#i'm a serial book hopper

[not-poignant]

Hi there! I absolutely love your works and, having followed you for a while now, I also really admire you as a person and an author in general. Every update on AO3 and Tumblr is always such a delight. I'm sorry if this ask is coming out of the blue or if it's something you've been asked before, but how did you take the plunge from writing predominantly fanfic to posting original fiction in serial form and also self-publishing novels? I'm currently in the process of drafting two original works after writing/posting fanfic regularly for years, and I'm just lost as to how to set everything up. I have a general idea (post chapter-by-chapter on AO3 and offer early access and some exclusive content on patreon or some other subscription service), but it all feels so daunting right now. Any bit of info or advice on how you got started would be immensely appreciated <3

Hi anon,

Tbh, I went from writing fanfic to original fiction because I had original characters in my fanfiction and readers asked me about them.

I had no kind of...dreams of being an original author in this way, I was published via other pathways already, and fanfiction was really an escape for me, a chance to break with all the conventions of standard writing and just do what I wanted.

But I needed a broader cast than what the movie gave me re: my first fanfics, and I added my own OCs, and left them in the background as much as possible, but even back while writing that fanfic, even the OCs were getting fanart. Sometimes readers would send me anons about them, or ask me more details about them.

Finally, I decided to write some hatesex between them, just something to kind of...idk get it out of my system? Answer what the readers were looking for?

The flow through therefore felt natural. Game Theory flows very naturally on from From the Darkness We Rise & Into Shadows We Fall. And from there, moving into other original works has been easy, in part, because I've often being doing alternate universes from a core of original characters.

If I want to introduce new original characters, I introduce them in stories where pre-existing original characters have already been established.

I didn't even start writing original works with a view to making money off that. In fact I thought it was a very foolish thing to do. A lot of people on AO3 don't want to read original works on AO3 and refuse to do it or only do it if it's PWP / pornography.

I started my Patreon account because readers asked me to. I got asks from very very generous people who wanted to know my Paypal, or asked if I'd start a Ko-Fi, and finally a few people just asked if I'd start a Patreon. I said I didn't think it was a good idea, and they said it was up to them if they wanted to pay me or not, but I should at least consider giving them the choice.

From there, I found it all very overwhelming. I made lots of mistakes. I had to go on hiatus for a year because I promised too much and couldn't deliver on many of those rewards. And for many years I only offered one early access chapter per week for one story, and my main stories were never early access (and still aren't, Underline the Black goes up for everyone at the same time - and while that may change in the future, it's definitely unconventional).

I've always been transparent with my readers that with very few exceptions, if they just wait, they eventually get everything for free. But if they want to support this kind of writing and/or enjoy it, and can comfortably afford to send some dollars my way, they can ensure that I can keep writing this way.

I have for a long time offered no exclusive content at all, I believe that can do well, but it's not my preferred way of doing things.

This career has been incredibly reader driven, anon. I would not personally attempt it cold, without a really fantastic readerbase who encouraged me every step of the way in the first place, because I am a cautious, insecure writer who doesn't like to take risks. So I can't give you advice on how to build this career without the support of the readers there in the first place, and I believe the only reason why I had their support was, in part, because of the actual strength of the writing itself. Which isn't to say it's the best, it's not, it's what I needed at the time and it's what a few other people needed, and that's basically how this works.

If you turn up with the writing, and the audience comes, and they want the story, you have the career.

In terms of practical advice - you can introduce original characters in fanfiction, just be aware that readers tend to be hostile by default if they pull any significant 'screen time' away from the fandom characters (and readers are extremely savvy to authors trying to build a financial business through AO3)

It IS daunting, but the good news is you can do a soft launch. You can open a Patreon or Ream account tomorrow and tell no one. You can mess with your graphics and your tier rewards to your heart's content when you don't have any subscribers. Build a buffer of early access/chapters, and make sure you don't overpromise on anything. Whatever you think you can realistically deliver to readers, cut it in half, because the stress of chapter update deadlines every month can really add up and it's a very different landscape to novel releases.

You can take your time, you can build interest slowly.

Remember you can never ever mention any kind of site where you're getting paid inadvertently, sneakily, or directly on AO3. You can't mention Ream, you can't mention Patreon, you can't mention Ko-Fi, you can't go 'learn more about my writing here' and link to those places. You can't mention buy links. You can only mention sites like Tumblr, Linktree, Twitter etc. Places where the point of sale isn't happening. Not doing so risks AO3's Not For Profit status and risks your entire account, and it's not worth it.

I did an interview with Subscriptions for Authors where I actually talk about many of these things so you can watch (or listen to) the podcast here if you're inclined! It also talks about the importance of community-building, gratitude to the readers, and generosity.

I am here because my readers wanted me to be. So I'm very concerned with making sure I can give them the best writing possible within my abilities. This makes me not very suited to offering 'how to start in this career' advice because it was a happy accident. It's hard to teach something I have never done your way myself, anon, because I worry I'd give bad advice. My writing had people turning up, but I'm not sure anything else I did, added much! I think responding to Tumblr asks and replying to every comment helped too! But...I don't know for sure.

But this career path does make me pretty well suited to offering 'how to keep this going' advice, because I've been doing this for ten years. <3333

[elkian]

I've seen a few of my Murderbot posts reblogged with tags to the effect of "I don't go here but I know of it" and for people who are interested in the Murderbot series looking to break in:

Tor.com (now Reactor Mag) has the entire first chapter of the first book, All Systems Red, available free to read on their site.

Link to the article.

ASR is a novella, so this not only covers a lot of ground, but is a pretty good litmus test imo if this book is for you or not.

(I read ASR twice before getting Artificial Condition, and that was the book that got me totally hooked on the series, for what that's worth.)

I'm also just going to post the text under this readmore because free Murderbot.

---

---

I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.

I was also still doing my job, on a new contract, and hoping Dr. Volescu and Dr. Bharadwaj finished their survey soon so we could get back to the habitat and I could watch episode 397 of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

I admit I was distracted. It was a boring contract so far and I was thinking about backburnering the status alert channel and trying to access music on the entertainment feed without HubSystem logging the extra activity. It was trickier to do it in the field than it was in the habitat.

This assessment zone was a barren stretch of coastal island, with low, flat hills rising and falling and thick greenish-black grass up to my ankles, not much in the way of flora or fauna, except a bunch of different-sized birdlike things and some puffy floaty things that were harmless as far as we knew. The coast was dotted with big bare craters, one of which Bharadwaj and Volescu were taking samples in. The planet had a ring, which from our current position dominated the horizon when you looked out to sea. I was looking at the sky and mentally poking at the feed when the bottom of the crater exploded.

I didn’t bother to make a verbal emergency call. I sent the visual feed from my field camera to Dr. Mensah’s, and jumped down into the crater. As I scrambled down the sandy slope, I could already hear Mensah over the emergency comm channel, yelling at someone to get the hopper in the air now. They were about ten kilos away, working on another part of the island, so there was no way they were going to get here in time to help.

Conflicting commands filled my feed but I didn’t pay attention. Even if I hadn’t borked my own governor module, the emergency feed took priority, and it was chaotic, too, with the automated HubSystem wanting data and trying to send me data I didn’t need yet and Mensah sending me telemetry from the hopper. Which I also didn’t need, but it was easier to ignore than HubSystem simultaneously demanding answers and trying to supply them.

In the middle of all that, I hit the bottom of the crater. I have small energy weapons built into both arms, but the one I went for was the big projectile weapon clamped to my back. The hostile that had just exploded up out of the ground had a really big mouth, so I felt I needed a really big gun.

I dragged Bharadwaj out of its mouth and shoved myself in there instead, and discharged my weapon down its throat and then up toward where I hoped the brain would be. I’m not sure if that all happened in that order; I’d have to replay my own field camera feed. All I knew was that I had Bharadwaj, and it didn’t, and it had disappeared back down the tunnel.

She was unconscious and bleeding through her suit from massive wounds in her right leg and side. I clamped the weapon back into its harness so I could lift her with both arms. I had lost the armor on my left arm and a lot of the flesh underneath, but my non-organic parts were still working. Another burst of commands from the governor module came through and I backburnered it without bothering to decode them. Bharadwaj, not having non-organic parts and not as easily repaired as me, was definitely a priority here and I was mainly interested in what the MedSystem was trying to tell me on the emergency feed. But first I needed to get her out of the crater.

During all this, Volescu was huddled on the churned up rock, losing his shit, not that I was unsympathetic. I was far less vulnerable in this situation than he was and I wasn’t exactly having a great time either. I said, “Dr. Volescu, you need to come with me now.”

He didn’t respond. MedSystem was advising a tranq shot and blah blah blah, but I was clamping one arm on Dr. Bharadwaj’s suit to keep her from bleeding out and supporting her head with the other, and despite everything I only have two hands. I told my helmet to retract so he could see my human face. If the hostile came back and bit me again, this would be a bad mistake, because I did need the organic parts of my head. I made my voice firm and warm and gentle, and said, “Dr. Volescu, it’s gonna be fine, okay? But you need to get up and come help me get her out of here.”

That did it. He shoved to his feet and staggered over to me, still shaking. I turned my good side toward him and said, “Grab my arm, okay? Hold on.”

He managed to loop his arm around the crook of my elbow and I started up the crater towing him, holding Bharadwaj against my chest. Her breathing was rough and desperate and I couldn’t get any info from her suit. Mine was torn across my chest so I upped the warmth on my body, hoping it would help. The feed was quiet now, Mensah having managed to use her leadership priority to mute everything but MedSystem and the hopper, and all I could hear on the hopper feed was the others frantically shushing each other.

The footing on the side of the crater was lousy, soft sand and loose pebbles, but my legs weren’t damaged and I got up to the top with both humans still alive. Volescu tried to collapse and I coaxed him away from the edge a few meters, just in case whatever was down there had a longer reach than it looked.

I didn’t want to put Bharadwaj down because something in my abdomen was severely damaged and I wasn’t sure I could pick her up again. I ran my field camera back a little and saw I had gotten stabbed with a tooth, or maybe a cilia. Did I mean a cilia or was that something else? They don’t give murderbots decent education modules on anything except murdering, and even those are the cheap versions. I was looking it up in HubSystem’s language center when the little hopper landed nearby. I let my helmet seal and go opaque as it settled on the grass.

We had two standard hoppers: a big one for emergencies and this little one for getting to the assessment locations. It had three compartments: one big one in the middle for the human crew and two smaller ones to each side for cargo, supplies, and me. Mensah was at the controls. I started walking, slower than I normally would have because I didn’t want to lose Volescu. As the ramp started to drop, Pin-Lee and Arada jumped out and I switched to voice comm to say, “Dr. Mensah, I can’t let go of her suit.”

It took her a second to realize what I meant. She said hurriedly, “That’s all right, bring her up into the crew cabin.”

Murderbots aren’t allowed to ride with the humans and I had to have verbal permission to enter. With my cracked governor there was nothing to stop me, but not letting anybody, especially the people who held my contract, know that I was a free agent was kind of important. Like, not having my organic components destroyed and the rest of me cut up for parts important.

I carried Bharadwaj up the ramp into the cabin, where Overse and Ratthi were frantically unclipping seats to make room. They had their helmets off and their suit hoods pulled back, so I got to see their horrified expressions when they took in what was left of my upper body through my torn suit. I was glad I had sealed my helmet.

This is why I actually like riding with the cargo. Humans and augmented humans in close quarters with murderbots is too awkward. At least, it’s awkward for this murderbot. I sat down on the deck with Bharadwaj in my lap while Pin-Lee and Arada dragged Volescu inside.

We left two pacs of field equipment and a couple of instruments behind, still sitting on the grass where Bharadwaj and Volescu had been working before they went down to the crater for samples. Normally I’d help carry them, but MedSystem, which was monitoring Bharadwaj through what was left of her suit, was pretty clear that letting go of her would be a bad idea. But no one mentioned the equipment. Leaving easily replaceable items behind may seem obvious in an emergency, but I had been on contracts where the clients would have told me to put the bleeding human down to go get the stuff.

On this contract, Dr. Ratthi jumped up and said, “I’ll get the cases!”

I yelled, “No!” which I’m not supposed to do; I’m always supposed to speak respectfully to the clients, even when they’re about to accidentally commit suicide. HubSystem could log it and it could trigger punishment through the governor module. If it wasn’t hacked.

Fortunately, the rest of the humans yelled “No!” at the same time, and Pin-Lee added, “For fuck’s sake, Ratthi!”

Ratthi said, “Oh, no time, of course. I’m sorry!” and hit the quick-close sequence on the hatch.

So we didn’t lose our ramp when the hostile came up under it, big mouth full of teeth or cilia or whatever chewing right through the ground. There was a great view of it on the hopper’s cameras, which its system helpfully sent straight to everybody’s feed. The humans screamed.

Mensah pushed us up into the air so fast and hard I nearly leaned over and everybody who wasn’t on the floor ended up there.

In the quiet afterward, as they gasped with relief, Pin-Lee said, “Ratthi, if you get yourself killed—”

“You’ll be very cross with me, I know.” Ratthi slid down the wall a little more and waved weakly at her.

“That’s an order, Ratthi, don’t get yourself killed,” Mensah said from the pilot’s seat. She sounded calm, but I have security priority, and I could see her racing heartbeat through MedSystem.

Arada pulled out the emergency medical kit so they could stop the bleeding and try to stabilize Bharadwaj. I tried to be as much like an appliance as possible, clamping the wounds where they told me to, using my failing body temperature to try to keep her warm, and keeping my head down so I couldn’t see them staring at me.

PERFORMANCE RELIABILITY AT 60% AND DROPPING

Our habitat is a pretty standard model, seven interconnected domes set down on a relatively flat plain above a narrow river valley, with our power and recycling system connected on one side. We had an environmental system, but no air locks, as the planet’s atmosphere was breathable, just not particularly good for humans for the long term. I don’t know why, because it’s one of those things I’m not contractually obligated to care about.

We picked the location because it’s right in the middle of the assessment area, and while there are trees scattered through the plain, each one is fifteen or so meters tall, very skinny, with a single layer of spreading canopy, so it’s hard for anything approaching to use them as cover. Of course, that didn’t take into account anything approaching via tunnel.

We have security doors on the habitat for safety but HubSystem told me the main one was already open as the hopper landed. Dr. Gurathin had a lift gurney ready and guided it out to us. Overse and Arada had managed to get Bharadwaj stabilized, so I was able to put her down on it and follow the others into the habitat.

The humans headed for Medical and I stopped to send the little hopper commands to lock and seal itself, then I locked the outer doors. Through the security feed, I told the drones to widen our perimeter so I’d have more warning if something big came at us. I also set some monitors on the seismic sensors to alert me to anomalies just in case the hypothetical something big decided to tunnel in.

After I secured the habitat, I went back to what was called the security ready room, which was where weapons, ammo, perimeter alarms, drones, and all the other supplies pertaining to security were stored, including me. I shed what was left of the armor and on MedSystem’s advice sprayed wound sealant all over my bad side. I wasn’t dripping with blood, because my arteries and veins seal automatically, but it wasn’t nice to look at. And it hurt, though the wound seal did numb it a little. I had already set an eight-hour security interdiction through HubSystem, so nobody could go outside without me, and then set myself as off-duty. I checked the main feed but no one was filing any objections to that.

I was freezing because my temperature controls had given out at some point on the way here, and the protective skin that went under my armor was in pieces. I had a couple of spares but pulling one on right now would not be practical, or easy. The only other clothing I had was a uniform I hadn’t worn yet, and I didn’t think I could get it on, either. (I hadn’t needed the uniform because I hadn’t been patrolling inside the habitat. Nobody had asked for that, because with only eight of them and all friends, it would be a stupid waste of resources, namely me.) I dug around one handed in the storage case until I found the extra human-rated medical kit I’m allowed in case of emergencies, and opened it and got the survival blanket out. I wrapped up in it, then climbed into the plastic bed of my cubicle. I let the door seal as the white light flickered on.

It wasn’t much warmer in there, but at least it was cozy. I connected myself to the resupply and repair leads, leaned back against the wall and shivered. MedSystem helpfully informed me that my performance reliability was now at 58 percent and dropping, which was not a surprise. I could definitely repair in eight hours, and probably mostly regrow my damaged organic components, but at 58 percent, I doubted I could get any analysis done in the meantime. So I set all the security feeds to alert me if anything tried to eat the habitat and started to call up the supply of media I’d downloaded from the entertainment feed. I hurt too much to pay attention to anything with a story, but the friendly noise would keep me company.

Then someone knocked on the cubicle door.

I stared at it and lost track of all my neatly arrayed inputs. Like an idiot, I said, “Uh, yes?”

Dr. Mensah opened the door and peered in at me. I’m not good at guessing actual humans’ ages, even with all the visual entertainment I watch. People in the shows don’t usually look much like people in real life, at least not in the good shows. She had dark brown skin and lighter brown hair, cut very short, and I’m guessing she wasn’t young or she wouldn’t be in charge. She said, “Are you all right? I saw your status report.”

“Uh.” That was the point where I realized that I should have just not answered and pretended to be in stasis. I pulled the blanket around my chest, hoping she hadn’t seen any of the missing chunks. Without the armor holding me together, it was much worse. “Fine.”

So, I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m wounded and one of my organic parts may fall off and plop on the floor at any moment and no one wants to see that.

“Fine?” She frowned. “The report said you lost 20 percent of your body mass.”

“It’ll grow back,” I said. I know to an actual human I probably looked like I was dying. My injuries were the equivalent of a human losing a limb or two plus most of their blood volume.

“I know, but still.” She eyed me for a long moment, so long I tapped the security feed for the mess, where the non-wounded members of the group were sitting around the table talking. They were discussing the possibility of more underground fauna and wishing they had intoxicants. That seemed pretty normal. She continued, “You were very good with Dr. Volescu. I don’t think the others realized . . . They were very impressed.”

“It’s part of the emergency med instructions, calming victims.” I tugged the blanket tighter so she didn’t see anything awful. I could feel something lower down leaking.

“Yes, but the MedSystem was prioritizing Bharadwaj and didn’t check Volescu’s vital signs. It didn’t take into account the shock of the event, and it expected him to be able to leave the scene on his own.”

On the feed it was clear that the others had reviewed Volescu’s field camera video. They were saying things like I didn’t even know it had a face. I’d been in armor since we arrived, and I hadn’t unsealed the helmet when I was around them. There was no specific reason. The only part of me they would have seen was my head, and it’s standard, generic human. But they didn’t want to talk to me and I definitely didn’t want to talk to them; on duty it would distract me and off duty . . . I didn’t want to talk to them. Mensah had seen me when she signed the rental contract. But she had barely looked at me and I had barely looked at her because again, murderbot + actual human = awkwardness. Keeping the armor on all the time cuts down on unnecessary interaction.

I said, “It’s part of my job, not to listen to the System feeds when they . . . make mistakes.” That’s why you need constructs, SecUnits with organic components. But she should know that. Before she accepted delivery of me, she had logged about ten protests, trying to get out of having to have me. I didn’t hold it against her. I wouldn’t have wanted me either.

Seriously, I don’t know why I didn’t just say you’re welcome and please get out of my cubicle so I can sit here and leak in peace.

“All right,” she said, and looked at me for what objectively I knew was 2.4 seconds and subjectively about twenty excruciating minutes. “I’ll see you in eight hours. If you need anything before then, please send me an alert on the feed.” She stepped back and let the door slide closed.

It left me wondering what they were all marveling at so I called up the recording of the incident. Okay, wow. I had talked to Volescu all the way up the side of the crater. I had been mostly concerned with the hopper’s trajectory and Bharadwaj not bleeding out and what might come out of that crater for a second try; I hadn’t been listening to myself, basically. I had asked him if he had kids. It was boggling. Maybe I had been watching too much media. (He did have kids. He was in a four-way marriage and had seven, all back home with his partners.)

All my levels were too elevated now for a rest period, so I decided I might as well get some use out of it and look at the other recordings. Then I found something weird. There was an “abort” order in the HubSystem command feed, the one that controlled, or currently believed it controlled, my governor module. It had to be a glitch. It didn’t matter, because when MedSystem has priority—

PERFORMANCE RELIABILITY AT 39%, STASIS INITIATED FOR EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE.

[iviarellereads]

All Systems Red, Chapter 1

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we meet our new best friend.

(As a preface: the story is once again in past tense, but this time, first-person. "I was". My summaries will continue to be in third-person present tense because that's how my brain works, but quotes will be verbatim.)

I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours(1) or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed.(2) As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.

Murderbot is doing its job on a new contract, hoping the two scientists, Dr. Volescu and Dr. Bharadwaj, finish soon so it can go watch episode 397 of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.(3) It's distracted, and kind of bored, and considers trying to figure out how to backdoor the system to listen to music without notifying the HubSystem(4) as the scientists take samples from one of the many craters on the coast.

Only, then the crater explodes.

MB doesn't call for help in the way we'd understand. It sends its visual feed directly to Dr. Mensah,(5) and scrambles down into the crater to help as it hears Mensah on the emergency comm channel calling for the others to get moving to help as well.

MB gets a bunch of conflicting commands, but knowing the emergency takes priority anyway, it ignores them and all the data it doesn't need. At the bottom of the crater, it skips the small weapons built into its arms, and gets out the projectile weapon on its back. The hostile creature is more than big enough to justify it.

MB gets Bharadwaj out of the creature's mouth, and shoves the gun down its throat, then shoots where it hopes the brain might be. The creature disappears back down its tunnel, leaving Bharadwaj in MB's care. It puts the gun away, and since its base mechanical structure is still functioning even with a bit of lost flesh and armour, it lifts her, raises its body heat to help her stay warm, and thinks about how to get out of the crater.

It sees Volescu huddled to the side, terrified, and it starts talking to him, calmly. It can't touch him to move him or drag him, because it needs to keep Bharadwaj from bleeding out, but it makes its voice firm but warm and starts gently needling Volescu to get up and come out of the crater with it and Bharadwaj. Volescu stands and staggers over, and MB tells him to hold onto its arm as they get out.

By now, Mensah has managed to mute most of the alerts and notifications and data requests, so MB only has to focus on the MedSystem feed. It gets the humans out of the crater, and coaxes Volescu a few further meters before he collapses, just in case the thing can come out further. It can feel that something in its torso is damaged, and runs its visual feed back to find that it was stabbed with some sort of tooth-like thing it can't begin to identify, because they don't educate murderbots in anything but murder.

The hopper with everyone else on the team lands, and MB turns its helmet opaque so they won't see it, then says on the comm that it can't put Bharadwaj down because of the damage. Mensah tells it to bring her into the crew cabin, following the procedures that would be required if it had a working governor module.(6)

I carried Bharadwaj up the ramp into the cabin, where Overse and Ratthi were frantically unclipping seats to make room. They had their helmets off and their suit hoods pulled back, so I got to see their horrified expressions when they took in what was left of my upper body through my torn suit. I was glad I had sealed my helmet. This is why I actually like riding with the cargo. Humans and augmented humans in close quarters with murderbots is too awkward. At least, it’s awkward for this murderbot.

MB sits on the floor, bracing Bharadwaj, as the other crew bring Volescu inside. One of them, Dr. Ratthi, offers to go get the cases of equipment left behind, and MB makes a small mistake: it yells "No!" because that's accidental suicide by monster, when it should never talk-back at the clients. Fortunately, it's hidden in the cries of "No!" from everyone else on the hopper, with Pin-Lee adding, "For fuck's sake, Ratthi!"

Ratthi, for his part, remembers that they have bigger priorities with Bharadwaj's injuries, and closes the hatch so they can take off immediately.

The hopper is still close enough to see on the cameras when another hostile, or the same one, comes up right under where it sat moments before. Mensah speeds up the vertical, and everyone ends up on the floor. Pin-Lee starts telling off Ratthi for lack of self-preservation, and Ratthi finishes the argument with a sense of it being a familiar one. Mensah also tells Ratthi that it's an order to not get himself killed. MB notes that she sounds calm, but it can see on the MedSystem that her heart is racing.(7)

Arada pulled out the emergency medical kit so they could stop the bleeding and try to stabilize Bharadwaj. I tried to be as much like an appliance as possible,(8) clamping the wounds where they told me to, using my failing body temperature to try to keep her warm, and keeping my head down so I couldn’t see them staring at me. *** PERFORMANCE RELIABILITY AT 60% AND DROPPING(9)

They make it back to the central habitat, which looks a lot less safe now that MB knows there are tunneling hostiles. Dr. Gurathin has a gurney ready, so MB can put Bharadwaj down at last. Following the humans inside, it also increases security with drone patrols and higher sensitivity on the seismic monitors, locking down the habitat so no one can leave without it.

The habitat secured, MB goes to the "security ready room" where all the supplies related to security are stored, including MB. It takes off its armour, sprays wound sealant on at MedSystem's suggestion despite that it's able to close its blood vessels automatically, and sets itself to off-duty.

It can't put on its spare armour, or even the base uniform, so it gets a survival blanket from a first aid kit and gets into its cubicle to start the repair and resupply process, as it reaches 58% function.

It's just queued up some media, not to focus on, but just to keep it company, when there's a knock on the door. Confused, it says, "Uh, yes?" Mensah enters.

She said, “Are you all right? I saw your status report.” “Uh.” That was the point where I realized that I should have just not answered and pretended to be in stasis. I pulled the blanket around my chest, hoping she hadn’t seen any of the missing chunks. Without the armor holding me together, it was much worse. “Fine.” So, I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m wounded and one of my organic parts may fall off and plop on the floor at any moment and no one wants to see that.

Mensah is concerned because the report said MB lost 20% of its body mass, but MB assures her it can regrow. Mensah seems to accept this, but hesitates to leave, and tells MB it was very good with Volescu, at the attack site. MB says it's standard emergency instructions, but Mensah says she knows MedSystem was prioritizing Bharadwaj's injuries, and expected Volescu to be able to leave under his own power: it didn't account for the shock.

MB, tapped into the cameras in the main room, can see that the others are reviewing Volescu's camera feed and discussing MB, saying things like they didn't know it had a face. It knows it's stayed in its armour since arrival, mostly to maintain a distance from them. They're just contract clients, they won't be permanent, and as much as it hates people-ing, it would be pointless to interact unnecessarily.

To Mensah, MB says it's part of its job to account for the System making occasional mistakes. It thinks she should know that, it's part of the package, and why a SecUnit with its organic components(10) is a non-negotiable part of company deals. It knows she logged about ten protests, trying to get out of having a SecUnit at all.

I didn’t hold it against her. I wouldn’t have wanted me either.(11) Seriously, I don’t know why I didn’t just say you’re welcome and please get out of my cubicle so I can sit here and leak in peace.

Mensah looks at MB for objectively 2.4 seconds, subjectively twenty horrible minutes. She tells it to let her know in the feed if it needs anything sooner than its scheduled 8 hour restoration cycle, then leaves.

MB wonders why she made such a big deal of the rescue, and replays its own recording of the incident. It realizes it was talking to Volescu all the way up the crater incline, asking him if he has kids and that sort of thing.(12) It hadn't even been listening to itself at the time, more focused on Bharadwaj and the hopper's trajectory. It wonders if it's been watching too much human media. In an aside it clarifies that Volescu does have seven children with his partners in a four-way marriage back home.

All my levels were too elevated now for a rest period, so I decided I might as well get some use out of it and look at the other recordings. Then I found something weird. There was an “abort” order in the HubSystem command feed, the one that controlled, or currently believed it controlled, my governor module.(13) It had to be a glitch. It didn’t matter, because when MedSystem has priority— PERFORMANCE RELIABILITY AT 39% STASIS INITIATED FOR EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE

=====

(1) Just shy of 4 years, if people are measuring time the same way whenever and wherever this is set. (2) A bot after my own heart, spending as much of its time taking in media as physically possible without giving itself away by not following an order. (3) This is a show Murderbot mentions a lot. What do we think it's about, just off the top here, based on the name and the duration alone? (4) A lot of the words in this series are gonna be kinda self-explanatory. I left "governor module" alone because, in context, it makes its own sense, a module that's supposed to override anything a construct might theoretically think about doing outside mission parameters and company rules, and punish any that happen because of organic parts being unpredictable. (Oh no, I snuck in a bonus definition.) HubSystem is, similarly, the networked system that serves as a hub for everything attached to the mission, to communicate back to the company. (5) Clearly, some sort of leader or organizer, from context. (6) MB knows its rules and regs, if only to follow them with malicious minimum compliance. (7) Do we think MB hacked MedSystem, to see information it might not otherwise have access to, or is it typical for a security unit to potentially need to monitor the biofunctions of the clients it's tasked to defend? (8) MB deliberately tucking itself into its expected role, because as we see later this chapter, it's not particularly worried about its governor module being found out, it just… doesn't enjoy people. (9) A recurring status update throughout MB's point of view. Its performance reliability, its literal ability to do its job, will go up and down based on its current condition, just like any person's. I wonder if it's possible to function at 100%. I think organic bits get in the way of that by literal nature. (10) Organic components, like a human brain, which is still superior to any algorithmic training they can come up with, which will still recognize certain flaws that you can't train out of pure machines. (11) Noooo, my heart, not in the first chapter! How dare! (12) It may not like humans, but it understands how to deal with them, at least in times of stress. Maybe it's "too much media" but it's also just... a person. I'm exactly the same sort of person, I do not recharge in the presence of other people in my meatspace on any level, but I'm very good at masking and doing what needs done, whether that's politeness and asking about the weather or playing along with deeper conversation. (No need to wonder why I love these books so much. No need for me to examine why I relate so hard to a literal robot.) (13) How suspicious... but surely it can't mean anything. Surely.

