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erika-xero · 1 year

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A small guide to commissioning artists: how to avoid getting scammed by people who use image generators

Because “Ai-art” is not art and everyone can use image generators for free.

Disclaimer! This post will include generated images which were originally uploaded on DeviantArt and Twitter by people who generated them. Some of these images are of erotic genre but censored out. I beg you, do not bully these people. This post wasn’t written to call anyone out, it was written to help human artists and their potential commissioners. While some of the “Ai-artists” out there may be real scammers, others are not, and I strongly believe that no one should be bullied, doxxed, stalked and no one deserve any threaths over some silly ai-generated pics. And - as always! - scroll down for the short summary.

Commissioning an artist in 2023 may be scary, especially if you are not experienced in working with artists and have a hard time to distinguish artworks from images generated by neural networks. But even now, with the tech evolving and with neural networks generating pics with multiple characters and fan art, there are still quite a few ways to avoid scammers.

The creator you are going to commission must have an established gallery

This doesn’t mean that you should not commission someone who is new to platform, someone who started drawing in 2022 or later or someone who didn’t upload their work online prior. Image generators actually forced some of the artists to remove their work from social networks. In addition, image generators can generate thousands of images within hours, which means that the scammers may have quite a lot of works uploaded. What I mean is that real artists grow. Their skills gets better over time – even if they are already established artists with huge experience. Their artistic approach constantly changes and evolve. It means that if there are hundreds of images in the artist’s gallery but their skill is always the same level and their artistic approach doesn’t change over time – this definitely might be a red flag. As an artist with a tendency to nuke my galleries on certain platforms (such as DeviantArt, VK and ArtStation), if I get asked to provide my commissioners with examples of my early artworks I will do it with no hesitation.

You need to look through the artist’s gallery and analize their work

Searching for some decent examples on DeviantArt I stumbled upon a gallery which is four weeks old but already has 660+ deviations all of which look the same way in the matter of skill and artistic approach. While stylization may vary from image to image (some of the artworks look like typical anime-styled CG artworks from visual novels and others have semirealistic proportions), the coloring, the “brush” imitation, the textures on the backgrounds are absolutely the same on every image I analized.

There are a lot of images depictinioning conventionally attractive white or sometimes asian girls in this gallery, some of which seem familiar or resemble the characters from various media. Yes, image generators can now generate fan art. But what they can not generate is diversity. There are of course living artists who tend to draw only conventionally attractive white or asian people too, but now when the image generators gain popularity this lack of diversity automatically raise my suspicions. Drawing a crooked nose or dark skin is not hard and living artists who use references rarely fail at it. It’s image generators who fails this task constantly.

Here is an image titled as a commission. The person who uploaded it also have some content under the paywall and I do not see their images being tagged as Ai-generated too.

Remember the golder rule: spotting an Ai-generated image is the same as spotting the evil faerie in a dark folklore tale. Look them in the eyes. Count their teeth. Look at their hands and count their fingers. Check if they have a shadow and if that shadow is of human form.The devil is in the details.

While this image may appear like a hand-painted artwork of the conventionally attractive girl at the first sight, however it has quite a few clues that may help you to realize that this artist is a scammer and his entire gallery is just a selection of most-decent looking images they managed to generate with neural network. This elven girl is insanely tall, and the shore behind her back, the stones, the grass and the trees are insanely small compared to her. The piece of jewellry is attached to her nips and it’s design makes no sense. What is the gold chain under her breast, which doesn’t seem to be attached to anything? Where does this piece of cloth hang from? Why does her head cast a triangular shadow on her arm?

Many details are easy to be spotted when an image is in high resolution. I do not recommend artists to post their works in high resolution online to avoid feeding the Ai-monster and also to avoid people using your works to produce pirated merch if they draw fan art. Yet in my opinion posting close-ups might become essential - because people who call themselves ai-artists are usually hiding the artifacts under filters and upload their image resized. So yes: avoid commissioning artists, who never post high resolution faces or overuse filters and blur. Because analizing the characters’ faces is now essential.

You may look at this picture and think: how is this possible for a neural network to create such a detailed image and not fail at it (if you also ignore the fact that the girl on the horse doesn’t have legs). Luckily, the person who uploaded it uploaded it in high resolution, so we can zoom in and... yeah.

The artifacts on these evil faeiries’ faces (especially eyes) and their hands speak for themselves.

Image generators have a tendency to either give characters extra fingers, phalanx or nails or hide the hands completely, if the person writing a prompt decide to to so. I do not know whether and how fast will the algorythm learn to generate normal human hands, but for now you should pay attention to these details to spot a generated image.

Like this randomly nakey fellow with two palms on a single wrist and with some extra fingers on their elbow...

...Or this Asuka Langley fan “art” I had to censor out, with her fingers twisted and crooked.

If you are up to commission an artwork and are in search of an artist who will actually do the job you absolutely must pay attention to small details on their works: the clothing, the jewellry, the tattoos, the anatomy.

While Ai-generated images may appear photorealistic at first sight, the neural network usually misses small details, creates artifacts and makes mistakes if there are too many similar objects or repetative patterns. For example, the infamous MidJourney Party Selfies depicting girls with roughly fifly teeth, extra collarbones and green watercolor spots instead of tattooes (and don’t forget to check the ginger lady’s hand). The hair dissolwing in fabric folds? Image generator. The clothing designs which makes no sence? Image generator. Jewellry dissolwing into character’s hair? Image generator. Moreover the image generators also make mistakes while generating interiors and architecture, since the algorythm is not aware of perspective and space and once again fails either at perspective and object size or with repetative objects and patterns.

Like this image here: the bed, the window, the picture on the wall. The perspective on this image makes absolutely no sense: two walls and the bed all exist in different dimentions, while the character is once again of enormous height.

If you try to analize the background on this one, I swear, you can go insane. Look at the window and then look on the corner above it.

There is also another red flag which makes it easy to spot a scammer: dozens of iterations of the same image, which usually happens with people who can’t choose the best image out of the bunch generated with the single prompt.

There are, of course, artists who do series of works, and sometimes these works may have similar ideas and themes, but they hardly ever look this similar to each other: they may differ in angles, poses, character designs and even the artistic approach (lineart, brushes, rendering and etc). The posting time is also important: drawing an actual artwork requires time and effort - for example, I need at least two weeks to finish an artwork with two or three characters and detailed background. So a bunch of ten similar images that are uploaded at the same time it is definitely a red flag. The ai-generated images have a lot of problems with anatomy, details, perspective and other basics human artists have to learn long before they become professionals. All while having glossy semi-realistic render which can only be achieved with years of practice. I’m not saying that there are no living human artists, who may make mistakes (everyone makes mistakes now and then, even the professionals who works in this industry for DECADES) or who choose not to give much thoughts to backgrounds while focusing on characters and rendering (it is okay too), but the combinations of various red flags listed above is something you definitely have to take in account while deciding whether or not you are going to commission an artwork from this creator.

Another example (this person openly admits that they use the images generators for funsies and I did not find him mentioning paywall anywhere). The image generator even imitated the watermark.

Red flags you may spot while working with the chosen artist

Image generators are tricky: they can generate multiple iterations of the same image, imitate WIPs and many more.

First of all, the artist should provide you with WIPs on every stage of work, not when the work is already done. We artists, do it for a reason. We need your feedback constantly, even if you grant us artistic freedom to chose the idea, the character pose, the medium and technique. There are always changes to be made, and we need to make them at proper stage: for example, change the pose or angle of your character while working on a sketch is thousand times easier than to do so while rendering the image. However, the minor changes are usually possible on the later stages (some of artists may require you to pay a small fee of a few bucks, others may not). While the living artists can easily change small details such as the character’s eye color (or other small design changes) not touching the rest of the artwork, image generators simply can not do so not rerendering the whole image. If an artist does not provide you with WIPs or only provide you with them when the work is done, if an artist refuses to make any changes - these may be interpreted as red flags. If an artist agrees to make any change, even the drastic ones, at a late stage, when the piece is almost finished - it is a red flag too. Ask for a small change every single time you need one. I know that there are artists out there who prefer to only provide their client with the finished image once it is done, but now when image generators gain populatiry his may be misinterpreted as if you are a scammer.

Here is a good example of image generators generating WIPs for an existing image: it might actually look scary both for many artists and many commissioners.

I know that some of the artists are panicking that the only way to prove that you really did the artwork is a timelapse recording but this method is not for everyone. Not everyone has a setup which allow them to record a timelapse for an every single commission (my laptop will simply explode if I try). Ask your artists which software/setup do they use, ask them whether or not they can provide you with a timelapse video, ask them which brushes do they use. I know that not everyone like sharing info on their pipeline but at this point it is essential to provide your clients with information on the information about your pipeline, tools and software. For example, if your artist works in Procreate (which is available in Ipad) they have all the timelapses recorded automatically. But please, mind that not everyone have such a privilege.

As a commissioner you can ask an artist for screenshots of their workspace with all the interface visible. If they refuse providing you with that or have a hard time answering the questions about the software they use it might be a red flag. I would also suggest you not to force your artist to draw everything on stream, especially if these streams are public, because there are already cases when people took screenshots of the work in progress, used the image to image generator to apply the shiny rendering to it and accused the original artists of plagiarism. It is a risk for artists and it is okay to refuse such a request. You can also ask an artist for .PSD file of the commission, but the artist have a right to refuse sharing it online for copyright-related reasons. The original .PSD file is a best proof of authorship in court for residents of many countries. Artists can still provide you with the resized .psd file with some of the layers merged or with the background/character png with transparent background without putting themselves at risk. Of course there are artists who draw on the single layer - but without a timelapse recorded this may indeed seem suspicious that the artist does not have a .psd file with layers at all. Always ask your artist to provide you with high resolution image when the commission is finished and fully paid for. There are artists who works on smaller canvases, but working on the canvas smaller than 1000px wide might be interpreted as a red flag, since it is easy to hide artifacts on a resized image. I myself prefer working on larger canvases, from 6000 pixels wide to 10000 pixels wide (300 DPI) because I had an experience with printing my images out to sell them at conventions. While I do not sell commissioned works as prints I still give my commissioners a right to print the finished images out for non-commercial purposes. Thus, I always make sure that it is possible to make a wall print of a decent size out of the finished product. Avoid working with platforms which do not support refunds. It must either be a payment system which support sending invoices or an established platform known and used among the art community (patreon, buymeacofee, boosty, Paypal and etc.). Most artists do not do refunds for finished works — which is absolutely a right thing to do - but sometimes an error might occure. I know people who accidentally paid for their commissions twice and the artists still had to do a refund. Yes, you must respect the artists Terms of Service, but ithas nothing to do with unrelyable platforms used to scam people.

