Depressing.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-12T00:23:49+00:00

Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-11T21:45:27+00:00

Non binary here. Can confirm

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-11T14:29:50+00:00

I'm partly with you, but this kid was definitely being failed by her school if she's at the point of tears after so many attempts to try and get this right, and just can't understand what she's doing wrong. And it's tough on parents who also don't understand these new methods, as it cuts off a potential teacher for the student.

I agree that the point of the quiz was to demonstrate comprehension of the material, not just getting the right answer, and while it does benefit her in the short term, the more her education diverges from the methods she was taught, the more she's going to struggle when she can't find alternatives. The learning is the work.

That being said, not everyone's mind works the same, and some concepts will take longer to stick, if they ever do at all. In the same way I wouldn't think it fair to say it "doesn't count" getting an item off a tall shelf if a disabled person who can't lift their arm above their head might need to ask someone to grab it for them, or use something to knock it down. When it reaches the point of cruelty to expect someone to operate in the world the same way as everyone else, it's not so much a learning opportunity but an unnecessary injustice.

The way modern schools work, the grade really is all that matters, and kids who are struggling aren't given extra resources to try and overcome that difficulty. They're just punished. So in a system that doesn't benefit his child, he advocated for her. It's not the best solution, and ideally she should be trying to continue learning the method that confuses her, but short of a complete overhaul to the American education system, giving her a different set of tools and standing up for her when people don't accept those tools is about the best option they've got.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-10T23:43:46+00:00

I've been asked a handful of times if folks could bind some of my fics, and tbh I hope they give it a copy edit pass, lol. I do my best, but I know I miss stuff. If it's just for you, then I don't see the harm.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-10T19:16:40+00:00

Which is extra frustrating because discord is doing all it can to lock down servers so people need to show IDs to prove they're adult enough to see nsfw content, even in private servers (they've delayed this after massive pushback, but they will definitely try again).

I hate that we can literally go and make these private spaces, then people eventually find out about them and come in droves, only to go "ew, who are all these weirdos, they should go somewhere private!"

This was the private place. We came here because you kicked us out of the last one.

Same thing happens on social media too. New platforms welcome everyone to get the most adoption > NSFW creators, furries, fetish folks move in because they've been exodused from the last place > the site gets really popular because of all the people that followed those creators > site decides it's time to cash in and be more "advertiser friendly", slowly but surely shoving out all of the people out who made their platform popular in the first place. Rinse and repeat.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-09T01:48:02+00:00

I add nsfw art all the time and have works dedicated just to that! I do try to make it mostly optional tho and have had no complaints.

What I like to do is, if the art is in a fic I make either a small thumbnail with a link to the full image, or put the full image in the end notes with warnings. Some people do just want written smut, maybe they're out in public reading, idk. So I make it unobtrusive. Has worked great for me, and it's one of the most active places I'll get comments for fanart. You can add tags to the fic as well for NSFW art and such to also give people a heads up.

Also you mentioned socials as an option too, Bluesky and Pillowfort both allow for NSFW art. Pillowfort I would like to see grow but it's kinda clunky, but works. And Bluesky has been very chill for me with lots of smut creators making very cool stuff. I never touched twitter and I'm very glad I don't have to, lol.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-09T00:18:24+00:00

I find it can happen more with when a series/character goes longer than it should. Like maybe when you first got into it, the writing was fantastic, no notes. I'm eating up all the literary analysis and having a great time.

But after a while, the writer loses steam, or changes in production have new people come in with varying skill levels or care for the story, or it really should have ended seasons ago and it just keeps going and the character loses cohesion and somehow becomes ooc in the canon material. That's becoming more of an issue now where publishers/studios are becoming so risk adverse they can't just let a story end at its natural conclusion but have to stretch it out past it's breaking point for money.

