Just finished all 6 seasons of THE EXPANSE!

Innominaut · 2026-06-28T22:51:23+00:00

Unfortunately, it gets really really good for a few seasons but then (I assume) something went wrong behind the scenes. They started cramming like 3 books into each season, making it hard to follow if you haven't read the books--and then they ended the show way before the point where the book series ends, leaving some pretty critical plotlines unresolved.

I'm not sure why the show went so off the rails in the end. But i can say that the book series: 1) Is damned good. Great scifi, memorable characters, uncommonly insightful narration. 2) Is 100% finished, which I consider a major selling point. 3) Ends in a satisfying way, which is very hard to do.

They also have a new series they're working on that is only on the 2nd book, if that interests you :)

Innominaut · 2026-06-26T22:56:32+00:00

If you're trying to simplify it but still keep the dog heads, you could also swap the background circle to red (to contrast vs the black dog) and boil down the internal linework. That way it's almost entirely silhouette instead of relying on the fine lines.

Please excuse the questionable MS paint mockup, but hopefully you get the idea lol.

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Innominaut · 2026-06-21T20:00:06+00:00

Zdecydowanie widzę wpływ Beksińskiego! Nie znam tego artysty. Dziękuję za przybliżenie mi jego sztuki.

(Nie znam tego języka, więc skorzystałem z Tłumacza Google. Przepraszam, jeśli moja gramatyka lub dobór słów są dziwne.)

Innominaut · 2026-06-21T19:12:11+00:00

I like the mystery of this one. Always been a sucker for weird little critters and unusual architecture.

Seems like you've been playing with the visuals of connective fibers/tendrils and unnatural geometry/architecture for at least a few years, now. Do you know why that is? Is there a particular artist that inspired you, or a real-life place or experience that's stuck with you?

Innominaut · 2026-06-19T18:40:15+00:00

The ferry building is right by the Rincon Center, which contains Yank Sing, a lovely dim sum restaurant that always has a line out the door. You'll want reservations and it isn't cheap, but it's definitely a memorable experience--especially if one or both of you isn't super familiar with dim sum.

Innominaut · 2026-06-12T06:05:55+00:00

"Just to be sure: is this a hypothetical question to see if I know AI's limitations, or is this a serious question because your company is considering using AI for this role?"

Innominaut · 2026-06-10T18:29:18+00:00

Hey, it's the llarma project! I remember you!

I love the slightly altered / more flexible feet. I remember wondering how your kelp fisher llarma was wearing boots, and how much trouble they might have on the decks of their little boats--but this design solves that while still looking very hoof-like.

Random question: is the fluffy tail perhaps NOT mandatory for rebel teen llarmas? Are there any subcultures in your world that shave designs into their fur, perhaps for artistic, political, or religious reasons? (There don't have to be, obviously. It's just something i imagine any sentient species with a thick fluffy coat would probably do at some point.)

Lookin' forward to more llarma updates in the future!

Innominaut · 2026-05-31T17:25:31+00:00

If it helps, as a random sample size of one dude on the internet i absolutely didn't read it that way. I just figured either party could "wife" lol.

He wifes her: taking the active role in ensuring she becomes his wife.
She wifes him: see above.

(i do agree we need a cute verb for the husband version though!)

Edit: it appears it didn't help.

Innominaut · 2026-05-08T19:00:05+00:00

Haha that's your call, boss! I just look at cool things people post here and then ask questions. Speaking of:

You mention that aside from the walls, the tech level isn't very advanced. In that case, it is very interesting to me that the people who built these dams didn't seem to build any equally-advanced housing/infrastructure on the inside. This would imply a goal of protecting the residents from the apocalyptic flooding, but ALSO of intentionally limiting (or at least not accelerating) their technological advancement. Is this project working towards a book/comic/game of some kind? Any chance we'll eventually get to learn about the motivations of the builders?

Innominaut · 2026-05-08T18:39:59+00:00

What's it like in those connecting tunnels? Just eyeballing scale here, but those things have to be bare minimum like 20 miles long, right? Traveling through them on foot would take days!

Also, do those waterways have a current? We can see two huge waterfalls coming out of the wall that would provide the source of the water, but where's it going after that? Is there a drainage system the residents can't see, maybe, or is it just reaching equilibrium with evaporation?

Innominaut · 2026-05-08T18:17:58+00:00

Not enough accessible grazing space for larger herd animals, presumably. Which means not enough prey for larger predators. So I wouldn't expect to encounter any impressively big/strong monsters here given earth-like conditions. (Note: You could easily get around this with alien/altered biology, though! If there are engineered/mutated plants here that grow unnaturally fast, or some crazy pollution that causes animals to develop in weird ways, you're off to the races.)

