Another friend candidate

I realized the repetition only now (hurt/hurt) xD

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How are you guys doing? I started this year with a trip, as those who frequent Replay’s super secret Discord already know, and I suppose the trend will continue because I already have two other escapades planned. Both in Japan, though. I’m still upset at the crazy place ticket prices. Somehow, the flight from Japan to, let’s say Poland, can be 3 times more expensive as the same flight from Poland to Japan. For whatever reason. Regardless…

I have finished another wip! The working title is “The curse of fire and ice” but it’s kinda long, so it might change as I continue working on it. I love it (of course I do), but I’ll let it stil for a while now and focus on the final pass for the Mind Drummer before I start querying again – yes, that awful time has come. You will see me whining under the pages about the rejections. I’ll be sending to whatever English-handling agents I can find and let’s see what happens!
For the next story, I think I’ll let myself brainstorm concepts for a while, without really trying to figure out the entire book. Usually I latch onto the first shiny idea I have, so I want to experiment with a different brainstorming attitude.

From reading, I didn’t get to read a lot while I was writing the final chapters of my book, but I started listening to Sanderson’s first secret book – Tress of the Emerald Sea, and… I don’t like it. Surprisingly, there’s not much about this book that I like, and despite liking Hoid in the Stormlight Archive, I’m now dreading another joke or weird opinion from the narrator. You probably don’t know what I’m talking about – well, Sanderson took one of his beloved characters and wrote a book narrated by them. And the guy is supposed to be your witty, smartass-type of a person who has an opinion on everything and doesn’t hesitate to shovel it down your throat as you’re trying to read the story between the endless digressions. Yes, I’m very salty about this book. I was kinda of waiting for it.

Btw, have you guys tried playing with AI image generation? I was trying to train a model to generate some Adas, but the effects only provided some entertainment haha~ I’m in general very upset at what’s happening in the industry because of these models. People are losing jobs and job opportunities while the models are getting trained on their work without any consent whatsoever. The endless opportunities to exploit and the fact that we made algorithms to create art instead of do the menial jobs for us is extremely upsetting. I’m a bit worried where this will all go. Not the fault of the technology of course – I think is amazing – but I’m glad I’m not an artist full-time, fearing being replaced by a python script trained on my portfolio.

Well, I hope you enjoy Sofia’s new friend and see you next week!

21 comments on “Another friend candidate”

HKMaly January 9, 2023 Reply

Sofia, you forgot your new sword!

… or is the relationship going to go the other way, with you belonging to the sword instead of sword belonging to you?
- T3hOgre January 10, 2023 Reply
  
  It would be intriguing would it not for her to suddenly be holding the sword/dagger elsewhere when she dropped it? And does its twin have another hottie spirit in possibly female form to tempt Sofia? It was a twin set was it not?
Doom January 9, 2023 Reply

Excuse me Mr. Sword! She’s a pretty kitty with a heart of tar! Get it right!
- T3hOgre January 10, 2023 Reply
  
  Agreed. Though I am still skeptical of this whole black hearted nature thing NI seems so desperate to paint our beloved Sofa-cat with, tormenting our very souls with scandal. Would the pure hearted, yet mischevious prankster Laura, pick a dark heart for a friend? I think not! Why the idea of it all! Preposterous.
  - T3hOgre January 10, 2023 Reply
    
    Appended 😉 for the record.
    - Doom January 13, 2023 Reply
      
      Something that occurred to me today: Our beloved Sofa-Cat’s heart might not be tar for the color and moral implications, but instead for other qualities such as water resistance and how brightly it blazes when on fire.
      - HappyHead January 13, 2023
        
        Also because it’s sticky – once it’s attached to something, good luck getting it off.
      - T3hOgre January 13, 2023
        
        Beautiful. @Doom and @HappyHead thank you for this beautiful laugh out loud. Reminded me of a Lionel Ritchie song – the words to which I will not utter here as it also gets stuck in your head. Like cellophane tape on the finger of life. Of course, burning tar creates quite the odor – so she has a smelly heart.
someone January 9, 2023 Reply

Did that guy come “from” the knife?
Refugnic January 9, 2023 Reply

Hello indeed, my little mouse,
hello, my pitch-black heart.
From slumber deep your voice did rouse,
from now, till death doth part.

Such fair complexion, pretty eyes,
your body: Well in shape.
And your heart, chock full of lies,
come with me and escape.

From all the hurt and all the pain,
I’ll make them disappear.
Not much to loose, but all to gain,
there’s nothing you must fear.

