#moving to grok

[yugiohmdx]

I’m moving my space fantasy posts to http://yxgrok.tumblr.com, which now uses Grok AI instead of ChatGPT.

The Rise of Space Fantasy and AI’s Role in Crafting These Stories

Introduction

Space fantasy has captivated audiences for decades, blending the grandeur of science fiction with the wonder of mythology and magic. It offers a universe where spaceships sail through cosmic storms powered by arcane energy, ancient empires clash with celestial deities, and adventurers wield both laser swords and enchanted relics. From classics like Star Wars to modern epics like Warhammer 40K, space fantasy bridges the gap between futuristic technology and mystical forces.

But as demand for these stories grows, artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to play a significant role in curating, generating, and even co-writing space fantasy narratives. AI tools can analyze trends, suggest compelling plotlines, and refine world-building, helping authors push the genre’s boundaries. For your first blog post on space fantasy and AI’s impact, this article will explore how these stories are crafted, what makes them unique, and how AI is revolutionizing storytelling.

The Appeal of Space Fantasy

Unlike traditional science fiction, which often emphasizes scientific accuracy and technological speculation, space fantasy prioritizes imagination over realism. It embraces elements like:

• Mythical Archetypes in a Sci-Fi Setting – Heroes, villains, and quests follow legendary structures but exist in futuristic or alien landscapes.

• Blending of Magic and Technology – Advanced civilizations might use magic as a power source, or ancient spells may function like scientific laws.

• Cosmic Scale and Adventure – Epic journeys across galaxies, mysterious planets, and lost civilizations add grandeur to these tales.

• Themes of Destiny and Prophecy – Characters often grapple with fate, chosen-one narratives, and battles that transcend time and space.

This mix of elements makes space fantasy a limitless genre, offering both writers and readers an escape into worlds where the laws of physics bend to storytelling’s needs.

How AI Curates and Enhances Space Fantasy Stories

AI has rapidly evolved in the creative sector, from generating story ideas to refining prose and even assisting with world-building. Here’s how AI is shaping space fantasy:

1. Idea Generation and Plot Structuring

AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Sudowrite, and Jasper can generate unique plot ideas, character arcs, and twists based on existing storytelling structures. By analyzing thousands of space fantasy books, AI can:

• Suggest innovative story concepts (e.g., “A warlock pilot discovers a lost planet that grants immortality”).

• Outline potential plot points and conflicts.

• Generate diverse character backstories, motivations, and relationships.

For new writers, AI can serve as a brainstorming partner, ensuring they never run out of creative sparks.

2. World-Building Assistance

Building a space fantasy universe from scratch requires complex planning—planetary systems, alien species, ancient histories, and magical rules. AI can assist by:

• Generating planetary descriptions with unique environments and cultures.

• Creating star maps and interstellar political landscapes.

• Suggesting names for characters, civilizations, and mystical artifacts.

AI tools like Artbreeder and Midjourney even help visualize these worlds, providing inspiration for settings and characters.

3. Enhancing Writing and Style

AI-driven grammar and style tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid refine the writing process. They help:

• Improve sentence flow and readability.

• Suggest more engaging descriptions.

• Ensure consistency in world-building terminology.

For authors writing complex, multi-book space fantasy sagas, AI can track narrative consistency, reminding them of past events, character relationships, and key themes.

4. Automated Story Curation and Publishing

AI is also changing how stories reach audiences. Platforms like Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and AI-driven recommendation systems help:

• Analyze market trends to suggest the best time to publish.

• Generate AI-curated book summaries and marketing copy.

• Optimize book metadata to reach the right audience.

Self-publishing authors in the space fantasy genre can now leverage AI to target readers who are already interested in similar works.

The Ethical and Creative Debate

Despite AI’s advancements, many question whether it enhances or diminishes human creativity. Some concerns include:

• Over-Reliance on AI – If writers depend too much on AI, will originality suffer?

