#If this was meant to be with a specific character mb

[birdinabowl]

♡ - romantic headcanon for pink. wegh

Pink loves getting flowers for her partner, but specifically the ones that she helped grow. She’d pick her favorite ones to give to her partner and often find a way to compare the flower to her lover.

Pinks primary love language is physical touch but words of affirmation is a close second. One of her favorite ways to spend time with her partner is cuddling while whispering words of affirmation to eachother. Pink 100% purrs during these sessions too.

[anissapierce]

"ive nvr seen anything that focused on a queer indigenous man in my whole 27 years of life so thts why i love this racist pirate show"

Skill issue

[nobodysdaydreams]

Bods! Random question for ya:

If you had someone wanting to get into our little fandom, what fics on AO3 would you recommend to them and why? Positivity for your fellow authors is encouraged!

Fantastic question! I actually think that this entirely depends on what genre they like:

Do they prefer fluff, angst, crack, romance, friendship, what is the vibe they are going for?

Do they not have a book or show preference or do they have a strong preference?

Do they have specific characters or relationships they like to read about?

Do they want a quick one shot or a longer fic and are they okay reading a fic if the fic is in progress? This question might be more optional or mood dependent, but I thought I'd add it.

Another optional question: is there a specific type of AU they like?

Going through all the characters and possibilities might be a bit much, so I went through my bookmarks on AO3 as well as some of my mutuals works to highlight some personal favorites of mine, though that is heavily based on my preferences, so keep that in mind. If this person or indeed if anyone needs specific recommendation (e.g., "fluff featuring the four main kids book version only" or "angst involving the twins in the show" etc.) then I’d be happy to provide those, but as it is, there’s just too many wonderful author’s in the fandom and too many wonderful works to list here.

With that in mind, here is a list of some of my favorites and the genres they correspond to, while trying to provide a wide variety of authors, genres, book vs. show fics and characters. I tried to include fics I recently bookmarks so some of the newer less well-known stuff can get some attention:

nicholas and company destroy the prison industrial complex! by @mysteriouseggsbenedict: A book related crack fic about Nicholas and the mbs adults destroying the prison industrial complex. I laughed out loud while reading this, it's hilarious.

Innocent or not, you're not a bet I care to take by @sophieswundergarten: A book related angst/fluff piece about the relationships between the executives in the aftermath of canon events. It was an honor to have this gifted to me; I reread it all the time.

“There is no evil in sorcery, only in the hearts of men” by @myfairkatiecat: A show related fic that revolves around a magic AU that honest fits the show really really well and is criminally underrated. The way the element of magic is worked into the character dynamics really sells it.

here's to (never) growing up by @mollyhats: Between show and book canon (could go either way). Classic bonding and fluff with the kiddos, mostly hurt/comfort.

The Best Decision by @heyitsthatonesmolgay: the show versions of Nathaniel and Nicholas talk to their past selves. Great if you like one shots that you can read quickly, but then think about literally forever. Again, it was an honor to have this gifted to me, and I reread it all the time.

I can feel all my bones coming back and I'm craving motion by @oflightningandstars: A book fic about the Wetheralls focusing on elements of neurodivergency (which I love) that is really well written. Also includes Moocho, of course.

capture the sun by @mahpotatoequeen: A book centered fic about the life of Kate Wetherall that is really a deep dive into her character through the years. Beautifully written, a lot of hurt/comfort.

Food for Thought by @phtalogreenpoison: A book fic about Milligan and Number Two, once again focusing on hurt/comfort and disability head canons (you see now what I meant about my bookmarks reflecting my interests). Incredible read, highly recommend.

The Interview by @acollectionofcuriousreblogs: A book fic about Sticky Washington that's very good if you like angst. Super unsettling, but an amazing read.

someone only you could want by @kneeslapworthy: A show fic about SQ and Curtain's relationship healing post canon. This one is an older fic, but once again, underrated and still one of my favorites.

It's still raining by @sqenthusiast: A book fic about the executives and the shared hurt and trauma they suffer through under Curtain. Includes a lot of Jillson's POV, which is a rare one, so I really appreciated that.

Lifeline by @mvshortcut: A combination book and show fic about Constance and Nathaniel post canon. Amazing visuals, some great stuff in regards to the complexity of Nathaniel's character and brilliant utilization of Constance's psychic powers.

Fairytale by @fandom-queen-13: A book fic that is an fairytale retelling using the mbs characters (mostly the Wetheralls) that is extremely well done. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you like AUs, you should read this one.

The Alpaca by @lizardwoman-from-earths-core-2: An amazing fic that show how the show alpaca became a member of the Wetherall family.

Let all the singing follow them, and bring them comfort by @crow-in-springtime: Show Curtain takes the family to see Hades Town to make up for his many crimes. It's a fun time!

I'm sure there's a lot that I'm forgetting, again, I tried to provide a bit of a variety here, but if any of you ever have specific requests, I would be happy to dig those out for you.

And feel free to add onto this post if you want!

[save-the-villainous-cat]

Hello cat!

Just read your 3k series and wanted to give you a bit of feedback.

End of part two feels a bit hasty, besides the typo in the second to last paragraph (pretty sure you meant villain not hero there). There's a few typos but who cares, this one was just a bit confusing and stopped my reading flow. BUT.

Part four is GREAT OMG the feelzzzz

And don't get me started on the ending it's truly villainous~ and just over the top honestly. I love it. Hard, hurting, realistic. Wanted to let you know you did a great job on the series :)

Personal opinion: I feel like you could have made this a lot longer. There's only a glimpse of the feelings you're trying to express, they came out but they'd really sink in if you'd dwell on it a bit more, write about the stuff a bit more. Although I think that's mb just not your style since you put more weight on dialogue. Like I said it's just a thought it's still great you don't have to change anything in your style.

Something else entirely... I've read some german mostly in your tags sometimes. So I wonder where you're from if you want to tell. Don't have to ofc.

Greetings!

Uhm…okay?

So, when I put my work out here, I obviously have to expect criticism. That’s kinda unavoidable. People will have an opinion about me and my writing.

However, I don’t really know what your intention is. For example, I don’t see the “typo in the second to last paragraph.”

I wrote:

The hero stared at them, eyes narrowed. As if all of this was a trick. But then eventually, they spoke. Followed by a line spoken by the villain.