Now come, give in, let’s ditch this joint,
and make a plan to strike.
I’ll make him yours, if that’s your point,
it’s just a little hike.

Discard the blade and leave this place,
no, won’t be looking back.
Not one more glance at Robert’s face,
turmoil, her heart in black.

A frazzled tail, a speedy step,
a walk, a run, which is it?
Can’t deal with this, not without prep,
can’t handle this, I quit!

In the meantime, close yet far,
Julia, Robert, Chicken!
None can wake our sleeping star,
his look is quite grief-stricken.

“I could try a healing charm,
might fail, but won’t hurt either.”
But she’s a long way from the farm,
and from the godly father.

But tell me, Robert, what ails you,
new injuries, new bruises?
Those claw marks look like they ripped through,
and there, you make excuses.

‘I’m fine’, he says, but knows he’s not,
he’s shaken to the core.
Just one more time, the one I’ve sought,
maybe Stefen will know more.
- T3hOgre January 10, 2023 Reply
  
  I am truly disappointed for not a word about the loyalty of chickens, monsieur.
  - Refugnic January 10, 2023 Reply
    
    I did give the Chicken a honorary mention for being at her side, yet being unable to do more than the others, did I not?
    - T3hOgre January 10, 2023 Reply
      
      Man, I honestly read right past that (twice). No more poetry or commenting (or soda pop) for me at 03:00. 🙂 I would ask for my reply to be stricken from the record, but I have been previously told no backsies. I stand then hen-pecked. Sorry good Refugnic.
      
      I liked this part the best:
      “From all the hurt and all the pain,
      I’ll make them disappear.
      Not much to loose, but all to gain,
      there’s nothing you must fear.” – Refugnic
      
      Will she give in to the her desire to be strong not afraid and useful not useless, or her desire to possess Robert? She seems easy prey for the blade’s Imp in either event. Besides herself, will she hurt Laura or Kasper most?
  - T3hOgre January 10, 2023 Reply
    
    I should also have appended 😉 to my comment, as upon reading in the new light of day it comes across terse and ogrely.
Alex January 9, 2023 Reply

Okay now that’s a curious development. I really want to know who that dude is, but if he’s some kind of sword spirit he might not come up again for a while. Makes me wonder if there’s something in Ada’s sword that’s blocking her from confessing to Rob.
- Matheus January 10, 2023 Reply
  
  Cmon, a sword spirit is blocking Ada from confessing? That’s lame. Anyway, i’m curious about this dude too. He could be an ancient spirit that couldn’t manifest due to the lack of magic, but now he can since, you know, there’s a lot of magic going around.
  - Alex January 11, 2023 Reply
    
    I disagree. The possibilities are pretty much endless, so declaring all of that as lame is shallow. It could very well be something intriguing like with the Red Ribbon girl or with Gilthunder from Seven Deadly Sins who pretended to be an enemy because of being blackmailed.
JW January 10, 2023 Reply

Btw, have you guys tried playing with AI image generation?

I played around with it a bit. Both with DALL·E 2 and Stable Diffusion. But I don’t really seem have a talent for getting it to do what I want. So I suspect the claims of impending artpocalypse are a bit overrated, or at least premature. At the moment it’s still just a tool that requires some skill/talent to get something good out of.

I wonder how much difference it would make if it had been trained only on art without or with expired copyright on it. Prompts to create something in the style of living artists wouldn’t work, but I bet it would still be pretty awesome. All the basics would still be there, and I bet a lot style-variation could be prompted just with an example (without training on it).

Have you played around with ChatGPT as well? That’s also a pretty groundbreaking advance. If they can make it a bit better, then maybe I can finally (not-)write all those stories floating around in my brain.

Hmm. Perhaps I should ask ChatGPT to create some prompts for DALL·E 2. Maybe that would work better.
Alex January 11, 2023 Reply

Regarding A.I. images I think there will be an upheaval regarding what is derivative work and such. Artists already have it hard even without A.I., because just browsing deviantart or other image boards shows such an abundance of gorgeous images. And yes, I do also mean the safe for work ones that show e.g. landscapes.

Smart business people who don’t want legal trouble will simply hire a bunch of artists for commissions that include being given the rights to use those images for A.I. and then work from there.

And then there’s consumers who throw crazy amounts of money at the cheapest of idle games or at ETFs. That’s how weird the art market already is.
Crestlinger January 16, 2023 Reply

The brother blade: *You Idiot! That was way too much for a first timer! See? now she is scared of us and we’re all alone again. Next time, just glowy hilt ONLY!*
NoriMori January 27, 2023 Reply

That face in panel 2 is something else 😂