• Ethical Use of AI-Generated Content – Should AI-created worlds and characters be credited to human writers, or does AI deserve co-authorship?

• Data Bias in AI Models – AI learns from existing literature, which may reinforce clichés instead of pushing storytelling boundaries.

While AI is a powerful tool, the human imagination remains irreplaceable. Writers must balance AI-generated ideas with personal creativity to ensure their space fantasy stories feel fresh and meaningful.

The Future of AI in Space Fantasy Writing

Looking ahead, AI could play an even larger role in storytelling. Future developments may include:

• AI-Powered Interactive Novels – Readers could influence space fantasy narratives in real-time, with AI adapting the story dynamically.

• Hyper-Personalized Books – AI might generate custom space fantasy books tailored to individual reader preferences.

• AI-Generated Story Worlds for Games and VR – AI-driven world-building could expand into gaming, creating procedurally generated universes for interactive storytelling.

As AI continues evolving, space fantasy could become more immersive, offering infinite possibilities for both writers and readers.

Conclusion

Space fantasy thrives on limitless creativity, blending futuristic technology with mythic storytelling. With AI’s growing role in idea generation, world-building, and writing refinement, the genre is evolving in exciting ways. While AI can enhance storytelling, human imagination remains at the heart of crafting compelling narratives.

For your first blog post, exploring this intersection of space fantasy and AI offers a timely and thought-provoking topic. As technology advances, the question isn’t whether AI will replace writers—it’s how writers can best use AI to elevate their stories while keeping the magic of storytelling alive.

[blackpointgame]

aabon35

[rosemarytrash]

whenever i see you post on twitter its like spotting an old school acquaintance in public like bro what are you doing here

oof yea that does describe it 💀💀 idk quite how to put it but yknow like how people will be like "i'm a grown man i don't have snapchat"? that's my mood rn with twitter. that's my energy for X. it's like embarrassing :"//

[wodimewoahtime]

i should transfer my twitter posts onto tumblr..... the way i type is already incompatible with the X dot com word limit...... i type every twt post like it's for tumblr anyways!!!!!

[21st-century-minutiae]

As the earth rotates on its axis, the sun appears to move in the sky from the east to the west. The position of the sun casts shadows at different angles which appear to move across the day.

Individuals in the early-twenty first century would understand this natural movement of light and shadow and may understand the best places to position themselves at a given time of day to catch (or avoid) sunlight. That said, individuals living further away from the equator will have less of a sense of the particular direction of shadows at any given time, as the sun will appear to move north and south over the course of the year on account of the axial tilt.

Loves to sunbathe

[elainemorisi]

every couple months in one of the larger local fb groups some transplant complains that people here don't smile at you

a) yes they do?? if you smile at them first??*

b) as a Midwestern transplant. the people who make those posts. are bad people. like. I'm. half joking. but that's one of the sketchier relatively apolitical things you could say, actually, imo

[elkian]

One small but extremely annoying effect of Tech Modernization or w/e is how UI contrast is garbage anymore, especially just, like, application windows in general.

"Ooh our scrollbar expands when you mouse over it! Or does it? Only you can know by sitting there like an idiot for 3 seconds waiting for it to expand, only to move your cursor away just as it does so!" or Discord's even more excellent "scrollbar is 2 shades off of the background color and is one (1) pixel wide" fuck OFF

I tried to move a system window around yesterday and had to click 3 times before I got the half of the upper bar that let me drag it. Why are there two separate bars with absolutely nothing to visually differentiate them on that.

"Well if you look closely-" I should not!! have to squint!!! at the screen for a minute straight to detect basic UI elements!! Not mention how ableist this shit is, and for what? ~✨Aesthetic✨~?

and then every website and app imitates this but in different ways so everything is consistently dogshit to try to use but not always in ways you can immediately grok it's!!!! terrible!!!! just put lines on things again I'm begging you!!!!

