Nilly Robot

Hello! I draw stuff! I also write stuff!

Horror artist with a focus on character and monster design, comic art, and writing.

Hobby juggler - If you're looking for something specific you might be better off following the hashtag instead 😅

Public Key

npub1mlkvqp75k7jm9h0m6fcfhljpf39cg5jcwql4ewydmcpdrlu9mqdsgy4fey

NIP-05 Address

nillyrobot_at_mastodon.art@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdlmxqql2t0fdjmhaayuymleq5cjuy2fv8q06uhzxauqk3l7zasxcq98a2z

Author Public Key

npub1mlkvqp75k7jm9h0m6fcfhljpf39cg5jcwql4ewydmcpdrlu9mqdsgy4fey

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Last Notes

2024-08-14 19:06:07

"Beacon system dependent actor 238-Alt-8, on the air."
--
Digital painting, Procreate (iPad)
#MastoArt #DigitalArt #horror #Art #Illustration #OC #ArtistsOnMastodon
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/961/885/648/146/916/original/444495a0945a4879.png

2024-08-10 03:04:38

#WritersCoffeeClub 10. What's your favourite summer read for a getaway/holiday/vacation?
Well, that's probably got to be The Murderbot Diaries. It's one of those infinitely re-readable series, although you might miss your vacation if you get too sucked in again.

2024-08-10 01:12:55

The little porch garden is really starting to deliver. 😁
#gardening #plants
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/935/060/413/563/654/original/ed463087bd11ce70.jpg

2024-08-08 07:35:22

#WritersCoffeeClub 8. Authors love to show off a book stack. Post an image of your stack or a collage of your digital work.
Hey, this counts! I'm in all three of these. 😁
It's still super fun to see this in print.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/925/233/618/917/893/original/9bf3e7732975e39a.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/925/241/786/249/766/original/a8668f627728ad9a.jpg

2024-08-03 06:14:46

#WordWeavers 3. Is there a genre you haven’t written yet but would like to try?
I've never written fantasy, like the kind with the medieval and the wizards and the dragons and the whatnot. Early attempts turned into arcana-tech scifi...things. I maybe have an idea for something? Maybe? (which will no doubt devolve into horror, sci-fi, slice-of-life comedy or all three if I try).
Mostly, I never written a single-genre anything. I'm not sure if I could make my brain do that. 🤷‍♀️

2024-07-31 09:46:26

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@npub1d62…tshf 😁 I realized around the time I was wondering "what kind of hearth spirit would inhabit a nuclear reactor?" that it was probably better to invent my own.

2024-07-30 11:02:14

#WordWeavers 30. Which of your characters would die first in a horror movie?
Well, it is a horror story, so this does actually have an answer...
Who is sort of spoilers, but not really because they have death flags written all over them.
Basically, the person goes tough guy on the entity controlling reality and doesn't listen when he's like 'hey, maybe chill out.' They continue to have no chill until they get eaten by brain monsters and everyone claps (not really, it's pretty traumatizing).

2024-07-26 21:30:30

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"A nice little photo editor! 🙂" [This app collects an FBI amount of personal data from your phone and sells it to literally anyone who asks]

2024-07-26 21:18:54

There's a specific way that websites say "free" these days where you know it's actually going to mean "Make an account and give us shittons unnecessary of personal information about you."
You can just tell.

2024-07-13 04:35:39

#WritersCoffeeClub 13. Story Inspiration> What inspired you to tell the story in your WIP.
Well, it's complicated. About a billion fragments of media that made me go "wouldn't it be neat if instead of that, they..." Wanting to see more monster POVs. Wanting to explain some of my struggles with the Brain Horrors without ruining brunch.
Mostly, I became fascinated with one of my comic characters and wanted to know just what the hell happened to make him like *that*.

2024-07-08 20:33:53

#WritersCoffeeClub 8. Share the opening of your work. First line or paragraph.
This changes all the time as I reorder things, haha. Current opening is as follows:
"I'm watching myself have a nervous breakdown from the roof of the old town hall. It's a lot like looking at a downed power line across the street, snapping and spitting and sparking on the pavement. Concerning, yes, but ultimately someone else's problem unless I feel like touching it.
Today, I do not."

2024-06-28 18:16:46

#WordWeavers 28. Do you include inside jokes for friends or fan groups in your stories?
Oh for sure. A lot of phrases and quirks and jokes are things me and my close buds find delightful. We've all infected each others' brains with weirdness.
But it's not just for them. My mission is to infiltrate everyone else's brain too. 😁

2024-06-18 14:29:05

#WritersCoffeeClub 18. Do you consciously apply show rather than tell in your writing or do the cards land where they may?
Oh, I'm an unbeliveably bad tell-er and it's made worse by the usual perspective (close 3rd that violently wants to be 1st person). First draft 'show' ends up like a bullet point list of facial reactions, lol.
I'm making an effort though, and I try to rework it when I come back through.