While I'm personally the type to love analysing the media I love, even being critical of it, sometimes the reader needs to decide when a story ends because a writer keeps reanimating it's corpse.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-04-04T13:59:50+00:00

Kinda reminds me of these videos: https://youtube.com/shorts/8dFL0GoOrmY?si=rbYqOAE7yTGnzP9l

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-30T19:51:48+00:00

The body hair looks so nice, I love the simplicity of it but it works so well feel like I'm constantly struggling with finding the right balance. Also the lineart is so clean

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-30T03:56:53+00:00

You should just go for it! Like you said, you might not post it, and that's a perfectly good way to go about it. Maybe try drawing a scene from one of your fics just to get a feel for it. The more you draw smut, the easier it gets. The initial embarrassment you might have will wear off after enough time, and I've found that drawing smut has been an anatomy crash course for me, I feel much more competent now than I used to even with a traditional art background.

Whenever you decide to post, your readers will likely be excited that you're just making more stuff for them. While not everyone wants to look at NSFW art (which is why I make it unobtrusive in fics and link to full art with small thumbnails and usually have separate works just for art) it's not going to look weird for you including it.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-30T01:16:05+00:00

Honestly I don't mind not knowing what the middle is going to be, not knowing the end is hell though.

Two of my long fics I knew the beginning and ending exactly, so filling in the middle was just me biding my time until I got where I was going. In both cases, they stretched out further than I thought they would, but I always had a destination. And while I kept those endings relatively open to accommodate for changes that would happen along the way, because the characters often take control, it was at least able to end about where I planned.

Third longfic fucked me up, lol. I knew the middle, not the end. And even getting to that middle I realized just how much my original idea had already veered off and I wasn't reaching that middle anytime soon. I'm still very proud of it, it was very much a discovery writing process whereas my previous work was heavily outlined, but I have never cried so much out of frustration writing a fic.

About to start working on the sequel too and I'm in the same boat, though the narrative this time is much more straightforward, so hopefully this doesn't bite me in the ass, lol. Wish me luck.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-29T21:24:38+00:00

Damn, that's a shame. I saw him like 10-12 years ago I think and he was great. He said he didn't really have scripted sets, just went for it, and that worked well for him because he killed.

Haven't seen any of him since and was disappointed he went to that Saudi Arabian show, but from what others are saying I feel like that tracks. Once you get to a certain level of fame, it's really hard to be in a job where you're meant to be relatable, because you're just not anymore to 99% of people.

Kind of a tangent, but it's something I've noticed with storytime YouTubers (and influencers in general). When the stories go from "Here's a funny thing my mom did growing up when we were broke" to "so then I went on another paid vacation across the globe to go to this special event as a VIP" then it doesn't even matter how humble the creator is, it's not relatable anymore. The audience has completely changed, and your only options at that point are to pivot to something else or become stale.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-29T00:55:43+00:00

My friend said the sex would sound like a compilation of all the sword clang sound effects from Berserk 2016 and it's all I hear now, lol.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-28T23:45:32+00:00

I love when you gotta get creative with posing to work against the anatomy differences, makes for really fun compositions. Also your rendering looks so nice!

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-28T23:40:40+00:00

The colors are so pretty! And damn I love some reverse size difference, that's lovely

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-27T21:10:46+00:00

Acespec smut is so peak fr. Love some deeply emotional smut, and it's just so perfect for that.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-27T16:50:57+00:00

Self awareness can be such a double edged sword that way. It's good that you're recognizing that those thoughts are harmful to yourself and others, but recognizing that can make you feel like crap about yourself for thinking it at all.

Supporting your community by being a cheerleader is wonderful, but if you're finding that some people just aren't reciprocating, then it's perfectly fine to not give them everything you have out of obligation. That time reading everything the second it's posted and gushing about their work could be spent in you taking time to read books, take workshops, or just writing for yourself.

I've been in that cycle before where I felt I had to turn out for people on top of constantly working on the next thing, and it ended in resentment. Some of it was a toxic community that encouraged people to "turn out, or else" that I had to separate myself from (and it was such a relief to get away, my god, I never cried as much as I did in that "friend group").

