This blog is my personal space to reblog monster related content but also some other types of post that I find interesting, amusing, or educational.
Warning:
- Do not follow if youāre under 18 or if you want to avoid sexual content! This is an adult space and I reblog NSFW content and talk about NSFW things.
- Do not follow if occasional talk of dubcon/noncon and cnc (consensual non-consent) bothers you.
- I donāt tag most content.
** All messages sent to my ask box will be published publicly to my blog. Anon is on if you wish to remain anonymous, but do not send messages to me expecting them to stay private. **
Other websites:
- Twitter
- Youtube
- Pillowfort Personal Account
- Pillowfort Community (anyone can join and post to it)
- Another Pillowfort Community
- AO3
Other info:
- I love getting asks! Whether theyāre questions for me about general monster stuff or my characters, or if theyāre just people gushing about their own interests! My ask box is open and anon is always on! Please feel free to share any thoughts your questions you have! (that goes for pretty much all my blogs btw).
- Werewolves are my #1 favorite monster, but youāll see a wide variety of monster content reblogged here.
- Iām over the age of 25 but I wonāt give more specifics for privacy reasons.
- Iāll add more things to this post as I think of them.
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Project your hobbies onto fictional characters, even if it's out of character. Give that war criminal an easel and paint. That assassin now embroiders in their free time. You KNOW that serial killer has a lets play channel. Just do it. It's fun. Go wild.
If you are looking for an embroidery kit or pattern made by an actual person on etsy and not generated by AI or dropshipped, a big indicator that something is real is a video of the finished piece. Embroidery is beautiful but it's very hard to show off a piece with just photos; an embroiderer typically isn't looking for just the flat result but also how it looks from multiple angles and how the thread looks in different lighting (one of the biggest appeals of embroidery is the beautiful thread).
A store run by an actual embroiderer selling their own patterns that they've tested will know all this already and list videos of their patterns, not just photos or generic videos of random embroidery. A listing that doesn't include a video likely doesn't exist or wasn't tested by the store owner. Most AI stores also don't have unique videos of their listings and will just reuse the same generated or stolen videos, but the ones that do try have videos with strange backgrounds (like old wooden tables with random objects) and very little effort to actually show off the piece.
Other quick red flags in embroidery listings:
Stitches that are strange, confusing, or unrecognizable.
Curved straight stitches (they're called straight stitches for a reason).
Very shiny or reflective thread, especially eyes on cute animals; the AI is trying to replicate the reflective eyes of fake amigurumi.
(Metallic thread exists but is notoriously difficult to work with and it will NOT be included in the vast majority of kits, especially ones aimed at beginners.)
Very, very plush looking thread. The only way for embroidery, a fairly flat art done with thin threads, to look plush is to use either very thick thread (not included in kits typically) or by laying stitches on top of each other (often looks very clunk if it's not done SUPER well).
Blurry photos of the pattern, especially if everything around it is very crisp.
The exact same photos for each listing, but the pattern shown is different and the color scheme of the photos changes to match.
Backgrounds that match the pattern perfectly, like flowers that match the flower stitches, decorations that are the same color as the pattern, etc.
Hands holding the "finished" piece that look too smooth or crisp compared to the embroidery, especially if the clothes shown also match the pattern (the ones I've seen usually have a fuzzy sweater the same color as the embroidery).
Inconsistent sizing, where the piece changes size in each photo; in one, it's small enough to be held comfortably in one hand and in another, it dwarfs a vase of flowers or is mirror sized above a dresser.
Reviews where the reviewers are very self-deprecating about their skills (mine looks so much worse, it didn't turn out right, my skills aren't good enough for this, etc) and the photos of their results look much flatter than the listing.
An incredibly detailed piece with a very basic pattern that would be impossible to follow to get those results.
Some quick examples from etsy:
(I don't feel bad reposting these because THEY'RE FUCKING FAKE).
Notice the exact same photo just being changed to match the colors of the pieces, which are also both very detailed and very unfocused.
