#deviant art AI tool

[blackdaisies]

It feels so exhausting to be an artist trying to have a social media presence right now. And I'm a filthy casual, I can't imagine how it is for artists trying to use these tools professionally. It feels like so many platforms are just actively trying to make things difficult for creatives.

Anyway, DeviantArt is being ratioed on twitter right now. If this affects you, go tell them to make it so we need to OPT IN to AI training. As it is, the default is you need to OPT OUT of every image which is seriously bullshit.

There are a ton of casual DA users that uploaded their art who might have no idea that their art is being used for AI training, and that is shitty.

[raid3r-r4bbit]

AI ART ISNT REAL ART.

DO NOT BUY AI ART.

I'm fucking sick of searching for art references on pinterest or looking for random shit on esty and seeing ai art. I'm fucking sick of seeing DEVIANT ART LOGOS PLASTERED OVER AI ART.

REPORT AI ART.

REPORT AI ART SELLERS.

It's one thing to use ai art as a tool to inspire yourself, see how your ideas look. I do that all the time. But I have never once posted traced art, ai art, ect, nor claimed it as my own. Because it's NOT. I use ai art as a creative inspiration, I use ai to get ideas, I trace to see how the flow works, understand the pose and expand my art.

You do not deserve the title, moniker, identity, or praise of an artist for collecting a few images or typing a few phrases into a fucking computer a few times and posting an image.

I spend HOURS. DAYS. Drawing. And I USE DIGITAL TOOLS. My current wip is at like what 70? 80? HOURS of drawing, posing, researching details looking for references, and perfecting my art. I and my parents have spent so much money on classes, lessons. Time ect, for me to learn what I do, and I would gladly tell you I'm not confident in my art 90% of the time.

You're not an 'artist' even if you disclose it. You're a liar. A lazy pathetic liar. Humble yourself.

AI """"ART"""" being sold is problematic because ai is fed art from different artists. That seller on etsy isn't selling you their work, they're selling you mechanically frankenstiened and mutilated hard work of other people. It cost them nothing but a fucking subscription for a max of fucking $20 a month and maybe 2 seconds of thought. Do NOT BUY SHIT FROM PEOPLE SELLING AI ART. YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED.

YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED.

Part 2

Please feel free to reblog this. If you're an ai 'artist' or your art is 'aI aSsIsTeD' and you're offended, then good. Choke. 🖕

[cyan-orange-studio]

Hi! I'm so sorry if this is a personal question but I am thinking of doing art for commission myself and I'd like to know how you do advertising/how many commissions you tend to get in a month? Please don't answer if you feel uncomfy!!

Hello! Well that is a tricky question to answer tbh.

At first I advertised a lot my commissions since back then Cyan Orange was relatively very new, people didn't know me well to commission me. I started getting my first commissions at Deviant Art and so. Nowadays I prefer to just use social media since Art Galleries went full AI and are hard to trust. The first way to get commissioned is by showing your art. It will be slow at first unless you already have an audience, ppl that follow u n like ur stuff in other words. Then the next step is to be COMMITED and deliver on time and always give updates to your clients. I've unfortunately have commissioned artists who are very bad with their communication tools and never give updates. Also be clear when you will aprox deliver the order, slow deliveries that are clear from the start are better than empty promises. And well that's it! You might struggle at first to fill ur slots (I sure did back then) and then ppl will commission you without having the need to advertise a lot IF YOU treat your customers with care.

So have patience, best of luck! - Sonya

[multitrackdrifting]

A long write-up on AI Art

I do actually go out of my way to read pro-ai art takes, and hell I will be the first to say that something like the infinite seinfeld twitch channel is funny (of course, when they're not running a backup bot that gets cancelled for making insensitive jokes)

but at the end of the day I will never really budge on my dislike for AI-Art, because ultimately pro-ai art and anti-ai art stances often are talking about two entirely different things. as someone that criticises AI art quite regularly, I am firmly commited to the idea that consqeuences matter the most, whereas most of the people who are pro-ai art treat AI simply as a tool and its people that are abusing it as well as the economic structure that incentivises its use. there is merit to both stances, but the thing i will never advocate for is putting aside the feelings of artists as if it is not a morally relevant factor, and i don't mean their fears, i mean their belief that all of a sudden tonnes and tonnes of people are experts on anti-art gatekeeping and democratizing access to art creation but it's like, nobody is really concerned with those ethically trained self-programmed joints that use public domain works, because those aren't the ones being sold to people - the ones that make pixiv, deviant art and other sites completely fucking unusable unless you opt out of seeing them manually. that flood the tags of an obscure character you like, that condition people to think that your art is worth less because they can parameter punch and produce something that is more "detailed" on a technical level and how that affects how art consumption is treated psychologically

if you can press a button and get anything you want, i have sen people say that this sounds good as shit and why would you hate it - and the answer is pretty fucking simple:

because it ignores what you pay to get it, and i wish pro ai-art people would not just toss that to the side when measuring up the weight of people's feelings about even an infinitismally small percentage of their art being used to train an ai to produce something and they will say some shit like oh, well, would you want to give Mr. MIckey Mouse himself the ability to copyright forms of expression and stop influence from happening, and its like brother, influence is like me growing up being inspired by the power rangers, a machine aggregating datasets to understand a "thing" is borrowing the works of tonnes of people without their consent to produec a new original thing that is "fair use" even though you the individual did not apply any of your own craftsmanship to transform the works that inspired you. references, inspiration and all this other shit, they are all permissible ways of producing art that isn't plagiarism, but we're in a realm where people are unironically arguing that these machines are not committing any wrongdoing because it might be legal for them to do so but i thought we fucking understood at this big old age that laws are not inherently a metric of what is right or what is just?

I don't give a shit about copyright laws, I just want people to stop brazenly shitting on the crafts of artists, and I'm not gatekeeping when I say that, I never said you had a barrier to entry to be one - why is it so easy for people to say "I should be allowed and even encouraged to press the button because I can", it's not really democratizing art because you have a idea materialisation button at your disposal

I'm not fascinated with the debate of "real art" or whatever the fuck, a lot of you are stuck on really really asinine debates to derail the conversation about the practical outcomes of AI art and machine-learning being as dangerous as it is

AI art can be used to wholesale plagiarise someone's art style, you can literally stipulate that it does that for you because of the nature of parameter refinement, and yes even if it breaks TOS there are ways to jailbreak inputs on ChatGPT so I don't even delude myself into thinking it's not possible with Stable Diffusion/Midjourney.

Machine-Learning/AI is also used to develop pornography of famous figures without their consent

Netflix funded an animated short where a human drew the reference base for backgrounds that were then AI-generated, then cleaned up, but credited the fucking artist as AI (+Human) without naming the uhman. A creator who works on Netflix cartoons even chimed in and look at this fucking fucking cooked interaction

AI Art was famously used to produce works trained on the style of Kim Jung Gi not even a day after he had passed away.

And, I feel the need to mention it - Linkin Park's new video, instead of producing a style reminiscent of Production IG's Breaking The Habit MV they input footage, alongside "reference images" drawn over the band members to produce an AI Art MV - the precise details of how those generators work are not super clear to me, but we still got the six fingers and all that.

I'm literally so puzzled as to why people are stuck on the following ideas:

Well we shouldn't do anything about it because that would entail copyright laws strengthening.

People can plagiarise by hand

Vocaloid is ok but AI voice isn't (an especially stupid argument)

AI is just a tool so there's no need to get mad at it

i) We don't need copyright laws to strengthen when you literally see every 2nd mfing artist on twitter saying how they don't consent to their works being used to train AI - there's a lack of regulation between art platforms that offer up your works for training as an opt-out instead of an opt-in. People were mad as fuck with Adobe (who loosely worded their policy) and CSP for this

ii) So because plagiarism exists without the assistance of AI we should shrug then when it happens at the press of a button when someone types in (parameters x, ... z) (your best friend's artstyle) (some fucked up concoction of fetishes) then right? Of fucking course not

iii) People who say vocaloid is a supporting argument for AI/voice synthesising using AI are just plain stupid. Vocaloid is more like an instrument but some people mistakenly believe it's like TTS and just pops off by itself. The tuning and more technical details of producing with it are so fucking demanding that usually the person doing the tuning isn't the only person working on the damn song lmao

iv) AI IS JUST A TOOL, but we all live under capitalism and yes it entices people to do exploitative things because art is a labour market and not merely a medium and people have to do it to live but its exactly because we are explicitly aware of this that we can realistically foresee how smaller artists who do live off commission work, off prints, going to cons and setting up tables to make money and shit are going to be affected. It's already cropping up at cons just as plagiarised art was already a problem, but you know what happens now - it's even easier to sell something you did not even make for money, and do not argue to me that people should be allowed to do that. I've seen how brutal tabling at cons can be even with the extensive exposure, people will literally tell you to your face that your prints aren't worth it or that they're too expensive and walk over to Plagiarism Booth 57 and buy unauthorised prints

Lets not wax on about this topic as some ideological plaything that only has meaningful discussion when we look at it in a vacuum

Shit like this is novel in a vacuum, but it's fucking harmful in the context of our world that you literally cannot separate yourself from

In a world literally built around content consumption and algorithmic training, how would you feel when the novelties of parameter entry completely drown you underneath the torrent of irrelevance because your heartfelt pieces get 1000 likes as opposed to an AI generated picture of Joan of Arc with some gigantic breasts (and before you say this argument is irrelevant, recommendations is literally the forefront of content consumption in the modern internet. On twitter it is topics, on YouTube it is the home page. Even if the two styles of art don't correlate, do the artists drawing pinups and other shit not deserve to have a living or st?). You might think that's funny to say, but image/art sites have already been plagued by AI art - no reason YouTube and Twitter are not steadily going down the same road.

Maybe it's not the most eloquent analogy, but we're literally saying that packet ramen is just as valuable as making it from scratch, art is difficult to define, but I won't accept that AI Art shoudl be welcomed with open arms just as the numerous artists on twitter will

The most toxic rhetoric borne out of this whole "tech fetishism" people have with AI art on tumblr right now is that to make your idea more palatable, you have to belittle hand-made art and resent artists who practice their skill as if they're the same gatekeepers like wacom and shit who make digital art equipment too expensive, or the pc manufacturers that priced lower budget pcs out of viability. There's a number of issues that are worth discussing, but nothing makes my blood boil more than people belittling the actual time and effort people put into becoming artists. That shit is not talent, it is literally a skill that those people trained for YEARS and YEARS and people are unironically arguing that society is better off if they can get it at the press of a button. NO it's not comparable to "if I had to suffer, then you do too", and no it's not like people who paid for college nad other people going for free. stop fucking saying that. That is a false equivalence that is completely tossing out an argument for the wrong reasons. Nobody is saying you have to suffer to be an artist, and I wish this stopped being used as a cudgel in this discussion. We are legit talking about practical consequences for artists both amateur (as in non-industry), and professional and how that might ruin the labour market, cause yes, WE DO HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THAT IN A PRACTICAL SENSE

I'm not saying AI Art cannot make some interesting and valuable results in every single context, just that people have to disregard the feelings of artists to actually conceive of the idea that it's not a fucking good thing when you can flood the algorithm-driven web out with generated images.

I'm not fascinated in arguing that people don't care because they are not real artists, that shit isn't productive, but nothing is more hollow than pretending you care about the virtues of art and art consumtpion then unironically shrugging at the ethical problems that exist with all the most prolific art generators and saying "but it lets me get the image I want". Do you even know how personal an artstyle that people create and the artworks they make in it can be to people? People are allowed to define their boundaries why the fuck do you think you're entitled to their discomfort as a necessary cost of the cool new thing you want to play with?

It was funny when we just did shit like Imposter in Skyrim or something with DALL-E, but now it's just spun out of control. Under the systems we live in, the corruption will invariably ruin a beautiful thing and I'm just so tired of how unserious this conversation is

[nuforge]

AI Art Is Copy and Paste

So-called "AI" art-generator tools are copy-and-paste machines. These "AI"s are "trained" on art created by real people. Yet those artists, whose work is exploited by the AI, receive no compensation, or even attribution.

This is WRONG.

And, I think, DeviantArt (which, incidentally, censors art that's actually deviant!) should make it easier for we artists to declare that we do not use AI. Also, DA should make it more obvious to have an option to say, We do not want to see AI-generated images. There is a feeling that DA has betrayed artists, regarding AI (and censorship, but that's another story).

Remember, AI, here, is not "intelligent" at anything except plagiarism: fancy copying and pasting human works.

[niqhtlord01]

Using new art for some stories.

Hello everyone :)

In the past I have used several different artists to help bring my characters to life, but do to time constraints and pricing per image I was often not able to get as many characters as I liked. Recently I have invested in an account with the AI Art tool DreamUp created by Deviant Art. The idea of AI art has been something I have followed since it started blowing up within the last year or so and I decided to take a chance with it. Now I am able to generate images that would go along with my stories to better help visualize the tale. These will be from a variety of fantasy or science fiction ideas that come to me and I hope you enjoy the results.

[cadmusfly]

Re: the DeviantArt AI art generator because I know this post isn’t going to really be read but I just have to vent:

- they state that their specific interface, DreamUp, is not actually being trained/fine tuned on images on DeviantArt, it’s using Stable Diffusion as a base which already has been trained and will not recognise the vast majority of usernames on Deviant Art

- they have two forms of opt-out: opting out of names used in prompts, and opting out of having a third party training dataset scrape the images

- the first is just with the DreamUp interface and if it’s just standard Stable, then the vast majority of names will not be recognised anyway - but if you have opted in, then the generated result will be encouraged to tag you

- the second is attaching a HTML header to say “please don’t scrape this image” and is dependent on the scraper respecting it

- technically everyone was already opted in by default due to the nature of the scraping, DeviantArt is trying to introduce tools to let people opt out

- they’ve introduced a filter that people can tag their AI art with, allowing people who don’t want to see AI art to not see it - this is great! Dependent on people tagging their works (with DreamUp automatically tagging it) and since it’s just been introduced people will need to go back and tag stuff, thoug

This seems like a good faith attempt by DeviantArt to try and address both pro AI Art people and anti AI Art people, though with varying amounts of effectiveness, but at least they’re trying something!

(Disclaimer that I’m an image synthesis enthusiast/AI artist who genuinely believes that the output of AI art is transformatively different from the millions of images inside the dataset, which were not scraped for the express purposes of “stealing art”, but I’m sympathetic to traditional artists who are worried about AI art)

[buzzlydrama]

so basically:

deviantart: bad. supports ai and nfts. eclipse layout is complete horseshit and doesn't work. not very active after the eclipse disaster. honestly the site is just shit, the staff there is shit and the only good thing is the deviant protect tool, but if that's only one positive...

furaffinity: looks like a site from 2007, pretty clunky. also it's the year 2023 and they still can't do username changes or even a blacklist. impossible to get attention unless you draw porn/fetishes.

weasyl, sofurry, furry network: who? (they're pretty dead.)

inkblot: not super active. the layout isn't the best. (also a personal problem but the site doesn't work well for me)

buzzly: great layout, great profile customization, good filtering tools, nice privacy options, but... it's pretty quiet there too. oh and the controversy too. if only people stopped bitching and realized there's a way to filter out the stuff you don't wanna see but oh well, it's just easier to cry about the content you don't wanna see rather than actually do a bit of work and use the tools available yourself... also there are sites that allow worse stuff but you guys still use those no problem so what's up with that...

what i'm saying is that buzzly could seriously be the next art site but no, it's just easier to bitch and moan about there being no good art sites instead. there are tools to make your experience pleasant! use them! don't just whine because somebody posts something you don't wanna see! block them! filter that shit out! you have the power! you just gotta stop being lazy and do something about it! it's just a bit of work but trust me, it's worth it! you can use a good site and you don't need to see the stuff you don't wanna see! it's really that simple! relive those 2010 deviantart days with your friends!

of course, knowing what some people are like, they'll just go back to twitter and moan about how there are no art sites... there are. you're just too stubborn to use them. 

[argothiathedreamer]

Ya’ll are gonna see a lot of people running around saying DeviantArt is gonna use all their users art in AI training datasets. This is incorrect, they’re actually giving everybody the option to OPT OUT of having our work used by AI Datasets without our permission. Here’s the full Journal they posted on the matter after the misunderstanding (copypasted, because let’s not forget this hellsite still hides posts with links)

DeviantArt has added new tools to help deviants opt out of their art being used for AI datasets.

DeviantArt now allows deviants to declare whether the content they publish on the platform is authorized for inclusion in third-party datasets used to train artificial-intelligence models.

DeviantArt has introduced the noai and noimageai directives to unambiguously communicate absence of such authorization. When an artist declares that their content may not be used as input to AI models, an HTML tag with the noimageai directive is placed on the page and an HTTP header with the noai directive is sent when the image is directly downloaded from DeviantArt’s servers.

In order to remain in compliance with DeviantArt's updated Terms of Service, third parties that continue to use DeviantArt-sourced content to train machine-learning models of any kind must ensure their training data set excludes all content for which either of these directives are present.

DeviantArt encourages other creator platforms to adopt this approach in order to ensure artists remain able to share their work with online audiences while retaining control over non-human usage.

IMPORTANT:

   DeviantArt did not, does not, and will not use deviations submitted to DeviantArt to add to third-party AI models or training sets, or on DreamUp itself.

   DeviantArt did not consent to third-party technology usage of images on our site, which were used to train AI models. In an effort to combat future unauthorized usage, we have enacted “noai” — an industry-first directive alerting AI models of deviants' desires to opt out.

   DeviantArt is the only platform giving creators the ability to tell third-party AI datasets and models whether or not their content can be used for training. This is a protection for creators to help them safeguard their content across the web.

   We encourage other platforms who enable creators to publish their work to implement similar protections. We are making our “noai” directive available for use by all.

It’s stupid that it’s automatically set to unchecked, but they are also literally stupid as sin, so whatever. Either way, this is the first potential way to prevent AI developers from using our artwork to train their art without permission and that’s fucking important!

As I said it seems to basically be the equivalent of yelling ‘Swiper, no swiping!’ at a real life fox that’s running off with your chicken but like DA is also a corporation, they’re not our friends and I’m not protecting them, I’m just asking for people to be more careful and not jump to conclusions. 

It’s important have all the facts before you go yelling from the rooftops otherwise people will just get scared and confused.

[novaplexx]

Supergirl, All my art is made in real-time, every pose is intentional, using AI tools and then reworking in photoshop to fine tune the image, full collection is on Deviant Arts, link in bio #digitalart #aiart #ai #supergirl

[projektimpworld]

[HS2/AI] Final Fantasy 7 ~ Jessie Rasberry

Final Fantasy series for Honey Select 2 (ハニーセレクト2 リビド) / Ai Shoujo 少女 Name : Jessie Rasberry Origin : Final Fantasy 7 Costume : Default Birthday : Unknown, Height : Unknown Character Build : Projekt IMP Build version : 1.0 Mod by : chw, Kazuo, McM82 Profile : https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jessie_Rasberry

Jessie is the mechanic of Barret's Avalanche cell, providing explosives, counterfeit IDs, and procuring other items and tools necessary for their missions. She is generally confident and upbeat, but is burdened with guilt at the devastation caused by her bombs. She tends to flirt with Cloud Strife and often teams up with him on missions. ---------- Card & Mod Pack ---------- ► Download : https://projektimp.gumroad.com/l/ucqben ► Gumroad : https://projektimp.gumroad.com/ ► Payhip : https://payhip.com/ProjektIMPWorld ►Install Note Extract Zip to your game installation folder : X:\Game\Illusion\Honey Select2\(HERE) ► Overlays Note : Load overlays manually IF needed, face, body or clothes overlays can be found at X:\Game\Illusion\Honey Select2\UserData\Overlays\IMP\(HERE) ► Gumroad download instruction : Put any amount inside "$ box" before check out. Ex : $.0 and click I Want This/Buy This. Fill the email section, fill discount code if you are a patron member, click "Get", click "View Content", Click "Download" to download your card file. ► Guide and tutorial to download and install : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ubmg-NUPaU

If you encounter any problems or have any question, feel free to reach our support. Contact Support : projektimpworld@gmail.com

---------- Social Media ---------- ► Pixiv : https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/74997946 ► Twitter : https://twitter.com/Projekt_IMP ► FB Page : https://www.facebook.com/projektimp/ ► Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjektImpWorld ► Deviant Art : https://www.deviantart.com/syncvloid ► Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/ProjektIMPworld Also Available at IG, Pinterest, Tumblr and Pawoo. Best regards, Projekt IMP 世界 Disclaimer : All character model available at Projekt IMP store are built by Projekt IMP. Projekt IMP 世界 character card store is ONLY selling base character model, not the mod. Please keep your KK manager updated. Mod creator will always mentioned at description box. Please do support Mod creator listed in the description for their awesome works. All character created in this channel is a work of  fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters,  businesses, places, events and incidents in this creation are either the  product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is  purely coincidental.

[deck16]

Using Free AI to Make Character Art for TTRPGs

I love having art for my characters in Pathfinder, D&D, and other TTRPGs. But I don't love the cost, time, and effort in finding and commissioning and artist to draw them for me.

When AI art blew up in the recent past I was intrigued, and got to seeing if I could get to draw my characters.

Turns out, it can.

Here and there I've responded to people asking about making AI art, and after some requests, I figured I'd write a little guide on how-to. Here goes…

Before we begin, I want to make a few things clear:

AI art is tricky from legal and moral points of view. But I don't think any of that applies when it comes to making art for personal use only using free open-source tools. I really don't think anyone is hurt when the created art is seen only by myself and a few fellow players. Surely it's better than stealing art from a Google Images search or by surfing around on Deviant Art, which was the old way of getting character art for personal use.

I'm not an expert on AI art. I'm only an enthused hobbyist, sharing what I've found.

This is only one way of doing things, using one particular AI tool. I'm not claiming it's the best way. It's just what I know.

This is a fairly quick, introductory guide. It'll get you started. It's up to you to carry yourself onward to more advanced results!

Notice the date of this guide (you can see it down the bottom). This guide will get outdated. The links will slowly die as websites change. I apologise if you've come to it too late for it to be useful.

All that said, let's get started.

What You Need

You need Stable Diffusion, and in particular, this distribution. Installation instructions are there for you to follow. This guide will not cover installing it. Note that you will need a fairly powerful computer.

Later on, you can worry about installing some checkpoint models and optionally some LoRA models. Those links explain what those things are, and how to install them. Good models will make better images. But if you're in a hurry, don't worry, play with the pre-installed stuff and come back later.

All of the images immediately below were generated by Stable Diffusion, but different models and prompts created wildly different styles.

