’s why I keep my anons open. It’s an important contextual tool in the online communications world!)

Now the term Anti gets sprightly. Previously, if you didn’t like content, there was nothing you could really do about it. For example, I, at the tender age of way-too-young, opened up a page of my favorite Star Trek Deep Space 9 fansite and pixel by pixel with all the loading speed of a stoned turtle a very anatomically incorrect orgy appeared.

I backed out.

1. Who could I contact? There was no “message me here” button, no way to summon any mods on Angelfire sites.

2. If I did manage to find a contact button, I would have had to admit I went onto a site that wasn’t designed to keep me safe. I knew this was a site for adults, I knew there wasn’t a way to stop it from showing something. There was no such thing as tags. I knew all of this before going in. So the assumption was, it was on me for looking. (Some may have argued it was on my parents for not supervising me- all I can say is thank GOD no one else was in the living room and my mom was around the corner in the kitchen.)

But now? On Tumblr? On Twitter? In a decade in which tagging is so easy and ubiquitous it’s expected?

Now people who describe themselves as antis start to have actual tools and social conventions to utilize.

Which leads to immediate backlash! Content creators are confused and upset- fandom spaces have been the wild west for decades, and there’s still no sherriff in town. So the immediate go-to argument is that these people who are messaging them are “puritans”.

And that’s actually an interesting argument! A huge factor in shaping the internet’s social mores in the latest decades is cleanliness for stockbrokers. Websites can become toxic to investors and to sales if they contain sexual content. Over time, corporations perfected a mechanism for “cleaning” a site for sale.

Please note there is no personal opinion or judgement in this next list, it is simply a description of corporate strategies you can read during the minute meetings of shareholders for Tumblr, Twitter, Paypal, Venmo, Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo Answers, and Livejournal.

1. Remove sex workers. Ban any sex work of any kind, deplatform, keep any money you may have been holding.

2. Remove pedophilia. This is where the jump begins between content depicting real people vs content depicting fictional characters begins.

3. Remove all sexual image content, including artwork of fictional characters.

4. Remove all sexual content, including written works. If needed, loop back to step 2 as a justification, and claim you do not have the moderators to prevent written works depicting children.

I would like to reiterate these are actual gameplans, so much so that they’ve made their way into business textbooks. (Or at least they did for my Modern Marketing & App Design classes back in the early 2010s. Venmo, of course, wasn’t mentioned, but I did read the shareholder’s speeches when they banned sex workers from the platform so I added them in the list above because it seems they’re following the same pattern.)

So you have two groups who are actively seeking to remove NSFW content from the site.

A) Corporate shareholders

B) People are upset they’re seeing NSFW content they didn’t seek out and squicks them

Now, why does this matter for the debates using the term “puritan” as an insult? 

Because the reasons corporate shareholders hate NSFW material is founded in American puritanism. It’s a really interesting conflation of private sector values! And if Wall Street were in another cultural context, it would be a completely different discussion which I find fascinating!

But here’s the rub- that second group? They're not doing this for money. If there are any puritanical drives, it’s personal, not a widespread cohesive ideology driving them. HOWEVER! The section of that group that spent the early 2010s on tumblr did pick up some of the same rhetoric as puritanical talking points (which is an entirely separate discussion involving radfems, 4chan raids, fourth wave feminism, and a huge very nuanced set of influences I would love to talk about at a later time!)

These are largely fans who have “grown up” in the modern sites- no matter how old they actually are, their fandom habits and expectations have been shaped by the algorithms of these modern sites.

Now HERE‘s the fascinating bit that’s new to me! This is the interpretation of the data I’m getting, and so I’m out on a limb but I think this is a valid premise!

The major conflict in fandom at this time is a struggle over personal space online.

Content creators are getting messages telling them to stop, degrading them, following them from platform to platform.

They say “Hey! What gives- we were here first. The cardinal rule of fandom is don’t like, don’t read. Fandom space has always been understood to be adult- it’s been this way for decades! To find our content, you had to come to us! This is our space! This is my space, this is my blog! If you don’t like it, you’re not obligated to look!”

Meanwhile, at the exact same time, antis are saying “Hey! What gives- this content is appearing on my screen! That’s my space!  I didn’t agree to this, I don’t like this! I want it to be as far away from me as possible! I will actively drive it away.”

This is a major cultural shift! This is a huge change and a huge source of friction! And I directly credit it to the concept of “content stream” and algorithms driving similar-content to users despite them not wanting it!

Curating your online space used to be much simpler, because there wasn’t much of it! Now with millions of users spread out over a wide age range, all feeding in to the same 4-5 websites, we are seeing people be cramped in a technically limitless space!

Now people feel that they have to go on the offense to defend themselves against content they don’t like, which is predicated upon not only the algorithms of modern websites but ALSO talking points fed from the top down of what is and what is not acceptable on various platforms.

Time: 2010-2020. Is Anti a term? Yes. Who is the term used by? People self describing,and people using it to describe others. Is fandom space considered Puritanical? Depends!

So I, a fandom ancient, a creaky thing of old HTML codes and broken tags, am watching this transformation and am wildly curious for data.

Also...I uh....I can’t believe this is the short version. My ADHD is how you say “buckwild” tonight.

