But mostly all things Keith from Voltron. I like friendshippy stuff, but will sometimes reblog (Keith-centric) ship stuff if I think it's cute. I write fanfic, but am incredibly slow. No hate on this blog. Live and let live, people! Feel free to say hi or ask me stuff! Icon by edzoklance!
we gotta get back to torrent distribution, i just watched someone eat eight grand in bandwidth charges because they ran a direct-download piracy site with local file hosting through cloudflare. torrents were invented literally for this exact reason
i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3
unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it
i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map
i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs
this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.
crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.
This week, I read a fic that was around 20 years old, which had originally been posted on the author's personal website and which she added to AO3 a few years ago. She listed her email address with the fic, so after I finished reading, I sent her an email saying how much I enjoyed the story, how much I appreciated the work and effort she obviously put into it, and thanked her for uploading it to AO3. She responded the next day and thanked me for my message, then said she had a few more stories in the same series that she hadn't gotten around to uploading. I checked this morning--she added a 35,000 word novella and thanked me in the summary.
Forty years later, I still think Rodimus Prime gets profoundly misunderstood, and I suspect a lot of that misunderstanding comes from the era in which he debuted.
In 1986, The Transformers: The Movie did something that genuinely shocked its audience. It killed Optimus Prime, a character who, for many children of that era, functioned less as a toy commercial protagonist and more as a mythological father figure. Optimus was certainty. He was wisdom. He was strength. He walked into every scene sounding like he had just stepped down from Mount Sinai with stone tablets in hand. He did not second guess himself. He did not visibly crack under pressure. He was designed to feel eternal.
Then the movie ripped that away and handed the future to Hot Rod, who became Rodimus Prime.
And fans have been punishing him for it ever since.
Part of this is undeniably emotional. There are still people who reduce Optimusâ death to âHot Rod got him killed,â which has always felt like a wildly unfair reading of that scene. Megatron was going to shoot Optimus regardless. Hot Rod made a reckless choice born out of desperation and inexperience, but he was not malicious, nor was he solely responsible for the death of a character Hasbro had already decided needed to be removed to make way for new product lines. Corporate toy strategy killed Optimus. Rodimus simply inherited the audienceâs grief.
That grief hardened into resentment because Rodimus was not trying to be Optimus, and more importantly, he could not be Optimus.
That is what makes him fascinating.
Watch season three of The Transformers now and what stands out is how unusually modern Rodimus feels. This is a leader consumed by self doubt. This is someone who understands that he inherited an impossible standard and feels crushed beneath it. He knows his troops compare him to Optimus. He knows the audience compares him to Optimus. Worst of all, he compares himself to Optimus. Episodes like âThe Burden Hardest to Bearâ are practically built around imposter syndrome decades before fandom regularly used that phrase.
And somehow this gets interpreted as whining.
I have never understood that criticism because leadership is often terrifying, especially when it is thrust upon someone who never truly asked for it. Rodimus did not spend years preparing to become the next great Autobot leader. He was a young soldier suddenly handed the Matrix and told that history now belonged to him. He was expected to lead veterans who had fought beside a legend. He was expected to embody the same calm certainty as someone who had decades more experience and a fundamentally different temperament.
Of course he struggled.
Frankly, I would argue Rodimus was ahead of his time. Modern genre fiction is filled with protagonists carrying burdens they are not sure they deserve. Jon Snow spends much of his story wrestling with leadership and responsibility. Optimus Primal frequently questions his decisions. Captain Benjamin Sisko was defined early on by reluctance and emotional scars. Even modern interpretations of heroes like Peter Parker often emphasize exhaustion and sacrifice over idealized confidence.
These characters are often praised for their humanity.
Rodimus was mocked for the exact same qualities because he arrived in a decade that largely expected heroic certainty, particularly in childrenâs entertainment. He was written with emotional vulnerability that felt out of place in 1986 but feels remarkably natural now.
There is also something deeply symbolic about the backlash. For many fans, Rodimus represented an uncomfortable truth they did not want to confront as children. Heroes do not live forever. Leadership transitions are messy. The next generation will not look exactly like the last one. Growing up means understanding that the people who inspired you will eventually leave, and someone younger, less experienced, and far more uncertain will have to carry that legacy forward.
That is not failure. That is life.
And perhaps that is why I have always found Rodimus more compelling as an adult than I did as a child. Optimus Prime is who we want leading us when we are children because he makes the world feel safe and ordered. Rodimus Prime is who many of us actually become as adults.