The hero stared at them. So, they spoke eventually. I get that using nb/nb for both characters is confusing but most of the heroxvillain community is structured like that and nearly all my writing is too. Which makes it weird to me to see this as a mistake on my part…? Like, you could use any line I’ve written on here and tell me I actually meant hero or villain because they both use they/them pronouns.

Also, I didn’t really catch any big typos/mistakes in that snippet. I used a lot of short sentences in this especially because the hero is extremely tired in these scenes and thinking in long ass sentences is just not really possible in such a state of mind (at least not for me lol). So, I guess this could be a reason for why you were confused/not satisfied with the writing flow? It’s structured like all my other snippets and it’s my usual writing style, so that confused me about your ask, too. Of course, I make mistakes as well and I make typos but again…you could say that about every snippet I write, so I wonder why you chose this one specifically?

Additionally, I don’t really see which parts of my snippets are giving “only a glimpse of the feelings [I am] trying to express.” I don’t think my readers are dumb. I think my readers get what I mean when I write “It fried their brain, making it impossible to even think straight. Old panic resurfaced but they put on a tired smirk.”

I think my readers get that old panic means that this character is familiar with panic, whereas putting on a tired smirk is a reaction to it. Which is (as we see throughout the whole story) a thing the hero does a lot. Hiding their pain and distracting themselves with flirting. Readers aren’t dumb. I don’t have to go into every little detail about every tiny thing the characters experience. In fact, part of being a reader is, that you get to imagine these things for yourself. As the writer, I give you a tiny bit of information and as the reader, you get to interpret and shape that however you want.

My readers get what I am trying to express with my characters’ actions and their dialogues. The villain asking the hero if they think they’re a good person has meaning behind it and normally, as a reader, you get stuff like that. I don’t have to describe in a paragraph that the villain doubts themselves and is beginning to value the hero’s opinion on them, no, I let them ask if they think they’re a bad person.

Of course, this series could have been longer. Could’ve been deeper. It could’ve been a whole book. But I am not here to write books for you for free. I am not here to write thousands of words because one anonymous user thinks a blog which posts snippets, should write more and more and more.

So, I believe this is more opinion than actual criticism. I guess? Because, like I said, there’s a reason for the way this snippet is written and if you want to “criticise” me for typos, you’d have to criticise every post I have ever made.

And another thing is, this message is coming from an anonymous user. So, I’m sorry if this offends you but I really don’t care about your opinion that much. I don’t think this message had any criticism in it which improves my writing.

Eventually, your opinion doesn’t have the same weight to me as the opinion of a certain epiclamer or a certain lilyaang or a certain creweemmaeec11 or a certain snowshowerwriting or a certain avvail or a certain thepenultimateword or a certain English teacher of mine.

This is your opinion of the series and this is mine — I don’t see any big mistakes or horrible decisions I’ve made and some anon telling me they didn’t like this or that won’t change that.

And yes, English isn’t my first language. I am German, come from Germany, live in Germany.

[yourqueenb]

Thank you for your answer, and thank you for putting so much thought into that 💞💞💞 mal and nia are my main LIs and at first I was really glad that at least two members of the party stayed with each other and mb even got closer but I can see how it would be annoying and/or sad for people who romance one of them exclusively. I think that I mostly just want to see eeal bonds between our party bc idk it just feels a bit hollow? In the first book they were just thrown together by chance but a whole year has passed and without MC there to hold them together it just shows how much less there is with exception of some banter and general sympathy towards one another. I also think that excluding Threep and other non-romancable characters from the main friend group makes most of the dynamic in choices hollow bc lmao all these people are here to try and fuck us and no one cares about each other beyond that. I don't really like TRR or TF but I feel like friendship was so much richer in previous books, like those two series, OH and TE - and in PM they managed to create a poly route where I could feel solid platonic bonds between people other than MC and LIs (Sloane and Hayden, Steve and Hayden or Damien and Nadia). Or mb I'm just a bit underwhelmed with the current plot course in blades lmao (sorry for rambling around the same three thoughts I just can't seem to gather my thoughts on this whole thing together 🫡)

I’m so sorry, I meant to respond to this sooner. But no, I completely get what you’re saying! You made some good points.

Even though all of these characters were kind of thrown together in book 1, personally I did feel like they were more like a family by the end of it. And I think that’s one of the reasons why everyone loved Blades so much. However, I do understand why the bonds aren’t as tight in this book. It makes sense for there to be some distance between everyone after what happened to MC and the apparent strife it caused. But I feel like they haven’t done enough to fully bring the group back together again and reform those poignant emotional bonds.

As you basically said with the exception of some banter and general sympathy towards one another, pretty much all of the focus is on each member’s relationship with MC alone. And even those relationships are very one sided with each person relying on MC for support, but not giving much in return. When the main cast is tied together by genuine relationships with each other rather than simply all waiting for their turns in MC’s bed, it’s really great to see and makes for a better book overall. That’s why the Pend Pals are still my personal favorite friend group to this day.

I will say that I actually don’t feel like the relationship dynamics in Blades specifically are hollow because everyone’s trying to sleep with MC though. And maybe that’s because I’m only romancing Mal (and flirting with Aerin on the side). But yeah, I think it’s because the writers have really been ignoring the opportunities to capitalize off of emotional beats (which I’ve said a few times before) rather than the characters just not having more to their relationships at all

[terramythos]

System Collapse by Martha Wells Reading Notes

Full Review Here!

-ohhh fuck new murderbot explodes

Chapter 1

-I am glad to continue the "slightly out of order even in microcosm" style

-ok WHAT is it redacting. It sounds embarrassing.

-"I could have said a one liner but the ag bot scientifically couldn't understand me if I did so why bother" omg

-Another Sec Unit with somewhat heavy focus, which potentially tried to kill Murderbot, I'm sure this will be irrelevant and have no implications

-multiple uses of 'it/us'.

-God I love ART

-well I think one fun idea we could explore is there being rogue Sec Units completely separate from Murderbot (/Three, who Murderbot freed). It is theoretically possible others could have figured out what Murderbot did, or even other methods it didn't.

Chapter 2

-"fuck proprietary software" rant. So real bestie

-the slavery theme continues. Like obviously it's major to Murderbot as a character, but here the surviving colonists are framed as "salvage" to a corporation. So. Yeah looking forward to more of that.

-YEAH MAYBE ART'S PROTECTIVENESS BECOMING HAIR TRIGGER VIOLENT RESPONSES lS A BIT CONCERNING.

-it's giving Rimworld vibes

-yaaaay more neopronouns wooooo

Chapter 3

-ARGUCUSSION. Might steal that

-murderbot I'm beginning to seriously consider that the threat assessment module is just anxiety

-WHAT DO YOU MEAN REDACTED. HELLO?

-murderbot adding increasingly catastrophic hypothetical contingencies to worry about is far too relatable

-ART quantum as fuck

-what does redacted meeeeaaaan why does it keep happening what is going on that murderbot doesn't want the reader to knowwww

-ok there being such a heavy focus on ART and how unusual it is and how much it is capable of doing and being at once… in conjunction with the title… is a little. Hm!

-Ratthi my friend Ratthi

-"HUMANS CAN ALSO HAVE AUTISM ITS NOT JUST ME" ok go off mb

-was redacted a nervous breakdown or something?

-Ratthi getting defensive about Murderbot 💖

-"at least nobody had noticed" lists 3 of the 4 people as probably having noticed

Chapter 4

-"I don't know how to respond when humans say [be safe]. It was always my job to get hurt". :(

-ok why would a pre-CR ruin be actively powered. That's a little. Odd.

-i know this is just a reminder expository dump but I do still enjoy the concept of alien material just causing weird shit to happen to human biology and technology sometimes.

-MB precisely citing a historical reference is. Something. Did it suddenly gain an interest in this

redacted

-Tarik going from "random extra red shirt coded character" to "oh wait you have a backstory and thematic character foil shit going huh". 👌 the good shit

Chapter 5

-its been spelled "hanger" not "hangar" a couple times which feels like an error

-'murderbot, why are you like this' I mean

-oddly specific media similarity queries is oddly relatable

-murderbot low self confidence is :(

-framing its friends helping it in a difficult time as covering for its mistakes sure is a way to look at things

-ok so I guess murderbot is having like. Ptsd related stress nightmares? Hence the redacted ("inaccurate") memory? Murderbot doesn't dream like a human as far as we know so it wouldn't be a shock that everyone is confused about it.

-I guess there could be another explanation but

-yeah the story describes it as a "flashback" which is a ptsd thing. But I guess then I'm surprised murderbot hasn't had something similar happen before considering some of the things that have happened in the series. I guess it isn't nearly predictable in humans irl either, but still.

-poor murderbot

-ok so when it said "I froze" it meant that literally in like a computer sense

-"I guess machine intelligences of that era were too polite to say 'that sounds fake but okay'" LMAO

-the pre CR system seems interesting and I like the framing of their convo in an extremely basic programming language (if that's the right term for it)

-telling that it doesn't have a word for 'client'

-and how did BE get there so fast…

Chapter 6

-not Tarik sitting like me

-GOD why did "explaining the existential horror of the governor module in LanguageBasic" make me laugh so hard

-so I'm pretty sure the implication is one of the main humans sold them out to BE, which is how they knew where to look for the separatists. Though since ART speculates they got there early, I guess the main colonists could have as well, but that doesn't explain the BE SecUnit trying to (presumably) hurt Murderbot.

-on that subject, that SecUnit might have (1) immediately identified Murderbot as an altered SecUnit and (2) that's the reason it attacked the ag-bot how it did, either to test the theory or because it knew MB would be okay. But that also doesn't explain how it would have avoided the automated report to its governor module.

-AdaCol2 being horrified about a governor module even existing:(

-OMG AdaCol2 having its own extensive media storage. That's so cute omg.

-so to this point in the series MB hasn't been characterized as "part human" despite being partially made of human material. It's always considered itself more of a bot with mostly inconvenient human neural tissue. And now that human neural tissue is causing worse problems than it has before (PTSD/flashbacks).

-SO when ART here says "the part of you that is human" that's significant. It makes me wonder if MB is going to be reframed as "part human" in a way the series has avoided so far… or if ART is genuinely just wrong about that.

-but MB's resistance to even being treated as a human indicates SOMETHING there… compared to its acceptance of being repaired and healed while framed as a bot-- and its fixation with being 'broken' like a machine when that's not really the problem.

-just. Very interesting to think about.

-MB did mention just before this scene that human neural tissue is essential to understanding visual media like TV shows. And we know how important that is to MB. So I also wonder if that is a factor in characterizing MB as "part human" (maybe even retroactively).

-OK the little cut in with Mensah saying "you just don't want to talk about [whats wrong with you]" supports the entirety of the above. So.

-& leaning heavily into the theming outside that… and Considering the title…

-oh Ratthi & Tarik having Something Going On recontextualizes some earlier scenes

Chapter 7

-ok this is the second hint that someone is leaking info to BE. And like the OBVIOUS candidate would be Tarik. But I kind of hope it isn't, if thats where we're going.

-'would it have been kinder to kill you, before you disabled your governor module?' 'yes.' What a fucking gut punch. Jesus. The whole exchange.

-Murderbot is not okay :(((

-inspiring change through the power of media! Yaaaaay

-I like the implication that MB used Sanctuary Moon to kinda.. rewire its brain after the governor module. To heal, I guess. Like that's pretty obvious if you think about it, but I like seeing it acknowledged directly.

-what a cool way to potentially solve the main conflict. It's so character appropriate. I really like this

Chapter 8

-"die trying. It's not the worst thing that could happen." AAAAAAAAA

-ratthi my friend ratthi

-i like the bit about media analysis and applying that to your own craft. Relatable

-last minute group project energy

Chapter 9

-'the documentary explained the reality of the situation. I think that's the opposite of a sales pitch.' LMAO

-he shot at Leonide? So… inner BE politics?

-there is something grimly funny to me about the shortening to "BE" for Barish Estranza for purely personal reasons 1 person maybe reading this will also understand.

-i think it's interesting that we mostly use terms like "forcible indenture" in place of just "slavery". It gets called slave labor, yes, but the corporate-whitewashing term being juxtaposed with the horrible reality of it is quite striking.

-more about ART being quantum. For lack of a better word as the narration hasn't used that term yet. But idk how else one would describe that

-i have a dreadful feeling Iris might get killed off but that would be one hell of a thing to drop this close to the end. She just gets a lot of characterization this book and there's a heavy emphasis on her importance to ART. and we already saw what ART was capable of just thinking MB got hurt or killed last book.