To sum it up

Search for an artists with established galleries,which has a believable amount of works and the visible artistic progress/evolution;

Analyze the artist's gallery, carefully inspecting their work for anything that might be interpreted as a red flag. Excessive fingers, crooked hands, broken perspective, clothing designs and jewellry that makes no sense, extra collarbones, lack of diversity, excessive teeth, artifacts in the eye area, interior and architecture elements which makes no sense — all while the images being glossy, fully rendered as if the artist have decades of experience;

Avoid people with too many iterations of the same image in their profile;

Avoid people with too many images being uploaded at the same time (it is okay to upload a bunch of prevoulosly done artworks when you start running your account, but uploading hundrends of images every week for a long period of time is really suspicious);

Ask for constant WIPs. Give feedback at a proper time. See the reaction;

Ask for a small change when the image is almost finished: it is impossible for the image generator to do so without fully rerendering the image, at least for now;

Ask your artist which software and assets do they use;

Ask (if it is possible) for a timelapse recording — either if the commissioned work or at least of one of their previous works (if they had an opportunity to record it before);

Ask your artist for in program screenshots with visible interface and history (if possible);

Ask your artist to show you the layers of the artwork — at least character/background only layers (mind that the background might be less detailed/wonky at the places which usually are hide but the character's figure). Ask for a resized .psd with some of the layers merged or a gif animation of each layer being added on top — this is what I usually do;

Ask for high resolution file of the commissioned image once you paid for it and it is finished. If the artist doesn’t have it and claim to work on the canvas smaller than 1000 px wide and/or claim that they intentionally delete the original file somehow - this may raise suspicions. Of course a person can delete the file accidentally or have their hard drive crushed, but if you have already spotted some red flags while working with this artist it might be a sign of a person trying to scam you too;

Many of the stuff listed above might be interpreted as a red flag , but I strongly advice you not to judge anyone by one or two points from this post. For example, a person can draw on one layer and mess up the perspective on a drawing entirely! However, if you've played a bingo and suddenly won — you have most likely encountered a person who try to fool and scam you;

Avoid working with suspicious payment methods. If you never heard about a platform before — google it and see whether or not other established artists use it. If not - it might be a scam;

And remember! People may use the images generators for various reasons: for fun, to create references of their characters to later commission reall artists artworks with said character (for example, the art breeder is a useful tool to create arealistic image of the character, even though I find it slightly limiting). Yes, image generators are unethical and trained on copyrighted data, but a person using it may not be aware of this problem. Not every single person who call themselves an “Ai-artist” has malicious plans to scam people or to gain wealth using their funny little tool. Sometimes they do it for fun and do not pretend that it is anything more that a game. Thank you for reading this far and good luck with your commissions!

Have a picture of an absolutely normal and realistic woman, generated by the neural network!

#ai art #ai art is not art #support real artist #support human artists #support artist #how to spot ai #how to spot a scammer #scam #art scam

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sashi-ya · 3 months

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𝑻𝑶 𝑺𝑻𝑬𝑨𝑳 𝑨 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻. Trafalgar Law x F! Reader

🌨 a/n: so I recently been to Austria, a country I often visit since it's literally like a dream. (plus, my mom knew she was pregnant with me there, so I was used to come back to Innsbruck as much as I could with her). But in any case I got inspired there to write this little fic, that might -or not- be a multi chapter one if you all like it. The place exists and the scam part, happened to me -kinda, the airbnb existed, but not as it was listed :P- but in any case, please enjoy and don't forget to leave some feedback if you want more~ ❄ tw: a very sfw story, that might evolve into something else if you want me to keep writing about their trip 😏 ☃ wc: 2.6k

Hijacking for the first time, what could go wrong? Maybe everything, maybe nothing.

A two-month long trip all around Europe has found you on a little village of Austria. Your boots are cold, but luckily they are snow proof ones. Your skin all bumpy, your cheeks irritated. It’s been snowing all night, and despite the sun rising for now, some clouds in the sky menace with more white blessing to fall upon your shoulders very soon.

Those little mountain streets around the Alps are wonderful, they surround mountains going up and down and in a spiral way. But those are wonderful, as long as you can drive a car with heating. And you don’t have one right now.

The crunchy sound of the snow beneath your boots mix with the melody of a glacial river running in between the mountain and the road. It is certainly beautiful, the little rocks and stones being bathed by such pure and cold water, the rests of dry leaves and some moss growing on an everlasting shadow casted by tall, enormous peaks. Everything is worth taking a picture, but you should prioritize your battery life this time around. The GPS is sometimes wonky, being that high can affect the service.

Many cars have passed by, but none of them have stopped. Little lorries carrying logs pass, cars completely drenched in dirty snow and that mix of salt that roads have during winters.

However, just when your hopes for finding someone to at least give you a ride to the next village were about to run out, the yellow shine of an old VW ban flashes before your eyes.

There, behind a curve -a very dangerous one if you ever went to the mountains- something smells like smoke and a tall man of white furry hat swears up to the skies.

You walk towards him, carefully. Who knows what is happening? Who knows who that man is capable of? There is one thing you are sure, however, and it is that this man is absolutely mad at his old van.

When peaking behind a dark wooden tree that’s now covered in spots of white snow, you discover the annoyed man is a young -handsome- one.

His van, a little rusty but still cute, seems to be having problems to keep going and the smoke coming from it shows it very well.

“Sir? Sir! Your van is catching fire!” you announce, realizing the smoke is indeed a very serious issue.

The guy of chocolate skin and tattooed hands turns around to look immediately at you and then to the back of the van. Those 70’s vehicles had actually their engines right in the back instead of the front.

And Indeed, you were right. Apparently the climb had been too tough for the poor old VW and its engine couldn’t take it any longer.

He quickly opens the back door, maybe searching for a fire extinguisher while you grab fistfuls of snow in an attempt to put down the incipient flames. Quickly enough, and with not many damages to count, the fire stops, and the only thing left is a big black spot on the back of the caravan.

“Thank you” he says, as dry as hopefully your socks. “No problem. What happened? Did the engine over heat?” you ask, curious despite his “I don’t want friends” face. “Yes; these hills are no joke. This never happened to my Polar, but there is always a first time…” he sighs, assessing the damage with a sad expression.

Apparently his van has a name; “Polar”. That’s very cute, and his eyes too. A golden shine in them looks even beautiful with the pristine white around. His tattoos do as well. You wonder about his name, and what is he doing on the road, but you are not sure if it’s proper to ask. However, he asks first.

“What are you doing here? do you have a car?” he mumbles, his voice is as attractive as he is. His eyes scan the place, but nothing catches his attention.

“No, I am actually hijacking. No one stopped so I started walking before the sun starts going down. I definitely got scammed; the Airbnb I was supposed to stay in didn’t, in fact, exist.

He grunts, almost silently. Apparently he is not happy with what happened to you but that’s it.

“Well, that’s so unsafe. I am sorry I can’t give you a ride right now. Apparently none of us have been blessed with good luck today” he says, walking around his vehicle with long legs covered in spotted jeans.

You nod. Your tongue is aching to ask about him, but you clearly catch the hint… he doesn’t want you there.

“Yep. Well, I wish you luck! I must keep going” “Same to you, be careful”

He doesn’t even look at you, something that makes you -somehow- very sad. In any case, you start walking away. There is no point in staying there… even if you have great mechanical skills that could help.

And as you do, you also have a very, very loud consciousness voice screaming at you on how could you leave him with no solution if you know it…

“Sir, you should check your water level…” you shout, a few meters away from him. The sound of your voice echoes in the huge natural immensity of the Alps and his golden eyes finally fall upon you.

He stops moving for some seconds, lost in you. You, as well, wait for him to say something else. Something like “stay with me” or “don’t go”. A total stranger you want to hang up with. A total unknown woman he wants to protect.

“You know how to fix this?” “I do…”

Or so that was what you thought.

No more than a couple of minutes took you to help him out. VW vans are noble machines; they are durable and easy to fix despite their particular design. And soon, as a part of your payment, the man that you learned is called Law and you drove away through intricate roads and huge snowflakes.

“Where are you going, (Name)-ya?” he asks, handing you an old cover from an old comic, Germa 66.

“I was supposed to stay for a couple of days in Bad Goisern, and then I thought of visiting Salzburg. I am on a long trip through Europe. What about you?” you ask, cuddling with the blanket. A certain blessing for your freezing hands.

He nods, checking the breaks before going down the hill.

“I am too. I just graduated medical school and I thought of taking a little vacation before my residency starts. I’m going to be a surgeon. A cardiac surgeon” he tells, full of dreams he fails to cover up behind a tough guy expression.

You celebrate his success, and the next couple of hours become a ping pong of questions and answers. A smile on your face that leaves your cheeks hurting accompanies you until the sun hides and the little lights on the mountains start to scatter.

You didn’t want to go down in the first village, nor the second, nor the third. Law, didn’t want you to go down his van either. You named Salzburg, and he promised you to take you there.

But the night found both of you, and apparently your mechanical skills weren’t as good as you thought the would… Polar decided to stop, in the middle of nowhere during a dark, very dark winter night.

You close your eyes as the sound of rusty gears fail and Law’s annoyance grows stronger than ever. When Polar finally loses all of the power, Law manages to agonizingly park on the side of the road and a huge sighs escapes his lips.

You peak through your left eye; his DEATH tattooed fingers squeeze the wheel, and you know he will snap at any moment. But he doesn’t…

“I’m sorry. I thought- I-“ you try to give a plausible apologize, even though you had nothing to do with it.

“No. It is not your fault… it is mine- As we didn’t stop, I have completely forgotten to fuel Polar up” Law says, absolutely mortified for such stupid mistake. Apparently you were enough distraction to keep him from the basics of road tripping.

You breath alleviated and try to stop your upcoming laughter. Your grimacing did nothing to hide it, and a big burst of laughter took over the van and everything around.

Law looks at you pissed, but a soft smirk garnishes his lips. You can’t stop, perhaps it isn’t that funny… but you feel so happy right now. And you have no idea why, since you are literally stranded in a very dark wood with temperatures below 0C and snow pooling on top of that van.

“Welp, it’s ok. We should wait until tomorrow, then” you say, knowing the risks. “You- you prefer spending the night in here? aren’t you afraid of dying?” he asks, surprised.

“I am, in fact, scared of dying. That’s why I know very well I can’t walk during a snowstorm in the middle of the night in the Alps. Plus, you are too sweet to be considered a threat” you joke, searching for some chocolate inside your backpack.

Law narrows his eyes, deepening his frown. Apparently being called “sweet” and “not a threat” is not something he enjoys.

“I could cut you open and took all of your organs out during the night” he says, serious as hell. “Go for it. Don’t forget to steal my heart, doctor” you laugh, taking your jacket off.

Law is flabbergasted; he has never confronted someone like you before… but he is beginning to like it now.

A bar of chocolate that you had kept in your backpack for too long lays too close to his nose. You shake it, offering its sweetness to him.

He takes it but doesn’t eat it. Instead, his hand gets pressed against the window behind you. Law has pinned you against the door of your side. He is not a very muscular man, but he is indeed very tall and lean… if he wanted, he could do anything to you.

Your eyes widen, big as the moon. You swallow, thinking maybe walking through the forest might be a safer option.

“L-Law… I- didn’t mean to-“ you tremble, asking yourself where did you put the Victorinox blade you bought in Switzerland… it should be enough to defend yourself, right?

