#Anthologies about AI

[unproduciblesmackdown]

truly lmao 2024 lambda literary award finalist wynnstannery

[saga-jihen]

Zombieland Saga ANTHOLOGY  —  Anthology 7: Folk tale SAGA by Tatsuhiko.  

[ziracona]

Seriously I know I say this constantly but please if you’re looking for a Halloween game I can and would recommend many depending on taste and horror level but my default would be Little Hope always. Don’t let the Krampus Syndrome scare you away it’s a king shit video game like it’s unbelievably good.

[kindheartedgummybears]

The Holy Trinity.

Yes, yes I did put them in the order I made them.

[emeryleewho]

Saw a fun little conversation on Threads but I don't have a Threads account, so I couldn't reply directly, but I sure can talk about it here!

I've been wanting to get into this for awhile, so here we go! First and foremost, I wanna say that "Emmaskies" here is really hitting the nail on the head despite having "no insider info". I don't want this post to be read as me shitting on trad pub editors or authors because that is fundamentally not what's happening.

Second, I want to say that this reply from Aaron Aceves is also spot on:

There are a lot of reviewers who think "I didn't enjoy this" means "no one edited this because if someone edited it, they would have made it something I like". As I talk about nonstop on this account, that is not a legitimate critique. However, as Aaron also mentions, rushed books are a thing that also happens.

As an author with 2 trad pub novels and 2 trad pub anthologies (all with HarperCollins, the 2nd largest trad publisher in the country), let me tell you that if you think books seem less edited lately, you are not making that up! It's true! Obviously, there are still a sizeable number of books that are being edited well, but something I was talking about before is that you can't really know that from picking it up. Unlike where you can generally tell an indie book will be poorly edited if the cover art is unprofessional or there are typoes all over the cover copy, trad is broken up into different departments, so even if editorial was too overworked to get a decent edit letter churned out, that doesn't mean marketing will be weak.

One person said that some publishers put more money into marketing than editorial and that's why this is happening, but I fundamentally disagree because many of these books that are getting rushed out are not getting a whole lot by way of marketing either! And I will say that I think most authors are afraid to admit if their book was rushed out or poorly edited because they don't want to sabotage their books, but guess what? I'm fucking shameless. Café Con Lychee was a rush job! That book was poorly edited! And it shows! Where Meet Cute Diary got 3 drafts from me and my beta readers, another 2 drafts with me and my agent, and then another 2 drafts with me and my editor, Café Con Lychee got a *single* concrete edit round with my editor after I turned in what was essentially a first draft. I had *three weeks* to rewrite the book before we went to copy edits. And the thing is, this wasn't my fault. I knew the book needed more work, but I wasn't allowed more time with it. My editor was so overworked, she was emailing me my edit letter at 1am. The publisher didn't care if the book was good, and then they were upset that its sales weren't as high at MCD's, but bffr. A book that doesn't live up to its potential is not going to sell at the same rate as one that does!

And this may sound like a fluke, but it's not. I'm not naming names because this is a deeply personal thing to share, but I have heard from *many* authors who were not happy with their second books. Not because they didn't love the story but because they felt so rushed either with their initial drafts or their edits that they didn't feel like it lived up to their potential. I also know of authors who demanded extra time because they knew their books weren't there yet only to face big backlash from their publisher or agent.

I literally cannot stress to you enough that publisher's *do not give a fuck* about how good their products are. If they can trick you into buying a poorly edited book with an AI cover that they undercut the author for, that is *better* than wasting time and money paying authors and editors to put together a quality product. And that's before we get into the blatant abuse that happens at these publishers and why there have been mass exoduses from Big 5 publishers lately.

There's also a problem where publishers do not value their experienced staff. They're laying off so many skilled, dedicated, long-term committed editors like their work never meant anything. And as someone who did freelance sensitivity reading for the Big 5, I can tell you that the way they treat freelancers is *also* abysmal. I was almost always given half the time I asked for and paid at less than *half* of my general going rate. Authors publishing out of their own pockets could afford my rate, but apparently multi-billion dollar corporations couldn't. Copy edits and proofreads are often handled by freelancers, meaning these are people who aren't familiar with the author's voice and often give feedback that doesn't account for that, plus they're not people who are gonna be as invested in the book, even before the bad payment and ridiculous timelines.

So, anyway, 1. go easy on authors and editors when you can. Most of us have 0 say in being in this position and authors who are in breech of their contract by refusing to turn in a book on time can face major legal and financial ramifications. 2. Know that this isn't in your head. If you disagree with the choices a book makes, that's probably just a disagreement, but if you feel like it had so much potential but just *didn't reach it*, that's likely because the author didn't have time to revise it or the editor didn't have time to give the sort of thorough edits it needed. 3. READ INDIE!!! Find the indie authors putting in the work the Big 5's won't do and support them! Stop counting on exploitative mega-corporations to do work they have no intention of doing.

Finally, to all my readers who read Café Con Lychee and loved it, thank you. I love y'all, and I appreciate y'all, and I really wish I'd been given the chance to give y'all the book you deserved. I hope I can make it up to you in 2025.

[outofgloom]

AI KURU: An Anthology of Weird Fiction Horror and Art in the World of BIONICLE

LINK TO FILE (PDF)

aikuru adj. Unknown, obscure, foggy, dark. A Matoric word...