-sees 'Hostile!SecUnit' explicitly written in the text looks at Martha Wells I Know What You Are

-i know they're friends and that's like a predictable thing but I like how MB and ART have gradually changed to be more like each other

-i think AdaCol2 is just out of commission despite MB assuming it betrayed them. But ART had that comment about it being more sophisticated than it let on… but I don't think it would betray them based on the characterization so far, like its horror at the mere concept of a governor module and uploading the documentary for them.

-did we know SecUnit hands are metal

-Tarik being badass as a background detail

- YAY AdaCol2 back

-the idea of a human augmented to be the HubSystem is a little horrifying. And introduced in media res so like "don't think about it"

-ok a reasonable justification for not freeing the two SecUnits. Like it can't happen all the time. But it's still upsetting knowing what it's like to be one.

-BUT giving them the means to do so later like MB did with Three in Network Effect is nice. If ill advised as it realizes later lmao

Chapter 10

-if Leonide doesn't piece together that MB is rogue ill be shocked

-THE FREED SECUNIT HELPING THEM SCREAM CRYING

-ART drone is like. Drunk

-i kinda like the framing of the humans taking over to help SecUnit and ART

Chapter 11

-MB was worried about Ratthi :(

-'booped by the pathfinder' god why is that funny

Chapter 12 -oh no is Holism like. Another ART

-yeah, confirmed. Huh. So there's more than one semi omniscient space ship hanging around. It's not just Peri. I didn't even suspect that.

-yeah honey you DO need therapy.

The end!

Ok so. Thoughts. We kind of end in a similar place as Network Effect, with Murderbot deciding to leave the Preservation team to go with ART. This story feels like a character

development add on and I'm not sure if it was originally planned when Network Effect was written.

That's not really a criticism because we do learn interesting things. There's a heavier lean into ART and its functional existence. MB has a realistic response to the traumatic events of Network Effect and we have to deal with the fallout of it. Which I think is important instead of jumping to the next arc right away. We also get heavy characterization of 2 newer characters, Iris and Tarik. Tarik especially gets a lot of development. I legit can't remember if he was in Network Effect. But he's a human character foil to MB which I think is a good addition to the story. We have had multiple bot foils for MB so having a human one is good (Gurathin doesn't really count imo) Since as this book emphasizes, MB is kind of both.

My speculation on what we go to next? This book had a heavier emphasis on MB being partially human. That's always been true but not something MB likes to think about or identify with. And the trauma response to Network Effect is framed as a human part of MB. So how do we explore that in the future? I think back to how MB talking to Bharadwaj was integrated into Network Effect and how that explored its trauma and past. Now we have trauma and the present, and the implication that MB will get actual therapy, so will it be similar?

We can obviously examine a lot about the University. We got a taste that there's more to it right at the end with Holism's existence reveal. That's pretty major and there may be way more to it. All we know about the University really is ART and its humans. We could conceivably have non ART/Peri ship characters that are similar to it.

The big elephant in the room mentioned in this book is the ComfortUnit MB freed early in the series. What happened to it? And this book adds another SecUnit to that (2 technically but we only see one do something with its freedom). Will they come back into the story? And since they know how to free themselves will they spread that to other constructs? Will MB helping others on its journey have a knockdown effect throughout the Rim? That seems like the most likely solution to construct slavery, which is like the MAIN CONFLICT/problem of the series.

One thing MB has mentioned a few times is that some rogue Units do respond to sudden freedom with violence-- which is an understandable response, honestly. But that isn't something we have seen. MB just… kept doing its job for 4 years before the Preservation team discovered its secret in

the first book… and it's implied the one it freed in this book plans to do the same thing. Three wasn't violent either and is characterized as more… childlike, I guess? The ComfortUnit just fucking booked it the second it could. So we haven't seen violence happen with Three and the other Units MB directly freed but it's something that could be a conflict later on if suddenly a bunch start going rogue in that kind of ripple effect. There's the CombatUnit from book 4 that I vaguely recall had no interest in being freed and was incredibly violent. So who knows.

[strike-another-match]

please if someone here knows more about this than me do correct me but i've been trying to figure this out and so far i think there's three main "layers" with different datasets used to create a stable diffusion picture (through comfyUI, a1111, web portals, etc.) which i will explain to the best of my ability now

(the goal of this post is to shed some light into the whole process to better understand the conversations around this topic, and also to try to figure out what is the best option for someone looking to protect their art from being used against their will in these models and for someone looking to make ethical AI images with their own pictures)

on the most superficial layer we have LoRAs which are made with only a few pictures and are applied on top of a base checkpoint model, usually made to replicate one particular artist's style or to capture a character's likeness to be able to re-pose them through prompts or other means. to make these i've seen people use anywhere from 5 to 1000 images which can be sourced from your own work, someone else's work, public domain, etc. when people say that they "trained an IA with their own art", i think they normally meant that they made a LoRA model with their own art that still needs a base checkpoint model to work, and i'm not sure about this but i think you can combine as many of these as you want (kind of like sprinkles on a cake perhaps??). the files are relatively small (a few Mbs in most cases) and you can train one fairly quickly through existing programs that are freely available

the base checkpoint model i'm talking about is the middle layer and from what i've seen i think it's trained similarly to a LoRA but it's meant to emcompass a broader subject (for example, "anime style" rather than "utena style"). i'm confused on how many pictures minimum you need to train one of these but people still do it in their fairly standard laptops or through rental of cloud space and it can still be done only with pictures you own the rights to and/or are in the public domain. many of these models have nothing to do with visual arts in the first place (for example, you can take many pics of trees and flowers around your neighbourhood, curate a proper dataset and use it to train a model that you can use to generate mix-and-matches of those... etc.). on top of these base models you can create and apply LoRAs and other similar smaller/"tweaking" models. these tend to weigh 2-8GBs but i wouldn't be surprised if there's some much larger ones that i haven't encountered