I've annotated all the images in this post with what models I am using. Mouse over an image and click the "ALT" to see. It's not vital for you to use the same models or prompts as me, but if you want to, you can.

Here's a quick list of models I've used:

Comic Diffusion 2

DreamShaper

Arcane Style LoRA

Stable Diffusion 1.5

Text to Image

Fire up Stable Diffusion. Click the "txt2img" tab. In the "prompt" area, type in something like "portrait of a male dwarven axe warrior, braided beard". I did this with fully default settings and got both images below. The only difference is the model. The left image uses a model that comes with Stable Diffusion, the right comes with a downloaded model.

Notice it ignored me on a braided beard? The AI takes your prompt as a suggestion at best. You can weight prompts, read more about that here. (In fact, it's probably not a bad idea to read that whole article sometime, as prompts are important to understand.)

These images have braided beards!

Hopefully you can see what we've covered already gets you a powerful tool for making character portraits.

Image to Image

"img2img" takes an image and re-draws it artfully. This is great if you've got a rough reference of your character that you're like to render more artfully.

One such example of doing this is with HeroForge. Make your character and capture a screenshot of it. (If you don't know how to take a screenshot, do a search to find out. It's not hard.)

Put this image in "img2img". Then use a prompt as before. Below is an example with a HeroForge screenshot of the left, and some generated AI art on the right.

Be sure to tinker with the sliders "CFG Scale" and "Denoising strength". You can mouse over each in Stable Diffusion to read more. While the defaults tend to work well for "txt2img", they often need to be tweaked in "img2img".

There's no reason why you can't use an "txt2img" image as an input to "img2img". You might do this if you wanted to generate variations on the image, while keeping the same basic look and arrangement.

Improving Images: Upscale

Stable Diffusion can't generate large images. But Stable Diffusion does have an in-built tool in the "Extras" tab where you can resize images (any images, not just ones you've made in Stable Diffusion).

This upscaler does a much better job than most "dumb" image resizing tools. Be sure to actually select an upscaler (the "R-ESRGAN" ones work well), if you use "None" then you'll get awful results.

It's pretty simple to figure out. If need be, you can read about it here.

Improving Images: Mix and Match

This requires you to have an image editor like Gimp (which is free) or Photoshop, and the skills to use it. It's a technique I often use when I've feeling very fussy and want perfect results.

Using "img2img", get an image with models and prompts you feel is generate pretty good results. (You can always use an image you generated with "txt2img" as the image input for "img2img".)

Set Stable Diffusion to generate loads of images using the parameters from step 1. The outputs should all look very similar, but with different details.

Choose different images with bits you like. Find a picture that you like overall, then find picture(s) that have done certain things better. For instance, you might like the hair of one image and the eyes of another.

Get the pictures you identified in step 3 and throw them into your image editing tool.

Layer the images on top of one another. Put the "base image" that you liked overall at the bottom.

For images that are not the "base", erase everything except the part you like. Because the images are so similar, this should work well. Use a soft-edge erase for best results.

Adjust your layers and transparencies until it's just right. Then flatten the image and save it.

General Tips

Here are some general tips for generating AI art:

If you only want a portrait, only ask for a portrait. That means specifying terms like "portrait" in your prompt, and if you're using img2img only supply the portrait area. Most people wanting character art will only want a portrait, after all. The quality of faces made by AI art seems to get worse the more of the body it draws.

Use celebrities to guide facial features. Do you want a certain look for your character? Throw in the celebrity's name into the prompt. You'll often get a happy medium: an "angelina jolie half-orc" won't just be the actress with green skin, but you will get a certain resemblance. There are lots of celebrities with very striking looks, so this can work well! Can you guess the celebrities of these portraits? Click their "ALT" tag to find out!

AIs know the "Tolkein races" (humans, elves, dwarves, etc) better than obscure races like dragonborn and kenku. Semi-famously, AI sucks at centaurs. But these races aren't impossible, as shown below.

Make large batches of images. When you think you've mostly gotten the settings right, set the AI to make dozens or even hundreds of images. The only downside to doing so it that it'll take you some time to pick the best one(s)! There's a handy button to "Open images output directory" to make browsing easy.

Most importantly, fiddle and experiment. There are so many settings you can fiddle with, so many models and LoRAs you can try out, so many different ways to word your prompts. (For prompts, just Google "prompt stable diffusion" and you'll see plenty of guides and inspiration.) Never get "stuck" on a particular way of doing things: you may find better results are just a small tweak away!

[katdbee]

Even though nobody asked. The thing that I have learned the most about AI Generative Art or whatever the name is for the hell I'm doing is....

If I had to think about it...

Is that image generation can be wild and unpredictable when you dive in at first.

Be open to the results you get.

Even the horrifying ones.

Even when it's not your aesthetic preference...

because no matter how awful the result, even in failure there is a lesson learned

And ideas and characters and patterns will emerge

you will often get waifus and waifu-adjacent results

but that's just how it tends to go

although I understand the impulse, remember you aren't obligated to share every deviant thirst trap generated

don't be creepy is a good rule of thumb for life of course

because as much power AI tools give you, creating and sharing responsibly is the obligation that comes with this.

Don't be ashamed of what you create though. You have infinite possibilities ahead of you with AI-ssisted art!

And there's always going to be a distracting fight over what counts or doesn't count as "art"

But at the end of the day, my theory is all the biggest advances in art and technology come from one core motivator

h o r n y +

th i r s t y

[oopsallvulnerabilities]

I'm interested in seeing what artists would use AI tools for if there weren't a stigma against it. Anyone want to try a collab? Use a fake name if you want. Maybe use AI to make a rough then reference it? Draw a compositional sketch and have AI try to render it? Draw one piece and then variations with AI? Design a character then train an AI to render it for you? (actually seems not much different than vector animation at that point, though most AI is pretty crap at composition). Maybe get an AI to ink your pencils, or color your inks?

Just spitballing. I'm mostly a coder, and only draw at the level of the deviant art profile we have at home. My current strategy is doodling a rough to get composition in place and then image-to-image AI generation to actually make the finished thing.

[darkrubymoon]

DeviantArt violated their own policies

I find myself with a serious ethical dilemma.  I have been a member of Deviant Art since at least 2008...maybe longer.  I have 60.2K Profile Views, 70 watchers, and 554 Deviations.  I know that there are many artist here far more skilled and popular than me...I worked hard to cultivate my tiny following of loyal viewers and i have long relied on Deviant Art to reach new audience , share my meager attempts at art, and maybe make a sale or two so I can afford to buy friends and family Christmas and birthday gifts as my disability income is also very meager.  I have my calling cards, social media, all tied to my Deviant Art gallery.  I choose only to post my art on Deviant Art, because unlike other social media sites which have questionable copyright terms of service ... I trusted that my lifetime of artworks were safe on this platform.

DeviantArt violated their own policies against using artist copyright artwork without our permission and owes every single artist there for the massive theft and fraud they have purposefully committed in violation of their own policies.  DeviantArt used every single artist artwork posted there to train their new AI imaging service, then played like they cared about artist making opting into the AI art generator for new images AFTER having trained their AI on all the artwork ever posted to DeviantArt.  To be clear, not opting in for artworks to be used by DeviantArts new AI only means newly submitted art will not be used to train the AI.  Art prior to that change of policy, our entire libraries of copyright artwork were already stolen to train their AI.  The AI should be fully deleted of its entire training data and run with ONLY content approved for use with artist permission.  Additionally Deviant Art owes every artist here compensation in form of royalties of somesort for every AI image generated with their system built upon stolen artworks.  Deviant Art's Dream Up AI tool works of LAION dataset, a is Stable Diffusion engine built upon artwork stolen from the artist here on Deviant Art.