We inherit responsibilities we were not fully prepared for. We compare ourselves to giants who came before us. We wonder if we are enough. We make mistakes while trying to live up to impossible standards.
And then, if we are lucky, we grow into the role anyway.
itâs not weird to find fanfiction from 2021, or 2017, or 2014 that youâve never read and actually taking your time to read it.
itâs not weird to love it and comment and leave kudos because the author will probably still see it someday and it will make them happy.
itâs not weird to like said authorâs work so much that you want to go look for other fics from them.
itâs not weird to go through the authors profile and look for other fics from the ships you like (or maybe some that youâll give a chance because you liked the author) and maybe bookmark them for later.
itâs not weird to read these other fics and like them too and comment on them because you actually like them and you want to let the author know.
itâs not weird to read fanfiction from 5, or 8, or 10 years ago and actually enjoy and engage with it because itâs perfectly normal to relate to something thatâs less than a decade old!
letâs stop treating fanfiction like theyâre instagram posts that stop being interesting in 24 hours! fanfiction is NOT social media, fanfiction is art!!! and art doesnât get old in one day, one year, or even a decade!
read fanfiction! write fanfiction! comment on fanfiction! letâs not let fanculture die people!!!!!
I wish you would write a fic where voltron/the team finds out about Keith's heritage while he knew all along.
Ohohoho, this is a spicy one!
I wrote this in the space of about thirty minutes so typos may exist.
WC: 642
âWhat do you mean you knew?â Lance was always loud, but he was especially so when he was shocked, offended, or angry. Right now he was all three.Â
Keith hunched his shoulders and fixed his eyes on his boots. His whole body ached after the beating heâd taken in the Trials and all he wanted was to tumble into bed and forget about all of it for a few blissful hours, but he could feel everyoneâs eyes cutting into himâ they werenât about to let him go.Â
Cornered like this, his words came out sharper than he wanted. âI mean when your dad gives you a weird glowing knife and tells you never to go to the doctor and then you can open DNA locks from the evil space empire youâre fighting you start to put things together.âÂ
Lance threw up his hands, and it was only through iron self control that Keith didnât flinch. âUnbelievable.âÂ
âThatâs why you wanted to go in so badly,â Pidge said, as a statement and not a question. Still, Keith nodded.Â
âI justâ needed to know if I was right.âÂ
âWhy didnât you say anything?â asked Hunk, and Keith couldnât bite back the bitter little chuckle that crawled up his throat.Â
âYeah, because that wouldâve gone over well. âHey guys, turns out I share DNA with the universe-conquering, planet-destroying, slave-holding empire that weâve been drafted into fighting. No hard feelings?ââÂ
He couldnât look at Allura. He certainly couldnât look at Shiro, far too afraid of seeing his impending exile on his face.Â
The second he first laid eyes on a Galra ship, he knew he was on borrowed time. Going into Blade HQ, he knew that time was up. That didnât make it any less terrifying; heâd survived the Trials, but who knew what Allura would doâ he couldnât even begin to think about what Shiro was about to do, now that he knew Keith had been lying to him all this time, that he was part of the Empire that had taken so much from him. Maybe it wouldâve been better if he hadnât made it back out of HQ.Â
âKeith,â the man himself said. Keithâs stomach dropped, and when Shiroâs metal fingers brushed over his shoulder, he couldnât contain the flinch.Â
âIâm sorry,â he mumbled to the floor, like it could do anything to stop the inevitable. âI shouldâve told you. I justâ I didnât want to make it worse.â Now, of course, it didnât matter. Shiro would still have to spend every waking moment knowing there was a Galra standing right next to him: assuming Allura let him stay.Â
Shiro said his name again, breathless and heartbroken, and Keith squeezed his eyes shut to hold back the tears. What right did he have to cry?Â
Shiro shifted, moving in front of him and settling both hands on Keithâs shoulders. He could probably feel how he was shaking. âHey. Itâs ok.âÂ
âItâs not ok!â His voice came out loud, too loud, and choked. âHow can you say that? After everything theyâve done to you, and to Alluraâ"
âMaybe you missed it,â Shiro interrupted calmly, far too calmly for the situation at hand, âbut Iâm the one who wanted to trust Ulaz, remember?âÂ
âY-yeah, but heâ he saved you.â He couldnât see any of the others when he opened his eyes again. All he could see was Shiro, and the painfully earnest expression on his face.Â
âSo did you.âÂ
That was the last straw. Keith lurched forward, planting his forehead against Shiroâs collarbone as the tears finally escaped.Â
Shiro didnât back away. He just wrapped Keith up in his arms and held him there.Â
âYou should hate me,â Keith mumbled into Shiroâs vest, the one that had once belonged to his father. Shiro chuckled, and the warm rumble in his chest was painfully familiar.Â
I think what might help the whole "low engagement in fandom spaces driving creatives out because they don't see the point in sharing anything only to get crickets or critics" is not the shaming tone of "look this is how you get nothing, you entitled shits" that tends to be very pervasive, but rather pointing out how actually rewarding it can be to leave nice comments.