i used to think that if you did this step without using stolen images you could have a "clean" model without anything shady going on (personally i wanted to make one for victorian flower fairy illustrations for personal use because i thought it would be fun...) but then i learned that these models are still trained on a base stable difussion model (SD1.5 or SD2.0 etc) which is where it gets impossible to "make your own" as a layman since these large base models are trained on immense, and i mean immense data sets containing (in SD's case) millions upon millions of images of all kinds, from naruto screencaps to pictures of puppies to photographs of models in ads in magazines to people's instagram selfies and facebook family photos, etc. these data sets are so large that if i understood correctly they're impossible to curate manually or for anyone to know exactly what has gone into them. also, these costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in computing power to train, but they only need to be trained once, after which each use only consumes the same amount of power as any other activity that you may do on your computer with your graphics card such as playing a videogame

i'd recommend reading this article [cw: mentions of child abuse] for better understanding, but this is basically where "tumblr is selling our data" comes into play. checkpoints and LoRAs created to imitate one specific style are normally created from hand-picked datasets by one person or a small group of people and that can still be done even with the best data protection measures as long as another user can right click and save an image from a post. meanwhile, base models like stable diffusion or midjourney are trained on billions of pictures of all kinds so for example even if they scrapped my entire portfolio it would be a drop in the ocean in the final result since the whole of facebook is also in there

re: disruptive protection technologies such as glaze or nightshade, personally i don't think it's worth it to use them to protect your art from automated scrapping / massive data selling because those images are going to be such a tiny small part of the final dataset that it feels like putting in hours of extra effort + losing a lot of social media presence by deleting your old posts with the original images for no tangible benefits to you, but if what i said above about LoRAs and checkpoints is correct then it would be useful to prevent regular humans from manually creating specific tweaker models that replicate your specific style or characters. however from what i've read i think this can be somewhat bypassed by just taking a full-res screenshot of the image instead of right click and saving it (i say somewhat because a glazed picture is inherently disrupted and thus "uglier" than the original picture... but i think just blurring the image slightly before posting it or just posting a lower res version would give you the same level of protection ??? without needing to go through all the trouble of using glaze and nightshade which is pretty time-consuming)

again my only goal here is in understanding how all of this works so i really appreciate any corrections that can help me better understand. i want to test my theories on glaze/nightshade by taking some disney images and creating 4 different style LoRAs with them (one with the original images, one with glaze + nightshade, one with low res versions of the images, and one with blurred high res versions of the images) to see if there is any noticeable difference in the results !

[lordartsy]

March 9, 2022

“In the middle of all that change, there was one thing we all felt. We wanted to continue on like this forever, but we knew that's not possible. That's why we want to focus on living every moment so that we don't have any regrets!

If we've gotten this far, it's because of all the support, love, and solidarity we've had from each other, and from you all. We'll be working our hardest until the final curtain call! Let's treasure each and every moment!

Thank you all!”

Happy birthday, Sakuya! And a last farewell to A3! EN.

I wanted to make some kind of tribute— a goodbye letter, I guess— to this game, but it's.... Very wordy. I'm putting it under the cut so that you guys don't have to read it, just look at the Sakuya if that's what you wanna do.

One of the ways I'd describe this game is that it's hard to believe, in a lot of ways. It's hard to believe the situations the characters get put in. It's hard to believe the way some jokes are translated because it's just so out there. It's hard to believe I've only been playing it for almost seven months, and it's still so, so hard to believe that it's going away.

It's hard to believe that I ever found it in the first place because it all felt like a dream. I remember when I first saw it— a mutual was reblogging posts about it, and I remember thinking, "Huh. That looks interesting." I don't know what I saw in those screenshots that made me feel that way. A3! was the kind of game I didn't actively seek out because it appealed to a specific crowd that I didn't consider myself part of, and yet, there I was. I put it on the back burner, always toying with the idea that one day I might press that install button and see what it might do for me. I stalled around it for a while, but I knew it was inevitable that I'd play it one day.

The year was 2021. My friend talked my ear off about the game for the entirety of spring, and one summer evening, I decided to cave in and throw my hat into the ring. I mean, the game was only like 60 MB, right? It's not like it'd kill me to try, I could just uninstall it if I ended up getting bored by it.

I remember that evening so vividly. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was naming my heroine, experiencing the graphics and interface for the first time, and getting incredibly annoyed by the tutorial walking me through everything when I just wanted to find a way to adjust the text speed. I remember watching Romeo and Julius for the first time with 4/6th of my cast being Sakuya because I thought it was hilarious. I remember wondering why a Halloween event would be running in the middle of summer, and I remember spending too many gems at the July Birthday Scout because I didn't know how the banners in the game worked yet. The gradual end of that summer was my strongest memory from 2021.

And now I have to say goodbye to those memories. I'd barely even started Act 2 when the announcement dropped. There was no outrage or sadness, just... confusion. What the hell was I supposed to do now? All these gems, cards, all these badges I earned— what did it all mean to me now? But even after that, I still played. Infrequently, sure, but I still made sure to log in at least once a week. I'd just make sure to get the badges I wanted, read every backstage story that I still had, and.... who knows. It's a relatively void existence, but at least it still existed.

Then the actual termination of operations was announced— right as I was in the middle of my anniversary run. I didn't even have the energy in me to be upset about it at first. I just kept going about my days like I usually did. Except, at some point, I didn't want to log in to the game anymore, because it meant admitting to a reality I didn't want to face.

A few weeks before the end date, I popped into the game. I thought that the least I could do was make the most of it before it disappeared. I accidentally ended up ranking myself up, and I got 50 gems as a reward. It was kinda funny, actually— how in a normal situation I would be happy at an extra 50 gems, but this just made my heart sink in despair.

I had exactly 145 gems. I had exactly enough for one last ten pull. I thought I would've cried.

I decided to pick a tryout, rolled, and....

..... Nothing. Absolutely nothing special. It was a completely ordinary pull.

Something about it was just so.... innocent to me. It didn't give me a new card to pity me, it just gave me a normal pull. My final ten pull in a game that would soon cease to exist was just a bunch of dupes.

I had to lie down for a while. There's no way I could keep playing. It actually hit me how much I had left to lose when this game goes away. I thought I'd be fine if i just hopped to the japanese server because oh thank god, they're still there, they wont leave yet.

But it's just so different. Reading the prologue again, seeing Sakuya's desperate attempts at acting and keeping the theater alive, even though I've already gone through so many insane journeys with him in a past life— the weight of it all just drowned me under a sea of bittersweet melancholy.

