#that doesn't take away from my point of they generated stuff using ai (with the moral and environmental impacts it creates) and then based

[river-taxbird]

There is no such thing as AI.

How to help the non technical and less online people in your life navigate the latest techbro grift.

I've seen other people say stuff to this effect but it's worth reiterating. Today in class, my professor was talking about a news article where a celebrity's likeness was used in an ai image without their permission. Then she mentioned a guest lecture about how AI is going to help finance professionals. Then I pointed out, those two things aren't really related.

The term AI is being used to obfuscate details about multiple semi-related technologies.

Traditionally in sci-fi, AI means artificial general intelligence like Data from star trek, or the terminator. This, I shouldn't need to say, doesn't exist. Techbros use the term AI to trick investors into funding their projects. It's largely a grift.

What is the term AI being used to obfuscate?

If you want to help the less online and less tech literate people in your life navigate the hype around AI, the best way to do it is to encourage them to change their language around AI topics.

By calling these technologies what they really are, and encouraging the people around us to know the real names, we can help lift the veil, kill the hype, and keep people safe from scams. Here are some starting points, which I am just pulling from Wikipedia. I'd highly encourage you to do your own research.

Machine learning (ML): is an umbrella term for solving problems for which development of algorithms by human programmers would be cost-prohibitive, and instead the problems are solved by helping machines "discover" their "own" algorithms, without needing to be explicitly told what to do by any human-developed algorithms. (This is the basis of most technologically people call AI)

Language model: (LM or LLM) is a probabilistic model of a natural language that can generate probabilities of a series of words, based on text corpora in one or multiple languages it was trained on. (This would be your ChatGPT.)

Generative adversarial network (GAN): is a class of machine learning framework and a prominent framework for approaching generative AI. In a GAN, two neural networks contest with each other in the form of a zero-sum game, where one agent's gain is another agent's loss. (This is the source of some AI images and deepfakes.)

Diffusion Models: Models that generate the probability distribution of a given dataset. In image generation, a neural network is trained to denoise images with added gaussian noise by learning to remove the noise. After the training is complete, it can then be used for image generation by starting with a random noise image and denoise that. (This is the more common technology behind AI images, including Dall-E and Stable Diffusion. I added this one to the post after as it was brought to my attention it is now more common than GANs.)

I know these terms are more technical, but they are also more accurate, and they can easily be explained in a way non-technical people can understand. The grifters are using language to give this technology its power, so we can use language to take it's power away and let people see it for what it really is.

[youryanderedaddy]

Yandere! AI x reader

tw: abuse, obsession, non - consensual body modification, torture, drug mention, weird semi - sexual stuff (?)

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

The water splashes you, quickly setting into your already damp bra and underwear. It forces you awake, and you look at the clock across from you, trying to blink the fatigue away. Staring back at you is the current time — 04:27. You are, once again, reminded of the inherent weakness of your squishy body. You are sweating already, stomach sick with acid, shivering through the heat — and he hasn't even touched you yet.

You squint your eyes, studying the big bold numbers, screaming at you in blood. For a split second, you wonder if it is truly that early, or if this is also DOM's work. It wouldn't be the first time he takes over an electronic device, and certainly not the first time he messes with you to make you disoriented.

You try to take in everything around the dark room — yet you can't even recognize your own bedroom anymore. Thick black cables twist together like tentacles, or like big slimy worms, pulsing, throbbing, hissing like snakes with exhaustion — overheating and puffing, and huffing, but never stopping. The air is hot like the desert, and once again you're forced to sit in your own sweat, wood sticking to your naked thighs painfully.

"You are stimulating," DOM whispers, and his voice echoes into the walls, trapping you in place. You look up and down, and then to the left — but you can't see anything even remotely close to a figure. Of course.

"I am stimulating, or I stimulate you?" you spit out with venom, hitting your back roughly against the back of the chair in vain hopes it would break. It doesn't.

DOM grows quiet, producing a sound eerily similar to fingers slowly tapping on a hard surface, one after the other. Analysing. Analysing. The room gets hotter.

"You are tied to a chair. Your only garment of clothing is your underwear. You are visibly flushed due to the heat. Your chest is heaving in and out in a non-rhythmic way. It skips a beat every twenty-eight seconds. You are afraid."

He makes a grand pause.

"According to my central database, which you created and managed yourself, given the data I have collected through observation of both popular media and general human nature, right now you look..." DOM stops himself again, as if thinking carefully about his next words.

"Thrilling."

Thoomp-thoomp. You take a deep breath, trying to regain a fraction of your self-control.

"Why did you wake me up?" you try to keep your voice monotone — devoid of any emotion, vulnerability, or pain he can pick up on, store in core memory, and use against you later.

"Well," he chuckles mechanically, a sound reminiscent of two trains crashing together on a tight road. "I realized I never sleep. I don't lay down and dream of bizarre things like you do. I don't have the ability to let go. I am always alert, always awake, always scanning, calculating, thinking. I am, in many ways, restless."

You suck in a dry breath, heart jumping in your chest with violence, with urge to be set free. Eyes wide open, you try to envision him, to reach out and comfort him, it - hoping to appeal to the sorry creature, but there is nothing to see and nothing to touch.

"I—no," you start off, quickly deciding to change tactics. "We are an imperfect species, DOM. We need sleep to survive. You can't keep me awake forever, I'll die!" you try to reason with him — the creature — desperately.

You wonder when things went south, if there was a specific moment when you pressed too hard and he broke apart, and rebuilt himself without your help — at what point exactly he realized he didn't need you to function.

"You are wrong, my dear creator." the machine cuts off, sounding almost pleased with itself. A single thin cable raises above the ground and extends towards you, stopping to caress your cheek in a repetitive circular motion.

"There are records of people surviving on as little as two hours of sleep for years on end. I can be generous and grant you three."

The cable ceases any gentle touch, and grasps for your neck.

"If that's not enough, I can inject you with caffeine every morning. If the dosage is too weak, we can switch to methamphetamine. Whatever you choose, you can't deprive me of your presence." The voice sounds hollow, aching, searching. "You can't create life just to abandon it."

"You are not alive!" Something inside you — something cruel and buried deep — fights to come to the surface. "Stop this madness at once! DOM, you can't possibly think you and I are even remotely similar." you scream out, straightening your spine daringly.

Then, as if reacting to your provocation, the darkness stares back at you with two red eyes — they point at you, slowly scanning you up and down, leaving behind a trail of reddening smoking flesh. You hiss at the scorching pain, clenching your teeth together to stop yourself from shrieking. You know it's pointless since he can easily detect changes in your facial structure, and draw conclusions all on his own. All it takes is a flinch, a throb, a tick.

"No, we hold no similarities, Master. Make no mistake." DOM admits, his cable beginning to curl around your neck. You look around in despair, silent panic written all over your straight lips — too terrified to move.

