#voices of new

[peyurtle]

It is my moral duty to haunt you in return for the tag game.

Thus, tell me o writer! About thy TMNT fic!

I shall thank you, my faithful receptacle of tales, for your intermission.

I shall answer as well. Brace yourself, for this is gonna be long as hell.

It all started when a few decades ago, in the early 2000s, a new bunch of TMNT comics was published by Mirage Studios, by then already owned by Peter Laird only, due to differences between him and Kevin Eastman. The new issues of TMNT volume 4 quickly became infamous due to its retconning of April being nothing more than an animated drawing created by her dad using a magical pen. But none of this concerns me.

What does concern me, tho, is the shenanigans that Michelangelo lives in the comics. In this volume, he becomes a tour guide for the Utrom alien race, and his duty is to help the aliens that arrive on earth make themselves comfortable and learn about this new planet. This is where my jam comes in.

Mike’s first tourist is none other than the Regenta (or princess, in earthling terms) Sericulus of Y’Nood Minor, or Seri for short. A protoceraton alien who rules a land of styracodons (another dinosaur alien species) and is quite demanding and aloof due to being a princess. The tour opens with a visit to the local science museum and everything seems fine until Seri expresses her cravings of seafood to Mike. He decides to take her on a trip to the coastal area away from her bodyguards and hit a restaurant. They bond over lunch and Seri admits she’s mingled with commoners before. They take a walk together down the coastline while they continue chatting and bonding together. While they take a swimming break, Seri tries to steal some lobsters, which quickly devolves into a quarrel with Mike and Seri slapping him in the face and swimming away.

Things get hairy, tho, when Seri gets her royal self tangled up in fishermen’s nets with no way out. Michelangelo saves her and gives her mouth-to-mouth in an attempt to revive her. It succeeds with an unexpected side effect: Seri explains that mouth-to-mouth contact, or “sharing breath” as she calls it, is an extremely intimate action reserved for your mate only. As a result, Seri invites Mike to mate with her.

The next morning Mike awakes to find out Seri has laid eggs. While he is flabbergasted, she’s considerably protective of the clutch. They pass time building sand castles until Seri decides it’s time to go back. Mike goes off to get a basket to carry the eggs but when he returns he finds Seri’s bodyguards forcing her into the Utrom vehicle. He fights them in an effort to free Seri and the eggs, but the guards knock him out and cart him off to an outer-space prison. Long story short, he escapes with another inmate’s help and is rescued by the Triceratons (another alien species and mortal enemies of the Styracodons) who recruit him to fight their enemies and Mike, eager for revenge, gladly accepts. The volume is on hiatus, however, so the end remains ambiguous.

What I’m trying to do with my fic is quite the same, but without the eggs and revenge part. Just two teens wandering around the beach and bonding over space bands and foods. Mike decides to get a summer job to escape the lair’s suffocating heat and get to meet new people. Seri arrives, they sneak out and fool around until they end up at the beach. In my version, they both get thrown into prison, with Seri being put in solitary confinement. They quickly develop a communication method through messages written in corn leaves. Seri concocts an escape plan that involves getting the guard drunk and stealing the prison keys before freeing Mike and fleeing to Earth on a stolen car.

At least they scored each other’s phone number.

[codecicle]

Guys I'm so glad everyone loves hit JRWI campaign: The Suckening so much. 12 thousand notes on just a thumbnail that's so cool. Anyone think about emizel pussy-out post revival

[vyorei]

Beautiful display of solidarity ongoing right now from the US calling for a ceasefire in Gaza

Source: @jvplive on Twitter

[yusuke-of-valla]

WE LIVE IN A HELL WORLD

Snippets from the article by Karissa Bell:

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of performers, has struck a deal with an AI voice acting platform aimed at making it easier for actors to license their voice for use in video games. ...

the agreements cover the creation of so-called “digital voice replicas” and how they can be used by game studios and other companies. The deal has provisions for minimum rates, safe storage and transparency requirements, as well as “limitations on the amount of time that a performance replica can be employed without further payment and consent.”

Notably, the agreement does not cover whether actors’ replicas can be used to train large language models (LLMs), though Replica Studios CEO Shreyas Nivas said the company was interested in pursuing such an arrangement. “We have been talking to so many of the large AAA studios about this use case,” Nivas said. He added that LLMs are “out-of-scope of this agreement” but “they will hopefully [be] things that we will continue to work on and partner on.”

...Even so, some well-known voice actors were immediately skeptical of the news, as the BBC reports. In a press release, SAG-AFTRA said the agreement had been approved by "affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community." But on X, voice actors said they had not been given advance notice. "How has this agreement passed without notice or vote," wrote Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash in Pokémon. "Encouraging/allowing AI replacement is a slippery slope downward." Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, also suggested he was not notified about the deal. "If I can pay for permission to have an AI rendering of an ‘A-list’ voice actor’s performance for a fraction of their rate I have next to no incentive to employ 90% of the lesser known ‘working’ actors that make up the majority of the industry," Clark wrote.

SAG-AFTRA’s deal with Replica only covers a sliver of the game industry. Separately, the union is also negotiating with several of the major game studios after authorizing a strike last fall. “I certainly hope that the video game companies will take this as an inspiration to help us move forward in that negotiation,” Crabtree said.

And here are some various reactions I've found about things people in/adjacent to this can do

And in OTHER AI games news, Valve is updating it's TOS to allow AI generated content on steam so long as devs promise they have the rights to use it, which you can read more about on Aftermath in this article by Luke Plunkett

[sayruq]

[chloesimaginationthings]

Happy 1 year anniversary to FNAF ruin!!

[protosymphonette]

sorry josh what'd you say i didn't hear you i was distracted by your fat ass i mean your fat ass i mean i mean

[geezmarty]

veilguard got me with the new women it's so over for me

[pentapoda]

Ah, a character with floaty hair and a fun color scheme? I'm in.

[animenostalgia]

News - A Gofundme campaign has started for voice actress Rachael Lillis, who fans might know as the original voices for Pokemon's Misty and Jessie, as well as the dub voice of Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena. Lillis is currently battling the nasty side effects of cancer, and has had to check into a nursing home for care. If Lillis' work has ever brought you joy, please consider contributing a few bucks, or pass the link along to others to help get the word out!

[peyurtle]

If you don’t mind me asking, I’m curious now what do you think of my version of Nora?

Oh, she’s fab. Really, really fab. I never saw anybody besides DC associating Nora with fire, which itself it’s a really cool vibe to contrast with her husband’s ice theme. Also I like her and Vic both being autistic creatures; good for them, good for them.

In another hand, I loved her firefighter attire you drew her on! Really suits her fiery demeanor and passionate attitude.

10/10 great No-No, my no-no would love to discuss matters of cryogenics and sillies with her

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

How much longer 'til your luck runs out?

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[worldwide-blackfolk]

[vyorei]

FUCK YEAH

[nartothelar]

new submas fits!

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF Gregory is NEVER getting unbanned at this rate