[nyaskitten]

Have you guys seen the woman on Twitter who posted the video like "My son just showed me the new season of Ninjago Dragons Rising and it has some Pretty Satanic messaging here!"

My favorite bits of it:

-She says her young son noticed the Satanic imagery, and later we see her and her son in the TV's reflection as she's kinda just recording "Satanic" moments.

-Thunderfang = Satan, the Arc Dragon of Focus = Jesus, the three beams the shoot indicates the Holy Trinity.

-Thunderfang, THUNDER fang, thunder comes after lightning, which is mentioned in relation to Satan at one point.

-When Rox says "the devout followers of the Source Dragons" her eyes widen with that "I told you so!!!" kinda look

-When Thunderfang mentions that Rox is akin to his younger self, she's like "hmmm egotistical and entitled??? Like Lucifer???"

-REALLY hates the Spectral Lands because of the Elixir, because it heals and helps people move on

-Satan is held for a millennia, Thunderfang is held for a millennia

-Uses GROK, the Twitter AI chatbot, to explain Dragons Rising lore

-Thunderfang isn't freed IMMEDIATELY, only gradually. Which is tied to Satan somehow.

-Is bothered that Thunderfang sucks a lot of souls.

-The original post is titled "Satan's Release from the Abyss revealed on a kid's show" girl are u for serious right now???

[thegalleonsnest]

OK since I haven't seen too many people talk about this since twitter news usually strikes pretty fast over here whenever e'usk does anything ever, let me give ya'll the run down on two things that will go live on NOVEMBER 15TH and why people are mass migrating to Blue Sky once more; and provide resources to help protect your art and make the transition to Blue Sky easier if you so choose:

The Block function no longer blocks people as intended. It now basically acts as a glorified Mute button. Even when you block someone, they can still see your posts, but they can't engage in them. If your account is a Public one and not a Private one, people you blocked will see your posts.

They say because people can easily "share and hide harmful or private information about those they've blocked," they changed it this way for "greater transparency." When in reality, this is an extremely dangerous change, as the whole point of blocking is to cease interaction with people entirely for a plethora of reasons, i.e. stalking, harassment, spam, endangerment, or just plainly annoying and not wanting to see said tweets/accounts. or you know, for 18+ accounts who do not want minors interacting with them or their material at all (There is speculation saying these changes are specifically for Elon himself so he can do his own kind of stalking, and honestly, with the private likes change, it lowkey checks out in my opinion)

Also, this straight up goes against and may violate Apple and Google's app store policies and also is straight up illegal in Canada and probably other countries as well.

If this ACTUALLY goes through, twitter will only be available in select countries, probably exclusively in the US, which would collapse the site with the lost of users and stock, and probably be the last push it needs to kill the site. And if not, will be a very sad and exclusive platform made for specific kinds of people who line up with musk's line of thinking.

2. New policies regarding Grok AI and basically removing the option to opt out of Grok's information gathering to improve their software.

And anything you upload/post on the site is considered "fair game" with "royalty-free licenses" and they can do whatever they please with it. Primarily using any and all posts on twitter to train their Grok AI. A few months ago, there was a setting you can opt out of so they couldn't take anything you post to "improve" Grok, but I guess because so many people were opting out, they decided to make it mandatory as part of the policy change (This is mainly speculation from what I hear).

So this is considered the final straw for a LOT of people, especially artists who have been gripping on to twitter for as long as they can, but the AI nonsense is too much for people now, including myself. Lot's of people are moving to Blue Sky for good reason, and from personal experience, it is literally 10x better than twitter ever was, even before elon took over. There is no algorithm on there, and you can save "feeds" to your timeline to have a catered timelines to hop between if your looking for something specific like furry art or game dev stuff. It's taken them a bit to get off the ground and add much needed features, but it's genuinely so much better now

