I need some good fantasy or scifi to read that doesn't involve romance. preferably urban fantasy or cyberpunk or just downright weird shit, but I could do with more traditional stuff. as long as people aren't driven by lust. I'm so so soso so sososososoooooooo very tired of reading that sort of thing in traditional print novels.

#this is such a mood. i kind of stopped reading YA and even a lot of adult fantasy bc of the fixation on romance#op i'm preeeetty sure i didn't follow you for murderbot so forgive me if you know it but if not may i recommend the murderbot diaries#the imperial radch series is also some great non-romance-centric scifi#i've been recc'd several different books by Victoria Goddard for platonic/queerplatonic centered fantasy#only one i've read so far is Hands of the Emperor but it was GREAT#others who follow me probably have more ideas#(i hope i have not misread the room here by offering recommendations)

you weren't misreading, I was unintentionally unclear. recs are Very Welcome XD thank you!!

I keep a goodreads list of No Romance Books for exactly this reason lol.

ABSOLUTE FAVORITES

WEIRD AND INTERESTING

HAVEN'T READ THIS BUT I KEEP MEANING TO

SOME ROMANCE BUT IT'S NOT A MAJOR FOCUS

No romance urban fantasy: A Madness of Angels (and sequels) by Kate Griffin. A dead Urban Sorcerer wakes up two years after his murder and has to avenge himself and discover which of the newest power players in magical London resurrected him, all while hosting the chaotic new gods of the telephone lines that now make up half his mind.

Found on twitter, going to adopt this now

Writer friends, tell me how many WIPs and how many UFOs you have. I have 2 WIPs and [redacted] UFOs (jk it’s around 16 across my three main fandoms)

going one step further... another yarn craft term that writers should put into use is frogging. If you don’t like the project, but the yarn is good, you can frog it (take it apart) and reuse it for another project.

I think a lot of writers don’t give themselves credit for how many of their ufos have actually been frogged, ie that particular project has been abandoned, but the concept, characters, or setting has been taken and reused on a new project.

Almost all of my abandoned fanfics have been frogged. You’ll find the pieces of them in my original work

my favourite thing about frogging and why it’s called that is because you… rip it rip it (ribbit ribbit)

But! yes! I wholeheartedly concur. I keep “line graveyards” for works that I keep frogging and they wind up being so useful later.

as someone who’s in the writing community AND crocheting/knitting community, i approve of this message

[image ID: Tweet from bylambd on 7/5/23 reading: in the knitting community there is a distinction between wips (something you're actively working on) and UFOs (unfinished objects, something is unfinished but in hibernation), and i think fic writers should adopt this distinction as well /End ID]

what if you’re giving birth to twins and it’s the end of daylights savings day and the older twin was born first but the second twin travels back in time and is born an hour before the first twin, would that be fucked up or what.

This is like one of those riddle-of-the-Sphinx loopholes, like “I can only be defeated by a younger brother who is first born of his family” and this clown rolls up like “BUDDY, HAVE I GOT A STORY FOR YOU…” 

Early season 1 when Aang is talking to Roku instead of being chained up sokka katara and zuko are thrown into a cell together

Zuko: oh spirits this is bad. Fuck fuck fuck my father’s going to kill me

Sokka: wtf??? How is this bad for you?? Ur the prince?? Like we’re w/ the avatar obvi this is bad for us but why the fuck are you even in the cell??

Zuko: I’m banished, idiot. By going into fire nation waters I’ve committed treason and greatly disrespected my father! He’ll be furious with me!!

Katara: ur his son I’m sure it won’t be that bad

Zuko: the last time I disrespected him he burned half my face off

Katara and Sokka: *horrified silence*

Sokka: oh my fucking spirits that’s awful

Zuko: what? No it’s not. It was my fault

Sokka:

Katara: *repeatedly under her breath* wtf wtf wtf wtf-

Sokka:

Sokka: zuko I cannot stress enough how much that was not your fault

Zuko: yes it was I spoke out of turn and disrespected him in front of his whole war council. He had every right to punish me how he saw fit, including banishing me

Sokka: he banished and burned half your face off just because you talked out of turn??!?????

Zuko: I mean I insulted one of his generals but the man was planning on sacrificing an untrained unit for no reason! It would have been a massacre! Quit judging me!!

Sokka: tui and la what the fuck

Katara: ok. zuko we’re adopting you now

Zuko: what?? No you’re not???