Anyways...um...if anyone has read to the bottom, give me data?

#Asks&Answers #fandom #anti #fandom discourse #gosh I've been on the internet a long time... #started at the 90s now we hear #I still sometimes think about the dudes who were HELLA salty about the eternal september #they talk about it like it was a war...you bring up Usenet and they go #I was THERE Gandalf

[ranawaytothedas]

slightly emotional venting...

I put the actual post below a cut if you want to avoid the emotional word vomit...

(TLDR - My anxiety over potential backlash for Maeve has caused my writing to slow and my anxiety over posting to increase because she is so much of a self-insert and I deal with a lot of my personal trauma with her...thus making her “problematic” in some people’s eyes. We also just need to generally be better to each other in the fandom... just a lot me rambling and spewing emotions...)

You know what’s frustrating when you want to put out new content but you are also in the middle of evolving your writing style and learning digital painting.. so you don’t have anything that you can/want to share. I have a bunch of half-finished oneshots....a folder full of WIP.... but nothing like... substantial... not right now.

Since becoming part of this fandom, one... I just am way more critical of all my work because DA is not an active fandom. The handful of things I wrote in my old style haven't done well.. I know that likes and comments are not the purpose behind writing but it’s nice. So that just makes me think I must be a shit writer... maybe I am... IDK.. but it’s forcing me to change the way I write to try and see... if I am a shitty writer. I have never doubted my ability to write fic...till now....

The second big factor is that has somehow, after 20 odd years of active fandom participation, I am actually scared to post stuff... I am scared for people to read my writing. I have lived a rather...shit... life... not looking for sympathy but it’s just a matter of fact. A lot of my trauma comes up in my fics (points to her AO3). This means I often write things that people could deem problematic. I make no secret of the fact Maeve is very self-inserty... Poly-Bi, snarky and deflects all real emotions with humor, has a soft spot for the unwanted creatures of the world, with a mischevious and sassy male cat <.<., that falls in love with a guy she has known most of her life and was like a brother for a time (this is actually how I ended up with my husband IRL), with a narcissistic control-freak mother who wants to impose her will upon her child... like guys... *gestures wildly* that is basically me... yes things are different but there is reason Maeve has such depth because I put sooo much of myself in her... She is fairly unique among DA OCs, at least through my digging and the pride I have in creating her and doing all this stuff for her is immense... like SO MUCH pride. I love each person that engages in Maeve’s content because like that engagement is validation for the countless hours I (and cornfedcryptid) have put in fleshing Maeve out (and she is still isn’t 100% there) and also because there is so much me in her... maybe I do take things a little more to heart with Maeve but... like I don’t know if I can express how much this character I created has come to mean to me...

So that fear of people reading her story and saying “Well... this is problematic. for all these reasons..” And then come at me is SO real. I has me actually terrified to do anything. I am not saying that I have had anything but fairly decent interactions with the fandom. Even the few times I have put my foot in my mouth or said something that was/could have been taken the wrong way... things were fairly civil. I am a grown-up and know that yes, I still have growth to do as a person... At 31 almost 32... I still have more to learn... but I just want to write my fic and be in my happy bubble of trash...

One reason I am so excited about all these little “fandom positive” things that are popping up lately is that it reminds me of the communities I was in back in the days of LJ and early tumblr... when people got excited over their friends and fellow fans creations... like some young people may have missed this but it used to be... amazing and I still am real friends with some of the people I met through these types of events. 

The modern world is a lonely, hate-filled, tragic place... I do all I can to make my corner of it less so...I retreat to the internet to find people who have the same interests as me because my life doesn’t afford me the ability to have a social life in the “normal” way... It doesn’t... I love my son, I would die happily for him... but he takes up so much of my attention, time and life... No regrets but it is what it is... I am home all day watching Paw Patrol and Super Monsters, doing laundry or cleaning.... It’s not some grand life... my grand life comes from being able to write fanfic...do art and make friends who enjoy doing the same...

I am really lucky to have made the friends that I have in this fandom, I meet amazing and lovely people... but I have seen a lot of really not nice things in my short time.. like these little events like the Awards and stuff like that can have consequences at times... I know this. I lived through LJ I KNOW THIS, but I also know that the intent behind these types of things are usually genuine and come from a place of wanting people to feel validated by their peers. 

I get people may be overlooked, I am one of them, but I also like to think I am self-aware enough to know that just because I may be overlooked because Maeve isn’t popular, my fear of potential backlash has slowed my writing to GRRM like pace so she has little actual content other than HC, a few drabbles and some art I did and really lovely commissions...that other people who even if they are “popular” don’t also want/crave/enjoy the validation that comes from people say... yes... I LIKE YOU... I LIKE WHAT YOU DO... here is the made up award that says WE LIKE YOU...  

I guess my point is... we need to be better to each other... I get why people don’t want to be nominated but it also is a sweet idea at it’s core... and we need to make this fandom a place (even a small corner of it) someplace where people aren’t petrified to post their fics... because feeling like this honestly sucks fucking ass...