2024-06-12 02:53:40

#WritersCoffeeClub 12. Which social media channels do you use as a writer? Which gives you the best engagement?
Basically just here. I was finally chased off tumblr when they age restricted my art blog for reblogging a post about their CEO's manbaby meltdown. 😂
The other mainstream ones are a little too "all your art will be pulped to fuel our plagerism machine" and I don't need that in my life.
Honestly, here is the most 'engagement' I've ever gotten in my life, so it's all good. 😁

2024-06-11 15:14:01

#WritersCoffeeClub 11. Is it okay to use a comma before a dependent clause? Or anywhere else?
Oh, I dunno. I'm particularly awful about commas. I use them in places where I'd naturally pause in speech, which leads to way, way too many, or missing ones where they ought to go.
I guess an editor could help clean that up after the fact, haha.

2024-06-10 23:15:13

My master's degree showed up in the mail today and it's making me feel some feelings.
Like man, that piece of paper is really real, huh? I really did all that isolated in a pandemic while having some of the worst mental health of my life. 😢 All that meant something after all.

2024-06-10 07:01:28

#WordWeavers 10. MC POV: if you could wipe something from your memory, would you do it?
"We can't (Please). The valley always remembers (I just want to go home). Our sins echo off the hills like a guilty heartbeat (I just want it to stop)."
-Christopher Lang
---
"You want me to pick? Good lord, just go ahead wipe out the last three years. And get that brainwashed little imposter out of my head while you're at it."
-Unnamed Effigy

2024-06-05 13:19:38

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@npub1aum…5jx0 That's great, haha. Got to love a good brain mystery.

2024-06-01 14:09:46

#WritersCoffeeClub 1. Intro and update: Introduce yourself and/or update us on your writing journey since your last intro.
Hi! I'm Nilly. I'm a nonbinary horror artist and writer and science guy in my day job.
I'm currently writing a comic and companion novel about retrofuturism and radio monsters. It's going. Uh. Stressfully at the moment (but that's probably just the rest of life honestly 😅).
I also put out occasional shorts here and will someday have a website.
https://dotart.blog/nillyrobot/

2024-05-25 03:22:53

#WritersCoffeeClub 25. Do you use a cover artist or design your own covers? Share your cover art.
I design my own! Perks of being a draw guy too, haha.
Here's some.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/499/559/862/713/756/original/df0eb0d307f8a21d.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/499/562/344/080/631/original/1b58e2926fa978cb.jpg

2024-05-23 02:16:41

#WritersCoffeeClub 23. What gets in the way of your writing?
Time! I am a PhD student, which means there's lots of other things I aught to be writing.
Also me!
An engineering lead told me today that better is the enemy of done when I mentioned I scraped the first half of my book. He is correct. (But also the pacing was wack, so here we are...)

2024-05-13 01:48:20

#WordWeavers 13. Describe a place that has a special significance in your story.
"Maybe it's Thursday now at his pleasantly boring job, at his empty desk, in the dingy office park behind the gas station.
Maybe it's Thursday in that apartment on the hill, the bathroom door busted off its hinges and a forest of grocery store plants dead on the windowsills. Briefly, he wonders if someone else lives there now, or if the rest of world ended when he ran."

2024-05-12 14:01:04

#WritersCoffeeClub 12. How do you market your work?
Ah.
Yes.
That.
So, this is probably the first place where I've really talked about my work online. Everywhere else, I've been a tiny, quiet account that only talked to established contacts.
I guess for now (because I don't have anything much to market) I post "Hey, I did a thing" and then maybe reboost it later.
I'm mostly having fun here and entertaining myself, but I'm interested in what everyone else has to say on the matter.

2024-05-08 01:45:41

#WordWeavers 7&8.
>What behaviors does your characters’ society encourage?
Individualism, cut-throat competition, and self-expression.
>What behaviors does your characters’ society discourage?
Individualism, cut-throat competition, and self-expression when they don't fall in line with the rigidly defined, information-controlled ideals of the valley's leader.

2024-04-28 16:23:51

#WordWeavers 28. Do you have an irrepressibly good-humoured character? How do others react to them?
Yes. Nick is the most cheerful pessimist you'll ever meet. He's a pleasant ray of sunshine with a bitter core so dense it could rival a neutron star.
Reactions to him are some variation of the following:
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/349/721/232/318/064/original/04c83eccd4f4c510.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/112/349/758/604/846/040/original/ff08567236d6bd54.png

2024-04-27 05:58:59

#WritersCoffeeClub 27. Have you ever written a section and subconsciously plagiarised another work?
Not that I know of?
I tend to have a sticky brain for phrases, so I actively try to make sure I'm not ripping something off.
I will say, I have a minor heart attack whenever people do that social relation thing where they tell you your synopsis is "Just like xyz-thing-you've-never-heard-of!" (...it's usually nothing like it lol.)