Cue zuko going along with them when aang busts them out bc he has no other options, having to stay with them cus they’re lowkey kidnapping him/he has no other option, and our boi slowly joining them/realizing what happened was fucked up. Also katara introducing him to their dad as “sokkas boyfreind slash your new son and my new brother”

oh oh oh oh oh oh my gods I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted a fic so badly in my life oh my gods And Zuko being all confused like you were not there? I had not even told you the entire story before you formed an opinion? How tf can you say it wasn’t my fault? Katara: *deep breathing* Sokka: Okay so. You are like. MAYBE one or two years older than me. You are barely an adult, if that. Your father had no right - Zuko: What does my age have to do with it? I was an unruly child! How else was I going to learn? Katara: Zuko I’m going to ask you this once, and then I’m going to need you both to pray that I don’t somehow have some Waterbender version of the Avatar state: your scar looks like it’s been healed a while. How long ago did this happen? Zuko: A bit over two years ago? Why? *Five minutes later* Aang: Wow, guys! What happened? I couldn’t find you but then I could hear you both yelling from the other side of the island!

Djdhdjjchchd I love this addition

Also, 2 days later while zuko is still lowkey being kiddnapped Aang is in the woods foraging a little bit away from camp and just hears this being yelled:

What do you mean you didn’t fight back?!??!?

You were thirteen????

You were kneeling????

He said WHAT!?!????!

Aang is. Very concerned.

It’s quiet for ten minutes before sokka yells:

“Holy shit no one knew the avatar was gonna come back when he banished you!!!”

Zuko haz no idea how to deal with ppl being upset on his behalf

Aang and up finding out what they were talking about. And he gets so pissed he threatens to go straight to the fire lord, avatar state activated, and fight him right then and there for doing that to a child

They stop him of course

But Aang still wants to do it

Aang: All life is sacred

Zuko: Yeah my Dad scarred me when I was 13 I deserved it though

Aang: …

Aang, arrows glowing: Most lives are sacred

PLS I am BEGGING someone write this fanfic (or a bit of it) and TAG ME

Forget the Avatar state. Aang had Roku possess him ala Kyoshi and he just kicks down the door as that

Roku: OZAI!! WE NEED TO HAVE WORDS ABOUT HOW YOU TREAT MY GRANDDAUGHTER AND GREAT GRANDCHILDREN! AND WHEN I SAY WORDS I MEAN EXCESSIVE FIRE AND VIOLENCE

Anyway, that’s how they find out Zuko is Roku’s grandson.

Fics I found based off this idea

A strange discovery

Forced Fate Is Still Fate    

Dysfunctional (a.k.a How the Gaang Adopted Zuko two Books Early

I cannot tell you how much it pleases me that new ATLA content is being made in the year of our plague 2020. 

@north-peach @wolfsrainrules

an entirely new generation- some still stuck in quarantine- receiving Uncle Iroh’s widsom, slowly unraveling Zuko’s shitty childhood and all of them wishing death of Ozai.

truly, in the year of our plague 2020, this does give me hope

@captainkirkk

This is absolutely hilarious

If you don’t mind I’ll add a few more: 

Your Dad did What? Adopting the Enemy Zuko Gets Adopted On Agni’s Honor These fics are already in this post but I wanted to be thorough with my list, so here they are again:

Dysfunctional (a.k.a How the Gaang Adopted Zuko two Books Early) A strange discovery What is Fate anyway? (repost of Forced Fate Is Still Fate, original was deleted)

I found another one (and I’m sure there are even more):

winter solstice: and addendum

What is Fate anyway? (reWRITE of Forced Fate Is Still Fate) also got deleted  (why do people always delete their works when the option to orphan it is right there)

Well, time to add more:

Second Thoughts Terminal Velocity Kidnap the Prince, a Great Idea

hi im a cat expurt (like pur its a cat pun im a cat expert) this little guy isnt stretching all cute! theyre actually using level 2 psychic lightning attack on their owner. unfortunately their owner will not survive this

i was about to say this is at the Toronto airport and then suddenly it definitely. Was. Not.

my friend asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend because her parents are homophobic af but they ended up hating me so much that they were glad when she said she was gay task failed successfully

okay so

yes

i kissed him on the lips infront of his parents and claimed it was the usual greek greeting between men is that enough for you

Are you…. Are you secretly dating her brother OP?

yes

I wonder why

Show up again to admit to dating the brother, but dress like a typical suburbanite and act like you’ve never met the parents before. Absolute power move.

asdgfgsjfh im totally doing this

want an update?

ofc you do

but i’m too tired to write all of what happened down right now so instead try to imagine the most awkward situation you’ve ever been in.