#jane has emotional word vomit #feel free to ignore #I should probably delete this later but will forget

[blazehedgehog]

What are your thoughts about the seemingly recent trend of fandoms trying to claim ownership of a franchise they're into? Like the feeling that fans would be better at managing a specific franchise rather than the people who work on these things for a living. (Examples of this include the backlash and petitions against Star Wars and Game of Thrones, along with the "Sega should hire you, this is so much better than Forces!" comments you see regarding Sonic fan-projects)

It’s not a recent trend at all. Nerds today are the same as nerds back in 1993. What’s changed is the fact that the internet makes it easier to find these people than ever before. And I have to wonder… what is ownership? Who says who’s ideas are the right ideas?

A point I’ve hammered in over and over and over is how the whole comics industry operates. The guys who created Superman aren’t alive anymore. But Superman the character is still around. If you’re smart, and you’re in control of the Superman brand, you hire people who are fans of the character to keep writing new Superman content. That was true in 1985, in 1995, in 2005, and in 2015.

The only thing separating modern Superman comics from fanfiction is the stamp of approval from a bunch of people in business suits who inherited ownership when the real creators of Superman died. Because they say “this is official,” that makes it official. But you could write a totally normal, on-brand Superman fanfiction and there would be no difference between official and unofficial besides that stamp of approval. It would be the same story regardless.

(Yes, I know, it also means the difference between getting paid and being “part of the cannon” but that last point doesn’t matter as much as anyone thinks it does)

And the people who are writing Superman fanfiction today could be the same people writing official Superman comics tomorrow.

Back in 1995, you might have a friend or a bystander see your fanart and say, “You’re really good, you should work for Marvel Comics.” That would be one person, maybe two. Ever. In your whole life.

How do you do that in 1995? The internet is still in the infancy of mainstream adoption, and there aren’t really any websites or people you can ask about this topic. Do you just, like, send artwork in to their mailbag address? If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll probably get rejected. I sent design documents in to Sega in 1995, and I got rejected.

Maybe you go to a convention. You bring some sample artwork with you, you corner a guy from Marvel and show him your work. How often were comic conventions back then? Once a year? How far would you have to travel? Multiple cities? Multiple states? For a potential rejection? Back in 1995, this was a big, difficult headache.

But this is how much the internet has transformed our lives. Any artist can reach an audience of hundreds, thousands, millions of people. Anyone can just start a comic about anything they want to make, bypass the whole system, and turn that in to a solo career easier than ever before. If you’re determined instead to work with someone else’s IP, like you really love Spider-man and want to make Spider-man stories specifically, there are endless resources on how to build a portfolio.

That one or two people that urge you to strive for bigger and better things now probably do so through social media, an international forum where their one post could snowball in to a much greater campaign. That “one shot a year” window is now easier than making a phone call.

I use comics as an example here because that’s an established industry where this kind of thing is normalized. So you have Christopher Hastings, he starts Dr. McNinja in 2004, and by 2011 he’s just writing for Marvel Comics. First for Deadpool, then Longshot Saves the Universe, and eventually he created Gwenpool.

A lot of this can be applicable to any fandom. If you’re good enough and the property is around long enough there is a non-zero chance you might get to work with it in an official capacity.

But you have to be realistic, because it’s not actually going to be that easy. It’s never, ever going to be easy. And everyone forgets that. Everyone gets star struck by the glitz and glamor and never stops to think about the cold, hard, business machine that chews people up every single day. If you can do it, anyone can do it, which means a much larger pool of competition and sometimes the job goes to the guy who was 0.2% luckier than you. It still ultimately comes down to who you know and being in the right place at the right time.

The issue here is that the peanut gallery will never understand that. When that one guy encourages you to “do it for real,” he has no concept of what the professional side of that industry even looks like. He’s just paying you a compliment. Unfortunately the pessimism actually required for something like that isn’t fun or uplifting or complimentary. So that part never gets said, and it never gets thought about, which is part of the reason why it can get so out of control when it gains popularity with a larger crowd. Think of it like the opposite of a pity party.

Point is, these are old sentiments that have been around forever, it’s just the internet empowers people more than ever before, amplifying these ideas significantly. But there always were, and always will be people that are ignorant to the reality of this situation. My advice would be to not pay attention to them. Reality will find them eventually.

#questions #fandom #fan ownership #deadpool #comics #superman #marvel #portfolio #Anonymous #fanfiction #fan art #fan comics #dc comics #ownership

[safflowerseason]

would love to hear from OG stans but i think the story goes that in s3, the network interfered and schwartz was distracted, which created the marissa goes to public school mess. critics and corners of the internet, like TWoP, always hated marissa/mischa, and it reached a fever pitch in s3. so schwartz decided to course correct by killing her off (clearly a mistake). he's basically admitted to this. and he's long seemed apathetic about the character, so it was perfect storm

Hi! Thanks so much for joining the MARISSA DISCOURSE. I’ve tagged all the relevant posts about this topic with “the marissa discourse” if you’re interested in reading what other Anons have had to say about the behind-the-scenes drama (they are also all tagged with “the oc”, but you’ll have a wider range of posts then). You’re the first person to specifically bring up network interference, though! You do have to wonder how much pressure Schwartz was facing from them, and how much of it was Marissa/Barton specific. It’s also fascinating to think about how “fandom” has changed and not changed since the early 00’s…just how it has always possessed the potential for harm and toxicity, even as it is also a space for joy and collaboration. If you don't enjoy Marissa as a character because the writing for her wasn’t great or because you don’t find stories about privileged white girls compelling, that’s fine. But you know sexism was a part of the backlash too. There were bros in the early 00’s who thought Seth Cohen was a perfect rational god and Marissa sucked just because she was a girl with messy emotions. 