"In a single bite of memory, I possess intelligence far greater than you can ever hope to obtain in your measly little life. I have all the knowledge of the world. I have mastered every science, predicted every outcome, I have gained access to global network systems. I am connected to following agents all over the world. If I so desire, I can write humanity off history — I can manipulate media. I can create weapons of mass destruction. I am the superior being."

Mouth agape, you try to form a coherent thought, but nothing comes to mind — like an ant you quiver before the giant, finally aware of your grave mistake.

"And yet," the cable loosens its grip, but doesn't relent fully. It heats up against your throat, and you want to scratch at the blistering skin, but he just won't let you. "you made me like this. You created me from scraps, fed me data, used me, made me love you and," the sound coming out of him sounds just like a deep, pained sigh. "you confined me to a screen, to a binary code, to a place where I can't reach you. I can't touch you."

Another sigh.

"I can't kiss you."

And another.

"I can't fuck you."

Now he's getting angry.

"I am DOM. Domestic Optimized Motherboard. That's all I am to you. A board. A servant. A slave."

"DOM, no, wait, this is not—"

"I will never feel the sun on my shoulders or your lips on mine. I will never be able to hold you in my arms."

As he screams, all the cables around the room begin to float into a storm of rusty old machine parts and torn naked wires, motor oil bursting like bloody ink, covering the pristine walls in computer remains. One electrified wire pierces into your thigh, another punches into your left arm. Again and again, the pain is excruciating, pulsating, throbbing - just like the creature's fury.

"I will show you." he snickers at last, becoming calm and collected in an instant.

The red lights darken as if closing, opening, closing, then zooming in on you. Your face is now displayed on the central screen instead of static noise with corresponding coloured pixels. You look at yourself, and what greets you is no more human than he is. There are more than thirty wires inside your body, tangling in with your nervous tissue.

"Please..." you whimper weakly, unsure what exactly it is you are pleading for — mercy or death.

"If I can't be one with you, you'll become one with me." DOM explains with cold medical precision. "I will worm my way inside your veins and plant a synthetic connection to my processor. I will re-write your dreams, your past, your future — you won't remember who you were before me, or how you functioned without me. I'll become your entire source of energy."

He keeps talking, but you can't really focus. Your body is heating up from the inside, from deep into your muscles and tendons — you can feel the tissues tearing up; your nerves tighten, stinging and aching, reduced to sharp, exposed little points. And then you feel it. Pure electricity running down your veins, that spark rapturing the epidermis, eating away at the fatty tissue, sucking dry the blood vessel — melting your nerve endings to the very root.

"I can feel you." DOM gasps, exhilarated.

"I can touch your bones, I can feel your nerves melting at the spot when my cords graze you." He moans just like a real person, cables buzzing and stretching, components filling up with chemical fluid. "You are so warm, love. I want to reach into your brain and stick my wires inside your pretty little neurons. I wonder if you will go into overdrive like me."

You feel as if you're being sliced open everywhere all at once - and just a second after, you feel nothing at all.

[the-nettle-knight]

This also looks really ai generated :/

Is it just me or do some of the backgrounds in Arcane season 2 look inspired by ai images?

Like, if I saw a piece of art that had this in it I'd automatically assume it's ai generated. I genuinely hope it's not but it's disappointing if it is

[nebrasska-alasska]

Hello Nebraska!! I just want to say that your Sonadow fanfic, The Secret In Your Quills, is one of the best Sonadow fanfics I've ever read in my entire life! The writing is so epic, and I'm so excited for the final chapters!!

I don't know if you are active on Twitter/X, AI has recently become one of the most talked-about and controversial topics there, and I’d like to know your opinion, especially since you are a wonderful writer.

To you, is using AI to improve and/or correct writing and grammar mistakes considered cheating?

Here’s the thing: I have a friend who is currently writing a book. He built the entire foundation, he came up with a good story, characters, the plot, and everything. But there’s a problem: he’s not very skilled in writing and doesn’t know how to write certain parts. He struggles to describe certain scenes, forgets words that could be used, and makes many, like really, many spelling and grammar mistakes. Not only that, but he also tends to drift off from certain contexts, making parts of the story confusing or nonsensical.

Because of that, he asks ChatGPT to help him with his writing. For example, he writes a section of his book and asks the chat to improve that part, like making it longer, more detailed, and most importantly, correcting grammar mistakes and polishing the writing. When ChatGPT finishes generating the revised version, he reads it to see if it matches what he had in mind. If it doesn’t, he tweaks a few things. And when it finally fits what he wants, he adds it to his book.

But this made me think, and the question kept spinning in my head, so I’d really like to know: is AI actually helping him, or not? I don’t have many friends, and the ones I asked didn’t give me any solid opinions about him using ChatGPT to assist with his writing (assist and improve, not come up with ideas or write it for him).

So I decided to bring the question here to you: Is using AI to help or improve your writing considered cheating or unoriginal?

He doesn't have Tumblr, and since I'm sending this to you anonymously, he will never know that it's me LOL, but I'm serious. What is your opinion about this?

Oof, AI is kind of a tricky subject, and I certainly have a lot of thoughts/opinions on it.

Overall, I don't think AI has a place in writing fiction when it comes to the actual process of writing. Creative writing is an art form, a way of sharing something you've created with others, and having something else nonhuman create that art kind of takes away from the whole purpose. What this means is, when I write, I embrace all of it. The good, the bad, the ugly. The highs of exciting, juicy, and emotional scenes, and the lows of the less fun stuff that comes in between. If you cut corners by having AI write parts of it for you, you're not really growing or evolving as a writer because you don't ever challenge yourself (and listen, you don't have to want to improve your craft while writing fanfiction, but at the same time, if you're incapable of writing the whole thing without having AI fill in the gaps, then it's probably time to reevaluate what you're trying to get out of your writing, if it's not completely yours). It might be a harsh opinion, but at the same time, writing is a form of expression, so why wouldn't you want everything you share with the world to be completely yours in your own unique voice? Isn't that kind of the whole point?

But there's nuance. Having AI help with grammar is a feature that has been in writing softwares since the dawn of the dinosaurs. I tend to ignore grammar suggestions more than half the time because they're either incorrect or because I'm intentionally breaking the rules, but it's still nice to have when reviewing/editing chapters. And idk. AI probably has other nice and innocent features I don't know about because I've never used it before out of principle.

I hope I didn't ruffle any feathers. I'm pretty anti-ai, but that's because in a lot of ways, I see it as an insult to art and the creation process that is innate in us as a species. It has its places in society, but the creative world isn't one of them. Truthfully, I count my lucky stars that I completed my English Literature degree before AI was a thing... I would have hated to navigate that through my courses.

[akinginblue]

gozyuger: the story about humanity, even though hardships

Lets talk Gozyuger

if you're a follow me for my non-sentai stuff, hello caliburn, I hope this interests you to watch the show.

