Roz (they/them) • sideblog dedicated to narrative-driven interactive stories of various sorts • icon by the WONDERFUL @sunshinemage of my Wayfarer, Neavh ☀️ • sometimes I write/draw, by which I mean I aspire to but haven't actually shared anything new since like 2022 • adult content tagged #nsft
Among the 47 species of cuculines, various adaptations enhance the survival of the young cuckoo: egg mimicry, in which the cuckoo egg resembles that of the host, thus minimizing rejection by the host; removal of one or more host eggs by the adult cuckoo, reducing both the competition from host nestlings and the danger of recognition by the host that an egg has been added to the nest; and nest-mate ejection, in which the young cuckoo heaves from the nest the host’s eggs and nestlings.
A couple days ago, I made a post addressing Pixelberry/Series Entertainment's "It Lives Within." At the time, I wasn't aware of the story, I only knew that the name was the same. Since then, I saw many people accusing it of plagiarizing our game. I decided to look into it more, and after having watched all the episodes on YouTube, the claims of plagiarism unfortunately seem to be valid. As such, I'd like to further address this situation, and provide a list of stolen ideas and art with screenshot proofs and explanations.
A few years ago, I had a video call with one of the original writers for the It Lives Series. Though I knew nothing about their original plans for the game before starting this project (including that they also intended to name the game "It Lives Within"), he told me their plans on that call. It was going to be a survivor-type cave crawl story with giant bug-inspired and creepy crawler monster enemies, where you play as a new character who is attacked by these creatures while camping and separated from their friends. From my understanding, Connor and his crew would be sort of like the Sam and Dean from SPN, acting as these experienced "hunters" who help protect them.
That is not what the story of what Choices "It Lives Within" was. At all.
This means that the AI """writers""" at Series Entertainment/PB were not creating this story based on the original writers’ plans. They made their story idea later - after ILW was completed in its entirety. Therefore, it's reasonable to follow that unlike the title, these similarities are not coincidence. Though even then, the title It Lives Within had to do with the cave setting and going literally into the earth, while the AI version has nothing to do with caves. So the reasoning for the title is not the same as the reasoning for their original title.
With all this in mind, let’s go over the similarities between our game and the Choices It Lives Within AI show. I am going to be putting it beneath a read more, in case there are people who are interested in playing ILW and don’t want to get it spoiled.
Major things they stole:
Their villain, Silas, is Matthias. Literally, that's it. He's Matthias.
Silas is an immortal man who looks just like Matthias who's been alive for almost 200 years and was a member of the Westchester cult, where he knew Cora. He wants to sacrifice redfield Noah due to his connection to the Power (Rowan anyone) as part of a complicated ritual he's put together in order to... I'm not quite sure what, exactly, as the story was a bit hard to follow. He thinks he’s all manipulative and the main crew states that "He’s getting us to do his work for him!”
And then there's his appearance. That's the same hairstyle. He's the same age. Same race. Literally, just like Connor in their story is as recognizable AI-version of his in-game sprite, that's what this guy looks like. All he's missing is the beard.
The gang's base of operations is Cora’s cabin
This one is interesting. It's such a tiny detail, and I'd grown so used to the cabin being their safe place that when Connor was like "We need to get back to the cabin" it literally took me a moment to realize - wait. They had nothing to do with that cabin in the original series. Using that as a home base was literally our idea, an It Lives Within original.
The main enemies are mind controlled townspeople working for Silas
Instead of following the precedent of the previous games and having the enemies be Power-twisted animal monsters, they decided to make their enemies humans that are mind-controlled into zombie-like beings that attack the gang in hordes. There's even a scene where the gang is driving through them in their car. This is a rip-off of It Lives Within's horrors. And on top of that, they copied the carnival scene where Harper driving through the horde of horrors.