I'll miss those journeys. I'll miss all the jokes that made me laugh, all the scenes that made me cry, all the pulls that made me scream in both rage and joy. I'll miss the cards and badges I earned. I'll miss the memories I've made with this found family, this bundle of fictional characters who've helped me come to terms with a lot of things I've struggled with in reality. I still treat it like a miracle— how I found the game at the exact time in my life when it would resonate with me the most, and the sheer amount of things that it's done for me in the span of less than half a year. Maybe you can call it fate, or maybe you could say that the game found me instead of me finding it first. Or maybe it's just a good old combination of luck and coincidence, like how a lot of things in this game are.

Thank you, A3! EN. Thank you for helping me bloom at the time I needed you most.

[bi-demon-ium]

ok umm i've really not seen any kate stuff? anywhere? so i'd like to hear your thoughts on kate (preferably angst) please!! you are awesome btw <3

ok i don't actually know if you are intending to talk about book!kate or show!kate but i will be mostly if not completely discussing show!kate rip if that was not what you meant but i've seen the show a lot more recently

OKAY. so. i'll start small with some headcanons:

kate is soooo autistic. and adhd. audhd my beloved. yes i say this about pretty much every character i like but with kate it's PARTICULARLY true. (i believe i said in the mbs server the book!kate feels like she has adhd with a side of autism while show!kate feels like she had autism with a side of adhd and i stand by that. but it's vibes based not like, literal.)

but like she can have trouble expressing her feelings, even to herself. she'll either be unable to hide her reactions/expressions, or she'll barely have one at all, and seem unbothered. she's also very blunt and unafraid to state her opinion to anyone, even if it seems "rude". but she isn't rude, really, as it's not that kind of "blunt truth" some assholes like to parade about when they're really just being dicks to everyone. she's still kind, she only says something negative if someone has done something negative (ie, "you are very unpleasant" to someone actively antagonizing everyone in the room is on the table, but just randomly insulting someone for the sake of "blunt honesty" is not. she's never like, mean.)

also shes GAYYYY. or possibly bi, i don't have an opinion on that. on one hand lesbian energy on the other i could definitely see bi bi bi. but if you don't think her and martina got something on i don't know what to tell you. that being said i could also see her as a-spec, but not necessarily in a way that conflicts with Whatever's Going On With Martina. (to be fair, hpwever, one could argue martina was more into kate than vice versa, i could see an argument for aro kate for sure)

green beanie is comfort beanie. she very rarely takes it off. where do you think she got it? angsty answer is somehow it's from her dad, but realistically she probably got it later in life. (doesn't mean she didn't choose it for similar reasons, though... not knowing why she was drawn to the green hat, not remembering it's the same shade as one her father wore....)

also the bucket. i do wonder when she got the bucket. this one, while again a milligan-related reason would be super fucked up (in the fun sad way), i feel like. i feel like it's more that as a kid she felt like she needed to be Prepared. maybe something happened where she wasn't, or maybe she just felt like she wanted to be ready, just in case, all the time. but like. her getting a bucket, modifying it herself, experimenting with different ways to put it on her belt, the inventory changing over the years as some things were discarded or added over time... idk i just think. kate developing her bucket

kate & constance was so good and i want to see more of their friendship. so bad. each realizing the other isn't so bad bc they're forced to work together... chefs kiss. also, the only person other than mr benedict we really see constance actually seem to openly like in some capacity.

kate & sticky underrated. their talk before the cheating was such a good scene. i also want more of this dynamic

i should also mention kate & reynie, which i do genuinely like--the hug is sweet--but i admit is my maybe least favorite of the society dynamics with kate. although i do enjoy the contrast between kate "IM GONNA GO CLIMB THAT TOWER" wetherall and reynie "please why am i the only voice of reason holding this group together" muldoon

i've only explored it in that one fic but i actually think kate & mr benedict would be such a good dynamic, especially because in the show it's inexplicably established he's into engineering. LET THEM BOND OVER BUILDING WEIRD SHIT PLEASE

okay to get a little more into specifics methinks,

i just think a lot about kate like. immediately after season one, and--we'll just. we'll ignore season 2 for now, let's set this in my current anomalous idea of them all in season one (which, rip wetherall farm, but is currently number two & rhonda off at the airshows with mr benedict, constance, milligan, and kate in the house) so like just.

you've been alone your entire life. you've been independent, and you've grown up thinking that the only person you ever had just left you one day for no reason, and in doing so broke a direct promise. and then now, you not only have friends who've you learned to rely on and not just try and do everything yourself, but suddenly you have reliable adults. and more importantly, more specifically, your dad, who never left you but had been taken. had been erased, and even brainswept had never truly stopped looking.

and kate isn't stupid. she heard his story. she knows he must have been through Some Shit. and that he'd have come back if he could. but there's still that pain, that ache, of how long he was missing, for like, more than three quarters of her life! he vanished when she was 3! but now it's like. oh. he did want me. he was taken. he was taken.

so that's an almost identity altering shift in her worldview. and on top of that, her current world is now so completely different: rather than independence and circus life, she's got friends her age who genuinely like her, who she's bonded with through major adversity, and she has adults who actually listen to her and like her. and she has her dad.

and it grates sometimes--she's independent, she doesn't need to be treated like a baby! but also it's like. it's bizarre, because they care, but they don't condescend to her, they do understand she's intelligent and capable even if they want to protect her. and she's never really had adults like that before. not since she was three

so it's a weird mix of like being sort of happy/pleased, because they care, she can rely on them, and being kind of annoyed/frustrated because while she's learned she doesn't need to be entirely independent she still struggles with it. because she's kate wetherall, and she's always prepared, and she feels like she has to be prepared for what will happen if they leave if they're taken from her. she can't rely on them completely, can she? what happens when she loses them again?

and then the mix feelings of old long-buried resentment/anger under buried sadness/loneliness under a crisp crust of i'm perfectly fine, mixed with the new feelings of anger on his behalf, at curtain, sadness at the missing time, at how close he'd been for all these years without either of them knowing it, sadness for him, for herself. but like all of it is still like. under her trying to pretend like she's fine. (and her difficulty expressing emotions, even to herself, does Not Help.)

not to mention as much as genuinely loved the mission in some ways--her new friends (including martina), the adventure, helping people, her bucket coming crazy in handy, etc.--it wasn't exactly a cake walk.

she has nightmares, sometimes: about martina's face when she walked into the waiting room. about sticky's face when he walked out of it. about falling and falling and falling except there aren't warm, safe arms to catch her. about the nodes attached to her face and the long, metallic spires pointed at her, ready to wipe her like her father had been wiped. about her father leaving and never coming home, never being found. about being caught. about losing her friends. about curtain. about all of it.

but she doesn't want to share it because one, she doesn't want them to feel guilty: she did what she had to, and she doesn't regret it. two, and more importantly, she doesn't want them to not let her come on the next mission. (kate had already kind of had the idea that they would have another--they were a team! teams didn't just split up!--but now she's sure of it. curtain's still out there, after all, and he didn't seem the type to just give up.)

i think maybe constance might bully her into talking about it--we already know she can feel dreams (with her comment about sticky dreaming about steak and sticky asking her how she knew that) and as they're on a more even ground she'd be more likely to actually say something. but constance would poke at her about it and probably get her irritated in the process.