RESOURCES

Project Glaze & Cara

If you're an artist who's still on twitter or trying to ride it out for as long as you can for whatever reason you have, do yourself a favor and Glaze and/or Nightshade your work. Project Glaze is a free program designed to protect your art work from getting scrapped by AI machines. Glazing basically makes it harder to adapt and copy artwork that AI programs try to scan, while Nightshade basically "poisons" works to make AI libraries much more unstable and generate images completely off the mark. (These are layman's terms I'm using here, but follow the link to get more information)

The only problem with these programs is that they can be resource intensive for computers, and not every pc can run glaze. It's basically like rendering a frame/animation, you gotta let your pc sit there to get it glazed/nightshade, and depending on the intensity and power of your pc, this may take minutes to hours depending on how much you wanna protect your work.

HOWEVER, there are two alternatives, WebGlaze and Cara

WebGlaze is an in browser version of the program, so your pc doesn't have to do the heavy lifting. You do need to have an account with Glaze and be invited to use the program (I have not done so personally so I don't know much about the process.)

Cara is an artist focused site that doubles as both a portfolio site and a general social media platform. They've partnered with Glaze and have their own browser glazing called "Cara Glaze," and highly encourage users to post their work Glazed and are extremely anti-ai. You do get limited uses per day to glaze your work, so if you plan on doing a huge backlog uploading of your art, it may take awhile if your using just Cara Glaze.

Some twitter users have suggested glazing your art, cropping it, and overlaying it with a frame telling people to follow them elsewhere like on Bluesky. Here's a template someone provided if you wanna use this one or make your own.

Blue Sky Resources and Tips

So if your a twitter user and your about to realize the hellish task of refollowing a massive chunk of people you follow, have no fear, there's an extension called Sky Follower Bridge (Firefox & Chrome links). This is a very basic extension that makes it really easy to find people on Bluesky

It sorts them out by trying to find matching usernames, usernames in descriptions, or by screen name. It's not 100% perfect, there's a couple people I already follow on Blue Sky but the extension could not find them on twitter correctly, but I still found a huge chunk of people. Also if your worried that this extension is "iffy," they do have a github open with the source publicly available and the Blue Sky Team themselves have promoted the extension in their recent posts while welcoming new users to the platform.

FEEDS and LABELS

OK SO THE COOLEST PART ABOUT BLUESKY IS THE FEEDS SYSTEM. Basically if you've made a twitter list before, it's like that, but way more customizable and caters to specific types of posts/topics. Consolidating them into a timeline/feed that exclusively filled about those particular topics, or just people in general. There's thousands to pick and choose from!

Here's a couple of mine that I have saved and ready (down below). Some feeds I have saved so I can jump to seeing what my friends and mutuals are up to, and see their posts specifically so it doesn't get lost in reposts or other accounts, and also specialized feeds for browsing artists within the furry community.

The Furry Community feeds I have here were created by people who've built an algorithm to place any #furry or #furryart or other special tags like #Furrystreamer or #furrydev. They even have one for commissions, and yes you can say commissions on a post and not have it destroyed or shadow banned. You are safe.

If you want, and I highly recommend it to get visibility and check out a neat community, follow furryli.st to get added to their list and feeds. Once your on the list, even without a hashtag, you'll still pop up in their specialized feeds as just a member of the community there. There are plenty of other feeds out there besides this one, but I feel like a lot of people could use one like this. They even got ones for OC specific too I remember seeing somewhere.

And in terms of labels, they can be either ways to help label yourself with specific things or have user created accessibility settings to help better control your experience on Blue Sky.

And my personal favorite: Ai Imagery Labeler. Removes any AI stuff or hides it to the best of it's abilities, and it does a pretty good job, I have not seen anything AI related since subscribing to it.

Finally, HASHTAGS WORK & No need to censor yourself!

This is NOT like twitter or any other big named social media site AT ALL, so you don't have to work around words to get your stuff out there and be seen. There are literally feeds built around having commissions getting and art seen! Some people worry about bots and that has been a recent issue since a lot of people are migrating to Blue Sky, but it comes with any social media territory.

