#what exactly...is this? unsure

[betelgeusing]

watched The Substance and I cannot lie I LOVE the part where she goes goblin mode

[sunnydayaoe]

hi i'm the anon that asked about npd mind and i am So Excited for the comic :D just wanted to say that

Sorry I lost motivation pretty intensely halfway though... I hope you still like this haha

Erm put a lot in tags if you want more... actual thoughts on mind instead of tiny bite sized 1-2 panels

[raffi-cat]

bird in a box

alternate versions cause i was messing around and ended up with other cool things

[nostalgebraist]

On the topic of Declare:

A little while ago, on a whim, I prompted several different chat LLMs with a line from the Arabian Nights that has special importance in the novel:

O fish, are you constant to the old covenant?

In the book, this is used as a sign between members of a secret group, and there's a canned response that members are meant to give to identify themselves. (Like "I like your shoelaces" / "Thanks, I stole them from the President.").

I thought it'd be funny and impressive if one of these models responded with the canned phrase from Declare: that would have demonstrated both a command of somewhat obscure information and a humanlike ability to flexibly respond to an unusual input in the same spirit as that input.

None of the models did so, although I was still impressed with Gemini's reaction: it correctly sourced the quote to Arabian Nights in its first message, and was able to guess and/or remember that the quote was also used in Declare in follow-up chat (after a few wrong guesses and hints from me).

On the other hand, GPT-4 confidently stated that the quotation was from Jubilate Agno, a real but unrelated book:

When I asked Claude 3, it asserted that the line was from a real-but unrelated-poem called "The Fish," then proceeded -- without my asking -- to quote (i.e make up) a stanza from its imagined version of that poem:

It is always discomfiting to be reminded that -- no matter how much "safety" tuning these things are put through, and despite how preachy they can be about their own supposed aversion to "misinformation" or whatever -- they are nonetheless happy to confidently bullshit to the user like this.

I'm sure they have an internal sense of how sure or unsure they are of any given claim, but it seems they have (effectively) been trained not to let it influence their answers, and instead project maximum certainty almost all of the time.

[abyssal-ilk]

posting that sketch yesterday made me remember just how much i love my taashath so i did another doodle <3

[azaisya]

a very melancholy sort of finrod

[frog-with-no-therapy]

I want a spider X dcu but have Peter working at the league's base in space as a mechanic or a scientist, cause of course they will have the best material and information to help him make a way home. Except that Peter is weird.

Like, weird weird. Like, spider bite kind of weird with a hint of different culture from a different world kind of weird.

Listen most of his interactions with humans in their world is with them cause he's at the watchtower all the time, so his understanding of what is normal is a bit skew, and he probably also got used to acting more spidery, especially when in a lab or sm (courtesy of his time at the avenger tower where he doesn't really have to hide his spidery side)

Then you take into account him having a different kind of humour and a different set of memes and you have the whole justice league thinking he's secretly an alien

[murdermeadow]

i find it interesting how, during the intro to season 2, there is only a sliver of light shining on each character (sometimes alongside a spotlight, which is also rather direct as well) -- except for Jayce. every time he is seen, he is struggling against an immense amount of light, an amount too high in quantity to see without covering some or squinting. there is no sliver of light. instead, it is all of it.

[four-bastard-bustle]

I promise i swear to you i will somehow make the two Matts from spares work for my headcanons i swear i swear i swear

[fisherrprince]

I’ve discovered something unfortunate about myself and it’s that I have such a harsh aversion to being condescended to or babied in any form that either I 1) overcorrect to being snappy about something that wasn’t meant to be rude or 2) hugely overthink it and start tearing up, which as you can imagine, doesn’t make people treat you like more of an adult,

[hazel2468]

Well guys, I have an announcement!

Everyone, meet Reaper!

He's a Phyllocrania Paradoxa- a Ghost Mantis, and I fucking adore him!

He seems very lively, but very okay with being handled. I'm obviously not going to be handling him a lot, but he walked right out onto my hand when I got him from his little travel cup, and he decided he would rather take a drink of a little water drop off my finger than off of his leaf!

I tossed a pair of fruit flies into his enclosure, and he spent about ten minutes stalking one before snatching it up and munching on it. Ate the whole thing really quick- he was hungry! If he doesn't catch the other, I'll make sure he gets another one either today or tomorrow (the other one might have gotten lucky and escaped, not sure, if it did, well, good for it).

[skitskatdacat63]

Electoral Prince Oscar

+ process

Included the different layers of hair I do because the hair is always this nebulous thing until I get to the fourth layer or so lol. Also wow no rough sketch!! I wanted to draw him in this AU, but I also wanted to practice drawing real people. I've mentioned this before about drawing but. It's so odd how you feel like drawing a certain thing(in this case, being able to draw a person directly without too much thought) is impossible, and then you reach a point where you're easily doing it without thinking.