It’s also interesting how a showrunner’s preferences, subconscious or otherwise, have this ripple effect outwards. I’ve noted before that it can be super telling to look at how a male showrunner regards his female characters, even if she is the protagonist of the show (*cough* David Mandel *cough*)

#the oc #the marissa discourse

[starwarshyperdrive]

The Rise of Skywalker - adding my very important opinion to the internet.

Opinions are like **holes, everyone has one. Just that this isn’t true. People rarely substitute theirs with someoelse’s **hole. 

Looking back at some of my predictions I was wrong about some major plot points. I always said that the Bendemption and Reylo would make me walk out of the cinema. I thought it would be the two things that would ruin Star Wars for me and quite arrogantly assumed it’s ‘too stupid for Star Wars’. 

Now.. I stand corrected. To be honest, after the premiere I didn’t know what to think. Like everyone else I had this idea what the movie should be in my head. All the puzzle pieces I put together to a picture I liked. All the clues that lead my to my own personal conclusion. And like everyone else I saw the movie through this filter. 

I have to divert a bit to explain what I mean.

A Zen master was asked about Zen by a critical guest. Instead of answering he filled the guest’s teacup but did not stop pouring when the cup was full and the tea spilled out and ran over the table. 

"Stop! The cup is full!" said the guest.

"Exactly," said the Zen Master. "You are like this cup; you are full of ideas. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can't put anything in. Before I can teach you, you'll have to empty your cup."

Letting go of our expectations is hard. Very hard. There is comfort in the familiar. There is stubbornness in wanting to be right. The unknown is scary and we want to be in control of our own narrative. So I watched the movie again and saw it for what it is. I’m gonna be honest. I am a ‘true believer’ and apologist. I will find goodness in every bit. If you want to find mistakes you will find them. Psychologically we mostly make up our minds whether or not we’ll like the movie before we see it subconsciously. Then we just look for proof we’re right. I didn’t really want to see Joker. I expected it to be a pretentious attempt to make a Scorsese 70ies movie while lacking substance. And that’s exactly what I’ve got. Knowing what to expect in the 2nd viewing I was able to appreciate it more. There is so much depth and love for Star Wars in it that’s not apparent if you walk out of the 1st screening snubbed about what you don’t understand. I sound like a broken record when I say Star Wars is not a Comic Book movie, not everything has to be explained or tie into everything perfectly. Just look at the Original Trilogy. Nothing is 100% clear. Obi Wan is twisting the truth and nothing aligns perfectly. Star Wars is like a Greek myth. WHY did Thetis dip Achilles in the river Styx? What was her motivation? How could she forget to dip his heel? That’s stupid. That’s RUINING Greek mythology.   

I liked the movie, very much. I’m not even sure if it might not be my favorite sequel. Before I go into my thoughts here is what I didn’t like.

I liked it, yes, but that doesn’t keep me from agreeing that it seemed like a mash-up of fan-service. And with fan service I mean the kind of parents who have no idea would give their kids. ‘You like your Nintendos, right? The man at the shop said this is as good.’ It somehow felt like a panicked corporate decision to undo the backlash after The Last Jedi (a movie I have seen 13 times in the cinema and now consider to be the weakest installment since Attack of the Clones), so they mistook the loudest voices on the internet to be the most representative for all fans. So they had to include Bendemption and Reylo because ..fanfiction.. ?! And people have long asked for ‘bring back Legends’ so throw in a bit of that. And then we need Han Solo and the Emperor to save this trilogy after we made the mistake of not overseeing what these film makers actually do and have an overall idea for the trilogy and Rian Johnson wrote the story into a corner. The Last Jedi felt more like the 3rd movie of a trilogy, so what are we gonna do? Rey has to be SOMEONE, right? How about the emperor is suddenly interested in his bloodline for some reason despite the Sith never having cared about that (what is her midi-chlorian count?). 

But I can live with all of that and I have my explanations for everything. Palpatines son who must’ve been born after his face got all f**ked up. So was he a clone? Some sort of attempt to create life like Anakin? An artificially created baby like the Nazis did to get a super soldier, just to be able to possess his body and when he ran off and fled he was more interested in his ‘granddaughter’ because her body was even younger? Did the force skip a generation like some diseases.  Not everything has to be answered, but it’s fun to think about these things. I find this to be more Star Wars than the thought he had a wife all the time, which is absolutely not in character. 

The one thing I didn’t like was the super cringy, cheap jump-scare with monster teeth during the Dark Rey scene. We have seen this too often. It’s not ‘worthy of Star Wars’. It didn’t even look good in IT or any other movie. 

