Scavengers Art! I Imagine This One Would Be Pretty Early After Desmona Joins Them, Before She Has The

Curious

Thoughts on robots and people and how maybe the little rituals we do to show we care don't have to actually mean anything, brought to you by Sprocket and Alonze.

Worldbuilding notes: Under normal conditions, you wouldn't be able to see the stars from the surface of Deslotair. However, this takes place during drop season, when the skies are cleared of storms. Since Deslotair is a planet that's somewhat behind developmentally and lacks a lot of big cities, it's fairly free of light pollution. Scavengers traveling the deserts have an especially nice view. The planet is also in a fairly... cluttered(?) solar system, so there's a lot of comets passing by and bits of space debris burning up in the atmosphere. Most of this is natural rock and mineral, although some is space trash from neighboring planets. But hey, that's a bonus if you're scavenging, right??

Taglist: @glacierruler

So it looks like NaNoWriMo are happy to have AI as part of their community. Miss me with that bullshit. Generative artificial intelligence is an active threat to creativity and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in creative fields.

Please signal boost this so writers can make an informed choice about whether to continue to take part in such a community.

Keeper -- a short comic about an angel meeting a robotic lighthouse keeper that doesn't know the world has already ended. Made in about 18 hours for a 24-hour 24-page* black and white comic challenge (that I arrived late to, ha.)

*the actual submission does not include the cover, which was created after the fact for this post.

This was a really great learning experience as someone who's... never really made a completed comic. I ended up really attached to the story by the end of the project (possibly due to all-nighter deliriousness lol) and ultimately am very proud of what I made.There are some things I'd still like to change, particularly text placement, but in keeping with the spirit of the challenge I've elected to leave it as is.

Fun fact originally Sprocket was going to have a head and torso with 360 range of motion but I scrapped that idea because it was a pain to draw and didn't really make sense with all his external wiring. On the plus side it means sometimes he needs help with maintenance now.

Taglist: @glacierruler

from da archives!!!! a screenprinted zine i made <3

Baily's Beads during the solar eclipse of March 29, 2006 as seen from Türkiye // Tom Victor

Robot biped/bipod vehicles I drew.

"This is the land of the glass bots. We abandoned them, abandoned their lands, and instead of staying dead like they should have, they turned into walking memories."

And now, finally, Glass (ey/em), linguist, translator, and traveler of the desert.

Info:

First to join the group, joined Sprocket a while ago.

It was just the two of them for a very long time

Glass' main role on the team is as a protector (ey wields that spear well) and as a navigator

Before Sprocket, ey was a translator

Glass lived with other glass bots, and worked closely with their king

When humans needed to interact with the glass bots for any reason, Glass would act as a translator

Because Glass people speak in frequencies humans can't always hear and cannot learn to speak any other language, Glass learned sign language, which ey still uses to communicate now

Ey also became a kind of negotiator, learning how to translate what the King had to say into mannerisms and politeness that the humans would view favorably, and vice-versa

This regular involvement with humans grew Glass's fascination with human culture and languages, something not necessarily appreciated in the glass bot world

Of course it was Glass's job to understand these things, and ey was respected given eir high-ranking position, but ostracized as well

Eventually, this fascination with the outside world, resentment in eir own community, and disagreement with the King's rule drove Glass to leave and strike out on eir own

Soon after, ey met Sprocket, who offered em a job

Out of the group, those two are probably still the closest

They had a lot of time out in the desert to grow this bond, learning about each other, about each other's worlds

Glass is a very curious person, and often has many questions

Ey is very passionate about languages, and always eager to learn more, as well as teach people

Glass is an excellent teacher as well, eir patience makes em well-suited for it

Once Desmona joins the team and they have an actual human mouth to feed, ey also discovers a love of cooking!

"Enough lounging, I need to keep moving." // vikas chander

A note by the photographer:

"In the far north west of Namibia lies possibly one of the remotest and least inhabited places on Earth. Kaokoland is home to the ethnic group known as the Himba, but I came here in search of the Lone Men of Kaokoland. They are not marked on any map and blend seamlessly into the landscape making them, difficult to spot. The Lone men have been wired together using small rocks found in the area by artist, Trevor Nott and each of them has a small tag on them with their number and a small caption. Seen here is Lone man # 5 who says – “ Enough lounging, I need to keep moving”. Rumoured to be in excess of about 40 men of stone, I could discover only 18 of them, during my adventures in Kaokoland. The rest await me and for my next trip into the area."