This is a collection of eighteen original short stories and associated artwork set within the world and universe of BIONICLE (a property of LEGO), taken from the Art & Writing section of this blog.

If you are not familiar with the lore of this world, the characters, settings, and themes of these stories will be obscure to you, although perhaps not entirely incomprehensible...

Many of these stories feature beings called Matoran: the biomechanical worker-beings of a vast, artificial world. The Matoran were designed as automatons by their creators (an enigmatic group known only as the “Great Beings) but later evolved by unknown means to become self-aware and self-actualizing while still keeping to their original programming as maintainers of the world. Alongside Matoran are the Toa—powerful elemental warriors who are sworn to serve and protect—as well as the Turaga, elders who guide and govern the Matoran (and who were formerly Toa themselves). An array of other creatures and species are present as well, with their own special characteristics and functions in keeping the great Machine of the World running.

Many of these stories explore themes related to the emergence of self-actualization, culture, and emotional complexity amongst the Matoran and the other beings they share the universe with. A similar theme of these stories is “forbidden knowledge”, dealing with cases where the creatures of BIONICLE gain some knowledge about the nature of their world and are forced to grapple with it, sometimes with disastrous results. Themes of death, loss, change, companionship, betrayal, curiosity, obsession, and the weariness of duty may also be found.

Some stories are set within specific moments of the larger BIONICLE narrative, both past and future, and feature established characters and settings from the lore, while others feature entirely original characters and settings.

The final story in the anthology is different. It is not set within the artificial world of the Matoran, but instead on the world of the “Great Beings” themselves, called Spherus Magna—a planet which was shattered and then remade by the machine-world of the Matoran (which took the form of a planetoid-sized robot). The story is set long after the conclusion of the story of BIONICLE proper, in a time when the inhabitants of Spherus Magna have moved on from the destruction of the past in many ways, but remain nevertheless fascinated by the mysteries buried beneath the surface of their world . . . with some even attempting to unearth those mysteries, for better or worse.

I hope that you enjoy these works, and that, through these stories and the accompanying art, you too may glimpse the way that is called BIONICLE.

[sailorfutaba]

Today, I would like to talk about the Gundam Kitties. These little guys appeared in furoku (greeting cards, stickers, various printed goodies) in Out Magazine.

Edit as of 12/07/2024, with thanks to @retroanimechris, at the bottom of the article.

Out Magazine is in this case not a gay mag, despite being responsible for this Prime Specimen. Out Magazine was an early otaku magazine, launched in the early 80's. It contained stickers and postcards, and even manga drawn to parody animé currently running. I first saw these kitties featured in old Charma doujinshi (Thank you @kishigunpla), so seeing them in semi-official things was quite a surprise.

Note how vastly different these are to the 'focus' or whatever of the series in question. Mobile Suit Gundam was a serious, hard sci-fi story focused on the White Base crew. These postcards feature mainly the 'bad guys' in adorable kitty guise, reminiscent of shoujo mangas like The star of Cottonland or Aishite Night. The colours are light and fluffy, while the setting features plants and low-tech slice-of-life situations, such as drinking sake, writing letters, or even playing go, creating a stark contrast to the hi-tech space scenes of the 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam series. Further, the characters depicted are not the main characters. The only White Crew base member who appears here, is Sayla. I assume it's due to her being a relation of Char, one of the series' main antagonists, the kitty in the white helmet (obviously). Char is in every single postcard, likely due to his massive popularity. What turns these postcards towards a very specific focus, is the other character featured on each postcard: Garma Zabi. Without going into how massively popular the Char/Garma ship was back in the day, I'll just state the obvious: This was drawn for a female audience.

I grew curious. Who was the absolute queen that created this thing? Apparently, a lady called Ai Naniwa. Some digging revealed that not only did she create these postcards, she also created a whole darn manga about the Gundam kitties. It was called 'シャア猫の事' or 'Char's kitty topics' which was described as a re-telling of the 0079 series, from Kitty Char's perspective. Naturally, Garma seems to have featured heavily.

Apologies for the bad quality of these images, they are cobbled together from google-fu.

Additional information, courtesy of @retroanimechris, posted in the comments after this article was first published: I actually acquired this manga and it was a supplement/special edition for OUT magazine. It's actually called "All About Char the Cat" シャア猫のこと 浪花愛 (月刊OUT11月増刊号 みのり書房 昭58). I am going to be scanning and translating the entire anthology very soon. She also worked with Charma doujin artist Shio Sato and the group NORMAL on several projects, of which I'll upload soon.

[caw-oticdork]

Since my previous podcast recommendation list was pretty popular, I've decided to make another, with another bunch of excellent podcasts:

13 Minutes or Less - Short podcast with very short episodes, about a pizza chef who doesn't like dealing to people but has to do some deliveries due to short staffing. Very much not her thing, but she does her best. As it turns out, her clients are quite a bit stranger and spookier than expected...

Additional Postage Required - Sci-Fi adventure about a nonbinary courier who gains the ability (or curse...) to get visions about the contents, past, and sender of packages they touch. They get roped into a rebellion. There's hoverboard racing. It's awesome.

Among the Stars and Bones - A team of xenoarcheologists search a distant world for traces of a long-vanished aliens. It's been a while since I watched this one, so I don't remember it very well, but I know that I enjoyed it. Very good sci-fi horror.