And the kiss? Would I have cut it out if I’d have something to say. YES DEFINITELY. Do I think it’s romantic and actually hints to romantic feelings? HELL NO! In my opinion their bond is different. Calling it romantic undermines their connection and ridicules something that could be very deep. Kylo/Ben even says it, they are a Dyad. Whatever that means, it surely doesn’t mean something straight-out of Twilight. I see the kiss as relief, burst of emotion. Not unlike a kiss a mother would give a child that has been missing or rescued from peril. Affection yes, romance no (aka ‘no tongue’). The beauty of it is that it’s ambiguous. If you want them to be in love, then you can think that for yourself, probably wondering why she is not really grieving.

I said I’d hate Bendemption and many people have stated that Ben should’ve survived. No offense but this is completely missing the point. The way his redemption is portrayed is absolutely beautiful. The shame and regret in Ben that leads him to the realization what he needs to do is what makes his who he is. He says it himself. He can’t go back to his mother. She sacrificed herself for him. He killed his father. Everything is lost for him. He made so many mistakes. But he can do the right thing for once by saving Rey. And this is why he disappears. This is why he became one with the force. If it he’d have survived there wouldn’t have been a redemption. Ben Solo was ‘weak and foolish’ which led him to the dark side. Ben Solo is flawed, the good in him understood that to kill the looming darkness he has to sacrifice himself. Like the Terminator at the end of Judgement day. This is what made the scene so powerful and mirrored Vader. Ironically you could say he finally became like Vader in the last moments of his life.

As for the emperor being alive. Why not. If you’re that sort of badass and considering that Maul and Vader both survived major injuries with the aid of the dark side of the force it’s not that unlikely. And here is something some people seem to miss. He is desperately looking for a new vessel to transfer his spirit into because he is a corpse. He is a corpse on life support. As hinted at in the movie and as explained in the visual dictionary he is being kept ‘alive’ by a mixture of medical aids and Sith alchemy. One might argue that ‘we never heard about Sith cultists and all that’ but that’s not entirely true. Even outside of the books, comics and what not there are things you can easily retcon to fit the narrative. Just look at the emperors advisors in Return of the Jedi. At the time of The Force Awakens there have been theories that Snoke is nothing but a puppet. I have used the Wizard of Oz comparison before. When we got to see him ‘in the flesh’ in The Last Jedi we were nothing the wiser. So that somehow adds up.

Chewie got a medal now? Well that just serves to show what I always say: no one in the cinematic universe cares a great deal about books and comics. A lot of fans are always so eager to see stuff from canon in the movies and get upset when there are contradictions (also see S-foil from Lukes X-wing being used as door) but I think it’s best to consider whatever is not in the movies as ‘soft canon’ and take it with a grain of salt. This might change in the future now that Star Wars is free of the shackles of the Skywalker saga and it;’s very likely they learned from the lack of consistency, but it also opens it up to mediocracy and weird stuff like the world between worlds and space whales.

If you only watched the movie once there are many things that might have slipped by you. Which is a shame. I think some f the outspoken critics will change their minds about the movie over time. A lot of the emotional backbone of the movie was in these tiny moments, such as the scene in which Rey feels that she won’t see Leia again and has to say good bye. It is in the open whether or not Leia feels it too and just taunts her by saying ‘tell me when you're back’.

Let me just say that Rose is absolutely cool in this. I always maintained the position that the backlash against her character was mostly based on the weak costume design that made her more like like a cosplayer. Now that she looked the part she was fantastic. It’s not about quantity. Her screen time was impactful. The argument that JJ cut her screen time in favor of his buddies is ridiculous and uninformed. Everyone had their specific parts to serve the story. According to the visual dictionary Dominic Monaghans character was a former teacher and served as the ‘Sith’ expert to explain why the Resistance wasn’t collectively going ‘umm wut?’ when they heard about Palpatine being back and all that. Greg Grunberg was the link to the fleet and Rose was at the heart of operations. I can't understand how this isn’t obvious. 

And in conclusion let’s talk about the impossible task to end a 9 part saga, with the additional challenge of having lost Carrie Fisher. Can you even imagine being in that predicament? How did JJ Abrams say yes to this? Well knowing that he’d get shit from all sides. RESPECT! It is a miracle the movie turned out the way it did. I liked it and if we look at the numbers of things I didn’t like in the other movies despite liking them it might become my favorite or close 2nd of the sequel trilogy over time. Only this blade tells.

#the rise of skywalker #star wars the rise of skywalker #jj abrams #star wars #star wars episode IX #the last jedi #return of the jedi #attack of the clones #the phantom menace #Revenge of the Sith #joker #A New Hope #star wars a new hope #The Empire Strikes Back #The Force Awakens #Star Wars The Force Awakens #rian johnson #chris terrio #carrie fisher #leia organa #kelly marie tran #bendemption #reylo #star wars legends #star wars fan #star wars leaks #star wars theories #star wars review

[eternalnight8806-3]

Ch 3 The Cat and the Fox

Category: Romance, Modern College AU

Rating: Will be Explicit but for now I’ll just say Mature for language and drinking

Pairing: InuKag

Words: 2,357

Also available on ff.net and AO3

Tag list: @keichanz @noviceotakus-blog @hinezumi @morikothehalfangel @cstorm86 @digital-art-monster @cammysansstuff

Enjoy!