You notice his chest is also tattooed as his clothes open just a little. His arms, are too. His scent, despite the danger, smells deliciously tempting…

“Don’t trust strangers that easily, (Name)-ya” he whispers, a few centimetres from your lips. Letting you go after and biting the chocolate bar as if nothing has just happened.

You remain there, frozen up with your eyes widen and your lips softly trembling. He is, in fact, very right. Law is indeed a stranger, after all.

When oxygen finally begins to reach your lungs and brain again, you move and blink the dry eyes away. Silently you sit back, properly. You aren’t able to say anything, somehow you have run out of words.

You squeeze the blanket he gave you, covering you as much as you could, making yourself as tiny as possible on that old leather seat.

“Are you ok?” he asks, so nonchalantly.

“Ye-yes, I’m… ok” you mumble back, almost sticking yourself to the passenger door. “Is it ok if I go to sleep? I’m tired”

Law nods, confused. Maybe he was just joking around, but it did scare you big time. He goes down the van and opens the back doors. You look at him disappearing in the darkness until a very little glimpse of silver light coming from the moon filters through the doors.

But, soon after, fairy lights illuminate the back allowing you to discover a very cozy space behind the front seats.

“I am glad I installed this independently from the fuel tank. I have a little power generator for the back. It’s not a hotel bed, but it does the job” he says, showing you a precarious mattress covering the entire floor of the vehicle.

You smile softly, it looks cozy and pretty. The walls are full of random posters and maps, and there is even an old picture of a younger Law with three more guys wearing fancy hats with something written in the snow. You take a closer look at it, to discover it says, “Pirates of Heart” and you giggle. What a peculiar gang name.

“Law, this is really cute. You even have a lot of blankets and cushions!” you chime, easing a little bit.

“My best friend Bepo decorated it for me, I only helped him with the lights” he says, a little embarrassed.

You jump right back, leaving your backpack in the front seat and forgetting everything for the moment. What a reckless lover girl.

“I am going to sleep in the front seat, don’t worry. Use as many blankets as you need” he informs you, closing the back doors and leaving you there. You most probably were to say “no, stay here” but you simply couldn’t.

After all, this tattooed doctor is a gentleman. Right?

You let yourself rest for a bit on that improvised bed, with your sight blurring while looking at the fairy lights. The scent of the blankets and pillows is the same as him, something you secretly enjoy without even knowing. You catch a glimpse of the reflection of him sitting in the front through the back windows, at how he takes his hat off revealing a dark shade of onyx spiky hair.

For the next half an hour, or maybe less, you both become silent. The only sounds are the huge slaps of snow falling from the sky against the van and the subtle whistle of the wind filtering through the doors.

It is cold, but it’s probably colder in the front as Law is only using his Germa 66 blanket to cover up…

“Law? Are you awake?” you ask, shyly.

“Mh? Yes... why?” he asks back, with not much emotion but a soft tremble on his voice. He is probably cold, very cold.

“I feel bad for you; you must be freezing. There is plenty of room back here, you could sleep here. It’s ok with me” you say, taking advantage of not being in front of him.

Law takes a few minutes to move, but he ultimately does. He hops to where you are and sits there crossing his long legs. He is not wearing his black leather boots, so you can see Sora’s socks.

“Cool socks” you say, sitting right in front of him watching his cheeks go blushed. “Here, cover up. You are freezing, doc”

Both of you cover up with heavy blankets and fall into the mattress at the same time, facing each other.

Maybe, it is too strong to deny it. The attraction is natural, and you both can’t stop it… Exactly like the wind and cold reaching your skins.

“I am still cold” you mumble.

“I read in one of my books that the best way to keep the warmth of our bodies is to share it… skin to skin” he whispers, unable to take his eyes away from your lips.

“Is that so?” you breathe, coming closer to his embrace, allowing his arms to surround your frame and your hips to join with the other’s.

His forehead slowly touches yours, the bridge of your noses do as well. Your fingers, playfully but slowly, crawl to the crook of his neck. While his, squeeze your waist with delicate dominance. A leg that snake into the other’s, crossing, tangling…

Lips coming closer, so close. Breaths warming up, going faster and bumpy. Hearts that indeed had been stolen, the first kiss of two strangers, meeting for the very first time like two snowflakes join while falling from an endless sky

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤWill they continue their journey together? 🦢

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macsimagines · 2 months

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I was wondering if I could request yan! Mikey (any timeline you want) with a s/o that has ADHD if that's okay, and if not that's alright, also if your asks aren't open just ignore this, have a lovely day/night

bitch my adhd is so bad that it literally effected how im running this damn blog lmao not really yandere but still tagged

Warnings: MINORS DNI, NSFW

Yandere!Manjiro Sano

God bless your attention defective heart and brain, he loves you so damn much, now please stop walking in circles and tell him what the fuck do you mean bank accounts are a scam created by the shadow government?

You're everything to him though, you can't sit still to save your life, but that's fine because his pent house suite has plenty of rooms for you to walk in and forget what you're doing the second you do.

He's only slightly pissed off when you two are in the car and you're suddenly opening the door because there's a cat- "Get the fuck back in here-!"

Y/N Hyper focusing: "-however Flareon is the only fully evolved fire-type pokemon that cannot learn solar beam- is what I would say if I was an absolute fool and didn't know that in Gen 7-" Mikey midthrust: "That's nice Baby, Now keep your arch~"

He can be annoyed sometimes by it, especially when he comes home and the house is in disarray, but he quickly regains his composure after listening to you explain how you were cleaning then you realized the wheel on the vacuum was squeaky and how you needed to fix it but then you remembered that you didn't have a screwdriver in the house but in the garage and then while looking in the garage you found this really cool fucking rock-

Mikey loves you still despite it all. He also has this great method of keeping your refocused by just fucking you too stupid to think about anything else but his dick- "Did I leave the sprinklers on-" No, bitch- now get back to bouncing on his cock like a good girl.

#yandere tokyo revengers #yandere manjiro sano #yandere mikey sano

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hometoursandotherstuff · 2 months

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Willy Wonka experience uses AI renderings to sell tickets, delivers bleak nightmare: 'They charged $45 for this'

Snake oil salesmen have been around as long as we've had snakes and oil. Conmen have been preying on our vulnerabilities for decades, if not centuries, and they find new ways to get us every year. Sure, maybe we've evolved past thinking a dubious "miracle elixir" that smells suspiciously like urine is going to make our hair grow back, but we're not so immune to other kinds of wool-pulling.

Since the widespread use of AI, there are millions more ruses and tricks that malicious actors can pull on us, and we're none the wiser. Yes, if you're a certain amount of media literate, you know that's not Kanye West's real voice covering Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off," but it's easy to be fooled. Like in this example of AI used to some hilariously bleak real-world ends. Above is a hilarious almost Fyre Festival-level scam that left parents frustrated, children screaming, and X users giggling.

https://cheezburger.com/24714245/willy-wonka-experience-uses-ai-renderings-to-sell-tickets-delivers-bleak-nightmare-they-charged-45

#AI stuff #scams #thought y'all would like this #other stuff

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viviennevermillion · 8 months

Text

ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ᴍʏ ᴡʜᴏʟᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ, ɪꜰ ɪ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ꜱᴀᴛᴇʟʟɪᴛᴇ

✧ ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ: sampo koski, despite his flirty demeanor towards you, wasn't expecting anything when he tried to get you to help with his newest scheme. thankfully, you decided to be a little bold today.

✧ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀɪɴꜱ: sampo x gn!reader, flirty banter, first kisses, sampo going from suave scammer to being a flustered mess, reader is a menace, 4.9k words

✧ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: satellite — nickelback

✧ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: making out (not intended as suggestive)

Sampo Koski was a difficult man to get close to. Despite his overly friendly, even flirty, demeanor; he always held his cards close to his chest. They say that still waters run deep but you found that with your unlikely friend and his questionable scams, it was the exact opposite. The more he talked, the harder it got to discern what was truth and what was merely a red herring. You knew there was much more to Sampo than he let on, yet, unfortunately, it was hard to even get a glimpse behind the facade.

His attempts at scamming you were always very on the nose, something you could never see yourself actually falling for. And although you weren't 100% sure of your hypothesis, you felt like he knew that. He knew he'd have to try harder to get you on board with his schemes but he didn't. There was a flicker of hope inside you that maybe that meant that somewhere along the way he had started to genuinely enjoy your company.

After the crisis regarding Belobog's future was resolved, most of your communication with Sampo happened over text; though he'd definitely seek you out when he had an excuse to. You wondered whether the longing was obvious in your eyes. Whether he saw that you waited for a sign that he felt the same.

Most of your friends would have lectured you that loving Sampo was a bad idea. That the only thing he wanted from you was your money. Perhaps some amusement when he felt bored. But you felt like there was more to him. The few moments where you got a look behind the mask, or at least were pretty sure that you did, made you curious for more. You couldn't deny there was some chemistry between you. Most people would have rolled their eyes at his continuous attempts to scam you. But you found that most of them were harmless when he threw them at you and you felt like he wasn't stupid enough to think they would genuinely work.

Whether there was any truth to his words or not when he referred to your companionship was still unclear to you but he had a way of making you feel like you truly were just joking around with an old friend. So why not play along and see where it goes?, you thought to yourself. Over time, you had started to indulge him a little; talking to him in the same way he did. You started to reciprocate his attempts at flirting and teasing; calling him a friend and terms of endearment whenever he messaged you. Ever since then, he had started to reach out to you more and more. You wondered whether, perhaps, below the shady exterior was a man looking for connection with someone he could be honest with. Or maybe that was just your wishful thinking that what you had now could evolve into something more.

"Hey fam. How are you doing? Would you be interested in a business proposal? 😇", you heard the beeping of your phone as you stepped out of the shower at your place, checking the screen to find that you had received a message from Sampo. You didn't even notice you had started smiling whilst reaching for the towel. As soon as you had dried yourself off and put on some fresh clothes, you typed a reply.

"Sampo, my dearest, I'm never interested in your business proposals, you should know that by now", you sighed and shook your head, "but feel free to tell me anyway. At least they're entertaining. 😁"

"Oh come on now!", you could clearly imagine the text in his voice, "this one I promise you're going to love! 😇" Somehow I doubt that, you chuckled. But it couldn't hurt to ask what it was.

"Well... uh... it's a bit of a doozy", he started and you already expected another wild idea of his, "but the details are as follows: I need you to smuggle this package out of the restricted zone!"

"And why, pray tell, would I do that?", you asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Look, I know you and Gepard are on good terms and you're friends with his sister so you have special connections~", he texted back, "it would be a lot easier for you to get into the restricted zone than it would be for me! You just need to frame it right! It's a valuable item and the profit is going to be BIG, I tell you that. 💸"

"I'm not interested in profit", you replied, "sunshine, you know I care about you, but I'm not sneaking into a military zone for you." This is usually the time when he starts getting desperate, you chuckle, watching the little 'Sampo is typing' notification on your phone. You were right.