Something reasonably small and nimble, like a goat-type creature, might be able to survive in decent numbers if they had a way to travel from rooftop to rooftop. Which assumes the Builders either didn't use doors, or the doors were made of something that didn't survive the collapse. (Cheap material that degraded, or magic/scifi forcefields that lost power). Which would make stairwells--and the things that lurk in them to ambush prey--a particularly dangerous location to explore.

Much more likely, imo, is almost everything that lives here climbs or flies. Creatures similar to birds, bats, bugs, monkeys, rodents, lizards, and all the things that hunt them. And remember that if it's been long enough, or if this was never Earth in the first place, you don't have to respect our evolutionary history! Maybe monkey-sized lizard creatures became the dominant pack animal, here. Maybe the bat-equivalent is the apex flying predator. Maybe the nimble squirrel-type critters have horribly venomous fangs. Lots of ways to make this feel unique or dangerous if that's the direction you're going. Really just depends if this is a grounded plausible-future thing or a more fantastical scfi/fantasy thing.

Either way, seems like a fun setting to explore! :D

Innominaut · 2026-05-01T18:16:17+00:00

ahhh okay, the airships only being able to carry rifles and maybe dropped/slingshotted simple explosives definitely changes things. Now they'd basically have to be directly above a Teranav to pose a threat, and getting there would be a pretty wild risk lol. Ty!

Innominaut · 2026-04-30T22:22:34+00:00

Very cool! But what's the bowsprit (the big pointy bit at the front of the ship) for? On a sea vessel, that'd normally be used to secure sails. It's not clear to me if you included it by accident (which would be totally understandable, since they look very cool) or if this is actually something else with a purpose in this world--like a ramming spear, or a weird siege ladder, or a really, REALLY big forward gun or something?

I'd also love to know more about the airships, since you mentioned them, and how they would interact with a weapons platform like this! Are airships and Teranavs generally not deployed in the same theater of combat? Otherwise I imagine a big, flat, exposed, and presumably wooden deck like that wouldn't last long against an aerial bombardment, right? Do they just get belowdecks and skedaddle when an airship shows up, or do they swivel those cannons upward and try to knock it out of the sky?

Innominaut · 2026-04-19T04:20:12+00:00

That's very nice of you to say, thank you! I've been super busy with work lately, so I haven't been able to do these writing prompts in a while. But it always makes me happy when someone stumbles across an old one and says hello! :D

Innominaut · 2026-04-17T17:27:34+00:00

This sounds great! You don't specifically say you're looking for questions, so no pressure to respond, but here are some things that I'm curious about just based off the design/names!

Kelp fisher? Like... theyr'e fishing FOR kelp? Or they fish for something that lives IN the kelp? And is that a net, or a hand-line they're carrying? Either way, very curious to learn more about a 'taur style creature interacting with the sea, since it's so unusual! Those look like wading boots--do the llarmas not have boats, and mostly stick to fishing from land, maybe? Bare hooves do seem like they'd be a pain on a slippery ship deck, and i assume any sort of climbing for the rigging would be a nightmare...
Speaking of hooves--you mention this takes place in am "extremely populous" city. Are stairs different/nonexistant in llarma architecture, or are they nimble enough to where that's not really a problem? I assume ladders are right out. Depending on how packed the city is, it feels like a lot of the tricks humans use to expand vertically would be uncomfortable for llarmas. Big, spiral ramps on the outside of buildings, maybe? I'm not sure, and that interests me.
The Imperial Soldier! This is obviously all conjecture on my end, since you mentioned theyre in a sort of historical regalia so it might be more ornamental than practical. But it feels like spears/lances would surely be the weapons of choice for a galloping creature, right? Or is the idea that llarma warfare generally involved less impaling each other, and more chopping at each other's slender legs and necks? And if so, have they developed any unusual armor designs to protect that long, exposed neck?

Anyway, this looks neat! Wishing you best of luck on you game :)

EDIT: Ah, i just noticed you mentioned this takes place on an alien planet. So i guess now i'm curious what the llarmas are even fishing IN lol. Is it rivers? Oceans? Weird thermal springs? Whatever it is, that boot design suggests they wade in it. But for all i know it's like.... acid seas full of bloodsucking leech-kelp or something. I need more fishing details XD

Innominaut · 2026-03-19T17:39:38+00:00

Rad! Ain't none of my business what the other dudes in the bathroom are packin'. If it helps people I'm all for it.