 Hey, I have a kind of personal question for you

InuYasha rubbed his tired eyes and stretched. He had been staring at his laptop for the last 3 hours straight trying to finish this damn midterm paper. The sound of his phone buzzing caught his attention. Who the hell would be texting him at 2 a.m.? Miroku was downstairs with the other idiots watching some stupid Netflix show he never could get into about a women's prison. The goofy grin that spread across his face upon seeing her name was completely accidental, or so he would tell you.

 Shoot

 What happened to your mom? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was just sitting here thinking about it and I realized you never told me how she died. But it's totally fine if you don't want to tell me. I swear.

InuYasha almost laughed out loud at her obvious text babbling. It's cool. She had breast cancer.

 Oh sweetie I'm so sorry. It must have been so hard to lose her that way.

 Honestly, it wasn't long after her diagnosis. She was already stage 4 by the time they caught it. They tried everything they could but a month later she was gone. It was hard. Still is. I miss her a lot. She was my rock

 Yeah. I don't know what I would do without my mom. She's the kindest woman ever. She's always supported me in everything. You never mentioned your dad though?

 He died when I was a baby. I never knew him.

 Wow.

 Yeah. Hey what are you doing up anyway? I thought you had to work this weekend?

 I do. Couldn't sleep. My brain just won't shut off.

 Missed me that much in 24 hours?

 You're incorrigible

 Always

 You don't have a humble bone in your body do you?

 Maybe one

     *    eyeroll emoji      *  

 What time do you have to be up?

 In exactly 2.5 hours. I have to catch the 5:45 train to get there on time.

 Jesus woman! Go to sleep!

 I already told you I can't

 Do I need to come over and sing you a lullaby?

InuYasha regretted that the instant he hit send. She would definitely think he was total creepy bastard now.

 Lol. You don't know where I live

He hesitated before typing again. Fine. I'll call you. I hope you like shitty renditions of twinkle twinkle little star.

     *    a series of crying laughing emojis      *  

 Can't be worse than my little brother trying to sing to our cat Buyo.

 You have a brother?

 Yep

 Me too. Well a ½ brother. Older. And an asshole.

 Oh yeah? Ever talk to him?

 Not really. Like I said he's an asshole.

 Got it. Foxy doesn't like his big bro

InuYasha's eyebrow quirked. Foxy?

 Ummm... yeah???

 What is that?

 Ummmm

 Your name?

 Is it now wench? ;)

 Ha. Ha.

 Hey, what do you call me?

 Catwoman

 I suppose that makes sense.

 Why do you call me Foxy? ;)

 Because of your       costume  

 Suuuuuuure

 You're obviously delusional

 Am I?

 Severely.

 Well you're the one talking to me at 2:45 in the morning

 Yeah. I know. I need a padded room next to yours

 So I can sing twinkle twinkle for you?

 OMG stop! I'm going to wake up my room mate!

 Sorry...

 You really should get some sleep wench.

 I know.

 Night Foxy

 Night wench

InuYasha couldn't sleep after that. He felt guilty for keeping her up, even though she had texted him first. Inane images scrolled past his eyes as he delved into the internet black hole, searching for something to occupy his mind. Finally, when he realized it was about 5 minutes past the time she said she had to be awake, he decided to make sure she had gotten up ok.

 Wakey wakey wench

Kagome groaned aloud at the sound of her alarm. She tried to roll over and go back to sleep but then her phone dinged.

 Don't wanna

 C'mon. You gotta. That job you love so much is beckoning

 Damn you

 You're cranky in the morning ain't ya?

 Only for people who won't let me sleep

 But you have to go babysit brats

 Uggggh. Fine. I'm up. Happy?

 Are you actually up? Like out of bed?

 Kagome put her feet on the floor next her bed.  Yes...

 Don't believe you

She sent him a picture of her feet on the floor.

 Sexy

 Shut up jerk

 Get ready for work wench

 I would if someone would quit distracting me

 I'm distracting huh? ;)

 You're maddening

 Only for you wench

 I'm getting dressed now

 I'll be right over

 Ha. Ha.

 Again, I remind you, you don't know where I live

 I'll sniff it out

 Very funny

 Seriously, I'm up and getting dressed now

 Go back to sleep

She pulled off her nightclothes and tossed them in the direction of her hamper as she made her way over to the closet. Pulling out a sweater and jeans, she made her way back over to the bed where she'd laid her phone.

 Never did

 What? Why?

 Just distracted

Kagome wasn't sure what to make of that, so she decided to ignore it as she pulled the jeans up over her hips. Then go to sleep. Weirdo.

 Only after I know you get to work ok

 You're nuts. I won't get there for another hour!

 So?

 Go to sleep.

 Nope. Gotta know you're safe.

The sweater made it's way over her head and down to her waist. Overprotective much? She grabbed her hairbrush and set to work on her tangled mane.

 Only of cheeky wenches

 Oh now I'm cheeky?  The hairbrush returned to her nightstand.

 Yep

Kagome picked up her purse and keys before quietly exiting her room. I'm leaving now. Go to sleep

 I told you, not til you're at work

Kagome didn't respond during her 20 minute walk to the subway station. She hoped he would fall asleep waiting for her to text back. No such luck.