Dark Ages - Fantasy workplace comedy about a supernatural museum. Quite a lot of fun.

Dragon Shanty - Fantasy story about two bards traveling the high seas. There's dragons aplenty. Very queer. Excellent songs.

Falling Forward - Hacker story loosely based on the myth of Icarus and the Labyrinth, about getting back at a terrible corporation. Kinda experimental, this one has the shortest episodes I've ever seen.

Hotel Daydream - Podcast about the goings-on at a supernatural hotel. Very inventive, with really interesting characters.

Jar of Rebuke - Mystery about a researcher at an ominous cryptozoological organization out in the rural US. He's got no memories of his past and keeps dying and coming back. A story about cryptids, identity, queerness, neurodivergence, and community.

Light Hearts - Slice of Life podcast about turning an old, haunted building into a cafe and queer community center. The ghosts lead to some very fun shenanigans.

Lost Terminal - Mentioned in the other list but not expanded on. This is a hopepunk story set on an Earth devestated by climate change. Told from the POV of an adorable AI who watches this Earth from a space station, observing how humanity re-builds itself and finds a brighter future.

Mayfair Watchers Society - You know Trevor Henderson? The guy who drew Sirenhead, Long Horse, and other such creepypasta creatures in his found footage style? Yeah, this is a horror anthology based on his works, directed by him. Set in the rural town of Mayfair, where strange creatures are a lot more common than elsewhere... Each episode has a slightly different framing device, with some being found footage audio, others meeting recordings, phone calls, etc.

Monstrous Agonies - An advice podcast for the british creature community. Many of the advice letters are sent in by listeners - there's two by myself, one from an ant that can hear and send radio and one from a fey who is looking for curse advice. Some letters are metaphors for queerness, clashing cultures, ableism, and minority communities, others just some urban fantasy fun. Has a little bit of plot, but most episodes have an anthology style. Fast approaching the finale!

Mx Bad Luck - Slice of Life about someone who is cursed with bad luck. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny. Can recommend.

Neighbourly - Neighbourly follows the residents of Little Street, house by house. What they do, how they interact with each other, and what skeletons are hiding in their closet. Starts out as a spooky urban fantasy thing that's almost an anthology, but weaves itself into quite a mysterious plot over time...

SINKHOLE - Short-form audio podcast presented as a collection of audio posts from a member of a community of data restoration hobbyists in a sometimes-unfamiliar future. Mystery about disability, internet communities, and how things change with time.

Second Star to the Left - Scout-explorer Gwen Hartley has five years to explore and prepare her planet for settlement. With no aid but her robots and the anxious voice of her long-distance scout-minder Bell Summers in her ear, she's hoping she's ready for anything.

Someone Dies In This Elevator - Anthology where every episode, someone dies in an elevator. You wouldn't believe how creative they get with that simple concept!

Tales from the Low City - By the maker of Mistholme Museum, this podcast explores the everyday lifes of the last people on an alien world, after the surface had become uninhabitable and everyone had fled down into the last city, the subterranean Low City. This one made me cry a lot!

Tartarus - In a secret facility deep beneath Antarctica, an anxious astrobiologist, a terse station manager, and an AI keep humanity safe from the monsters they imprison.

The Attic Monologues - Queer urban fantasy story about a university student who decides to record themself practicing monologues using a collection they found in their attic. Don't forget to listen to the post-credit scenes!

The Bridge - Surreal alternate universe horror story about the keepers of a bridge over the Atlantic. Gets pretty spooky.

The Green Horizon - Sci-Fi comedy about a na'er-do-well Irish space captain and his rag-tag crew traversing a war-torn galaxy in search of fame and fortune. Very fun podcast.

The Lavender Tavern - Anthology podcast with original gay fairytales. Most are quite memorable!

The Vesta Clinic - Sci-Fi story about a clinic that helps various interesting alien lifeforms with their medical issues. Excellent worldbuilding and characters!

Tides - The story of Dr. Winifred Eurus, a xenobiologist trapped on an unfamiliar planet with hostile tidal forces and a fascinating ecosystem. She must use her wits, sarcasm, and intellectual curiosity to survive long enough to be rescued. But there might be more to life on this planet than she expected...

Hope this list is as helpful as the last!

@boombox-fuckboy @marvelousmawn @sapphireclaw @ashes-in-a-jar @frogmomentsfrombeyondtime @time-is-restored @emmy-noethers-rings

You folk seemed the most interested in the other list, so I'm being bold and @ing you all.

[nothingbutnowhere]

Paid In Full (18+)

The Apartment Anthology

Simon 'Ghost' Riley x Reader

Contains: 18+, Unethical and creepy maintenance man!Simon, I don't know how else to put this but he comes on your toys in your shower when he enters your apartment for maintenance, come eating, if I missed anything lmk

It could be worse. Really, the building you live in isn't that old or in disrepair, just out of date. There's only been one thing you've needed to call maintenance for.

Despite this, you see the maintenance guy around a bunch, or at least his truck full of various tools and parts parked outside the buildings. The man himself proves to be elusive and you've only seen him when he came into your apartment to fix the heat. Tall, stoic, and handsome. Polite with his face mask and shoe covers. His eyes glance around your apartment, seemingly bored with the way his eyelids droop. Neither of you attempt small talk while he works and you stand awkwardly across the room. He scribbles down some info about the repair on a carbon copy sheet and tears one off for you, nodding when you thank him. His eyes travel down your body, making your genuine smile fade as you silently wish for him to leave.

