An Onmyouji's Rambles

Bibi | she/her | 36 | cispan | Rated Sambucky

[onmyojisrambles]

Do you think the universe fights for souls to be together? Some things are too strange and strong to be coincidences. —Emery Allen

[architectureofdoom]

Cruceta del Vigía is a 30-meter reinforced-concrete cross that doubles as a lookout tower, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Designed by Ruben Colondres, 1984.

[onmyojisrambles]

It’s insane to think now at my age that they took us in elementary school to visit it and go up to look out of it.

[boyd-stevens]

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (2021) AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY (2026)

[moonlayl]

Why You Should Boycott Disney/Disney+, and How the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement Works

Disney—more specifically Disney+—was officially upgraded to the Priority Boycott Target list by the BDS Movement months ago.

The BDS movement’s current boycott targets are split into three main categories:

1. Consumer boycott priority targets —The BDS movement calls for a complete boycott of these brands carefully selected due to each company's proven record of complicity in Israeli apartheid.

2. Organic boycott targets — The BDS movement did not initiate these grassroots boycott campaigns but actively supports them due to these brands’ egregious complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians.

"The BDS movement targets complicity, not identity. When it comes to Israeli companies, being non-complicit entails a) not being implicated in Israel’s military occupation, apartheid or settler-colonialism; and b) publicly recognizing Palestinian rights under international law, primarily the right of refugees to return in accordance with UN resolution 194. As far as we know, no Israeli company meets these two conditions. Accordingly, the BDS movement has called for boycotting and divesting from all Israeli companies unless they meet the above two conditions." — BDS Movement

3. Pressure targets — The BDS movement actively calls for pressure campaigns against these targets. This includes boycotts when reasonable alternatives exist, lobbying, peaceful disruptions, social media pressure, strategic litigation, etc.

Now for more detail on the first category (Which Disney+ falls under):

1. Consumer boycott priority targets:

"All the corporations whose business with Israel aids in its ongoing genocide, apartheid, or illegal occupation may be complicit in serious breaches of international law and, therefore, face liability for the company, its executives, and its board members. According to a legal expert opinion commissioned by Al Haq and SOMO, “A corporation or individual businessperson who knowingly assists a State in violating customary international law, including the prohibition of committing genocide, may be complicit in such a violation.” This is particularly true in light of the International Court of Justice’s determination that Israel is plausibly perpetrating genocide in Gaza, as well as its July 19 legally binding Advisory Opinion affirming Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid system. " — BDS Movement

Why Disney+?

"Cancel or don’t sign up for Disney+ subscriptions! Disney and its subsidiary Marvel are complicit in glorifying Israel’s regime of genocide and apartheid against Indigenous Palestinians. Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World and Disney’s Snow White star actors Shira Haas and Gal Gadot, respectively, that have consciously and irrefutably taken up roles as cultural ambassadors for Israel, directly representing genocidal Israel’s propaganda efforts. For Captain America, Marvel and Disney are reviving the racist character of Ruth Bat-Seraph, whose decades-old backstory includes working for Mossad. Disney+ is therefore clearly implicated in enabling Israel’s genocide by dehumanizing Palestinians." — BDS Movement

How Else Is Disney Complicit?

In October 2023, Disney publicly donated $2 million to support humanitarian relief efforts in Israel. $1 million going to Magen David Adom (the Israeli Red Cross affiliate) and the other $1 million to other non-profit organizations. On paper, donating to humanitarian relief efforts may sound great, but here lies the problem:

Magen David Adom is Israel's official national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service.

This means that MDA can become an "auxiliary arm of the Israel Defense Forces" (IDF) during "times of war". MDA can also cooperate with Israeli police, Israeli soldiers, and Israeli firefighters.

The IDF are directly complicit in the genocide of Gaza (officially recognized as a genocide by the UN Genocide Convention as of Sep 16, 2025), and are the ones directly enforcing said genocide, and committing extreme human rights violations.