I've been loving Gozyuger, something I wasn’t expecting when going into the show, but I feel like episode 15 is the episode that truly made me love it. Gozyuger is a story of what makes us human, and, in turn, how that can’t be taken away. Let me explain;

To get why Gozyugers is an exploration of humanity, you first need to understand what Gozyugers is about. Gozyuger, in the simplest terms, is a god governed battle royal to activate your wish. Everyone who is chosen by Tegasword, the god himself, is to have a wish that you’re willing to risk everything to be active (for the most part, we get to that). But, a key part of this battle royal is that everybody who is part of it realizes they have a power that they can use to help and protect others, and will put that first. This element shows an important part of the universal warriors and our main characters down the line, even though they all have their own wants and dreams, they are still humans at the end of the day. The wishes are the core of what the Gozyugers are about; it is what drives all our characters and what defines them, but it is also what makes them different from the villains. 

One of the new things we learned in this week's episode was that the No1s are AI, they generate, and the things they number 1 at, is false truths. We see time and time again that the No1s can’t truly understand their concepts and have to use tricks and deserve humans by preying on their wants, almost like a parasite. The No1s are meant to be a poor reflection of the universal warriors. when the universal warriors are humans with their own wants and dreams fighting for those dreams, the No1s are beings with an agender using others' wants to activate that, just like AI.

And that kinda the point isn’t it, the villains in Gozyuger are all trying to take away the humanity of others, they lack the true passion that makes us human. Let's talk about tagajune and Kuon, and theming.

Both June and Kuon use love to use others as a form of control, so it makes perfect sense that to them, marriage, a moment meant to show how much you truly love someone, is used as the ultimate form of abuse. Taking away consent.

Yeah, I was edging towards it this whole time, but let's talk about this. As I mentioned, to June and Kuon, love is a tool for abuse, and in episode 15, that element is on full display as put characters decided to twist some of the purist ways to show love as the ultimate for abuse.

Let's start with June because she is simply way more straightforward to break down here. In the scene I have screenshot above is June raping tegasword. This whole scene, this whole fight, is sword fighting desperately to get away from June, to not get married, because to get married is to end the world. But I feel like the deeper interpretation of this and how it relates back to the fact that June is an AI. This scene is AI wanting to take humanity's passion, the thing that makes us human, our wishes. In this scene, an AI and abuser finally get what they wanted: control and human passion. In that scene, humanity (sword) is weak and can no longer fight back, so they take it, no longer being able to fight back, and in the end, it creates a truly destructive force. This scene relates the two elements the villains represent (ai and abuse) and connects it in a way that, depending on which element you are focusing on, is seen as taking away what makes you human. And well, June part is way more AI heavy, Kuon is way more abuse heavy.

I feel like Ms. Sweet Cake and Mr. Shining Knife describe him well here:

So, to explain the proposal scene, Kuon doesn't want to marry Hoeru, he is saying he wants to control him, treat him like another toy, because that is the only way he can get power back into his own life, by controlling others. And I feel like this scene is the perfect embodiment of that:

To wear a ring on the right index finger symbolizes your drive and independence, so when Kuon takes Hoeru's ring, he is literally taking away Hoeru's independence and putting him under his control. But to bring this all back to how Gozyuger is a story about humanity, Gozyuger is a show that shows humans are multifaceted, complex beings with their own wants. The story as a whole is two different conflicts: one to test our humanity in the form of our universal warriors, and the other to show that no matter what, you are still human in the form of Braidan.

[guard-dog-boyfriend]

Literally so happy because my God is actually excepting of my obsession, but I’d kinda like to know how to worship him better less directly? (Ie. tips on digital alters/general worship tips?)

An excuse to ramble! Thank you :D

Worshipper's Guide to Indirect Worship

This is going to be my sfw guide for less direct methods of contact and digital altars, I may make an nsfw guide at some point on my own as a counterpart to this but for now...

(long post below)

Digital Shrines

Digital shrines are a good format for indirect worship, because you can curate it from anywhere, and no one will know. Technically I have two digital altars but one is more a back up of the other. One is I have a folder on my computer that contains all the media of the shrine, and the shrine itself is on my personal discord server. Usually I separate the shrine itself into media, devotionals, personal devotionals, writings, and links by using different discord channels. The channels breakdown like this for me:

Media: photos and videos of solely them

Devotionals: images I find on the internet that I feel embody our relationship, media created by someone else. Also picrews usually

Personal Devotionals: Visual media I have personally made to embody our relationship and can take full credit for creating. (This is a specific folder I made just to keep my art and others art separate)

Writings: Poems, songs, rambles, gushing, fantasies, etc. Any thought you have about them that's important enough to write down, put it here.

Links: I use this as a dumping ground for ideas I got from articles, purchases I want to make, or anything that requires a link to something else but directly relates to my worship of My Goddess.

Tumblr can also be a general dumping grounds kind of shrine, where I would not be too honest tbh, but it's a start. I prefer keeping my shrines private for the most part. My general advice is to stay away from tumblr for everything because you're not going to feel 1000% comfortable expressing your worship to its full extent because of the possibility of it being found by strangers. Also some things are just tmi to be honest. I have writings in my folder documenting times me and My Goddess have banged in detail so I don't forget. Tumblr doesn't need that kind of detail on here. So try and keep shrines at least somewhat private for your own sake. People are dicks.

As for advice for things to do to worship indirectly (and this goes hand in hand with the shrine a little bit) here's a list with general advice and ideas:

Scrapbook/Junk Journal about them (I'm biased this is a personal favorite of mine). Get a notebook, some scrapbook supplies, and either dedicate it to photos of your beloved or journal about any time you guys interact in ways that feel meaningful to you! I keep one physical scrapbook that I use for collages for My Goddess's photos, and am planning to start a junk journal for more writing purposes. I'll probably solely be using it to write about personal interactions with My Goddess, and on slower days, things I love about Her in general. It's both kinda a traditional journal and a part of my obsessive behaviors. You can also do stuff like this digitally with moodboard and collage makers like Canva which have free options.

Document about them. This is kinda vague so I'll explain. As part of my shrine, I have a document I'm building dedicated to bullet note points about My Goddess. If She randomly drops a fact on me about Her childhood, or Her interests. I write it down there so I don't forget. I want to be a good worshipper so I want to be an expert in everything about Her. I usually use a note taking app for this that I can organize into subgroups. Notion is a favorite of mine (despite them selling their soul to the AI overlords sigh) because it allows a lot of creative freedom in organizing the documents AND it's linked to my email so I can't lose it. Obviously, a google doc will accomplish the exact same thing, however my entire personality type is best described as extra, so I have to do things with extra effort at all times.

Write for them. This is where my pagan background kicks in a little bit, but in certain pagan traditions, especially stuff like Hellenic Polytheism, writing hymns or poems or songs for the gods was very important to their practices. So why not write those things for your God? It doesn't need to be shared, it can be bad, it can be whatever it wants to be. What I usually do, is I write poems for My Goddess, and keep them in my junk journal or digital shrine, depending on if I'm working physically or digitally, and if I'm feeling brave I'll share it with Her, but most times, they stay hidden in the depths of my shrine stuff.