(also possible, she talks to mr benedict about this, bc again im a sucker for their dynamic + part of the problem is not wanting to hurt milligan's feelings, and one thing i like about this is i think mr benedict would be extremely kind and understanding about it, and really help like, gently guide her through it, and she'd be like wow adults have never actually helped me before, wild, and then the second she leaves he's like [collapsing into a mess] oh god. oh god. because on one hand he just desperately hopes that helped, and on the other hand, he's having a million crises. oh god. he put actual kids in danger. she's so small number two. number two she's so fucking small and she's having nightmares and it's my brother that took her dad and ohmygodohmygodohmygod. like literally it's like he goes from "kalm" to "PANIK" the second shes out of range. like the dissonance between mr benedict (around the kids, a calm and kindly mentor who seems to know what he's doing for the most part) and nicholas (0.0003 seconds from a panic attack rn, full to the brim with anxiety and guilt) is. hilarious, in a sad way. but i digress, mr benedict tangent over, sorry)

ANYWAY also kate and milligan. like. getting to know him again, and vice versa. this is personally painful for me. like so many years, this disconnect between them hurts, but like. it starts with that hug, with her letting herself lean into his side, letting him put an arm around her shoulders, and he's like. in tears a bit. and like. then over time just. trying to tell each other about their lives--particularly kate recounting her adventures--and marveling a bit at how similar they are in many ways. milligan slowly getting memories back and remembering her as a little girl and seeing her now, all grown up but so small and hurt still, and like. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

i also have so many thoughts head full on them & mr benedict, and also throwing in constance and everyone really, but that's too many and this is already long and i dont even know how to put it to words so i'll refrain for now. anyway my point is: kate wetherall. hug her please

[seoafin]

i might sound a bit harsh saying this (not directed towards you ofc) but i think the reason why some people are so hyperfixated onto Gojo and x reader specifically, the way they write him is believing that he is a character that can only be saved/fixed if he were to have someone to love him on a romantic aspect. I strongly disagree with this, he's been nuanced to the core that i think there's a reason why he's mischaracterized left and right, or when people focus on one aspect of his and talk about that only.

take stsg for example and look how that went, when it comes to gojo i think that he's very... struggling with human connections and relationships (platonic) he does keep people at arms lenght but he is also capable of thinking for himself first and then everyone else, so people putting the whole idea 'if he had someone to love him like that he'd be different' is wrong and not how it works exactly lest that he keeps the whole damn world away from him, so basically while there are gojo x reader fics that write in regards of "what ifs" that doesn't necessarily mean that they are accurate to his character but it is how it is, it's a fan interpretation but at the end of the day just an interpretation. i hate when people go out of their way to treat their hcs as fax tho idk whats the point of that.

and lastly i think that people that write gojo the best are not necessarily ones that have a hard thirst habits for him or madly in love behaviour as in "he's my sweetheart i want to shelter him from the world" but more because they take in every nuance he has to show and was presented by him and convey it into a realistic aspect that brings out the character... which brings me to your writing, when i read your fics i get the vibes of JJK characterization, not something that's only fan interpretated, and i might be biased a bit here but idk, it's just how i feel it if that makes sense?

i saw 'i might sound a bit harsh saying this' in my notifs and i was like oh shit someone's definitely coming to roast me LMAO

honestly ur not wrong lol it's a lot of romanticization and wish fulfillment. mb it's bc i'm always trying to look deeper and engage more critically in the things i read (which include manga) that i never really got into it myself?? if i read something i want it to at least be....somewhat in character?? 😭

and if a character IS ooc, then a good fic would explain it. like gojo yandere fics. i can see gojo being a yandere. the outline is there. just pull on certain threads and exacerbate his worst qualities and traits and bam. that's what you get!!! and that's believable.

characters are meant to be interpreted but ppl forget there's already an outline and straying outside of it is like...not interpretation anymore. It's a whole new character.

i'm not saying it's horrible or anything. unless it's a clear bastardization (which i've seen...) those fics are just not my cup of tea.

i also hate when ppl take fanon for canon!!!! i know we all joke about how 'this is canon' but sometimes u get people actually believing in the most horrible bad takes ever and i'm just like??? did you read the manga???

anyway if you get boo'd off the stage for saying this just know i'm the one person in the back clapping

[uovoc]

Murderbot privacy

“SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to talk about its feelings” made me do a double take because I was like, SecUnit, who’s listening to you right now? Since when has it cared about privacy? Because while MB is a secretive fucker, it sure doesn’t extend that courtesy to others. And what I could figure out so far to explain this apparent hypocrisy is some more-or-less coherent stuff.

Summary:

MB conflates personal, private, and secret because these categories could not exist separately under the regime of surveillance and objectification inflicted upon it in the CR. This meant that the development of MB’s sense of personal identity was limited to its internal self. As a result, MB has a good instinctive grasp of the right to privacy regarding one’s emotions and internal state. However, its lack of bodily autonomy and background as a cog in the CR surveillance state have led it to regard physical privacy as a personal privilege rather than a right.

2200 words below the cut. I think about Murderbot a normal amount

Terminology

For clarity, the terms personal, private, secret, and privacy will be defined basically by their Merriam-Webster definitions. Personal will be used to mean relating to an individual’s character, conduct, motives, or private affairs. Secret is defined as kept from knowledge or view; hidden. Private will be used to mean 1) intended for or restricted to the use of particular person, group, or class. Privacy will be defined as the quality or state of being apart from company or observation; freedom from unauthorized intrusion. These are not comprehensive definitions, but for clarity’s sake they’re the ones I will use here.