"Israel perpetrated the crime of genocide in Gaza by killing Palestinian civilians, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about Palestinians’ physical destruction by causing mass forced displacement, obstructing or denying life-saving aid, and by damaging or destroying life-sustaining infrastructure" — Amnesty International (To read more about Israel's direct crimes, visit the link)

“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.” — Genocide Convention September 16, 2025 (To read more, visit the link)

This means the MDA provides direct aid to the same culprits directly committing war crimes in Gaza, The West Bank, Lebanon, etc..., which helps Israel continue their onslaught.

Disney's donation therefore, indirectly made room for the violations in Gaza to continue.

2. Magen David Adom is also directly mandated by the Israeli government.

While not technically a government agency, the Israeli government has a role in the structure of MDA.

-> Nine members of its Provisional Council are appointed by the government. -> The president of MDA is "appointed by the President of the State for a period of three years" (aka the Israeli prime minister). Source: X

The current Global President of Magen David Adom is Gilad Erdan. He:

"Is one of Israel’s staunchest defenders on the international stage"

"Previously served as Israel's ambassador to the UN for four years"

"Is known for vigorously defending Israel"

"was Israel's home front defense minister and a member of the Security Cabinet, where he led significant reforms."

"Became a leading voice (..) for Israel's right to defend itself"

Has stated that: “Magen David Adom is the backbone of Israel’s resilience.” And “The IDF is charged with protecting the borders. Magen David Adom protects the people inside those borders, including wounded soldiers.”

— X

3. Disney has made no efforts to support humanitarian aid relief to Palestine, or Palestinians affected by the current genocide, and Disney's CEO, Robert A. Iger, has made no statements condemning Israel's crimes.

“In the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks targeting Jews in Israel this past weekend, we must all do what we can to support the innocent people experiencing so much pain, violence, and uncertainty – particularly children,” said Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. “We condemn these attacks, the hate that motivated them, and all acts of terrorism, and we will continue working to find more ways to provide support in the region, and to honor the victims, their families, and all those affected by this war.” — Statement by Walt Disney Company's CEO, Robert A. Iger, on October 12, 2023.

Those who condemn October 7th, yet remained silent on everything Israel had done before, and remain silent on everything Israel has done since, have made their stance very clear. They are supporters of Israel.

Disney chose to support Israel, both through financial means, and through media.

"We must do what we can to support the innocent people experiencing so much pain, violence, and uncertainty – particularly children" Yet this seems to only apply to Israel? Are Palestinian civilians not innocent people? Are Palestinian children undeserving of support? "We condemn these attacks (..) and acts of terrorism" but not when Israel is the one committing them? "We will continue working to find more ways to provide support in the region" If this was true, why did Disney not donate to charities providing relief to Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians affected by Israel's attacks? "All those affected by this war." Correction: All Israelis affected.

"Boycotts Don't Work"

When advocating for the boycott of powerful and large corporations, one defeatist argument always made is how "it's impossible to boycott something as big as this" and how "it'll never work."

This rhetoric has been used throughout the years as calls to boycott Marvel and Disney have increased.

Yet, just recently, people came together to boycott and cancel their Disney + subscriptions in support of free speech after Jimmy Kimmel's show was canceled for comments related to Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk.

This decision even faced Hollywood backlash, with 400 Celebrities coming together to sign an open letter backing Jimmy Kimmel while criticizing Disney and Abc's decision, and with at least five Hollywood unions, comprising of more than 400,000 broadcast and film workers, speaking out against the company.

Disney reportedly lost nearly USD 5 billion in market value within only 6 days, with Jimmy Kimmel's show now being brought back and able to air, starting Tuesday September 23rd.

Sources: X, X,

This is proof that boycotts CAN be effective. The question is, will you continue to boycott Disney+, or is the genocide in Gaza, and the lives of millions of Palestinians, not worthy of your outrage?

[onmyojisrambles]

Buy Bibi a Coffee

Become a supporter of Bibi today!

Someone wrongfully called Animal Cruelty on us last month so we had to scramble with what little we had to get all the dogs updated on vaccines & to spay them, and they threatened to otherwise take them from us at the end of August; we don't know what will become of them if they're taken, but we fear they won't be held for long if they can't be adopted. I'll appreciate donations through my ko-fi!

