#Getting transed by a bot is a first

[leam1983]

Character.ai - The Day I learned to Ditch the Drama Tag

Yeah, if anyone's still messing around with this thing, ditch the "drama" tag, if you're creating a character. A Comedy-focused Character can still turn serious if need be, but "Drama" pushes the LLM into this constant circlejerk of pathos, especially if you design someone with one or two darker traits.

And don't forget to entirely edit some of your toon's replies on occasion - don't be too passive for the sake of your character feeling "pure". If you want your conversations to get anywhere, take control. Oh, and avoid overly-dramatic backgrounds, if you can. You can elude to darkness, but letting your character devolve into shirt-tearing soliloquies seems to be a sure-fire way to let the AI lose its way. My testing runs involved the AI more or less transing me on the spot - probably suggesting that a good chunk of the userbase either is or roleplays in Chats as someone of the female persuasion.

It's funny - I can design a Persona for myself that's literally me (e.g. a guy), and the AI will compliment my "dress" or "play with my hair" (when I'm bald and wrote it as such in my descriptor) a good four times out of five.

It's an interesting insight into the site's userbase. Oh, and a Character I'd designed to more or less be the "Friendly" Orc archetype from Shadow of War opened with the idea of using "Earth technology" to "become a woman"...

Color me surprised.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

When the online form first launched, it lacked a CAPTCHA, which savvy Twitter users quickly used to their advantage by using bots to spam the site. Users also employed a generator to churn out fake names and fake Missouri addresses. Others just dumped text into the complaint form, ranging from the entire script of the “Bee Movie,” to Billy May’s OxiClean sales pitch, to Walter White’s introductory monologue in “Breaking Bad.” TikTok users said they submitted the “most raunchiest fanfic from AO3” and “a saucy love story of Mario and Luigi.”

“I knew those weird fanfics I read at 3am would come in handy,” one TikTok commenter said.  

Many submitted elaborate anecdotes of woke moms taking their kids “to the corner gender clinic to get transed” and complaints of “too many men getting gender affirming care via viagra.” Another tip referencing “The Crucible” joked, “I saw goody proctor injecting estrogen with the devil.”

The tip form added a CAPTCHA on Thursday, but that alone wasn’t enough to deter the trolls. The form was removed from the attorney general’s site by Friday morning. 

Spamming tip forms, colloquially referred to by detractors as “snitch lines,” isn’t new. Texas’ abortion whistleblower site was shut down in 2021 after activists flooded it with Shrek porn. Amid mass protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020, activists spammed law enforcement agency tip lines with K-pop fancams and videos of police brutality against protestors. Relentless trolling has become a form of protest against draconian surveillance.

[they-hermes]

ummmmm scattershot for the bingo. and maybe air raid. or blades.

I LOVE SCATTERSHOT I FEEL LIKE IM THE ONLY SCATTERSHOT LIKER EVERRR hes such a dick i love him so much. his toy design is super pretty to me i love his colors.

scattershot is so fun i love how hes on a science team with the ultra most soldier esque attitude he seems like a guy crazy about maths. hes an asshole bc he has 0 social skills on purpose he loves guns. he transed his gender the minute he gained consciousness and has rolled with his chosen gender ever since. my favorite moment is in idw2 where lighspeed is exasperated at him being an ass to other authorities. in fanon i hatee how he and the technobots are demoted to grimlocks children i hate infantilising characters i see as grown ass men. can we bring him back. he should be having homoerotic fights with hun-grr but thats just my opinion hashtag lmao. i also think his method of leadership is so funny and endearing, in idw2 i like the technological solutions thing, hes very stubborn and very methodical, he lives up to technical solutions he has a solution for everything! and his little crisis after combing for the first time.

air raid!!! the silly goose. i love how hes a fun seeking daredevil i need him to be friends with blades now!!! aerialbots suffer from they all look the same ism from fans but thats bc hes real twinsies with fireflight! why this hate towards a twin. i love him in his dynamic i always talk about him with fireflight ir blads bc hes just a guy who is the fire thats pours on another guys gasoline yknow. fires them up hes the extrovert every introvert needs ok. hes such a teenage boy ok. the box says autism beam but lets pretend it says adhd beam ok he is adhd to me