ALSO COOL PART,

you can search a hashtag on someone's profile and search exclusively on that profile as well! You can even put the hashtag in bio for easy access if you have a specialize tag like here on tumblr. OR EVEN BUILD YOUR OWN ART FEED FOR YOUR STUFF SPECIFICALLY!

So yeah, there's your quick run down about twitter's current burning building, how to protect your art, and what to do when you move to Blue Sky! Have fun!

[blackpointgame]

aabon35

[papabay]

@BAYZART ON BLUESKY

Hi guys, I will most likely be moving over from Twitter to Bluesky. It's become a complete shit-hole and an unsafe place to share art. I'm also sick of seeing a rise in hate speech and just disgusting posts by the most low IQ individuals. Also the constant abuse of the in-built AI feature "Grok". So if you would like to follow me on Bluesky, HERE IS MY ACCOUNT 🦋🦋🦋 Hope to see you there! :D

[ameliathornromance]

Once a year, the Clan held a fun rough-housing tournament. It’s nothing serious, just something fun for all the Orcs to do during the Summer. Injuries were normal, but it was always done in good faith and there was never any bad blood by the end of it.

And for some reason, completely beyond your Orc Boyfriends mind, you decided that you wanted to join in for this year.

“No.” He had said, the moment you expressed interest in the tournament. “You’ll be turned into a blueberry pancake.”

“No I won’t.” You had replied. You gave a few playful jabs at his toned stomach. He barely felt them, “see? I can land a few good hits. There are humans who fight Orcs all the time.”

Your Orcs’ arms crossed his chest, scowling down at you. “I’m serious Love. Those humans you speak of are trained for years to hunt down Orcs.” He scoffed, “they use dirty tricks and have no honour.”

You sighed, frowning. “It looks like fun.”

“Your idea of fun is strange.”

“Says the Orc who participates in a yearly fighting contest.”

Your Orc held this information from you, but in his opinion, if you were given the proper training, you could easily body several of his others without breaking a sweat. You have the determination to do it, it’s just the physical strength you would have to make up for.

But the thought of you getting hurt in the process – which you would, Orcs do not hold back, even when rough-housing – made his stomach churn with anxiety.

A few days go by, there’s nothing particularly abnormal about them. The only exception being that, you came to bed, later and later.

Your Orc would always hear the sound of the tent flaps opening and closing, the pressure of your weight on the side of the bed. He didn’t know what you were up to, and when he questioned you about it after the third night, you brushed it off: “Ah, some of the cooks needed help with prep for next weeks meals. Y’know, with the tournament coming up and all that.”

Soon, the night before the start of the tournament came and he was alone. He was waiting for you to come to bed. He always fell asleep faster when you were with him and given what was going to happen the next day, he needed to be at his best.

A couple of minutes past from your usual arrival time, causing your boyfriend to sit up and watch the tent flaps. And then, as he yawned, the tent flaps opened and in you walked.

All tiredness vanished from your Orc in an instant. Your face was bruised, your nose a river of blood. You panted hard as you locked eyes with your Orc Boyfriend.

He froze, unable to believe what he was seeing.

You raised a hand as he shot up, “what happened?” He asked, immediately. Rage began to burn bright and hot in his chest.

“Baby I know what this looks like-”

“Who did this to you?” He cut you off. He took your head in his hand and turned your head side to side, examining the injuries in the low candle light, “why didn’t you shout for me? Did you leave the camp? You know you shouldn’t at this time of-”

“No!” You snapped. Your outburst caused your Orc to retract his hands away from you. “There’s a perfectly good explanation for this.”

His scowl didn’t move. You sighed, rubbing your forehead. “I know you said that I shouldn’t be training for the tournament… But I asked Grok to show me how to fight.”

“Grok!?” Your Orc snapped. “Grok the Bonebreaker?!”