now multiply the awkwardness by 100

first of all i’m just gonna show the difference in what i was wearing

an example of what i would wear as my friend’s fake bf:

and as my boyfriend’s actual bf:

when my bf and i showed up his dad did such a double take

sooo yeah my bf told his parents he’s gay, they looked surprised but told him it was fine… then they shared a look of pure horror (seriously, it was like they had just found out they’re in the matrix) and said

“and uh. why is…he here?”

i went and introduced myself like we had never met before and said i was their son’s boyfriend

:3

i’ve never seen two people look more angry before but they weren’t gonna say anything because they had other family members over

the family members who had never met me before and therefore knew nothing about the fake relationship thing started asking me what faith i am. i said i was raised protestant, though i’m not very religious now, but that’s something i want to change. i had never mentioned anything about being a protestant before and i had said several times that my family was greek orthodox but gaslight gatekeep girlboss

aaaand then the awkwardness began. those were probably the most awkward minutes of my life (we didn’t stay for long because i thought the dad was gonna hit me [he probably was. i saw him clenching his fists several times]) and i don’t think anyone has ever looked at me with such murderous intent as my bf’s parents

update two electric boogaloo ig

i have a girlfriend now🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

Somehow this video captures the scale of whales better than any other video or photo I have ever seen.

That is a humpback. If you think they are huge, I have some news for you…

Me watching this video

Fun fact: the blue whale is the biggest animal to ever live on earth. And they’re alive today.

The biggest isn’t some dinosaur or weird devonian fish, nope. It’s the blue whale, and you share a planet with them. How lucky is that?

TIL that NASA has been launching jellyfish into space since the 90’s. Originally 2,478 were sent up and there were 60,000 orbiting Earth by the mission’s end 20 years later. The jellyfish that have returned reportedly ‘hate life on Earth.’

via reddit.com

Go you want to birth an Eldridge horror? This is how you birth an Eldridge horror

I want to know how they decided that they hate life on earth

I mean, who doesn’t

The “jellyfish that have returned” are the offspring of the ones sent up; they “hate life on Earth” because they were born into a world without gravity - no direction, different kinds of pressure, so when they return they have trouble adapting and (according to the Read More in the source) “Jellyfish babies, at least, have to deal with massive vertigo on Earth after spending their first few days in space,” which you can tell because you can measure how disoriented a jellyfish is compared with norma behavior. TL;DR your cthulu is an infant with a migraine

I have SO MANY questions, re:the jellyfish space habitat.

I mean I guess it’s probably just an airtight aquarium on board the ISS, but I read it the first several times as the jellyfish were just floating in open space.

tbh when I read “NASA has been launching jellyfish into space for years” my initial mental image was just NASA with a giant slingshot flinging jellyfish after jellyfish into the void 

my blorbo appears on screen and I start making clicking-chattering noises like a cat when a bird flies past the window

are evil dragons really evil, or are they just vitamin D deficient?

Glaze is out!

Tired of having your artwork used for AI training but find watermarks dismaying and ineffective?

Well check this out! Software that makes your Art look messed up to training AIs and unusable in a data set but nearly unchanged to human eyes.

I just learned about this. It's in Beta. Please read all the information before using.

Art thieves already hate it:

Dude, if you're stealing, you deserve to have the data poisoned. Because you could have asked and you didn't.

The link is only in the original post inside an image, not as text, so here it is as plain text: https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/ and the paper about how it works: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.04222

As links (because some of us are on mobile and can't easily copy and paste to our browser), those are:

https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu

&

A bit of a TLDR for some questions I saw in the notes:

The team that created Glaze is from the University of Chicago. Their names are each listed in full on the Glaze download website. (This group of students/professors did this for their SPRING BREAK 😱 so go give them some love lol)

It is free to download. No, they won’t ask for or raise money from/for this project.(stated by one of the lead professors of the project).

Glaze is designed to protect artists’ STYLE--which a bunch of ai people have been deliberately fine-tuning their models to mimic (and specifically of current living artists--small or big).

It currently does not protect against composition/trace-like theft (as seen when run through img-to-img) but that would be protected by copyright anyway while STYLE is not.

The University Team has stated that they are dedicated to continuing to improve the tool, like fixing bugs (like overheating older computers by taking up lots of energy when Glazing--it currently runs on CPU so they’re trying to change that to GPU, I believe) and expanding the type of protection given to artists (like working against img-to-img theft).

