#[ Space Mom ] has become an AI;;

[kikitakite]

@fantasyfictionfables

I was going to reblog some of your posts because I wanted to discuss your takes on Mystra, but then I found out you're a Christian conservative who hates gay people.

No gay person thinks their sexual orientation is their identity, but it's absolutely PART of their identity, just as being straight is part of yours. You can claim otherwise, but it determines who you might love and marry and that person will one day become a part of you and your identity. It's inevitable. As a wife and mother of three, you should know that better than anyone.

But people from groups like yours shame gay people for exploring that part of themselves and that's why Pride Month exists. Pride isn't "propaganda". It's about marginalized people showing the world they exist and they're not ashamed of it. Parades are also a great way for gay people to meet each other. My bestie met her wife at a march 15 years ago and they've been together ever since. It's beautiful. They have two happy, gorgeous children who wouldn't exist without Pride, because their moms never would've met.

Pride also raises money to help gay teens who've been cast out of their homes and gay refugees who've had to flee their country because being gay is illegal there. It also provides support for gay people who need medical help, therapy for abuse, suicide prevention and more. It's a safe space for people who are often discriminated against and even KILLED just for being who they are. So sorry that seems to bother you.

Your take isn't brave, it's just ignorant and hateful. You didn't have to write that post. Nothing provoked it. You just WANTED to to air your allegiances. And then you turned off comments and reblogs lmfao. For the majority of the year, gay people survive just like us straights. They go about their day and don't even mention being gay. You picked the one month in the entire year that's dedicated to them to complain about their existence and call them "deranged". And then you have the audacity to say you "bear no ill will" towards them? Bullshit.

I can only assume the word "pride" scares you because you're a Christian and it's a sin, am I right? Well here's something ironic: lust is also a sin, yet your entire blog not only consists of Gale thirst posts, but you're also stealing Tim Downie's voice to make audio clips using AI. Hmmm, I wonder if God would approve of a married woman posting NSFW content and using a man's voice for her hedonistic writings without his consent. 🤔

And by the way, as a veteran DnD player I can tell you right now that Mystra has done some absolutely VILE shit to her followers. She's not perfect. None of the gods in DnD are. They're flawed and often cruel. I've seen you compare Mystra and Gale to stories in the Bible, but that almost feels blasphemous. Mystra has a history of evil deeds. She orchestrated Elminster's rape, made sure he had kids and never told him about them. She turned Volo into an anchor without his knowledge. She tortured a peasant because he refused to sleep with her, then killed his wife and punished him for crying about it. And don't even get me started on the "daughters" she created. The third Mystra (who has Mystra and Mystryl's memories) is cruel to Gale as well and the game gives so much context for that. Plus ALL the companions agree she's unreasonable and tell Gale to reject her, and if he does it leads to one of his most satisfying endings. He's happy, he's a teacher, he marries tav and everyone approves. Your way of playing isn't the only right way and people aren't wrong for criticizing Mystra. There's plenty about her that deserves to be criticized, as is the case with every god in the pantheon.

Speaking of, I have nothing against Christians, but I do when they use their faith to shame people and act like total hypocrites.

[dccomicsbracket]

Motivations:

Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle)

My man has no idea what's going on throughout his entire movie. He's possessed by a homicidal bug from outer space. He is the official successor of a guy who REALLY wanted to be possessed by the outer space bug but couldn't get it past management and just decided to fake it till he made it with his billionaire budget. His family loves him. His suit is iconic. Sometimes his little outer space bug just goes "hey lil mama lemme whisper in your ear" and then it forcibly takes control of his body and tries to murder people. But also it loves him <3 I think he deserves to win, personally The writers were like "What if the teen superhero had parents that were alive and loving and not criminals" and proceeded to make the most wholesome guy. He power of friendship-ed a homicidal murder ai into being good. His darkest power fantasy is becoming a dentist. Lex Luthor tried and failed to turn him evil so hard he killed him about it, because that was easier. Also his costume kicks so much ass that the main thing that changes about it between redesigns is the eye colour. It's just that good. the 2006-2009 blue beetle run is not only my favorite dc comic, but one of my favorite comics period. it flips so many typical superhero tropes on their heads and does it well. jaime is an incredibly kind and well-written character and his relationship with his family and friends is so touching. Jaime is the perfect blend of goofy and sad, street-level and cosmic, kind and flawed. He was forced into becoming a hero by the weight of a legacy he didn't even know existed and a presence in his mind that would have him become a weapon. Before he even figured out his powers, he was hauled into space by established superheroes to deal with a Crisis and then left for dead for a year while his loved ones mourned him. His primary guides for his first solo were the hostile AI fused to his spine, a mercenary biker who only stuck around to see if he had to kill Jaime, and his normal parents. His greatest power fantasy was becoming a dentist because the power he already has over people's lives was crushing him. And yet, through all of that, his family and his culture and the mundane reality of being a teenager in El Paso were enough to keep him grounded. Read Blue Beetle 2006 and you will understand why Jaime is my son.

Conner Kent/Kon-El (Superboy)

Most 90s person ever, to the point that in the Reign of the Supermen movie they establish that he was basically raised on sitcoms from that era and has at least somewhat based his mannerisms on the characters. All of that mess serves to distract from a compelling story about a kid with identity struggles who has been constantly exploited by the adults in his life. He is a good friend (even basically being the mom friend in Young Justice '98) and I'll never stop being mad about how much they changed him in the TV show. His solo shows a lot of toxic elements of child stardom and how kids are taken advantage of. He doesn't have a name beyond Superboy for a decent portion of his solo until Superman gives him his name, Kon-El. I just like him a lot.

[jpitha]

Just a Little Further

I woke with a start. I was going to be late! Today of all days!

I slept through my alarm, my backup alarm, and according to Starbase Picaresque, 5 minutes of him pinging me, trying to wake me up.

"I was about to call the infirmary, Melody. I was sure there was something wrong." He said.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry!" I said as I threw on my clothes. Fortunately, Vin'aren wouldn't leave until I was completely packed last night. I wouldn't have been done otherwise. Running a comb through my hair - luckily it was a fresh, cute short cut so it wasn't too bad - I grabbed my uniform jacket and glanced longingly at my kitchenette.

"There isn't time to make coffee." SP said.

I sighed. "I know. It's just..." I ran over to the kitchenette, grabbed my hand grinder, my brewer, my set of measuring cups, the scale and the airtight container of coffee and swept it into a bag. "I don't know what kind of coffee FarReach has, and I don't want to be a grump because they have bad coffee!"

SP sighed. "Really Melody? Fine. But you have to leave now unless you want me to get the Fire Brigade to bring you.

Starbase Picaresque was threatening me with having to get a ride from the only folks who have vehicles on board. The Fire Brigade uses them to carry hoses and equipment to a fire and sometimes bring injured people to the infirmary. If they brought me to the docking ring because I was late I would probably die of embarrassment.

"I'm going, I'm going!" I said, as I ran out the door, no breakfast and no coffee.

Hi, by the way. My name is Melody Mullen (ugh, I know) and I'm the information warfare officer on FarReach! The administration of Starbase Picaresque and the joint Human/K'laxi colony Zen'agan's Reach have sponsored our mission to travel the Warp Gates and go as far as we can!

Normally yes, humans would just use their wormhole generators and link to a location in space, it's instant and easy. And sure, a few people feel like they died and visited the afterlife, but not too many, and it's not like they get hurt. But before they met us, the K'laxi didn't travel that way. They'd use the Warp Gates and travel from gate to gate using an Addressing Module.

These days, K'laxi ships have both an addressing module and a wormhole generator. They actually bought the rights to build them from us and improved them! The newest Human ships have K'laxi wormhole generators and they're amazing! They use less power than ours do and they even have fewer people suffer side effects when they're used.

You know about the K'laxi right? They're the first sapient species we ever met! They're from a world that's smaller and lighter than ours, plus their planet is straight up and down, no tilt and their orbit is almost perfectly circular. That means they have no seasons! It's always a fall (for us) day there! I went once for vacation with my moms, it was kind of weird. We were there for a month and the weather was identical the whole time. They didn't even know what a meteorologist was until we explained the concept!

They're so cute looking too. They're shorter than us, and they have big expressive ears on the top of their head, a long fluffy tail that they can grab things with and fur all over! Someone said they kind of look like a cat or squirrel or fox person from comics and I guess I can see it, but they are definitely their own thing.