It's the time when you don't see him in your apartment that causes an issue.

You're a person who likes to play solo. Regardless of whether or not you're getting laid, there's fun to be had in reveling in your imagination while you masteurbate.

And what better place to play than in the shower? Warm, steamy air, nice and wet and sensitive...

So not one or two, but three toys sit in the corner of your shower, their own little city line of dildo skyscrapers, varying in lengths and thicknesses.

Therein lies the problem. You usually keep them there. And why not? No roommates, the only one in there is you!

Until you're not.

You return to your apartment one day to a pink slip sitting innocently on your bathroom counter. The scribble you can barely make out reads: Ceiling fixed- upstairs bathroom tub leak, with the date and an illegible signature.

Your face drains of blood as you look over and see the open shower curtain.

Without a doubt the maintenance guy saw your toys.

Well it's time to leave the country and change your name and start a new life.

But something catches your eye. You step over to the tub and take a closer look. Lines of white streak the toys, some sort of liquid running down them.

That's- no. There's no way. That can't be come.

Against better judgment you reach out tentatively, pointer finger sliding through the mess, which sticks to you when you pull back.

You look at the slip clenched in your other hand. At the bottom, something is written directly on it in pen:

6pm for payment

Ok first of all that's not how that works, and second of all: fuck. He has a key. And you've seen him before, he's huge and muscular enough he can definitely pull the chain right out of the wall if you used it to keep him out. You're screwed. You're going to have to leave the country, this time for another reason. You should march right down to the rental office and demand to be let out of the lease. You should be grabbing your emergency bag and going to stay with a friend. You should be filing for a fucking restraining order.

But you're frozen, breaths ragged and loud in the enclosed space and your heart pounds in your chest so hard it nearly rattles your ribcage. The- stuff- on your finger is a glossy, milky white. You definitely should not be touching it. But you have to admit that deep down the real come (and not your own) on the toys looks good.

You stick your finger in your mouth.

...

I do NOT consent for my works, part of my works, or my ideas to be used for ANY form of AI.

Part 2

More Simon

So This amazing fic jogged a memory of the maintenance guy seeing my toys in the shower- mortifying btw- so naturally I decided to extrapolate into a fic. Because I'm totally normal!

[the-letterbox-archives]

is there a muse or inspiration you draw from when it comes to your stories? you just have so many and i’m wondering what fountain of immortal writing youth you drank from, dawg LMAO

last ask before signing off! but this is such a fun one to think about!

i don't have one surefire source of inspiration (other than my chronically silly brain), each story has a different landing pad that usually consists of a random thing that i've taken inspiration from, and a question to drive the work (some are very edgy or philosophical haha). they come from incredibly random sources, but i can list the ones i remember!

tales from a dying heart

where it came from: i wanted to write an anthology as a break from my old novella structure, and i was thinking about love. obviously i had to fuck it up because god forbid anything on the archives is happy. fun fact: that was originally the only story the archives was meant to hold! it was the first and only story, and the blog used to be themed after tales from a dying heart entirely (that's why my current pfp is still the heart itself)!

driving question: "why does love hurt people?"

the rockdove promise

where it came from: originally a group project that i had the idea for (i was itching to write something with mythology and more classic fantasy if that makes sense). when the others couldn't continue it, i had already fallen in love with the world and gods, so i added more to the worldbuilding, and added characters i was passionate about (and found my first ever character punching bag, laszlo).

driving question: "how can we save what we care about from oppressive control?"

insincere.

where it came from: i had one of my worst days where i couldn't get out of bed. i had the idea to channel the feelings into a story, so i got out of bed, and wrote insincere., then decided i wanted to keep it going after my initial bad day.

driving question: "how can we feel happy?"

on kingston alley

where it came from: someone, i think it was @noxxytocin, added me in a tag game that involved writing a scene with the provided line. i was a young, growing archivist back then and didn't understand the concept, so i wrote a short screenplay, giving it a fun mystery hook (because i felt like it) and some repressed sapphics, then decided to continue it because the format was so freeing!

driving question: "why do we forget the victims?"

school rules

where it came from: a novel i abandoned because the format wasn't clicking. i axed the mc, replaced them with sunny and remade the old mc to be what is now darcy spencer, and changed the format to my first ever first person story since my first novella!

driving question: "how does academic pressure hurt us?"

the dumaresq poems

where it came from: i was getting overwhelmed with my own expectations for uploads from the rest of volume 1, so i dug up some old poems of mine, rewrote them a bit, and put a cute woodsy aesthetic over it!

driving question: "how can poetry tell us emotional stories?"

the hunt is a dance

where it came from: another project with a friend that fell through, it didn't change much from then. i took the friends desired ideals of religious and folk horror and intertwined it with my own narratives of power, hatred, and misguided justice.

driving question: "why do we bend to corruption, and how can we stop?"

