#LONG post under read more

[manorinthewoods]

Here's a take on the zombie apocalypse.

It just... doesn't happen.

The military successfully fends off the zombies. The protagonists are in the military and government and have to make sure the zombie apocalypse doesn't destroy society, escape the country, etc. Thankfully, zombies follow most of the standard tropes, which means they are stunningly incompetent and therefore the apocalypse is not a big issue. What is the issue is the politics of the situation. Anti-masker equivalents, power-hungry politicians, incompetent generals - all sorts of crap.

But maybe add a bit more creativity. Remove some of the standard zombie flaws; for instance, the zombies will (in an idea I thefted from another post), instead of moaning, try to speak, but only produce garbled syllables, words, and phrases. They lose most of their intelligence but are smarter in a horde, they require very little sustenance, can slowly heal injuries, go into torpor when critically injured and regenerate faster in this state, and they look more-or-less like humans so they tug on the heartstrings.

These zombies would still have a good number of weaknesses (cleared weaknesses crossed out):

Slow speed, can be outpaced with brisk walk (These zombies aren't fast.)

Constant noise alerts any prey (probably they are not constantly rambling)

Main food source is also primary predator and only source of reproduction (Let's say these zombies can consume and zombify wild animals. That will make them an enormous threat, actually! I dunno about clearing this weakness, my zombies are already superpowered.)

Extreme temperatures in summer or winter will clear zombies (The torpor state would clear this risk. This is one of the major issues; if there's nothing done with the zombies to prevent this, the zombie apocalypse probably wouldn't survive a year or something. Also, anywhere up north would probably see all the zombies die.)

Zombies will constantly injure themselves (Regenerating zombies clears this risk. If zombies cannot regenerate, they *definitely* will not survive a year.)

Numerous quantity of natural predators, including flies which will infest their tissues with maggots (If zombies are internally decaying, any old wild animal could probably rip them to shreds. Also, bye-bye eyes.)

Cannot damage armored or airborne vehicles (Short of giving zombies magic spells, this will remain a severe risk. The #1 weapon for dealing with zombies is a tank. No, the guts won't tangle the treads.)

Moans alert all enemies in the area and convey very little information to other zombies (The garbled gibberish will at first not be a sign, but as cities are evacuated it will become more noticeable, especially if efforts to discern what is being said by local survivors reveal that it is garbage noise.)

No problem solving skills; zombies cannot open doors, perform any tasks involving complex dexterity (even simply throwing objects), cannot use any sort of tactics and simply beeline for potential prey (Zombies are dumb. They will remain dumb and thus will be easily manageable. A simple chokepoint will be enough to slaughter a horde. Also, since they're slow, you could probably destroy large quantities of them with artillery - although with torpor added into the mix you'd still need to properly clear the field afterward.)

Zombies are exclusively melee combatants (Again, one chokepoint and the horde's dead. With a steady supply of ammunition - possibly requiring international aid if ammo factories are abandoned - zombies can be pretty easily defeated. They are known for being weak to guns and there is one major thing militaries have a lot of.)

Cannot take shelter from storms (Minor, but after a severe storm there probably wouldn't be as many zombies around.)

Conclusion: Zombies gon' get wrecked by any competence.

[a-girl-called-bob]

Not necessarily. There are several factors that'd make claiming copyright on AI produced work possible, or at least convincing enough for a DMCA takedown. Long write-up under the 'read more', but TLDR people still largely need to edit AI work, and editing is considered [at least partial] authorship for copyright purposes.

If they never release the AI rough draft and never disclose which portions made it to the final cut, human hands can touch enough of the script to keep it under corporate copyright. The first draft could even be destroyed after editing if they really want to cover their tracks - otherwise it could get stolen and/or leaked, which would place it in the PD.

As for VFX or digital actor reproductions, again, if the raw footage is kept well-hidden then nobody can use portions of the final cut, as they're portions of a copyrighted work. Again, if the decomposited clips are leaked or something, they're fair game.