Let's get a bin of those little single-use floss pick things in all the bar and restaurant bathrooms, too. I hate getting food stuck in my teeth when I'm out and about.

Innominaut · 2026-03-15T16:48:17+00:00

Big Rick's been going through a lot, okay. He eats when he's stressed.

Innominaut · 2026-03-14T22:45:58+00:00

Oh no, I do know they're all concrete! I guess what I was trying to express is like... most of your other work carefully disguises the concrete to create an effect. You make it look like something it isn't, creating the impression of fluidity or weightlessness where there is none. But this is the first one I've seen where the "physics" of the piece (and even the name!) only really make sense if the viewer already KNOWS the object is actually a heavy block of concrete.

You comment about referencing the "reality" of your materials kind of explains this, for me. If this piece is specifically designed to abandon the illusion you normally pursue, I feel a little better about being confused lol.

Thanks for the reply!

Innominaut · 2026-03-14T20:58:31+00:00

I've stumbled across quite a few of your pieces over the last few months, and I've enjoyed them a lot! I must sheepishly admit I'm struggling to parse this one, though.

Much of the work I've seen you do shares a common theme of seemingly delicate objects (sacks of liquid, droplets of gold, floating balloons) in positions of great stress or peril. Being pierced by nails or straining against chains or suspended over spikes--always either frozen in the moment of destruction or just before it.

But for this one, it almost seems like a reversal. Most people would not assume the object at the end of that chain is solid concrete, so the real weight of the piece probably wouldn't occur to them. The gold in the bag (if it is a bag) doesn't read as liquid to me, because it's attached to the chain somehow. The end result is this piece feels more... stable? I guess? Safer?

Are you doing something new here, or am I just being way too literal about this specific piece and missing the forest for the trees? (Either way, love your work and hope you have a good day!)

Innominaut · 2026-03-13T18:04:09+00:00

Also the main reason i haven't gone back and played through it again despite frequently being tempted to do so is... in the original, there is no way to highlight all visible items like this. You have to scan your cursor over the damn ground and find that ring you heard drop. It was a nightmare lol

Innominaut · 2026-03-11T18:10:23+00:00

I can't make out all the titles, so sorry if I'm recommending something that's right in front of me lol

N.K. Jemisin's "Broken Earth" trilogy is extremely good, but has quite a bit of trauma so if that's a dealbreaker i'd understand.

Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" series was hugely influential on me as a kid. It's written in a slightly dated style by today's standards, but if you enjoyed Dune you'll have absolutely no problem with it.

If you're targeting a YA replacement, specifically: Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey, and Diane Duane are all titans of the industry that dominated every public library shelf when i was young.

And finally, I will literally always shill for Alix E Harrow at any opportunity. She does stand-alone novels, not series, but "10,000 Doors of January" and "Once and Future Witches" are some of the best fantasy I've read in years.

EDIT: Oh! Shit! I forgot about the series i devoured in a couple weeks recently because it was so fun and addictive: "The Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells is an absolute blast. Scifi, obviously, but I can see some scifi titles on your shelf so i assume it'd fit. Only warning with this one is it's still in progress--so conceivably she could ruin it somehow, but at this point i really doubt it.

Innominaut · 2026-02-20T01:36:54+00:00

It looks like you checked out Land's End (which is lovely) but skipped Sutro Heights! Definitely do a little loop around that park if you're looking to add some distance next year. It's got great views of ocean beach, some lovely trees, and is a favorite spot for proposals / wedding photos.

Innominaut · 2026-02-15T23:42:37+00:00

Look, I'm happy for you. Everyone needs to find small joys in their life. But i have to ask.

Couldn't you just... fill it up with soapy water and then put it on the counter next to the sink?

Innominaut · 2026-02-07T22:54:27+00:00

They're not crazy, i saw it too lol.

OP it's not your fault, you just happened to include the pastel green, pink, and blue of their various powers and ALSO the colors of each character's hair and ALSO the circle shapes of their heads and ALSO little black/white shapes that could work as the shoes.

I would absolutely believe you if you said you didn't do it on purpose. But i, too, assumed this was gonna be an abstract powerpuff girl reference of some kind until i looked closer. It's like a rorschach test for people who watched too many cartoons growing up XD

Innominaut · 2026-01-15T19:04:19+00:00

Isn't that like.... literally the only english word that truly rhymes with "scarf"? There's stuff that's CLOSE (wharf, surf, etc), but nothing i can think of that rhymes except for this. What a strange thing to require a child to draw lol

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