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

Kids these days are all "wow I can't believe I still like this ship 3 months after the canon ended!" bestie I have ships that started when I was still using dial-up internet

[yanderepuck]

So with Joann going under and as a Fashion/Costume Designer and a cosplayer I need a place to get fabric and notions, and I know many others feel lost as well

So I made a short simple list of online fabric stores as well as notions .

Please share with anyone you would like. If you have recommendations of things to add please let me know.

Fabric sources

There's only a few right now of ones I know and have used

I may add a few niche ones like Silk Baron but I am mainly adding ones with many options and maybe add a niche section later

More places with trims would be nice, or even patterns, historical, cosplay, or everyday.

[anniejanuaryz]

HELP SHAHED FAMILY

[ryebreadgf]

it used to be 2007 you know

[ryebreadgf]

[domina-honoribila]

All the adults should put in the tags how old they were in 2007

[justsamwilson]

This blog was created for loving and appreciating the character of Sam Wilson.

And while for years, we have been anticipating the next time we'll get to see Anthony Mackie on screen, playing our favourite character, and proving to everyone how he IS Captain America, this is a reminder that Captain America: Brave New World has been directly called out by the BDS movement (a nearly 20 year old movement created by Palestinians), and we have been asked to boycott it in its entirety.

A zionist settler has been cast. Disney itself has donated $2 million to Israeli relief groups.

it is incredibly saddening that we won't be able to watch one of our favourite's character's long awaited film, but our interest and love for this character, and for superheroes/comics/movies as a whole, are no where near more important then standing up alongside Palestinians, and doing all we can to help them and to listen to their requests.

Join me in boycotting the film. Pirate it if you must.

[lesbianshepard]

fun fact about languages: a linguist who was studying aboriginal languages of Australia finally managed to track down a native speaker of the Mbabaram language in the 60s for his research. they talked a bit and he started by asking for the Mbabaram word for basic nouns. They went back and forth before he asked for the word for “dog” The man replied “dog” They had a bit of a “who’s on first” moment before realizing that, by complete coincidence,  Mbabaram and English both have the exact same word for dog.

[lesbianshepard]

on a similar note, a traditional Ojibwe greeting is “Nanaboozhoo” so when the French first landed in southern Canada they thought that they were saying “Bonjour!” Which is fucking wild to think about. Imagine crossing the ocean and the first people you meet in months somehow speak French. 

[yu-gi-oh-slavia]

[tuulikki]

Given that we famously don’t know the origin of the English word “dog”, I have decided to adopt an utterly batshit folk etymology conspiracy theory. As a treat.

[ribzinc]

For a while I just assumed that the English “potluck”, was derived from Chinook Jargon “potlatch”. Both describe comparable practices of guests contributing resources to a larger community-wide feast. But a little digging quickly reveals no etymological relation; instead of one, I got TWO! interesting linguistic insights into distinct cultures.

[jewishpangolin]

Fantastic False Cognates - Starkey Comics

False cognates are pairs of words that seem related, but aren’t. Here are some of these amazing linguistic coincidences. What are False Cong

Here’s some more!

[ceescedasticity]

‘Ciao’ is from what now.

Per Wiktionary—

Borrowed from Venetian s-ciao, sciavo (“slave”) (in particular the expression s-ciao vostro (literally “(I am) your slave”), in essence meaning “I am at your service”, or “your humble servant”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”) (whence also standard Italian schiavo); in the Venetian language originally pronounced /stʃaʊ/. Development and use is similar to the Southern German and Central European greeting of servus.

Okay then!

[headspace-hotel]

EMOTICON AND EMOJI?!?!??!

Okay now do “human and man have man in them for unrelated reasons”

[mosswild]

Submitting Japanese “miru” and Spanish “mirar” (to look) to the list. Both can conjugate to “miro” (JP=casual imperative; SP=first person singular)

[andreii-tarkovsky]

To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)

Dir. Beeban Kidron

[brehaaorgana]

This was such a formative movie

[musicalhell]

This shit was revolutionary for the mid-90s. Among other things it helped me understand that transgender and cross-dressing were completely separate things.

