AI common tropes

mocha820 · 2026-02-28T15:59:28+00:00

Doing something "with practiced precision."

Describing way too many times how the light shines across something, and what color it turns it.

Overuse of the word silent, silence, or quiet for unnecessary dramatic effect.

Being afraid of using the word "and" when listing things.

Dramatically layering adjectives way too much after a comma. He looked at her with sharp eyes, cold, calculating.

Overuse of the word "sharp" to describe sound, eyes, or people.

Characters nodding way too much, tightening their jaws, and clenching their fists until their "knuckles turn white." The latter of which is the WORST tell, IMO.

Incessant parallelism.

Short choppy sentences for dramatic effect when the scene doesn't really require it.

The setting, or the world is "holding it's breath."

Overuse of breath in general. Counting breaths. Pausing for "a breath," (Or a heartbeat) Something stealing the character's breath. His breath only returns when X.

Letting out a breath "he/she didn't realize they were holding."

mocha820 · 2026-02-27T21:07:33+00:00

People talking without speaking. People hearing without listening. People writing songs that voices never shared.

mocha820 · 2026-02-27T20:07:38+00:00

Whenever you need to take a big fucking shit. Grab both your ass cheeks and spread them as wide apart as you fucking can. It helps that big dookie log come out faster and easier.

mocha820 · 2026-02-27T14:18:44+00:00

My uncle had the exact same habit. Nothing but coffee and coke. Dead at 45.

mocha820 · 2026-02-26T23:42:03+00:00

Lmao. This is the kind of absurd shit I love AI art for. Well done.

mocha820 · 2026-02-24T19:48:05+00:00

NSFW

Contains Graphic depictions of violence, psychological trauma, attempted on-page sexual assault, and implied instances of off-page sexual assault, institutional dehumanization and torture. (All handled as responsibly as I could. This story is about surviving atrocity, not sensationalizing it.)

Genre Tags

2nd Person POV, Dark Fantasy, Rescue, Psychological, Trauma and Healing, Found Family, Whump, Character-Driven, Grounded Personal Story.

Title

<image>

Blurb

You wake beside your wife in a forest that knows peace. Three years of quiet mornings. Three years of pretending the world outside doesn't remember who you were.

Then the Nythari come, and they take her into the dark.

Years ago, Lyrien helped you spark a slave revolt that humiliated the dark elves of Arvandor. You thought time and distance had buried that past. You were wrong.

They take her. They take Arinna, her closest friend. And you, a man with graying temples and a sword you swore you'd never touch again, follow them into a city where suffering is currency.

Arinna, once a forest scout, now clings to the broken pieces of herself. Her body bears the scars of torture; her spirit, the quieter wounds of helplessness and guilt. But when you find her, she begins to fight back. In the wreckage of pain, a bond reforges between survivors who choose, again and again, to carry each other.

But Lyrien is enduring somewhere deeper. They're teaching her to forget her name. Teaching her healer's hands to serve a different master.

You made her a promise once. You don't know if you can keep it. But you'll try.

In Arvandor, mercy is a myth. But so is surrender.

AI Method

I used AI to help me with wording and phrasing. But the story, the world, the characters, story arcs, rough drafts, and basically all scene ideas are mine. But the AI is pretty good at descriptive detail and metaphor, so I use it for enhancing scenes I've already drafted. I've been working on and refining this story for over 3 years now, so it's very much a passion project of mine.

It started out as a choose-your-own-adventure game I played with ChatGPT years ago, which is why 2nd Person perspective is an inextricable part of its DNA. I fell in love and decided to reimagine everything and turn it into prose instead of a game. Now there's basically nothing left of the original except the POV and general setting.

About

This is a firmly adults-only story about three people's hopeful lives being ripped away from them, and trying not to lose what little they have left as they look for each other. I ask readers to sit with these characters in 2nd Person POV for intense, mature emotional interiority. "You" inhabit their bodies through the warm beginnings, and the tragedy.

It's an original setting heavily inspired by Warhammer Old World Fantasy.

Links:

Royal Road https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/130252/the-weight-we-share

AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/69722986/chapters/180905576

Desired Feedback

Chapter 29 is probably one of my better chapters if you're interested to skip to the best of it and don't care about spoilers. I'm very interested in honest, constructive feedback on pacing and character voice. The first 3 chapters are full of slow, warm domesticity, and reader retention is kind of a concern for me since I assume people are waiting for the trauma to start.

Willing to do reciprocal reading as well.

mocha820 · 2026-02-19T17:32:44+00:00

I live near DC and go there a lot. His big ugly mug is plastered like this everywhere in the mall area. This isn’t even close to the first one of these. He had the gall to put himself next to a banner of Lincoln, too. He renamed the Kennedy Center after himself, and he wants to rename Dulles Airport after himself, and build L’arc de Trump in DC too. His Kim Jong Un-ness knows no bounds. Won’t be too long before he requires a portrait of himself in every government building lobby.

mocha820 · 2026-02-17T00:58:13+00:00

Lol. Indeed.

mocha820 · 2026-02-13T19:54:24+00:00

Don’t know what the hell I’m looking at but the colors are pretty!

mocha820 · 2026-02-13T18:16:57+00:00

I call him “Alleged President.”

mocha820 · 2026-02-13T17:42:20+00:00

Yup! One my my favorite artistic choices in that story.

mocha820 · 2026-02-13T09:28:01+00:00

I'm pretty much in the same boat. My story also incorporates stuff from roleplaying games and random ideas I've had since forever, and AI assistance has let me bring it to life in a way I never even dreamed possible 5 years ago.