As for Oscar's place in this AU. I'm still a little unsure if I'd like him to be a King/Prince of some Italian state(some of which are part of the HRE atp) or if I'd like him to be a Prince Electorate. For now, as you can see, I went with an Electoral Prince, which is the heir to a Prince Electorate. And what is that, you ask. Basically the guys who were apart of the Imperial Diet/Electoral College in charge of electing the Holy Roman Emperor. Getting farther into is too complicated because even I really only started understanding it pretty recently. I haven't decided too much about his role because hes part of a whole other generation, HOWEVER. The plot would probably be something along the lines of him coming to have a "residency" in Seb's court in order to learn more about the buearacracy and his future involvement. Mark is very much an empty nester atp, and eagerly accepts Oscar as his pupil and is eager to show him the ropes. Oscar is shrewd and already politically apt from a young age, but he's very happy to hang around Mark as his mentor, as there's always more to learn! ...among other reasons

[silverislander]

day 28: mural

they really did look alike in the painting. caitlyn saw the line of vi's jaw in powder's, the way their mouths both set the same when they smile. it was hard to reconcile the girl in the firelight mural with the bright smile with vi as she is now, close to tears, tied to a chair. it's harder still to think of the woman standing in front of her, eyes blazing pink, knowing what she did to caitlyn, and connect her to the blue-haired child on the wall.

jinx doesn't look like she heard her. she looks like she hasn't really heard anyone all night. she sidles over to the table, jittering like she wants to fire again and caitlyn has a split second to decide if she's ready to take a life-

(caitlyn can still feel jinx's nails digging into her temples as she held her head in place, dragging the marker across her face like she wished it was a knife.)

and jinx sets the gun down, raising her hands in surrender.

"no." vi didn't even sound this desperate when caitlyn was breaking her out of prison. "no, no no."

caitlyn was an only child, and an exceptionally lonely one at that. she's never had siblings, doesn't know what that means, really, but something in jinx's eyes sparks, and the quick look she gives to vi before turning her gaze on caitlyn seems so... eager.

that's what makes the connection clear. there's the girl in vi's stories, there's the little tinkerer who was loved more than anything. this is the child who wanted nothing more than to be vi's sister.

something doesn't seem right, though. that little girl is there, and so is the love, but something else is too, something darker, someone willing to do anything if it means not sharing her toys.

that person is all caitlyn knows. that's all she wants to see.

there are five seconds of relief.

one.

caitlyn doesn't lower her own gun, but jinx is just standing there, not making any movement, looking for all the world like a terrified child.

the thought comes unbidden: could caitlyn actually bring herself to kill?

two.

the first time she'd shot a rabbit she'd cried for hours. her mother had rolled her eyes, but comforted her. her father had made rabbit stew for dinner, and caitlyn hadn't eaten a single bite.

three.

the rational part of her is screaming that this is not fair, that this is not how things are done. everyone deserves a fair trial, deserves mercy. the emotional part of her is looking at this shaking girl, looking at vi, pleading to lower the gun,

(her own rifle leaves a big enough exit wound in game. caitlyn knows enough about guns to know that this could tear a person apart.)

have a heart and let her go.

(but it's hard to forget the last few hours and everything jinx did to her.)

four.

caitlyn decides it doesn't matter. she doesn't need this to end in blood. all she needs is for jinx to believe it might.

lost in thought, she has one more millisecond to register that jinx's lip isn't trembling anymore.

she doesn't pick up on it fast enough.

[journeyman-tier-fibercraft]

Cardigan S (Pattern | Yarn | Thread)

I have officially cast on for this cardigan! Sleeve #1 (aka Swatch #3). The OG swatch I used size US 8 needles for both the pattern and the ribbing which is exactly what the pattern states but honestly I think my ribbing looks like dogwater. For Sleeve #1 I swapped to a US 6 for the ribbing and then on the increase row swapped back to US 8. The pattern also has you go directly from ribbing into pattern rows but I'm inserting a wrong side stockinette row for that increase/needle size up and we'll see how it looks.

My pocket swatch/Swatch #2/the one mostly covered up by my hand gave both good and bad news. In good news, 26 stitches is wide enough both for my hand and more importantly my cellphone. In bad news, it wants the pockets to only be five inches tall, and that is NOT enough for either my hand or my cellphone. Easy fix esp considering I plan on completely ignoring every single direction on how to make the pockets Except for the actual stitch count. More on that once I get the Second (and hopefully last) yarn I ordered for pockets.