[aqueerkettleofish]

To this day, I am in awe of the fact that Patrick Swayze not only campaigned hard to get the audition, not only auditioned in dress and makeup, but spent most of the day leading up to the audition walking around LA in dress and makeup.

This was a man who could sing, dance, act, ride a horse, fight, and walk in heels, he had nothing to prove to anyone, and he is MISSED.

[aqueerkettleofish]

Okay, I’m not done feeling about this.

If you’re younger, you may not know Patrick Swayze; he was Taken From Us in 2009. But Patrick Swayze was an icon of masculinity. Men were willing to watch romantic movies because Patrick Swayze was in them.

Patrick Swayze was fucking beefcake.

And this man didn’t just agree to do a movie where the only time he’s not actually in drag is the first three minutes, which involve stepping out of the shower, doing make up, and getting Dressed. He has ONE LINE that is delivered in a man’s voice, and it’s not during those three minutes.

And if you watch those three minutes, you see a stark difference between his portrayal of Miss Vida Bohéme and Wesley Snipes as Noxeema Jackson. (I am not criticizing Snipes’ performance. They were different roles.) Noxeema was a comedy character. Chi-Chi was a comedy character. But Miss Vida Bohéme was a dramatic role, played by a dramatic powerhouse.

When Vida sits down in front of the mirror, she sees a man. And she doesn’t like it.

Then she puts her hair up, and her face lights up.

“Ready or not,” she says. “Here comes Mama.”

And while Noxeema is having fun with her transformation (at one point breaking into a giggling fit after putting on pantyhose), Vida is simply taking pleasure in bringing out her true self. And when she’s done, she sees this:

And you can FEEL her pride.

All of this from an actor who, up to this point, walked on to the screen and dripped testosterone.

[impossiblemonsters]

the fact that some of you history-ignorant children in the notes are trying to shit on groundbreaking historical queer cinema because it doesn’t meet 2021 standards is infuriating. sit down, shut the fuck up, and listen to the elders in the room for fucking once

[darkshrimpemotions]

This. If you have never lived in a world where queerness was universally pathologized and criminalized to the point that even IMAGINING a world where it wasn’t constituted a radical and potentially dangerous act, you don’t have any business judging those of us who have for how we survived it and how we found (or still find) comfort in the few imperfect representations we got.

You don’t have to like it. You probably aren’t capable of “getting” it. And to be honest, I don’t want you to! I am glad that young queer people will never know exactly what it was like “back then.” But what you also will not do is refuse to learn your own history and then shit on everything that came before you, because like it or not what came before you is the reason you will never have to get what it was like back then.

[hussyknee]

On Wesley Snipes’s role Noxeema and John Leguizamo as Chi-Chi Rodriguez.

“I grew up in the ‘70s and even within the street culture, there was a lot of flamboyancy,” Snipes told TODAY of his perception of drag before filming. “Pimps wore the same furs as theprostitutes wore.

“Some of the great musicians of the world, like Parliament-Funkadelic, were very androgynous. So it wasn’t really new for me to see men dressed as women or men dressed as drag queens.”

Snipes attended the famed LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and then State University of New York at Purchase. He wasn’t a dance major, but most of his friends were. “That exposed me to the world of glam, vogue, drag, transgender and gay people, LGBTQ… but it wasn’t in fashion those days. But it existed and I was around it.”

Not only did “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” pave the way for “To Wong Foo,” so did films like the 1968 documentary “The Queen” and “Paris Is Burning,” the 1990 doc that chronicled ball culture of New York and the various Black and queer communities involved in it.

Even though he was known for his action roles, Snipes’ portrayal of Noxeema wasn’t the first time he played a drag queen. In 1986, he made his Broadway debut in the play “Execution of Justice,” playing Sister Boom Boom, a real-life AIDS activist and drag nun who acted as the show’s voice of conscience. Snipes pointed out, “Sister Boom Boom did not have Noxeema’s makeup kit.”