Noah and Devon's relationship
Their relationship in this '"TV show" has suspicious similarities to their friendship/romance routes in ILW. They made Devon be redfield Noah's anchor to reality, and even had Devon use memories to help ground Noah, which we showed in the cabin scene where Devon and Noah play baseball together. And I know there were Noah x Devon shippers outside of me before ILW released, but it was never PB's plan to canonize them. So the fact that they are seemingly changing course to canonize them after they grew so popular in the fan version feels a bit too coincidental.
Scraping fan art for their AI animation frames
But what's even more egregious is that they have even stooped to scraping from fan artists, who have nowhere near the same following or exposure as our project does. Seriously, what are the odds that the MC they choose to use matches this artist's MC's race, gender, hair, and outfit exactly, that they used Noah's old outfit, that they are literally positioned on the same sides of the image? It's blatant plagiarism, and it's despicable. @errajay I'm so sorry they did this.
These are the biggest similarities, but considering that it was only like 15 minutes of content, that means that a high percentage of the story was stolen. Sure, the exact details of "Silas's" plan are different (he's like a horcrux for the "entity" aka power and he was split into 43 parts and Noah's one of his parts and he needs to kill him to get it back and be free or something) it's the same concept: immortal man who's trapped making a complicated ritual requiring sacrifice while manipulating people to get everything into place.
If you want to see for yourselves, please find it on YouTube. Do not support them with clicks or traffic on their app. Thank you! Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, no AI was used in the drafting of this post 💖
hello fellow mortum fan is that standing open invitation to talk abt mortum still up 👀 (my fhr blog is @autistic-sidestep but asks can only come from main lol)
Characters: Rex Ozen (nb!Detective) / f!Bobby Marks
Rated: Teen (swearing and manipulative behavior)
Synopsis: Short exploration of some of Rex’s feelings after being betrayed by their partner, Bobby, in college. Several years pre-canon.
Wordcount: 900
This started out as the beginning of a rewrite of my first Wayhaven fic, Monster Mash (nb!Detective x Morgan, rated E, so very E, it is like 80% smut at least), which I was thinking about doing for fun to dip my toes back into writing, but I immediately veered off course when I started thinking about Rex and Bobby’s breakup after it got mentioned in the first scene.
(Y’all, I knew I hadn’t written anything in a while, but it didn’t really hit me that I really haven’t shared anything in almost 4 years!? :O So, uh, be extra nice, if you feel so inclined!)
Stupid, perfect face.
You glare down at the frozen image of Bobby beaming up at you from your lock screen; A slightly blurry selfie she’d snapped of herself with your phone when she’d snatched it to plug in her number after you met and spent the day together early last year. By the start of the following semester, the two of you had pooled your money to rent a nicer room than your old dorm, a quiet place with sunlight in a shared house with some of the older journalism students Bobby had charmed soon after enrollment. Until earlier today, it was inspiring that Bobby always knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go find it.
Or, more accurately, steal it.
The voicemail that had greeted you when you turned your phone back on after a rushed study session between morning classes still echoes too loudly in your head, the memory of a raspy-voiced college administrator scratching at your eardrums like an itch you can’t reach. A thousand polite, pointed words boiling down to one fact: They were accusing you of plagiarism for the project you’re pretty sure you’d sold off the last of your sanity to complete. You were sure there had had to be some mistake. There was no way. And yet, the impossible was at your doorstep holding your future ransom.
Somehow, you’d managed to make it through the rest of your obligations for the day in one piece before stumbling home into Bobby’s arms, tearful and panicked. She’d held you tight, uncharacteristically quiet. For once, she’d been as lost for words as you. The quiet didn’t last, and even from the steady inhale before her first word, you’d known something was very wrong.
“I was interested in doing my project about that topic, you knew that. We talked about it more than once,” Bobby had said when you’d stumbled home and into her arms, tearful and panicked, but eager to figure out how the college could’ve gotten their signals crossed. “You’ve been so tired, you might’ve copied what I told you by accident, right? You need to take better care of yourself.”
