Rynling R&D

Summer of Horror Exchange
https://summerofhorrorexchange.dreamwidth.org/

The minimum wordcount is 500 words ("this is because we think bite-sized horror is delicious"), and you only have to offer/request one fandom. I love horror-themed fanfic, and I also love low-pressure exchanges. Nominations open on May 15, and signups open on May 23.

Swords and Orbs and Anime Girls
https://90sfantasyanimestuff.tumblr.com/

A Tumblr that's pure 1990s fantasy anime and video games. This wasn't my childhood, but I dearly wish it were. I am such a big fan of this aesthetic.

I thought about this while taking a nice walk outside, and the conclusion I came to is:

People enjoy simple but tasty little snacks.

In terms of what becomes popular, I'm firmly of the opinion that numbers aren't something you can control. Reception has nothing to do with quality or community, but rather being the right person at the right place at the right time. (Although writing smut about m/m ships in popular fandoms helps.)

Also, mainly from futzing around on Tumblr, I get the sense that a lot of people are suffering from lowkey insomnia these days (I wonder why!!!!) and "turn your brain off" fantasies seem to be in demand and very much appreciated.

In any case, I actually enjoy writing tasty little snacks. I should write more of them. 🍹

I was planning on volunteering as a writer for this year's fandomtrumpshate event, which opens to sign-ups for creators on January 26. This seems like as good of a year as any.

But the truth is that I'm hesitant. I don't have an audience, and this is more than likely because I'm not writing the sort of thing that people want to read. Which is okay! There's nothing wrong with that; I'm just not a good fit for an event in which actual monetary donations are involved.

What I'm 100% comfortable with is bidding on the offerings of other writers.* And that is what I intend to do!!

* And sharing their promo posts on Tumblr! That's important too.

Dear Candy Hearts Writer,

Thank you so much for volunteering to write a story for me! I’m the sort of nerd who’s interested in lore and worldbuilding, but I have a major soft spot for stories that focus on friendship and romance. I also enjoy relationships in which the characters don’t particularly like each other but have an interesting dynamic together. Situationships? Why not!

I admire and appreciate stories of all lengths. If you’re here to write a short vignette, that would make me very happy. But longer stories are welcome too, of course! Whatever you create, I’m excited to see what you do with these characters and their relationships.

I am totally okay with:

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I’d prefer not to see:

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Fandom-Specific Interests

Breath of the Wild + Tears of the Kingdom

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Echoes of Wisdom

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Hollow Knight: Silksong

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Elden Ring

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Thank you again for volunteering your time and talent. I know you’ll create something marvelous, and I’m sending lots of encouragement and sweet candy energy your way.

Dear writer,

Thank you so much for offering to write a story for me for Yuletide. I appreciate you!

I love atmospheric storytelling and worldbuilding, and what I want more than anything is the opportunity to spend more time in the fictional worlds that have captivated me. I’m equally delighted by slice-of-life, romance, and horror, and I also adore nonfiction meta essays and narrative concept sketches. Please feel free to dig as deep (or as lightly) into canonical lore and speculative theories as you like. I love all characters equally, and I’m happy to watch you follow your faves as your story guides you.

I know that what you create will be wonderful, and I’m looking forward to reading your work.

Some fandom-specific interests:

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I’m totally okay with:

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I’d prefer not to see:

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Dear artist,

Thank you so much for offering to doodle something for me! My interests are a bit of a mixed bag in that I love cute characters, as well as attractive and stylish characters, but I’m also a fan of dark and gothic designs. I appreciate environmental art and concept art, and I can’t get enough of plants, wildlife, lush green spaces, and ruins covered in moss.

Whether you draw a character, a creature, or a place, I’m sure you’ll create something fantastic.

I am totally okay with:

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I’d prefer not to see:

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If you’d like to get a sense of my taste, I post my drawings as Rynling on Tumblr and reblog art as Pocketseizure, but I appreciate many different styles of visual art, as well as artists of all skill levels.

Thank you again for volunteering to share your artwork. I hope you have a marvelous time, and I can’t wait to see what you create. <3

Just for shits and giggles (and also inspired by the brilliant fanwork of a friend), I decided to write a few quick stories about Tenna, the villain (sort of) of the recently released Chapter 3 of Deltarune. I thought the idea of shipping him with Spamton, the villain (definitely) of Chapter 2 was funny for a hot second before actually becoming intrigued by the dynamic. What if they were both awful and made each other worse, that sort of thing.

The problem I had initially was how to write Tenna, who we only ever see speaking to an audience. How would his voice translate to a more intimate situation? To get a sense of fandom tastes, I pulled up fic for the ship on AO3 as sorted by the number of bookmarks, which I hoped would filter out most of the slop.

But alas. There is. A whole lot of slop. Very clearly written by GenAI. And people love it. Apparently.

I don't understand this at all. These stories all follow the same beats and use the same vocabulary, and the characters don't speak in their distinctive voices. There's no attempt to engage with the story or lore of the original game, and there's no specificity at all. Why would so many people bookmark fic like this?

Meanwhile, my university has been aggressively integrating GenAI into its software licenses and digital infrastructure, which has been causing huge problems for everyone. To give an example, many incoming students from East Asia or with East Asian heritage can't upload their photos to their university profiles because the software flags them for using AI-generated images. Because all Asians look fake to the algorithm I guess?? At the same time, the East Asian language teachers have been asking the university to pay for licenses for region-specific GenAI tools that might potentially make huge advances in language learning, but the university (which has more money than God) has been ignoring them. Because why would a university want to use GenAI for actual education and pedagogical innovation amirite.

TLDR: This is dystopian and I hate it.

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These are the three lessons I should have learned:

(1) Upsetting content is none of your business.
(2) Very few people “accidentally” post bigotry.
(3) Some people are just unhinged and unpleasant.

In conclusion, the Block button is your friend. 💖

Quillbot AI Detector
https://quillbot.com/ai-content-detector

I've found that AI detectors tend to be hit or miss, but this one seems to work well. What I especially appreciate about the way it works is that it's able to detect text that was generated by AI and then altered, either by hand or by another AI program.

I learned about this through discourse in the Dragon Age fandom, by the way. Apparently, you can now enter a short prompt into Gemini with the name of a character or ship, and the AI can match this keyword not only with the fandom, but also with its specific writing tropes.

If you're curious about the wank, people have been arguing about whether it's possible to write a 400k-word novel in a month. What this ridiculous argument underlines is the fact that there is a substantial (and passionate) audience for novels written by AI. This is dystopian, and I hate it.

Here's an unannotated list of what the QAnon and Proship DNI movements have in common:

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These are all aspects of cult mentality, but I think the ways they manifest in these two loosely defined groups are specific to 2015-2025 internet culture. Annotation is necessary, but I wanted to go ahead and get the basics down.