Michelle (she/her). Obsessed with 911 Lone Star & Tarlos and Heated Rivalry will post about whatever I love or laugh at in between 💗. Truthfully bad at tagging. Or being coherent pre-edit.
Firefighter TK Strand and window washer Carlos Reyes first meet far above the Manhattan streets, with TK rescuing Carlos from the forty-fourth floor of the Chrysler Building before his safety line snaps. When Carlos seeks his hero out to thank him, TK is going through a nuclear-bad breakup and back living with a father who is deeply affected by 9/11. But by letting Carlos into his life, maybe it’s TK who will feel himself falling.
Or: What if Carlos was the window washer that TK saved in the Pilot? And what if Judd was with Owen on 9/11?
Chapter 1 - Head in the Clouds: On a beautiful Manhattan morning in September 2001, Firefighter Owen Strand drops seven-year-old TK off at school. Within minutes, life changes forever. Nineteen years later, Owen is the captain of his fire station, and TK is a firefighter alongside him. Together, they attend an emergency at the Chrysler Building, and life is about to change again.
Chapter 2 - We Could Be Heroes, Just For One Day: On 9/11, Owen races to join the crew of Station 126 as the day’s emergency unfolds. In 2020, he receives a devastating diagnosis, and TK’s heart is shattered when proposing to Alex goes horribly wrong.
Chapter 3 - Sunrise's Yellow Noise: When Owen figures out why TK hasn’t shown up to work, the crew races against time to help him. Meanwhile, a recovering Carlos can't get his parents to leave. On 9/11, Owen and Judd are ordered to evacuate people through the underground Mall of the World Trade Center.
Chapter 4 - The Best Comfort-Dumplings in the City: While TK grapples with having to live with Owen again after his relapse, Carlos Reyes can’t get the hot firefighter who saved his life out of his mind.
Chapter 5 - To Live and Die in a Bath & Body Works: On 9/11, under the rubble within the mall, Owen and Judd try to make sense of what’s happening. In 2020, Carlos pays a visit to the firehouse crew who saved him – but one key member is missing.
Chapter 6 - I Just Love You: Carlos joins the 126 on a night out, but after he and TK share one dance, they decide they’d rather have a night in together.
Chapter 7 - One Night in Manhattan: A misunderstanding between TK and Carlos lands TK in trouble – but can Carlos help him in time? As Owen prepares for treatment, he remembers how he and Judd kept morale up while waiting to be rescued.
Chapter 8 - The Big Spoon: Carlos tends to TK’s wounds and the night takes a much happier turn.
Chapter 9 - A Rainbow on Morningside Avenue: The morning-after-the-night-before takes an unexpected turn for TK and Carlos. Owen secretly begins treatment and remembers the moment he was pulled out from the rubble at Ground Zero.
Chapter 10 - Falling: Owen opens up to Gwyn and Enzo about his diagnosis, while TK grapples with how his broken heart could be feeling something so strong for Carlos.
Chapter 11 - The Carlos Dilemma: TK and Carlos go on an actual date-date, and later test out how structurally sound Carlos’ bed is.
Chapter 12 - A Story of Storms and Stars: After dim sum at the Spring Street place, TK and Carlos grow even closer, but things spiral after Carlos lets something important slip. In 2001, a deeply bereft Owen is discharged from the hospital.
Chapter 13 - Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?: In both 2001 and 2020, Owen has a distressed TK on his hands. But Carlos arrives home to find a very welcome guest on his doorstep.
Chapter 14 - Cheer Up, Buttercup: TK is horrified when Owen adopts a Bernese Mountain Dog who also had lung cancer, but the dog has never met a man he can’t turn into a friend. Paul makes a connection with a woman he helps on a call, and Carlos receives life-changing news.
Chapter 15 - Under Pressure, That Burns a Building Down, Splits a Family In Two: TK and Carlos take a heartbroken Paul clubbing, but an incident leaves TK with flashbacks to one of the darkest times in his life. In 2003, Owen and Enzo both show up for TK at a disastrous Little League game.
Chapter 16 - Case of the Ex: A misunderstanding threatens to derail TK and Carlos’ romance just when things are getting serious – and in the midst of it, Carlos receives more shocking news. In 2014, an intervention is staged for TK by those who love him most.