Incredibly plush stitches that don't make any sense when you look at them and would be impossible to replicate, held by hands that are clearly AI generated.
A reasonably sized piece that is now giant in the same listing. Also a strangely blurry piece compared to the background when you try to actually look at the stitches.
I don't even know what to say about this one. Unless you are doing 10 layers of stitches, that sort of plushness in the clouds Is Not Happening. Also the sea foam is just random loops.
The curving straight stitches. The weirdly plush flowers. The perfect gradient straight stitch (gradient threads exist, but if you want a good and neat gradient, you typically use something controlled like a long and short stitch). The curved straight stitches in the wings and stems. The leaves that make less sense the more you look at them. The straight up circles that aren't even stitches in the flower centers. The AI generated hands. The person in the matching dress standing behind the embroidery as if they are also holding it for some reason. There is a lot wrong here.
I love embroidery but frankly, I would NOT have kept embroidering if I hadn't gotten into it before the AI boom. It is incredibly discouraging to spend time and money on something that doesn't turn out at all the way it's supposed to, especially as a beginner, and no one ever thinks to blame the pattern instead of themselves. It's the same for all crafts these days and I'm deeply sorry to anyone getting started on a new craft while trying to slog through AI crap that wastes time and expensive materials.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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tubi is one of our greatest warriors in the fight against streaming services costing a fortune for mediocre content. tubi has the most insane collection of movies you will ever encounter all for free. it has cult classics and questionable lifetime movies and movies that nobody except like three people on the planet have ever seen. tubi has movies that doesnāt exist. like if you just thought of a movie one day but never made it and no one ever made it it would somehow still exist on tubi. one day i will log onto tubitv dot com and i will see terribly inappropriate, overly complex, and strange on there. and i wonāt even be surprised.
"it's ok to show (x) in fiction as long as the bad guy gets punished!" the bad guy doesn't have to get punished. in fact the bad guy can win altogether. the bad guy can entirely get away with it. hope this helps
and this part might make some people's head explode but: characters can be written to forgive things you personally wouldn't ever forgive. not everything is written as what you'd perceive to be the right choice. not everything is a self-insert & protagonists don't have to be relatable.
I love when trauma makes characters messy. I love when characters don't know how to show love. I love when they lash out. I love when they're vile and break down. I love characters who aren't perfect victims. I love when stories don't excuse behaviour but allow you to understand it
"that doesn't sound sincere- it sounds rehearsed" is one of the most devastating and fucked-up statements you can make to anyone in the neurodivergent/ADHD/Autistic/Schizophrenic/Disordered Personality sphere. yeah bitch it's rehearsed. because i wanted to get it right when i said it
Iāve recently discovered how much better life can be when we normalize this. My best friend and I have started saying āhang on, Iām scriptingā when we need a minute to mentally rehearse during big conversations (and ābear with me, Iām doing improvā when weāve reached the end of our script and start to struggle with words lol)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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My main concern is appendicitis. The location of the pain is where that would be.
Buuuuut... That area is also already compromised because of the health issue I've been dealing with for nearly three years now. I often get pain there that passes when I take the proper steps to manage my condition.
And in the past two days, when I've woken with this pain, it has passed (eventually) after taking those steps.
The first day the pain was so bad that I nearly passed out in the shower, I think mainly because I wasn't taking deep enough breaths since breathing hurt and the air was thick with steam so I wasn't getting enough oxygen. But by the end of the day, I was fine and even managed to write 6k words.
Yesterday, the pain wasn't horrible when I woke up but was still pretty bad. It faded way earlier though and I managed to write 13k words before I went to bed.
Today... I could barely stand long enough to give my animals their breakfast. I had to skip doing some of my morning animal chores because I knew I wasn't up to it.
The pain is slightly better right now, as I've taken some of the steps to manage my condition. But it was debilitating not fifteen minutes ago.