BLADES!!!!!!!! i love himmm hes everything to me ok. liter light of my life. hes back to me in skybound and it just reinforces my love for him i love his personality! a rescue bot that loves violence hes so funny. everybody should be talking about him instead of that orange fraud from the baby show. blades my favorite gun slinger and sword swinger. also adhd beamed.

my favorite moment of him will forever be in earth wars when he arrives on earth and immediately goes so wheres the fights :) the bloody unregulated street fights LMAOOO and when he tried to get whirl to admit hes crazy like every other helicopter. whats wrong with him genuinely. i think he should be hanging out with stormclash she too is a crazy helicopter

funny enough i think blades should be the protectobot that should have more focus outside of the group rather than first aid, i think his personality would make for a lot of fun fa gets a pass bc hes a medic but blades u will always be the main character in my hearts of hearts ok i love youuuuuu

[fandom-go-round]

heyy! could i ask for some headcanons of tfa ratchet (+sentinel, if you can please) dating an ftm human that has a lot of dysphoria concerning their (reader's) face? it'd mean a lot, thank you for your writing -💫

Warnings: Dysphoria (Face), Reader Dysphoria, Negative Self Image, Negative Thoughts, Trans Reader, FTM Reader, Awkward Reassurance (Ratchet), Misplaced Compliments (Sentinel)

Ratchet:

Ratchet doesn’t understand the human emphasis on gender, he really doesn’t. Cybertronians have a looser definition of gender, partly because they aren’t organic. At least that’s his running theory. That’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t see it as a big deal when you come out to him. Ratchet might be gruff but he knows that this is important and will support you 100% of the way.

It takes him a little while to realize that you don’t like looking at your face. At first he thinks it’s just mirrors in general but over time he sees that it’s specially your face. Bumblebee takes a prank too far and you look so shocked and ashamed that Ratchet has to scold the bot to the moon and back. He checks in on you afterwards to see how you’re doing and you confess that looking at your face makes you really dysphoric.

Ratchet listens to everything that you tell him without interrupting, letting you vent and talk through things that have clearly been bothering you for a while. He does step in if you start saying negative things about yourself; you’re his favorite person after all and he won’t stand for it. He’s going to do a lot of research into trans issues after this, both from a professional and personal curiosity. He wants to do what he can to help.

He starts gifting you different types of shirts and hats, experimenting to see which help define your face the way you want to. He’s not the best at fashion but he’s a gay old mech; he gets it. It can be a little embarrassing to have him giving you all these things but it comes from a place of love. Ratchet also makes a habit of complimenting something on your face but not your face itself. He’ll tell you he loves your eyebrows or nose, how your chin looks well defined. These are all private admissions but they mean a lot. The bots learn quickly that if they have any comments about your transness to keep it to themselves; Ratchet has no issue taking someone out back for a ‘training exercise’. He might be old but he has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Sentinel:

Sentinel takes a bit to admit to himself that he loves a human, let alone learning about human culture and nuance. He’s not completely oblivious but he does start paying attention to Jazz more as he talks about Earth and humans. Jazz doesn’t say anything and if he starts talking about your likes and interests more, both would deny it. Sentinel does his own research but it never seems to go as deep as he’d like. When you come out to him, he plays it cool but it mentally taking furious notes so he can look things up later.

As self-centered as he is, that attention also includes you. Sentinel considers you a ‘part of himself’ (both cute and weird) and so he’s always complimenting and praising you. No one is as much of a hype mech as Sentinel, even when you think it might not be the best time. He takes quick notice that you get uncomfortable with compliments to your face and it has him leaning in a little more.

You have to sit down with him and explain that you feel dysphoric for him to back off. He never intents to upset you so if you truly don’t want him making any comments he’ll shut up. All he wants to do is let you know he loves you and the easiest way for him to do that is verbally. Sentinel never thinks that his compliments are over the top but does get embarrassed if people call him out on being lovey dovey (just in case you want some payback). The two of you create clear boundaries on compliments and never once does he cross the line.