I like to leave very long rambling comments on people's fics and that has actually netted me some very real, genuine friendships and we've become cheerleaders for each other. My friend has a D&D Podcast that she doesn't get ANY sort of engagement out of, so I started listening to it at work and livereacting the things I enjoy about it and showing her my investment and it makes her very happy and it makes me happy that she's happy.
Being nice to people... is actually a good enough reason to do things, shockingly enough. You don't have to do it. No one should shame you for not doing it. But it doesn't actually cost anything to make other people happy, especially if they created something that made you happy.
honestly? abandoned/on indefinite hiatus/very slow to update fics, even and especially AUs and longfics, are often some of my absolute favorites. and people who refuse to read them are missing out!
for one, stories donât have to be finished to be enjoyable and worth reading. but also? an unfinished fic is a whole little universe that just keeps on existing in my head! their world stays alive for me in a way that doesnât always happen with fics I binge read and finish, and i love it. i donât know how their story ends, so it just keeps going! and even when those stories DO update and finish years later, theyâve been in my head for so long that they stick around like old friends.
so to any author with unfinished works: thank you SO much for sharing what you had without waiting to finish it first. youâre just giving me the gift of getting to spend more time with your story and your idea. if you do update again someday, iâll be delighted to jump back in! but if you donât, just know a little piece of your world still lives on in a beloved tiny terrarium in my brain. i promise iâm taking good care of it :)
i donât normally ask this, but if this resonates with you please reblog it, so it can reach the authors who need to hear it <3
planning my fic in a normal way. 1) what incredibly indulgent scene do I want to write next? 2) what connective tissue do I have to set up between indulgent scenes to get us there?
As more and more people are being forced to switch to Windows 11, Microsoft's most AI-malware-ridden OS yet, I've been putting together articles and links for how to undo the damage and save your battery, your RAM, your disk space, your privacy, and your sanity from this bullshit.
FIRST:
The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:
A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform various other changes to customi
It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).
Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).
Microsoft wants to put AI everywhere on your PC, but you can take back control.
Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:
No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).
Tired of Microsoft pushing ads throughout Windows 11? Here are the settings you can tweak to turn them off and reclaim some privacy.
The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.
Bonus:
Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)
Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)
How to disable the AI in firefox (still the only browser that lets you do this permanently) (Windows Report, 2025)
PSA: AO3 Bots Are Getting Worse (And Here's What You Need To Know)
Alright so if you're active on AO3, you've probably heard about the bot problem. It's been going on for years but it's gotten way worse lately, so here's a breakdown of what's happening and how to protect yourself.
What Are AO3 Bots?
Basically spam accounts that leave comments on fics. They're automated and they've been plaguing the site since like 2021, but they keep getting more sophisticated.
Types of Bots You Might See:
Praise Bots - These leave super generic compliments that could apply to literally any fic. Stuff like "This is pure genius, I'm in awe of your world-building" or "This deserves all recognition." The dead giveaway is when someone praises your "heartwarming" fic when everyone literally died and the earth shattered around them lmao.
Hateful/Cruel Bots - These are the really fucked up ones. They scrape REAL AO3 usernames and attach them to horrible, cruel comments. So innocent people get their names attached to hateful shit they never said. If you see a mean comment, check if the username is clickable - if it's not linked to an actual profile, it's a bot.
Kudos Bots - Some authors have woken up to like 30-60 fake kudos dumped on their fics all at once, with no corresponding increase in hit counts. This completely destroys the metric system especially in smaller fandoms.
AI Accusation Bots - These accuse authors of using ChatGPT or other AI tools, sometimes on fics that are literally older than the AI programs they're being accused of using. Some link to "AI detection tools" which are likely just trying to get you to feed more fics into AI training databases.