That leaves me with an impossible choice .  Delete fourteen years of my hard work on Deviant Art in protest of a company earning money from art stolen from every artist on its platform essentially destroying all our future income potential, or remain in the faint hope that at least my traditional art may be seen.  Like I said...i am not a famous artist .  Vanishing from Deviant art will not stop the theft of art through  AI technology and my disappearance is unlikely to matter to anyone but myself.  In the greater scheme of things...maybe I don't even have the right to be upset by AI as it is unlikely my artwork was ever to the level of it being used by the machine .  In any respect , I feel violated .

Honestly ...I don't know what to do and I am very upset  DA has put me in this position violating my trust and that of other artist like myself .

[forsakenoathkeeper]

I Am Alive (chapter 18/?)

Chapter 18: Heartbeat

Deviant!Connor[RK800] x (fem!)Reader Rated M(18+) for canon-typical violence and gore, medical procedures, and graphic sexual content

Chapters: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • more coming soon

Author's Notes: This chapter was inspired by this amazing mechanical heartbeat created by androidsacutemess on tumblr.

You can also read on AO3 & thank you for supporting me ♥

In engineering school, the very first thing you learned, and the most important part of your studies, was about thirium. Androids had very advanced AI; but, you didn't go to school to be a programmer. While their AI was as important as their components, it was no secret that the discovery of thirium is what allowed androids to be so highly functioning and blend in almost seamlessly with humans.

'Blue blood', as it was often referred to, did behave very similarly to human blood. While blood carried oxygen through the body, thirium carried electricity throughout the android's biocomponents. This allowed for movement and computing capacity to be higher than the average human body.

Thirium behaved very differently than electrical currents did in any other computer component. Not only did this make androids far more efficient than any computer, it allowed them to maintain their internal temperatures and withstand harsher environments far more efficiently. It also made them waterproof and far more shock absorbent.

Of course, for thirium to flow, there needed to be components to accomplish that.

The thirium pump was essentially a heart when compared to human anatomy. It didn't expand and shrink like a human heart, but it moved thirium throughout an android's body, suctioning through and pushing along, like the name implied. It was located in the dead center of the chest.

The thirium pump required a thirium pump regulator to function. Again, the purpose could be taken literally. Since the pump didn't shrink and expand to move thirium, it needed another part to regulate the eb and flow. The regulator was in the abdomen, typically right above the belly button.

Androids, too, had a heartbeat.

It wasn't loud enough to be heard by the human ear. It wasn't technically even a heartbeat, nor could it be classified as a sound. It was a vibration generated as the result of the thirium pump syncing with the regulator.

It was a mechanical thrum that echoed in their chassis, so long as one had the proper tools to listen.

You had heard it when going through school, only once or twice; back then, it was typical to just replace pumps and regulators instead of actively trying to troubleshoot any issues that arose with those parts.

These days, they were too scarce to be wasteful. You and your coworkers had worked feverishly to get the higher ups to approve thirium pump stethoscopes.

Finally, after months of insistent whining to the higher ups, the approval came in, and your first batch of thirium pump monitors arrived. The excitement in the office that day was comparable to Christmas at an orphanage.

You were on thirium transplants for the day, and didn't get the chance to use one. That didn't stop you from snatching one to bring home, seeing as you had a gorgeous guinea pig waiting to be tested on.

Connor was sitting at the couch, staring blindly ahead when you came scurrying in from the elevator. He didn't get a chance to elaborate to whether he was reading, watching a movie, going over a case, or browsing the internet, before you dashed over to him.

"Check this out," you cheered, dropping your bag on the floor and plopping down next to him. You held the device up excitedly.

"We've been asking for these since the clinic opened," you explained, not bothering to mask how excited you were. "The sound can help diagnose a lot of issues with the heart. We can repair them instead of having to replace them."

"It can translate the vibration, resulted by the pump and regulator syncing, into sound," Connor stated, clearly reading off search results.

"You've never seen one before?" you asked, surprised that he hadn't immediately known what it was.

He shook his head a little. "You were the first outside of Cyberlife's facilities to repair me."

"Oh. That's right - they use those chambers," you stated, recalling seeing them briefly in school. Of course, you never worked for Cyberlife, and never got to operate one. They were state of the art and incredibly expensive. You only ever worked for places that did it the old-fashioned way.

"Can I test it on you?" you asked Connor, beaming with excitement.

Connor tilted his head a little, sincerely intrigued by how much this interested you.

"Yes," he answered with a small smile, rotating towards you, eager to please.

With an excited grin, you lifted the earbuds and tucked them into your ears. You lifted the opposite end. It was rounded and metallic, like any ordinary stethoscope; however, seeing as it was designed by Cyberlife, it had their distinctive color pattern: a ring around the edge that would light up when met with android skin, much like factory issued uniforms.

You pressed it against Connor's chest and frowned at the silence you were met with. Then, you remembered, you needed direct skin contact.

You let go of the drum, letting it droop between you and Connor's chests as you undid the top two buttons on his shirt. He had already discarded his tie before your arrival. He was still, looking down at you curiously. You gently pressed the metallic circle over his chest, on his bare skin, right where his pump was tucked into his chassis.

Connor's android skin responded to the device, the human skin tone fading away to expose the pale white shell beneath. The ring around the edge of the stethoscope responded to the interface and lit up in Cyberlife's standard, bright blue LED.

Then, you heard it, the sound immediately feeding through the earbuds.

It sounded much like a regular heartbeat in the way that it thumped. But, it was so unmistakably android in nature. The pulse was metallic and the following echo was like tossing a ring into an empty, steel room. The thrum was soft and drawled out in a hypnotic echo.

It was beautiful.

You closed your eyes and focused on the sound. Connor stared at your face, at the peaceful expression you were making, baffled as to why you found this so interesting. It was just a vibration resulting in two of his biocomponents syncing properly. It meant he was functioning.

It meant he was-

-alive.

Oh.

You felt Connor shift slightly and felt his lips fall onto your forehead. A small sound escaped you at the touch. You tilted your head up, lips parting, beckoning, pleading. It didn't take him long to notice and he leaned down to capture your mouth carefully.

You kissed softly while you continued to listen to the sound. Your fingers slid past the grip on the edge of the drum and touched his bare skin. The contrast between the cold ring and your warm fingers startled him a little. The temperature readings on his skin used to be impervious. After so many nights nuzzled against your warm body, he began to slowly understand what cold felt like.

Connor leaned back a little, parting from the kiss, and lifted one of his hands. He showed it to you, his eyes questioning. With a smile, you took it with your free hand and brought it in, placing it on your chest.

He couldn't quite feel it through your shirt and carefully, slowly, pushed back the hem of your collar to settle his palm over the skin that covered where your heart rested. His hand was large, palm heavy over your chest and fingers extending across our clavicle.

But, of course, as always, Connor's touch was gentle. He kept his eyes locked on yours; but, as he focused on the feeling beneath his palm, his gaze glossed over.

Your heart was thumping against his palm, barely protected by your skin and bones. He pressed a little harder and could feel it thundering away inside you, as if it was threatening to break free.

You breathed a content sigh before seeking out his mouth once more. You intentionally pressed a kiss against his chin to stir him, enjoying the prickly feel of fine facial hair. He tilted his head down and captured your mouth properly and you couldn't resist briefly smirking against his mouth triumphantly.

He kissed you a little more hungrily than he did a moment ago. His thirium pump maintained the same pace because it was a perfectly functioning piece of mechanical equipment; your heart, however, flawed and soft, started to beat faster and faster the more and more he kissed you.

He liked to analyze you when you shared moments like this. It was as close as he could get to interfacing with you. He always felt your heartbeat, monitored the rhythm with fascination. This, however, was different: rather than monitoring it, he felt it physically, so closely against his skin, almost close enough to wrap his palm around it.

