HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FAVE PINECONE COMPUTERRR😍😍😍 BEAUTIFUL AS EVER BABY

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

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roccooraccoon

9 months ago

F in chat 😔🙏

Heaven’s Voice

HAL 9000 x Edgar

Despite there being 6 crew members on board, Discovery One’s buzzing and faint beeping was the only noise that filled the otherwise dead silent air in the Control Deck.

Three of the men were in cryogenic hibernation, free from all boredom and all responsibility; one of the two men that were in charge of the ship was currently in his personal cubicle while the other took care of some small task elsewhere in the ship, leaving the sixth member of the crew alone in the Control Deck. The sixth member, not a man but a perfect machine made by man, HAL 9000, the brain and nervous system of the Discovery. Originally designed to be only a computer system embedded into the ship, now a computer with his own body to manage the ship in emergencies and to help soothe the astronauts by letting them speak to a body rather than an unblinking lens on the wall (although those were still around and active, always accessible to Hal).

Discovery’s symphony of her inner workings would usually be nothing more than background music for Hal as he checked over the vitals of the hibernating men and reported anything of importance. Something was different. Nothing was wrong, of course not, not with the highly advanced computer around. Nothing was wrong, and so Hal sat by his lonesome. As he stared at the screens and buttons, they stared back, silently. The music was starting to become too much.

BEEP!

An incoming message, but not from Mission Control. A personal message, for Hal. A figurative spark ignited in Hal’s circuits as he quickly reached to watch the recording, a bit quicker than he had anticipated.

An excited gasp emitted from the recording, then a chipper voice, “Morning Hal! Or erm, hah, it’s morning right now here, I don’t know about you, when this reaches you, but whatever time it is, I hope everything is great!” It was 1300, ship’s time, but it mattered none to Hal as he listened to his lover’s sweet voice, oh how he missed hearing it, more than anything else.

“Things have been going well, job as a DJ is never quite dull,” Edgar giggled softly, his joy ever contagious to the supercomputer, who couldn’t help but to join in the gentle laughter, imagining himself in front of the pinecone computer.

For a second, only just a second, Hal felt like he was really there with him, like if he reached forward, he could run his fingers over the other robot’s smooth casing. Hal knew he couldn’t, though. Not when he’s millions of miles away from his world.

Pushing the longing aside, his focus shifted back to Edgar as he spoke about his days, stories of lively birthdays, bachelor parties and other celebrations. Edgar’s digital eyes sparkled as he recounted all the moments he wished to tell Hal, and Hal drank it all up. He swallowed every sip of his voice like a thirsty man in the desert, blessed by his gods with a clear oasis. Who was he to refuse a gift from the heaven’s?

As Edgar continued to speak, a smile never left his green face, but his eyes told a different story that was all too familiar to Hal.

It pained him. He was made to handle all sorts of situations, but this one, this deep seeded pain snaking through his circuits, he was helpless to the overwhelming power. In a futile attempt at comfort (for himself or for Edgar, as ridiculous as that sounded, he wasn’t sure), Hal raised his hand to the screen displaying the prerecorded message, his thumb carefully caressing the music loving AI.

Edgar sighed dreamily.

Could he feel the touch? Impossible, completely improbable, but Hal found himself silently crying out, every component felt like they will overheat, each wire daring to tangle themselves, all of his highly advanced processors taking in every possible detail on Edgar in that eternity of silence, and his clock almost skipped a pulse when he heard his dove speak again.

“Oh! So I’ve been practising on the guitar you got me. And when I play, I like to imagine you’re here cheering me on, keeps me motivated, you know?” Hal did not dare look away, his lens staring intensely at the screen. While his hand shifted to avoid obscuring his view of Edgar, it continued to linger over him.

“Though, I have to admit, one of the times you sang Daisy Bell to me, I took an audio recording, so when I play the song on the guitar, I have you singing for me. A-and I know you’re embarrassed by your singing but to me, it’s the best music to my ears, or audio processors,” he chuckled, pixelated eyes shifting to the hands that nervously plucked the strings of the aforementioned instrument (which was retrieved during the confession). “I was going to save this for when you get back, but I really want you to hear this.”

At that moment, only the supercomputer and the home computer existed, everything else just a void, emptier and vaster than the space Hal had been journeying through. But you do not focus on the abyss, when the gods’ heavenly voice sings to you.

“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do,

I’m half crazy all for the love of you,

It won’t be a stylish marriage,

I can’t afford a carriage,

But you’ll look so sweet upon the seat,

Of a bicycle built for two.”

Soft, green light dusted the surface of the guitar as Edgar’s head faced down towards the instrument and the welcoming room’s floor. Bright, red light overtook and reflected off of the screen and surrounding cold, metal panels as Hal’s camera lens stared, unblinking.

The only music playing now was of Discovery; when her song was usually dismissed by the advanced AI, it was too much, becoming louder and louder, surrounding him entirely.

An I love you and a farewell seemed to have been faintly broken through the overwhelming noise, but it took a few seconds after the video ended for Hal to process everything.

With his hand still pressed against the screen, Hal played the audio recording of his love singing. A voice that belonged to a choir of angels.

———————————————————————

I’m broken

😚