The crew of FarReach is about half K'laxi, they are a major sponsor of this expedition too. They share the work onboard with us.

Oh, I should mention FarReach too. She's an AI, and has been alive for nearly a thousand years, can you believe it? Humans and AI have been working together (mostly) harmoniously for two millennia. When AI take on a new ship, they name it and that becomes their name. I learned it's incredibly rude to call them by an old name, it's like deadnaming them. Oof. That was awkward. I apologized and She said it was okay and that I didn't know, but I think I was beet red for like three hours.

FarReach started out as a Starjumper, an old, old ship originally designed to go between human colonies at relativistic speeds. They were more than a thousand years old when the first wormhole generators were developed. They can thrust with their star drives at tens of gees when needed (though when there are biological people on board they keep the thrust around one gee) and they can cost through interstellar space at half the speed of light.

Before they were FarReach, the Starjumper was refitted at the Mt Greylock docks in orbit around The Reach. It's a brand new facility meant to bring the K'laxi and I closer together. Made up of Human and K'laxi facilities, it will enable us to work even closer together to design ships.

FarReach has more K'laxi parts than any Starjumper ever! They still have their stardrive and massive printers and hidden laser batteries (just in case) but a lot of the interior was refitted and reconfigured to be an exploration ship. There's a new information warfare suite (hello!) hibernation cabinets (just in case) and enough cabins for a dozen crew with room to expand later.

Speaking of which, I bet you're wondering why an exploration ship has an Information Warfare Suite (and your lovely Information Warfare Officer). We're not planning on going to war per se, but we don't know who we'll be meeting (if anyone) and how friendly they'll be. A few years back Venus decided they didn't like AIs and tried to apply applications to shackle them. They seemed to have dropped the rhetoric and aren't really making noises about being mean to AIs anymore, but the lesson was learned. Now, ships have an IWC (Information Warfare Community) which is a group of people who have the job of making sure that all the signals coming in are... safe.

We can also send out bad signals if needed, but we probably won't need to do that.

As I walk up only slightly out of breath, Captain Q'ari is standing there fielding questions from reporters. She sees me walk up late and flicks an ear, a K'laxi raised eyebrow. I salute and say "Apologies for being late Captain. Permission to come aboard?"

She returns the salute and says "Permission Granted Lieutenant Mullen. Please endeavor to be more punctual from now on." From her ears, I think she's annoyed, but not too annoyed.

"Yes Captain. Thank you." I say and head inside. I rush to my cabin and toss my belongings inside without even putting them away - I'll do it later. and rush up to the Command Deck. "Hi FarReach! I call out brightly as I walk onto the Command Deck. It's set up human style with the Commander's seat in the middle rear, and everyone sitting around them at their stations.

"Good of you to join us Melody." FarReach says wryly. "I was wondering if you were going to show up on the back of a Fire Brigade vehicle." There were chuckles from the other crew members. I'm known as being slightly late for things.

Just a little late.

It's really hard to be punctual, okay?"

"Har har, very funny FarReach. I made it, on my own even, and I managed to remember my coffee supplies." I said smugly.

"Good thing too" FarReach said "Because I just happen to know that there are thirty pounds of coffee from the mountains of Parvati that was loaded on just this morning."

I gasped. Parvati's mountain ranges were known for producing excellent coffee from the original Earth stock. It was a rare treat. "How did you manage that?" I asked, surprised.

"She didn't have anything to do with it, that was all me." A voice said behind me. I turned and Ambassador Vivenni was standing there, looking casually elegant. She wore a smarty tailored uniform of the K'laxi government and stood there with her hands on her hips. "I heard that some people here enjoy good coffee and I happened to know offhand of a shipment coming in, and was able to... ahem... ask for a donation to the cause." she said, her eyes shining.

I didn't think to ask where she learned so much about coffee, it's poisonous to K'laxi. Even decaf will mess them up. They do love tea though, and I'm sure the stores are packed with chamomile tea as well as other flavors.

"Thank you Ambassador!" I said gratefully. "It's so nice of you to think of us coffee drinkers."

She smiled "I know a bit about coffee thanks to my human friends and when I saw this go by, I couldn't help myself. Enjoy!" And she turned back to speaking with another officer.

Maybe this trip would be more fun than I had originally thought.

Part 2!

[aihoshiino]

Episode 3 Rewatch: "Manga Based TV Drama"

YEAH WE'RE BACK ON THESE AGAIN!!! As much fun as the liveblog format was, I found it was actually getting in the way of me *doing* the liveblog (it could take multiple hours for me to watch and queue up One Single Episode) so I've decided to return to a format a bit more like my chapter reviews just in the desperate hopes of getting these actually done before season 2 airs. In the immortal words of Brian H oobh i got plany off time. But let's get to it real quick anyway!!!

I have a really soft spot in my heart for episode 3 in particular because it was the first episode I actually anticipated watching after I got into the show - episodes 1 & 2 were already out when I fully contracted brainworms so episode 3 was the first one I had to actually wait for. A lot of the cuts from it are like carved into my brain because I watched that episode preview so many times while waiting for it to air lol…

I've said this before but the anime's take on her really is what turned me into an active Kana Enjoyer. Megumi Han's delightful performance and her character acting an animation all combine to make it really hard not to be endeared to her. Her excitement at being reunited with Aqua is really cute, too - I remember Han saying that she was specifically told not to play Kana as a girl meeting an old crush but as someone excitedly reuniting with an old friend and I think that's particularly sweet. The AQKN dynamic at its heart is kind of just two lonely kids who don't have a lot of other connections that aren't couched in transactional utility creating a space together where they can just exist without any ulterior motives.

gotanda's words being visualized as literally skewering kana is so fucking funny too. bro killed her. you really can't blame her for biting back during dinner later lol

Kana's putting on a pretty positive face about it, but knowing how deeply alone and abanoned she feels by her parents, it's hard to not feel really sad about this scene. She's chipper about it but this is the first hint towards Kana's current honestly kind of dire circumstances we'll see get expanded on all the way to the end of the anime.

Aqua's refusal to let Kana see his old acting is also really interesting to me. Intentionally or not, it feels like it's sewing the seeds for some stuff in Tokyo Blade; Aqua respects Kana's acting and Kana herself as a professional to the degree that he doesn't want to 'lose' to her in that sense. Or rather, he'd be embarrassed to have someone he respects seeing him stumble like that - a little like Ruby's freakout in episode 1 over the idea of Ai, specifically, seeing her be bad at dancing.

Aqua trying to play it cool and then immediately nerding out when Kana mentions Sweet Today is so so so so soooooooo cute. I love it when that side of his personality pokes out…

KABURAGI NAMEDROP JUMPSCARE!!!!! i made the same face, aqua... I won't go into my Kaburagi Villain Propaganda here, but it really is so deeply suspicious that Kaburashi was on her oldest, most private phone…

KANA'S LITTLE 'I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE' MOMENT………. AQUMELT REAL AFTER ALL…. (NOT CLICKBAIT)

ruby's lain brand milk vexes and haunts me

Aqua's quietly pained, guilty expression when Ruby misreads his intentions for becoming an actor is so good, as is his cold internal dismissal of Ai's wish… it's funny to see him insisting he's not doing this for Ai's sake when really, everything Aqua does comes back to his mom.

Man, though. What even is there to say about the Sweet Today bits lmao. Holy shit. Particular shout out to Melt's seiyuu, Seiji Maeda, for making his in-character acting so authentically awkward and clunky without it coming off as overwrought or like he himself was giving a bad performance. That's suuuuuch a delicate thread to weave but he does it exceptionally well.

This scene also has one of my all time favourite punch ups from the manga - in the original, Ruby just kind of gets the manga from nowhere and makes the comparisons that way but the anime makes Aqua the one to go get his copy and start silently flipping through it to compare until Ruby snatches it… it really is the perfect teeing up for him to run off and tattle to Kana even though he was pretending he didn't give a shit lol. Dork ass boy.

This talk at the karaoke bar is really good, too. The directing is pretty simply but I feel like the anime producton really shows off just how strong its expression and character acting work is here which does a lot to help along what's otherwise a very static conversation. The contrast in Aqua and Kana's energy is also very fun - Aqua's really still while Kana's very animated.

