Some Notes On Black Holes For A Short Story I Have In The Works. Not Going For Too Hard Of Sci-fi. I

OCtober Bingo

Okay, I don't really expect this to blow up, but here's how the game works to anyone interested. Throughout October, you ask your mutuals, people you follow, anyone really, about their OCs and then you fill out this Bingo Card for all of their OCs, you're trying to get a blackout bingo card. This card is to be used for multiple OCs!

Bonus challenge: color code filling in the bingo card so you remember what OCs of others fit which square!

Feel free to make your own bingo cards too!

@greymillieattheball since you were interested :3

Inktober 2024 - Day 8: Hike

Stages | Developing Nepenthes Pitcher plant by Steve Mackay

glass

The sun of Deslotair burned bright above. Stark white blended into yellow, infecting the sky around it. Rays of light stabbed the sky like burning knives, searing the air, cutting through that which crossed their path. Anything that stood in their way bled shadows, patches of darkness spreading from their touch.

The glass robot did not bleed shadows, ey did not feel the burning heat of the sun. Those deadly knives passed through eir translucent skin, shining off the machinery inside, swallowed by the burbling liquid that flowed through eir body. The tip of a spear was held low at eir side, its point gleaming.

No sun stabbed through the skin of the glass robot, but sharp gazes burned holes in eir back.

Whispers floated in the footsteps of the traveler. Suspicious words accompanied by fleeting glances trailed after the figure like wisps of smoke. The glass robot returned their glances with a blank curiosity, unbothered by the restless murmurs of discomfort. Ey simply observed, and walked.

The wooden doors of an old saloon swung open with whining creaks, announcing the presence of the traveler to those inside. Few heads turned, all new blood (the regulars were accustomed to the creaking of the doors, and to the uninteresting passerby they so often brought). Yet they started another round of whispers, and more heads turned to the glass robot, boisterous conversations morphing into a suspicious hiss at the arrival of the newcomer.

The glass robot turned eir head this way and that, returning the gazes of staring strangers with eir own gleaming eyes. Outside the eerie glow was swallowed up by the sun, but here it cast a white halo around the traveler’s face, surrounded by the gentle green glow of the vitrel  that flowed inside of em.

Ey walked.

The glass thudded against wooden floors, steps going unbroken as the small crowd parted to make room for the traveler. Ey nodded eir appreciation, and approached the bar. The bartender stood up straight. The robot she had been talking to, sitting on one of the hourglass stools with an untouched drink in front of him, remained perfectly still.

“Well,” the bartender started. She set down the empty glass she had been holding, put it upside down on the counter so its rim kissed the wood and left a ring of moisture. “What can I get ya?”

“Nothing to drink, thank you.” The glass robot spoke with eir hands, the fluid inside of them twisting and shifting with each movement.

The bartender eyed em warily. “Uh, sorry, I don’t know what you’re sayin’...”

“Nothing to drink, thank you.” The glass robot repeated the same motions as before, only slower, hands making clear arcs through the air.

“Ey doesn’t want anything,” the robot spoke up, nodding to the bartender before turning to address the glass bot. His eyes glowed a faint blue, piercingly contrasted with the hazy brown light that filtered through dirty glass bulbs above them. Tubes curled around him, jutting out from the fabric of his vest and wrapping around his joints. “What are you here for, then, if not a drink?”

Saloon

Glass and Sprocket's first meeting, way back when. Added a couple of ports for Sprocket's tubing to flow through, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than them just kind of sticking out at his joints or junctures in the plating. Better for consistency's sake too.

Tags: @glacierruler

character design kicking my ass rn

ocean exploration robots!!

Flight of the Starmoth Digital artwork by me, 2023

Curious

The more I write Deslotair stuff, the more I inevitably have to figure out things like themes. Robot media is cool to me in large part because it can get into some really cool themes, and how really every story about robots is still a story about humanity, in some way. Really every story is about humanity, in some way.

And when writing robots, the most obvious question to ask is "What makes us human? When you strip so much away, is what remains a person?" Which is a GOOD question that so many people have done VERY good things with, but I think the main question I would like to answer is:

"In a world where robots exist in such a capacity, why is humanity still the deciding factor?"

Why are we asking the initial question? Who stands to gain from drawing the lines in the sand? And what does that say about society today, about who gets dehumanized and who gets to stay? What happens to them?!

"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."

Intro!

Hey I'm Duck! (it's a nickname) I use they/them and ey/em pronouns, no preference but it does make me happy when people use the neos. I'm a big fan of all things sci-fi, surrealism, western, and supernatural. My biggest passion is writing, but I also like to draw, paint, and embroider!

This is my art/writing/oc/kinda just generally creative side-projects blog, stuff I feel like keeping separate from my main. If you do want to follow my main, it's @duck-in-a-spaceship (i have a theme going). I mostly post fandom stuff over there, but also just whatever else I feel like.

My main project right now is a worldbuilding thing called Deslotair! Just wrapped up the main character introductions

This will get more link-filled as we go on and I want to compile things, but right now it's gonna be pretty empty!

Tags~

#reblog for reblogs

#planet deslotair for that project

Trigger warning will be tagged with "tw ___" I'll cover the obvious ones, but let me know if you need something tagged!