"Oh come on! Pretty please? It's just a quick in and out...", you read his reply, "think of it like a date, except you're smuggling things instead of having dinner with me. It's going to be a great time!" You snorted and broke out into laughter. "How exactly is that like a date? 😂"

"Well, we're spending time together in a romantic location, full of excitement and with a little bit of danger and adventure!", he tried to reason, "we'll be bonding emotionally while doing something that's uh... a little bit of a crime; but no biggie! I'm telling you, it's going to be fantastic! ❤️"

"Your date idea sucks 😭", you replied, still chuckling. "Don't be mad", he begged, "please? Do it for me? Your old buddy Sampo? Your pal? I'll never ask for anything again ever, I swear it!" You smirked. "You said that the last 20 times and then you asked for a lot of things, honey", you reminded him. You didn't mind. It made him reach out to you over and over again.

"Okay, okay, fair point but I'm serious here!", he pleaded, "you know, the guards wouldn't even see you! I really thought this through! All you have to do is deliver this package to a mysterious man in a coat who will be waiting for you behind the fence and you'll be golden. It's easy and quick!"

"You know, 'mysterious man in a coat behind the fence' really does not make this better", you laughed at his silly proposals as you texted back, "actually that makes it worse. 😂" "Why?", Sampo asked, "I'm not saying it's not a cliché but if you think about it, the setting is really quite romantic? A dark secret alley perfect for kissing, a mysterious stranger, a night-time rendezvous... you can't deny that's the stuff movies are made of. 😇"

He's impossible, the smile wasn't going to leave your face anytime soon. "The stranger isn't even you though, so how is that a date with you?", you asked.

"Well, I never specifically said it was a date with me. Wait- does that mean you'd go on a date with me?!", you read his message, hoping there was some truth to his surprise about that idea, "either way, look, the stranger in the coat is going to give you this really cool thing called a... well, it's a really cool thing. And once I find out what that would be, it's totally going to blow your mind and you'll think it was worth it! Promise! For real!"

"Okay you made me laugh, I give you that 😂", you confessed, deciding to ignore his remark about the date for now. No reason to get this serious with him yet when he wasn't willing to meet you halfway. But as time went on, you felt as there really was no stranger in a coat at all and he likely made the whole thing up. The only question was, why? Was he waiting for a sign from you as much as you were from him?

"See? Now we had a laugh together and you feel much better about the plan! I just know you are! 😌😊", he sent the message. What you didn't know was that Sampo was smiling just as much on the other side of the screen. After all, making someone he cared about laugh was the highest honor for a fool like him, wasn't it?

"No. ❤️"

"Pretty please? 🥺"

"Let it go, darling. I'm not doing it. Find someone else to smuggle your package."

Sampo pouted. "How can you do this to me? When I really needed your help you just... turned away from me", he texted back, "and yet the next time I have a great idea I will be willing to share the profit with you again. You know why? Because you're my friend. But it's fine. I'm fine. I'm going to go sulk in a corner now... 💔"

You rolled your eyes and just sent him a teasing 'have fun! 😘'.

"You really don't care at all, do you? 😔", you read his reply. "I do, but we both know you're not going to sulk about a failed scheme", you reasoned, "if you want to, I can come over and give you a hug, but no crimes. ❤️" Your heart was beating faster as he was typing his reply. You wondered what he would think of that idea, even if he just thought that you meant it as a joke.

"...you would do that?"

"Or I'd show up with the Silvermane Guards. No telling, really 😇", you teased. "You wouldn't do that! We're best friends!", he whined.

"Only one way to find out! 🙃❤️"

"You're so mean... 😭"

Perhaps it was the fact that this had been going on for months now and you were both dancing around the idea of addressing what exactly was between the two of you to the point where it was starting to get embarrassing. He'd always message you, looking to scam you but never fully committing to it and he seemed absolutely delighted at the fact that you were still willing to talk to him every time. But this time you decided to push your luck with him.

"So should I come over or no?"

You waited in anticipation. He seemed to be hesitating for a moment; likely trying to gauge the probability of you actually dragging the Silvermane Guards to his doorstep and whether that was worth the risk. But alas, you had never done such a thing before, so why would you start now?

"...Yes. I'll be waiting", was his answer and your heart started beating rapidly at the realization that you were actually going to see him right now.

"Oh my... you're really willing to risk me bringing the guards just for a hug? I feel special 🥰", you teased. Sampo let out a disappointed sigh in his room at the Goethe Grand Hotel. "Just hurry up before I change my mind... 😔", he gave in, hoping you weren't already aware how much you made him weak in the knees and how he wasn't expecting you to ever go along with his silly plans; yet would be up for such a demand if it came for you. After all, he had snuck into a Silvermane Guard restricted zone before. He would do it again for you. Not that you would ever ask him for such a thing though. You weren't him, after all.

Sampo got lost in his thoughts so much, that he didn't even notice how the time passed. Only your knock on his door snapped him out of it. You were waiting for him outside, fully oblivious that he was a little nervous, his cheeks heating up as he hoped that you would not see it. His prayers fell on deaf ears.

You smirked slightly as he opened the door and you could see a faint blush on his face. "Hey bestie!", you greeted him with a joyful smirk on your face, "surprise, I brought no guards!" Sampo didn't think that you would hand him over to the authorities but he was relieved about the confirmation nonetheless. He gestured for you to come inside and shut the door behind you.

"It's nice to see you", he greeted you, this time being genuine. You could tell immediately, which made you think that there was something inside him that urged him to let you know this. You reached for his hand, gently pulling him into your embrace to give him that hug you promised him. Sampo froze up at the feeling of your sudden touch and you could feel his heart beating fast in his chest.

After a moment of getting used to the sensation, you could feel him relax and wrap his arms around you as well. He closed his eyes when you couldn't see his face, focusing on your fingertips running up and down his back. His heart fluttered. Who knew his little attempt at a scam could evolve into this?

"This is nice...", he admitted, his voice a lot quieter than you were used to, which caught you a little off-guard, "...I didn't think you'd actually come." He let go of you, secretly wishing he could make that embrace last longer without making things awkward.

"Did you think I was joking?", you wondered.

"...A little bit, yeah", he sighed.

"Why?", you asked, your nerves giving you a tingling sensation as you realized that this was new; that you had overstepped a line that had been separating the two of you for months and it might just change how you approached each other completely. "Well, I'm used to the rejection by now", Sampo chuckled. You rolled your eyes. "Rejecting your scams is a lot different from rejecting a hug with a friend", you reasoned.

"You know, you're right", he shrugged, "I hope you're not mad about the scam. It's a compulsion at this point." You laughed. "It was funny, so I forgive you", you winked at him, making his heart skip a beat.

"So anyway, about my newest scam-", he joked and you playfully hit his shoulder. "Don't test your luck, Sampo", there was a glint in your eye that was challenging him. "Wait, wait hear me out", he smirked and you could tell from his expression that he was hardly serious. You didn't know that it was because Sampo Koski was actually really nervous about the whole thing and using the topic he was most familiar with to try and distract you from how flustered he was. You were here now, you had hugged him, he had let his guard down in front of you; even if just a little bit... what happened now?

"I just really need you to smuggle that package..."

"You just tried that one, hun. Don't", you spoke softly and brushed a strand of his dark blue hair out of his face, your hand remaining on his skin, gently caressing his cheek, "why don't we just sit down on the couch and you can rest your head on my lap, hmm? Does that sound nice?" You had gotten this far with him already; you had gotten impatient without even noticing it. You were ready to place all cards on the table if Sampo was willing to follow. Besides, should he reject you, you could always play it off as a joke. Thankfully, he did not do that.

"I won't say no to that", he smiled back at you and let you take his hand as you lead him over to the hotel room sofa. His awkwardness when he placed his head in your lap didn't fly over your head. You started running your fingers through his hair, hearing him let out a relaxed sigh as he leaned his cheek against your stomach, still wondering how he could have possibly ended up here. At this point, he just let it happen. Your touch felt so comforting. "This is nice", he admitted, closing his eyes to enjoy the feeling of your fingertips carding through the strands of hair. "Do you deserve this much affection?", you asked teasingly, reminding him of the many times he had "tried" to scam you.

"Oh I know I don't", he laughed, a proud smile on his face, "but somehow I'm getting it anyway. Funny how that works out for me." You smiled down at him, thinking how adorable he looked laying in your lap like this, just letting you work your magic. "One of the many miracles of life, I suppose", you shrugged, letting out a chuckle.

He remained in your lap for a while, just focusing on the sensation of your touch. In all the times you met Sampo, he had never been this quiet for such a long time. He remained so still that you were wondering whether he had fallen asleep. You got your answer when he raised his voice again after about 15 minutes of this. "Can I say something?", he asked and you raised an eyebrow. "When do you ever NOT say something?", you laughed, "usually you don't even ask."

He chuckled. "Alright, yeah you got me there."

You were wondering what he had to say that was so different; perhaps so genuine, that he had to ask for reassurance that it was okay to say. "I just wanted to say... I'm glad you're here", he tried to keep his cool, not noticing how he was awkwardly fiddling with his fingers, "it's a little sad that you rejected my business proposal, but... uh... this is a... nice alternative. I don't really know what I expected when you said you'd come over, honestly." You smile down at him, noticing how difficult it was for him to keep his mask on when he was in such a close, vulnerable state with you and trying to say something he actually meant. You had no doubt about that now.

"Hey... I have a question", he continued, his eyes fluttering open to meet yours; heart beating fast when he saw you gaze at him with such a soft, almost loving, expression, "why are you so chill about the scams? You're the only person who never seems really annoyed about it. Everyone else is pretty much done with me when I try that. Which is fine, I don't need them to like me, I just need their cash... but you're different. Why?"

Your heart was growing warm at the fact that you were now close enough; comfortable enough; that you felt like you were really talking heart-to-heart with him, without any ulterior motives or distance between the two of you. "Well, I didn't really take the scams seriously", you shrugged and thought about his question, "and they were funny. I like talking to you... despite your questionable run-ins with the Silvermane Guards." He laughed softly.

"I honestly never had the feeling you were even serious about the scams when you tried them on me", you further admitted, "the ones you sent me just seemed a little too silly for you to actually believe they'd work on me."

"Heh. You're right about that", he sighed with a smile on his face as you started gently touching his cheek again, "with you, I guess I was mostly just messing around. Seeing what I could get away with. Getting to talk to you more..."

The last one was almost a whipser, but you heard it either way.

"So... uhm... can we stay like this for a while longer?", Sampo asked with a hopeful look in his eyes. You were worried that if you backed away now; he might decide that he should have never let you get that close and gotten so attached and you might not get another chance to be this close to him again. So you decided to push it a little further.

"I have a better idea", you suggested, gently removing his head from your lap so you could lay down beside him, "can I wrap my arms around you?" You were nervous too, though you were, surprisingly, keeping it together better than Sampo was.

"Y-you want to cuddle?", he asked for clarification; disbelief written on his face. You nodded and he opened his arms to you. You snuggled up to him, nuzzling his neck. "W-what are you doing? I- I mean... I'm not complaining", he stammered, shivering slightly. That was the moment Sampo's defenses broke. The mask had fallen and you could clearly feel the heat radiating from his cheeks. He was at your mercy now, just hoping you wouldn't ridicule him. How did I let it get this far?, he internally cursed himself, but making no attempts to back away. Curiosity got the better of him.

Meanwhile, you were having the time of your life. Seeing the usually so confident, "tall, blue and handsome" Sampo Koski like this was an opportunity you couldn't miss out on. "I didn't know you could lose your cool like this", you teased with new-found confidence, now sure you had the upper hand in this situation, "that's interesting, don't you think?"

Sampo was struggling to keep his heart rate down. "It's not like I'm nervous or anything!", he pouted, his head spinning from the unfamiliar sensation of holding you this close to him, "I'm just... uh... um... I'm just enjoying this. I'm enjoying it very... uh... a-a lot. Yes."

You had a triumphant smirk on your face. "That's good to know, Sampo", you purred and turn his head to face you by grabbing his chin gently. Your lips were now inches apart and Sampo just looked at you with wide eyes. He could feel your breath on his skin when you spoke. "I think I found a new method to turn down your scams", you chuckled.

The close proximity made his heartbeat skyrocket. "Uh... yeah... I'd say this is one of those... methods... as one might say", he replied absentmindedly. Wherever his mind was, it was certainly no longer on the conversation topic.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?", you teased, your lips brushing his slightly as you spoke. The fleeting touch of your lips on his made his brain basically short-circuit. Sampo felt his limbs grow heavier and he tried to form words but he could only keep looking into your eyes.

You wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him closer. "Do you still want me to smuggle that package through the restricted zone?", you asked, referencing the scam from earlier. Sampo nodded. "P-please", the word was a mere whisper, his voice had cracked. "Please what?", you asked with a smirk on your face. Was this what they call Schadenfreude?

"Please... just... forget about the scam", he gave up, his breath hitching in his throat, "just kiss me." He looked at you with pleading eyes that made your knees weak and made you wonder how you actually managed to get Sampo Koski to completely lose his composure. "There we go", you whispered affectionately and smiled, closing your eyes. It's rare to hear him say 'please' about anything that isn't a scam, you thought. Your lips finally met his in a soft but also passionate kiss.

Sampo melted into your embrace, sliding one of his hands to your cheek to hold your head close to his as he kissed back. Your tongue clashed with his and you rested your hand on the exposed skin of his waist. Sampo pulled you closer to him, his muscles relaxing as he accepted this new situation. You smiled into the kiss, gently plucking at his lower lip with your own. You pressed a couple of soft kisses to the corner of his mouth, causing him to smile as well.

Sampo still had his eyes closed, trying to capture your lips again but you had instead decided to move on to his neck, gently trailing kisses over his skin. He shuddered, his hand traveling to your shoulder to draw circles on them with his fingertips. "How are you feeling, love?", you asked, your hand placed firmly on his chest so you could feel how fast his heart was beating in his ribcage. Sampo tried to gather his thoughts but the only thing he managed to get out was a faint "yes" he whispered.

"Well, that's not a feeling now, is it?", you smirk, repeatedly kissing a sensitive spot you found on his neck. His hand squeezed yours, holding it tightly within his own. "Please stop teasing me", he whined, trying to blow a loose strand of hair out of his eyes. He put a finger under your chin, lifting it so he could reach your lips again. He kissed you once more, losing himself in the sensation. You kissed back passionately, burying your fingers in his hair that was already messy from him having been laying here for a while. Every time you had to break the kiss to take a breath, Sampo was already pulling you in for another one.

"...love you", he whispered against your lips between kisses. You weren't even sure he noticed that those words slipped out of his mouth, but they made your heart flutter and caused you to pour all your love into the next kiss. Sampo's lips were trembling and he felt a tingling sensation in his stomach and his heart. He felt like he never wanted that kiss to end. "Don't stop", he whispered softly, moving in for another taste of your lips.

You indulged him for a moment, then pushing him away gently, still with a teasing smirk on your face. "You know? I'm actually quite hungry", you remarked, getting up to make your way over to the kitchen counter, "you got anything in the fridge?"

"...you're killing me", he whined but let out a desperate chuckle, holding his hands over his flushed face. His skin felt like it was on fire. He could hear you chuckle about his predicament as you opened the fridge door. You inspected the ingredients in there, your eyes falling onto a leftover slice of pizza with banana pieces on it wrapped in transparent foil. It's okay, we're not here to judge, you reminded yourself with a facial expression that indicated that you were most definitely judging.

"By the way", Sampo heard you call out to him, "I love you too." "Did- did I say that?", he asked, feeling another wave of heat rush through his cheeks. "Sure did. I just got to kiss you for the first time, don't tell me I'll have to ship you off to the nursery home", you laughed, "what do you want on your sandwich?"

Sampo waved you off, not interested in thinking too hard about your question. "I don't know, a vegetable or something", he mumbled, his thoughts still all over the place. You looked at the vegetable selection and found that you had teased him enough for today. The chili peppers would have been a bit too much.

You brought your sandwiches over to the couch and handed him a plate. Sampo looked at the food and noticed he was actually really looking forward to eat it. "You make the best sandwiches", he complimented you, sitting up and pressing a kiss to your cheek. "You haven't even tried them yet...", you raised an eyebrow and he insisted that he didn't need to try them to know that. He just trusted you with that. He's so sweet, you caught yourself thinking and mused that it was probably time to talk about the elephant in the room.

"So...", nervousness settled in your heart again, staring at the sandwich rather than looking him in the eye, "do you think we can... you know... make this official? Be a couple? Go on dates that like... don't involve sneaking into restricted military zones and committing crimes?" Sampo let out a laugh. "I thought the restricted zone was a wonderful date spot", he pouted, earning a chuckle from you, "but yes. I'd love that. I love you. I mean, I already told you that... apparently... that is a thing that happened..."

His thoughts trailed off again. Right now, Sampo's approach to everything was pretty much "you know what? sure." and you felt like Qliphoth could break through the window and start singing one of Serval's songs in Hook's voice and your boyfriend wouldn't even question it.

"Did you skip through the other 4 stages of grief or did I just not notice them?", you joked, taking a bite out of your sandwich. "I don't know, I think bargaining was quite prevalent", he chuckled and leaned his head on your shoulder, "but being with you could never cause me grief anyway..."

"So", you continued, "are you going to tell me about your newest scam?" He smiled at the question, finding it curious how you didn't mind hearing about his shenanigans. "If you don't interrupt me this time", he nodded and you shook your head, indicating a pinky promise with your fingers.

"You see, there's this ugly boot I found in an alleyway that I'm trying to sell as a powerful ancient relic..."

You listened to Sampo tell you his future "business plans" and as soon as you had both finished your food, he snuggled up to you, resting his head in the crook of your neck; his breathing slowing. You two just talked for a while, more honest than you had ever been with each other and it felt good to finally know that Sampo loved you back.

He fell asleep in your arms that night, dreaming of your kisses and the non-criminal dates you promised him.

#honkai star rail #star rail #hsr #honkai star rail x reader #hsr x reader #sampo koski #sampo koski x reader #sampo x reader #sampo x you #hsr sampo #sampo honkai #sampo fluff #honkai star rail fluff #hsr fic #honkai star rail fic #sampo x y/n

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twinanimatronics · 10 months

Note

I have 0 intention of watching SAMS bc at this point catching up would be too much of a time investment, but at the same point, I would love to have a bit of context for went you & Dana rant about it.

Mayhaps could I have a tldr? Just so I can get the gist about what y'all are freaking out about ever couple of weeks.

Okay so I woke up really early but it’s my day off and I’m in an info dumping mood so—

—Rubs Gay little hands together then slams them on a cork board with photos and shit pinned to it—

INSTEAD OF A TL;DR I’M GONNA GIVE YOU A WHOLE DANG ASS SUMMARY

WHICH I WILL UPDATE REGULARLY

And yes I did spend 20 minutes making that dumb meme edit, before you ask.

OKAY

(putting a Read More cause this is gonna get LONG)

So, the Sun and Moon show, like all the Security Breach Channel shows, started off as just a character gaming channel with Sun and Moon. And in my personal opinion, as well as based on total subscriber count, the superior one of the lot since we never bother with the other channels unless there's a guest appearance from the boys on one of their episodes. (Literally we just here for Sun and Moon. The other character channel portrayals are just kinda "meh" or irksome)

Sun and Moon are portrayed as both the same person but also different individuals who choose to view the other as their brother (familiar, familiar) and is after they've managed to get their own separate bodies. Moon having made one for himself and left Sun with the original one.

Moon is not as much as a Gremlin as he is in canon and is more indifferent. He's into science and is friends with Satan (I am not joking)

Meanwhile, Sun is...

Sun.

As I said, the channel started off as just a character gaming channel with them just playing games, reacting to things, and some occasional VR shenanganry. The Invisible Davis (Sun) and EC_Universal's (Moon) sibling chemistry and banter is seriously top notch. And Davis even comes on as Monty sometimes (who now has his own channel with Foxy, but that's more recent and later on in this info dump).

Things are pretty tame at first lorewise. Just building up things like their relationships with the other animatronics (Like Sun being hopelessly in love with Roxanne. Which originally felt like a forced plotline but now he isn't in love with her at all anymore and has come to see her as a horrible person)

The biggest things that used to happen early on were really just Monty and his money-making scam attempts like:

Charging Sun several thousand dollars a second for his assistance in the daycare and selling him a space condo for $50 (which he revealed to have exploded recently) that Moon had to force him to give Sun's deposit back on.

Then things start happening...

Sun starts having blackouts and acting not like himself and not remembering things that happen from hours to even days at a time. This is when Eclipse starts to make himself known in both VR Lore vids and even gaming vids. Eclipse being: A piece of Moon's coding that was left behind when the two of them separated (the part of him that contained the homicide/Kill Code "glitch" that was a big part of him) inside of Sun that became it's own entity.

Moon's reason for doing this is cause he thought the code would die off having been mostly severed from him and that he himself could evolve to be more than a killing machine if it was gone. He thought Sun would be fine. But he came to realize he just left his brother with different cancerous entity living off him (his words to describe their previous shared body relationship).

Eclipse has very strong abandonment issues. And it's the primary motivation he has for everything he does. He is EXTREMELY pissed at Moon for leaving him behind inside of Sun who he was supposed to HATE and instead became all brotherly with. Forcing Eclipse to live Moon's nightmare of being trapped in a body he had no control over (Legit we got an episode featuring Eclipse's first moments of sentience after being severed from Moon highlighting all this).

However, this wasn't the first time that Eclipse had allegedly taken control by this point in time: A year after their seperation.

There was an event, July 16th, where Sun was extremely stressed in the daycare and supposedly snapped. He blacked out and when he came to...

Lots of kids were dead.

Eclipse was initially believed to be the cause of this event. But actually, it was BloodMoon. Another AI that Eclipse created while first trying to escape from Sun's body prison.

But upon the revelation of Eclipse's existence, BloodMoon's is still unknown.

Moon attempts to find a way to remove Eclipse from Sun and, upon their creator being of no help and completely useless, is recommended by Glamrock Freddy to go see Golden Freddy (or maybe the Creator contacts them after they see Golden, IDK I forget the exact order of those events).