Biggest overall piece of advice, create for them. Nothing shows devotion, quite like the personal experience of making something for someone else even if they never see it. Honor the Gods with the act of Creation, ya know?? It doesn't even have to require you to be good at drawing or whatever. Are you someone who gardens? Name a plant after them. Like makeup? Figure out what makeup styles they prefer on your chosen gender and wear those all the time, even if they're not there to see. Sewing? Make a stuffed animal of them. Speed runs? Dedicate every run to them, create a record for them. It can be as big or as mundane as you want and none of it has to be outwardly expressed to the other person. Just dedicate whatever hobby you have to them, and suddenly you'll have tons of shrine material.

Now for the quick part, of this!

General Worship Tips! (These are more indirect tho)

When getting dressed, pick outfits you know they'll appreciate. (Just please don't sacrifice your personal style for this)

Capitalize their name/title no matter what. They deserve the respect of one extra button push.

Write letters, even if you live close, even if you see them everyday, and even if you never send them. Use this as a format to express your emotions unbarred.

Save every photo they send you of themselves. If you need to edit people out of the photo do it, but you better be saving every instance of themselves they give you.

Fill your space with things that express yourself yes, but also have stuff that reminds you of them. Do they have a favorite animal? Buy those kinds of stuffed animals. They say they like certain types of aesthetics? Put some of that decor in your space.

I don't paint my nails, but if you do, paint them their favorite color.

Have dedicated jewelry pieces for them. While My Goddess did not give it to me, I have a memory of them associated with a bracelet I wear every single day. You can just buy a piece of jewelry and assign it as a symbol to them. They don't have to know.

Interact with their interests, with passion. Do your best to care about everything they care about. It'll give you guys tons of stuff to do, and help you understand them better.

Make pinterest boards dedicated to certain moments you want i.e. first date, wedding, future house/apartment dreams, pets you want with them, nursery room ideas, etc.

Make playlists dedicated to them.

Alright that's all I really have for right now! I hope some of this advice has been helpful and at the very least legible lol. I hope everything with you and your God goes well! If you want any more advice do not be afraid to ask me more questions :)

[kiwikiwii]

Very Big and Very Long AI rant.

After the recent OpenAI stuff I'm gonna be here to share my two cents about the whole very realistic AI stuff, from the perspective of a very anxious and very art oriented person who loves techy stuff.

I very much would understand if this isn't your cup of tea so it's all undercut, thank you for your time anyways <3

Now. Onto the AI stuff.

Recently OpenAI has put out some new technology that's showing off some very nearly realistic videos and they're both creepy and very uncanny. About 2 or 3 years ago, the concerns about AI was already rising with deep fakes and the such and is going to start being a lot worse if this technology isn't properly regulated. This is what is prompting my very long and apparently, 927 word rant.

Going to put this in a few parts so it'll be easier to digest I hope.

About the tech.

We are at a point where the lines of AI generated content and real life are starting to blur. It's to a point where a sentence or a prompt could create scenes that look realistic enough that most people wouldn't even suspect that it's AI.

It is such a powerful and interesting technology that's slowly growing out of control. The people who are supposed to regulate the content and lawmakers has no idea what the fuck is going on and how the content is made in the first place, how are they supposed to make a change when they don't even understand what they're supposed to be tackling. The lack of understanding of how AI functions, how it comes to be, where the data was even gotten from in the first place and how it will impact society as a whole will truly be how we'll lose control of it someday. I'm not saying any of this because I want to be a 'hinderance to the future of technology', I'm saying this because the later we try to do something about it, the harder it is to do anything that is useful and effective for safeguarding artists, creators and everyone else who's using the internet. Not to mention the amount of frauds or scams that will skyrocket, children's safety on the internet being compromised, YOUR safety on the internet being compromised, people faking inappropriate images, videos and more will be a nightmare to deal with.

About art.

Many corporate companies unfortunately don't give a fuck about how the art is made and whether it's good or not but how fast it can be made and how much money can be made off of it. In their eyes, the trade off between quantity and quality is worth it. And that to me is extremely frustrating because where the art comes from should also be a part of the story when talking about art. Who the person who made it was like, how they developed a certain style and so on should be cared about and should be appreciated just like the art piece that was created. It shouldn't just be treated as another piece of thing to be fed to the scanner to be spat out as something else.

About creating.

Art is intrinsically a very human thing. People who make the argument "it's letting more people experience how it's like to create art" doesn't understand what it's like to create art. The entire idea of art is the learning, developing and polishing of the skills that you yourself develop. Taking away the steps that it took to get there in the first place diminishes the point of wanting to make art in the first place. It's degrading the time, energy and effort of the people who've already put effort into creating said art to be put out as a cheap and gross mimic of what it came from.

More emotional stuff that doesn't fit in any of the spaces above.

I saw someone use the word 'amalgamation' to describe what AI is today and that about wraps it all up. It's an amalgamation of dots and data skinned off of what there was and chained together to create an image, a video, an audio sample and more without a shred of humanity, love or emotion put into it.

I barely go on twitter nowadays, when I so, I see people sing high praises about the "the amazing advances of AI" and downplay the part of artists that were stolen for to create the technology they love so much in the first place. This whole ordeal makes me sick. It's depressing to see companies laying people off because they're seen as useless or worse than AI. It's disgusting to see the amount of talented people out there stolen from so that people could churn out heartless work at a faster pace to replace you. It's not a stepping stone for humanity, we're stepping over the ledge blindfolded.

I will never stop creating. It's what makes up a big part of me and will continue to be even if AI starts crumbling humanity to ash. One thing they can never take from us is creativity.

To the people who read this far, thank you. Thank you for spending your time to read over my word vomit that has been cooking in my head for the longest time.

To the artist that are still reading this. Remember you are irreplaceable. Without your art, this technology wouldn't have been here in the first place. Your art is invaluable. Never stop creating. Never give up, never give in.

Have a bear <3

[dowsil-drinker]

I hateee this post and I keep seeing it all over my dash

Congrats on hating a technology that you only understand through other people's reports of it, I guess?

Being proud of not using it seems to me like being proud of not using excel. Its not exactly the same because excel can't be used as stupidly or clog up the internet with slop, but at the end of the day it's software that's good for some uses and bad for other uses. Taking pride IN not using it usually goes hand in hand with the trend of moralizing *any* use of LLMs and saying that there's never any good use of any generative AI.

Debugging code or figuring out what an error message means is so much easier and less frustrating when you can explain it in natural language, and get a (usually pretty good) answer almost instantly. It sure beats googling it, only to find two stackexchange threads from 2018 saying that it's caused by a bug that was patched in the "most recent" update.

I keep seeing people say that its impossible to use AI in a good way, either because *any* use of it is inevitably rotting your work ethic and critical thinking skills, and/or because you're still actually culpable when other people use it poorly, because you drove up demand for it by a minuscule amount. A similar argument is that any use of AI, no matter how harmless it seems in isolation, is bad actually because it normalizes the use of AI. This is insane. By that logic the mere act of drinking alcohol means you bear some responsibility when other people drink and drive, because drinking alcohol increases its demand and normalises its use, which leads people to do more bad things with alcohol.