With that thought, Connor carefully pulled his hand back and shifted away from the kiss. You didn't miss the expression he was wearing, like he had done something wrong. You slid the drum away from Connor's chest and removed the earbuds out of your ears.

"Are you okay?" you asked him quietly.

"I like the way your heartbeat feels," he admitted quietly.

"Okay," you breathed, clearly pleased with this information.

"I was afraid I might... hurt you," he continued in a whisper, as if he didn't want you to hear him.

"You've never hurt me," you retorted gently.

"I'm so much stronger than you," Connor said lowly, a warning.

"I know," you replied immediately, as if it was hardly a thing to be concerned about. It was unspoken, but the android could hear the implication that you liked it that way.

Connor found his lip twitching, despite himself. He was so much more powerful than you; yet, he felt so helpless against you. You, who was enamored with a sound produced by his biocomponents, something so simple and unimportant to anyone else. You, who never questioned the feelings of an android, of any android for that matter.

"I love you," he uttered, a bold smile gracing his lips, like he had found some secret treasure and was finally able to flaunt it about.

"I love you, too," you replied, leaning over so you could set the thirium pump monitoring device on the side table perched at the couch's armrest.

The android didn't bother hesitating to make his intentions known, taking hold of your waist and pulling you into his lap. You followed reluctantly, slotting into the space above him. Your scrubs were not designed to move this way and pinched at your skin in protest.

With a grumble, you pushed off of Connor and rose to your feet, grinning at the adorable pout he gave you.

"You're insatiable," you teased, feeling beautiful, powerful in the smoldering gaze of his brown eyes, normally so kind, so innocent, now shiny with lust. "I just did a full shift. I've gotta be smelling terrible," you challenged. "Like sweat and thirium."

"It doesn't bother me," Connor retorted sincerely.

"You sure you don't want me to shower first?" you offered softly. However, despite that weak protest, you started undressing.

"I'm just going to get you dirty again," the android replied in a manner that was illegally innocent, considering his polite tone and soft gaze. You wanted to smack it off his perfect, freckled face.

Your scrubs gathered in a pile, and your undershirt followed. You briefly debated if your underwear should remain on as something for him to aspire to remove. However, Connor looked tense where he was seated. His gaze was smoldering and his hands were clenched tightly at his lap, rousing his pants a little.

You couldn't help but flush at that look. This was hardly your first rodeo together; yet, Connor stared at you as if he had not mapped out every inch of you with his tongue, as if your body was some unexplored territory. You almost couldn't believe he had yet to grow bored of you, even a little bit. The tent he was pitching against his zipper looked almost painful; yet, he seemed too focused on you to notice.

-and so, your bra and underwear joined the pile of clothes on the floor and you sauntered over to the android.

When you were in reach, his arms extended and he gripped your waist, pulling you onto him. Your thighs slid onto the couch, on either side of his lap, and your chest fell against his. You giggled like a schoolgirl and received a proud grin from the android.

"Are you certain you are not sore from the other night?" Connor uttered, his prideful expression morphing into sincere concern.

Again, he looked far too innocent asking that question, especially considering any damage would have been entirely of his own making.

You started fumbling with his belt buckle, wanting to ease the tension he was clearly ignoring. "No," you replied sweetly, more focused on the task at hand, trying to pull his belt through the loops.

Connor lifted his hips to aid you, and you dropped his belt unceremoniously onto the floor. He busied his hands with his shirt and had the rest of the buttons undone before you could free his cock from his boxers. The expansion of his torso came into view and, as always, you were infatuated with the sight.

He visibly shuddered when you stroked him, as if he hasn't just been inside you a little over a day ago. You ducked your head down to nip kisses along his freckled neck, sliding your free hand along the newly exposed skin of his chest and tummy. He hummed approvingly, the sound breaking off into a hiss when you bit down on his throat. It didn't hurt, of course; but, the sensation set off unique touch receptors.

You intended to shimmy to the ground and take him in your mouth; however, he seemed to forego asking for permission, which seemed fitting seeing as you had, and reached behind you. You gasped when one of his fingers dipped into your folds and immediately found your entrance.

He nudged teasingly, gathering moisture. He liked the way you puffed out weak noises in response to his touches. Your hand was still wrapped around his cock, but had stopped moving. The android didn't mind, rather pleased with himself that he could distract you so thoroughly.

You were locked in his inquisitive gaze. He seemed to be enjoying the way your face would contort in pleasure or frustration, depending on the way he touched your sex. You seemed to like when he circled your entrance, and expressed annoyance when he barely breached the muscle.

"Damn it, Connor," you hissed out after, perhaps, the fourth time he had done it.

You caught the sight of a diabolical grin before he finally buried his middle finger in your heat and drove it into you at an unhurried pace, his knuckles brushing your folds with each movement. Revitalized, you began stroking him again.

He dipped his head down to take your mouth, surprising you when he did so with his teeth. It was downright improper; yet, his creativity was definitely doing something to you. As if he read your mind, he touched you in new place. You felt his thumb brush against... well... your other hole, and flinched dramatically.

Connor froze up as if he had something wrong. The expression he wore, like he was caught stealing from a cookie jar, sobered you.

"You're naughty, Connor," you teased, giving him a faint smirk. He seemed to calm him down by the sound of your light tone, and his panicked eyes relaxed.

"I'm... sorry?" he suggested. "I thought you might like that."

"I didn't say I didn't," you retorted. He blinked slowly, brown eyes curious. Even if his LED wasn't swirling bright yellow, you could have easily seen he was contemplating. Somehow, you doubted that was the entirety of it. He likely touched you there to soothe his curiosity, as well.

Before he could do it again, you reached behind yourself and pushed against his wrist until he let you go and reluctantly placed that hand on your outer thigh. "It distracted me," you explained teasingly. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

The corner of his mouth twitched, and you had the suspicion that Connor liked being in charge and wanted to protest; but, he didn't. You started stroking him again, with more fervor than before, and earned a startled, throaty moan from the android.

You were stroking him with enough vigor to be pleasurable, and you weren't necessarily being teasing or cruel; but, it wasn't good enough. He wanted more. He wanted to be within the apex of your thighs, to claim the tight heat of your core. Nothing could compare to what it was like, being inside you.

Connor huffed and let his head fall back. He was tall enough that his head drooped over the back of the couch. "No more," he argued softly, though he put up no effort to stop you.

You continued without pause, sincerely enjoying this. He looked gorgeous, neck muscles and shoulders tense, LED a brilliant shade of red, eyes half-lidded with pleasure and teeth occasionally poking out to bite his bottom lip.

"Stop... that..." he uttered, once again making no effort to stop you. His hands were digging into your thighs, fingers twitching in sync with the obscene movement of your hand.

His tip startled to dribble lubricant, a clear indication that he had had it with your touching and wanted something more feral. It aided in your gesture and created obscene, fleshy sounds that echoed around the living room.

Then, suddenly, Connor's head snapped up and his eyes focused on you. The ravenous look he was making sparked a brilliant flame inside you. He dared to settle a glare on you, moving in so close that his exhaust huffed out of his mouth and warmed the skin of your lips.

"I want to be inside you," he declared lowly, almost growling. It wasn't a question or a request. Connor was polite most of the time; but, this sounded quite like a demand, or a warning, that shouldn't go without answer.

Your hand stopped moving and you melted against him, practically purring, "f-fuck."

He didn't have to move you himself. You braced your hands on his shoulders and maneuvered forward, folds sliding along his length. You shifted your hips until his tip breached your entrance and you sank down, impaling yourself on him with abandon.