Golden Freddy is Glamrock Freddy and classic Freddy's dad (Yeah, don't ask. These parts of the lore Dana and I kinda hate and just try to ignore) who is an all powerful ghost entity (again, don't ask) who uses magic to turn Moon into a plushie.

Long story short, Eclipse can't be removed if he doesn't WANT to be removed without killing Sun. And he REFUSES to be removed even when offered a body of his own cause this bitch baby is out for vengeance.

But now Moon knows magic.

He burns down some buildings that he cheers about getting reported over a police scanner.

And then they get called in by the government to be interviewed for that and other shit.

Also: apparently animatronics have a choice to make themselves techno-organic so they can eat things and shit (including having kids through sexy times, yes I am not fucking you)?

Sun and Moon refuse to take this up tho and at most Moon just installs nanomachines (son) into himself so he can eat metal as a way to repair himself.

Keep this nanomachine tech in your mind going forwards, btw.

BUT CONTINUING WITH THE PLOT

Pieces of the killcode inside of Moon begin to rebuild itself and Moon starts getting violent and kills a government guy that was hunting him and Sun down. Cause while they were being interviewed he came out and snapped a man's neck. Something that Moon and Sun argued about cause Moon was starting to think that Sun wanted to do these things like Eclipse implied and was just using him as a scapegoat so he wouldn't have to process his negative emotions.

And he was.

Kind of.

Cause even now, in the present (way after this point in the story I'm explaining) with Eclipse gone he still has extreme anger management issues and the occasional violent impulse. But that doesn't make him BAD (though he believes himself to be as a result). He just has a hard time regulating his emotions and keeping them in check because he was used to being the purely positive side of the coin when he and Moon were one. Being the happy to Moon's sad/angry.

Moon contacts their creator again for help with his issue. But once again, the creator does nothing.

Oh also, that government guy?

Yeah, Moon ate him.

My guy really ate a human person.

Sun and Moon fight with Sun choosing to leave Moon alone to wallow after getting punched in the face. Telling Moon how it was apparently too hard for him to be a good brother and REALLY putting a divide between the two of them.

Then, at some point, after Eclipse keeps sending Sun and Moon to different dimensions to torture them yet again (yeah, alternate dimension travel and universes exist and is a very frequent thing in SAMS) Eclipse sends the boys to fight a Wither Storm, which they come out of alive with their brotherly bond restored.

However, Moon is still going a bit insane cause of the killcode.

And then Eclipse creates Lunar and inserts hm into Moon's head.

Lunar is essentially a Sun version of Moon, his new happy, much like how Eclipse is a Moon version of Sun. Lunar is very child-like and was made to help Eclipse to find this Dues-Ex-Machina thing known as the Star. A thing of ultimate power that can be used to reshape and rebuild the world however the wielder wishes.

Eclipse's plan is to reset the world and become god.

Or, at least it WAS.

But more on that later.

Lunar being put in Moon's head helped with keeping the Kill Code at bay and allowed Moon to retain his sanity. And, after some initial antagonization, Moon and Lunar come to a bit of an agreement of having Lunar help him and Sun with information about Eclipse and BloodMoon (who they are finally told about but believe isn't real at this point). Moon just had to install games in his head for Lunar to play and whenever the daycare was open would let Lunar out to handle the kids instead since he liked it and was better with the children than he was as the one week he spent pretending to be Moon highlighted.

However, Eclipse gives both Sun and Moon a timeframe to hand over the Star before their bodies will be forcibly taken over by himself and Lunar.

They have until Halloween.

Oh and at some point he installed this maternity chip thing into Roxanne and she suddenly adopted Gregory and wanted to remarry her ex, Glamrock Freddy, when she and Sun supposedly had a "Thing" (they went on one date where it was all about HER) but we don't really care at all about that despite the wedding supposedly being some kind of big deal in the Security Breach Show verse but then it wasn't.

Obviously, Eclipse doesn't get the Star.

But Moon also doesn't exactly have a plan to stop him either and spends the last day they had to hand over the star having a breakdown over being realizing he is going to be trapped in his own body again.

So October begins and the Sun and Moon Show becomes the Eclipse and Lunar Show. And while they're in control, Eclipse made it so any time that Lunar moves in Moon's body, Moon will feel an immense amount of pain. The same way Sun used to any time he was in control of their shared body in the beginning.

Things don't go so well during that month when it's the Eclipse and Lunar Show. Lunar wanted to just have fun and get an actual brotherly relationship out of Eclipse, but Eclipse just viewed him as a tool to control (Literally, he inserted programs that let him control and even KILL HIM if he wanted).

And there were times when they fought where Eclipse hit him.

Which Eclipse momentarily seemed to regret before shoving his emotions deep down inside himself so he could ignore them because he refuses to let himself feel genuinely happy (Legit he made Lunar out of the coding bits of himself that were good and positive cause he hated them and didn't want them cause they came from Sun's code melding with what code of Moon's he was birthed from.).

At this point, Moon, Lunar, and Monty are working together to stop Eclipse and, for some reason, Lunar comes up with the plan of building BloodMoon (who somehow exists as a spectral manifestation of rage or something) a body so he can fight Eclipse. BloodMoon only agrees cause Lunar allows him to go out and kill hobos and will occasionally bring him bags of blood from the blood bank.

Then, after another fight with Eclipse, Lunar relinquishes control of the body completely back to Moon because he doesn't want to play outside anymore.

Before Moon gets control of his body again, though (and before deflecting an attempt of Eclipse's to kill Lunar while posing as him), Lunar asks if he and Sun can be his brothers. Which Moon wholly agrees to and tells Sun about when he goes inside of his and Eclipse's shared head to tell him his plan of banishing Eclipse via magic in a way that WON'T also kill him too (and leaving Sun with a massive magic dictionary and spells he has to memorize for when the day comes).

The day arrives.

BloodMoon and Eclipse fight while, in his head, Sun manages to banish Eclipse.

However, he says the spell WRONG so instead of being banished and dead forever he's just lying somewhere mangled and dying in the woods.

But Sun saying the spell wrong didn't matter in the end cause Eclipse had a bunch of backups he could have come back from. One of which he PLANTED INSIDE BLOODMOON while fighting him.

Queue things being relatively tame for awhile. Excluding Moon working himself to death finding and deleting Eclipse's backups.

But in the background BloodMoon running around wild and free killing random people and working with Eclipse/torturing him inside their body (cause BloodMoon is actually TWO people, not one.).

Eventually, Eclipse enacts his new plan of pushing Moon to the breaking point and making his Kill Code fully resurface. Which Moon was still struggling with and was concerned would potentially corrupt Lunar.

How Eclipse does this is by having the Bloodtwins mess with Sun and Moon while disguised as either of them (cause their body is made of nanomachines so they can shapeshift. I TOLD YOU THE NANOMACHINES WERE IMPORTANT) and the final nail in the coffin is Eclipse controlling them to pretend to be Sun and confronting Moon about how much he hated him and how he wished he'd DIE.

And thus the kill code is reactivated.

But not just reactivated, it's now since evolved into its own SENTIENT BEING that's fully in control while Moon is trapped inside his own head.

Again.

However, Moon aint the only one trapped now.

So is Lunar.

Monty goes inside Moon's head an manages to rescue Lunar to take him out and give him his own body. But at first Lunar doesn't want to go cause he doesn't want to leave Moon alone and insists on being "his happy".

Eventually, Moon and Kill Code (who we will call KC from now on) make an agreement to timeshare the body and not get in the way of one another's plans.

KC wants to just kill all the bad people in the world and has recruited BloodMoon (willingly) and Eclipse (unwillingly) who he views as his children to work with him.

Lunar returns in his new body (also made of Nanomachines) at this point and Moon has found a dimension for him to visit that has an Eclipse in it that's nice and who he is able to talk with and have an actual bond with. As a form of some sort of therapy since our Eclipse was a shitty brother and traumatized the bean and the Nice Eclipse of that dimension was kind of ostracized by the others since he was born from his Sun and Moon's split going completely WRONG.

The creator at some point stops by again and announces that he has created Sun and Moon a sister named Earth who is supposed to be better than them in every way (she's actually not and has her own flaws) and that she was going to be living with them now. (Sun literally says: "Die already, old man!" to him and other things a lot of people probably wish they could say to a shitty parent).

Meanwhile, at the KC Cave:

Eclipse is uploaded into a basic computer.

Eclipse HATES KC and immediately plots against him but builds him a robot by the name of Solar Flare to help him anyway. But, behind the scenes, Eclipse contacts Moon for help in killing KC.

And at the same time, Solar Flare ALSO contacts Moon for help to kill ECLIPSE and PROTECT KC.

As this is happening, the Bloodtwins have reverted back to messing with Sun while disguised as Moon again. However, they push him to far and Sun ends up obliterating them with a laser canon Eclipse had made that was hidden inside the musical barrels that are in the daycare.

Moon hears this as it happens, but Sun lies to him and tells him he just accidentally destroyed some "garbage".

KC ends up having to tell Moon what really happened when BloodMoon doesn't turn up after more than a week. Putting a bit of strain on the boys' relationship again cause Sun LIED to Moon.

Being so tired and done with everything and having finally fully snapped, Sun is now on a war path of finding and trying to kill Eclipse himself instead of letting Moon do all the work like always. Lunar finds out and he and Sun have a falling out with Lunar saying Sun was behaving just like Eclipse (and he was in their fight, belittling Lunar). But Lunar said some awful and hypocritical things too.

Sun storms off and it is at this point when Eclipse first contacts Moon to try and kill KC. First talking with Lunar and scaring him off, ultimately cementing Lunar's decision to run away from home with Monty's help since he doesn't want to be around Sun or deal with Eclipse until things get better.

Moon finds out about Lunar's running away secondhand and struggles to bring himself to talk to Sun to stop him from wanting to kill Eclipse because he doesn't want for his brother to be like him in terms of killing people. But he puts it off for far too long because of being socially inept and goes to others for advice first.

When Moon finally does try to confront Sun as a projection and tells him how Lunar moved out, Sun at first brushes it off like it's not a big deal and ignores him before going on with his hunt for Eclipse. Claiming that he also felt no remorse for killing BloodMoon and didn't hear his voice in his head like Moon said he did with the people he killed.

As this is going on, Eclipse takes over Solar Flare's body.

Moon catches up to Sun in one of their bunkers and, after fighting again, traps him inside an invisible prison and leaves him there for his own good and to chill out. Which ends up being a bad idea as Sun begins to hallucinate BloodMoon who taunts and torments him (because he actually DOES feel remorse) until he screams and manages to shatter the magic barrier with his own emotion-fueled magic.

And thus Sun continues with his plan of hunting down Eclipse while Moon magically enters his own head with one of his computer AI's along for the ride to try and get rid of KC. Unaware of the fact his brother is free or how KC is just out and about talking and hanging around with everyone while masquerading as him and realizing that he DOESN'T WANT TO KILL PEOPLE ANYMORE.

KC just wants to live and appreciate life.