TITANSPINE

where it came from: @ominous-feychild and i were discussing some of her lore, and we both bonded over our love of telepaths/prophets in stories. i had always been fascinated by urban fantasy and had a vague desire to make it, but magic systems are so hard for me. that conversation sparked a drive to actually make it. i named it red velvet, then barlowe told me to change the it (thanks for that btw), and i created the protagonist that shaped the whole story and it's themes.

driving question: "how can we fight social and police corruption?"

n3xt y3ar

where it came from: scandal after scandal, feud after feud about the existence of generative ai and it snubbing real creatives tipped me over the edge, so i wrote n3xt y3ar out of spite, imbuing it with a main character near and dear to my heart due to our similarities, and a world i both loathe and fear. let's see a robot make a story with that motivation. fuckers.

driving question: "how do us creatives find hope in a world of generative ai?"

soleil éteint

where it came from: i wanted to write another fiction podcast style story (school rules technically being the first), and i was on a magnus archives high. i'm fascinated by fear in the real world, and dreams in writing, so with the motivation of some great fiction podcasts, i began writing soleil éteint, which flowed very quickly since screenplays and podcasts are quite easy for me to write as it turns out!

driving question: "how can we stop running away from fear?"

shatter the shield

where it came from: i realised i was long overdue for some tragic gays, and i wanted to experiment with a more distinct narrator without writing a fully discursive piece like a podcast or screenplay. as i was writing the prologue, i knew the narrator, kåre, wasn't the main character. but the love i gave him for the main character, roshan, was so palpable, it made me want to continue the story. i knew by how i wrote it that kåre was going to die, and soon, but i think that added an extra level to the themes of the story.

driving question: "why can't we accept love, and why can't we process grief?"

and of course, volumes 3 and 4 come from even more random places lmao- hope this explained my random writing process!

[tropinano]

A Descriptive List of Celtic Fiction Podcasts

Reminiscent of fiction podcasts like TMA, Jack of All Trades etc... If you enjoy anything horror-comedy, general horror or narrative podcasts check these out!

note: Thank you for the reccommendations! I've added them to the list.

Scottish

Middle:Below by Tin Can Audio - A horror-comedy about a fella called Taylor, he can travel inbetween the regular world and the 'middle' realm, and seems to be the only one...until!! He has banter with a charismatic ghost man called Gill and has a pet cat named Sans(?). Good sound quality and fun times.

The McIlwraith Statements by Ghostly Thistle - A monologue narrative about Sarah McIlwraith, recounting her mysterious involvement in the famous 'IPP' study. Dark academia vibes. The narrator has an absolutely lovely voice and accent!

Caledonian Gothic - Descriptive like HFTH, storytelling but the serious tone borderlines silly. If you like I Have Seen Niagara, you might like this! States it's true crime, true stories, but also promises magic and narratives aswell.

Irish

Neighbourly by Matthew O.K Smith - A horror anthology podcast about a creepy neighbourhood and the residents within. Stunnin' narration, with really good stories. I got pretty far in and it uploads every Monday. Great stuff.

The Switchboard by Hog and Dice Productions - A 'daily radio show' horror podcast set in a LIGHTHOUSE. HELL YEAH. It's got some funky sound design and some good stories. Both this and Neighbourly have lovely Dublin accents, and nice stories as usual.

Petrified by Peter Dunne and Liam Geraghty - An award-winning horror anthology podcast with very captivating and realistic dialogue. Unsettling and uneasy feeling it gives me. Main guy Teddy from the 'Dead Air' prologue is defo northern! I want to emphasize the realistic dialogue, it's great. Haven't heard him yet, but this podcast also has CECIL BALDWIN acting in it. Give it a shot!

In Darkness Vast by Hammergrin - A sci-fi podcast with some characters with funky names like Doombuggy, Earthfrank and Nervejump. Wolf 395 vibes, Nervejump is a silly AI lady up to shenanigans. Has some fun voices and sound design. Don't know much about it but it's made in Cork!

The Outside Tapes by Liam Brett and Evan Daly - Classic casette tape horror drama. Alfie Greaves is a journalist investigating a bizarre series of events that are all somehow connected. I love Alfie's voice because he has the same accent and inflection as me so it's very lovely to listen to! He is investigating deaths, so it seems to be a nice mix of Magnus Archives and Death by Dying.

Welsh

Seren by Robin Howell - A short sci-fi about Seren flying through the stars to terraform a new planet. Going by the trailer, it sounds great! Some Cymraeg right off the bat. Great stuff. Gives off some melancholy vibes, and has a funky spaceship AI voice.

Gather the Suspects by MadeUp Audio Productions - A groovy-opening theme mixed with a promising murder mystery. Set in Wales "during a very boring apocalypse". Promises relatable characters, procrastinators, mystery and humour.

This Foul Earth by John Tucker - A comedic, easygoing series (from what ive heard so far) in which everyday Welsh people describe a story they believe deserves to be archived for future generations. Clever writing and good vibes!

as always if youse have anything to add rb and pop it in the tags, these are all very underrated and theyre all quite good and high quality! have a good evening yall

[canmom]

<stream> end of NieRRein

So. There's a NieR gacha. I've talked about it now and again on here.

In contrast to other games in the NieR series, which were in narrative structure reasonably traditional action-RPGs, following a small group of characters... NieR: Re[in]carnation is something a bit more like an anthology of short stories, all eventually tied together in an elaborate frame.

Over the course of the story, you are led to explore a vast collection of memories inside something called the Cage, a huge Ico-like stone structure full of gorgeous, moody environments...