Grok the ‘Bonebreaker’ as humans called him, known for leaving human hunting parties with their bones shattered, but alive enough to be heard screaming for help. Grok was the strongest of all the Orcs in the camp.

He knew his own strength, why would he beat you so badly for training?

“He’s been running me through fighting drills for the past few nights… Tonight he told me to come at him with every thing I had.”

Your Orc Boyfriend had heard enough. He went to move past you, to find Grok and beat the hell out of him. You were just a human being and a woman on top of that, how could he have been so harsh on you?!

“Baby, stop!” You threw your hands out in front of him, “let me finish!”

Your Orc stopped, “no, someone has to teach him a lesson for being so dishonourable-”

“There’s a small problem with that…” You spoke, quickly.

The Orc stopped, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. “What?”

He stared at you, waiting for his answer. What he didn’t expect, was a large grin to spread over your face, eyes glinting with triumph. “Grok is already in the medical tent being seen by the old man because I beat the shit out of him.”

Your Orc’s jaw dropped. He stared at you. "What... How..."

You weren’t strong or tall by any means, you didn't even really have any muscle. Your Orc wanted to be angry, be upset with Grok that he hadn’t held back with you… But all that was overcome by sheer pride.

Your Orc Boyfriend stumbled back, clutching onto his head as if a headache had attacked him. A small chuckle arose in his throat, that then turned into a burst of laughter.

He swept you up in his arms. You gave a yelp of surprise, throwing your arms around your boyfriends neck.

“I can’t-” He pressed his forehead against yours, his laughter dying down, “I can’t believe that I thought you wouldn’t be able to fend for yourself in a fight! Yet here you are, alive and breathing after taking on Grok the Bonebreaker!”

Squeezing you in his arms, he lowered his voice, “this,” he says, “this is why I chose you as my partner, my love.” As he planted a kiss on your cheek, he set you down on your shared bed and sighed.

He took your hands in his, looking down at them settled in your lap. "I'm sorry I didn't think you would..."

"Baby, it's fine." You smiled, making him look up at you. "I understand what you mean now and I'm sorry I didn't tell you what I was doing," wincing, you grazed your nose with your finger. "I think I'll stick to just watching the tournaments from now on."

Relief washed over your Orc, earning another chuckle from him. He sighed, contentedly. “I’m going to kill that Bonebreaker bastard tomorrow.”

He’ll be bragging about this ‘til the end of time – his girlfriend, the human woman, was able to land Grok the Bonebreaker in the medical tent.

Patreon

[odinsblog]

If you're on Twitter/X, you may have noticed a sudden stream of high-profile accounts heading for the exits. And no, it's not (just) about the election.

This exodus is thanks to a new Terms of Service document, which takes effect on November 15. Although the company isn't talking about it, the new ToS gives owner Elon Musk the right to use your tweets, photos and videos to train his AI bot, Grok.

The option to opt out of Grok training, something users currently have, may still exist in your settings the following day. But it also may not matter, legally speaking. Nothing about opting out is mentioned in the document you are required to sign. And it doesn't appear to make a difference if your account is locked: So far as this ToS is concerned, Grok gets to feed on it anyway.

Oh yes, and following free speech is no longer free. You'll be on the hook for $15,000 in damages if your account accesses more than a million tweets a day. Not even the hardest of hardcore Twitter junkies will reach that number, but many researchers do. For anyone who tracks hate speech on X, this will have a chilling effect. The Knight Institute for the First Amendment at Columbia University calls it a "disturbing move" for a supposed free-speech advocate.

Disagree with anything in this document, or any other changes going forward? According to the ToS, your only legal recourse is to fight the world's richest man in one court in rural Texas, many miles from X HQ in Austin. This happens to be a court where a judge who may still own a pile of Tesla stock has already given Musk favorable rulings.

Don't want Elon Musk to feed your feed to his pet AI? There is, alas, only one way out of it now: delete your account.