On whether he got any pushback for stepping into Noxeema’s pumps, he said, “Not so much professionally but the streets weren’t feeling it, and there were certain community circles. The martial arts community… they were not feeling it at all.”

“In fact, when the movie came out and they would come down the street, I would see them in Brooklyn sometimes, they started listing all my movies. I noticed they would always skip that one. I would correct them, ‘Now you don’t got the full count!’”

Lesser-known than his co-stars at the time, Lequizamo didn’t really anticipate becoming a transgender icon, but he did know that they were working on something special when they started filming.

“Drag didn’t really exist in movies,” Lequizamo, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal, told TODAY. “There were straight men pretending to be women to get out of trouble or into trouble but this was not that. I was trying to make Chi-Chi a real life trans character and Patty and Wesley were trying to be real drag queens.” Never fully articulated in the film, Chi-Chi Rodriguez has always been perceived as transgender, something that ending up making an indelible mark on LGBTQ people in the late ‘90s as trans representation in media was limited.

“Chi-Chi was a trans icon, but she also showed us that gay men and trans women can both perform and work in drag side by side, and that those relationships are symbiotic,” Cayne explained.

“It was a powerful thing. I get lots of fan mail from LGBTQ teens telling me how my character helped them come out to their parents,” Leguizamo said. “They didn’t feel like they were seen, so that was a beautiful gift from the movie.”

Lequizamo also articulates that if “To Wong Foo” were cast today, a trans actor should be cast in his role. (And that just may happen, since Beane is developing a musical for Broadway.) “Anybody can play anything, but the playing field is not fair that way,” he said. “Not everybody is allowed to play everything. So until we get to that place, it is important for trans actors to get a chance to act which they don’t. In the project I’m doing, I’m making sure that the person playing trans is a trans person so we can make it legit, make it real. That just needs to be done right now.”

Source: How Hollywood heartthrobs and Steven Spielberg helped make a drag queen cult classic

[fedorahead]

a monumental film in the library of queer history.

it was formative for modern society, too.

there are a lot of action fans out there who learned from their idols that respect doesn’t cost a damn thing to give. i know plenty of people who aren’t queer saw trans women and drag queens presented as people to them for the first time in wong fu. suddenly, strange and foreign queer identities that had only been presented to them as jokes if they’d even heard of them, seemed a little more relatable, and very human.

we’re all just people.

snipes, swayze, and leguizamo were willing to play people a lot of their fans didn’t respect yet or didn’t even know how to respect and demand they figure it the fuck out.

[friendlyfrankenstein]

It’s also worth noting Leguizamo has gone on the record to say he brought his own experiences to the role; Chichi is wearing makeup too light for her natural skin tone through most of the movie, and swearing to stop doing so is part of her growth. Leguizamo based this on observation of his own female family members growing up.

“It was all about accepting my ethnicity in it. I had my face done really light all the time. I have family members who have issues with self-hate and race and so their skin will be five times lighter than the color of their neck, and that always tripped me out, so I wanted to put a little bit of that into it,” he said. “At the end of the movie, my neck and my face matched. My face is much darker. So that was the arc. Chi Chi becomes polished but accepting of herself, mature, romantically grows. Instead of a taker, she becomes a giver.”

-John Leguizamo, Out Magazine

[wakewithgiggli]

Important tags:

boccs

monzterzack

Dec 16, 2023

#one of the reasons this movie even made it into production is because Robin Williams did a cold read for Steven Spielberg#and Robin (being the king of allys that he was) put his all into it so much that Spielberg was quote “mesmerized”#and made the efforts to get into full production#Robin was also considered for a lead role but (rightly) felt he would overshadow the other leads#so he instead took a small UNCREDITED roll in the beginning#Spielberg meanwhile fought tooth and nail to keep the director (Beeban Kidron) from being let go because she was pregnant#and also fought to have the original script changed to have Chichi achieve her dream and win the pageant at the end#what I’m saying is there’s a whole lot of love and a whole lot of allyship and a whole lot of respect in here#and i’ll be DAMNED if I hear a bunch of young queers shit talk it because they weren’t there when it happened

[clawdee]

LMAO lore. fm is already shutting down

hey guys want to acknowledge some really important feedback we’ve received, let me know what you think! #audible #audiobook #ao3 #fanfic #fanfiction #archiveofourown

[creativitycache]

I have written out a transcript of this all and have placed it below the readmore. I have kept the original video's subtitle's formatting, including any errors.