Furthermore, because of how copyright law works, a commercial release is copyrighted in aggregate (although sometimes, like with music, separate copyrights exist on individual segments of the work [i.e. tracks] as well as the album as a whole). This means that as long as a human has demonstrably touched even a single percent of the movie - which, considering shots have to be composited and arranged on the timeline, is inevitable - then the company can have a valid copyright to the sights and sounds depicted. Even if there's a segment produced solely with the use of AI, it'll fall under the copyright for the whole work.

All of this is also rendered moot by the fact that it's very difficult to prove with certainty whether or not something is AI-generated. If your video got copyright claimed for plagiarizing an AI-generated movie or story or, heavens forbid a news article, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that the parts you copied were all AI produced. If you can't, the company wins and the DMCA basically ensures that your video will stay struck.

This does mean, however, that if someone discloses that a work is wholly AI-produced [which I, for one, believe is the most generally agreeable legal restriction that should be pursued], then that work is fair game. Not likely for movies, but common enough for short fiction, music, and artwork. Feel free to take and remix and collage at your heart's content - it's not like they care where their source material comes from. Not giving credit's still considered a bit of a dick move, but like. Do you care what they think after they've shown you how little they care what you think? I think you can make that call for yourself.

Overall I think this is a good thing, I just doubt it'll have the chilling effect on AI in media that you'll expect it to. It does ensure that humans must be in the loop somewhere, though without stipulating how much of the end product must be manmade. It'll still be used to cut corners on production - or more accurately, headcount.

This really makes the Studios costing themselves even more money (and getting more unions involved) by prolonging the strike for the promise of free ai labor even more fucking funny. you dumb fucking bastards lol

[fribe-mimi]

[ OC ] - Lothar A German drag queen who got bitten by a werewolf somewhere around 18. Currently living in Tokyo with his yakuza boyfriend, and very much in love against his own better judgement. He has a strong need for independence and traveling around the world, and takes joy in making new friends and bedding them too. He's my longest-standing OC, from around 2016, which feels insane to say.

[ink-the-artist]

Rabbits

Some bonus art, I initially started making this in a totally different art style but changed my mind about halfway through lmao, here are the parts I finished

[lazuliquetzalart]

Don't watch the coin, idiot!

the boss fight of ALL time

[waitineedaname]

i was thinking my little thoughts while falling asleep last night, and a concept occurred to me: what if binghe learned about the system not from shen qingqiu, but from shang qinghua

look, he likes shang qinghua alright. he's pretty disinterested in p much anyone who isn't shen qingqiu, but on the list of People Luo Binghe Tolerates, shang qinghua is relatively high. he gave him advice on wooing sqq, after all, and sqq likes his company, so binghe tolerates his shang-shishu

but the thing is, shang qinghua is a spy. has been for decades. binghe knows this. really, everyone knows this at this point, which isn't a great look for a spy, but still. and since shang qinghua is a spy for mobei-jun, who is a subordinate for luo binghe, then technically shang qinghua is also working for him, but you don't get to the position of demon emperor without a healthy amount of suspicion for everyone in your court

so he decides to test shang qinghua a little bit. nothing major, just a little poking around in his dreams. he starts out with a subtle touch, just sifting through his memories. most of it is what he expected. he sees his time on an ding as a disciple and then later as peak lord, he sees him working for mobei-jun. he sees mobei-jun in some compromising situations, which he files away for later, and then sees him in an entirely different flavor of compromising situations, and binghe immediately decides to act like he never saw that

then he decides to take a more direct approach and starts nudging the dreams in other directions, to see how he might react to certain scenarios, test his loyalty. he expects shang qinghua to act cowardly, or bluff his way through a situaton, maybe even draw his sword if pushed far enough

what he doesn't expect is for shang qinghua to frown at the changes luo binghe made and go "I didn't write it like this"

what

binghe is so bewildered by that response that he loses his grip on the dream for a second, and before he knows it, shang qinghua has spun the dream scenario back into the way the scene originally played out. he steps back and looks satisfied. "there we go," he says. "that's how it went. you know, if I'd known I'd be dealing with this scene myself, I would've written it differently"

what the hell does that mean?

