Featured in Domain Arrivals · 2026-08-17
VelvetAbyss — software for people who write with machines
A one-person studio building local-first software, beginning with Else, an AI roleplay app whose characters remember what you did to them.
Why it surfacedVelvetAbyss makes a notably specific argument about AI software: memory should persist, work should stay on your device, and tracking should disappear entirely. Its promise that Else's characters “hold it against you” gives the otherwise serious privacy pitch a memorable dramatic edge.
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Monica’s Calendar of Flowers
August 17’s newborn domains include a calendar that spreads flowers for Monica across the months after JP’s death, 17 years of a master mariner’s logbooks, the seconds between a modem connection and the first web request, and an Indian bus cabin carrying 632 songs.
This is one of 1,000 discoveries in the 2026-08-17 Domain Arrivals issue.