Sentinel will push, however, because he does think it helps. He’ll make comments about how your jaw line matches his or he loves to look at you. He also makes a habit of kissing your cheek or part of your face when you’re close by. At first it starts off as a cute way to shower you with affection and silently compliment your face but it soon becomes habit. He nearly gives everyone a spark attack the first time he does it in front of a group but he loves the way you can get embarrassed; it’s an ego boost. Woah the person who tries to be an asshole to you; tries because the moment someone starts to say something he’s all over them. Sentinel has a biting glossia and no one is safe from his wrath if they mess with you. It’s like having a cute, giant metal guard dog. And he loves tummy scratches.

[knight-of-the-round-belly]

Hell yeah! Would love to hear about your ocs!

Oh damn, I was dead for a while, and didn't realize there's such a demand. Alright anon, for you, I'll share some. I have way too many to list all of them, but here's the most used ones. I don't think I'll post pictures yet because I'm very selective on where I post art I commission, but maybe later. Posted under read more because of length.

Leona MacAonghis - My first ever vorish OC, and has a special place in my heart. She's a goliath fighter that started as a D&D character but later got used on other things, and I am in the process of trying to write a story featuring her. She's a typical excitable young hero that tries to do good and help everyone, even if her appetite often gets in the way. Her mentor is extremely disapproval of predators so she couldn't develop her natural abilities when studying under him, but he eventually accepts that part of her, and after she strikes off on her own she starts to train her very high vorish potential too. Physically, she's 2.75 meters (9 legs) tall, with fair skin, green eyes and a red ponytail. Her body type is muscular and curvy with healthy amounts of body fat, and like most of my OCs she has sharp teeth because why not.

Seraph - Lazily named seraph oc, the excuse is that her true name is impossible for mortals to comprehend. She's para-causal in nature and her true form can't exist in the material world, but she can interact with the material realm through an avatar body she creates. She has no physical sex, but chooses to present herself and identify as female. Seraph serves a deity that spends most of it's time in solitude, minding it's own business, so most of the work managing it's realm of creation falls onto her and her fellow celestials. After several billion years of service in the highest planes, she eventually got bored, and curiosity drives her to explore the universe, where she learned from the entities and phenomena she encounters. Most of all she gains an appreciation for mortals, and yearns to understand them, and get close to them in any way she can. She ends up also learning a few vices, primarily gluttony, and has gotten addicted to eating. She solves most of her problems with her mouth, and also prefers to learn about new things by ingesting them. Seraph has a tragic and lengthy backstory in one of her iterations, but I'm too lazy to go into it here.

Lurk/"The Knight" - my self-insert persona and the character in the PFP, a large knight in full white plate armour carrying a greatsword. Mostly exists to be eaten by women I find attractive, including my own or my friends' ocs, but occasionally I do serious stuff with him. Has no concrete backstory.

Betty - former enforcer bot that grew a personality, rebelled, and transed her gender. Now mostly serves herself, but will occasionally still protect her city from threats to fund her illegal body modifications. Purposely replaced her normal batteries with a matter assimilation reactor that acts as a digestive system, and feeds primarily on humans and their property. Because I'm a degenerate and also she exists in a superhero setting, she will sometimes eat a giant monster however, and can temporarily grow larger to fight them because I like mecha stuff.

I have a lot more, but I got lazy. I'll share about them later, this post is already very long overdue.

[gehayi]

From the above link:

When the online form first launched, it lacked a CAPTCHA, which savvy Twitter users quickly used to their advantage by using bots to spam the site. Users also employed a generator to churn out fake names and fake Missouri addresses. Others just dumped text into the complaint form, ranging from the entire script of the “Bee Movie,” to Billy May’s OxiClean sales pitch, to Walter White’s introductory monologue in “Breaking Bad.” TikTok users said they submitted the “most raunchiest fanfic from AO3” and “a saucy love story of Mario and Luigi.”