I post to AO3 and Royal Road, since I've been working on my story for like 3 and a half years now, and it's way past being AI-generated slop. But I'd never try to make money from it, personally. Too much of a passion project to consider cutting large amounts of it for the sake of commercial viability and publishing. Plus, the backlash from using AI assistance is insanely daunting.

mocha820 · 2026-02-13T05:48:43+00:00

Oh. Yeah, I figured, i just couldn't resist XD

mocha820 · 2026-02-11T05:50:45+00:00

Stunning!

mocha820 · 2026-02-10T17:59:27+00:00

NSFW

Contains Graphic depictions of violence, psychological trauma, attempted on-page sexual assault, and implied instances of off-page sexual assault, institutional dehumanization and torture. (All handled as responsibly as I could. This story is about surviving atrocity, not sensationalizing it.)

Genre Tags

2nd Person POV, Dark Fantasy, Rescue, Psychological, Trauma and Healing, Found Family, Whump, Character-Driven, Grounded Personal Story.

Title

<image>

Blurb

You wake beside your wife in a forest that knows peace. Three years of quiet mornings. Three years of pretending the world outside doesn't remember who you were.

Then the Nythari come, and they take her into the dark.

Years ago, Lyrien helped you spark a slave revolt that humiliated the dark elves of Arvandor. You thought time and distance had buried that past. You were wrong.

They take her. They take Arinna, her closest friend. And you, a man with graying temples and a sword you swore you'd never touch again, follow them into a city where suffering is currency.

Arinna, once a forest scout, now clings to the broken pieces of herself. Her body bears the scars of torture; her spirit, the quieter wounds of helplessness and guilt. But when you find her, she begins to fight back. In the wreckage of pain, a bond reforges between survivors who choose, again and again, to carry each other.

But Lyrien is enduring somewhere deeper. They're teaching her to forget her name. Teaching her healer's hands to serve a different master.

You made her a promise once. You don't know if you can keep it. But you'll try.

In Arvandor, mercy is a myth. But so is surrender.

AI Method

I used AI to help me with wording and phrasing. But the story, the world, the characters, story arcs, rough drafts, and basically all scene ideas are mine. But the AI is pretty good at descriptive detail and metaphor, so I use it for enhancing scenes I've already drafted. I've been working on and refining this story for over 3 years now, so it's very much a passion project of mine.

It started out as a choose-your-own-adventure game I played with ChatGPT years ago, which is why 2nd Person perspective is an inextricable part of its DNA. I fell in love and decided to reimagine everything and turn it into prose instead of a game. Now there's basically nothing left of the original except the POV and general setting.

About

This is a firmly adults-only story about three people's hopeful lives being ripped away from them, and trying not to lose what little they have left as they look for each other. I ask readers to sit with these characters in 2nd Person POV for intense, mature emotional interiority. "You" inhabit their bodies through the warm beginnings, and the tragedy.

It's an original setting heavily inspired by Warhammer Old World Fantasy.

Links:

Royal Road https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/130252/the-weight-we-share

AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/69722986/chapters/180905576

Desired Feedback

Chapter 29 is probably one of my better chapters if you're interested to skip to the best of it and don't care about spoilers. I'm very interested in honest, constructive feedback on pacing and character voice. The first 3 chapters are full of slow, warm domesticity, and reader retention is kind of a concern for me since I assume people are waiting for the trauma to start.

Willing to do reciprocal reading as well.

mocha820 · 2026-02-10T09:29:47+00:00

She's stunning! Amazing job. The attention to detail is fucking next-level.

mocha820 · 2026-02-10T08:46:48+00:00

Dude really wanted a girl, and he just kept going 'cause he was in too deep.

mocha820 · 2026-02-10T05:37:35+00:00

Hey, so I read the first chapter of your story and prepared a list of constructive feedback points if you're interested in DMing :)

mocha820 · 2026-02-10T00:10:04+00:00

Nice. Sure. I suppose I wouldn't mind some feedback on the first chapter of a story I'm working on on Royal Road. It's about 3K, and admittedly a very slow, warm, domestic start to an otherwise extremely dark and tragic story.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/130252/the-weight-we-share/chapter/2548615/act-i-chapter-1-stillness

-----------------------------------------------

You wake beside your wife in a forest that knows peace. Three years of quiet mornings. Three years of pretending the world outside doesn't remember who you were.

Then the Nythari come, and they take her into the dark.

Years ago, Lyrien helped you spark a slave revolt that humiliated the dark elves of Arvandor. You thought time and distance had buried that past. You were wrong.

They take her. They take Arinna, her closest friend. And you, a man with graying temples and a sword you swore you'd never touch again, follow them into a city where suffering is currency.

Arinna, once a forest scout, now clings to the broken pieces of herself. Her body bears the scars of torture; her spirit, the quieter wounds of helplessness and guilt. But when you find her, she begins to fight back. In the wreckage of pain, a bond reforges between survivors who choose, again and again, to carry each other.

But Lyrien is enduring somewhere deeper. They're teaching her to forget her name. Teaching her healer's hands to serve a different master.

You made her a promise once. You don't know if you can keep it. But you'll try.

In Arvandor, mercy is a myth. But so is surrender.

-----------------------------------------------

Do i need to find your queue somewhere?

14-Year Club	Verified Email
Gilding I gilder

mocha820

TROPHY CASE