Misinformation Bots - A newer type that showed up in May 2025 claiming AO3 was removing works to "conserve server space" and telling authors to delete their own work or risk being banned. Complete bullshit - AO3 has never done this and never will.
Mary Sue Bots - Accuse your OCs of being Mary Sues, even when your fic only has canon characters and no self-inserts at all.
Art Commission Scam Bots - Leave praise then offer to make comic/art commissions of your fic. They get you off-site to Discord or Instagram, take your payment, then either send AI-generated garbage or ghost you completely.
How Do They Work?
The bots comment as unregistered guests and scrape real AO3 usernames to attach to their comments. The username shows up but isn't clickable and has no actual profile associated with it (unless you search for that name directly, which makes it look legit at first).
The newer ones are getting smarter too - they scrape your fic's tags and use them to make the generic praise seem more personalized. So if you tagged "angst" they'll specifically mention emotions and tension.
How To Spot Them:
Username isn't clickable/has no profile
Generic praise that could apply to any fic
Comments that make zero sense for what actually happened in your story
Multiple comments hitting your fics really fast (like 7 comments timestamped over 9 hours)
Sudden spike in kudos with no matching increase in hits
Anyone trying to get you off-site for commissions or services
The Emotional Impact:
This shit genuinely hurts authors. Some don't realize they're bots at first and think the hate comments or AI accusations are real criticism of their writing. There's also concerns from neurodivergent and ESL authors who worry their real comments will be mistaken for bots because their writing style might seem stilted.
And if your username gets stolen? You might have to track down authors and explain that hateful comment wasn't actually you.
What You Can Do:
As an author:
Delete bot comments as soon as you spot them
If it gets bad, lock your comments to registered users only (Settings â Privacy â "Only show your work to registered users")
Report the comments if you can
As a reader/commenter:
Don't panic if your username got stolen - reach out to the author and explain it wasn't you
Keep leaving real comments! Authors need to know there are real people who love their work
Maybe make your comments a bit more specific/personal so authors know you're real
Everyone:
Spread awareness so people know what to look for
Don't feed fics into "AI detection tools" that bots link to
Why Are They Doing This?
Honestly? Probably to keep AI brands in the "fandom news" cycle and create controversy. Some are straight-up scams. Either way, they suck.
Stay safe out there and keep supporting your favorite authors with real comments. We need that genuine engagement now more than ever. đ
Tagging all my mutuals @ruinationz and @turbotasticnumberone and @cartoon-cat7241 and @cru5h-cascades and @seleyaaaa and @mono-squamblo and @strayfelinez and @strangelilangel and @yukihirop and @rivertheemoo and @meatmedallion and @drownedsilverforever and @senpaipaws and @cartoonlover999 and @byronicmoron and @resolutelymadvermin and @wanka-wanky and @looksmokin and @justwatchedsometv and @oakwoodvida and @human-n0-l0ng3r and @glooberousgoon and @goddess-of-lov3 and @lucifersdog-luci and @casethecreep and @aoihibiki247 and and @klyju and @fleshistic and @golshi-sweetheart and @femmesagemoon222 and @4ggravatez and @resonanthideoutruin and @saddmyths and @homestuckyaoi413 and @blueloky and @divine-vxnity and @ace-productions7 and @fiberopticemoweeb666 and @cryptedlullaby and @3veryth1ngstays and @blossomletters and @alpheiaa and @juniizhq and @sapphicavocado and @bloodybigirl and @yanderehiro and @dnplicoricenutttt and @russkiy-american-dreams and @2catnip4me and @miracle-winkel and @mickyx-x and @biblicallyunhingedtheo and @the-only-good-ai and @prettirei and @unhinged-pink-espresso and @patchofglass
I'd also add, resist the AI bubble that companies are forcing on us. Don't use generative AI to make cute cat pictures. Actually click on a website written by humans, instead of relying on the AI summary at the top. Turn off AI features on apps you use.
It's bigger than AO3. Tech companies are trying to convince us that we need shitty AI to do things it's not actually capable of doing. The AO3 scams are one part of an entire scammy infrastructure.
I know that it sucks, but you can mitigate this to some degree by switching your fics to "registered users only." Yes it will cut your audience to some degree, but it will also cut down bots- because registration isn't instant, and you can report registered accounts so AO3 can take care of it.
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