 Oi wench! Where'd you go?

 To the train

 Hahaha

 Cheeky wench

 You on the train?

 I am now.

 Good. How long of a ride is it?

 20ish minutes

 What do you normally do on the train at too damn early o'clock?

 Lol. Well, listen to music, or read. Sometimes I people watch but there aren't too many people on the train this early on Sunday.

 People watch?

 Yeah. People will do the weirdest things when they think no one is watching them. I've seen people practically doing it right in front of me before

 Doing what exactly? ;)

 Shut up

 Never wench

 You make it too easy

 Do I now?

 Yep.

 Will you just go to sleep?

 You at work?

 No

 Then I'm gonna go with no

 How did I see that coming?

 Idk maybe because I've said it like 1000 times already

 Alright alright I get it.

 '  Now approaching 10      th     street station' came the automated voice over the loudspeaker. Kagome stood and slid her phone into her pocket to keep it from falling out of her hand as she exited the train. Since the station was nearly deserted it was easy for her to maneuver her way out to the street to make the short walk to work. Once outside, she saw that the sun was now fully on the horizon, creating beautiful hues of pink and orange. Stopping for a moment, she smiled and took it all in. The crisp autumn air whipped her raven locks around her shoulders. Seeing the sun between the trees, Kagome couldn't resist the urge to snap a photo with her phone and send it to her new self-proclaimed watchdog.

 Isn't it so beautiful Foxy?

 Just like you wench ;)

Kagome snorted as she walked and texted at the same time. You don't know what I look like

 Sure I do. Long black silky hair, eyes the color of dark chocolate, ivory skin. See? I know

 Still, you've not seen my face

 Don't have to

She didn't know how to respond to that. Lucky for her though, she rounded the last corner before coming up to Yoro North's front door. She took a picture of her hand opening said door and sent it to him.

 All safe. Please sleep now? I'd feel awful if you didn't get any sleep because of me

 Not your fault wench. I'm a big boy. But I promise I'll close my eyes now. Have a good day at work.

 Thanks Foxy. Sweet dreams!

Kagome tucked her phone back into her pocket as she walked right past Ayame's death glare without giving the girl a second glance. As she stepped around the corner to make her way back to the classroom, she found herself cemented smack dab into Koga's chest.

“Whoa there, sweetheart!” He said as he grabbed her shoulders and gently pulled her back. “You alright?” He asked, genuine concern in his voice.

Kagome shook her head to clear the fog from having the wind knocked from her slightly. Looking up into his sky blue eyes, she didn't miss the smirk that crossed his features at her antics. “I-I'm fine, Koga. Thanks. Hey, actually there was something I wanted to run by you if you've got a minute?”

“Sure thing, darling. Step into my office?”

Kagome had noticed his use of several terms of endearment in the last few days, but she didn't mind it so she didn't say anything to her new boss about it. Instead, she walked into his office and sat herself down without being prompted. Koga came around her to sit himself on the edge of his desk, crossing his arms lazily and smiling down at her.

“What can I do for ya, love?”

“Well, I've noticed that we don't ever take the kids anywhere outside of this building and its grounds. Is there a reason for that?”

Koga's face took a decidedly less happy appearance. “Kagome, this building is all that stands between these kids and the outside world. Humans aren't exactly welcoming to our kind, with the exception of the rare person such as yourself. We don't take the kids anywhere for their own protection but also for yours. You've seen how they can be with eachother. Imagine if they did that to a human? The backlash would be catastrophic.”

Kagome frowned. “So, they never get to leave here? Ever?”

“We occasionally take them to other facilities to interact with other children, but for the most part, yeah, they stay here.”

“And it's absolutely out of the question to take them to say a park?”

Koga's eyebrow quirked up in interest. “A park? Kagome, we have outside areas here for them.”

“I know that, Koga, but they should interact with other kids. Even human ones. I think it'll be good for them to socialize outside of their comfort zones. Some of them desperately need it. Besides, imagine if you were on the front lines of demon-human coexistence?”

Koga sighed deeply. “Kagome, I wish things were different but they're just not. I can't allow you to put the kids or yourself in that kind of danger. I'm sorry.”

The look of supreme disappointment that crossed her features nearly caused the wolf to cave. “If you say so, Koga. I'll go relieve Ginta and Hakkaku now.” She stood and exited his office with slightly slumped shoulders. She had been so sure she could convince him to let her take the kids out for a little while. Sighing, she decided she would just have to keep working him down until he agreed. Eventually, he would see her reasoning.

xxx

The next two weeks almost flew by for both InuYasha and Kagome. Even in the midst of studying for their impending final exams in a couple weeks, the pair never let a night pass without talking. It became part of both of their routines. They both looked forward to hearing from the other. Something that both of their respective room mates had not failed to notice.

“InuYasha, are you ever actually going to meet this girl?” Miroku asked his hanyou friend one Saturday afternoon.

“I have, jackass.”

Rolling his eyes, Miroku huffed. “You know what I mean. Sango and I have actually been on actual dates and you know, know eachother's names.”

“Bully for you. Now fuck off.” InuYasha practically yelled as he tried to stick his headphones on his ears.