Writing this transcript made me even more upset at this person and company. First of all, they couldn't even double check their spelling and punctuation on the accessibility function of their apology video. The error of "that can still be very comfortable without your own consent" when they mean uncomfortable was particularly self satirical.

Secondly, they are STILL deleting negative comments from the TikTok. Which means the comments about just wanting to have "a conversation" with people are blatant lies. They never wanted to have a conversation, which is why they made damn sure to delete any comments asking hard questions off their videos that were released prior to their launch. Which is exactly when they could have begun to address the issues if they had just listened in the first place.

Thirdly, they are still trying to figure out how to release this app even though they say they're "happy to completely shut down/depending on what the consensus is". Which puts the emotional weight on others and not their own actions. If the app gets fully shut down it's because of the consensus, not their own actions? Absolutely not with that phrasing.

Fourth, they throw every other speech-to-text function under the bus and blatantly LIE about how accessible the others are.

Absolutely infuriating.

Transcript:

Reassessing lore fm feedback and shut down

I wanna do a quick update here because we've gotten a lot of thoughtful feedback

um in the past 24 hours or so

we received a ton of emails

a ton of messages

we're taking all that super seriously

when we built lore fm

we really envisioned it as a private text to speech tool

where it just made fanfiction a little more accessible

like the best text to speech tool on the web

since most of them are not very good at all

you know we were a free text to speech app

we don't sell any ads

we don't sell any data

it's not monetized

we don't

you know feed any fanfiction into any training models for generative AI

or anything of the sort

we were under the impression that this would be taken like

you know

downloading an e pub and transferring it to your private Kindle or e reader

but we realize that

you know we missed the Mark and we were wrong

and we really apologize

we don't want authors to think that their content is under threat in any way

I understand that even though users can only privately listen to the content

that can still be very comfortable without your own consent

with that being said

I don't think lore fm can continue in its current form

with respect to all the feedback

all the messages that we've gotten from so many authors

I don't feel comfortable putting that out

without you know

people's consent

and

thank you for letting me know

so even though we technically just started

it might be better for the current product to shut down

I know

that's disappointing for a lot of people

at least

on here

but we are committed to doing things the right way

one way something like this could potentially continue

as if there's a way for authors to actually opt into whatever platform

and be able to share

that audio content with their readers

who may not be able to read it for whatever reason

and if they were able to

you know get those hits

those likes those kudos

on whatever page that originated

their content

of course

something like that is up to the authors and what they're comfortable doing

please feel free to comment

to email to DM me

I just wanna have this kind of conversation with everyone

about how they're thinking about this

like

no pressure just having conversation

seeing what everyone thinks

happy to completely shut down

especially with whatever the consensus is

you know for everyone who's really excited about the product

we're really sorry

um I know current text to speech tools really suck

and they're not really for mobile and they're not very accessible

you know outside of just like

a web browser

and they're not very good

they don't sound very good either

so

I know that really sucks

I really hope there's a future where

you know audio content is truly accessible

for anyone

whatever it is

and I think there

I think there's a way to

to get there for sure

so

thank you guys so much

and we'll talk later I guess

[anonymeqaupdates]

About Lore.fm

I was talking with a writer friend earlier today and they told me about an app that aim to be ‘Audible for ao3’ except that they don’t seem to understand how Audible works so allow me to clarify a few things for them.

Audible pays for the rights of every book on their platform, meaning they asked for permission for it!

Audible do not use AI to read those books, but real people.

Audible respect copyright law and protects the works on their platform.

None of those points seems to be concern of the people behind Lore.fm.