[metalandmagi]

"The Purple Reader is The Unbound Innovator—a bold, unconventional thinker who thrives on experimental storytelling and genre-defying narratives. They read to challenge norms, stretch their imagination, and fuel radical creativity. After finishing a book, they want to feel intellectually awakened and creatively invigorated, as if they've glimpsed a new way of seeing the world."

This isn't necessarily wrong, but I think I'm more of the orange reader (serial world hopper). Purple is accurate enough, until it comes to the non-fiction preferences. I don't want this shit in a real world story. Give me a biography of a famous person from my childhood, because those are pretty much the only non-fiction books I read 😅

have you guys done that “what kind of reader are you” quiz and if so what did you get

[the-whispers-of-death]

forcefully switching the places/aus of canon!sylvester and scientist!sylvester

canon!sylvester is lowkey very confused as to everything that going on, and tries (key word: tries) to sneak his way out of the lab to hopefully get a way that he can use to get back home. he'll live. hes a little under the weather and probably moping in an alley somewhere to hide from the rain, but he'll live

scientist!sylvester is not having a good time on the ranch and is very pissy about it ans the amount of people there. "what do you MEAN off the grid??? goddamnit, theres no wifi so now i gotta use mobile data now!! mārīte, will you get off-of me already-- and your little friend too-- GIRLFRIEND???? whatever, just let me be...ugh. at least we have the same cane sizes... he has horrid taste though. seriously, not one turtleneck?" (hes surprised by mārīte cuz. 1. mafia!mārīte is a lot more cold and doesnt do touch 2. mārīteXkatie isnt a thing in his au)

idk the place-swap aus are my fave thing to ponder and think about

~ rusty

I just know Criminal!Stone is very confused and he doesn't even realize that Canon!Sylvester isn't Scientist!Sylvester, so he just thinks his god has thought him unworthy and that's why Sylvester keeps trying to leave the lab/leave him. He pulls out every trick in the book, intensifying his worship of Sylvester in the hopes Sylvester stays.

Scientist!Sylvester might be not having a good time, but neither is Canon!Stone. Unlike Criminal!Stone, Canon!Stone immediately knew that Scientist!Sylvester wasn't his Sylvester and his paranoia has kicked in, causing him to deem Scientist!Sylvester a threat to his family. A threat he convinces himself can only be neutralized if he kills Scientist!Sylvester.

Scientist!Sylvester definitely got the short straw of the pile when it came to what type of Stone he got.

Canon!Stone's in flight or fight mode and he's choosing fight. He doesn't care that Scientist!Sylvester looks like his Sylvester, he knows Scientist!Sylvester isn't his husband.

Meanwhile Canon!Sylvester got Criminal!Stone fawning over him and attending to his every need. He's desperately trying to get Sylvester to stay when all Sylvester wants to do is get back to his own universe.

Speaking of universe-hopping, our resident universe-hopper, Serial Killer!Stone is eerily silent.

(I'm immensely pleased with myself that I wrote his story post, because now I can reveal that Time is the one who gave him the ability to universe-hop. I mean she did it so that he could see all the variations of himself being happy while his story is one tragedy after another, but hey, sometimes you can use gifts from deities as you deem fitting.)

Oh well, it's best we don't bring him into the fold now, anyways. He'd be able to clock the switcheroo immediately and bring each Sylvester back to their designated universes and that's no fun.

[headrant]

𝓣𝐇𝐄 𝓢𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝓢𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝓞𝐅 𝓐𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐋

𝑉𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑥 𝑂𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟

❝ 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ, 𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑤 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑉𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑈𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑥'𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒. 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑙𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑔𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑠. 𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑒, 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦, 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑘𝑖𝑑𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑢𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝐻𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛! ❞

𝐑𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 ?? 🚫🚫

𝐑𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍 💬💬

As Albert left his daughter alone, the blonde shaking and hurt from her father's sick games, Hunter glanced over at the bright orange phone that rested on her wall.

Her eyes lingered on the tangerine colored chord before finally untangling herself from the ball she had formed herself into, Hunter stood up and walked over to it before immediately placing her index finger in the plastic hole to dial.

She had his phone number memorized, she didn't even have to look in her address book. Vance Hopper was her safe space, her comfort. Two outcasts, but they seemed to suit each other…

And honestly, their once hypothetical plan made sense… Get out of the town where a kidnapping serial killer was at large, get out of a town where all Hunter knew was abuse from her father…

Durango. That's where she was going.

"Hello?" A voice came on the other line of the phone, Hunter soon turning with her back to the wall as she slid down to sit on the floor.

"Hello? Mrs. Hopper?" Hunter began, trying to keep her voice as soft as she could.

"It's Hunter Shaw… Is Vance available?" She asked, holding onto her orange phone with both hands before glancing over at her door to make sure her father did not come back in.

"Oh, Hunter! Of course, give me one moment… Vance! Phone!" The voice on the other end yelled, a bit of background noise of footsteps and running echoed through the speaker before Hunter heard the voice she was desperate to hear.

"What?" Vance answered, always straight to the point as Hunter brought her hand up to her mouth before gently biting down on her fingernails.

"Hey… I was hoping to talk to you for a bit…" She said, her tone slightly muffled from her hand covering her mouth as Vance let out a soft chuckle.

"Stop chewing your nails… What's up?" He asked, automatically knowing Hunter was stressed as she dropped her hand back down onto her lap.

"Remember when we talked about going to Durango?" She asked softly, glancing again at her door before whispering into the phone.

"I'm ready…" Hunter added only to be greeted with a moment of silence.

"Vance…?" She whispered again, hearing a soft chuckle on the other end.

"When are we leaving?" The boy asked, his tone now much softer as they formulated their plan.

"I have to pack… and I have to make it seem like I'm not leaving, yanno?" Hunter said softly, Vance letting out a soft hum on the other end.

"Okay… How about Sunday?" He asked.

"My parents will be at church, I'll make up an excuse. Your dad usually works on that stupid train thing until around eleven, right? Like right before lunch?" Vance asked, wanting to confirm everything so this could go smoothly.

"Yeah… then he goes back down in the evening. He hasn't been working on it too much lately, though… he said he is waiting for some more parts to come in." Hunter said, glancing back at her door again before moving the phone closer to her mouth.

"Church is over at eleven, right? We will leave in the morning…" She said, her body beginning to shake as the realization hit her that they were actually going to run away.

