Well, I’m a complete idiot.

I got scammed by someone who wanted to use my artwork for some "project"—which turned out to be nothing but a ploy.

A bit about myself: My mother taught me to be kind, generous, and charitable. We've always tried to donate to people in need, even during our own hard times. At my first job, most of my earnings went to helping my family, which my mom deeply appreciated. I tend to be selfless, always trying to help others. But I guess that's turned out to be one of my character flaws...

I should've seen it coming from a mile away. It took all night, which should have been a red flag—I knew it was too good to be true. I'm still beating myself up over it.

I got hit hard, financially. Lost hard earned money from my previous job I was saving up and probably gonna lose more from the bank trying to fix the error done by my stupidity. All because I was trying to be kind to someone who use that kindness against me. Talk about irony.

I'm fine though—this has happened to me before. But this time it feels like more of a wake-up call than ever.

So… I’m no longer granting permission for anyone to use my artwork (unless it’s artwork of someone else’s OCs), granted they’ll probably use them anyway regardless of what I say. This is the internet, y’know.

I have an art trade in progress with someone (on DA), but after that, I'll be taking a long break from them. If I resume art trades in the future, they'll be rare and carefully selected.

In the meantime, I’ll work on my own artwork and story-related stuff. Sorry for the downer update.