Music Of The Mojave Wasteland (x)

Guess what turns 10 today

Potential Virus Risk on AO3 Comments

Hey everyone. So, I wanted to make a post about something I've seen in AO3 comments recently and I wanted to let y'all know so you can be careful.

Today, on two separate fics of mine, I got comments from guests with different names that had what looks like a key smash followed by a weird link. They looked like this:

Now, it is possible that these are legit comments and these links lead to nothing bad. But, in my experience, this looks like a classic phishing scam or a link to a virus. Honestly, I never open links I see online unless I know for sure I can trust the source. And even then I'm a bit hesitant, since I know that accounts can be hacked. I actually deleted the first email and comment immediately and didn't really think about it again. However, after getting another comment that was almost identical but from a guest with a different name, it makes me think that this might be something bad.

So, if you see these kinds of comments, unless you know exactly who sent it, I'd recommend just deleting them and not clicking on the links. Honestly, even if you know who sent it, I'd still be careful just in case they got hacked. If someone wanted to send you a legit link, they would probably do it with some kind of comment beforehand saying what the link actually leads to. This seems to me like they're trying to prey off curiosity and it can lead to some nasty stuff. Since I know some AO3 writers and readers follow me, I thought I'd post about it here. Similarly, if you see a comment like this on someone's fic, maybe don't click on it either. Again, I can't guarantee this is anything bad, since I definitely did not click on the links, but it's better to be safe than sorry. If y'all could reblog this to spread the word, I'd appreciate it.

Anyway, be careful out there guys! I got burned a few too many times as a kid, so I'm extra careful with links and things now, ha.

EDIT: Apparently, these links are indeed malicious. I checked them in an online link checker, and it detected one malicious source from the link in the second message, but 12 malicious sources in the link from the first message. So, it's pretty clearly a virus or phishing scam. Please be aware!

HEY ARTISTS!

Do you design a lot of characters living in not-modern eras and you’re tired of combing through google for the perfect outfit references? Well I got good news for you kiddo, this website has you covered! Originally @modmad made a post about it, but her link stopped working and I managed to fix it, so here’s a new post. Basically, this is a costume rental website for plays and stage shows and what not, they have outfits for several different decades from medieval to the 1980s. LOOK AT THIS SELECTION:

OPEN ANY CATEGORY AND OH LORDY–

There’s a lot of really specific stuff in here, I design a lot of 1930s characters for my ask blog and with more chapters on the way for the game it belongs to I’m gonna be designing more, and this website is going to be an invaluable reference. I hope this can be useful to my other fellow artists as well! :)

I made some fan art of Thomas Sanders

Should I change my profile from the mess my sister set it to many years ago or should I leave it at it’s current eye bleed status? Hmmm.

i love how it takes .08 seconds for me to determine whether or not a fic is good. like with regular literature sometimes you’ve gotta dig into it to figure out if you really wanna read this thing but when u got ao3 open at 3 am u just know. u just gotta read 3 lines and u know

Action

I was getting pretty fed up with links and generators with very general and overused weapons and superpowers and what have you for characters so:

Here is a page for premodern weapons, broken down into a ton of subcategories, with the weapon’s region of origin. 

Here is a page of medieval weapons.

Here is a page of just about every conceived superpower.

Here is a page for legendary creatures and their regions of origin.

Here are some gemstones.

Here is a bunch of Greek legends, including monsters, gods, nymphs, heroes, and so on. 

Here is a website with a ton of (legally attained, don’t worry) information about the black market.

Here is a website with information about forensic science and cases of death. Discretion advised. 

Here is every religion in the world. 

Here is every language in the world.

Here are methods of torture. Discretion advised.

Here are descriptions of the various methods used for the death penalty. Discretion advised.

Here are poisonous plants.

Here are plants in general.

Feel free to add more to this!