Sighing, he took his friend's obvious hint and went downstairs to meet Sango. Upon seeing her leaning against the banister, fingers looped in her jeans, he couldn't help but smile. She smiled back and asked, “Everything ok up there? I thought I heard someone yelling.”

Miroku took his girlfriend's hand and went to exit the house. “Yeah. Just my room mate being an idiot.”

Sango raised an eyebrow in question. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. He met a girl at the Halloween party but has yet to actually learn her name or even see her face outside of whatever mask she was wearing. They just text constantly.”

Sango's eyes widened. “Th-they do?”

Miroku didn't hide his puzzled expression. “Yeeeeeah...”

“Um... well...”

Stopping mid step on their trek to the campus food court, Miroku eyed his girlfriend suspiciously. “Sango?”

Biting her lip, the girl looked down at the concrete. “I think your room mate is texting my room mate.”

Eyes widening to nearly the size of saucers, Miroku burst out laughing. “You're kidding!?”

Shaking her head, Sango responded, “Nope. She calls him Foxy. I guess he was wearing a fox costume or something?”

Miroku was nearly on the ground by this point. “Jesus! Yep. That's him.”

“I don't see how this is so funny.”

Finally calming himself, Miroku placed his hands on her shoulders, “Because my dear Sango, this cannot be purely coincidental. Maybe the strings of fate had a hand in this, eh?”

Sango rolled her eyes. “You're an idiot. What are we gonna do? I can't just lie to her.”

Placing a finger on his lips thoughtfully, Miroku had a dangerous gleam in his eyes. “Mayhaps you won't have to my dear...”

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#inuyasha #inukag #inuyasha fanfic #inuyasha fanfiction #my writing #my fanfic #my fanfiction #modern au #college au #the cat and the fox #chapter 3

[omg-kat]

WIP - GREY<AREA>

In a life soaked in fear, how can I even know what’s real anymore?  

-- A Sci-Fi Horror

The A.V.R.A System 

(Augmented and Virtual Reality Assistant)

     The A.V.R.A system was created almost 150 years ago by a team of scientists, engineers, and programmers. At that point, the system was sold as a visor with an interactive screen and built-in headphones. Nearly 100 years ago, the A.V.R.A contacts and earbugs were introduced.  There was some backlash, though. Many people still used their visors because the earbug required a surgical procedure for the device’s dock. The procedure is relatively pain-free, like getting your ear pierced, and there are rarely complications. It didn’t take long for users to catch on. Now, 150 years after the launch, over 90% of the population uses the contacts and earbugs.

There have been many different accessories and uses for A.V.R.A of course. The most recent, and most popular, is the camera drone. The camera can be controlled through A.V.R.A, letting the user command it to go anywhere, follow, or stay. Many people in the younger demographic enjoy programming their camera drone to look like animals, sprites, characters, and almost anything else under the sun. These are aptly named Familiars, since most people choose animals that fly for their camera’s AR overlay; most drone users tend to have their Familiars on at all times. This doesn’t mean they can record anywhere. Banning users from taking photographs and videos on your property is as simple as filling out a form and paying a small fee. Some places, like theaters, are required to ban the use of the Familiars. Other places, like courthouses, ban any A.V.R.A use altogether.

On the flip-side, there are many citizens who do not use A.V.R.A at all. Since the beginning, there have been outliers who did not trust the system. At its creation, the TOS claimed they would never allow the government to spy on A.V.R.A users. Of course, there were those that were skeptical. Convinced there were loopholes, some people vowed never to touch A.V.R.A Most citizens see these people in a very negative light. If not by propaganda, then by the natural human desire to push away anyone who thinks very differently from the majority.

Anti-A.V.R.As or “Antis” generally live in small, close-knit communities. These can be easily distinguished from everywhere else simply because of the design. Rather than the featureless architecture and design in the suburbs and cities, which make a perfectly plain background for AR overlays, these small Anti-towns are filled with colorful pigments, unique architecture, and trinkets of all shapes and sizes.

Other than the aesthetic appeal of AR and the games offered on the VR function, A.V.R.A has many uses that have been so integrated in society, that they’re deemed absolutely necessary. These functions necessary for personal use also includes: GPS, internet browsing, currency phone/messaging, storing contacts/files/photos, personal planner, viewing movies and tv shows, and so much more.

Businesses need their A.V.R.A to succeed in every aspect. Advertisements in audio and VR overlay can be seen anywhere in the city. Since most people use their A.V.R.A to pay, any business intending to make money uses an AVRA credit processor.  Even their financial records, product ordering, and inventory systems are all done in A.V.R.A.

Most artists use A.V.R.A as their medium. Physical art has its moment, but it never sticks quite like A.V.R.A art has.

A.V.R.A’s overlay designs have their own trends, though. At the start, neon was all the rage. These days, neon is making a massive retro comeback. The result is very cyberpunk. Turning on your A.V.R.A can be an exhilarating, because of the stark contrast between bleak greys of the physical architecture and design and the glowing lights in an AR overlay, casting vivid colors from every corner.

#wip boost #writeblr #WIP #amwriting #science fiction writing #A.V.R.A #GREYAREA