While you’d blinked at Bobby, mouth popping open and closed wordlessly, trying to assemble puzzle pieces you couldn’t seem to match up, Bobby’s smile stayed perfect. Just the right amount of crinkle around the eyes to invite softness, the right bit of quirk to the corners of her lips to promise that one day we’d laugh about this. You had a thousand memories of that beloved smile, and in an instant they all felt as the gaping hole yawning open in your chest.
“And maybe I let you inspire me a little too much, I just love listening to you when you’re passionate about something and I’ve missed talking to you.” Bobby had acquiesced when the silence stretched on, reaching out to hold your hands tight. You’d forced yourself to stay still through the alarm bells in your head, staring frozen into her vulnerable eyes, each its own pool of sincerity and hurt, inviting you to gently drown in their depths. “All you think about lately is school. It’s not healthy.”
You braced for- for… you weren’t even sure for what. God, when was the last time I was sure about anything? Every grief you’d ever experienced suddenly felt as though they clung to and added their weight to the silent answer to your own question: You don’t know.
“I want to help you, but I only have so much to give,” Bobby had said softly, her brow pinched, deepening the familiar line between her eyes where there was the first hint of a wrinkle. “Maybe this is a good opportunity to reconsider if college is the right move for you before we sink more money into a degree you’re not even sure about.”
Why did you feel like prey being cornered when you were more free than you’d ever been? Why were you always so fucking scared of that empty space where a fear could be, if you didn’t know better? You’d long since convinced yourself there was nothing there, only old traumas haunting new relationships, but for a second there in Bobby’s arms, the Nothing flinched.
“This isn’t going to get easier. Sometimes, the most mature thing you can do is realize when something is not working.” The sickly sweet words had dripped from her mouth, venom and honey, rotting your teeth as she’d leaned in to press her soft lips against yours. “I’d still be proud of you, sweetheart. No matter what, I’ll be there.”
You shake your head, fighting the urge to retch. Breathe. There’s so much emptiness in your chest and yet no room for the damn air. Breathe! Your fingertips have gone white before you realize how hard they’re digging into your phone case, and you force yourself to shove the device into your pocket, wiping furiously at your eyes.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, I’m so fucking stupid, but not as stupid as Bobby must think you are. Looking around yourself now, half of who you were but somehow twice as burdened, with the best of you cut up by your own hand and freely shipped away on a silver platter… you don’t know whether you can rightfully say whether her assessment was wrong.
You just don’t know.
A tidbit about the title! When I was a kid, I saw a documentary where they treated exposure to a poison dart frogs with honey. I don’t recall how legit it was, but although in this fic I mention venom not poison, that’s a little bit of where it came from. Something something Bobby neutralizing her own venom enough not to kill or significantly injure Rex, but it does hurt every time. So much of the shitty stuff in that relationship feeling like a frog slowly being boiled but unable to point to exactly what is wrong. And there’s also more honey than venom, so Rex should be focused on that, on the good! Why are they so focused on the venom when it hasn’t even almost killed them yet? But at the end of the day, even the sweetness is rotting them away and killing them as much as the venom, because it’s the honey that keeps them stuck. Now, it’s the honey that fills them with more terror than the venom, at least one of them is honest about why it’s there. It also makes me think of about how right now Rex doesn’t really know if they’re the Toxic OneTM (aka poisonous, like by making it on their skin and so Bobby is risking exposure by touching them) or if Bobby is venomous and the toxin is coming from her mouth (her words, her kisses, her lies, etc). The answer being of course more complex than “there was one person who was Right the whole relationship and one who was Wrong,” but that would be a much deeper and longer story that I don’t feel equipped to tell at this point.
Okay okay, I shall stop rambling. Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day! (Gosh I can’t remember my tag list, uhhh @amlovelies @lilyoffandoms and I’ll also tag @agentnatesewell because you were encouraging and even though this is not what you ordered, maybe you’d still like to read it!)
