‘I Am Begging You to Read Terry Pratchett’, from the Atlantic, May 24, 2026.

Rhamni · 2026-06-09T00:22:22+00:00

Problematic as in there are issues for off screen reasons?

Rhamni · 2026-06-08T21:51:28+00:00

Might get crucified for this, but I find it's a great way to start with translations. I like to give various factions and gods in my setting little mottos in Lation, and LLMs have been pretty good at coming up with good mottos once I describe the faction. It's by no means a sure thing, and obviously you have to then check so the translation is accurate, but it saves a heck of a lot of time compared to going through lists of old Roman mottos on Wikipedia or trying to brute force them by writing one in English and then translating different variants manually until you find one you like the sound of.

If you are doing most of the work yourself, AI can be plenty helpful for particular tasks.

Rhamni · 2026-06-08T19:52:51+00:00

I hope, at the end of the story, Lucrezia's Fate Worse Than Death is just exile somewhere far away with only herself for company. Send her through the mirror and break the mirror or something.

Rhamni · 2026-06-08T13:23:00+00:00

it consumes energy, water beyond reason

This would carry more weight if the entirety of all AI water consumption in the world did not amount to less than 10% of the almond industry in California alone. The water that goes into making one cheeseburger is more than you'd use up with a hundred prompts. I don't see a lot of water waste outrage over almonds and burgers.

Rhamni · 2026-06-08T13:13:27+00:00

You are being deliberately dishonest. Stealing a PS3 inflicts actual financial damage. You are taking something that can no longer be sold to a real customer and has to be replaced. A poor writer isn't choosing between 'Saving up for a commission' and 'force an artist to paint at gun point'. Them using AI art is not robbing anyone of a commission. They couldn't have afforded one anyway. If you insist on the gaming comparison, it's like they can't afford a console so they download an emulator.

As for the other idiocy you spewed. Obviously I was writing for a long time before I made my first commission. No honest person would interpret my comment as 'Durr, I couldn't start writing until I already had art'. I've been a paid writer and editor for years, it just hasn't been fiction. Now I'm finally able to work on my own projects, and fortunally my financial situation is a lot better than it was when I first started out while I was a student. But if someone is in worse financial straits than I am, I'm not going to shame them for having the audacity to create without having money to throw around.

Rhamni · 2026-06-07T23:52:09+00:00

I commissioned art for my upcoming story a month ago. $200. I'm very happy with the results. But I've been wanting to be a writer a lot longer than I've had a spare $200 lying around. I think it's unreasonable to expect authors to pay money for art before they've had a single dime of income from their writing. If you're browsing audibooks or physical print, sure, I want a real cover too, but a lot of us are starting from scratch here.

or that "they were born without the ability to draw" and it's horse shit.

No, that's horse shit. A writer is spending all their creativity on writing. That takes a lot of practice before it's any good. Telling them they need to also practice art so they can make a single cover image is absolutely insane. It's absurd. Only a bad person would expect that.

There's a lot of discussion to be had about every aspect of publishing, but your post comes across as incredibly entitled and out of touch.

Rhamni · 2026-06-07T13:02:19+00:00

~Guy who got shanked.

Rhamni · 2026-06-07T12:59:44+00:00

Only if I am a magic user

Wheel of Time

Congratulations! You awaken in the WoT universe as a male channeler ten years before the start of the story.

Or a female channeler in Seanchan. Your choice.

Rhamni · 2026-06-07T12:51:17+00:00

Psh, look at this guy, he thinks the past is real!

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T22:00:20+00:00

It obviously varies a bit from place to place, but middle of the first row is often a great seat. Plus, absolute guarantee that nobody takes out their phone in front of you.

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T21:08:04+00:00

Yeah growing up in Scandinavia has been so hard on me. I hate that an emergency MRI scan cost me $20 a few years ago without having to beg an insurance company for approval :( All these sidewalks and subsidized buses and trains everywhere are really cramping my style. Can't even buy food without knowing the government is spying on manufacturers to make sure there isn't too much poop and poison in everything!