...intermittently diving into the most dramatic moments of an impressively varied collection of characters, each portrayed in a cutout theatre style. They're a diverse bunch! Robot cowboys. Mountain climbers. AIs both kind and ruthless. Dark wizard yuri. Arabian Nights pastiche. Chuuni soldier boys. Elegant assassins, living weapons, disposable clones. Some are fantasy, some science fiction; some weave together and others sit apart.

And as you play further, you can unlock further stories, in various forms. All sorts of illustrations, all sorts of prose. The framing stories - the story of the girl Fio and the monster Levania who stole her body, the story of the violently estranged siblings Yuzuki and Hina, the story of the mysterious nature of the Cage, of its collapse, and the desperate bid to escape - all are very rich. The final chapters, where the characters are all finally brought together, are fantastic.

Not to mention - everything is voice acted, and generally very well (in Japanese at any rate, the English is more of a mixed bag). All is accompanied by a huge amount of gorgeous music by Keiichi Okabe et al., wrapping you in that mysterious, layered atmosphere. The UI design is magnificent. On an aesthetic level at least, there is a great deal to recommend here.

However.

As a game, NieR Reincarnation sadly left a lot to be desired. The gameplay is intensely repetitive, the strategy more to do with unlocking the right characters and grinding to level them up. Understandably, a lot of people bounced off it.

And now it's coming to an end.

In just a couple of days, the final chapter of NieR Reincarnation will be released. A month later, the game servers will be shut down for good! Perhaps, years in the future, they will release some kind of remake - but we can't count on it.

But don't imagine you can just jump in and experience it all right now. A great deal of material - the Dark Memories, the Recollections of Dusk - is gated behind a considerable investment of time and a strong team. There's a lot of events you'll simply have missed.

However... I have, perhaps unwisely, sunk the time into unlocking most of what can be unlocked in this game. I think it would be a shame not to get to experience them, and I love getting to share NieR games. These stories take some wild turns, and I think it would be a blast to watch together.

So here's the plan! Starting this weekend, and going on for as long as necessary over the next week, I'll be streaming the entire story of NieR Reincarnation on my twitch. Main story, character stories, EX stories: the whole lot, arranged for narrative flow. All the fun spicy parts and none of the grind, and you get to enjoy it with friends.

If you've been here for previous NieR game streams... well, I hope you had as great a time as I did. I fucking love NieR. For the other games, I would dig into the side material, read out fan translations of the stories, and do everything I can to give you the complete experience of the game. Here, there's not so much in the way of side material, but the game contains a lot on its own - and I want to share it all, the gut-punch parts and the goofy ones alike, because it all adds up.

Think of it kinda like an Animation Night if you want! An anthology series to enjoy together, just like the Animator Expo.

The first stream will begin on Saturday, 6pm UK time. I'll be making recordings and writing a guide to the story of the game too - but there's something special about watching something together, so I'd really love to see you there ^^

[auideas]

Ermmm sorry if this is weird but do u maybe have any like, ““original”” cyberpunk prompts? I want to write something cyberpunk for an au but I just don’t have any ideas right now no matter how long I brainstorm

Exploring Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a very unique genre, which is why so many people are both attracted to it and stumped when attempting to develop plots within an unknown world. Think of Black Mirror created by Charlie Brooker (TV show), Blade Runner written by Philip K. Dick (a movie based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a classic Cyberpunk novel), Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (modern Cyberpunk novel), etc. -- each of these were incredibly influential in their own right, but they all also build their worlds gradually while having a single easy-to-explain concept that can spawn an entire universe. To be more specific, each story establishes an issue created by an advanced society ignorantly abusing technology, then allow their characters to explore that problem and try to find a solution in a manner that isn't explicitly black or white for society as a whole, but every shade of grey.

For Black Mirror, each episode anthologically builds upon a high-tech future within the same universe and explores how its characters interact with problems created by new pieces of said technology, both good and bad.

For Blade Runner, the story establishes that androids seem to be malfunctioning, but the bounty hunter charged with hunting them down discovers that the true issue lies in society's understanding of what it means to be human.

For Altered Carbon, the novel explores the issue derived from the obscene length of time it would take for humans to travel between planets stretched across the universe, then dives into more detail regarding how a solution has been abused.

How to Construct a Cyberpunk Concept

What we'd recommend is to start by asking the right questions and looking in the right places. Black Mirror takes its inspiration from a variety of technology, both new and old; Blade Runner explores the idea of AI and androids during the 80's when robotics was on the forefront of innovation; Altered Carbon took note of our increasing ability to travel in an interstellar fashion, then posed a simple question regarding the limits of humanity (specifically, time).

This may sound strange, but the best thing you can do is seek out trends online and scientific journals about new breakthroughs, then ask questions about what may go wrong. For example, an old post we featured here on AUideas that has since been removed from ~2017 because it's in the process of being developed into a script (sorry guys, our bad!) called Dreamscape Co. uses this exact method. When the prompt was made, Admin M was in the process of reading a scientific journal about how neurologists had been able to project a person's thoughts into an image. Although the technology was rudimentary at the time, Admin M posed the question "if dreams can be viewed, what if dreams can be watched in real time with a high quality image? What if they could be immersive? What would that industry look like? Who would pay how much to see a certain person's dreams?" This spun out into a sweeping cyberpunk mini-series, yet came from a simple news article.

