Latest Posts by duck-in-the-universe - Page 2

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.

Robot biped/bipod vehicles I drew.

Hand embroidered, self drafted, birch tree inspired buttonup shirt.

1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice shows a Pioneer probe using the gravity of Jupiter to slingshot its way to the outer planets.

Planet Deslotair is super cool, tell me more about Desmona if you want

-g

I'd love to!!

So Desmona grew up in a vitrel harvesting town called Sagal, where vitrel is pumped from the ground and then shipped off elsewhere so it can be properly processed. Processed vitrel is still pretty toxic, but it isn't nearly as reactive as the raw stuff. Desmona's dad worked for the harvesting company, and when she was 16 she got a job working there as well. Nothing super dangerous, she was just behind a desk helping with paperwork and whatnot, but she was on site a lot. She was actually really fascinated with how vitrel was moved and gathered, and wanted to study material sciences when she got older.

But before she got a chance to do any of that, there was an accident. A vitrel transport truck crashes, and Desmona is right on the scene. Her dad is the one to pull her out of the mess, contaminating himself in the process. He would later succumb to his wounds and die, she would not. She wakes up, and runs.

Desmona spends about a week out in the wilderness mostly by herself. She lives in the plains region, Deslotair’s finest, but it’s still hard to make do, to survive. She drinks from rivers and chews sweet grass into a pulp between her teeth. The pain under her skin settles, but the energy does not. Eventually, she finds a fallen ship, and starts to camp out there. She meets a vitrel dog, names him Tak, and sleeps a little easier. She meets two bots, fails to push them away, and sleeps through the night. The vitrel that lashes out from her skin can't hurt any of them.

Outside of the scavengers group, she's very shy and withdrawn. The armor helps contain the vitrel, but it also acts as a shield from the world. She's very aware that the mask makes her look strange and off-putting, and she leans into that as much as possible when interacting with new people. Once she does warm up to people though, she's really sweet. Has kind of a smart-ass sense of humor with Sprocket, and immediately becomes really close with Glass. They cook together, and ey teaches her sign language while Desmona tries to teach em to sew. It takes a while for the group to find their rhythm, but eventually the three of them (four with Tak) are inseparable.

OOO fun!

Planet Deslotair is a sci-fi western story I've been working on. It takes place on a mostly desert planet, covered in craters with nearly never-ending storms raging in the upper atmosphere. The craters crack the ground open to bring forth vitrel, a liquid power source that nearly everything on Deslotair runs on. The storms, meanwhile, make the planet a treacherous place to travel to and from, and many ships crash instead of successfully making the journey.

Scavengers, those who visit the ships and pick apart their corpses, provide a valuable service as they fight over the remains.

The story follows four main characters:

There's Sprocket, an ex-mining robot and mechanic who leads them. Glass, a glass bot that left eir cult-like upbringing to wander the sands. Desmona, a teenage girl caught in a vitrel harvesting accident that left her filled with wild, uncontrollable energy. And Alonze, an ex-bandit who just got out of jail, and is Sprocket's ex. (Kinda. It's complicated.)

It's very found family, just following the adventures of this group as they try to work together and protect each other. Very heavy lean into western aesthetics while bringing in a lot of sci fi. Sort of retro futurism at times? Asks a lot of questions about robots and outcasts and what it really means to be human.

I've been reworking the plot a bunch lately, so it's hard to say much more, but I have a lot of worldbuilding and character development on my hands!

ALRIGHT

I want to talk about my podcast, but my brain's being a bit rude today.

So we're going to a project share, to anyone who sees this feel free to participate.

This share can be about ANY projects, fanfic, fanart, or original that you want to just yap yap yap about.

Here's how it works: You reblog the post and talk about your project you're working on/thinking about/want to do/etc...

Then, you go up the reblog chain and find a project you're interested, and SEND ASKS to the person who made the info about the project!

I'll start: I'm writing a podcast, and it's about Glacie, and their coworkers, who work at the Meeting Point. The Meeting Point is a restaurant/shop located near the Mad Forest. Coming back from a pretty long break, due to their own unreality problems popping up, Glacie is warned that the forest grows hungry. After some incidents, Glacie's hallucinations start getting real bad, and they eventually venture forth into the Mad Forest.

Flight of the Starmoth Digital artwork by me, 2023

experimenting with ink and watercolor

robutt, guts out

working on this more, finished product will end up on the store

Curious

The terrible indecision of having to name a new document.

Cast your votes now! I personally am a big fan of "one robot teaches another how to be human. their daughter is dying." and "am i a muppet or a man?" This one's just for planning, so it doesn't have to be serious lol. "Exoskeletons and Inner Machinery" might be good for an actual project title.

Epic Cosplay of “Horizon Zero Dawn”

i've been reading a lot of books about urban naturalism recently, and the one big thing they all talk about is how you HAVE to stop seeing nature as something that happens somewhere else. nature is not just charismatic megafauna and state parks and mountain ranges. nature is that abandoned lot that's growing native milkweed in it. nature is the murder of crows that lives in your block. nature is the moss growing on your roof and the dandelions growing in the sidewalk cracks and the song birds at your neighbor's birdfeeder. and you should care about it! you should notice it! that's YOUR nature!

character design kicking my ass rn

ocean exploration robots!!

Absolutely excellent tags by @glacierruler YOU GET IT

They spent so much time building that relationship when they relied on each other so heavily and then they went and fucked it all up. Now they desperately want to just pick things back up where they left it but it just can't be that fucking eaasyyyy

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

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

Okay I fixed all the old Deslotair posts so now you can ACTUALLY scroll through the #planet deslotair tag to find them. Shoutout to good blog organization and all that

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

fanart of one of @eggnogo 's robots :3

link to og

WIP of a Deslotair comic I'm working on!

It's soooo funny to me when people draw robots kissing and they're just sort of smashing screens or cameras against each other. What is that accomplishing? What is that doing for them??

Although on the other hand I think it's kind of significant how this shows bots mimicking human actions even when logically it doesn't make sense. No one taught us intimacy but I guess this is how it's done. Do you feel it? No me neither but I've never seen another way. Maybe if we keep trying the right sparks will fly. I'm trying to tell you I love you by the way. If that can be enough.

Fuck. What was I saying?

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.

Just a girl and her weird ass dog

I looove drawing my characters in my outfits, and I think this is absolutely smth Desmona would wear. Big, flowy pants enjoyer forever and always.

Oh my gosh, I love this so much!!!! Glass's concept and design is one of my favorites, so it's so cool to see how other people draw em! You did such a good job and I love the sandy background! Soooo very fitting.

Thank you!

Drew this for my friend @duck-in-the-universe birthday

This is eir character Glass, from eir story

work in progress//

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

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

Yesss, so glad this finally made it!!! <3

The present @duck-in-the-universe made me finally came in!!!

Now to just find a place to put them <3

They also have me cute stickers :D

Incredibly dumb doodles on what would happen if Sprocket and Alonze met @glacierruler's oc, Fig

Whereas Sprocket and Alonze live in a world where bots are fully realized beings that have to fight to be recognized in society,,, Fig's world is still cruising with boston dynamics style military drones. Shenanigans ensue.