"Okay… That's what? Hold on…" Vance said, the sound of the phone clinking against the table rang through the speaker as Hunter listened to the boy get up for a moment only to return a few seconds later.

"Had to look at the calendar… It's the second Sunday of April. We will meet at 9:30?" He asked, Hunter glancing back up at her door again.

"9:30. Behind the Grab N Go." She told him, smiling softly as she felt a sense of comfort and freedom wash over her.

"Alright… The second Sunday of April at 9:30 behind the Grab N Go. We will get snacks." Vance said, Hunter unable to hold her laughter back as she quickly covered her mouth.

"Shit, I gottta go. I think he heard that." Hunter said, quickly standing up and hanging up the phone before grabbing a book and sitting next to her bed.

The house was silent… Hunter swore she heard something as she kept her eyes on the door for a moment.

In the kitchen, Albert clutched onto the phone as he held it to his ear. The call was already over, but he felt a wave of anger and rage wash over him as he stared down the hallway at his daughter's bedroom door.

He knew who his next victim would be…

Opening her eyes to the brightness of the springtime sun, Hunter smiled softly as she rolled over to wrap her arms around a still sleeping Samson.

It was at that moment her heart sank… Her alarm hadn't gone off and it was already quarter to eleven.

Quickly getting up from the bed, Hunter quickly changed her clothes and grabbed her bag before running out into the living room.

"Come on, Samson!" She called out in a loud whisper, taking the leash and hooking it onto the dog's collar.

It was then she heard the door to the basement open as Hunter quickly stood up to see her father.

"Where are you heading?" Albert asked, walking over to the sink to wash his hands as Hunter felt her heart sank.

"I was taking Samson for a walk… We were gonna go to the park, I packed some toys and stuff." She said, holding her bag tightly with hopes her father wouldn't try to investigate.

"Alright. Be safe." He said, Hunter's eyes going wide at how easy it seemed. She couldn't help but just stand there for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah. I will." She said, walking out of the house.

Downstairs, Vance saw Hunter walk by the glass window as he tried to run towards the wall, hoping to climb up and break it.

"Hunter!!" He shouted, his voice barricaded by the soundproof room.

It was then the door opened, Vance ready to charge the man before The Grabber pinned him up against the wall.

"I warned you, naughty boy. Now I'm gonna make you stay away from my daughter."

𝓢𝐓𝐀𝐘 𝓣𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝓕𝐎𝐑 𝓤𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒 | 𝓜𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

[eriquin]

Time Travel AU The Trolley Problem master post

Since I'm going to be posting this serially on tumblr until I figure out a good name for it, I'm gathering all the links here.

Summary

Steve Harrington goes to sleep sometime after the apocalypse and wakes up in October of 1983. He remembers what’s going to happen. No one else does.

Part 1: Pancakes Part 2: The Bet Part 3: The Game Part 4: High School Part 5: Nancy Part 5.5: Robin Part 6: Jonathan Part 7: Dad Advice Part 8: Back to School Part 9: Spinning Eddie a Story Part 10: Failing to Convince Eddie Part 11: Eddie Reconsiders Part 12: The Sword Part 13: The Book Part 14: The Plan Part 15: School Daze Part 16: Fight with Carol and Tommy Part 17: An Attempt at Reconciliation Part 18: Sunday Part 19: The Demogorgon Part 20: Finishing the Fight Part 21: The Party Grows (apparently I posted this on December 3rd and forgot to make a note of it. I've screwed up the posts entirely. This is what I get for not keeping up with my notes.) Part 22: In It For Real Part 23: A Hasty Exit and a New Plan Part 24: Monday Part 25: The Party Part 26: The Wizard and The Paladin Part 27: The Storm Part 28: Eleven Part 29: Tuesday Part 30: No Quick Breakfast Part 31: Wayne Part 32: Trap building Part 33: The Ambush Part 34: The Pool Part 35: Heather's Party Part 36: Chief Hopper Part 37: Clean Up and Deal With It Part 38: Wayne Returns Part 39: Back to School Part 40: Nancy's Suspicions Part 41: Tommy and the Boys Part 42: Insurance Part 43: Hopper's Investigation Part 44: Robin and Steve Part 45: Hawkins Power and Light Part 46: Grounded Part 47: Will's Decision Part 48: Lost and Found Part 49: Will's Brainstorm, The Terrible Plan Part 50: The Kids Are Not All Right

Part 51: The Suspicious Lab Part 52: The Bait and The Trap Part 53: The Vanishing of Will Byers Part 54: Wayne and Hopper Part 55: Claudia's Sympathies Part 56: Search and Rescue Part 57: The Upside Down Part 58: The Bodies in the Quarry Part 59: The Attempted Lab Break-in Part 60: Hopper meets El Part 61: The Babysitter’s Club Part 62: Joyce's Terrible Friday Part 63: The Lab and the Kids Part 64: Reconvening and Search Parties Part 65: Flipping Out Part 66: Brimborn Steelworks Part 67: Science Lesson Part 68: Split the Party Part 69: The Lab Break In Part 70: The Trap for the Demogorgon Part 71: Captured Part 72: The Raid on the School & Battle of the Byers House Part 73: The Standoff Part 74: The Monster Hunters vs. the Demogorgon Part 75: The Demogorgon Part 76: The March Through the Upside Down Part 77: The Hospital Trip Part 78: Convalescing Part 79: Negotiations Part 80: Saturday Morning Part 81: Hawkins General Part 82: The Cover Story Part 83: Best Friends Part 84: Thinking Deep Thoughts Part 85: Back to the Hospital

This is now up on ao3 under the title The Trolley Problem

[lovetaled-a]

i think i figured out what frustrates me with c*assandra c*lare’s newer books and makes them harder for me to enjoy.   in her older books (  the infernal devices,   or even the mortal instruments  ) you feel a sense of growing with the characters on the page,   realizing how they feel or what they’re struggling with through subtle dialogue or expressed through a pov belonging to only a couple of different characters,   and it’s all fairly streamlined with the plot / it doesn’t feel like the plot is there just to service relationships.   but it’s as if the more characters she juggles   (  and series like the dark artifices or the last hours have a lot  ),   the more she has to resort to telling you everything about her characters instead of showing or demonstrating those qualities in actual scenes or context.   add that to the fact that most of her characters in her newer series all start out as shadowhunters,   or as belonging to this world without the need for exposition,   and she feels she doesn’t need to build on anything else for us to care about their experiences,   and we’re all here to love any content she provides without question.   it’s like getting the info-dump of worldbuilding,   but it’s a relationship info-dump instead.

[steve99941]

Why Stranger Things' 4 Plot Twist Doesn't Work

Let's face it, Netflix's Stranger Things Series took the world by storm when the first season was released in 2016.

No one expected the idea of a Stephen King/Lovecraftian Horror amalgamation set in the 80's based on Eldritch monstrosities and alternate dimensions. But it happened anyway, and the Duffer Brothers were in for a treat. Not until....

When something becomes too much of a good thing, it becomes a problem. This is a very well known fact, and Stranger Things couldn't have enough of this realization. It just had to overstay it's welcome.

The fanbase became increasingly cringe overtime, and people loved the characters so much that they forgot the point of the entire show, or more like, the point of a horror show; IT'S NOT ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, IT'S ABOUT THE HORROR.

The moment you realize that people are more interested in your characters than in the manifesting horror of your story, you'd know you've messed it up.