You took him in just a little too quickly and whined at the pressure. You hoped, prayed, that would never change - that you would never grow so accustomed to him that you didn't burn for just a moment when he breached you again. You wanted to always feel that ache, that brief moment of blossoming pain that reminded you he was inside you.

"Are you okay?" Connor huffed out, lips parted and eyes taking you in with concern.

"That was so hot," you uttered dumbly, seeking out his mouth immediately upon uttering that confession. He moaned against your kiss, pleased to know that something selfish that rolled off his tongue in a moment of desperation aroused you so much.

Your hands lifted from his shoulders and caressed his jaw. You pulled back from his mouth with a wet sound, but remained close, panting onto his cheeks. You began rolling your hips, seeking out friction. It buried him deep and touched places that you knew no one else would ever reach.

"Ohh," you whined, head lulling back and arms wrapping around his shoulders. Connor was still, staring at you in awe and wonder as you humped him more so than any other action that could possibly describe what was occurring.

This didn't give him the friction that he wanted; but, he was shamelessly proud of how pleased you looked, rolling your hips above him in such a way, using him for your own pleasure. For now, he let you.

Your head fell forward, eyes still closed, and your forehead knocked against his, whimpering pathetically as you tried to seek completion on your own. It became clear by your furrowed brown and tight lips that you needed more.

The android endured as long as he could, feeling you tremble helplessly against him, moving your hips desperately, before he decided to take over. His hands planted themselves on your waist and lifted you up just enough that he could lift his hips and fuck up into you. He willed himself to have at least the faintest bit of self-control and not spear you senselessly, settling on a steady rhythm.

You gasped, hands rising to drag through his hair. Connor moaned approvingly, leaning in to kiss you again. Blissed out, you barely reciprocated; he gave up after a few seconds and leaned back to look at you. Your eyes fluttered open and you looked at him with a debauched expression, lips parted and cheeks stained red.

He bent you back carefully, slowly, judging the expression on your face to ensure he didn't hurt you, until you were arched enough that he could dip his head down and press his cheek against your chest. Your hands were still tangled in his hair, one lowering to the back of his neck to hug him against you.

Your heart was thundering away inside you, delicate, yet fierce. He swelled with pride at the knowledge that he had done that. One of his hands dragged up your back to grip the back of your head, holding it gently to compensate for the awkward position he put you in. His pace quickened slightly, fucking up into you eagerly.

"W-wait," you whined, hands releasing Connor's head to push at his shoulders. He obeyed, leaning back with a huff, hands releasing you. He watched intensely as your trembling hands grabbed at the side table and returned the stethoscope's buds to your ears.

As it did before, his skin that touched the drum faded away to expose the pale white beneath, interfacing with the device. Connor's pace quickened when he saw the blissed out face you made when you heard it: his heartbeat. The intervals were faster now and the humming was louder. It was almost deafening. The pulse-like rhythm was vibrating, rattling, mechanical and yet so human-like at the same time.

He didn't intend to; but, when your eyes landed on his, you looked so pleased by this sound, like nothing in the world was ever as beautiful. It was mundane to him, until he considered the beauty he found in your heartbeat, and understood what you desired in the sound produced by his biocomponents.

Your tantalizing gaze struck a match inside him.

Connor arched his back against the couch, eyes fluttering shut. "Ah-" was how his moan started, fading away into a low rumble in his chest, faint static bleeding through. He continued thrusting up into you until the pressure died down and his orgasm subsided.

You didn't seem at all perturbed when his fluttered open and looked up at you; Connor, however, looked regrettable. You removed the earbuds and set the device aside again, leaning into him until your chests were smooshed together. You were so warm against his cold skin.

"You didn't..." he uttered lowly, ashamed.

"So?" you huffed, sounding breathless and content. You were wearing a blissful expression, seemingly pleased, despite his obvious failure.

He looked like a wounded puppy. "Connor, seriously, you're overthinking this," you scolded him softly, trying to ease the troubled look he was wearing. "I don't have to cum to enjoy sex."

"I should have been more attentative," he argued gently.

"You are," you breathed, leaning down to place a gentle bite on his nose. When you leaned back, you couldn't hold back a laugh at the perturbed look he gave you.

"Perhaps, it's the couch," the android suggested quietly, as if he was talking to himself. "May we continue this in the bedroom?"

-and, just like that, he was talking like that again.

"Connor-" you scolded, his name breaking off into a squeal when his hands gripped you beneath your thighs, hoisted your legs up higher on his waist, and rose to his feet, effortlessly carrying you through the house.

Your back hit the bed and he followed, carefully landing on top of you. You huffed out a weak breath, head falling back to smack against the sheets. He managed to stay inside you during that tread through the house, and you were blatantly aware of the fact that he was still hard.

"I've created a monster," you uttered, digging the meat of your palms into your eyes with a groan. The android planted his elbows on the sheets beside you, looming over you possessively.

"We can stop?" he offered, sounding sincere.

You removed your hands from your face and looked up at him. His hair was an absolute mess and his cheeks and the tops of his ears were tinted red. The halo on his temple was stuttering between blue and yellow. His eyes were taking you in as if nothing else in the world mattered in that moment.

You were quiet, counting the freckles on his face.

One... two... nine... wait, did you count that one already? ...fourteen...

"Not yet," you uttered softly, arms winding above his shoulders.

His cock throbbed inside you, and you hissed in response. "You can... move," you uttered softly, forced to pause halfway through when the android dipped his head down to capture your lips momentarily, parting when you with a wet smack.

Despite your request, the android peeled himself off of you to quickly discard of the rest of his clothes. You watched without shame and he maintained eye contact, seemingly pleased that you were watching.

Before slotting himself back into the space above you, he tugged you closer to the center of the bed, moving you around like you weighed nothing. Connor rolled his hips slowly, thrusting into you at a leisurely pace. You hummed approvingly, keeping your eyes locked on his.

His freckles were beautiful, giving something much softer to an otherwise masculine face. They were, easily, one of your favorite features on his physical form. But, there existed some part of him that you had longed to see, something beneath the surface that you had seen glimpses of when the moment allowed: his hand, his tummy... You wanted to see it all.

It was typically performed by the android themselves; however, you knew a trick that could force an android's system response externally.

"Please... tell me if you don't like this," you softly uttered as a warning.

You reached up with one hand and cupped his jaw, finger curling behind his ear to prod at his access release. Your other hand reached for his temple. You waited for a moment, staring up into Connor's beautiful, brown eyes.

He knew damn well what you were doing; but, he made no motion to stop you, no protest on his lips. You pressed one finger on the release behind his ear, while the other traced a seemingly harmless pattern around his LED.

Connor's brow furrowed and his lip tightened, confused as to why you wanted this.

You smiled as his artificial human skin slowly deactivated, starting at his temple and spreading across every inch of his body. The beautiful brown color in his synthetic hairs faded away, creamy skin and freckles all disappeared, exposing pale white plastic from head to toe.

The lines between the panels of his skin were exposed, each shell outlines neatly, showing the arrangement of his physical shape. The android had stopped moving and was staring down at you with nervous eyes, sincerely confused as to why you would deactivate his skin .

"I love your human skin, Connor," you said softly. "But, right now, I want to see the android."

He looked down at you uneasily, as if he wasn't allowed to. His brown eyes remained ever the same, expressive and lovely.

"You're beautiful like this, too," you breathed, hands cupping either side of his face, touching the smooth, plastic plains that made up his skin - his real skin.

He seemed perplexed for a moment, that you would want to see him like this. When your expression of pure delight didn't falter, he leaned in to press a kiss against your cheek before slotting over your mouth. He was unmoving for a bit longer, kissing you gently, perhaps to ease his own anxiety. Eventually, he leaned back and starting rolling his hips again.