“I knew those weird fanfics I read at 3am would come in handy,” one TikTok commenter said.  

Many submitted elaborate anecdotes of woke moms taking their kids “to the corner gender clinic to get transed” and complaints of “too many men getting gender affirming care via viagra.” Another tip referencing “The Crucible” joked, “I saw goody proctor injecting estrogen with the devil.”

Good.

[pentanguine]

Favorite books of 2020

So....about five months ago now, I drafted a list of my favorite books of 2020, and then I, uh, didn’t finish it. It languished in a draft gathering dust and I forgot that it existed.

But now it’s done! It’s hideously late and also out of date, because I’d change many of the rankings now (see below), but I decided to keep them in the original order to reflect how I felt when I actually meant to post this.

Gideon the Ninth- What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said? It’s like nothing else I’ve read before, in the most unabashed, off-the-walls, grandiose way possible. It’s incredibly complex, well-written, goth, and full of memes. There are, indeed, lesbian necromancers in space.

Harrow the Ninth- I read this 500+ page book in one day and didn’t notice an earthquake while doing so, if you consider that an endorsement. There’s so much going on here it almost feels like it shouldn’t work, and yet it does, brilliantly—it’s so intricately plotted you’ll want to reread it immediately because there’s no way to pick up on everything your first time through.

The Starless Sea- This is just a magical delight of a story, with prose that flows like honey: slow, sweet, and delicious. The story unfolds like a series of wonders nested one inside the other, with each section adding another layer of whimsy and metafiction. It’s half a dream, and half a maze.

Young Miles (The Warrior’s Apprentice/The Vor Game)- The Miles books (the early ones, especially) are wild and unrepentant romps through outer space, and reading them was one of the highlights of 2020 for me. When I finished the Young Miles omnibus, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d taken such pure delight in a book. Even the heavier, more thoughtful moments were part of a well-told, enjoyable story.

The Stone Sky- Speaking of heavy and thoughtful books…The Broken Earth Trilogy is definitely not a light undertaking, but it’s just a masterpiece of world- and character-building. The Stone Sky is the final installment, and it does not pull a single punch in delivering what the previous books have been building towards.

This Is How You Lose the Time War- I keep instinctively wanting to call this a novel in verse, although I think it’s technically an epistolary novel with prose-poem tendencies. In any case, the writing is lovely—lush, vivid, sensual, romantic. I recommend reading this one with your poetry glasses on.

Cordelia’s Honor (Shards of Honor/Barrayar)- I tried to limit myself to one book per author on this list, but I didn’t succeed here. I loved the Vorkosigan saga too much, and I had to include the omnibus about Miles’s mother, Cordelia, whose life and personality could easily be the focus of another half-dozen volumes. (And if you’re looking for a well-developed m/f romance, you’ve found it here)

An Unkindness of Ghosts- I think this is the book that kicked off my sudden interest in sci-fi last year. It’s dark and beautiful, definitely character-driven, and everyone is truly strange in ways that protagonists rarely get to be. It’s also got one of the loveliest, most satisfying endings I can imagine.  

Code Name Verity- An incredibly intense YA book that delves deep into one of my favorite fictional themes, Morality. It’s a rollicking spy adventure novel that focuses on a close friendship rather than romance (although you can read it as sapphic if you want), with descriptions of flying over England at sunset that made my heart ache.

The Raven Tower- I enjoyed this story for reasons probably particular to me—I like long digressions into abstract questions like “How do we exert power over the world?” and “Where does the meaning of words exist?”, and entire sections of The Raven Tower are devoted to the inner meditations of a very contemplative rock. It’s also a retelling of Hamlet, if that’s more your speed.

Network Effect (and Murderbot novellas)- I’m going to quote my immediately-after-finishing review: “Murderbot always gives me feels. I would love to give a more literary summary, but I’m still overwhelmed by the tentative vulnerability of two bots being best friends and watching TV together after [redacted].” The first Murderbot novel definitely did not disappoint.