BUT THEN

The creator comes out of nowhere as KC is contemplating existence in the woods to reveal how he wasn't a glitch in Moon's code as he'd told them but an INTENDED FEATURE.

Moon was made to kill people, and KC not killing people was going against the Creator's grand scheme of punishing humanity. So he utilizes his control over Moon's body's programing to instill the desire to kill in KC again and sends him off.

But KC manages to resist and makes it back to the Daycare and hunkers down in Moon's room for the next few days.

Sun, as this is going on, finds the base Eclipse is in and confronts him. But things obviously don't go as planned and he is unable to kill him in the end. Instead, Sun lets out another explosive burst of energy while attempting to save himself and ultimately destroys Moon's magic pool, which the base was built on, trapping him in his own head.

AGAIN.

He learns this from Eclipse who sends him off to find Golden Freddy and then uses the opportunity to go and look for the Star again. He decides to pay a visit to Lunar and plant a bomb in his head to use him as a bargaining chip with Monty (cause Monty has been hiding the Star up to this point) since he has a soft spot for him.

But he only goes the Lunar bait route after first trying to threaten Moon's computer AI to send him to another dimension that has a Star so he can try and steal it (unaware another dimension's star won't work outside the one it exists in). And that gets him sent to meet Nice Eclipse who sees right through his disguise and laughs in his face over his stupidity and desperation.

Thus officially starting Eclipse's Pathetic Arc.

Sun, after getting a piece of Golden Freddy's soul to use magic, returns to the site of the magic pool where Moon's circle used to be and attempts to reconstruct the circle. However, BloodMoon begins tormenting him in the form of hallucinations again and he ends up messing up and is unable to restore it. Dooming Moon to be trapped in his head forever.

Sun begins to breakdown just as Earth (who had been wandering around on her way to the daycare the entire time after she was first sent to live with Sun and Moon cause she's a bit of an airhead) crosses his path and provides him with comfort and support as he cries.

The two of them then go back to the Daycare where KC, pretending to be Moon for Sun's sake, assures him things will be fine and tells Sun to go out and buy food for his cat since the autofeeder he had for it ran out while he was off on his murder quest (Davis has catS IRL and sometimes in videos you can hear meows and him talking to said cats so they just decided to make it that Sun owns a cat to explain it sldkjsldfk)

While Sun is gone, KC and Earth talk a bit. KC once again being moved by the kindness of strangers before retreating into Moon's room again to enter his own mind and talk with Moon.

As this is going on, Eclipse threatens to blow up Lunar if Monty doesn't hand over the Star.

And Monty does.

Though it was ultimately for nothing as Eclipse then blows up Lunar in front of Monty anyway.

One of Lunar's nanomachines managed to survive tho so Monty zip zap zooms to a space station where he can rebuild him. But Eclipse materializes out of the ether and threatens him to stay on earth so he goes back, leaving Lunar to be repaired slowly.

At some point after this, Monty beats up his old con artist ex-friend and resets his memories to make him into his friend again cause he's lost everything and has abandoned all hope at this point. And thus the Monty Gator and Foxy show is born. (Which is a whole other can of worms. One aspect being that Monty has a shitty BIRTH father so I just kinda ignore everything unless it connects back to the Sun and Moon Show)

Back in Moon's head, he and KC talk things out. And, upon realizing that KC has changed for the better, Moon can no longer bring himself to kill him as planned because he doesn't want to be responsible for killing another person as KC has proven himself to be. One capable of change like he had tried to convince Sun that BloodMoon might have been capable of had they been given the chance.

Which had been an argument he had made when first trying to talk Sun out of killing Eclipse.

But the only way for both him and KC to live at this point has a 98% chance of factory resetting Moon and deleting all his memories.

So, Moon records a message for Sun and gives it to KC to give to his brother.

And then Moon is ultimately reset.

In the middle of Sun coming to terms of Moon being reset and trying to bring New Moon up to speed on who he and Earth are; Eclipse shows up just to show off and gloat how he got the Star.

But New Moon, of course, doesn't remember who he is or what the Star does so he doesn't really care.

And Sun is just completely dead inside. Especially at the reveal of Lunar being dead (Sunny boy feeling the guilt of his last conversation with him).

So Eclipse doesn't really get much satisfaction from it.

And then Eclipse enacts his new plan for the world instead of completely resetting it:

Rewriting everyone's memories so that he's the good guy and Sun and Moon are the bad guys and occasionally zapping them to random dimensions just to make their lives hell because he literally has nothing else going for him in life.

Monty managed to avoid getting his memories rewritten from being in space trying to fix Lunar at the time he did it (this is before Eclipse threatened Monty) but has to pretend like they were for the time being.

So only Monty, Earth, and the boys know the truth of what happened.

And New Moon has to relearn everything by watching all the recorded footage from his and Sun's perspective over the past couple years because he never backed himself up like Eclipse did because of KC.

Surprisingly, a lot of the old Moon is still in New Moon. But New Moon is a hella lot more considerate and kinder than his pre-amnesia self. His and Sun's dynamic having completely shifted since his reset.

He also shows more symptoms of ADHD (What Moon himself says he has) than he did originally.

As Sun and New Moon are busy picking up the pieces of the mess Eclipse made and figuring out what to do with him (and with Sun STILL VERY MUCH HALLUCINATING AND SUICIDAL AT THIS POINT BECAUSE OF EVERYTHING WITH ECLIPSE AND LUNAR AND THE LOSS OF OLD MOON), Eclipse is slowly killing himself the more he uses the star with no other plan or intention to do anything substantial with it other than making sure people still like him and making Sun and New Moon suffer because of his abandonment issues.

Eclipse legit gets mad when he appears in their room (likely intending to mock them when they return from a trip he sent them on) where he ends up encountering Earth who tries to talk to him about his feelings and psychoanalyze him.

Dude has no real plan anymore and legit considered recruiting Freddy and Toy Chica's fucking baby but got scared off by Mimic telling him it would anger Golden Freddy.

At some point, Monty also finally meets Earth and they start dating.

Which New Moon wants to punch Monty over when he finds out.

Cause this literally happens not long after they finally interact again for the first time in months since his reset. Mostly because Monty didn't ask for his and Sun's blessing first cause THAT'S THEIR SISTER.

Also New Moon and Monty became fast friends all over again. And Monty let the boys know that Lunar was still alive. He's just still in space because Puppet (THE Puppet) is supposed to retrieve him but hasn't yet.

While attempting to find out how to stop Eclipse, New Moon manages to somehow get connected to a camera in their creator's base where he and Sun learn he is just a GIANT FLOATING BRAIN along with how he's using them as a scapegoat for his greater plans.

But Sun leaves the room as New Moon learns that, in addition to that, Earth is being used as an unwitting pawn to upload incriminating files into Fazbear Entertainment's database.

Still deeming Eclipse the bigger threat at the moment, even after Sun blows up at him over how he has nothing and is pathetic the last time he tried to mess with them since getting the Star, New Moon goes to the dimension with the nice Eclipse and they discover the code that Solar Flare (who is still alive and pulling the same shit Eclipse did to Sun with refusing to be removed so Eclipse can't get himself a better body that can handle the Star's power basically all: "We die together bitch") had given him to get rid of him. And upon learning that Lunar was killed by our Eclipse, nice Eclipse agrees to help and sacrifice himself (since it would kill him too once they lure Eclipse to his dimension) on the condition that New Moon helps to repair his Sun and Moon when he's gone.

Also Monty in Nice Eclipse's dimenstion is British is basically Elon Musk.

That point really isn't important other than the jokes about New Moon and Nice Eclipse hating him but I had no idea how else to include it.

New Moon then travels to Nice Eclipse's dimension again after gathering materials to begin building the satellite that will broadcast the code to kill Eclipse (which will take him a month in Nice Eclipse's dimenstion but will only really be a week in our time). And Sun, in his current mental state, is also composing his own plans to get rid of Eclipse just in case it doesn't work out cause he wants to protect his brother and not have him sacrifice himself again.

Said plan involves creating another Star to fight him with. And findinge KC (who got his own body and is currently out exploring) cause he might have Moon's memories that would be of help.

Also Ruin DLC!Eclipse had shown up at some point via portal and is now just running around causing havoc by just existing.

He punched New Moon in the face.

And then New Moon trapped him in a karaoke booth.

But then Freddy went and let him out thinking he was saving an innocent person and now the dude ALSO wants the Star.

Ruin!Eclipse vs. Wet Dorite Eclipse when?

Upon New Moon's return to their dimension, Sun shares his plans and what he heard from Golden Freddy. New Moon hears him out but explains how that might not work but is willing to give it a shot to some extent.

But they still have to find KC first.

Which ends up being rather easy cause the dude is just going around working in soup kitchens and the like despite living off the grid.

KC explains the options that Sun and New Moon have. One of which is one of them becoming a conduit for Star energy to fight Eclipse.

However, that might kill whoever does it.

When New Moon returns to Sun he explains KC is going to stop by after they've discus and decide what it is they're going to do. But before that, Hatsune Miky (yes, I'm not kidding) appears out of nowhere and has apparently been stalking them and is one of those crazy fans who hates and blames everything that's happened in the show thus far on Sun.

Sun, who may I remind, is VERY MENTALLY NOT OKAY AND WANTS TO DIE.

At the same time this is happening, Eclipse begins plan: "Instil False Hope".

Which is just going to Earth and Gaslight Gatekeep Girlbossing her.

Though not until after encountering Puppet and trying to recruit him to his side first. But he only succeeds in making himself mad because Puppet is such a GODDAMN WEEB.

Anyway, he attempts to manipulate Earth by saying he's INCREDIBLY sorry and wants to change.

But he does it SOOOO unconvincingly and while underestimating Earth's intelligence just because she insists on being kind to him. Constantly, and not so subtly, insulting her the whole time that she's able to see right through his bull and calls him out on it. Especially when he brings up how Sun (before it was known Eclipse or BloodMoon existed and were in control of him) killed kids along with Old Moon.

She points out that if he really wanted to change, he wouldn't tell her something like that. And after her patience is tried, she tells him she's being far kinder to him than he deserves and that he doesn't really want to change or be helped. He's just pathetic and wants to make everyone as miserable as he is.

Earth then decides she and her brothers have to talk cause she doesn't know who's telling the truth anymore after Eclipse tells her to go fuck herself and, failing to teleport away, walks off.