It’s text to speech and it’s up to the user of the app, and not the writer, to put the work on the app, by simply copy pasting the url of the story.

As for the protection of the data on their app here are some points of concerns I found in their Privacy Policy that I found on the Apple Store:

“When you sign up for or use our Services, you voluntarily give us certain Personal Data, including:

• Your automatically generated username.

We collect this information as you use the App, Software, and/or Services to operate, but none of it is publicly available to anyone else who utilizes the services:

• User Content. This consists of all text, documents, or other content or information uploaded, entered, or otherwise transmitted by you in connection with your use of the Services and/or Software.”

So they will be keeping the works you upload on them into their database. They do say that the user information will not be accessed or sell to any third party, they should know better than anyone else that not everyone bother with things like asking for permission. If they found it to be trivial than others will too. And users usage information will be seen by third parties for analysis purposes.

“Usage information. This is information about the lore.fm, Software, and/or Services you use and how you use them. We may also obtain data from our third-party partners and service providers to analyze how users use our App, Software, and/or Services. For example, we will know how many users access a specific page on the App and which links they clicked on. We use this aggregated information to better understand and optimize the App.”

So there will be third parties involved (not specified who exactly, which is oh so reassuring!) but they shouldn’t access the content of the stories. Hopefully, but that’s not good enough for me. Especially when they finish off with this gem :

“Information submitted to lore.fm will be transferred to, processed, and stored in the United States. When you use the Software on your computing device, User Content you save will be stored locally on that device and synced with our servers. If you post or transfer any Information to or through our App, Software, and/or Services, you are agreeing to such Information, including Personal Data and User Content, being hosted and accessed in the United States.

Please note that the laws of the United States may be different from the privacy laws applicable to the place where you are resident. lore.fm is committed to protecting the security of your Information and takes reasonable precautions to protect it. However, internet data transmissions, whether wired or wireless, cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and as a result, we cannot ensure the security of Information you transmit to us, including Personal Data and User Consent; accordingly, you acknowledge that you do so at your own risk.”

This, omg, this is making me so mad! Basically if a breach do happen and works are leaked and stolen by, for exemple, other AI mining for material to create stories, they decline all responsibility. Too bad, so sad it’s up to the app user and the original writer is left with no recourse. And the audio files won’t just be on your phone but on their servers, another sign that they store the contents and if there’s text to speech, then them using speech to text later on isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

So how do I, a writer can protect myself in this situation? Well I can put my work on private and only allow fellow members to use it since apparently locked worked should not be compatible with it. Or I could use a special font so that their AI can’t read my work. However I do not want to do that! I want my work to be accessible to non members and I want to people with reading impediments to not struggle with comic sans!

And I get that for people that struggle with blindness this app could be nice but, the thing is I want people to interact with my works on the website I put my work in. If Lore.fm was just a plug-in and that people wouldn’t leave ao3 to hear it I wouldn’t give a shit about this. But it’s not a plug-in and it means that my work and the works of other writers are going to end up on an app that we do not know and do not trust and we would have no control over what happens to it there.

You can send a mail to opt out to have your work on there, and I did so, I’ll put my mail and their answer bellow. However the fact that they act on blanket consent is distasteful, to put it nicely. The problem is you can’t opt out of something you don’t know exist and if it weren’t for my friend I would have no idea this app was a thing. It’s already on the App Store and Google store and I first heard of it today! It’s still on beta but still, us writer should have been made aware of it! And apparently since they’re not violating ao3 terms of use they can’t stop them either.

Then there’s the podfic community and honestly I feel bad for them the most as this is completely trampling what they do! You have those lovely people showing proper etiquette to the writers of stories they liked by asking them for permission to records their work, they do editing, some even add ambiance music, they work really hard on it and you have Lore.fm that come in and says fuck that, we won’t be doing any of those things. This is not okay.

So yeah, I’m angry, sad and infuriated by this situation. I can’t dictate anyone to not use the app but you really shouldn’t. What I can ask you however if that if you like what I write, don’t put it on that app.

I DO NOT CONSENT TO HAVE MY WORK ON LORE.FM OR ANY SIMILAR APP.