You pulled back after a few sloppy kisses and took in the sight of him. He was still undeniably RK800: defined jaw, cute nose, high cheek bones, indent in his chin. His lips were still very kissable, even without his human skin. His brown eyes were ever vibrant, full of life, staring at you so helplessly enamored.

"You're so beautiful, Connor," you continued, voice faltering a little when he picked up the pace.

His arms swept beneath you to wrap around your back and bring you in close, cradling you against him. His biceps came down on either side of you, caging you in pale white plastic. Perhaps, that shouldn't have been alluring in the slightest; but, this was what was real, what he was made of: of plastic and metal and thirium and computer chips.

But, of course, he was more than that: he was this magnificent being that surpassed all expectations of what he was made to be, constantly questioned and challenged what he was capable of. He was more alive than any other man you had been with before.

The android leaned in and pressed his forehead against yours. This close, you could feel his thirium regulator humming through his shell and against your tummy. The look in his eyes was desperate, pleading for more, for you to continue singing praise.

"You make me feel so good," you continued in harsh whispers.

His eyes fluttered shut and he let out a weak moan. You hiked your legs up higher on his waist, heels digging into his lower back. Perhaps unaware, Connor set a brutal pace. You could have slapped yourself for not realizing sooner that he liked to be praised.

"No one - had ever m-made me feel this - this good before," you panted out, struggling to speak properly when he was moving like that. His LED was spinning, alternating gold and crimson. "-n-no man-" you added on with a harsh stutter, breaking off into a cry when he landed a particularly harsh thrust.

"-t-think about you all - the - the time," you continued, stammering away breathlessly, huffing out air between each shift of his hips. "-a-always want you. W-with me... i-inside me-" you cut yourself off when Connor groaned into your throat, the sound mingled with the output of his vocal unit and become distorted faintly.

"-love you s-so-" you whimpered, nails biting into the plains of his back. Your legs tightened around his waist, heels digging into his lower back and thighs squeezing his waist. Connor's arms were practically crushing you against his torso, not that you could bring yourself to mind in that moment.

That tightness in your abdomen was blossoming again, coming on so strong that it was making you dizzy. Maybe, it wasn't just Connor that liked praise. But, you liked to sing it for him.

"You're so-" you breathed, trailing off as you pondered what to tell him. "-perfect," and meant it.

You felt Connor's teeth latch onto your throat. He was being too rough and was likely going to leave behind a hickey, though you doubted it was on purpose. He seemed lost in the moment, rocking into you at a pace that made the bed tremble beneath you.

In that moment, you couldn't bring yourself to care of what blemishes might taint your skin. Part of you wanted it, that his eyes may fall on it and swell with pride at the knowledge that you were his beyond sense and reason.

"I don't d-deserv-" you panted out.

Connor silenced that claim, his mouth hastily letting go of the skin of your neck and rising to your ear. "-you do," he uttered harshly, breathing hot exhaust all over your skin. As always, he managed to maintain a smooth rhythm with hips while sounding so utterly debauched. "-m yours, and you’re mine. Please," he added on, hands gripping you tightly, practically yanking your body against his hips to spear you on his cock.

He didn't have to say please.

You were already lost.

"-'m cumming!" you cried out, body trembling from head to toe and eyes fluttering shut. "Connor!" With that scream, pleasure blossomed in your core, sending delicious tingles all across your body.

You felt more so than heard him reach his own apex. His hips began to stutter, his flawless rhythm finally faltering. You felt his thirium pump regulator whirling, buzzing where it touched your skin with the barrier of his own skin. His moans faded into static and then drawled out into silence.

You were panting pitifully, skin sweaty, legs sore, and core tired but so deliciously satiated. Connor felt warm above you, stiff and otherwise quiet if not for the soft way air puffed out of his mouth, the heat from his processors draining steadily.

He carefully detached himself from you, looking over your thoroughly debauched form with pride. Your sweat was sticking to his skin and his cock and sack was thoroughly soaked with your essence. Yet, he had no desire to immediately clean himself up. It could wait.

Connor hadn't immediately realized he was still hovering above you, trapping you against the bed, until he saw the way you looked up at him with a silent plea. He rolled over and let you shimmy over to the bathroom to clean up.

When you returned, you were surprised to see Connor had not activated his skin yet. He was sitting patiently, completely nude, in both meanings of the word, and was watching you carefully, as if he was waiting for you to return, his calves tangled in the sheets.

You couldn't resist a smile, wondering if he was doing that for you.

Even like this, factory white, one of the most obvious human features wiped away, you could easily spot him a crowd. His posture was enough of a giveaway: so polite, yet tall, proud, and commanding. But, then, there was his eyes. No one wore brown eyes as beautifully as Connor did. They were expressive, even when he wasn't trying.

His frame was lean, designed to be agile, but had a weight to it that warned you of the great power he could exert if he chose to do so. His fingers were long and flexible, now resting patiently on his lap.

"Thank you for letting me see," you uttered, taking a seat beside him.

"I... didn't realize you wanted to see," he replied softly.

"You can reactivate your skin if you don't like it like this?" you offered, letting your hand wander along the planes of his chest, fingertips trailing the lines where the segments of his skin plates separated.

His design was clearly in anticipation for many damages. He had more segments than any other android you had seen before: multiple pieces along the chest, a handful on the shoulder alone, and a unique assortment along the neck and throat.

He could likely endure more than most androids, could carry on until he was in literal pieces. The thought was almost frightening, what would have become if he had not deviated.

"I'm sorry," you uttered shamefully, ripping your hand away from him. "I'm ogling you like-... like I own you."

Connor quickly reached for that hand, grasped it, and returned it to the place you had just been touching. "I don't see it that way," he retorted. "I know what I was made for. I'm happy that you find my design attractive."

"Am I even allowed to, Connor?" you asked, avoiding his gaze.

"Is it shameful to appreciate a human who is aesthetically pleasing?" he offered, tilting his head a little. Before you could answer, he continued. "Does it make you uncomfortable that I stare at you?"

You whipped your head up to look at him. His soft expression was loud and his hand was still holding yours against his chest. You? Aesthetically pleasing? The suggestion sounded absurd to your ears. But, to Connor, you were the most beautiful human he had ever laid his eyes on.

"I don't - that's not the same thing," you argued.

"Why?" he challenged. You flapped your mouth uselessly. "Because I was made?" he continued. "-and you were born?" Even though he was speaking softly, his words shot through you like a bullet.

"I suppose so," you replied helplessly.

Connor didn't seem bothered by your words. "I don't care," he proclaimed proudly, letting a smirk fall on his pale lips. "If I am allowed to look at you, then I want you to look at me, too." He lifted the hand he was still holding and placed it against his temple. "Especially when you like the way I look. Please, don't stop looking at me."

There was something unspoken in his words: don't look at anyone else.

You huffed out a weak breath. "As long as you want me to."

"I do," he replied, bringing his own hands to your waist to tug you into the bed. He maneuvered you over so that your head rested on your pillow and you were laying flat on your back.

"I still need to brush my teeth, Connor," you protested weakly.

"In a moment," he stated in more of a requesting tone than a demanding one.

When you didn't protest, he carefully laid his cheek on your chest. The rest of his body followed, halfway on top of you, legs tangled, carefully slotting over you in a manner that would be comfortable. You brushed his hair aside with one hand and caressed his shoulder with the other, mindlessly tracing the outlines of his android skin.

Your chest rose and fell with each breath, moving his head along with it. The expansion and deflation of your lungs was autonomous; yet, the strength in that function still amazed him. Your heart hummed softly in your chest, and he could feel it, so close to his own skin and hear it thundering away, separated by mere inches of flesh.

He understood why you enjoyed the sound produced by his thirium pump.

A heartbeat was a truly beautiful thing.