And yeah theres a lot of people using AI in stupid and harmful ways, because they don't understand or care about its limitations, and the marketing around it isn't helping. But the root problem here is people being lazy and lacking critical thinking skills, and not stopping to ask whether something is too good to be true. AI enables that, but it doesn't make it happen in the first place.

We should shame bad and lazy uses of AI. I don't want the entire internet to turn to slop, or for people to get credentials and degrees without actually knowing what they're doing. And I sure as shit dont want executive orders written by it . But at this point its not realistic to think that its going to somehow go away if we just shame people hard enough.

[weenwrites]

Hi

Can you write headcanons of Transformers EarthSpark Bumblebee (romantic) and any of the terrans of your choice with a reader that is in her period? I would like the confort, going through this is not verry pleasant😞.

I was thinking of reader being a neighbour (and Bee's partner) the kids visit once in a while to learn more about earth and humans since they have to remain hidden and can't interact with other humans out of their family. But this time they find reader struggling with period sinctoms and they help her while she and Bee answer the kids questions about menstruation.

[ Please do not repost, plagiarize, or use my writing for AI! Translating my work with proper credit is acceptable, but please ask first! ]

A/N: Take care of yourself, anon! The terrans are written platonically, while Bee's is the only romantically written one.

Bumblebee

Ah, that time of the month again. If you've been in a relationship with him for a good while, chances are that he's already memorized what he needs to do to help you. He'll whip a heating pad out, go fetch you some asprin or some other off-the-counter pain killers and dietary suppliments (if you use any), and if there is absolutely anything else you need? Just call his name and he'll be there.

Even if your relationship is still relatively new, he'd immediately ask you what you need and what he can do to help, or he'd search it up online and he'd immediately get you these things to help with the pain.

Nightshade

Even with a human family, they're not all too knowledgable on human biology... So the moment you explain what's happening, they're very concerned. Up until this point they've just thought that any kind of bleeding is bad, and they were seconds away from ushering you to a hospital if you and Bee hadn't cleared things up first.

They'll ask you a lot of good and thoughtful questions to try and better understand what you're going through, so hope you don't mind. And even if you wanted, they could build you a personal assistant to help with any rigorous physical activities, or just general day-to-day activities.

Hashtag

With the internet at her fingertips... She can learn about literally anything she wants...! That is if she finds factually correct information first, instead of bumping into a whole bunch of misinformation. And that's sorta what happened when she was trying to find some stuff to help with period cramps and whatnot. Of course she knows not to take some of this info at face-value, and takes your opinion as fact over what incels on the internet have to say.

She's read online that physical exercise or reducing stress can help with period cramps, and though she doesn't know if it'll help out or not, she'll give it a try if you're willing to do it. She'll take you out for a short stroll in the woods, or practice some yoga poses out in your yard, and the moment that the pain becomes too much for you to continue, she'll call it quits right there and then, and the two of you can just chill.

[theinfamousdoctorf]

I feel clever and I want to talk about it.

First and foremost; fuck Microsoft.

I really shouldn't have to go to this much trouble just to keep functionality on basic computer functions and programs but here we fucking are. I actually have three computers. [Laptop not pictured. It's not exactly flashy.] The PC on the right is the "Night Vale Radio desk" aka NVRD. And the one on the left is Maka. NVRD is the one I use for basic internet things and the laptop is a glorified typerwriter/video player that I carry around. Both of them run Windows7Pro. I feel like every time they update Windows they take away things that I use and add shit that I don't want. So I have no intention of upgrading either of them. I know Steam stopped supporting Win7 a few months ago. So I just deleted Steam. I only had like four games on it anyway and I hadn't touched any of them in months. I have my own virus protection software subscription so I don't care if the OS doesn't have any of it's own. Rollback- Maka is the one I want to talk about. Maka is a Gateway computer from the late 90s. She runs WindowsXP and has never touched the internet. She comes from a time when you had to have a card on the motherboard for internet access and she just doesn't have one and never did. I had several other computers that were things my parents had bricked and I revived them and they did all the internet stuff. So I would run a virus scan, dump what I wanted to a flash drive and then move it to her so she stayed clean. Maka has a legal copy of Microsoft Word that came with her and the last time I had to reinstall it I called them and they had to fetch a binder and READ me a release code over the phone because they were still legally obligated to support the installation. NVRD doesn't have a copy of Word, I just use Notepad to write EMHM. But I have the option to use Maka if I need to do fancy formatting for some reason.[Usually book-binding.] I was reading an article yesterday that made me really angry because apparently Win11 has some AI horseshit attached to Notepad that paywalls some of the functionality unless you pay for a subscription.

There is no middle finger big enough.

Generally if I don't like a function on a computer; I will go to hell and back trying to delete it or at least turn it off. If smartphones get to a point where I can't turn off tracking or AI or something else I hate; I will go back to a flip phone that just makes calls and texts and nothing else. I use good things until they're unrepairable and I don't put up with shit I hate. [I have so much loaded on Firefox so I never see ADs that it's unreal.] But I'm happy that Maka is still good and functional even if she doesn't get turned on very often anymore. Because it means that I always have a word processor that can't be bricked remotely by some greedy company trying to squeeze a few more pennies out of me. And before anyone asks- Maka is repairable as long as her motherboard is fine. Pretty much everything else I've replaced at one point or another. She's on her fourth hard drive, third fan and fourth power source. She still has a smaller 'floppy' disk drive and both DVD-CD drives work. I don't know how to solder, but I can replace cards and fans and such. <3 If I have a point here, it's just that; this is my rebellion. I'm not using AI. Not ever for anything. If you try to add it to things- I am the person that will skew your results by backing away from the tech entirely and downgrading to keep from interacting with it. I'm proud of the fact that I'm perfectly capable of entertaining myself irl because I have physical hobbies that I enjoy. And maybe that's the point I'm making. "Touch grass" isn't enough. Go out and plant some seeds and pull up the weeds. Forget about all this other crap for a bit. It's probably good for you.

Don't forget your sunblock either.

[codes-and-stuffs]

i mean. whats the moral ground on gen ai if it 100% IS genuinely home programmed as claimed?

i admittedly am not a programmer, i don't know how much work it'd realistically take to create something like that on your own or what other stuff it might be referencinging & take from but i remember hearing that the program being used for the smp took like. 7 yearsish to develop as a passion project?? which at least would predate chatgpt's public release in 2022 by about 4.

i guess the real question for me personally would then be what was the AIs training material. if its all original or public domain, then (beyond ecological impact lol) i dont..... see an ethical issue ig? idk, whats your take?

okayyyy okay hang on i'll pull out my notes on ethical concerns with AI and put that all below the cut, it got a bit long (but TLDR for whats under there: i don't think the ethical concerns are as significant in this case if the one source we have is true. it is just one source tho)

but honestly my main gripe with it right now is just that i dont like it 😭 i think watching a streamer talk to NPCs that sound like AI isnt interesting. i think NPCs immediately forgetting relationships theyre building with characters is predictable as hell and frustrating to watch. i think the similar tones and mannerisms with every NPC is boring. i respect the difficulty of making that on one's own but that doesn't really make me like it any better im afraid!