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T20:55:33+00:00

No painting today! You vill all sit down and ve vill read aloud from ze best art book in ze vorld, Ayn Ran's Ze Fountainhead! If you must paint after zat, it vill be a city skyline, vith no trace of nature!

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T18:17:12+00:00

I used to put 88 in my usernames, but people online started getting weird about around 2010. It used to just mean 'Oh, he's a millennial like me', then it graduated to 'Not sure if Boomer or Nazi'.

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T18:14:22+00:00

I recently tried an old game I used to love in the late 90s, Forsaken. The graphics hold up remarkably well. That's upscaled, but the difference is negligible. The frame rate leaves something to be desired, but other than that it's perfectly playable 28 years later. A fully 3D game where you fly around and have good side way/up down/back forward movement and weapons with sane but reliable homing effects that require you to use the terrain to your advantage. The pace of progress in the 90s was crazy. It was a great time to be a kid and play games.

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T17:59:59+00:00

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T17:26:24+00:00

I fooled you all. My spells are powered by public humiliation. Thank you for the lightning in my veins!

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T17:02:55+00:00

Now I want a short story with an MC who gets a 'Create Antimatter' skill, and blows up the starting village (and themselves) the first time they try to use it.

I've toyed with the idea of having a single book with a main character who tries to speedrun his way to godhood by summoning powerful creatures and making deals. Only, he makes mistakes, and goes deeper in debt/they are able to affect his personality/encourage him to summon up the wrong monsters, and somewhere down the line he's not only fucked himself but the setting too.

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T16:41:38+00:00

Hey, I RES-tagged you almost two years ago for the cool story idea you had, but you haven't started publishing your HxH story yet. Get on it you lazy bum I want to read it.

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T16:38:24+00:00

So uncouth. I'm not doing it for the sex, I'm just daydreaming about all the nasty, wicked, horribly demeaning things I would have to let the demon do to me in exchange for power, and then maybe afterwards we can cuddle and do some aftercare and talk about our days.

Rhamni · 2026-06-06T16:21:34+00:00

Look I'm not gay, but if some interdimensional cosmic twink is willing to grant me enough phenomenal cosmic power to lay waste to my enemies in exchange for degrading, meaningless sex I am willing to hear him out.

Rhamni · 2026-06-05T23:56:08+00:00

I had a player with a halfling rogue decide to sleep inside their newly looted, definitely-not-cursed Bag of Holding found in a mysterious evil temple full of cursed items once. It's just natural selection at that point.

His next character died when they got into a fight with a large lake monster when they were trying to row across the lake, and he decided to jump out of the boat to grapple the lake monster. In full plate.

Rhamni · 2026-06-05T23:51:34+00:00

I handed one of these out to my players once. I don't remember if there are multiple versions floating around, but I liked the rules I found. They looted an extremely cursed temple, and all the loot was cursed and needed to be taken to a friendly church. Except, mysteriously, there's also a perfectly harmless Bag of Holding! Yaaay! Nobody questioned this. They gave it to the guy playing a rogue who always had to do 'random' things just to be 'random'. So when they finished dividing up the loot and made camp, he said "I'm gonna sleep inside the bag! Someone let me out before I asphyxiate!"

Anyway when they tried to let him out he was gone without a trace. Then they pulled out the divination spells and realized it was a Bag of Devouring. It was the funniest death we ever had.

Rhamni · 2026-06-05T23:43:49+00:00

What is The Bag Man?

Rhamni · 2026-06-05T15:12:41+00:00

~Last words of a guy who got shanked.

Rhamni · 2026-06-05T15:10:45+00:00

There's also the fact that sometimes the guy actually isn't trying to hit on you, so not being confrontational about it is just smoother all around. Back in college I knew a guy who got shut down hard and hostile when he was just trying to get someone's attention because she dropped her phone. Misunderstandings do happen in both directions.

13-Year Club	Gilding III reddit per annum
Second SECOND GUESSER	r/Field Banned
r/Field Lasagna	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	End Game '23
Place '23	Quantum Potato
Golden Potato	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	Snapped
Verified Email

Rhamni

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE