ajaywithcrowfeathers

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

"Idiots to lovers" works best when the idiots in question are extremely intelligent

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

Now presenting: Home from Welcome Home as a frog/bug home

I made this a couple years ago (I haven’t really kept up with the fandom in that time) and finally got around to posting it.

This is the greenwear stage, before underglazeing

This is after underglazing, before the first firing (sorry about the scribbles, I didn’t get a chance to take photos without people in the background)

And here it is now, two years later. Sadly there have been several hail storms so the roof has taken some damage, but otherwise it’s doing well

If you have any questions or comments please let me know, and have a stellar day!

-AJ

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

Agent Stone was once again out of things to do. So, as he had many years ago, he picked up a hook and some yarn

If you want to check out the granny squares I made following the pattern in this fic and the reference from the movie they’re down here

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

Behold: Allan on a cross

Reference image from the first episode of Smiling Friends

After sculpting, before underglaze:

After underglaze but before first firing:

His final resting place:

I made this a little less than a year ago but forgot to post it until now. I’m working on adding alt text so if you have any advice or constructive criticism please let me know :)

Have a stellar day,

- AJ

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

“So, you’ve been working with me for 14 days. Now I want you to kill this guy.”

It’s been over two years since I last uploaded a fic, but the Stobotnik nation (and my friend @imagiraffe-moo who dragged me into the Sonic fandom) finally motivated me to write something and actually finish and post it. It’s pretty short but I had fun writing it, hope you enjoy if you check it out!

Have a stellar day,

- AJ

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

CHAPPELL STONE - HOT TO GO!

Happy Summer Stobotnik Week! Figured I'd post my hot to go edit for day 1 (song inspired). Enjoy the sweet sounds of chappell stone <3

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

I made this Mishima frog cup a couple years ago and forgot to post it, so here it is! I also made a Sgraffito version. Bisque stage and before clear glaze pictures are under the cut.

I'm working on my image descriptions, so if you have any advice or constructive criticism please let me know :)

The sgraffito version:

If you have any questions or comments they are always greatly appreciated, have a stellar day! - AJ

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

I made a little sgraffito frog a couple years ago and forgot to post about it, so here it is! I also made a mishima version. Bisque stage pictures under the cut.

Before bisque firing:

After bisque firing but before clear glaze:

The mishima version:

I'm considering making something similar to this again eventually, but this time adding a hinge on the lid so it isn't just resting closed and able to fall off.

I honestly don’t entirely remember why I added red splatters, I think I was watching Hannibal at the time and named the mini frog Will after getting some red on it on accident and deciding to just go with it.

I'm still working on improving my image descriptions, so if you have any advice or constructive criticism it would be greatly appreciated :)

If you have any questions or comments please let me know, and have a stellar day! -AJ

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

🌾🌾🌾

Harvesting my wheat

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

Just because the cage is gilded doesn't mean it's not a cage.

Perihelion, autonomy, and the pretty little university cage it sits in.

Some notes on the design:

Delicate little golden chains are what keeps the cage up -- even though PSUMNT is a far better place than the Corporation Rim, the restraints are still there, and Peri uses a lot of under-the-radar self-modification and tax fraud as a low level of rebellion.

Peri is FAR too large for the cage, with its tail, tendrils, and ear poking out, as its coding and development have reached massive levels of intelligence.

Outer space is also trapped inside of the cage, and the planets are tiny compared to it.

Peri's eyes are closed -- it doesn't fight back against its family as openly or violent as Murderbot does against its company, even despite its 'dangerous' demeanor.

The top of the cage says "PROPERTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MIHIRA AND NEW TIDELAND" -- even if that's a way to blend into the Corporation Rim, at one point does the mask become the true intentions?

The delicateness of the cage also shows how Perihelion can "technically" leave whenever it likes, but it would lose every part of its support network and likely be hunted by the Corporation Rim or someone else -- this is reinforced by it being caught and 'killed' by the alien contamination.

Peri's Vaatu-like design that I chose REALLY lends itself to this piece -- Vaatu is canonically imprisoned for ten thousand years in Legend of Korra, and his freedom and life is dependent on a certain few humans.

Yeah. Perihelion. I'm really super extremely normal about it.

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

A supportive egg!

This was a commission for @lalalaurieart she's working very hard right now, and sometimes all we need is for our comfort character to cheer us on.

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

Today on “Fic writers will do anything except work on their fics”: I designed and cross stitched an AO3-inspired patch!

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

The Beach Day Episode

Okay so a couple days ago I said I was going to write a fic based on that post about Murderbot playing the Big Corporation™️ game with Mensah's kids. I did exactly that. It kind of went in a direction I was not expecting but hey, that's the joy of writing. You can read it under the cut if you want!

Whenever Mensah and her family visit the beach I go with them. There are lots of reasons and none of them are because I like the beach.