I come in peace now, don't hang me. I'm not saying a horror story shouldn't have interesting characters. Of course it should, but the emphasis I'm trying to make here is; Stranger Things' fanbase is invested so much on the iconography, characters and the costumes. There is little to no emphasis on the horror, as per the Series' Popularity. When you see two people talking about Stranger Things, you don't necessarily hear phrases like "The Upside Down" or "The Mind Flayer", it's mostly about the four kids(Dustin, Lucas, Mike and Will), or the cop(Hopper), or the supporting characters.

Anyway, by the time the Duffer Brothers caught on on this hype for the show, they decided to exploit it, by giving the fans what they want; more screentime with the characters. That was the beginning of the downfall of this show.

Anyway, speaking of horror stories that don't necessarily pay attention to character development that much, but are rather invested heavily on the horrors of it's haunted universe, is the work of Junji Ito, a Japanese Mangaka, whose works are very inspired by H.P Lovecraft.

Many of his comic book horror series (The Uzumaki series for example) are not necessarily based on specific characters, but more on how the manifesting horror affects them. You could literally know nothing about his characters and yet still feel so much for them, with it's accompanying horror themes; A dread of the unknown, and a madness from the beyond.

This is what a horror show is supposed to be about. Not the other way round. It's the feeling of inevitability and doom, or the idea of helplessness surrounding the horror that builds fear. It's exactly the reason why Junji Ito's works are one of the most terrifying I've ever seen.

Alright, I digressed. Now let's go back to Stranger Things, and the reason I'm writing this in the first place; the infamous "plot twist" of Stranger Things 4. Why it doesn't work and how it fucking ruins everything in my opinion.

SPOILERS: You know this, I shouldn't be telling you. You've been warned.

What is the Plot Twist for Stranger Things 4?

In Season 4, we are introduced to an entity from the Upside Down, who is later revealed to be Lord Vecna, from the Dungeons and Dragons game the Hellfire club were playing.

Later on, when Eleven(Millie Bobby Brown) is taken by Owen(Paul Reiser) to El Navada, she is forced to confront her past in "Project Nina"(A top secret government facility and program located in the Nevada desert) which was developed by both him and Dr. Martin Brenner(Matthew Modine).

Eleven had apparently lost her abilities by the time of Season 4, so this whole government facility was designed to make her retain them.

Somewhere else, Robin(Maya Hawke) and Nancy(Natalia Dyer) are searching for clues pertaining to one mysterious Victor Creel(Robert Englund 1986, Kevin L. Johnson, 1959). They eventually find where he's being kept(in a mental institution), and he's not looking good.

Before hand, the team had been investigating certain mysteries surrounding a serial killer in 1986 who has been killing victims in a brutal but similar manner(Disjointed limbs, gouged out eyes, broken bones). People talking about these cases only reference a specific killer who would be the only one behind it, named "Victor Creel".

The team decided to check out the 1959 "murders" that Creel was supposedly associated with, so they could understand the nature of the 1986 murders. It turns out they are actually of the same kind, as the news reports explained.

They ask Creel about the 1959 murders that happened, and how he ended up in Pennhurst Asylum. He begins by explaining his backstory;

At some point in March 1959, after he retired from the war, he inherited a "small fortune" from his wife's great uncle who had died.

The house was located in Hawkins, Indiana and they moved there to start a new life. So it would seem.

A month later(the only month of peace they had), the family began to experience various otherworldly and paranormal occurrences (Animals getting strangled and mutilated, flickering lights, radio interferences and so on). It was becoming so frequent, and it made Creel extremely paranoid. He began to believe this was the work of a "Spawn of Satan", and called an exorcist for help.

That never helped. In fact, it made everything worse. Virginia Creel(his wife) died in a very horrific manner(the same kind of the victims in 1986). Horrified at this occurrence, he tried to take his children out of the house, but had a hallucination.

After snapping back to reality, he realized Alice Creel(his daughter), was killed in the same manner Virginia was killed. He also realized that Henry Creel(his son) had passed out and was in a coma.

When the authorities came, they weren't exactly ready to buy into his "demon spawn" story, so he was incarcerated. He begged for an insanity plea (for being arrested for a crime he didn't commit).

It was granted, and he found his way to Pennhurst Asylum. There he also attempted suicide, but couldn't go through with it and only managed to gouge his eyes out.

After making a controversial statement about a "demon" punishing him by killing his family (He heard falsely that Henry Creel died in a coma) which was of course, cast aside and not believed; he vowed never to explain his story to news reporters or authority figures again.

Meanwhile, Eleven keeps having a certain flashback about her "killing" a bunch of kids who were in Dr. Brenner's superweapon "spy" program. However she can't seem to recall how this happened or how she was involved.

Dr. Brenner and Owen plan to help her remember her past by placing her in a simulation-like experiences of her past, allowing her to navigate them and uncover lost memories.

During her past time in a facility(in her flashbacks), she met a certain guy who served as one of their supervisors. This guy, apparently a nice person, gave her a lot of good advice when she was to undergo various training programs. (This attracted Brenner's attention, and he was extremely punished for this).

Eleven slowly began to warm up to him, and felt very terrible for what Brenner had done to him for her sake. They began to relate with one another, until one day....

He decided to help her escape the facility(telling her that she was to be killed by the other kids and that Brenner knew). On reaching the escape point, she beckoned him to come with her, but he refused, saying he was a servant, like she was, and that no matter where he escaped to, "Papa"(Dr Brenner) would always find him.

Refusing to leave him behind, and using her powers, she helped him destroy a chip implanted into his neck with a tracker. He told her to wait in one of the rooms, that he had something he needed to do.

After waiting a long time and having heard nothing but screams, Eleven journeyed back to the rainbow room, where she discovered something shocking;

She didn't kill those children, like she thought she did. She misremembered. Someone did it, and that someone was none other than the "nice guy" that was helping her all along.

He revealed himself as 001. And explained a lot to Eleven, about his backstory and motivations which sounded awfully similar to someone we already knew; Henry Creel, the son of Victor.

That was when the entire team realized, that "Vecna", the supposed character from DND, was actually the "Spawn of Satan" his father had been extremely paranoid about; Who was behind the murder of the entire family (Victor Creel was alive all along, and was taken by Dr. Brenner into his Superweapon program).

The 1959 killer had been Henry Creel (his father never saw this coming), and the 1986 murders were committed by the same person, although completely changed.

After having revealed his true intentions to Eleven and manipulatingly tried to get her to join him, she refuses him and the two of them get into a fight. She eventually wins and out of anger, opens a gate into another dimension (The Upside Down). 001(Victor Creel) goes through the gate, and transforms into Vecna after being struck by a mutated lightning blast.

The scene dramatically cuts to the Creel house in the Upside Down, where Vecna rests, and the mark "001" can be seen on it's arm.

It was Vecna all along, the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer, the Demo-dogs, everything. He had been opening portals all along.

Why doesn't this work?

1. Vecna's motivation doesn't exactly work either.

Basically, if you wanted to summarize Vecna's motivation for turning into a deranged psychopath, it's something like this.

"I Killed everyone I cared about because I was different. I also mentioned something horrible my parents did, which wasn't shown on screen to make everything believable. So I just turned genocidal all of a sudden and had a desire to end the world, because I had spider issues and was sent to the Upside Down."