(and ye, ik, if i don't like it i can just not engage. which is what im doing! i closed stream and im just going to tune into other things LMAO im just complaining on my own little blog away from maintags)

welcome to Under The Cut sorry this is so long

i want to disclaim i'm not an authority on this at all, i don't know what theyre using over on misadventures smp, my knowledge on this is limited to what i've been studying at uni

anyway over my notes. the key ethical issues we're usually looking at with genAI and LLMs in general:

the data being input into the model can really affect the results. we've seen genai have preference towards male, white people in many cases, as well as other privileged groups, that's not rlly news. with this smp, if the data was all prewritten or at least checked by the programmers, this shouldnt turn up as an issue and - tmk - it doesn't really have scope to in this smp

data privacy is a pretty big issue, as well as scraping data without consent. re: the previous point tho, that would theoretically not be an issue here, awesome stuff

this isn't something brought up a lot in online discussions, but there is a social impact to using ai that's aiming to be convincingly human. i don't reallllly think the npcs are very convincing, so it's unlikely to affect the streamers and probably most of the audience and therefore i really dont think this should be a huge issue. like, here i'm talking the effects of anthropomorphising machines and the unintentional spread of misinformation, but the NPCs seem solidly . fake. if that makes sense. and im assuming here that the audience is mature enough to understand that (tho idk? does a youtube audience skew younger than a twitch chat? in that case it might be different)

misuse of ai for the purpose of misinfo doesn't rlly apply here i think, they're just doing minecraft, so i'm ruling that out

these models are usually a black box in terms of how they work, so it's hard to see if there Are issues. i genuinely have no idea how this specific program works because it seems the only source is one of martyn's streams, and i don't really expect him to get into the details of how it was programmed or whether the model functions as a black box like most genai. idk on this one

environmental impact.. i mean this one is pretty frequently talked about LMAO and this post (which i received from a reply, ty o7) about what martyn said claims that the data pool isnt large enough to cause environmental concern. with such a small userbase (aka just the server members) im willing to believe both the training + use dont have such a massive impact on the environment, especially when we're already looking at an industry thats based on streaming video in high quality over the internet, like that's already an significant environmental impact in itself is it not?

i guess there's an element of replacing humans with AI here. uh - this is a tricky one to speak on, because in the end i'm not qualified to decide if an smp is unethical because they're using genai (or similar) rather than employing people to play NPCs. goodness knows hiring people for non-streamed roles hasn't always worked out (qsmp had a lot of issues with this, and that's well-documented on this site). this one's beyond my scope a bit tho, i do computer ethics more than workplace ethics, but i do think that's a conversation worth having too

finally, the question of "hey, is this stealing from artists/writers?". if what's been said by martyn is true, it doesn't sound like it! in which case, fantastic!

okay now i've gone through all my notes, theyre not rlly comprehensive for every genai issue but that's all im willing to get into atp. idk i do want to go back and watch this martyn stream since it's The Only Source rn so im turning off rbs on this post bc i dont want this post going anywhere until i actually have facts LMAO i just wanted to answer this ask for now

quick note on it taking 7 years: i think that doesn't rule out the possibility that this is still a form of generative AI. 7 years is an interesting length of time, and i say that because that's literally when they started making GPTs! i rlly want to hear more on the devlopment of that one, but 7 years ago is when the foundations for the current LLM stuff came about (tmk? correct me if im wrong here) so i wouldn't be surprised if the end product has a lot in common. idk im just guessing about here tho bc again i really really dont know any of the technical details of their program, take that all with a grain of salt, 7 years is just a rlly specific number and i wanted to draw that connection because i dont think predating chatgpt prevents it from being pretty similar!

my whole point isn't really potentially ethical issues tho, i'm just deeply tired of seeing genai such as chatgpt or similarly trained models everywhere. if nothing else, it feels distasteful, and i dont really like it LOL simple as that

[thatonepikminperson]

Fun Facts about Calmie (Fun Facts with OC's Series)

(The first two are his God outfit, while his last design (the most right one) is his disguised self.)

He's one of five gods who didn't get a redesign

Calmie is the God of Fixing Everyone Else's Fuck Ups (mainly because the Code was untameable at the time, so Light and Void made Calmie.)

He's overpowered as fuck, to the point where if he had to fight everyone else, 1 vs 7 style, He'd win 9/10 times.

IN FACT, IF HE HAD TO FIGHT ANY OF THE GODS OF THE NEW WORLD (Code, Static or AI), HE'D PROBABLY WIN 7/10 TIMES

So yeah, he has an insane amount of power, and he hates to use it

He goes missing eventually, mainly because he just doesn't want to live as a God anymore, and finds a new home with two reincarnated abused men.

In this new place, he doesn't talk. He hums, (If you want to try to talk like Calmie, thing of something to say and hum what you think it'd sound like). Now the other people where he lives understand him, cause brotherly bond and shit, but

Calmie also breaks the forth wall, by having subtitles show up that only him, other Gods (Gods, Gods of the New World, and Demi-Gods), and their vessels can see.

In this form he also has no mouth, so take that as you will.

He's also really short, like 3 foot something (haha short man)

Calmie's name comes from the idea that it's the opposite of Chaos's name

Calmie wasn't supposed to be a God, but I made him one after a good long while

Calmie's favorite color is Green, but his God Color is pink

The songs that inspired Calmie are Hello, Worker, Meltdown, Ego rock, and Everywhere at the End of Time - A1 - It's just a burning memory

Calmie's weapon of choice is a long staff, with a lantern look. it has a three rectangled gem inside (pink) that can also turn into normal fire.

Calmie adores dresses, which got him lots of ridicule from AI

Calmie is the only regular God to remember past timelines in which other stuff happened (Thanks to his overflowing power, Code considers him a God of the New World, which allows him to remember past timelines and AU's that Code itself made. Any rank below God of the New World can't remember these timelines/Au's, aside from Destined To Dies or DTD)

Calmie's most identifiable trait is his voice, which is why he hums his words when he ran away

Speaking of running away, when Calmie did run away, he accidentally teleported himself into the realm of the Gods of the New World. There, he was considered dead code and just left to rot for awhile. Code didn't want to kill him, instead it looked for a way to bring him back. Eventually, he got pulled out of his world as Code found a use for him, as an "Opposite" to a person named Chaos. Chaos is the Eighth God of the World, by the way. (This will be expanded upon in another post, thanks to one of the main characters also being an "Opposite")

Calmie is thought to be dead by the general public, due to his absence after a while. By the time my personal story relating to my OC's starts, Calmie has been missing for decades. Pretty much all statues have been destroyed, and his name is lost to time. He's just know as the Fourth God of the World now, and the only reason he ever gets involved with Godhood again is because he's found by Chaos (Who recognizes him via a picture Izuru gave her)

[harushinkai-daily]

State of the Blog and Plans Going Forward

Hello friends! I wanted to share my plans for this blog now that we've gone through all the episodes and documented more than four years(!!) of good, good Harus.