I actually don't. At all.

A large open stretch of sand with very little cover is a security nightmare waiting to happen and I need to be there to make sure it will not happen. A large open body of water and small humans who insist on swimming in it is also a security nightmare waiting to happen, but for different reasons. 

When I'm not busy ensuring the sea hasn't turned into a hostile and consumed someone, I'm usually requested to perform a set of tasks. It's a complex and constant set of tasks that I've been told, multiple times, require my attention specifically.   

By that I mean Mensah's offspring really like playing with me for some reason. 

At first I didn't really know what playing was aside from knowing that it served an important function in a small human's development. 

Then they tried throwing a small and soft (I make sure they are always soft) circle-shaped projectile at me and when I caught it they were impressed. 

Like really impressed. 

I don't think they understand that the whole point of me is to not be caught off guard by flying projectiles coming my way—but whatever. 

I still didn't totally mind it.  

Then that devolved into them asking me to throw it back. And then I did. And then they threw it back to me. 

Anyway you get it. 

I've gotten better at understanding how to play with them in ways that generate a positive reaction. I know it's positive because they start screeching and running around like there's a hostile and there is no hostile so they just feel like being really weird. 

That's always a good sign with small humans.  

I’d even invented a game they liked—especially Amiri, the youngest of Mensah’s small humans.

I had no idea why any of them liked it. 

Mensah had said that it was kind of a messed up idea for a game. She didn't try to stop me though and she also half laughed when she said it, while adamantly denying that she was laughing at all. 

I didn’t see what the issue was. It was a completely normal game that a completely normal construct had come up with. 

"You're sure you want me to stomp on this?" 

I was looking down at Amiri’s sand structure. 

I made it a point to always ask when we played this game. I had seen the fallout of one of the small humans knocking over another one's structure without explicit permission. It was akin to being tortured, at least by small human standards. 

I didn't want to do that to Amiri for obvious reasons.  

His response was, "Stomp on it, stomp on it,  stomp on it," said so many times I lost count. 

“Okay.”

I raised my foot to stomp on it. 

"You gotta say the thing." 

Oh that's right. 

"HERE COMES THE BIG CORPORATION,” I said and plunged my boot through the top of the sand structure. 

That was met with screeches and high pitched laughter from Amiri. 

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a completely normal game, but the small humans didn’t seem to mind. It had only been by accident that I had come up with it at all. I had been watching one of Mensah’s partners swim out further than I liked and was distracted by wondering if they were going to die, and had walked right into the middle of a sand structure. 

It immediately caved in. With a crunching sound. 

Oops. 

The three of them that had built it looked up at me for one long mortifying moment. I realized I needed to say something. An apology probably would have sufficed but instead what came out was, well, that. 

I think it was a panicked, half attempt to act like it had been intentional, like I was playing too, and there was no reason, not at all, to go crying to Mensah about the Big Mean SecUnit who had ruined their day at the beach. 

You can imagine my surprise when they asked me to do it again. 

And again. 

And again.

Small humans never seem to get bored of doing things repeatedly. I’ve seen Mensah’s heart rate rise when they play the same piece of music over and over again, until she asks them with all the composure she can muster in that moment, to please turn it off. 

It doesn’t bother me though. If I get bothered I can just rewatch my favorite episodes of Sanctuary Moon. 

Yeah. I’m starting to see why the small humans and I get along. 

"You're bad, you're bad Big Corporation," Amiri was saying, in between laughing fits. The sand structure looked more like a sad crumbled heap than a structure at this point. 

"Yeah, I am pretty bad," I said. “You don't even want to know about my HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.” 

I picked my boot up and slammed it back down on what remained of the sand structure.   

"Or my ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE TACTICS." 

I pretended to lunge at him and he squealed then took off running across the sand. I chased after him. I had learned that was an expected part of the game from the previous times we’d played it.  

Obviously I was not going very fast. It was more like walking at a moderate pace by my standards. I had no intention of actually catching him. Small humans like to win at their games and I like to avoid touching. So it really did work out for both of us. 

I ended up catching up to him near the water. 

He was folded over with his hands on his knees, panting. I was about to advise him to get a container of drinking water from the supplies we had brought, when he turned to me. 

His face had suddenly become very serious—too serious for someone his size. I didn't know what was going on or what had changed and it made me nervous. 

I said, “You okay?” 

He hesitated, then said, "Second mom says big corporations hurt people.” 

Oh. 

Oh no. 

My stupid idea of a game had made Mensah's offspring afraid of me. She'd worked so hard to teach them about SecUnits, and show them I was someone they could trust, and I'd completely ruined it. 

I guess I should have been expecting this. I had been part of a big corporation. I had been the person the company sent to destroy the sand structures. It was only a matter of time until Mensah’s small humans figured that out. 