2024-04-18 15:36:35

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@npub1gvl…8ag7 I was the same way. If it had words on it, I read it.

2024-04-08 07:48:04

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@npub16uc…k62q Thanks!
"Here at Everyone Is Having A Bad Time Corp, we ensure every victory is a pyrrhic one."
(It gets better eventually, haha)

2024-04-08 07:35:26

#WordWeavers 8. MC POV: Are you happy? Why/why not?
I should be.
When I see what's left of them (us), I should feel happy.
After all they (we) did, I should be satisfied. They (we) all got what was coming to them (us).
But when I look at his (my) face, slack jawed and empty eyed (make it stop), when I speak through his mouth (please), take his words and finally twist them back into what I want for a change... Well. I guess I feel (everything) nothing at all.
QRT.

2024-04-05 12:09:15

#WritersCoffeeClub 5. What's the best thing about being a writer?
Getting all the things out of my brain without having to subject those near me to the Infodump Blast Zone.
"Do you know what the fake people in my head should do?"
Well, I can go write that down. It's great.

2024-04-04 06:15:13

#WordWeavers 4. Is there writing advice you used to follow but changed your mind?
"Avoid adjectives and adverbs and strip out all that imagery. Just say what happened."
This was advice given to me by someone I thought had my best interests in mind. He wanted me to write like a news report and for a while I tried.
...and I hated it. Because who I am writing for? Me. And what does me like? Vibrant imagery and thick, flowing prose.
Now I'm learning to balance after a bit of an overcorrect, haha

2024-04-03 05:45:01

#WordWeavers 3. Antagonist POV: How do you feel about animals?
Marvelous! I hope to see a real one someday!
People come up with some astonishingly strange animals in the valley. Why, one man dreamed there was a dog twice the size of a house. Big, gnashing teeth... Poor thing was terrified of dogs, but he persevered. A whole month! It was truly inspiring, a testament to the human spirit.
Blessed are we to witness such wonders take life from our hearts and minds, don't you think?
-Mother Seven

2024-03-28 09:05:49

#WordWeavers 28. What scent best describes your book?
An old building. It used to be a lab maybe, or a school. The rooms smell like dust and dry rot, old paper mixed with a sharp chemical tang.
Books sag on the shelves next to bottles with their labels long eaten away. Capacitors leak in their boards. A crack in the window lets in a hint of dirt and rain and green.
There's a strange smell permeating the halls, sickly sweet and primal. Your mind is singing alarm bells when you turn the corner.

2024-03-24 10:27:43

#WritersCoffeeClub 24. What websites do you rely on most to help you with your writing?
Thesaurus dot com helps me fix all the bizzarre, slightly-left-of-correct words my brain adds when it can't think of the regular human way to say things.
Also, bless the people maintaining the Appalachian history and WW2 radio operator websites.

2024-03-13 20:30:01

#WritersCoffeeClub 13. Do the writing hashtags inspire you?
Heck yeah they do! They get me thinking about details I wouldn't have otherwise consided and help me flesh out what I'm working on.
Plus, I love reading through everyone's thoughts and processes. It's great insight and a lot of fun. How wild is it that we have all these people walking around in our brains, living their lives haha.

2024-03-12 13:12:24

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@npub1lyr…k7hs Congrats! 🎉

2024-02-25 12:46:44

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@npub1k24…26zw There may be a theme going around too with rejecting institutions that are upholding bad systems, with the mentor being a kind of figurehead for that. In any case, it is interesting to see.

2024-02-25 12:36:44

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@npub1k24…26zw That is interesting. I know mine is because the protagonist is tripping head first down heel-turn alley (at least for a while), and a big part is like you say-- eventually making his own decisions despite what he's been taught is the only way.

2024-02-14 17:33:07

So let me get this straight.
Mozilla: We've installed a new CEO to enshittify your browser. We're firing a bunch of people, phasing out the privacy services you use and pay for and looking into "Trustworthy" lying plagerism machines so we can get in on that data hoovering game too.
Is that right? Cause I'll cancel my service right the fuck now.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/mozilla-downsizes-as-it-refocuses-on-firefox-and-ai-read-the-memo/

2023-05-22 02:19:13

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@npub1qct…rs5r Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

2023-05-08 06:03:40

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@npub1yk6…4zz4 Oh god. The fear of being Percived. The terror when some off-hand post escapes containment and you have to reassure yourself that you're probably not high enough profile to be like that lady who made chili for her neighbors and ended up in the Washington Post over it.

2023-05-02 02:42:06

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@npub1yk6…4zz4 Yeaaah. The entitlement of some people, honestly.
I'm a lot smaller potatoes (so I can't imagine how much more of this you deal with) but I ended up getting irritated and putting a note on bio because of this sort of thing. It's my account. If they want *only xyz stuff* then they can follow the hashtags instead. 🤷‍♀️

2023-05-01 15:22:11

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@npub1gvl…8ag7 Hope you have a lovely time! 😊