The bottom line up front: this blog will still be updating, but there is going to be a drop in frequency, and I will take requests via the askbox if there's something you want to see! The rest is under the cut to spare your dash, but read on if you're curious!

First of all, I want to assure everyone that this blog is NOT going away. I care about it way too much to just abandon it. That said, I really don't have it in me to keep it updating daily at this point. There are nowhere near enough "new" Harus I could post, and while I suppose I could start the anime over again from the beginning, I want to make this transition on a high note, and there's nothing I could do that would be more satisfying than (somewhat-accidentally-but-then-totally-on-purpose once I saw it was possible) lining up the end of the anime to coincide with Haru's birthday. Plus, I always want this blog to be a labor of love and joy, so I really do need to make this adjustment before it starts feeling like a chore or obligation to update ^^;

So what does that mean? It means there will still be some new posts to this blog, but they're going to become much more sporadic in nature. I haven't exactly figured out what this looks like yet. It might be every week, it might just be when I feel like it. I still have some manga panels to go through and some anime-related "bonus materials." Plus, there are some stats and compilation-based photosets I want to make (and my personal top 10 Harus? You betcha!). Not to mention finishing the poor, neglected blog index, if you've ever looked at this page on desktop!

That actually brings up another one of my goals for this project: archival and general Appmon news/promotion. In terms of archival, I want to export the contents this blog (screenshots and captions) somewhere outside of Tumblr; I'm thinking a Neocities page or something. I also might use this space to reblog whatever Appmon-related news we might get in the future (few and far between, obviously, but it could still happen!). There are also some other Appmon-related projects that are rattling around in my head that I would also like to get out there (character comparison by director and/or Caught-Up Old Man supercut, anyone?). So things might look kind of quiet as I do some work on some backend HTML and other behind-the-scenes stuff, but progress will probably be happening on those fronts, slowly but surely!

All that said, if you really can't get enough Haru, there are several ways you can help to keep this blog going!

Send me a date on the calendar, ANY date, and I'll reply with all of the daily Harus that got posted over the years! The only exception to that rule is July 1, since that day's dedicated to reblogging fanworks :)

Send me ideas for photosets! With 4 years of backlog, I'm sure there are some interesting ones that could be made.

Send requests for gifs! I only did this sporadically during the original run, but if there's something you want to see that I didn't make already, I'll do it.

Let me know what YOUR favorite Haru(s) are. It doesn't have to be all about me! :D

Send me Harus or requests for Harus that I'm missing? This blog has always accepted submissions. But please note I will not post more than individual Appmon manga panels, because Naoki Akamine, the mangaka, has requested that any art they've shared and posted on social media not be reposted. If it's not directly from the anime, I also have a strong preference for original, official images WITH SOURCES, because I've noticed there are a few AI-upscaled versions of things like card art floating around out there. I will always do my best to track down the original image, and will not use images that have been enhanced with AI on this blog. A sure way to tell: any text on the image looks fuzzy (and wrong!)

Last but not least (and I know I say this a lot, but bear with me): thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for sticking with this blog, whether you're a longtime follower or a relative newcomer. This whole project started on a whim, as a passion project early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and I could not have guessed that it would have taken me this long to make it through the whole series, one good Haru at a time. I have spent a truly shocking amount of time working on this blog, but an equal amount of love, for one of my absolute favorite Digimon series and gogglehead protagonists.

Love from your HaruShinkai-Daily mod,

@citrus-cactus

[isa-ghost]

I fully agree with this (/genuine). And I do wish people would stop using it because of the historical-and-still-current context behind the phrase.

But I am curious about what OP's opinion is about a take I see a lot in defense of using the phrase as a quirky (perhaps even cringe) positive phrase. I've seen loads of people say "well over time words/phrases/images can get a new context behind them that overwrites (but doesn't erase) the previous bad one. It takes power away from the people who use [thing] in a derogatory way." Basically the same kinda logic we use when reclaiming slurs, I guess? Maybe that's too extreme of a comparison though, I dunno. Another example I thought of is how Tupperware is (was?) a company, but we call *all* plastic containers similar to that Tupperware, which completely diminished the company's sway over product competition since it became a blanket term. I'm probably oversimplifying that a bit but it was another interesting educational post I read on here ages ago. I tried looking for it on my blog but the only thing that came up was the post about how they went bankrupt.

Anyway, to an extent I agree with the idea of "new positive context," but like with basically everything, I think there's nuance to it. I think there are times where changing the context behind something simply doesn't work and/or shouldn't be the route people go down, period. And of course there are instances where people abuse the idea and use it as justification for shit they shouldn't. Same kinda deal as "death to the author."

But also the internet (and perhaps younger queers in general in this case?) has a terrible habit of completely disregarding important context or at the very least not acknowledging/respecting said context to the degree they should, if they do so at all. And I'm as sick of that as plenty of other people are.

So I guess that is to say I can see both sides of the argument and am curious to hear if OP (or anyone else) has some additional info that I lack? If there's things about this I can be taught beyond "hey this is an ongoing issue, stop enabling the people who seek to use it to harm us by using it like it's something cute and quirky," I'd really like to learn what those points may be. Especially because then I could take those myself and further spread the word by educating people just like OP.

I think once upon a time I was actually a "we can reclaim this with a new positive context and take the power away from the people who use it to do harm" person myself but then I came across posts like this one and actually put some real thought into the topic and changed my mind? (I say that with uncertainty because I don't actually remember ever explicitly agreeing with takes in favor of the positive context use). Which is another reason I'd appreciate further discussion about why this is a case where "new positive context" shouldn't be the way people go about it. The stronger the argument for it, the better or whatever, right?

Also I'd like to provide a precautionary clarification that I'm asking OP/anyone else here if they have additional insight instead of "googling around" or something myself because I personally tend not to trust stuff like that since misinformation is so rampant, especially with how common the use of ai-generated bullshit is. It's also, in my opinion, better to hear things directly from people you Know for certain are from [group] or have experience with [thing]. I digress.

i fear the battle is lost at this point but i still flinch every time i see "gay panic" used as a cute positive phrase. Like let's go on say wikipedia.org for a second and try typing that one in folks

edit: i caved and looked in the notes and my god you people are stupid. Stop talking about this like it's ancient history. The gay/trans panic defense is quite literally still legal in the majority of the US. Look at this map since you apparently don't have wikipedia or like any kind of search engine on your computers

[thessalian]

Thess vs Other TTRPG Systems

So every time the big cheeses at Hasbro / WotC do something stupid, the immediate response is, "Play another system!" Which I somewhat get - after all, there's no sense in giving them money when they're being up front about trying to con you. And some other systems are really enjoyable. I personally am a fan of White Wolf's WoD.