Some Cyberpunk Inspiration

When performing a quick search, some amazing ideas seemed to jump out from technology news headlines these past couple weeks alone:

Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal (FLC) Technology Being Used in 3D Displays

Unlike holograms, this technology uses liquid crystals that exhibit spontaneous polarization, meaning their orientation can be influenced by an electric field. They're high-speed, low-power, and have innumerable applications in the future. So, what could go wrong?

How could this technology impact the medical field? Although this may not be possible, consider what could occur if FLCs were injected into human bodies and influenced by electric fields to perform different tasks and functions, such as replacing an organ, attacking cancer cells, etc. How could such a technology be abused or go wrong? How many could die with a simple pulse, like an EMP?

Real-Life Freeze Ray Technology Created for the US Airforce

This technology hasn't been developed to be used as weaponry, but instead to replace large amounts of coolant that must be used on space and air crafts to prevent the machinery from overheating (coolant is heavy and can reduce efficiency yet is absolutely necessary due to the fact that space is a vacuum and therefore does not cool heat like air would on Earth). This "freeze ray" technology utilizes plasma's strange property that seems to break the second law of thermodynamics: it chills down when touching another object before heating up, which experts have proposed is because it vaporizes the ultra-thin layer of carbon and water on an object upon contact, similar to how water evaporates off your skin when stepping out of a pool. The question must be asked: how could such technology be used for not just utilitarian means, but outside of the Airforce's intentions?

Perhaps the technology could be manipulated and over-chill an aircraft, or otherwise damage internal engineering.

Consider its potential applications here on Earth: what could benefit from being chilled with something light-weight and low-power? How could it be integrated into homes? What could be disastrously destroyed with such technology?

Breakthrough in Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology May Completely Replace Carbon Energy Sources

Google and Fervo have successfully developed geothermal technology that has increased its efficiency and broke records by changing existing rock formations in the Earth's crust. For a natural geothermal energy system to produce electricity, it has to have the right amount of heat, fluid, and rock permeability -- these Goldilocks conditions can be difficult to find 'in the wild'. However, this new Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) targets the most-easily found aspect (rocks with high heat) then creates the necessary permeability artificially by drilling to the intended rock formation and injecting fluid to create fractures in the rock, achieving the necessary Goldilocks conditions. Sure, this may be carbon-free energy, but what would happen if this were employed on a mass scale?

When energy is prioritized by a high-tech society over food and water, how could citizens gain access to those resources?

What long-term effects could such a system have on the Earth as a whole? Could the ground become unstable? Maybe earthquakes crumble city after city? Maybe the entire Earth's crust loses its integrity and disintegrates, pulling only a lucky few deep underground and forcing them to survive off the left over fluid injected into the Earth's crust and whatever they can find.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see from above, there's a crazy amount of inspiration that can be drawn from current technology events. What's important to remember is that yes, we've been talking about complicated technology, but only you have to understand how it functions in your universe down to the molecule, not your audience. Deep technology topics can be dry to a certain extent, and over-explaining your world can be damaging to your story. Explanations regarding how technology works in each of the stories we discussed is limited for that same reason (Black Mirror's overarching concepts, specifics about how Blade Runner's Replicant technology are rarely discussed, etc.). Leave some mystery surrounding how your cyberpunk world functions and allow how your characters room to breathe and interact with that world -- it can speak for itself. Your audience may first love the idea behind your story, but what they'll remember and relate to is how your protagonists and antagonists suffer and prevail within your universe.

We hope this answered your question, and feel free to follow up if you'd like some more guidance and advice on how to construct your Cyberpunk story! In addition, feel free to check out our other post which outlines more information on how to build a Cyberpunk world.

Now get to writing, and have an awesome week!

-- Admin M x

[bybdolan]

quick ttpd thoughts

ok so. i did listen to a leak so I had time to sit with the OG album for a while. I have not yet listened to all the Anthology tracks, but this not-doing of something is part of my album reaction. Bear with me.

First of all: I am insanely impressed with Taylor for being this raw and messy on record. More distinguished haters have said that this album once again feels like self-mythologizing, but I personally do not agree. User dancefloors had an excellent take on this: the album is emotional and messy to a degree where you feel like you should not be listening to it. At least that's how I felt.

However, that also has a downside. I find many of the lyrics, especially on the standard edition, to be unpolished or downright cringe. This rambl-y first draft type of writing might work for other artists, but I never feel like it works for Taylor. The second line of Fortnight is so awful that I was CONVINCED the leak I heard was AI, and people have talked at length about the tattooed Golden Retriever. Girl. Almost every song had an insane clunker or two hidden in it. This is not helped by what I personally (!) perceive to be a bit of a rehashing of imagery and themes that have been prominent in songwriting trends for the past few years. Killing the woman you are jealous of, Cassandra, religious imagery .... Don't get me wrong, I think the call for "originality" at al costs can be detrimental to art, but frequently with this album i felt as if lines were haparzadly chosen to fit a certain "aesthetic" that didn't mesh well with the rest of the song. Like. Nothing about "my husband's cheating. I wanna kill him." communicates any deeper emotion. (Compared to e.g. Samia's "I hope you marry the girl from your hometown and I'll fucking kill her and I'll fucking freak out.")

The introductory poem is one of the worst things i have ever read.