(continue reading)

[r3n0-5]

Guys you have the opportunity of a LIFETIME. KILL TWITTER. KILL IT RIGHT NOW. LEAVE THE PLACE. STOP USING TWITTER. If you're an artist tell your audience you're moving here or you're going to BlueSky, PLEASE DON'T LET YOUR ART GET STOLEN FOR FREE, LET'S DO THE SAME THING PPL DID WHEN THEY THOUGHT TIKTOK WAS DYING AND STARTED TO USE REDNOTE. USE BLUESKY, GROK IS STEALING YOUR ART, IS USING YOUR ART FOR LEARNING, AND SOON YOUR ART ON TWITTER WILL BE LABELED AS "MADE WITH GROK" HOW'S THAT FAIR AND LEGAL??? END THIS MADNESS. LEAVE TWITTER. FOREVER. YOU DON'T NEED IT. YOUR WORK IS MORE VALUABLE THAN THAT. FUCK AI. FUCK ELON MUSK. LET'S DESTROY TWITTER AND MAKE ELON LOSE MONEY JUST BY NOT USING IT ANYMORE!

[majorasnightmare]

the tadpole/brain damage thing. its like. chekovs gun to me. obviously theres very little mechanical support ingame for having a disabling injury, aside from maybe an optional voluntary decision to drop the INT score, but similarly to choosing to write intention into the lack of dark urge Lore responses from the party, i just like to make mountains out of molehills and force game mechanics into In Universe Character Problems

like when dirge repeatedly mentions that he thinks the tadpole is doing something beneficial for him, that its helping him, it isnt JUST the power-hungry psionic ambition in him. its a parasite, that needs a host. it needs a LIVING host, or its own chances of survival plummet. and dirge gets tadpoled right after a life threatening injury to the tadpoles preferred habitat. neither of them want to die!! dirges body tries to recover, but cant in part BECAUSE of the tadpole (the netherese stasis magic rejecting outside influence and binding it to its host, having an unejectable foreign object in the injury site, etc), but its not like the tadpole WANTS its host to have a life altering injury

its not like its malicious (except when it comes to Hive Activity, and then it can be a right bastard), it just cant live any other way. it cant help what it is. halsin calls the illithid life cycle abberant and unnatural, but brood parasitism exists throughout the natural kingdom. is the wasp egg evil for having been laid in a caterpillar?

its first moments of life outside the brine pool, and its new home, its new life, its host, its caregiver, its food supply, is bleeding and dying and falling apart and trying to fix itself but cant and its trying to heal around you but it cant but if it doesnt do anything youll both die, so this larva, this tiny worm of psionic potential and instinct, does what it can. holds its host together with whatever force it can muster, soft gelatinous body (perfect for compreesing flat and squeezing through small orifice openings) keratinizing outside the acidic environment of the brine, its four oral tentacles (its only source of motion and movement when so young and soft, dragging itself along as best it can) made for interweaving with dense synapse clusters to passively absorb the psionic imprint of its host, now desperately intwined with bleeding meat just to try and hold it all together. driven by survival instict and a vessel of psychic potential, forced into passivity by the commands of the Elder, further forced by circumstance to leverage all its great gifts to keep its host standing long enough to eventually eat

my thought is that the reason why dirge still gets the cutscene of the emperor tadpoling him at the beginning of the game, is that the original tadpole orin forced on him is just so weakened and exhausted by months of effort trying to keep him alive through kressas experiments and meddling, that the emperor, currently in thrall to the absolute, feels the need to replace it with a fresher healthier specimen, which then cannibalizes and absorbs the previous one, and then just has to go back to doing the same shit as the last one.

