[SS] HALLOW-001: Halloween Spirit by Argetl, literature
Literature
[SS] HALLOW-001: Halloween Spirit
What does a creature of the deep dress as for Halloween? This Orca contemplated as she swam in her avatar form, using its convenient hands to arrange bones on the endless empty skyscrapers and jutting underwater ruins of her kingdom. (Where did you get those bones, Orca? It’s best not to ask.) She already had sharp, shark-like teeth covered; no need for plastic vampire fangs here. A witch wouldn’t be difficult, she supposed; she was already mostly purple, so she could switch out her white shirt and shorts for black and orange ones and get a nice pointy hat. But that seemed like the obvious choice, and Orca never wished to be obvious. What really appealed to her right now … She thought she could use some tentacles. (She thought this all the time, actually, but during Halloween the desire was particularly acute.) But how to make fake tentacles? Paper mache would just get soggy in her kingdom’s endless waters. An idea struck her as she balanced an antlered skull on a jutting
It felt so good to not have a plan. For the last two years, everything in Cadence’s life had been scheduled, itemized, itinerized, managed. Two weeks after her embarrassing, very public meltdown, Cadence had lost patience with her agent’s desperate attempts to salvage her career. Filled with sudden determination, she had gone online and paid a year’s rent in advance for a furnished cottage she’d never seen, in a town she’d never visited. A week later, she arrived in Lilypad with everything she wanted to keep from her previous life in a single suitcase. It wasn’t even heavy. Everyone thought she’d gone mad, of course. Her parents supported her. They thought she was making a mistake; they warned her that she needed to put more thought -- more planning -- into such major life decisions. But they recognized that she needed time out of the spotlight, and after some research, they accepted Lilypad as a safe new home for their daughter. And that, they kept reminding each other, was what
[TWWM] Soulsong: Temple of Silence - Connection by Argetl, literature
Literature
[TWWM] Soulsong: Temple of Silence - Connection
Never seen snow before and this is a bad time for first impressions, already miserable. Hurry through head down and almost miss those dark eyes -- unsettling -- keep moving, hurry on. Snow turns to slush turns to clear streams running through carved stone canals. A new place means fresh torments; when will it end? Wrung out -- what does it want? Supposed to learn some kind of lesson? Only two things learned here: never wander, never trust instincts. Never feel at home. Follow the water across the stone growing darker, darker. Reflections in obsidian; look away. Can’t bear the sight of that face, silent, forever silent. Death without peace. A spot of color. In the center of the water-maze, a column of froth flowing up -- no longer surprising; accept anything now -- a purple gown, mockery in color. Another reflection -- no. Not the right face, but just as familiar. “You can’t be here. You’re dead.” No response, only a sad smile. “Well, I’m dead too, after all. Is this
[TWWM] Soulsong: Temple of Silence - A Held Memory by Argetl, literature
Literature
[TWWM] Soulsong: Temple of Silence - A Held Memory
Your footsteps catch the sound of laughter, and you hate it. Logically, you know that the ancient figures aren’t laughing at you, but it feels like they must be as you trudge along with your tail lowered. Any comfort you once derived from this place, any welcome you once felt, is long gone. Now you wait with resigned determination for whatever other torments it has in mind for you before it will let you go. The next room is quiet, and you close your eyes for a moment on the threshold, trying to steel yourself -- it doesn’t work. You’re stepping in water again; you try not to look at your reflection, to keep your eyes fixed on the misty heights of the ceiling. But it’s impossible. With all the branches and lilypads, old logs and reeds, you have to look where you’re putting your feet, or you risk tripping and faceplanting into the muck you can feel beneath your paws. That would just make your day, wouldn’t it? So you have to turn your gaze downwards, to the water at your feet
Important Announcement Regarding AI Art by snoodls, journal
Important Announcement Regarding AI Art
Hello everyone, After discussing the subject thoroughly, staff has decided that AI art is not eligible for use in Those Who Went Missing and will not be accepted into the group. We have come to this decision based on the fact that many AI art sites unfortunately do not collect their images from Creative Commons sources, but source them by scraping reposting websites or by taking them directly from artists’ galleries without permission. There are also sites that allow users to upload another artist’s work directly to generate art from, typically without credit given. This decision also includes works generated by DeviantArt’s own recently announced DreamUp. DeviantArt has not been forthright about what art DreamUp was trained on or its methods of doing so. If our players use AI-generated elements in their artwork, there is no way for us to verify what site was used in the creation of that work, nor is there a way to give credit to the artists whose work was sourced to make the AI
may delete if dA doesnt reverse the ai bull soon. if i do ill have points to give away if anyone actually uses those and wants some ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ EDIT: okay turns out this may be a case of poor wording on dA's end. supposedly automatic opt-out is in the works. Looks like ill Probably be sticking around