It currently only works directly on your computer (phones not advised due to current overheating issue, no tablets, or iPads, and no website runthrough since that would be insecure to breaches/scraping/hacks)

It currently works best on painterly artwork, but can still be used on other forms (team is working on improving this)

IT WORKS BY calculating the changes each image needs for the best protection against style theft by AI, and adds tiny changes throughout the piece, so that your style will, for example, confuse the ai into seeing van gogh. But the ai thieves will see a regular image in your style, feeding it into their model labeled as your work (thus starting the “data poisoning”).

Do not post the original unGlazed piece of your artwork after posting your Glazed version (obviously)

The Team worked directly with over 1,000 artists that were being impacted by the ai theft. Because the team listened to those artists, Glaze accounts for regular art thieves too (i.e. Glaze can’t be removed/cropped etc. like signatures or watermarks when reposted. It’s just part of the image, so even if it ends up on another site and scraped, the Glazing is still in effect)

When you run your artwork through Glaze, no information is sent back to the Team. (Aka, no scraping on their part. The app receives information from the Team (like updates) but no information from you is given to them through the app. Basically Team servers ---> You and NOT Team servers <--->You) One-way data street.

Brief misunderstanding happened over an open-source license for the front-end part of the app. (Used open-source coding for front-end, not knowing that code’s use-license states it is only for other open-source uses, not closed-source (the back-end code of the app is private to prevent counter-counter measure developments)). The Team took down the app until they replaced the front-end code with code written from scratch by the team. They are now not in violation of that open-source license since they are no longer using it. (you have 30 days to remedy a license breach once informed; they did so in 2)

The Team is currently in touch with Japanese artists to better expand the tool for use to protect their art styles

From what I understand of it, Glaze is an AI tool designed to be anti-AI (Think Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: one Terminator robot vs. all the other Terminators 😂)

You can download it from their website and also contact them through email there with any questions, problems, or bugs. The website: https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/

reblogging this every fucking time it comes across my dash

They recently updated it btw. They're also expanding its capabilities, if you go on their site's page. Hell ye

If I may once again dip my toe into the discourse surrounding Greek Mythology, a lot of people like to rewrite or reframe the story of Medusa, and that’s great! Highly encourage it. But, DON’T YOU DARE GO AND DEMONIZE MY BOY PERSEUS!

Perseus isn’t some vile misogynist who hunts down and murders Medusa for the hell of it. He’s a scared kid who’s trying to save his mom from a forced marriage (whom herself has been a victim of terrible abuse from her father) to a creepy evil king and gets duped by the Gods into cleaning up their mess for them. He’s not the villain, he’s just another pawn. So if I see one more motherfucker trying to make him out to be the “real monster” I will throw hands.

You know what would be way more interesting?! Medusa sees Perseus rolling up to her crib and freaks out cause ‘holy shit this is a fucking kid. a fucking toddler with a sword and shield.’ and they hash it out and then TEAM UP to kill the evil kind trying to force marry Perseus’ mother! Think of the dynamics that you could write! The interactions that could occur. I mean, one of ‘em is gonna have to wear a blindfold but hey, minor problems.

What I’m saying is, gimme a buddy cop movie where Perseus and Medusa team up to fight evil in Ancient Greece.

I’m just picturing Perseus as this fairly well built sixteen year old kid, who looks a little underfed, and he’s like ‘ma’am I’m so sorry, I have to bring your head back to save my mom’ and medusa is like ‘okay, start over. We can work with this’ and compare trauma over some watered wine.

Danae and Medusa can get married and Perseus can have TWO Badass Moms

Okay but consider: Perseus regretfully tells Medusa he has to bring back her head to save his mother from a forced marriage and Medusa cocks her head and says “did the bastard say the rest of me couldn’t be attached?” and long story short Perseus rocks up with a Lady-Gaga-esque entourage of men carrying this gigantic silver platter with a giant metal cloche on top of it and announces it to his mother’s tormentor as the head of Medusa, and dude lifts it up and Perseus finishes, “and also the rest of her” and fucker turns to stone.

I declare this to be a valid adaptation of the mytheme.

the way tumblr tags trend is so funny, sometimes it seems like if ONE post gets popular the entire tag trends.

I’m gonna do an experiment. let’s use the tag

uhhhhhh

#mole interest

I want everyone to know that I was curious and wanted to see the randomized words after “mole interest” and got “twin parking” and then I remembered it’s 9/11 🫢

anyway wouldn’t it be funny if we got mole interest to trend higher than 9/11

posting hole is out. posting mole is IN

but then where are the moles gonna live :(

LINDEN??? HOME FOR THE DAY????

Hello!

Yes they're doing good. Spoiled on apples currently.