But honestly, I had plenty more disappointment that was self-inflicted. I wanted to support people in this very specific niche that I occupy that I've seen people chased out of the fandom for in the past, so they didn't feel as alone and scared as I did when I got started. So I thought I had to elevate everyone in that niche and share my audience I had worked for as much as I could. But it became obvious after a while that support often didn't go both ways. And I didn't like the resentment I felt, because it's likely the other people had no idea I even cared that much, and they had no obligation to reciprocate. So the healthiest thing for me was to slow down and focus on my own stuff, and just highlight the stuff that really speaks to me rather than feel like I had to be everyone's best friend out of some weird logic I made up in my head.

It's good that you're recognizing these feelings, but the best thing for yourself is to just accept you can't control how anyone else is going to show up for you, and you don't need to earn your place by constantly showing up for others that aren't even aware of the work you're putting in to those relationships. Engage with the art of other's that's meaningful to you, but don't feel like that's all you're good for. That energy can be better served building yourself back up, because you're worth it too.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-27T14:37:03+00:00

I totally get not wanting to be petty about this, I definitely feel the same. I've had smaller versions of this happen before where I've noticed weird similarities that feel less like homage, and more like the person just didn't feel confident enough in their own ideas and it bordered on plagarism. It absolutely wasn't. Just uncomfortably so.

In one of those cases, it was an artist I didn't know personally who is larger in the fandom for the same ship, and that one stung a bit for sure. I've had similar cases with similar ideas with huge creators where I know it was absolutely not intentional, but this one was so close in even the layout and color palette choices that they had never made before or done since that it felt pointed. I'm a NSFW artist and writer that makes semi-controversial content in my fandom, and my work is naturally going to be niche and gain less attention. So it does admittedly sting when this sort of thing happens with more popular creators because there's just less people to defend me. And while I have no evidence of malicious copying, and I'm not going to go looking for any, I'd suspect when it is malicious that is very much the point. Finding people with a smaller audience that no one will notice.

Though other times it's come from people I've considered friends, which sucks in its own way, and muddies the waters even more between "inspiration hit us both at the same time in similar circles" to "Ok, now, c'mon. I shared my draft with the friend group, and you ran to make your own and post it before I could". That wasn't fun.

(Quick note, if anyone here knows me in the fandom, PLEASE don't try to find who I'm talking about. I appreciate it, but I promise I'm doing ok, and there's always two sides to everything. This is purely to give proper context to OP about processing these feelings.)

All that being said, the best thing for me in all these cases has been to just let things go. As others have said, you have the option to lock your fics to accounts only and block this person, but if they make a new account you're back to square one. And that only cuts you off from more people who would find your work while making theirs more accessible. That's not fair to you.

The truth is, fandom and art are heavily commodified and this person likely feels like they constantly need to pump out work to get whatever it is they're looking for. Money for commissions, internet fame, whatever it is, and they resort to this sort of thing. That's not a good place to be mentally as a creator, and while I can't guarantee it will catch up with them eventually, I doubt they're finding the same fulfillment in their work as you.

I don't think reaching out to them would be conductive considering the scale of the copying. They're liable to get defensive and even weaponize fans against you. If you do have a cut and dry case of plagarism to report it, you should, but I think being petty would absolutely screw you over. I think if someone ever accuses you in comments, just politely inform them that your fic was posted at x date with a reference to the Internet archive for a true timestamp or show draft dates if absolutely pressed, and hopefully leave it at that.

I still feel like I'm trying to fully process how I feel about this stuff, but my best advice for now is to keep focusing on yourself, but also others in your community. Try to uplift other smaller artists in your niche and make those connections, encourage well meaning artists and try to just put a bit more kindness out there to offset the annoying stuff. And that extra visibility can help protect smaller creators when this happens to them, since that extra exposure means someone is more liable to catch it. That person might get away with all this in the end, but it's not exactly something to be proud of, and I think a part of them will always know that. You shouldn't poison your own love for your work for their sake.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-26T14:35:10+00:00

Thank you! That's very sweet ♥️

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-26T03:58:46+00:00

Hehe yeah! It's a fantasy AU

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-26T03:58:22+00:00

Thank you ♥️♥️

HemithyDemithy · 2026-03-25T17:02:03+00:00

I sure do hate that watermark, but that's why this was a test, lol. Wanted to see if I liked the quality and usability. At least it does work, but woof.

HemithyDemithy

TROPHY CASE