Another Set Of Fossil Fighters Vivosaurs! We Are SO CLOSE To Sauropods!

love it when half awake thoughts are actually pretty cool ideas

so in a lot of legend of zelda fanworks and aus i've found, the creator has link speaking in sign language which is pretty cool in my opinion

But that's got me thinking; what about the other denizens of Hyrule? Not all languages on earth use a universal sign language, so i imagine with such exaggerated diversity (completely different species) in Hyrule, they wouldn't either. Therefore I have come up with some vague-ish ideas of what the other peoples of Hyrule might use as a method of nonverbal communication. I'm using Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom as the base for this.

also note I'm not versed in sign language at all, so there will be mistakes.

I'll start simple, Gerudo.

The Gerudo people are most similar to Hylians in appearance, both are basically humans though they are treated as a different 'species' as far as I can tell. But it still makes sense to me that their sign would be most similar to Hylian sign, just some words might get a bit lost in translation.

Next up, Gorons.

Due to their bulkier appearance and larger hands, their sign might include their arms more prominently. Certain motions and swings might be dangerous for the other species, but other Gorons would be able to take an accidental hit. They do still use their hands and fingers, but less so than the more human-like species, and the motions would be more like a game of charades.

My favorite, Rito.

Due to their fingers also being feathers, Rito use their feet by tapping their claws, clenching toes, or stomping. For more complicated words they lower their wings so their feather-fingers are in view of the person already looking down and combine motions alongside their feet. Rito sign isn't very common however due to the difficulty of standing, signing, and focusing on what they're even trying to say without stumbling. It's even more difficult to understand while in the air. Only those with impeccable balance even bother unless necessary.

And finally, Zora.

If you look at the Zora's design, their gills are along/near the latissimus dorsi, an easy place to see both on land and in water. Due to this and how water can get extremely dark the further you dive, I imagine it would be pretty cool if the Zora could activate some sort of bioluminescence in their gills to flash in sequences similar to morse code. This would make it easy to see even underwater, and the ability to essentially shut the light off would keep them safe from underwater threats. This idea also comes from how I think it would be difficult to verbally communicate underwater and while swimming at fast speeds.

Like I said, I've limited this to botw/totk for simplicity's sake, but I know there's all sorts of different species in the other games, so it might be cool to explore their nonverbality one day.

pretty proud of this so far :) it's fun drawing openly bleeding wounds

AI using your writing to train.

Hey writerly friends! Here's your warning that Google is making updates to terms and service allowing them to mine your data and train AI with it. It's focused on emails right now but Google docs facing a similar change is on the horizon.

Keep your eyes peeled for terms of service updates because you've already accepted future changes once you hit accept the first time. Unpublished novels do not have the same copyright protections as published novels and lawsuits are much more difficult to win. I would highly recommend anyone with a large amount of writing in Google docs start removing it from that platform.

If you don't want your writing used to train AI (and to be clear you won't be paid for it) then it's time to start looking at alternatives to Google Docs.

Some thoughts on alternatives

Microsoft Word - unlikely to implement AI training

Microsoft Word is possibly the safest bet at the moment. The Office suite makes most of it's money from corporate licensing. That depends heavily on strict privacy rules. The risk to their reputation is too high to even attempt it on just the personal version of Word. If you want to be very very cautious, get Word Professional as there is ZERO chance of it being used for AI scraping.

$159.99 USD one time purchase OR subscription model for $69.99 per year which comes with all of the Microsoft Office suite and significantly more cloud storage.

Microsoft Word Professional is $439.99 USD. You really don't need it for writing.

Scrivener - unlikely to implement AI training

Scrivener would probably not survive the kind of controversy AI scraping would cause as their customers are exclusively writers.

$59.99 USD one time purchase per platform (if you switched from windows to mac you would need to repurchase.)

Libre Office - read all the terms and conditions or don't risk it.

Libre Office has an AI tool. There are no stories circulating about them scraping user's data but they're not near as big as Google and may not have drawn enough attention yet.

Free! (Which unfortunately makes data scraping more likely.)

Also don't forget:

Platforms like Ao3, Wattpad, Smashwords and possibly even Tumblr are all being targeted by AI companies for data scraping. In fact OpenAI are being sued for doing just that.

Be careful where you post your writing.

That's all folks!

sometimes, vivosaurs just want to live in peace away from humans

whenever my program freezes

most images shown have been of domesticated or non-aggresive vivosaurs, but don't let that fool you from the very real danger these creatures pose

A proper reference for Oni since I realized I didn't actually have one for him.

While making this I had to study the Skyloft style clothing and it's actually pretty interesting. Almost everyone is wearing this sort of poncho cloak thing with baggy clothes covered in intricate patterns that I tried to emulate. I also made sure to specify the locations of the markings on his body, obviously not as many as his demon form, but still plenty there.

i've also made kingdom hearts memes :)

it's why my friends call some characters racist lol

So in Majora's Mask, I read somewhere that the reason Link screams when putting on masks is because he's experiencing the pain the character went through before their death, so I thought it would be interesting if he saw some of the things the Fierce Deity did when putting on the mask. But because in my au Oni isn't dead, just sealed away, they're able to talk in Link's head except the connection goes both way so Oni also saw some of the shit Link went through. Unfortunately the visions only show the bad things(neither know this) so Link only saw the horrible crimes and Oni only saw the bullying Link went through and figured they were the same, having also gone through bullying for being different than the others around him.

Realize at this point in his life, Oni has been sealed away for who knows how long with only his thoughts, so he is very much not a stable person, and is making Link very uncomfortable despite trying to relate to him by making himself look like his child self(they're in Link's head and he's a powerful demon, who's to say he can't shapeshift?).

Also Majora's Wrath is the one that slashed Link's eye with one of its whips, and in a panic he used the Fierce Deity mask, inadvertently letting Oni take control of his body.