No, seriously, none of this makes any sense. If it was the case that this mentality developed when he met Dr. Brenner, I would have agreed with it. Brenner was sort of an asshole, so we kind of get why he would have motivation to kill everyone in the facility.

But no, that wasn't how this happened. 001 hadn't even been exposed to this inhumanity before he started killing his family members(Victor Creel looked like a nice guy with a few flaws).

Parents can be shitty and abusive at times, but it wasn't shown enough to make us believe his transition. Certainly not also enough to snap the limbs of a mother and her daughter.

All I'm saying is, the lack of clarity as to what turned him from a sensitive boy who had powers, to a deranged genocidal killer just doesn't work here.

2. Plot hole/Continuity errors

In that exact same episode, of the big reveal, Nancy discovers that the Upside Down is stuck in 1983. Why? Well that's because that was the year as agreed(In Season 1) that Eleven opened a gate to the Upside Down. It was also the same year that Will Byers was declared "missing"(November 6, 1983).

But hold on now, the prequel to all this happened years ago. The flashbacks that Eleven had about Vecna and the first gate that was opened, took place in 1979(as per Season 4), 4 years before the supposed event that made Will Byers a missing person(1983's incident).

So which is it? 1983 or 1979? This is what happens when you're trying to introduce something that wasn't there before in order to scream "Got ya! Clever plot twist! Didn't see that coming, did ya?"

Honestly, this show is like Riverdale and most teen dramas, where they establish a bunch of lore, then they go back and say stuff like, "Uhm... Actually, before all this, uh... This happened. Blah, blah, blah..."

The Duffer Brothers wanted in on the Plot Twist train, but they didn't realise that you can do it so horribly wrong (like this show did), or you can do it brilliantly (Attack On Titan Season 3's plot twist).

Again, why are the Demo-dogs in Russia still alive? Despite the fact that Dustin correctly explained the concept of the mind flayer, the source and the Demo-dogs? Despite the fact that L had closed the gates and all the Demo-dogs died?

Ah. Who remembers this chick from season 2? I honestly didn't see why this episode(Ep.7) had much hate from fans, I just didn't care enough about the characters to hate them.

Okay? Why her? Well, she's another plot-hole. In that same hated episode she explains that she and L were "sisters" and that L escaped before she did.

So, I don't know if the Duffer Brothers were drunk, because I didn't see a single scene in all of L's childhood flashbacks where she appeared.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure I know the answer; People hated the character so much that the Duffer Brothers decided to remove her from the plot. Even if this was the answer, it just sucks. It just shows why I dislike the fanbase of Stranger Things. This is YOUR story, not the story of the fans.

All this would have been corrected, without the need for this plot twist.

3. It ruins Eleven's character.

I seriously cannot begin to explain how much mess up there is about this twist on L's personality.

First of all she acts like she doesn't know what "bullying" is, and she obviously doesn't know how to construct grammatical sentences properly( a major part of her reason for bonding with Mike in the first place).

With all her smaller developments for liking Eggo's, referring to bad people as "mouth breathers"(because she doesn't have much vocabulary to curse much) and all that.

The Duffer Brothers took all that and threw it out a window. Turns out, None of that Mattered! She was bullied back at the Rainbow room, She could speak properly and construct sentences when she was communicating with Vecna/001/Creel. So If she could do a lot of things in 1979, 4 years before she even met the boy team, why doesn't she remember any of them?

Many Stranger Things' fans would argue that L had a traumatic experience, so she forgot all of that. But that doesn't make any sense does it? She remembers Kali. She remembers the rainbow room, she remembers Dr. Brenner, She remembers the kids, She remembers she opened the gate(like we see in Season 1), but she doesn't remember Vecna? Or that she was bullied? Or that she could speak properly?

Lesson to take home dear writers: Please for the love of Isis, Osiris and Horus, do not use trauma to insert new plot points in your story, it doesn't work out well.

One more thing I forgot to add was; The realization that L wasn't behind the murders, but rather Vecna, was horribly disappointing. Why? Because this shatters everything we know about L having a dark and dangerous potential.

I mean, ever since we got introduced to L, we had a feeling that something was off about her, that she was someone who would bring a lot of problems to anyone she found herself acquainted to.

We also believed she had a "dark side" that no one but her knew. Which is what I kind of got in the first season where L says she was a "monster" to Mike(Because she opened the Gate to the Upside Down in anger, and killed a lot of people, mind you, this supposedly the 1983 Byers went missing, but now it's 1979, all thanks to the plot twist). So it all felt she knew she did something terrible out of anger, which screams secret murderous-like tendencies, like when we see her almost kill the stereotypical bully girl with a boot.

All of this was completely destroyed when L's flashback of those "murders" she committed weren't actually hers, but Vecna's. She was a "good person" all along.

I don't know about you, but I like complexities in characters, and this was an opportunity for them to do something like that, but they had to skip this for... A cheap plot twist.

It could have been written without Vecna's intervention, at all, or with his, just not this way.

In my opinion, the "dark side" of her personality would have been explored better if they made it that she was the one who actually killed those children. Just, this time she did it out of anger.

Remember when Vecna had been manipulating her into believing that the children wanted to kill her? That Brenner hated her? And all that?

Since she was a kid, and didn't know much at that time, it would have been a nice character development for her, if she actually did kill those children, not just out of anger, but also of fear. They were about to kill her, like Vecna said.

Afterwards, Vecna would show up and reveal he lied to her. She would feel guilty, not just because she was manipulated into killing those children, but because deep down, she hated the way they treated her(Vecna would have her do this; Kill innocent people, to become more like him)

L's reaction could have been written as a mixture of feelings; Anger, Guilt, Pleasure, Remorse and Fright.

Which would be why she really thinks of herself a monster, because she's hiding behind mixed feelings of "No I didn't kill them intentionally" and "Maybe secretly, you wanted this"(They tried to do this for Max but it didn't work out well in my opinion).

Then, it was the anger of her being manipulated by a puppeteer that made her open the gate and destroy 001's physical body.

Oh well, it's just an opinion. I just would have loved to see that. Characters, especially the main ones in this series are just irredeemably good(Eg. Joyce). I have issues with that.

People are not like that in real life.

4. It ruins the mystery of the Upside Down

This was the ultimate turn off for me. When I saw in the plot twist that Vecna was behind almost everything that happened in the previous seasons, I was horribly disappointed.

So, basically speaking, the Upside Down isn't a terrifying alternate dimension that creeps slowly into living universes and absorbs them, it is not a dimension filled with Eldritch Abominations that are completely unknowable and difficult to understand, the Mind Flayer isn't an abstract, Incomprehensible monstrosity like we thought in Season 2, the portals of this strange world doesn't just creep into ours for unknown reasons (like we see in many Lovecraftian Horror stories), it isn't a very scary place.

Why? Because everything concerning the Upside Down creeping into our world with "uncertainty"(like we believed) was all connected to a kid(a human with powers) with spider issues who later turned into a genocidal psycho. The mind flayer, the opening gates, the monsters, it was all Vecna's doing. Great.(How to ruin a horror mystery 101).

I can go on and on and on. But that's that by the way.

For the Record I still Love Stranger Things (What it was in Season 1 for the most part), so it sort of irks me a bit to criticise the show.

It's just, it's sad to see how fanservice ruined a show like this that had so much potential.

That's it for now, and I'd see you next time.