Chapter 17 - Put the Load Right On Me: In 2020, TK fights for his life after an emergency call turns disastrous, and Carlos questions his right to stay by his bedside. In 2014, TK is out of rehab and feeling good, but he discovers that a stressed Owen is sleepwalking again.
Chapter 18 - In the Name of Love (Part 1): When TK wakes from his coma, Owen and Enzo must team up for an important mission.
Sometimes, he can feel the phantom bruise of the Narcan on his thigh, the light of himself blinking chaotically before snapping back on, how he’d sobbed against his terrified dad. But that’s not all there is anymore. He can still feel Carlos clinging to him as he was lifted to safety. He can still feel Carlos inside him, from nights ago, the angle he found, the way he moved. He can feel Carlos kissing his shoulder.
And after.
He can feel the after.
Lying at the foot of the bed, spent and breathless, the weight of
Carlos’ sleepy head in his naked lap, TK running his fingers through his curls.
He can feel it all.
So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.
Pro GenAI websites/Programs:
Facebook
Instagram
X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)
Threads
Pro Writing Aid
Grammarly
Duolingo
Google Docs
Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.
Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)
Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.
Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)
Canva Takes and feeds their machine.
Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.
Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.
Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.
Neutral ground:
Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai
Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.
Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).
Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.
Strong positions against AI:
Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.
LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)
Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.
yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.
Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.
Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.
Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.
Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.
Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.
Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.
Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.
Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)
Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.
Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.
Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)
Discover a world of creativity and craftsmanship through Handmade, an innovative platform connecting passionate artisans with discerning buy
Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.
But you need a pro website...
Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/
Use cloudflare:
Use Nightshade:
https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html
which will poison the algorithm
Use Glaze:
Take Away:
The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.
Analysis shows that indiscriminately training generative artificial intelligence on real and generated content, usually done by scrapi
And why not help that along?
I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.
Good morning everybody! Chapter 19 of Mirror in the Sky, What is Love? is coming on Sunday! And Owen is on the mission of his life for TK...
“Holy shit, Enzo! Will you cool down?” Owen yells as they shoot along Broadway.
“If we get pulled over, I’ll take care of it!” Enzo yells back. “You can jump out! Keep going on foot!”
“I can’t just get out the car and run if the cops stop us!”
“Sure you can. I’ll distract them!”
“Enzo!”
“I have a wad of fifties in my wallet. We’ll be fine.”
“You are not bribing the NYPD!”
“I always bribe the NYPD.”
“What? No you don’t!”
Enzo quirks an eyebrow and shrugs.
“Your partner is a lawyer!” Owen screams. The wind is like a punch to the face.
“I sense you’re overthinking things again, sport,” Enzo shout-laughs, “Hold on, sharp right here.”
Enzo swings the Porsche off Broadway and onto Morningside Avenue. The wheels shriek as Owen grips the dashboard. The scent of hot tires fills his nose. Enzo cruises along happily now. The leafiness of Morningside Park appears to their left, shining and green and beautiful in the summer warmth. Nearly there.
When they turn onto West 119th, Enzo spies a police car ahead, and slides into a slow cruise. With a quick flick of the radio's dial, Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 starts playing through the speakers.
I know a lot of writers like to act like their characters are fully fledged real people who popped fully formed into their head, but they're not. you invented them. and you should interrogate why you made them the way you did. why do they look like that? why do they have those personality traits? what inspired them? what characters are they similar to? why do you as the author treat them like that?
because you are not infallible. you absorb stereotypes from the world around you. and if you don't spend time interrogating your thought process, you will spit up reductive bullshit and create bad characters and storylines because of it.
in most cases, there is nothing inherently wrong with a character conforming to a particular stereotype. if you have an actual explanation for why your female character is the team mom or why your villain is gay, okay. there are ways to have those characters that does something for the story you're telling. but you have to be aware and compensate for the stereotypes in order to avoid perpetuating them.
and even before you do that, you should be asking yourself why? why is the girl the team mom? it might be in character for her, but you picked her personality. why did you pick it? why is the villain gay? does it add anything? a good writer should be able to explain their character choices and how those choices matter to the story they're trying to tell. if someone asks why the black girl is the only one who dies, and you don't have a solid answer, you need to change some stuff.
Gif sets are SO important to me. Yes, please take this scene and break it up into 4 or 6 three second loops that I can study over and over to appreciate the small details of it
whenever i go back through my blog to look for something i end up wasting a lot of time just looking at the posts because for some reason it's full of stuff i would reblog