#sams #the sun and moon show spoilers #the sun and moon show #tsams #sams spoilers

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scintillyyy · 5 months

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actually there is another super interesting way in which you can tell dixon is trying to narratively reward steph for her perserverence (aside from writing her to fit his sexist worldview and rewarding her for that) & almost the... "pick oneself up by their bootstraps and succeed no matter your circumstances and what barriers there may be" narrative he kind of has for her and that is with the evolving nature of her social class through her appearances while he writes her imo (the ultimate bootstraps story that conservatives love) (which also contributes to the vast difference of interpretations of steph's economic status)

so honestly, in her first appearance in detective comics #647-649 she is very much coded as coming from a background of lower class/working poor/welfare stereotypes with a criminal father and an addict mother.

their house is visibly run down & not taken care of. crystal is emaciated and wears a robe all day/doesn't bother to get dressed, doctor shops for pills, and is whiny about how she'll get sicker without the prescription pills she's addicted to (you know nothing about crystal's initial aesthetics screams welfare queen imagery to me, tbh. they certainly don't seem to be implied to be "scamming the system just to live it up on steaks and lobster" and dixon would be way more overt about welfare fraud. i would call this more "white trash poor person" imagery as i imagine he sees it.).

interestingly though is the framing of steph by dixon as incredibly positive in comparison to her surroundings. in a way she's conceived as someone who is fighting against the poor circumstances that she was born into--she's going to be spoiler and rise above her criminal father and compared to her mother who can't be bothered to get dressed because she's always high, steph's going to dress nicely. those jeans she's wearing? that back pattern pocket is pretty iconically calvin klein. those were like. status symbol jeans of the 90s. now i'm not here to argue about affordability indicating she's way richer than she actually is here, because this was the 90s and steph very much could have afforded nice clothes and a vespa for herself on her summer/part-time job (in fact the clothes she wears on her vespa are pretty implied to be some sort of part-time job uniform), but it's a very interesting contrast that dixon draws, especially considering his biases. like you can tell he thinks that steph is in no way responsible for her circumstances (it's not her fault that her dad is a criminal and her mom is an addict) & and that being born into her circumstances don't mean she's doomed to end up like them--as long as she works hard and does the right thing, she'll be rewarded. in this case, she'll present herself as higher class/act classier than her unfortunate surroundings (via her external presentation of herself--she'll work hard and get the things she deserves for her hard work and effort) & resoundingly reject following her criminal father's footsteps by becoming the spoiler in order to cement herself as Not Like That. like he went out of his way to make her circumstances be more stereotypically poor and then show her as being above all that. she's the noble poor to her unfortunate white trash circumstances. (which is in line with dixon's classism and conservative viewpoint that it's okay to be poor, as long as you're white and don't act like those people do and hate your circumstances/are motivated to rise above them).

and this thread of how crystal is/stephanie's circumstances continues through crysal's next two appearances in robin #3 and showcase '95 #5 (though this was was written by keri kowalski, not dixon). she's still presented with very stereotypical aesthetics: she's never dressed, at this point, it's not implied she works...

and again, you can tell that dixon likes steph despite the fact that he wrote her as poor in her initial appearances because he often writes her as though he considers her above her circumstances (because those aren't her fault and she's working hard to not be like that).

the interesting thing is how this evolves once crystal kicks her addiction. which. frankly, i don't believe we ever see exactly when this happens? she's still an addict in showcase '95, but by her next appearance in robin #43 in 1997, she seems to. certainly be different than she was portrayed in her few initial appearances and appears to probably be sober at this point.

she's well put together and clearly employed, a far cry from the initial imagery dixon initially used for her. now it doesn't say she's a nurse here, just that she works at the hospital, but the white shoes and dress are an imagery giveaway. and now making steph's mom a nurse is actually kind of a soft retcon of her previously implied situation and a pretty interesting one at that because nursing--nursing and teaching occupations back in the 80s and 90s (and even today for nursing) iirc were considered good jobs to the middle class, on account of them being professional and steady jobs that required a degree of some sort that couldn't be automated or sent overseas (and there's a shortage, they need nurses!), like other jobs that were being lost at the time. so by making her mom a nurse, dixon was explicitly cementing their family circumstances as middle class as opposed to implied poor like their very initial appearances (or even what might've been considered "working class" at the time by certain economic theories, given that nursing isn't necessarily considered an "unskilled" job and does require college + it may be considered a pink collar job but in general there's good job security so it's such a gray area) (forgive my use of quotations here, i don't personally believe that jobs are unskilled and that the working class is a nebulous term that is illdefined and covers many different jobs with vastly different potential salary opportunities. a union working class electrician could very well be upper middle class based on salary, low cost of living, and lack of debt compared to someone who works at minimum wage, lives in a HCOL area, and has 75k in college loans but both are considered working class because they provide labor for wages) (i'm thinking of a 90s working class that was viewed between the middle class and the poor that consisted of a lot of what people considered blue collar or routizined work, but again, that means almost nothing in terms of salary potential and economic opportunity. plumber and warehouse worker are both considered blue collar, but their economic circumstances can vastly differ, but i digress-)

which is actually a pretty interesting evolution to her initial implied socioeconomic circumstances. because if her mom is a nurse & has a middle class job, then their economic issues previously weren't necessarily just that they were poor. it's that they were middle class fallen on hard times. which also coincides with the shift in the 90s where people were starting to be frightened of the middle class getting ravaged by the opioid/drug crisis. so now crystal isn't a stereotypical poor white trash addict, she's a middle-class worker who fell on hard times. and if they were struggling with finances, it wasn't that they were poor, it was more to do with struggling on account of crystal's addictions and having to deal with steph's dad/pay for him/he used their money and house for his villainy. and you end up because of this retcon having this issue where yea, she was initially presented as poor. but for the vast majority of her appearances, when she more consistently started to have a presence, she's written as middle class fallen on hard times. and you get this dissonance in her reading where it's like, yea, at the beginning, she was poor (and in far more stereotypical circumstances), so you can't say she never struggled financially. but also to claim she's just poor is to go against a lot of imagery that indicates more of a lower middle class (middle class, but struggling/tighter finances/no significant wiggle room), such as having a mom who's a nurse, having a home computer, etc. and in this case i really don't think this was just a case of dixon not knowing how to write a poor person (though that's definitely somewhat involved, this is dixon after all), because the choice of profession for her mother and giving her access to a home computer in the 90s and the overall improvement of her perceived home environment as the series progressed do seem like a deliberate choice on dixon's part. he probably would have known that nursing was considered a "good, steady" job to have.

anyways, i don't necessarily think this retcon is. necessarily worst thing in the world. it's much less stereotypical than poor/bad people are in poor/bad situations because of their choices and it acknowledges that people in all socioeconomic tiers can struggle with issues like crime and addiction.

alright, continuing on. there's an interesting thread in the steph pregnancy arc that has crystal ruminate on how steph ended up that way because crystal was a bad influence for marrying arthur and the pills. but because chuck has decided that the browns are more lower middle class than straight lower class there's a bit of a redemption/reimagining of his initial poor view of crystal once she gets sober and a marked improvement in the appearance of their socioecomonic status. take robin #58 for example.

crystal gets to support and affirm steph, be present (unlike her initial appearances). and in robin #84 after she's aware of steph's going out as spoiler after having recently found the spoiler costume (and trying to put her down about it--compared to when steph was doing spoiler stuff in the kitchen and her mom didn't even notice because she was high) and the visual design of the inside of their their house has definitely improved from run down to standard middle class, fairly nice looking.

which again feels fairly deliberate to me. because it doesn't just seem like dixon not understanding what it means to be poor, there's a deliberate moving of steph's socioeconomic status up more towards middle class once her mom gets sober which i feel like aligns nicely with chuck's viewpoint that if you're poor, you're poor because of bad choices and once you make good choices you can settle back into relative comfort.

and notably he gives even bigger reward to crystal for kicking her habit and make better choices and renouncing her husband's criminal ways (when she found out steph was spoiler and turned him in she was like "hah, serves him right"--compare this to when she was implied to be visiting him in steph's first appearance and she was being presented poorly): she, like steph, will now get sympathy for being put in a situation out of her control and the hard times that have fallen upon them. in robin #93 and #94 arthur comes home and parks himself there and nobody likes it.

and yea, they're shown to be struggling--crystal doesn't have extra money laying around to hire a lawyer to kick our her husband--a long, arduous, expensive process (+in robin #94 she's shown as being fed up with the court process as well). but rather than her being treated bad by narrative for not having money, she's presented quite sympathetically. she doesn't want them there or have anything to do with them. she's a hardworking, middle class woman who maybe fell on hard times because of her past addictions and having a criminal husband, but because she did the right thing and got clean and renounced those ways. she's not being seen as culpable to the situation--she's being seen as a victim of it this time. anyways, dixon eventually resolves the situation by sending dinah over to kick out the villains inhabiting her home, which shows that he thinks that they're (crystal and steph) deserving of being saved from the circumstances that keep them down (because they're hardworking people who are actively trying to get out of their situation and better themselves). and it aligns quite nicely with his conservative view of the world, that people who work hard get rewarded for their hard work and good things happen to them.

like i'm not going to pretend that the browns are rich by any means. they're clearly not. but there's an interesting way in which dixon improves steph's class as a reward for her perserverence. the last mention we get of any potential class by dixon is her conversation with tim in robin #100 where tim is catastrophizing about the loss of his money (which i know is nagl), but it also doesn't exactly imply she's poor and she's not exactly mad at him for being tone-deaf. she's just matter of fact about not understanding the big deal--just that she fights crime on a budget. so it's more her way of telling tim that he doesn't have to worry about the money thing/going down to middle class when it comes to being robin--after all, she's done just fine as spoiler by being smart with her money. which is actually fairly in line with dixon's viewpoint that if you make good decisions with your money, you'll do just fine and can/should afford to do what you want.

his biases and politics are sooo obvious with the browns tbh. all in all, the way he writes the browns (crystal & stephanie) wrt class i get a lot of flavors of that stupid fucking hillbilly elegy book. they're not poor welfare recipients because they're the true, hardworking people who deserve to be middle class. they were down on their luck and made bad decisions and had unfortunate things happen to them (arthur, crystal's addiction), but they overcame that like good hardworking americans (became spoiler, got sober) and as a result their economic situation improves as god intended. anyways, like i said before. it makes it so hard to be like "yea, steph was poor!" without leaning into dixon's stereotypes of poor people (addiction, criminality) and when he does write them as poor/struggling he writes them as the "true poor" "the good poor people who would never depend on aid, they just work hard to reject their circumstances and elevate themselves as they should". but it's also hard to uncomplicatedly say she was middle class, because despite being presented as lower middle class for a lot of her appearances, it's also another part of dixon's classism that has him improving their economic class over time because it's an improvement inexorably linked to his belief that hardworking americans can just pull themselves up by their bootstraps because he shows steph and crystal doing just that.

& i think of how it was initially dixon's idea to maybe make steph robin in a storyline & i can't help but feel that's almost a continuation/conclusion of the bootstraps narrative he has for steph.

idk it's just hard for me to say that dixon looked down on steph for being poor/being lower middle class because her story of self-improvement is so tied to the conservative belief of upward mobility with hard work. it's extremely classist. and yet it's still there. on the paper.

bonus, just to prove he sees them (the browns) as a lower middle class family who wouldn't be struggling so much if the government would just stop taking all their money in taxes:

#listen tim gets to be a dixon mouthpiece a lot to extoll the virtues of the rich #but the browns are also very much written as his way of extolling the 'poor dears plighted by taxes to pay for the poors' lower middle clas #and it's hard to be like well that's unrealistic when that socioeconomic class has gotten convinced of the ideals of conservatism #it's just another one of the unfortunate realities of her creation and the fact that she was dixon's darling #no matter which way you perceive her...classism and conservative ideals of economics are involved

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