The manga hasn't really touched on this in a while but the content of the conversation here also starts a thread that I really liked in the early parts of Oshi no Ko about how hard it is to create good art in an environment like the entertainment industry. Tokyo Blade centers this more and is almost explicitly a follow up to Sweet Today's exploration of this idea but the seeds are sewn here, of the necessary compromises that need to be made just to get something out the door and how that can ultimately destroy the final product no matter how many well-meaning and passionate people are doing their absolute best to make something worth engaging with.

i'm also pretty sure this talk is the first time we see aqua smile after episode 1… cute.

The directing also really shines in that little moment at the end where Kana grabs Aqua's hand. In prior cuts, the two are visually separated in that they're both sat apart and there are multiple lines running between them in the background to section them off from each other.

But then just as Kana breeches Aqua's defenses and disarms him, she physically reaches past all these little barriers to finally get into his space. It's subtle but well done.

His wide-eyed slightly stunned face is also really sweet. We see this look on Aqua a lot when it comes to Kana and it always makes me smile a bit. She's excellent at getting under his skin whether she means to or not.

"now my body has caught up with my mental age" says aqua, confirming his mental age is that of a teenager, and mfs are still out here acting like he's a 30 year old man.

Oof, oof and oof. Kana's little speech here already makes me so soft and knowing how it's going to be utterly spat upon in just a moment by Kaburagi's callousness towards her just makes it hurt even more. We continually see reference to this supposed good relationship between Kana and Kaburagi during this episode and so knowing that he's ultimately just another shitty adult taking advantage of her clear desperation… masaya kaburagi when i see you it's on sight

This is also a really fantastic character moment for Aqua, I think. He himself says he's done everything he needed to do on set, so there's no need for him to start shit like he does. It's purely out of respect and fondness for Kana as a person and anger on her behalf as a fellow actor. For as much as Aqua likes to convince himself he's a coldhearted bastard, he really just cannot help himself when it comes to leaping in and helping people. He's a lot like Ai in that once somebody has his heart, he's theirs for good.

i also just have to fucking Scream at this cut of him. it hit me like a fucking TRUCK when this episode dropped. because it doesn't quite look like the equivalent panel of the manga, does it?

But doesn't it feel super familiar, even so? Doesn't it remind you of something? I wonder wh-

OSHI NO KO ANIME STAFF, WHEN I GET YOU!!!!!! (ENRAGED) (POSITIVE)

[beanghostprincess]

Transfem buggy anon, back at it again-

• the sanji bit threw two thoughts into my head and it's both the "I love women (romantic)" thing and "i love women (trans)" thing.

Romantic: Sanji starts off all laughing at the overdramaric misery of his friends being step-clowns (new insult courtesy of him), but then, as he's serving Robin and Nami some snacks, he catches sight of the loose papers pile. He offers to assist with organizing it so Robin can enjoy her book and Nami can enjoy her newspaper and drink. They graciously accept, and he takes his place there with a smile, begins sorting them between fliers and bounties.

Then he finds a certain article.

That Article.

The One That Trash Talked Buggy For Being Trans.

Oh that shit is NOT gonna fly. Sanji is livid. Not only is that just.... mean, but he may have been in his own variant of ""hell"" on the okama island, but he met so many people between his training, and there's nothing WRONG with it. Women are women and women deserve RESPECT, damn it!!

Then, as he's frothing, he finds a bounty - updated since her coming out, name still the same, amount still higher than most expect, but the picture is changed.

He doesn't even realize his nose is bleeding until a drop falls on the paper.

Poor Sanji has to play off the heart flutters and face flush and nosebleed as sheer Respect Women Juice Induced Anger and not a flutter crush on a clown.

Nobody believes him but he still gives it the old college try.

It only really "comes out" as it were when the crews wind up meeting. Luffy is immediately tucking himself into Buggy's personal space with big smiles and bigger laughter, wrapping around his auntie-mom happily. She huffs but let's him cling, a sign enough on its own that she isn't all that bothered. And the eye roll, the half smile, the gruff hair ruffle-

Oh poor Sanji is gone. He is swooning, is spinning, is presenting a snack and affirmations. The other Strawhats are rolling their eyes, casual flippancy, fond exasperation.

Crocodile and Mihawk are Processing, Buggy is flustered and astounded, and it winds up bringing out a slight possessive streak in the two dark haired former warlords and it is HILARIOUS.

Trans route:

Sanji gets SUCH gender envy, and things go fairly similar to the above, but they wind up actually becoming something really soft and sweet with Sanji carefully hedging questions and Buggy just going "due are you a fucking dumbass, your crew loves you, they'd defend you to the ends of the world, they'd never be mad that you're a woman"

Sanji: I'm trans.

Ussop: oh I'm nonbinary! Neat!!

Nami, a lesbian: I AM THRIVING

Luffy: mmm good food

Anyway yeah that's it and ai am soft for Sanji and Buggy becoming friends or at the very least Awkward Friends.

And if anyone has a moment of "weird crush on a friend's relative", it would totes be Sanji and him having a moment of "Oh my seas it's a Stacy's mom deal, but it's luffy's clown mom-aunt-frenemy, fUCK-!!!"

Buggy's just flattered regardless and thinks it's kinda cute, she too had a puppy crush on someone older when she was a kid-

HIIII <333

Honestly, Sanji falling for fem!Buggy makes sense because fem!Buggy is just-- She is stunning. Gorgeous. Perfect. The only reason why she isn't transfem canonically is that it would be too much for this world to handle. And of course, Sanji, being the lover of women he is, would absolutely fall for her. Who wouldn't???? Sanji wants to die a little bit after the realization, though. If Luffy and Zoro ever find out, he won't be able to deal with the embarrassment.

AND!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trans Sanji <333 Transfem Sanji??? Genderqueer Sanji??? My favorite is honestly Genderfluid Sanji but the point here is they find out thanks to Buggy and it's the most unexpected thing in the world. Hilarious, even. The whole crew accepts them though because they're all queer. Like there is no way there's someone allo/cis/hetero in that ship.

I agree wholeheartedly btw Sanji is SO the type to fall for a friend's relative. Maybe that's why I love Sabosan,,, And Acesan,,, So much,,,, Mmmm. It just makes sense.

[titenoute]

This really hurt to admit it but they REALLY should probably have let Oropo do the job. Me yelling and spoiling under the cut.

Why is Qilby out and we don't see Baltazar ?

Where is Efrim ? Nora's brother ? Did he die in the EPIC explosion of the past ? If it's the case, why didn't Nora wake up her brother ? Pretty sure he had the time to be reborn in his egg. In the island of Wakfu game (which wasn't canon anymore but I suspect this might change) it was said that they were extremely close. Doesn't make sense she wouldn't bring him back.

Why is there no Dragon beside Adamai?

AND WHY WAS THERE A SHUSHU IN A DEVASTATED INGLORIUM ? For HOW LONG INGLORIUM HAS BEEN IN THAT STATE ??? And why, WHY NOBODY GAVE A SHIT ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS? The gods have been unresponsive and passive for a while, is that why ?

Oh and I'm sure the goddess of PORTALS has NOTHING to do with their disappearance for SURE. "ufufu I don't like violence" You sound like the type of letting others doing the job for you.

Moma Eliatrope is embedded in a console of some sort. That allows her to watch the world with big yellow shushu eyes. Shushu or...Dragon dad? (Grasping straws I know, but where is HE ?)

Was Eliatrope mom in the Eliatrope ship that landed on the planet eons b4 the gods appeared ? Taking the role of some sort of AI ?

If that's the case, when the Eliatropes came from planets from planet, refueling the ship by taking all the planet's wakfu...WERE THEY FEEDING HER ??

IS THAT WHY QILBY IS OUT ? BC HE WAS DOING EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTED?

Maybe Baltazar got offed bc he disagreed. Maybe the reason why the children of Emrub are inside her is bc they TRIED TO STOP HER. GOD DAMN IT THIS IS JENOVA ALL OVER AGAIN ISN'T IT ? IS THE HUNGRY SPACE MOMS CLUB IS GETTING A NEW MEMBER ? So. Many. Red flags.