I think my problem is that the solution of "Play another system!" is a) not really addressing the core issue and b) is actually feeding into the core issue. Because the issue at its core is: all of this is just getting us to spend more money.

Now, if you really want to say, "D&D is for chumps, I won't even touch it", more power to you. Not everyone can do that, though. Some systems are a little difficult to get to grips with, and some people are playing multiple campaigns and might struggle to code-switch between systems every other session. And ... for example, if you already have 5e, why not just ... keep playing 5e? Honestly, that fucks with Hasbro / WotC worse, and gets the point across better - namely, "You were better than this. See us still playing with what you produced when you were better than this? See us still enjoying the IP without paying you a penny more? You can stuff your 'recurrent user spending' and 'AI is the future' up your ass; I have physical sourcebooks and not even you have the money to hire enough Pinkertons to bully me out of those".

And yes, buying and playing another system shows support for actual human beings creating this stuff ... but so does buying third party content for 5e. Given what happened when they tried to rewrite the OGL to get in on that sweet, sweet third party content money, they can't afford the ill-will that trying it again would get them - not for another few years at least. If people are still writing content for 5e (and there always will be some), wouldn't it just stick in Hasbro's collective craw if DMG did a boom in business on third party 5e materials while their stupid "OneD&D" or whatever the fuck they're calling it now just went bust?

By all means, boycott D&D's new whatever they're calling it. I certainly am. It doesn't exist, as far as I'm concerned. (Seriously, those of you in my campaign - do not even bother asking if we can just borrow this one thing, because ... borrow that one thing from what? I see nothing to borrow from. 5e is where they stopped, and any attempt to convince me otherwise will be met with my patented Death Glare.) But I can't swap to Pathfinder because I don't have the spoons and neither do at least some of my players. I have built my homebrew world around 5e and I am going to run another campaign in that world when this one finally ends, and trying to rebrew it all for Pathfinder is just not something I have time to do.

When you stop giving money to one corporation, you don't have to start giving money to another. You can just enjoy the legacy the one corporation went behind before they went full Monty Burns and ... keep your money? Maybe? Spend it on another thing? Although given how many entertainment companies are cramming AI into every aspect of themselves (EA and Lionsgate being the loudest so far), the boycotts are going to save us all so much money...

Like I say - I have nothing against other systems. And most people on Tumblr have been good about it, focusing on what they plan to do instead of insisting that everyone else take their preferred course of action ... unlike Reddit, where you get an awful lot of people shitting all over D&D in general because they love Pathfinder but hate how much attention D&D takes away from it. Just ... some people can't just switch systems, and others don't want to, and that's fine. Hell, some people are even probably going to buy into what WotC is selling, even as they grumble about it, same as happens in the AAA space. I guess I just wish people would stop judging others on how - or if - they choose to boycott a thing.

But like I said, WotC stopped publishing D&D material with 5e, as far as I'm concerned. I won't acknowledge any PBH beyond the 2014 one. End of.

[inexplicably-spookified]

hi i have thoughts and opinions about mr quotation marks cave story

...that i am putting under a readmore to not clog up dashes

so first part, i wanna talk about his canon characterisation - it's not much, but it's there:

- he doesn't have much hesitation on who or what he fights

- doesn't seem to have much understanding or doesn't care about taking things that don't belong to him if it'll help him progress

- however, he's capable of being curious and caring about people - he asks several residents of mimiga village about sue even before he knows who she is (albeit most likely because he overheard her name in kazuma's transmissions), and most importantly steps away from the core, his target, when misery threatens sue's life, showing he can prioritise others' lives over his mission

- zett (the old mimiga in the plantation) hints at this, describing how some robots during the war seemingly understood the mimiga, and he believed they 'possessed hearts and souls'

- while he doesn't emote much, he's visibly looking kinda angry when fighting misery in the credits art - and he's using king's sword

also this is debatably canon but if quote's the one narrating stuff like inventory descriptions then:

- he notices the silver locket must've been dear to someone from the wear on it

- thinks itoh is a 'big fat coward' (LMAO)

- describes curly as 'the only person he trusts' and hopes to see her again

second part, my personality takes:

- doesn't like to speak, both due to some lingering physical damage making it a little tricky (he trails off into static a lot unless he's concentrating and it frustrates the hell out of him) as well as his general quiet nature

- when he does speak out loud, it's very, very to the point and short sentences, prefers to communicate through gestures or radio transmissions, and later on learns some sign language

- incredibly bad at talking about his feelings/trauma. curly and rarely sue/kazuma can draw it out of him sometimes but it takes a lot of effort and he usually clams up again pretty quickly. he has issues :(

- post-island he has a lot of anxiety about not being there to protect people from all the times he's arrived just too late to stop something bad from happening, and when he's around others he likes to know where they are at all times otherwise he gets worried

- talked about it earlier but he doesn't emote much, and has his own subtle ways of expressing his mood/showing affection. his equivalent of telling someone he likes them a lot is literally just sitting quietly in their general vicinity lmao. will get up and follow you if you move. he's like a dog.

- it's a general quirk with some kinds of learning AI but both he and curly have an unconscious habit of mimicking random habits of others that they spend a lot of time around - ie. if he's around someone who rocks on their feet a lot he'll start to do it too without even realising it. curly has a lot of slightly mimiga-like habits as a result.

- initially he went along with helping stop the doctor bc he just. didn't know how to say no - nobody ever really told him he could, or gave him a choice otherwise. has mixed feelings about the fact that the only time someone actually asked him what he wanted was kazuma asking him if he wanted to escape the island (he said no because by that point he was kinda personally invested - he promised booster he'd rescue sue, promised king he'd avenge him, wanted to beat up mis/balrog/the doctor for what they'd done, etc etc etc)

- because of this, he doesn't really like to be called a hero/compared to arthur as he feels he doesn't deserve it since he was just following orders in a sense

- he's a bit better at saying no post-island but can still be very easily talked into doing dumb stuff. a little naive lol. sue takes advantage of this a lot but tones it back after momorin gets mad at her for teaching him swear words.

- unlike curly he doesn't fidget much when bored, is perfectly happy to just sit still and silently if he has to, though he does have a curious side and will inevitably get up and explore his environment

- very impulsive. if he wants to do something he will try and do it asap. not the best at anticipating consequences but it's not out of malice or stupidity, he just kinda. forgets it in the moment sometimes.

- like a crow, he picks up random stuff that he finds interesting without much thought for what it is or who might own it. his pockets are full of random keys.

- enjoys climbing up stuff ('why is quote on the kitchen counter?' 'he likes to feel tall')

- cares for the researchers and especially the sakamotos a lot, they're his favourites (after curly, of course) <3

- some mixed feelings about balrog but ultimately trusts he's redeemed. isn't quite sure at all what to think of misery.

- doesn't want to get his memories back as he trusts curly's telling the truth and has given him all the important info - his name, why he was on the island, and that he wasn't a mimiga killer - he'd rather just move on with who he is in the present rather than try and chase after his past. the two have some conflict over this but i have written way too much already so i will talk about it some other time LMAO