fascinated, luo binghe continues to test him. most of the time, when he toys with someone's dream, they're completely unaware of the changes. shang qinghua, despite not seeming aware that he's lucid dreaming, seems very aware of how each scene should go. except for, strangely, many of the scenes that binghe himself was in. binghe pulls up one from his disciple days, one of the times he remembered shang qinghua coming to qing jing on some errand. he hadn't even changed anything yet, had just let the dream version of his younger self launch himself at shizun in a tacklehug, but shang qinghua tsks and takes the reins from him before he can make any edits. "sorry bing-ge, but that was just way too out of character," shang qinghua says. the dream copy of luo binghe's younger self is sent further away, watching the peak lords with a sullen gaze. he's skinnier than binghe remembers being at this age, and one of his eyes is swollen with a purple bruise. that doesn't make any sense, luo binghe thinks. he hadn't been beaten on qing jing peak for years at this point.

the shen qingqiu beside shang qinghua in the dream stands with his back straight as a ruler, and when his gaze lands on luo binghe, he sneers behind his fan. shang qinghua sighs. "cucumber-bro really wasn't as good of an actor as he thought he was. he's way too soft to ever seem like the original goods."

alarmed, luo binghe dispels the dream and steps out of it entirely. sure, he knows shen qingqiu's personality changed almost overnight when he had that qi deviation. everyone knew that. he avoided questioning it much, unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth when it meant having a shizun that cared for him

but shang qinghua. shang qinghua seems to know something more about shen qingqiu's personality change. something he's not sharing. luo binghe didn't like the idea that one of his subordinates could be hiding something as vital as this from him

well, this had been a test of his spy's loyalties, hadn't it? perhaps he should make a visit to an ding. he had some questions.

[tamamxrii]

I'm gonna try to not think too deeply about the fact that this is a few days late for Ace Week because this is an important thing to me year-round!

I've known that I'm ace for about a decade (eugh) but I've only been able to confidently declare it with pride for about half that time. I wanted to use this lil comic to express some of my experiences as an ace person in an ever-evolving queer space. A space that wasn't, and often STILL isn't, welcoming to those of us on the ace spectrum.

And while there has been strives towards representation pretty recently (like the fact that an actual LIST of ace rep in media can now be compiled! wow!) in the grand scheme of things there's still a long way to go. 🖤💜

[shepscapades]

looking through your docsuma tag.....love them. wish they had one more combined braincell so they could realize their feelings

HERE'S THE THING THOUGH OKAY the problem is actually that they're both too smart about their feelings. you've got me down a horrible rabbit hole okay let me do my best to explain without being a freak(reading this back over, i failed <3).

Xisuma takes longer to realize, first of all. He's got so much to deal with coming out of s8 and through the beginning of s9 that quite frankly he's really just grateful to have another friend he can count on and trust, and he's so consumed by getting the androids back in working order on top of his actual season 9 plans (on top of Cleo shoving self care down his throat and demanding that he make a better habit of taking breaks and taking care of himself, which takes a LONG time to adjust to, if it can be argued that he ever does) that he doesn't really realize he's developed feelings for Doc until his heart beats him over the head with it randomly one day. Probably sometime in S10. Even then, because of said busy-ness, I think Xisuma has a very hard time getting over the meta-ness of a creator developing feelings for his creation and the selfishness of that reality amidst all of his other responsibilities, and he is likely too scared/overwhelmed to entertain the thought of the feelings themselves, much less the likelihood of reciprocation or the fantasy of a relationship.

Doc, on the other hand, realizes he is developing feelings for Xisuma kind of steadily throughout the course of s9, since that's when they start spending so much more time together in the lab working on androids and improving android tech. As a general statement, Doc is very aware of himself, all of the time. His awareness of the self is very important to his sense of normalcy and control, so any time he experiences a new emotion, he notes it, logs it.

So, while he's very aware of the feelings he's developing as they happen, he doesn't quite put a name to it/realize what it actually is until he talks to Tango and Etho, funnily enough--It's definitely one of those moments where Tango or Etho or whomever are explaining their struggles with the physical manifestations of their... idk, lovesickness-- ie, thirium pump rate irregularities, temperature fluctuations, influxes of feelings they've described as a combination of longing, affection, want, happiness, yearning... and Doc, as the unbiased third party to put 2 and 2 together, explains to them that those are obvious signs of romantic attraction, only very belatedly realizing several hours later that those are the exact symptoms he hasn't quite been able to put a name to. Naturally he's exceptional about being quiet about this realization until he slips up during a maintenance check-in with Tango sometime after, who is not doing well in s9, and Tango (mid romance-ranting) catches the passing of a wistful expression on Doc's face and calls him out for "totally thinking about someone right now" (Teasing aside, tango promises to keep Doc's secret).