Real talk tho, I get that Yugo and Adamai aren't being super cautious, bc of obvious reasons. THE OTHERS THO HAVE NO FUCKING EXCUSE? WHAT the HECK guys ??? She freed QILBY !!! And you KNOW Yugo's family can be fucked up, bc the example of that is, low and behold, QILBY. Damn it Eva, by becoming an angry housewife you lost your grey cells. You used to sniff bullshit at 30 miles away what happened to you ? ( Tot, I KNOW you can make a badass warrior mom is pushed to. Why you don't do that that with any of your female cast for wakfu ?)

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2 Episode 11 Discussion

- Martin was me the entire episode, freaking the fuck out

- Eri vs Suletta is such a great fight. The two love each other, but their viewpoints and morals are on such opposite wavelengths. Eri, much like Suletta in the past, is doing everything for her mother because she wants her mom to be happy. The Eri we see is simply lines of code reconfigured into what could possibly be construed as a human being. She has Eri’s memories and feelings, but she hasn’t, can’t, grow up, unlike Suletta. Suletta loves her mom, she wants to be there for her, but she can’t accept killing people. She’s realized just how much heavy a life is and so she moves to protect it.

- Peil and the SAL have taken the mantle of final boss. If they really cared about punishing the Benerit Group, they would arrest the leaders, not shoot them with a giant fuck you laser while children are on board all while supporting the people who make nuclear child body doubles. The League is doing exactly what Delling did during the Vanadis incident, right down to the “I’ll take responsibility (but I really won’t)” shtick.

- However what’s interesting is how out of place Elan seems to be. He isn’t sitting down with the Peil ladies, he’s standing off in the corner, staring at his own reflection, and I think this shows a lot of us got his character wrong. Elan is just another child the Peil ladies are taking advantage of. He only got where he was due to sheer luck that the AI picked him, if not, he probably would have either ended up as the other body doubles or dead and discarded. It’s common with abusive parents that they’ll choose a “golden child” and use that child to put down the others, and Elan seems to fit in that mold. I hope he breaks out just like El5n and creates his own life.

- God the Schwarzette is the best fucking Gundam. Between it and Calibarn, how are they ever going to challenge it in the future? It has space rave lasers, it’s sword is the GUND bits and it can become a wing, and it has bisexual lighting.

- Lauda is too good for every one of his haters. He’s been second string to Guel for his entire life, his very name “Lauda Neill” is just a reminder of how he’s a mistress’s child. But here he proudly proclaims himself as “Lauda Jeturk.” His feelings for his brother come from both admiration and self-worthlessness. He puts his entire identity into being Guel’s brother so when Guel falters, he does as well. He wants Guel to rely on him. He wants to be his equal. He put Guel on such a high pedestal because he was everything he wanted to be.

- My poor son Guel. He’s always loved his brother, no matter the fact that they come from different mothers, but as always he has trouble understanding others. Also, we get to see a far darker part of his psyche that most others might have missed. In his fight with Shaddiq, despite being stabbed, he managed to eject and save himself, but here he waits for death. Guel has been keeping himself moving with the idea that his family still needs him, but once Lauda seemingly rejects him, he loses all that energy. He hasn’t recovered from the trauma and pain he’s been through, he’s only simply masked it. But in that moment, he’s perfectly fine with dying because he believes it would be better for everyone

- But best girl Felsi says fuck that! She reminds Guel and Lauda that the world is so much bigger than them, and that there are people who still care about them. They can’t ignore their problems, they need to talk through it. Lauda’s insecurity and Guel’s suicidal nature and guilt, these are things that can’t be held within or else they’ll bubble over and end in tragedy. Felsi the hero says cut the bullshit, and I love her so much for it. I need Felsi merch right now

- El5n was another MVP of the episode. I’m surprised just how talented he is with a gun and shoot outs. Does he have experience, either from his past life or current one? And the fact that he didn’t hesitate to get the head shot off of Prospera says so much. He’s ruthless because he has a purpose. He ain’t letting anyone die unnecessarily, but he also recognizes when the doing needs done

- And Belmeria really stepped up as well. She’s spent the entire series running away from the consequences of her actions but here she finally stands up and protects the children who have been abused by the system she supported. Her diving to protect Miorine from getting shot was beautiful, and you can tell El5n really appreciated the gesture.

- Miorine is the best wife. That’s it, that’s the tweet

- Right when Eri was about to merc Miorine and co, something interrupted them, and I believe it was Notrette, Miorine’s mom. We never learned how Miorine’s mom died, so it’s possible she also got sucked up into the data storm and resides in Quiet Zero, and that’s why Delling was working on the project. She also added a failsafe so her daughter could shut it down, one that speaks words of love. Mother of the year

- The fact that Eri’s final act is to protect her sister and mother is so sad. She never had the chance to grow up, she’s forever stuck in stasis inside a giant hunk of metal. Quiet Zero offered the hope that she could finally escape and travel the world as herself, but it still wouldn’t give her herself back. However, Suletta can still live on, and so she valiantly protects her from the big laser, giving one final smile to her little sister. I hope she can finally rest in peace.

- But will Prospera allow that. She’s watched her daughter die twice now. Everything she worked for, all the lives that were sacrificed, they now all mean nothing. The world has rejected her once again. Whether she can accept it and become a better mother to Suletta is to be seen, but I don’t think she’ll follow that path.

Really hoping we get that second half so I can see the Peil girls get fucking incinerated. Also can we paint the Schwarzette red and give it to Guel? Double the points if it’s revealed he’s bisexual.

[nixthelapin]

Marinette’s friends and connections

It has occurred to me just how many of Marinette’s classmates have prestigious family.

To get the obvious ones out of the way:

Adrien: Gabriel Agreste, fashion designer; Émilie, ex-nobility (she gave up her title) and actress

Chloe (and Zoe): Mayor, Andre Bourgeois; Audrey is a renowned fashion critique

Juleka (and Luka): Jagged Stone (even though they didn’t know it most of their lives)

But there’s a surprising amount of others with pretty high-up positions:

Alya: mom is head chef at a very famous hotel (owned by the Mayor himself) and was even a judge on that chef competition next to a TV host and a literal rockstar; dad owns the zoo (I think, he at least runs it)

Mylène: dad is a famous mime (famous enough to get his face plastered all over Paris for his show)

Sabrina: her dad isn’t just a regular cop, he’s the chief cop

Lila: her mom is an ambassador (yes, I’m including her, I think this one is actually true, seeing as her mom was actually on screen that one time)

Max: mom operates the StarTrain, then becomes and astronaut and almost immediately tests a new AI in space (idk how she got through training that fast)

Alix: her dad runs the freaking Louvre

That’s nine (9) students! Out of 15 in the class! That’s more than half the students with at least one parent in a prestigious position.

AND, this includes herself!

Yeah, her parents are bakers, and they only really get famous-level popular after Marinette gets them endorsements from Ladybug and Jagged Stone, but remember: her uncle (great uncle?) is a famous chef in China! He literally owns a world-renowned restaurant in Shang Hai! And even if he’s not super commonly known in France, it’s still well-enough that he was invited to be a major chef competition at the Mayor’s hotel! Also, her grandma (dad’s side) apparently has enough money to just spend years traveling and buy her a motorized scooter on a whim. So, there’s also that.

Non-classroom honorable mentions:

- Kagami: mom and Tsurugi tech

- Manon: mom is the host of almost every news show it seems

- Aurore: kids tv weather girl (she’s shown to be friends with her briefly in s3)

“Normal girl with a normal life” my butt, Marinette!

[dragon-in-the-watery-bowl]

Some more Danganronpa fankids, this time for Sora x Yoruko, Himiko x Tenko and Fuyuhiko x Peko.

Information under the cut:

Name: Akemi Kabuya (歌舞谷 暁美). Age: 15. Parents: Sora (In Akane Taira's body) and Yoruko Kabuya. Gender: Female. (Possible) Ultimate Title: Unknown. Birthdate: August 15 (Leo). Height: 166 cm. Weight: 52 kg. Chest Size: 83 cm. Blood Type: O. Likes: Antique things. Dislikes: Prejudice.

In a world where Mikado Sannoji was able to avoid being killed by his AI self, and tried to cause the Utsuroshima Killing Game by himself, Sora was able to escape the simulation on Akane's body, thanks to Yuki's body never having been destroyed, and ended up in a relationship with Yoruko, eventually having a kid together. Blunt and sarcastic to a fault, she's in reality a kind girl who just wants to make a better world, but, for now, she doesn't knows how to do it, so, like Yoruko did before her, she has gotten a part-time job in a restaurant, faking her age, until she finishes her studies and can live by herself, planning on using it to gather experience on how to live in the world, and be able to change it for the better.

Name: Miyu Chabashira (茶柱 美夢). Age: 14. Parents: Tenko Chabashira and Himiko Yumeno. Gender: Female. (Possible) Ultimate Title: Ultimate Martial Artist. Birthdate: January 31 (Aquarius). Height: 164 cm. Weight: 54 kg. Chest Size: 75 cm. Blood Type: B. Likes: Fighting, open spaces. Dislikes: Shoichi, salty food.

In a world where the Team Danganronpa's killing games never happened, and their victims were true Ultimates, Tenko Chabashira and Himiko Yumeno were able to start a relationship and have a kid. With the kind of people her moms are, she's a pretty lazy girl with a natural talent with fighting, who doesn't have a good impression of men in general, and won't hesitate to attack any guy that looks suspicious to her, things that has gotten her into trouble multiple times, but she still doesn't learn from her mistakes, thanks to how she was raised, something that could put her in danger at some point in the future.

Recently, she has gotten the attention of a younger boy, who looks like to be the kid of two of her moms' classmates. Something that she hates, but, no matter what she tries, she can't get him out of her back.

Name: Natsumi Kuzuryu (九頭龍 菜摘). Age: 8. Parents: Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu and Peko Pekoyama. Gender: Female. (Possible) Ultimate Title: Unknown. Birthdate: March 27 (Aries). Height: 132 cm. Weight: 22 kg. Chest Size: 53 cm. Blood Type: AB. Likes: The color black, sweets. Dislikes: Vegetables.

Some time after the Tragedy finished, and the Remnants of Despair were freed from Junko Enoshima's influence, some of them ended up having children of their own, with one of these couples being Peko Pekoyama and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu. Being named after his deceased aunt, she's pretty unlike her in personality, thanks in part to the lack of chaotic lifestyle that surrounded the Kuzuryu clan before the Tragedy started, and in part thanks to her "uncles" and "aunties", so she's more of a cheerful and innocent child who's not interested in the stuff that adults do.

But even though her connections to the yakuza are tenuous at best, they're still there, and, alongside the things her parents did during the Tragedy, she could become the target of some very angry rival clans if her existence is made known...

[la-principessa-nuova]

There’s a lot of mystery women in Doctor Who this season. Here are my thoughts/theories on some of them in no particular order:

1. The woman who leaves Ruby at the church as a baby: I think it’s not her mother, but it’s Ruby leaving herself after giving up on the chance to find out who her mother is or losing/failing to save her mother or something like that. It does conflict a little with established lore around people coming in contact with their past selves but time is wibbly wobbly and Ruby is a special snowflake (as in she’s special and makes it snow, lol). And it would be the right kind of poetic for the series, historically speaking.

2. Mrs. Flood: Ruby’s neighbor, who apparently knows what a TARDIS is. I have a couple theories based on very little. Like there was that passing mention to Susan Foreman in The Devil’s Chord where the Doctor mentioned having a granddaughter, and it makes me wonder if she could be Susan, or some other past companion. Or maybe in a future episode, the Doctor will go on an adventure with Mrs. Flood either just after meeting her the first time or earlier in her life so she remembers it now.

3. Susan Twist: She has been in every episode. She seems to be part of this season’s story actively rather than Mrs. Flood who seems more like a long term mystery. I think she’s like the Bad Wolf of this season. I’ve thought that maybe she could be Ruby’s grandmother, and Ruby is either subconsciously manifesting her visage onto other people using the same source of power as the snow thing or the universe is trying to connect them. Or maybe she’s Susan Foreman (although that really wouldn’t make sense with being the woman quitting on the Space Baby ship). Or maybe both? Or a member of the Pantheon who is sneakily tangling herself in Ruby’s life to prepare for some future attack? Or like someone who was important to someone who founded the weapons company from Boom or to someone who sold the visage to a bunch of places. Like the hiker is the mother or grandmother to the person who founds some company that creates some AI software and uses her likeness, then it gets put into the ambulance and used when creating babies on the space baby station, one of which who grows up to work on one of the stations, etc. Only thing that I can’t work into that theory I think is fitting the one from 1963.

4. Ruby’s Mom: It could be someone important to the story, like a Time Lord or member of the pantheon or something, but I think she’ll just be a person who becomes involved in the story during or just before the finale and ends up sacrificing herself, and then someone else (possibly Ruby herself) delivers baby Ruby to the church.

[rsadelle]

The best books I read in 2023

I read 85 books in 2023, which is about two-thirds as many as I read last year. If you want more, shorter recs, I kept up an ongoing Twitter thread where I recced things as I read them. I've provided content notes where I remember them; as always, feel free to comment or message/email me if you want more information.

Top 11 fiction books/series I read in 2023

Major Bhaajan series (Undercity, The Bronze Skies, The Vanished Seas, The Jigsaw Assassin) by Catherine Asaro - This is a very fun sci fi in space series about a woman who was in the army but is now a PI who also leads her looked down upon people. It's a spinoff from the Saga of the Skolian Empire, but you don't have to read that (or remember anything about it if you have read any of it) for this to make sense. Also, you can skim a lot of the technobabble. My mom also read them and was irked by the gender politics of the world; they make more sense if you know that they're part of the established Skolian Empire, which Asaro started publishing in the mid-90s. Content notes: genre typical violence, somewhat of a military is good vibe.

Before She Finds Me by Heather Chavez - This is a really good thriller with alternating points of view between a pregnant assassin with a moral code whose husband took a job without telling her and a woman whose daughter was shot (but not fatally). Content notes: gun violence, murder.

Alias Emma by Ava Glass - This is a very well done action thriller about a spy taking an asset across London in one day - without getting caught on any of London's cameras. It would make an excellent movie.

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin - This is the sequel to The City We Became, which was one of my best books of 2020. Jemisin originally intended this to be a trilogy but made it a duology instead, so you no longer need to wait to read the whole story. I loved everything, but also cared absolute most about the Manny/Neek romance. Content notes: eldritch horror, real-world racism and injustice.

Wild Massive by Scotto Moore - This book is ultimately a little forgettable, but it is also a super fun read. If you have watched or know about any long-running sci fi/fantasy TV series (Supernatural fans, I'm looking at you), you will probably enjoy the meta of it all. This was a sci fi book club choice, and people's responses ranged widely from loved it to couldn't finish it and included everything in between.

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley - This is a very enjoyable book that plays with alternate history and time travel and is also queer. I loved it and when I was thinking about what I read this year that was definitely going on my list, this was one I immediately thought of. It also helped me develop my theory that "genre bending" in the description of a book actually means "this is a very specific type of story, but telling you the specific kind is a spoiler." Content notes: death/disappearance of people in different timelines, war-related violence, off-screen/past sexual coercion

When the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson - This is more or less a thriller, and also funny. It's set in a future repressive anti-AI state in an otherwise benevolent AI-governed world, and has one of the funniest navigating bureaucracy scenes I've ever read. Content notes: repressive state violence.

Lay Your Body Down by Amy Suiter Clark - The book cover calls this "a novel of suspense," which I disagree with. This is a solid mystery in a small town with a megachurch and a former member of the church both investigating and confronting her own past. Content notes: all kinds of harm to women and girls in that kind of environment

First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara - This is a completely compelling queer story. The worldbuilding and the place of kink within it are much better done than in his first book, which I read two years ago and still occasionally think about. I loved the ambiguity about whether or not the magic was real. Content notes: cults and all kinds of physical and sexual abuse, including rape. It also has some Harry Potter references, which made me twitch. Szpara is trans and in the acknowledgements, he talks about fandoms, not necessarily creators/original stories: "To Drarry but not to JKR."

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh - I loved this book. This is another one that immediately came to mind when I was thinking about this list. I thought Tesh did such a good job of putting the reader in the character's worldview, the worldbuilding was interesting, and parts of it were funny even inside a serious story. The rest of my sci fi book club disliked both the main character and everything else I liked and thought worked well, so it may or may not be your thing. Content notes: all kinds of fascism related horrors

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel - This was a completely engrossing story. It did a good job building the characters and their stories, and I did not see the ending coming (in a good way). Content notes: a cult, self-harm as performance art, death.

Top 5 books/series I read and then thought about a lot in 2023

Godshot by Chelsea Bieker - This was so well-written, and I got completely absorbed in it. It is also about the sexual assault and forced pregnancy of young teenage girls (the protagonist is 14) in a cult in a drought in central California, and I kept thinking about it after I read it.

Adrift by Lisa Brideau - This is a thriller involving amnesia set in a climate change-devastated near future. It starts out a little slow, but I kept thinking about it after I read it and I enjoyed the building a new life aspect of the story. Content notes: climate change, storms, genre-typical danger.

Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons - A big part of why I kept thinking about this is that I had a lot of complaints about it that I was prepared to share at book club, and then everyone else liked it. The plot had potential, but what I found most annoying about it was that the author seemed to smugly think his ideas were new and revolutionary, which they are not.

Captive Prince trilogy (Captive Prince, Prince's Gambit, and Kings Rising) by C. S. Pacat - This was on my best books of 2021 list. This year, I watched all of Black Sails and wanted to read some other twisty plotting, and ended up rereading this whole trilogy twice. I still love it, and reading it closely twice means I started to see that some elements of both the worldbuilding and writing style start to fall apart if you think about it too hard. Content notes: Ancient Greece-style slavery, consent issues, war-related violence, explicit sex scenes.

Cover Story by Susan Rigetti - This is an Anna Delvey-inspired story that's built around diary entries, emails, etc. I don't know how much I enjoyed reading it in the first place, but the final reveal at the end recontextualized the parts I thought were boring enough to skim and made me keep thinking about it.

Top 2 nonfiction books I read in 2023

"You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon - I sat down on a Saturday morning planning to read just the beginning of this and finished the whole book by lunch. I found it much more accessible than her first book, while still being grounded in facts and pointed toward justice. I highly recommend it if you have any interest in social justice and/or the science behind weight. I do have two criticisms: 1. There's a heavy reliance on the implicit bias tests, which in my understanding are not fully scientifically validated as useful. 2. The last chapter is dedicated to pointing out all the other kinds of discrimination that are alive and well in our world today, which is great! Except she leaves out antisemitism, which seemed like a bad thing to leave out.

Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood by Maureen Ryan - I was glad I bought a copy of this instead of trying to get it from a library. It's very good and also very intense, so I needed time to recover between chapters and it took me almost four months to read. I greatly appreciated her voice as a fan of TV wrestling with some of the same issues I've been working through, and her turns from thoroughly reported facts to conversational opinions. I do think she lets Damon Lindelof off too easily - sure, he says the right things now, but has he changed his behavior? Content notes: All kinds of interpersonal, institutional, and systemic injustices, harms, and crimes.

The authors I read the most in 2023

There wasn't anyone whose books I read in large amounts this year. I read four or six books by a few people, and they're worth mentioning because they're representative of the kind of easy reads I read a lot of this year.

Jessie Mihalik - I read a total of six of her books in two trilogies. They're sci fi romances with political intrigue and space adventures. I liked the Consortium Rebellion trilogy better than the other one I read. The content notes for these sound very serious, but they're mostly just adventures with space ships. Content notes: genre typical violence, past intimate partner violence, results of nonconsensual human experimentation.

Annabeth Albert - She was one of the authors I read the most in 2021. This year I read the four books in her Hotshots series, which are m/m romances about smoke jumpers in Oregon. I continue to appreciate the diversity of relationship dynamics in her books. One of these deals with disability issues, including sexual functioning after a spinal cord injury, in a way that seemed respectful to me. Content notes: grief/mourning, injury.

A.M. Arthur - I read four of her books this year, and I've read several others before. She writes basic contemporary m/m romances, which is sometimes all I want to read. Content notes: explicit sex, various past traumas.

[sukimas]

anyway what with schwarzette and all my overall theory for the rough timeline of the show and what's happened in the past and will happen in the future is this:

-prologue happens -eri and prospera escape to mercury -eri dies of space sickness, her body gets preserved in some way -prospera, distraught, saves her biological data in the lfrith -prospera goes about starting to plot her revenge -encounters notrette/delling- they do not know who she is at first -notrette realizes who she is but tells her she doesn't support delling's plans and she's sorry about all this -prospera doesn't believe her initially, but eventually breaks down and tells her about what happened to her daughter -notrette expresses sympathy, tells her about her genetics research, offers to try and clone eri -eri is cloned successfully at least once, but during this process, notrette realizes that eri was very special (in terms of being a perfect interface candidate with the gund format) -notrette decides (with or without prospera's permission? probably with) to edit her own child to have similar traits (remember, miorine is younger than suletta, significantly) -this gets us miorine and her weirdness- like eri, she's a "newtype" as i'll be calling it until we get a proper term. suletta is also probably a newtype as an eri clone. -per lfrith's AI still being around after eri leaves the aerial this past episode, suletta is a normal kid and not lfrith ai. (sad, that was a fun theory.) this means all of her weird traits are exclusive suletta things- except we see similar in miorine. -anyway, sometime after this, notrette dies. we have no idea if this was accidental or on purpose- possibly on purpose even with prospera's collaboration with her (see garma.) since miorine wasn't allowed to attend the funeral, there is probably something strange either with the body or with how miorine can interface with data (dead people in the data storm?) -cradle planet happens -miorine's miserable -s1 and s2 (so far) happen -eri gets transferred into prospera's helmet -prospera finds some way to get legal ownership of the company after miorine becomes president (though she evidently wants to do so through suletta and miorine getting married, idk how that'll happen after this past episode, so i assume she'll use different means) -since miorine is a "newtype", if she dies, she likely can be sent into the data storm. -prospera likely intends to kill miorine in some way (after getting the presidency, and after delling wakes up) and then stick her consciousness in a robot to "i have no mouth and i must scream" her. remember, prospera is not aware that gundam-girls can move autonomously. prospera also likely intends to kill delling after this. -even if she was, though, eri can still control other gundams through quiet zero, so presumably prospera has even thought of that aspect. -i imagine that eri does NOT want to go along with this, since she likes miorine, but can't stop prospera from doing what she's doing since she's currently a hat. -i expect that she decides to pop into a gundam that suletta is piloting and give her the rundown at least- maybe she wants confirmation that listening to mom is right, and expects suletta to give it to her. -together, the two of them find a way to un-robot miorine (possibly through newtype bullshit magic, eri's new home is suletta's body, being her "other half" just like aerial was) or at minimum make an android body for the wife. -roll credits until season 2 where we get giant earth/space conflict.

-i have no idea what's gonna happen to guel or suletta in the intervening time between this episode and miobot, don't ask. although i do think with the Rejects Basement we saw this episode with norea, elan, and nika that's where suletta ends up next episode, at least. what with the title "our empty selves."

[aihoshiino]

in an ai lives au, do you think her relationship to her fellow b-komachi members would ever change/improve? particularly kyun and nino? (i love when you talk about those two and their respective relationships to ai.)

WELL ANON I HAVE GREAT NEWS FOR YOU!!!!!

An Invincible Girl is basically my personal heartcanon/me putting my Ai Lives AU into a fic so that's more or less my take on how things would go but if u understandably don't want to chew on 15k words and counting just to get to The Girls of it all.....!!!

Without Ai's death, I think her relationship with both girls definitely improves - not just because she's actually, you know, in their lives but Nino in particular doesn't have the trauma of Ai's death gunking up her brain and bleeding into her memories and perceptions of Ai even years later.

Ai and Kyun are able to reconnect and even forge a proper friendship after that missed connection the first time around. Ai was still struggling with a lot of the avoidance and fear of vulnerability that underscored most of her other relationships back during their first meeting and even though she really does bleed her heart all over Kyun during that first talk, I do think she needed the time and space and the experience of being Aqua and Ruby's mom to help her mature and develop into a person who could have a properly vulnerable and mutual friendship. And while Kyun is struggling with a lot of stuff too, she clearly does like the 'real' Ai when she gets peeks of her, so I think once the two of them started opening up to each other, they'd be firm friends to the point that I think she'd eventually be let in on the secret of Aqua and Ruby's existence.

ouughh can you imagine... Ruby even says Kyun was one of her fave members (apart from Ai) so imagine how much she'd explode over Kyun being in her life LOL

As for Ai and Nino... I don't think they are ever able to reconnect or become Friends again, sadly. I think as they grow up, they're able to get to a point of being Civil with each other but the godawful environment of gen 1 B-Komachi and the way Saitou inadvertently pitted them against each other hurt both of them way too deeply for them to be able to come in too close without opening all their old wounds again. Nino definitely has a much healthier and less Deranged internal image of Ai and as she grows up, I think she'd be able to recognize that what went on in B-Komachi wasn't Ai's fault, but I also think the two of them are just really built to bring out the worst in each other... Nino's simmering resentment that's only expressed when it explodes out of her and Ai's fawning avoidance... it really isn't good for either of them.

