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Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

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via radiantsomatics

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theseptemberchronicles

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#pin oak #trees #beauty #countryside

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Pesto and Gnocchi enjoying the orchard

#apple picking #cute cats #cats #black cats

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#gloucester #cathedral #stained glass #beauty #medieval

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If you'd like to learn more, Open Library has curated some excellent resources on banned and challenged books.

And if you're ready to help out, this is the perfect week to take action and unite against book bans.

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Shrewsbury-wonderful town on the Severn

#shrewsbury #the quarry #river severn #abbey #trees #beauty #flowers #plants

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Aberystwyth-a lovely seaside town in Ceredigion

#aberystwyth #landscape #sea #ceredigion #sunset

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Hay-on-Wye-a town of books and beauty

#wye river #wales #hay on wye #trees #books #bookshop

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From the Tattersall Castle-a beautiful night. I wish I was still there.

#london #sunset

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x - x / x - x 🍃

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Another Something-Same U-Imprisonment

In a meadow of tall grass, a young man sat cross-legged, his hands closed over his knees, eyes closed. A storm was brewing in the distance with preternatural black and indigo. A peal of thunder rumbled over the area. A heavy breeze blew through carrying the scent of rain. As the man opened his dark gold eyes limned in green, nine water spouts appeared in a circle in front of him. As suddenly as the columns of water appeared, so did they disappear, leaving nine men standing in their place. The men were dressed in ornate armor of various colors. At the center stood one man dressed in golden armor with draconic designs picked out in silver. To his right was a man dressed in armor of gold, deep blues, and rusty reds. Though his armor was not as ostentatious, his malicious and arrogant nature made it clear that he was the most dangerous threat. By contrast, the five men to the left were dressed more seriously for battle. Their armor, though of varying styles, was in several different shades of blue and green and of a lightweight but strong material that spoke to their efficient understanding of battle. The last two on the far right mimicked this same competent understanding but the arrogance of their compatriots had seeped through. Ornate dragons slithered their way in gold up and down their red and green armor. These sorcerers, the dragon kings of the eastern rivers and seas, stared at the young man seated before them. The sorcerer in gold, the Dragon King of the Yangtze, made to step forwards towards the man, but the sorcerer to his right, the Dragon King of the Huang He, arguably the most dangerous of these sorcerers, threw out his arm in front of Yangtze.

In a gruff, gravelly voice, Huang He muttered, "Hold here." Yangtze's face contorted in anger but he forced the emotion down, allowing Huang He to take the lead. Huang He spoke commandingly to the seated man, "Child, you challenged us to come here and fight to the death. Are you sure you are ready to die?" 

The young man replied in a low, clear tenor, "If it is my fate to die this day, then so be it. However, you should ask yourself the same question, Huang He. Are you ready to die this day? Have you made your peace with this world so you may calmly journey into the unknown?" He paused for a few beats before moving on. "You and your brothers have committed many terrible acts. You have harmed the poor and the innocent. You have lusted after glory and power and been ground down by greed. Do you expect to be able to leave here with these deeds unpunished? Or has the punishment already begun? Is it not true that you all have lost the ability to become dragons? Could it be that once you betrayed your wisdom and humility, you lost the ability to become the greatest version of yourself? Either way, I invited you here to meet your punishment, whatever form that may take. Are you ready to face that or have you left something undone that may come back to bite you?"

As the man gave his speech, the sorcerers felt their anger rise and the urge to kill the boy became almost unbearable. How dare he speak to them in this way? Them! The great dragon kings of this age who should be worshipped and revered for their greater wisdom and understanding. These puny people had no vision, no common sense. But the barb about their power to become dragons had struck home. They had hoped that they had been able to conceal this knowledge from everyone, but clearly the absence of their dragon forms had not gone unnoticed. 

Huang He, speaking through gritted teeth, replied forcefully, "Enough of this! Prepare yourself, boy, for this fight."

Calmly, the young man responded, "I am ready for what lies ahead."

Enraged, Yangtze broke the line, stepping angrily forward. Magic crackling from his body. "You want a fight, boy? I'll give you one." A shockwave of water burst out from Yangtze's body. The tidal wave of water crashed over the young man where he sat, as Yangtze drowned him in water. Two green lights, like eyes, shone through the dark water. After a minute, the water subsided, leaving the young man seated as he was before. Eyes glowing a deep bright green, the young man dug his fingers into the mud. Eerily, there began the sounds of bending and snapping before dozens of vines and saplings emerged from the ground, entwining and binding the sorcerers in place.