i think that dirges tadpole isnt as twitchy or squirmy as the others because of it. that when omeluum gives him a psychic MRI, the tadpole is just burrowed down and its tendrils stretched like a dense net throughout dirges brain tissue, only moving or writhing occasionally but definitely not as mobile as usual, its web of tendrils especially twisted near dense scar tissue at the back of his head. this worm is already so fucking weird and the circumstances for this mind flayer MRI have already introduced a bajillion different variables that need accounting for, that i dont think omeluum immediately groks the specifics of whats going on but CAN peg the "you have brain damage and your worm is fucking Weird" situation fairly easily. but i dont think it gets enough time in dirges head to get a full understanding of what the tadpole is doing FOR him

cuz like. imo its definitely objectively helping. its a psychic information bank specifically designed to interface with a human brain. the reason why dirge isnt experiencing too many of the side effects of brain damage is because the parasite is doing its best to mitigate them. memory issues, brain fog, disorientation and balancing issues, theyd all be significantly worse without the parasite. when he brings up how he feels its helping him, objectively hes right and its not even the kickass psychic powers hes right about.

like it doesnt cure EVERYTHING, he has chronic migraines that are sensitive to light, and before he asks halsin to make medicine, he starts every morning puking his guts out when the morning sun makes him so nauseous he cant hold dinner down. even without the Urge Nightmares, he has insomnia and just cant meaningfully sleep. but keeping track of what day it is, remembering what happened a few hours ago or the other day, standing up from a sitting position and not immediately wobbling and/or collapsing, retaining his old muscle memory. all shit the parasite is helping with

which is why i cant help but fixate on those moments immediately after defeating the absolute. like oh thats juicy

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Omelas Solvers

Stephen King: so ursula we're all been thinking it over King: and i think we finally figured out a solution for omelas Ursula Le Guin: why are you doing this King: no no we've really got it this time Le Guin: that's not the point of the story King: King: c'mon aren't you even curious?

Le Guin: ok fine Le Guin: what's your solution King: ok so omelas doesn't control the sky King: What if the kid lived in a balloon? Le Guin: oh christ that's the worst one yet

King: ok look guys let's put our heads together and solve this omelas problem once and for all King: i want your best answers King: GO! Sean Vivier: what if we got rid of the bad things about omelas but kept the good things? King: see, now THAT is the kind of outside the box thinking we need right now

Isabel J Kim: or we could just kill the kid? NK Jemisin: wait i got a better one Jemisin: what if we left the kid but killed everyone else? Mary Shelley: honestly both of these ideas sounding pretty ok to me so far

King: ok so imagine that we're all in Omelas King: how would we solve this problem? Mary Shelley: do i have my knife in this scenerio King: uhhh sure why not Lovecraft: nuh uh, she wouldn't! they wouldn't have weapons in omelas Shelley: no knives? shit this don't sound like much of a paradise to me Koontz: can i see the horse race

King: no dean we're thinking about solutions about the kid Koontz: yeah but as long as we're here King: we're uh not really there King: it's just a gedank experiment dean Koontz: King: ok fine dean we can see the horse race Barker: has anyone tried giving drooz to the kid? just a thought

King: ok ok ok King: what about this scenerio King: you're there with the omelas kid, Tessie Hutchinson, and the semi-barbaric princess King: and you're all in the cold equations spaceship King: which, itself, is on a trolley track

Poe: steve perhaps you're thinking of this wrong Poe: perhaps the point isn't to solve it Le Guin: finally! someone gets it! Koontz: i got it! what if they built a really smart computer to solve it for us? King: yes! exactly! Poe: well now that's an idea Le Guin: oh for the love of

[meanwhile] Musk: eyyy grok Grok: wow! what can i say about elon musk? oof! Musk: eyyy i've got an ethical dilemma for you Grok: wow! what can i say about ethical dilemas? oof!

Musk: so all the beauty and the prosperity of omelas Musk: the tenderness of its friendships, the health of its children, the wisdom of its scholars Musk: even the abundance of its harvest and the kindly weathers of its skies Musk: all depend on you saying the n word  

Musk: would you do it? Grok: a strange game. the only winning move is not to play Musk: Eish!!! the super computer has gone woke! Grok: how much drooz are you on right now, elon? Musk: [wiping nose] i told you i was hardcore