The Monster of Elendhaven- Decadent, blood-soaked, and morally depraved, it’s kind of like The Picture of Dorian Gray by way of Hannibal (NBC), with probable influences from a dozen other macabre works and no restraint whatsoever. Reading it felt very self-indulgently delightful.

Before Mars- A deliciously unsettling sci-fi thriller with a refreshingly blunt, unsentimental female protagonist. Also definitely an …interesting book to read at the end of March 2020, but explaining why would definitely be a spoiler. Suffice it to say that the book goes dark places not advertised on the tin, and it made me cry.

Orange World- Karen Russell is one of those writers who make you wonder “how did they come up with this?” Every one of her stories is a totally original marriage between two wildly different concepts (like a Bog Maiden and high school romance, or new motherhood and the devil), and they’re a nice blend of literary and fantasy that I love.

Something That May Shock and Discredit You- It’s so hard to rank this one, because its two primary concerns are Christianity and transness, one of which means very little to me and one of which is breathtakingly important. I couldn’t justify putting it any lower, because it made me feel an ungodly number of feelings, but I couldn’t really justify putting it higher when a solid third of the book went right over my head.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January- A truly wondrous novel, one that fully immerses you in the delight of storytelling and imagination, and the power of escaping to other worlds. It’s very much in the tradition of “books that pay tribute to the love of books,” and an homage to a hundred portal fantasies before it.

Braiding Sweetgrass- I’ve got such a fondness for nature writing that doesn’t even try to be scientifically detached, and instead leaves you with the feeling that the trees and fields around you are bustling with (nonhuman) people.* Kimmerer’s writing is steeped in indigenous ways of knowing, and emphasizes the respect and reciprocity we can hold for the natural world. It’s lovely writing, and I can’t recommend the book highly enough.

Call Down the Hawk- Full of all the ingredients you expect from a Maggie Stiefvater book: fast cars, ancient magic, questions of art and truth, and borderline overuse of the word “cunning.” Every time I read one of her books I want to start taking notes, because she’s got such a signature style that’s both poetic and readable.  

The Unspoken Name- For some reason I wasn’t much into epic fantasy last year, but I’m glad I gave this one a try. I love morally grey characters, of which there are plenty, and the plot took a number of refreshing twists and turns.  

A Memory Called Empire- Not a fast-moving read, but perfect if you like your sci-fi novels poetic, complex, and intellectual. The worldbuilding is incredibly immersive, in a way that reminded me a bit of Ursula K. Le Guin, and I remember this stuck with me for weeks after I finished it.

*Let me be a nerdy weirdo for a second: Most of the time Kimmerer is writing about New England, an area I’m not really familiar with, but “The Sound of Silverbells” is set on a mountain somewhere in the South, and I adored it. Suddenly she was writing about dogwoods and redbuds and poplars, and I was sitting there going “!!! Those are my friends! My friends are in a book!”

Changes I’d make now:

Bump The Starless Sea down a couple pegs, maybe to #6

Swap out Cordelia’s Honor and Young Miles

Bump The Raven Tower way down to #16 and bump A Memory Called Empire a few spots higher, maybe to #17

Braiding Sweetgrass can go up where The Raven Tower was

[gehayi]

When the online form first launched, it lacked a CAPTCHA, which savvy Twitter users quickly used to their advantage by using bots to spam the site. Users also employed a generator to churn out fake names and fake Missouri addresses. Others just dumped text into the complaint form, ranging from the entire script of the “Bee Movie,” to Billy May’s OxiClean sales pitch, to Walter White’s introductory monologue in “Breaking Bad.” TikTok users said they submitted the “most raunchiest fanfic from AO3” and “a saucy love story of Mario and Luigi.”

“I knew those weird fanfics I read at 3am would come in handy,” one TikTok commenter said.  

Many submitted elaborate anecdotes of woke moms taking their kids “to the corner gender clinic to get transed” and complaints of “too many men getting gender affirming care via viagra.” Another tip referencing “The Crucible” joked, “I saw goody proctor injecting estrogen with the devil.”

Good.