I'm not asking for advice, just venting. I don't know if it's worth going to the ER only for them to yell at me that I'm not taking my medication that's supposed to manage this condition. Medication I'm not taking because no one has taken any steps to prove to me that it's safe with all my allergies and bad reactions to medication. My PCP is doing her darndest to get a version of the medication that may be safer, but she keeps running into a brick wall and whenever I talk to the specialist about it, they're dismissive of my concerns.
So yeah. I'm in pain and don't really know what to do about it.
As a professional hand engraver, when it comes to old crafts like these, its way more accessible to get started with the basics than you'd expect. Back in the day good steel was expensive so trying something like hand engraving was expensive and difficult to justify. But now you can can just buy a good quality handpush graver online for less than a fancy coffee. Just think, for under a hundred quid you could get all the kit you need to get started with fucking up coins and stabbing yourself repeatedly!!!
Don't threaten to do it, go research it, and actually give it a go!!! Most of the books for old crafts are out of copyright. Even if you don't get a job at whatever you try, or hell, even of you don't become in any way good at it, just learning and trying something new is good for you, and it gives you a greater understanding and appreciation for things.
Fuck AI? Good. I agree. Now fucking do something about it. Return to doing human hand crafted things as an act of rebellion! Start knitting, start wood carving, start engraving, whatever the fuck. But most importantly, remember you don't need to be making money doing it to make it worth doing.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
people NEED to stop gatekeeping making music like ohhhh i donāt have an instrument ohhhhh i donāt know music theory ohhhhh iām not gonna pay for some program. SHUT UP. take my hand.
you need NONE of that shit!!!!! thereās a website called beepbox.co. literally all you have to do is press things until it sounds a modicum of nice. itās easy itās free and it works on anything which has a browser because itās a website.
if even ONE person starts making music bc of this post it will be worth it.
making bad music is just as important and okay as it is to write badly or draw badly or sing badly. you ARENāT BEHOLDEN TO MAKE GOOD MUSIC. making music is not utilitarian HAVE FUN. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!
love how people will encourage people to just start making shit and see what happens when it comes to drawing and writing but when it comes to beginner musicians (music makers if you wish to be less formal) itās just COMPLETE RADIO SILENCE. it feels like no one even knows you MAKE music it just sprouts up from the ground one day and some guy picks it up. am i alone in this dark cave
Alternatively if you wanna get into music producing in a more āproperā way, you still donāt need any money.
Ableton has excellent free websites to learn the basics:
Learning Music
Learning Synths
You can learn basically everything you need on YouTube. I recommend:
Mercurial Tones Academy
Dan Worrall
Bthelick
A lot of your favorite artists, mainly in electronic music, likely have done track breakdowns, you can watch those to learn how they do things.
DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) ultimately all do the same things, and Cakewalk is a great FREE fully fledged one. Sure it has some issues, and doesnāt have many plugins included, but it works just fine. All the music I released so far was made there, before I made the jump to Ableton.
As for VST plugins:
Vital is an excellent free synth
Native Instruments Komplete Start is a good free collection of plugins
TDR Nova is a great free EQ
Thereās a lot of others and I donāt wanna name everything Iām aware of here, but feel free to DM me for more (Or if you have any other questions and stuff too).
And as for samples, you can get a bunch of free ones at:
Cymatics
Ghosthack
Having good headphones is nice and what Iād recommend you invest in first once it comes to it, but even your current ones will probably be fine, mainly if you slap AutoEQ onto them to flatten the frequency response. And ultimately, music isnāt all about the mixing, the most important part is conveying an emotion.
I know this goes against the spirit of the original post a little, but I want people to know that getting into music production also no longer costs thousands, you can just do it at home on your computer without no money.
Yeah, there is still quite the learning curve, I get that, though itās also why itās managed to hold me as a hobby for so long.
I do however have something of the exact opposite variety too, the most simple way to make music I know of, and a wonderful little semi-social experience, along the lines of the game Journey:
The New PLINK! is the long overdue update of #plink by @DinahmoeSTHLM. Jam with friends and strangers all over the world.