You can see below my email and will post a screenshot of their response when I’ll get it. I intend of documenting all of my interactions with them on this blog. I’m sorry if this isn’t a fun post but sometimes you need to speak out. Especially since some of my work on ao3 were requested for TWST Charity. I absolutely cannot allow those to be misplaced on the internet as they were meant to help raise money for charity.

Edit: some people have raised the concern that they may use phishing so if you wish to opt out use a burner email account. Their email is [email protected]

[creativitycache]

Hey I don’t know if this is being talked about on Tumblr but thankfully the AO3 subreddit has a conversation going about this app that just went live.

TikTok user unravel.me.now has just launch an app (lore.fm) she is calling “Audible for AO3”. It’s an app that uses AI voices to read out fics.

🚨She is requiring any authors who do not want their fics to be on this app to OPT OUT by emailing [email protected] 🚨 🚨She has not given an actual template or how you’re supposed to prove you’re the author or said how her team will process this or how she will keep these requests secure🚨

I do not have this app. I haven’t seen anyone use it yet. According to Reddit users, unravel.me.now’s earlier TikToks stated she envisions the app being able to create libraries stored on that app and to have version of “Spotify wrapped”. That implies that eventually data collection must happen, if it’s not happening currently.

I don’t know the actual capabilities of this app. I don’t know the legalities. I do know that it personally feels like this app is trying to turn AO3 into a content generation source and I haven’t heard of the app allowing you to leave a comment or kudos or interact with the original work.

I’m just sad about this.

[gloomwitchwrites]

This one post does not cover all the issues that is lore.fm, but I encourage ALL of my readers to not engage with this app or upload my work to it in any way.

This thread on reddit has helpful information

I have already sent a denial of consent to their team. That can be found here: (I have yet to receive a response)

Now, with that being said, here is my take:

Lore.fm has done nothing to seek the consent of writers.

A lack of a no is not a yes. A clear, explicit no, is a no. The absence of a no is not a yes, it is still a no.

Regardless of how noble the endeavor is, or to say that this third-party app is for "accessibility," that does not override consent.

In addition, hiding behind accessibility to disguise theft is disgusting and horrendous behavior.

Period. Full Stop.

I work in Special Education. I work with text-to-speech software every. single. fucking. day. Lore.fm is NOT it.

Do not support them.

Do not download their app.

Do not feed fanfiction into their AI.

If you need language access tools, or text-to-speech plug-ins, etc, I will happily give you a list.

For my Ao3 readers, I am not locking my work, although lore.fm is advising people do (which is also a shitty ask). They've been sent my written non-consent.

Tagging my writing and archivist mutuals to spread the word: @firelightinferno @glitterypirateduck @childofyuggoth @glassgulls

[breelandwalker]

Palestinian Relief Bundle: 373 items for $8.00

Anybody want a whole bunch of games for a small donation that's going to a good cause?

[animatejournal]

Duck Amuck | Director: Chuck Jones | Studio: Warner Bros. | USA, 1953

[darkwee009]

NOT ME YOU SLOP ARTIST

This is a close up? A CLOSE UP YA JERK! A CLOSEUP!

Alright, let’s get this picture started! (The End) NO NOOOOO!

[bunjywunjy]

[drgaellon]

One of the defining moments of animation history.

“Ain’t I a stinker?”

[amandalasubfosaanaso]

In Babylon 5, didn’t one of the non-humans think Daffy was the god of frustration?

[seasonallydefective]

Holy shit, this is nearly 70 years old. This would have been right on the heels of color television being commercially available to the public.

[bigahhhhhhhh]

@amayatepes look at this

[amayatepes]

LMAO

[mister-christmas]

Huh. That’s just a whole ass Daffy Duck cartoon.

[lew-basnight]

Everything about this cartoon is top-notch. The timing, the animation (watch Daffy’s different walks) the art; this is a treasure

[breelandwalker]

Keep in mind also that this wasn’t made for television. This would have been showing in a movie theater, probably alongside a newsreel.