The thing is. I don't always do well with new releases, they are overwhelming, etc., but I listened to the first four tracks and was like "how can anybody think this is good". Which IS a hater take, and there is much I do enjoy about the album, and I am happy others like it.But with the already present repetition PLUS 15 Tracks .... it is a bit too much. I could go on and on about the repetition of words and themes that feels a bit trite (smalltown stuff, "starry-eyed", "precocious"), but I don't wanna. I wish there had been more editing, and I think I have talked at length before about how I do not like this new era of just putting out everything.

Alas. I did not click with this album and there are very few tracks i want to go back to. So Long, London is a favorite because of the concise lyrics and beautiful production, I can bop to Down Bad, but daddy I love him is fun imagery-wise, Clara/Sam/Sophia/Marcus is sad and also. A Lot., So High School, and I dig "You're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith, this ain't the Chelsea Hotel, we're modern idiots". The 2am tracks need more attention, but I already like Looking Into Windows (?) much more than a lot of other tracks - generally, I enjoy the more genuinely sad Joe tracks about the slow demise of a relationship much more than the fast paced high strung ones.

anything else .... well. I don't know.

[seeingivy]

THOUGHTS TO TTPD?? I'M A WRECK RN.

WHAT A QUESTION! here's my thoughts so far:

very messy, but here we go:

can not stop listening to loml. no like I haven't listened to anything else besides loml after the first listen it killed me

the anthology is more my style than TTPD

not a fan of some of the production (sorry jack) on the first album and this thread sums up why pretty well

tortured poets is the most insane song. charlie puth name drop, lucy dacus and jack having to hear about taylor and matty talking about killing themselves LIKE WHAT

also so many matty healy songs?

the travis songs are kind of giving iM TAKING MY TRAVYYYY TO THE BIG GAMEEEE GONNA MAKE KELCE MY LAST NAME but not in a bad way! that ai was stuck in my head for weeks for a reason so.

back to tortured poets (song), calling matty healy neonazi racist homophobe a "golden retriever" is insane

peepaw aaron dessner really saved this album for me with the anthology

thank you aimee spelling out KIM and north west mention is SOOOO FUNNY

sooooo....get him back and imgonnagetyou back....if you can claim something as arbitrary as screaming on a bridge is plagiarism you can most definitely claim that song is TOO

clara bow edits to olivia and sabrina??? but I think it's sabrina bc taylor would not call olivia dazzling (iM KIDDING, its a half joke)

I can do it with a broken heart was so bop until I listened to the lyrics and now its insane like GOD that's so sad but I can't help but dance to it

sometimes jacks' production was really too loud I kept going I CANT HEAR HER SHUT UP JACK with my friend

charlie puth mention is insane I will say it a second time.

so long london killed me btw as a joe widow myself.

[moniquill]

Without telling you what panels I’m pitching for, these are my pitches

I am indigenous (Seaconke Wampanoag) and intend to be alive in the future; I'd like to talk about #Landback and the expectations vs realities of indigenous soverignty - consider https://www.tumblr.com/moniquill/746982334875729920?source=share

I've written many, many essays about this:

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/165881710831/so-today-i-read-a-book-called-sister-raven

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/616835845035589632/im-going-to-talk-about-greedfall-fight-me

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/tagged/cultural%20appropriation

and also I want to talk about the existence of this book by beloved author Susan Cooper: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17170557-ghost-hawk and Rowling's Ilvermorny.

I want to talk about indigenous land management systems, particularly in the Northeast US, and settlers 'first contact' with those environments.

I want to talk about Colonialism as a villain.

I just want to talk about the insustainability of non-biodegradable fibers, and how laundry sheds microplastics.

I wrote https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706010/to-shape-a-dragons-breath-by-moniquill-blackgoose/

I want to talk about colonialism as a feature of sci-fi in the past and present.

I'd really like to talk about the rise of 'puriteens' and 'antis' in fandom spaces online, as well as Porn Purges in places like FF.Net and Wattpad.

I'd like to talk about AU conventions and the existence of the Alpha/Beta/Omega shared universe (for example) - shared conventions of fanfiction spaces that cross fandoms.

I want to talk about antivaxxers, flat earthers, Facebook Mom groups, and 'alternate archeology'

My entire conception of Fantasy as a kid was shaped by Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Willow, The Neverending Story, The Last Unicorn, Flight of Dragons, the Rankin-bass versions of The Hobbit and LOTR, The Secret of Nimh, Return to Oz, etc

I want to talk about what constitutes 'tech' at all; about degrowth in solarpunk futures - it's not just AI that might force us to abandon some aspects of tech, there's also sustainability to think about. Also I was alive in the 90's before 'smart' anything existed and didn't get my first smartphone until after college.

I want to talk about the idea that Dystopia is when things that are currently happening to marginalized people happen to dominant populations.

I'd like to talk about Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions as well as the Young X series of anthologies edited by Asimov - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/2089882 , https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1499362.Young_Ghosts etc

I want to talk about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Tongue_(Elgin_novel) and the presumptions made by it; https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187857039061/so-i-read-the-second-book-in-the-native-tongue#notes

And about Robin Wall Kimmer's reflections on The Language of Animacy: https://orionmagazine.org/article/robin-wall-kimmerer-language-animacy/

I'm especially interested in the ethics portion here and want to draw parallels between terraforming and indigenous land management practices.

Interested in weighing in as a human with a presumably functional womb that I've actively chosen not to use