Maybe that was why it didn't make sense that any of them would want to play with me. They should have been afraid of me. 

The thought hit me that I would never rescue any of them from a poorly planned hiding spot or show them my media collection again.

 It bothered me, more than I expected. 

I knelt down in front of him in the sand. I knew that small humans felt safer when people bigger than them did that. I didn't know if he would ever feel safe with me again. 

I wanted to try anyway.

"It was meant to be a game," I said, "I'm sorry I don't–" I stopped myself before I could finish that lie.

"I wasn't–”

“Did they hurt you?” he asked.

The question hit me so hard I had to stop my face from making an expression. I don’t know what I had been expecting but it wasn’t that. Not at all.

I wasn't looking at him. I was looking over his shoulder out at the water where most of his siblings and parents were swimming, and trying very hard not to pretend I had to go rescue one of them.

I tried to consider what to say. I had an urge to protect him from everything stored in my memory. It seemed wrong to talk about with someone who hadn't even grown his adult human teeth yet. 

I also didn't want to lie to him. I didn't want to make him think that he’d said something wrong or that there was ever going to be anything he couldn't talk to me about, if he had to. 

ART had said that was important for small humans to know in their relationships to their caregivers. 

Not that I was one of his caregivers. 

Okay. Maybe I was. Sort of. I don't know. 

I stayed where I was kneeling in front of him even though every single one of my organic parts was telling me to run. 

“Yes,” I said, “they did hurt me.” I tried to make my voice sound a bit less emotional when I added,  “But I’m okay now.” 

He nodded, then looked down. His little foot started drawing shapes in the sand. “They hurt me too,” he said, “when they took second mom away.”

I sucked in a breath at that. I hadn't known Mensah’s children had been aware of what had happened with GrayCris. It had been in the news media so it made sense that they were. Tano and Farai might have even sat them down and told them. 

I didn't like thinking about that. About the looks that must have come across their faces when they found out. It made my organic parts twist. 

I said, “I’m sorry,” like it was somehow my fault. In a way, I guess it was. Maybe all of it was my fault. Even the things he felt right now. 

He said, “It’s okay, I'm okay now.”  

Then he frowned. “I was just really scared.”

That did something to me. I thought about reaching out and putting my hand on his small shoulder. I don't know why. I never do things like that.

Instead, I said, “I was scared too. When that happened to your second mom.” 

It was true. I had been scared and I thought I would never admit it. It was uncomfortable, and mortifying, and yet I knew it was necessary. It was like touching a human to render aid. 

He looked up at me. “Really?” 

“Yes,” I said. 

“I didn't think you got scared. Second mom says you're really brave and smart and stuff.”

“Yeah, well, I still get scared,” I said. 

I left out that I felt scared pretty much all of the time. And also right now. 

I didn't need to make this small human feel that bad for me. 

I thought about it, and then I said, “Your second mom was scared too. When I brought her back.” 

His giant small human eyes gleamed. “You brought her back? From the Big Corporation?” he asked. 

“I did,” I said. 

I liked being able to say that. It made everything else I’d ever done feel a little less awful.

“Did you stomp on the Big Corporation?” he asked.

My facial muscles had to try really really hard to keep from making an expression at that. Not a bad one. 

I said, “Yeah, I guess I kind of did.” 

He said, “Second mom says big corporations belong in the waste disposal.” 

I said, “No argument there.” 

“Yesterday I threw up in the waste disposal.” 

Oh.

“Okay.” 

Small humans changed conversation topics alarmingly fast. 

“Wanna play the game again?” 

“Sure,” I said.

 He bounced on his toes. “Can we do it different this time? Like maybe this time we can pretend my sandhouse is the Big Corporation and then I can pretend to be you, and then you can be someone else, and then we can stomp on it?” 

Huh.

I hadn't been expecting that. I didn't know what it meant but I kind of liked it. It felt like I had changed something just by, I don't know, talking, I guess.

That was weird. I hoped I wasn’t going to become a walking trauma module or something. I think I would rather reactivate my governor module than let that happen. 

I didn’t mind that it had helped, though, whatever I had done.

It felt almost nice.  

“You know what,” I said, “I think I like that idea.”  

He started to walk back towards his sand structure. I followed him. “I'm gonna build it extra big this time and you gotta wait till I'm done,” he was saying, “and then you gotta come knock it over again and stomp on it and make all the scary noises and stuff with me, okay?" 

"Okay," I said dumbly, like it was an order, even though I knew it wasn't and he would have let me leave.

It just felt important like one.

"Careful," Mensah said without looking up from her tablet. She was sitting on a blanket nearby. 

"He's quite the boss when he wants to be."  

"Takes after you," I said. 

She smiled. "He does. That must be why he likes you so much." 

I didn't say anything to that. Whatever I had to say would have probably made me sound stupid. Or emotional. 