[biribaa]

you should totally make a timeline in Google docs or something of Olivia: from X being developed-to-destroyed to Olivia working at the company/corp to taking helm of X's formerly designated body and becoming O7 to O7 protecting us to— you get the point

sincerely O7's Número #1 Fan 💅

Olivia timeline! Yooho

Spoiler this thing is big asf

Dear Anon(AKA O7's number one fan).

You don't understand the smile I'm wearing right now, maybe I'm even shaking from how happy I am. I've been dreaming for MONTHS for someone to ask a question like this about Olivia/O7, there were points that I just gave up on and thought about making an alternative account to make a request anon asking about Olivia/O7 lore just so I could talk about it because I know nobody would do it. But the you, you came. I'm horrible at compliments and most of the time I make people uncomfortable with them but thank you very much I hope no one wastes the hot water in the shower for you, I hope your pillow is cold, i hope your favorite candy is on sale or your favorite game. I just- urgh. I love you thank you thank you so much I love talking about Olivia/O7

I NEVER USED GOOGLE DOCS BEFORE SO IM USING TUMBLR FOR THIS!!!

TW/CW: Ableism, murder mentions

First years (10-13 years)

On March 7, 1992, Olivia Ludwig Campbell was born. She had a mother, Britney, a father who died when she was a baby, Joseph, and a older brother, Taylor.

There's not much to talk about when Olivia was very young... She was known in her class, but she didn't have many friends, it was very rare for her to actually have any friends. She just couldn't find interest in the things that kids her age did.

That's when she watched a certain movie about space travel containing an AI, causing her to have a sudden interest, she didn't have a clear explanation, she's seen several movies and books of almost all genres, and they all had humans, and when they didn't, it was just a type of humanoid. So the concept of a non-human being that has almost no human characteristics other than a voice... It interested Olivia.

Olivia began to devour any kind of fiction containing a AI, or at least a robot, which would be the closest. For the time being her favorites were 2001: A Space Odyssey, Doctor Who and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Many said it had some content she couldn't read because of being too graphic, but if the boys in her class could bully anyone they see, why can't she enjoy a nice tale?

But apparently only she can appreciate such literature. Confidently, Olivia tried to present the book to the class, the only thing she didn't expect was for the children to not understand everything, some even laughing. Olivia had never felt so left out before. She even tried to talk to her mom about it.

"That's too bad sweetie, but why would you bring this up to them? Why don't you try girl stuff? You still have your dolls."

Maybe mom is not an good option.

Programming and the "True Olivia" (13-15 years)

After being heavily influenced by Harlan Ellison's bestselling book, Olivia wanted to see how the human mind works, she wanted to learn why such a human is like that or why that human is like that, starting to learn with simple syndromes, and then psychological tests done in real life.

Not to mention that Olivia also started to learn programming, the feeling of having an AI ready to have a conversation with her after school keeps her foot tapping excisively. She read book after book about programming like there was no tomorrow.

Olivia was fascinated by how an AI looks so much like an ordinary human being learning to speak, Olivia had never felt so excited when she was testing this AI's programming with simple yes or no questions... Something about this AI made her smile forever.

Olivia named the AI ​​"X", it was mysterious, it was fun to say, it was cool. She liked, so it did.

A few years later, having already evolved the programming of this AI deeply while her brother is making her mother pround by trying to study medicine, Olivia tried to learn about the "mental illnesses" of the human being, until she founds out what is the autism spectrum. She researched more and more, to the point where she suspected that she might have it, maybe just a low grade, but maybe she had. Unfortunately, her own research wasn't enough, she needs a diagnosis from a professional.

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"So...[She clears her throat] I did some research on human psychology, and I discovered something called autism, it's a phenomenon when a certain human is born with a different brain than other humans, having their own ways of thinking and to see the world."

"Hm."

"...How can I say this... I've studied the symptoms of it, and I can relate to a lot of these symptoms, being sensitive to loud noises, stimulation, sensory issues-"

"What? No no no no no no, Olivia you don't know what you're talking about."

"...What? Of course I know, I studied it! I just want a psychiatrist to confirm-"

"Olivia! I don't want to deal with an autistic kid, you worrying about these things while your brother is worrying about his medical career, grow up!"

Olivia decided to not open up to her own mother.

X (15-18 years)

Unable to socialize or find comfort with her own mother, Olivia tried to form a friendship with her brother, Taylor. At first they weren't that connected, but Olivia tried to have a bigger connection with him.

Olivia felt that everything was going well, she talked to Taylor about her current interests, he didn't react much, but he still listened to her.

At 16, Olivia got an appointment with a psychiatrist, and after 3 months, she finally got a diagnosis of her autism, confirming her neurodivergence. Britney's reaction was obvious to Olivia, pretending to be supportive.

And a few months later, there was that day

"-And I'm glad you accept me, Taylor. So if you can be special being a doctor then i can be special too-"

"You're not special."

"Wh-"

"It's just something you tell yourself because you're weird. Because you were born wrong."

Maybe X could be the only person Olivia can feel safe with.

Months later, Olivia also started practicing theater! Something she liked, but after 2 years she stopped, satisfied with this talent.

Rock (18-20 years)

Olivia was once in a band you know, when she still had little drops of hope, she played the drums!

Olivia had a lot of fun with that, it was almost a way to stim for her!

The others in the band were also nice to Olivia, that was her view for now at that point. But theen.. Oops

Haha! Olivia tries to express herself one more time and ends up regretting it!

"You can't play like that!"

"What? Why not? It's the way I like to play, I think it will make it more natural and–"

"No- just, just don't, Olivia"

"Why?"

"I don't want to ruin my career. Not after years of working on it!"

Yours?!

"What do you mean yours? We are all working hard on it too—"

Uh oh. Then, Olivia end up with a nose bleeding.

"Piece of shit–"

"Your nose is bleeding"

"Uh? Oh I forgot I got you a camera. Hi X"

"You are damaged."

"Yeah."

"Who's to blame?"

"Oh no no, it's not–... It's not tgat important, buddy."

"But, you're important. To me, at least."

"...It was... It was a human."

"Again?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, let's start again, who's to blame?"

"James."

Over time, Olivia began to spend more time in her own room, talking to X. When she wasn't talking to X, she was reading a book, eating, or sleeping or having a bath.

Shit happens (20-30 years)

Blah blah blah Olivia starts to have a romantic relationship with X having it as her only will of being alive and she starts a project of building a robotic body for it, you got it, right?

But did I ever told u that Antony actually had a apparition in Olivia's life? y'know like the man that O7 made blind? Yep

Antony and Olivia have been rivals since high school, to the point that both get into physical fights. And they still are, because the two were neighbors.

One day, X accidentally connects to Antony's home cameras, and it was there that he witnessed Antony's murder of his ex-girlfriend, Madeline, where Antony gouges out her eyes and stabs her with a knife.

X, in a panic, tells Olivia everything, and she sees it as a chance for revenge. That was her big mistake.

The next day, Olivia invites Antony to her house, telling him to leave their teenage violence behind, only for Antony to be tricked. Olivia says that she and X know everything, and if Antony doesn't deliver certain parts for X's robotic body to her, X will expose everything.

Y'know X and Olivia were almost a sadistic couple everyday when i hear that one song with "David!" "What?" "Where are you at?" "Well let me roll up in the sidewalk and take a look, yes?" I always rember of them

Antony listened

Only for the next day, he misses work and breaks into Olivia's house and destroys X with an axe, leaving Olivia's heart also destroyed.

Antony left almost no evidence in the lawsuit, Olivia couldn't even sue him for breaking and entering her house!

Olivia's depression returns, along with her drinking.

But, if Olivia won't do all this for X, what's to stop her from doing all this for hatred and disgust for humans?