Eyes still glowing, his tenor voice now closer to a baritone, the young man, then known as the Student, spoke resignedly, "I'm sorry that you could not see reason and find your way back to who you were. This is the only way to mete out your punishment."

—

As the Student waited cross-legged in the grassy meadow, Seiriol, the lightning Wild Magicker, stood in the vast downpour that shielded him from view. The thunderstorm brewed and evolved around him, lightning struck so close he could feel his teeth jar from the impact. But Seiriol felt at home in this thunderstorm. It felt like a catharsis. Finally, he could release his revenge on the murderer of his beloved and beautiful wife. If the Student had not approached Seiriol with the plan to imprison the sorcerers, Seiriol was not sure what he would have done. The last year without her had been hell. He had never known anything close to the unremitting pain of losing her, the gentlest and only tree-mover fae. Seiriol regretted that they ever boarded that catamaran. Still, now he would have his revenge. The grief, the anger, the pain fueled his magic. It built into a ball of pure electricity between his hands as he wept and screamed his fury and pain in the massive thunderstorm. Faintly, he heard the sound of the gentle reed instrument of the Natia clan. Seiriol released the lightning and the thunderstorm swiftly followed, leaving Seiriol weeping as he kneeled in the mud.

—

Theia Natia, a spirit walker fae of much renown, blew into her bonded reed flute as soon as she saw the greenery emerge from the ground to hold the sorcerers. Her instrument sang a tale of a soul imprisoned for all eternity, a life of isolation and contemplation to punish wrongdoings. For so bleak a future, the sound was unmatched in its sweetness and beauty. It calmed and prepared the soul for a just fate. She felt her magic take hold of the sorcerers, and was momentarily startled by the feeling of utter wrongness surrounding Huang He's soul. It took forethought and patience to overcome the feeling that something was not quite right so that she could complete her task and not let the others down. As Theia blew the last note, she looked over to her left, anxious to see if her dear friend was able to make it through her own ordeal, the worrisome nagging over Huang He's soul never leaving her.

—

Sila, one of the few stone fae, felt the sweat drip down her brow as she drew the power of stone from the plates of the earth itself. Her eyes had the color and texturization of shale as she pulled hard on her magic. By far, she was the worst off of the four. She had the hardest job to do. She had to prepare the essence of stone to be formed to accept and imprison the souls of the sorcerers. Sila gritted her teeth as she fought the sleepy essence to make it hear her and obey or, at the very least, agree to her wish. She looked over at Theia, her outline blurred by the spirit realm enveloping her, shielding her from the sorcerers. The spirit realm heard and assisted its own with a willingness that Sila envied, though only for a moment because she knew of the toll it would eventually take on her dearest friend. As Sila heard the ending strains of Theia's song, the earth came awake and she sent its essence forth to the Student to shape. Her knees slowly gave way and she collapsed onto the ground, half sleeping as she fell. As Sila's eyes closed in exhaustion, she prayed to every god she knew of that their plan would succeed.

—

The powers of lightning, the spirit realm, earth, and the essence of life itself combined in the Student's vision, the magic colliding and coiling around itself as the Student shaped it. His eyes shone with an intensity that hurt to look at. The sorcerers had felt the spirit realm take hold and, though they continued to rip at and struggle in their bonds that continued to coil and grow around them, a calm acceptance of their fate settled over them heavily, gradually lulling them into a half asleep awareness. As a last effort, Huang He flicked out wildly at the Student, sending shards of river rock and ice towards him, hitting him on the temple, the shoulder, and the abdomen. Still the Student continued shaping the magic. With a final movement, the Student looked up at the sorcerers. The student was bleeding from where Huang He's attack hit him but it only served to make him look more fierce as he turned his gaze upon them. His green-glowing eyes pulled them, making them feel as if they were falling forward into his eyes and then the dark, stony embrace hit them.

The Student staggered as the magic released, hitting the dragon kings and turning them into the very image that had turned their humility into ego and vanity, a dragon made of stone, a remembrance and a warning. The Student sighed as he wiped his face. Looking at his hand, he was surprised by how much blood covered his hand. Slowly, he came awake to the pain, but he pushed it down and out. Physical pain had to wait until he had seen to the others. He turned and walked in their direction, making for Theia in the middle.

#story idea #book idea #magic

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The moment before touchdown Located in Carstairs, Alberta 🌪️

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Ghent, Belgium, photos by s1amsi

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