I stood next to him and watched him scoop the sand back up into his bucket.

 “Can I tell you something?” he asked. 

“I don't see why not,” I said. 

 He then started on an extremely hard to follow tangent aimed in my general direction and periodically would look up to make sure I was still listening. 

I was. 

I gathered from it that we were still talking about vomiting (body fluids are a particular fascination among young humans, I've noticed). The story included Amena who had been unfortunate enough to be sitting in front of him at the time of the vomiting incident while he wove plant material he'd picked into her hair. 

Mensah had to turn away and cover her face with her tablet in the middle of it. 

There was absolutely no reason for something so nonsensical to make me have an emotion but apparently I didn't care about that because I had one anyway. 

He stopped then. Surveyed the sand structure he had in progress. Looked at the second bucket lying a few steps away. 

He turned his face to me, squinting up in the light. 

"Um, hey, can I ask you something?" 

"Yes," I said, fully unaware if I could actually answer it but willing to try anyway. 

He looked back down at the half built sand structure. 

"Can you help me?"

Yes. Of course. Always.

"It depends. Am I going to be receiving payment for this service?" 

"Ummm, I can make my sisters find you new serials." 

"Fair enough, I'm in." 

He smiled and I had to try really, really hard not to do it back. 

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

Murderbot's Physical Features ASR

This is organized by where it was referenced in the book for personal inspiration and if for anyone wanting specific descriptions without scouring the book! Sorry, some stuff went unquoted-- there was a lot of material to look through but I tried to for the more ambiguous descriptions. Feel free to reblog with any physical descriptions you have!

Built In

Small energy weapons in both arms. Described "Opened my gun ports and expanded the weapons in my arms, then folded them back in." Seems it can also fire them as is?

Resupply and repair ports

Power cells

All Systems Red

Big projectile gun, held in a harness

Worn armour, with retractable helmet that can go opaque

Protective armour skin for underneath

Arms have organic flesh underneath + inorganic material

Organic shoulder "Weird flashes of sensation, all from my organic parts. Air on my face, my arms, through rips in my suit. On the burning wound in my shoulder."

Mix of organic and inorganic head, organic face

Crew uniform of "grey knit pants, long sleeve t-shirt, and a jacket" exercise clothes style

Six drones, centimetre across, with camera functionality

Some sort of field camera (may or may not be same as drones)

Organic neck "Then something stabbed me in the back of the next. That's organic material--" to "It felt like they were sawing my head off"

Data port in neck. "I could feel something in the port now. My data port"

Armour has individual arm, shoulder, chest and back with logos, and leg pieces. Leg pieces have armour inventory codes.

Long sleeves and jacket cover all the in-organics minus the data port

Stole work boots, protective jacket, enviro-mask, and a knapsack

Injuries

Cilia and teeth embedded in chest in worm battle

Missing a hand and part of shoulder after deltfall encounter, and blown hip joint

Theories / Implications in Text

Stripped for parts I would imagine would be most... effective... if it was a whole limb, like interchangeable metal shins, fingers, ect, rather than singular metal pieces as much as possible. Cheap ass company isn't going to want to weld new pieces from scrap when they can take the whole leg with them!

I imagine the joints are mechanical potentially for its speed? Supported by secunit identifying hostile deltfall by joint noise

Does it have the equivalent of a windows recycling bin in its head for all the data it deletes...

As a security unit, I wonder if its armour is sort of like, bullet proof vest style.

Secunits are... ambidextrous? The Deltfall units swap weapon hands after its joint gets disabled.

Vision and hearing can go offline, potentially digital based on "I came back online with no vision, no hearing, no ability to move." and "Designed to work with both organic and machine parts, to balance that sensory input. Without the balance, I felt like a balloon floating in mid-air."

or not, since 5 pages later it says "Sound was breaking up. -- My organic parts were not used to processing that much information." Maybe a mix? Digital input and organic processing, or vice versa?

Joints seems to refer to contact points between organic and inorganic

Deltfall's secunit's comm channel is located on the side of its helmet (/maybe face?) It's energy weapons can also fold out of the armour, so there must be space for them to open or react to the opening of the guns.

Assuming its mainly organic parts are what it senses when its crashing, Arada holding its hand might mean organic hand?

Interesting note from the end of ASR that I hadn't noticed until now: Ratthi and Pin-Lee both take it by the arm. Perhaps MB starts asserting / setting boundaries around touch as it gains confidence in itself, so doesn't question or assert it much at the start of its narrative.

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

I took my second ADHD pill a little too late I guess because it was suddenly 4 am and I made this thing about why parasitic organisms are shaped like ways and how to consider that for your fiction settings. Raw text version below the cut for people with busted seeing:

Keep reading

[ajaywithcrowfeathers]

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Wormston Illustration by lycanthropylive; Graphics by scribedhearts