That's when Olivia started putting together a plan for months, getting a job at a game company and studying a way she could transfer her mind into a mechanical body.

And that's where we come to the Olivia you guys know!

Olivia works as a guide for beta testers on a game with the stupid idea of ​​being a parkour "video game" set in real life, unfortunately they accepted this idea from Cyrus.

She guides Tester 009, who is offered a glove that can help them through their challenges.

Tester 009 had a 6-day test, only for Olivia to manipulate them on the last day and accidentally help her connect her mind to the robotic body originally made for X. Finally having the O7 we know

O7 hates humans, she hates them just like she hates her for originally being one. Her life had great potential to be happy, only to be ruined by humans. O7 never asked to be like this, she never asked to have these hateful thoughts, she never asked for having violent intrusive thoughts, she never asked for all this, humans asked for this. All she wanted was to talk

Uhmm... You???

There are several possibilities for how Olivia/O7 met you and how she became convinced that you are a piece of another find in a coalfield.

Perhaps, O7 took an interest in you in the process of her massacre because you were kind to her.

Or, you were already a friend of Olivia.

Or maybe, i don't know! So many possibilities

But I'll tell you what, the process is the same, O7/Olivia will always be expecting worse from every human she meets, no matter the repupation. Let me tell you a secret, O7/Olivia is afraid of making the wrong choices 'cuz she hates dealing with her implanted idiotic human feelings, she hates them. So when O7/Olivia starts a relationship with you, her mind won't stop thinking what kind of horrible person you are, annoying? Manipulator? Ableist? Robophobic? Doesnt listen to her? But unlikely of possibilities, it's not like she'd be impressed anyway. So don't mind O7/Olivia being quieter, she's just insecure thinking about the kinds of torture she can do to you if you're a disappointment like everyone else

O7/Olivia is very delicate in the beginning of a romantic relationship, it is the first time she has gotten so close to a human in her life, and she feels that she will never be able to get so close to a human as she did with you

O7 is pretty goofy tbh, always wanting to carry you in her arms like the beautiful creature you are :)

There are times when she even brags about you to the other survivors, calling you an angel, or, the nickname she always uses, "Casanova"

[hacktuarial]

a somewhat brief and non comprehensive summary of the structure and timeline of the tron universe for the uninitiated:

surprise, computer programs are alive! kinda. they’re sentient, anyway. think like toy story or wreck it ralph type rules. they think and feel but largely within the bounds of what they were written to do — in the same way that certain jobs might attract certain personality types. programs are referred to either as Programs (shocker) or Basics (more on that later).

humans are referred to as Users. Programs’ view of Users varies depending on the individual Programs. but for most of them, the Users are basically gods regarded with reverence. giving a Program commands is the equivalent to communicating directly with god, essentially. but some Programs don’t like that divide or actively fight against what they see as User control — they’re usually the bad guys.

Programs look like carbon copies of the Users that wrote them

color-coded morality is a thing. good guys usually have blue or white circuits. bad guys are orange or red. yellow is for hacking programs, yellow-green for viruses. green has been used by a certain faction of programs that view themselves as independent. there’s minty-green for medical programs. I’m not getting into what purple circuits mean lol

Encom is the big huge tech company in the universe. they fluctuate between being good guys and bad guys depending on who’s in charge.

in 1982, a programmer and arcade owner named Kevin Flynn is accidentally digitized into the computer world in the process of trying to prove the current head of Encom stole his work. at the time, the company is slowly being overrun by the Master Control Program — the MCP — which is becoming more and more AI like as it absorbs other programs. Flynn has Adventures(tm) in the digital world with Tron (a security program) and Ram (an actuarial program captured by the MCP but he dies halfway through the movie rip) and Yori (Tron’s gf, a simulations program who operates part of the laser project that digitized Flynn). important to mention these are all the Program versions of people he knows or will soon know irl. eventually Tron takes down the MCP, Flynn gets spit back out of the computer with the proof that his work was stolen, and becomes CEO of Encom.

Flynn becomes a little obsessed with everything he saw and experienced, though. in-universe he creates the arcade game Tron, which is the same arcade game that exists in actual real life. he sets up a space under the arcade that he owns, somehow manages to steal the digitizing laser from Encom, and starts building his own system he calls the Grid.

he also gets married and has a son, Sam. mom dies bc it’s disney.

because he has to balance being a dad and a ceo and the god of the Grid, Flynn eventually creates a program to act as system administrator in his absence — Clu.

sometime in the late 80s, Programs show up on the Grid that weren’t written by a User. they just sort of… spawn, out of the Grid’s ocean. this is a huge breakthrough in Flynn’s eyes, because it’s an entirely new life form with the potential to upend everything we know. they’re called ISOs, or isomorphic algorithms. unlike User-written Programs (now called Basics) they’re more adaptable and capable of learning, and they don’t exist to follow a single purpose.

division forms between Basics and ISOs. Basics view the other as an unpredictable threat, while ISOs essentially just want to do their own thing and not be bothered (although it’s implied some of them look down on Basics as lesser).

Clu moves to overthrow Flynn in 1989 because he feels the User has abandoned the interests of Basics in favor of the ISOs and his other responsibilities. he stages a coup, drives Flynn into hiding, and badly injures Tron — who is eventually repurposed into Rinzler, a program that serves as Clu’s watchdog and number one hitman. the portal that allows Flynn to move between the Grid and the real world closes after a set time period, effectively trapping him on the wrong side of the computer.

to the public, Flynn is missing and eventually presumed dead. shakeups at Encom in his absence see the company mostly revert back to bad guy status. a number of Flynn’s friends — Alan Bradley (Tron’s User), Lora Baines-Bradley (Yori’s User), and Roy Kleinberg (Ram’s User) — refuse to believe he’s dead. the Flynn Lives movement picks up in the early 90s to uncover the truth about what really happened to him.

aaaaand they more or less find nothing. Sam grows up rebellious against Encom and his father’s legacy

in 2010, Alan receives a pager alert from the disconnected Flynn’s Arcade number. he tells Sam who goes to investigate, and that’s when he finds the underground office and unknowingly sends himself to the Grid. Sam has Adventures(tm) and reunites with his father, who goes on to sacrifice himself to destroy Clu and give Sam a chance to escape. which he does, along with a Program named Quorra — the last surviving ISO

Sam decides to take the reigns of Encom and turn it back into the company his father built. there’s much rejoicing.

and there may or may not ever be a third movie in the continuity so if you have unanswered questions about how an ISO functions in the real world or if the Grid still exists or what the fuck happened to the title character huh — me too. meeeeee too.

[growthpeacelove]

Trying new prompts from Ruth Ai

I will try to answer these questions one by one

1. What are the positive aspects of living with my family again?

I don’t have to worry about food - there is a home cooked meal and so when I have to do any chores - I remind myself that feeding myself during dinner - has become so easy. My mom is always making something delicious and healthy.

They always have a tea break. They always make smoothies.

I am saving money to pay off my debts. I am not expected to pay for everything. I cannot so there is that.

There is someone nearby to run an idea by - and if I want some help I can ask my parents. I also live in a safe clean neighborhood. I have a routine and this time I am medicated. So I feel in control of my work and my goals. I am not as temped to resort to my vices or someone as an escape. It’s a safe and healthy environment.

2. How can I create personal space and boundaries within the family home?

I have my own room that I am slowly finding solace in to use for rest and work. I have everything I need and it’s clean. It’s my own spaces it feels private.

3. What activities can I do with my family to strengthen our bond?

Tea with them. Sometimes dinner or lunch. Anything else rn I always feel so irritated around them. I want to avoid being so snarky and mean. I feel so sensitive and ready to bite. I don’t want that. I don’t want to cause them pain and I don’t want to see myself lash out either.

We could do outings. I just need to work through my resentment. My own feelings of failure.

4. How do I feel about the changes in my living situation, and how can I embrace them?

I am healthier. My vices are only in social settings. I am able to pray and keep up with them for most days. I am doing well in work. I have gotten recognized and received validation. I am trying to speak positively about myself. I am amongst people who are looking out for me. Even if we disagree on things. I can embrace these changes into something that works for me. Having set goals to see friends about trivia night and open mic and spending time with them. Having a routine and goal.

5. What are some ways I can contribute to the household to create a harmonious environment?

Helping out. Holding back w emotions. Not lashing out when my parents say/do anything that is annoying or upsetting.