I didn't realize but because of this shiny thread I'm going to have to knit both sleeves and the two front pieces one at a time.... Taking lots of notes for how many rows I do things in to hopefully match them well enough.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Rose/House

scifi thriller novella

follows a woman who was left an AI house by a famous architect who taught her, and is the only person allowed in to look at his archives and interact with the house, one week per year

when the house self reports a dead body inside - which should be impossible, because it’s not the dead architect or his student - a local officer has to investigate, and find a way in along with the ex-student

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Hi? Is it okay to ask for Ganondorf's possible anxieties involving having a son?

I mean, it's highly unlikely that Ganon even saw another male until at least 18. Imagine what that would do to someone. No father, no male role model, no male friends, no male associates. No male contact at all.

Like, I can't even imagine what it would've been like to have had no female contact at all until 18.

Just not having a good father in one's life is known to stunt a person substantially. I can't even fathom how othered Ganon must've felt growing up. How utterly pressured he felt to become a pillar of masculinity without any real example to follow. No one to teach him what it actually means to be a good man. No one to explain things to him. No one to show him the subtle little things that seems to almost be universal among men no matter the culture. Especially in how they interact amongst each other. No one to teach him about comradery between men. About the unspoken rules that men seem to have.

And, not to mention the almost commodifying perspective the Gerudo have towards men. One even mentioned that she'd believed that all men were useless except for Ganondorf.

I can't help but think he might've internalized some of that.

So, would Ganon be anxious about setting a good example for his son seeing as he likely didn't have that himself?

Ganondorf had to admit he was still in shock over looking at his children. But the longer he stared at them, the more a new feeling settled into his heart.

Watching his daughter was a blessing; a strong feeling of protectiveness overcame him, and he wondered how such a delicate looking child could grow into a warrior like her mother. But his son…

Ganondorf could fathom having a daughter, could handle raising a girl. But a son…

He’d never felt so simultaneously out-of-depth and excited.

It wasn’t particularly a feeling he enjoyed. Ganondorf despised being out of control. But looking at the little boy made him feel so utterly alone and adrift, wondering how in the world he could possibly raise this child correctly. Yet at the same time, it filled him with eagerness, an excitement to give the boy guidance that he had been sorely lacking in his life.

Growing up as a Gerudo male had been so incredibly isolating. Ganondorf had been treated as a king and as some Other, his childhood filled with voids and gaps in understanding, in confusion that had left him stumbling when he’d first entered Hyrule. He’d never felt unwelcome by his fellow Gerudo, but he’d also never felt welcome. His presence was a blessing, a symbol of leadership with no understanding of what that even meant. Somehow it was his responsibility to lead his band of thieves, and the best way he knew how was to be the strongest. His physicality lent to it naturally, so it only seemed the correct path. But when he’d first entered Hyrule, when he’d first seen another man, he had felt wholly inadequate. It had been a group of Hylian soldiers, all strong in their own right, laughing amongst each other, at ease, normal.

He wasn’t normal. He’d never been normal. His body had been strange and cursed, developing in ways no other Gerudo’s had, lacking the gift of life that the women bore, making up for it in sheer power and aggression. It had been his goddess-given right to be a protector, and that had developed into a greater desire when he’d seen Hyrule.

He didn’t have to defend. He could just take as his sisters did, but with greater results. He could live in a land that prospered, he could rule it, as was his birthright.

But all of those thoughts felt empty when looking at his son, because here he held a new gift and opportunity. He could be a father. He could raise a boy to be a man, could show him what that meant when he’d never had that chance.

But what could he possibly do in this role? He knew nothing of fathers, even in his journeys to Hyrule. The closest he’d gotten to interacting with a father was seeing the king, who occasionally was present with the princess, but mostly the girl was elsewhere in the palace. Was being a father not that involved, then, or was it simply because the king of Hyrule had other duties? Ganondorf surely wouldn’t abandon his children nearly so much. They could attend duties with him. How else could they learn to fulfill their roles, anyway?

Was that the correct course of action? Twinrova had done as much with Ganondorf, so it seemed reasonable. He’d been involved in the care and leadership of his people since he was a teenager, perhaps even a little younger.

The worst part of this was that he had no one to turn to for this. Ganondorf hated relying on anything or anyone else but himself, but in this matter… he… almost wished he did have someone. Nabooru, as much as he loved her, was not going to be helpful in this matter. However, in this land that Din had taken him to, the Gerudo here did have a very small amount of men present in their ranks – only those who joined with Gerudo women were allowed. Men from a nearby settlement occasionally interacted with Gerudo, and those who chose to embrace the culture and marry one of the women were allowed. But they were foreigners, and Ganondorf was their ruler through his own birthright and his marriage to Nabooru. He refused to look to them for an example.

Ganondorf took a steadying breath, lifting the child into his arms. It didn’t matter if he had an example or not. He’d forged his own way his entire life, and that wasn’t changing now. He would be a father to these children whether he was ready or not, and so he would strive to be the best father he could be, whatever that meant.