So, despite knowing well his feelings before X ever develops his own, Doc is actually very, very careful about them-- He knows more than anyone else how busy Xisuma is. He knows how stressed X is. He also knows Xisuma seems to be more knowledgeable when it comes to emotions and feelings, and despite the clear signs that Xisuma shows interest(?) in him as well, Doc can only assume there is a good reason nothing romantic has happened between them-- he trusts Xisuma more than anything, and he--firmly-- will not breach this trust by acting on something Xisuma does not seem to be ready for (or does not seem to want yet(yet?)). Therefore, Doc is patient, and even though as Season 10 develops and Doc becomes aware of the likelihood that Xisuma could return the feelings, he trusts Xisuma's emotional intuition more than anything. He, painfully, recognizes Xisuma's discomfort (or hesitation), concludes that there must be a missing variable in this equation he cannot grasp, and decides to let Xisuma lead because of it. He will not push farther than he feels Xisuma has.

It's definitely one of those "fell first" "fell harder" type situations I think. I'm normal about them. can you tell

[cockroachesunite]

Here’s the whole thing! (Including the bit of dialogue right before my canon divergence for context)

The End (?)

Original format ☞ (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5)

[farshootergotme]

"Dick Grayson has anger issues-" okay, but does he actually? When I thought that was true I come to find that most of the evidence to make that claim come from a time in which Dick was being mentally controlled by Brother Blood or right after the death of his parents which obviously would cause anger after finding out they didn't even die naturally but were murdered on top of that.

[skunkes]

something silly and badly formatted

[housecow]

i’m so happy y’all like my writing ngl 🥺 for a long, long time i wanted to be an author and part of what made me okay w gaining this weight was knowing that even if i get too fat for many things. i won’t be too fat to write :3

but fr i wanted to write a horror/fantasy novel. paleontology and body horror. i still dream of this but im BUSY and writing is hard when u have to write academically constantly

[embers-archive]

Piglin masterpost

A masterpost for all piglin related posts on this blog

Art

Festival clothes

Dance #1

Dance #2

The piglin god

Warped forest god

Crimson forest god

Soul sand god

Nether wastes god

Everyday outfits #1

Everyday outfits #2

Piglet outfits

Strider rider outfit

Armour trim/ body paint

Jewellery

Decorations

Persona

Michael_Beloved

Asks

Body painter oc

Headcanon dump #1

Headcanon dump #2

Headcanon dump #3

Headcanon dump #4

Clothes #1

Clothes #2

Clothes #3

Clothes #4

Clothes #5

Clothes #6

Clothes compilation

Hair

The Gods

God origins

Gods appearance #1

Gods appearance #2

Gods appearance #3

Minor gods

Gods symbols

Wither god

Herobrine as god

Food #1

Food #2

Food #3

Body paint #1

Body paint #2

Body paint #3

Technoblade

Technoblade and Phil

Hybrids

Naming conventions

Affection

Dancing #1

Dancing #2

Jobs

Scottish inspiration

Portuguese inspiration

Piglin intelligence

Enderpearls

Headcanon dump

Headcanon

Piglin dyes proposition

Others art

Warped god design

Kotikaleo's OCs #1

Kotikaleo's OCs #2

Kotikaleo's OCs #3

Kotikaleo's OCs #4

Kotikaleo's OCs #5

Kotikaleo's OCs #6

Goat's Technoblade clothes #1

Goat's Technoblade clothes #2

Goat's Techno and Cyber clothes

Areus's OCs #1

Areus's OCs #2

Areus's OCs #3

Areus's OCs #4

[ink-the-artist]

Rare @uncleflutus sighting

[raayllum]

—Caitlyn Siehl, Her, Her, Her

[coralloid]

Some parallels I've noticed between Paris, Texas (1984) and Disco Elysium (2019)