The connotations that they carry in this analysis are:

Things that are secret are actively concealed. If something is secret, people are not aware of its existence. Secrets carry the implication of potential harm if divulged.

Privacy and things that are private are generally kept as such by social norms rather than active enforcement. The existence of things that are private may be known, but the details are limited to a restricted (trusted) audience. For instance, to quote Beatrice-Otter, “the contents of my underwear drawer are private, but not secret.” If you’re at someone’s house, you could technically go look in someone’s underwear drawer – it’s not like they can stop you – but out of the mutually agreed-upon respect for privacy and definition of what qualifies as private, you don’t. Things kept private tend to be done so for personal-emotional reasons rather than practical reasons.

These are limited definitions and not mutually exclusive. For instance, privacy can be enforced by gates and barriers like secrets are. These definitions aren’t meant to be comprehensive, but just to establish the meanings and connotations that I’m working with.

Privacy in the CR versus Preservation

Murderbot’s approach to privacy reflects the attitudes of the Corporation Rim. Preservation regards privacy more like a personal right and establishes it through primarily through societal norms, while the Corporation Rim treats privacy more like a personal privilege which individuals are responsible for securing and maintaining. In Preservation, freedom from observation is the default, and surveillance is the exception. To MBs annoyance, unless a space is singled out for security reasons (cargo spaces and high-traffic zones on the station), it’s generally left unsurveilled (residential areas, pedestrian corridors, most of the planet that we see in NE). Preservation also has cultural expectations of certain types of spaces being private. MB doesn’t share these expectations, as it notes in NE when it admits that its eavesdropping habit is “a little incriminating with the whole listening to private conversations in secured spaces and personal dwellings thing.” The specificity of “secured spaces and personal dwellings” makes this sound like something someone else said to MB that it’s now repeating, especially since it doesn’t agree that what others consider private conversations or private spaces are inherently off-limits to observation.

Unlike Preservation, MB sees privacy as a privilege rather than an inherent right, because it’s more used to the attitude of the CR surveillance state. In the labor installations that MB was deployed on, everything people did was observed by SecSystem at all times. If you wanted privacy, you had to pay for it, as MB notes in ES when it’s complaining about the lack of cameras in the fancy hotel that it books when it arrives. Even then, you might not get what you pay for, and MB take steps to secure PresAux’s own camera network that they later set up. In the CR, privacy is closer in meeting to secrecy, something that must be actively enforced and secured against intrusion. Corporate entities in the CR are motivated to erode personal privacy for profit in the form of datamining and workforce control. Privacy is thus a personal responsibility, since the surrounding environment is one that seeks to undermine it. This is the attitude towards privacy that MB is working with, and part of why it feels entitled to constant surveillance of its humans. In contrast, privacy in Preservation is a right maintained by the collective expectations and policies of the larger community. Station Security doesn’t exactly approve of MB setting up its own surveillance network, but nor does it do regular drone removal sweeps. MB expects privacy to be actively secured, and sees Preservation’s easily breached systems as the equivalent of leaving your valuables out on the lawn. If you don’t want to be surveilled, don’t go around being surveillable.

Surveillance exemptions

Instances where MB appears to respect the notion of privacy are sex/bodily functions, proprietary data, and feelings talks. However, out of these 3 categories, feelings are the topic where MB’s motivations align most closely with the human understanding of privacy. MB’s aversion to sex is more of an ick factor thing, since it repeatedly states that it finds human bodily functions to be disgusting. (I think touch aversion is also part of the sex-repulsed thing, but touch aversion aligns more with ick factor and also with lack of bodily autonomy, discussed below.)

Proprietary data is another topic on which MB appears to be on the same page as humans regarding “private” as being restricted to a particular group: it doesn’t tell the Mensah parents about Amena’s creepy date, and it removes the audio when it shows Indah the video of Mensah complaining about another councilmember. In both of these cases, there’s the potential for harm if the information is divulged: Amena would get scolded and possibly grounded by her parents, and Mensah’s relationships with the Council and Senior Indah would be damaged by her lack of professionalism. In a business context, proprietary data is information kept within a company because it would give your competitors an advantage, or because your competitors could use it to put you at a disadvantage – pretty much the same results, in the game of capitalism. Although both of these examples deal with personal-emotional information, the concept of proprietary data is closer to secrecy in its potential for harm and complete concealment of the information’s existence.

The third type of situation where MB appears to be on the same page as humans regarding privacy is people talking about their feelings. After Arada gets back from the Barish-Estranza negotiations, MB pointedly does not watch her and Overse make up because of the high likelihood that “they were having sex and/or a relationship discussion (either of which I would prefer to stab myself in the face than see).” Sex falls under the ick factor, but there’s a number of reasons the fandom collective braincell has pointed out for MB not wanting to watch people talk about their feelings:

MB exercising the privilege of not having to care about human feelings, as a formerly enslaved person subjected to human whims.

Secondhand embarrassment because MB would never talk about its feelings.

Related to the above, MB reflexively recoiling out of empathy because if it was in their position, it wouldn’t want someone listening in on its feelings.

Actually, now that I think of it, MB doesn’t go into great detail on why it doesn’t like watching humans talk about their feelings, unlike how it explicitly expresses its disgust for anything involving human fluids. Which is why I’ve got the suspicion that when it comes to feelings, MB does have a strong instinctive understanding of what it means for something to be private and, as a result, gets uncomfortable observing a moment that is not meant for others to see. MB has an easier time understanding how privacy applies to feelings rather than acts because unlike its body, its feelings are strongly tied to its concept of what is personal.

MB’s internal and external self

To paraphrase this one MDZS meta, MB’s body is not its own. MB’s sense of what is personal to it, or its sense of unique identity, applies more its internal self than its external self because of its former nonperson status in the CR. This informs what MB considers to be inherently private. While in the CR, its appearance and configuration were decided by the company. To be fair, humans don’t get to choose our original bodies either, but our bodies and the modifications we make to them tell a story of our personal background. The history inscribed in MB’s body, down to the logos etched on its structure, is that of a mass-produced piece of corporate equipment. MB does not have a particular attachment to its external appearance (“standard human”) because its appearance reflects the company’s choices rather than its own. (This changes after it gains the freedom to choose its own clothes and gets tabletop surgery from ART, discussed at the end.) Although MB’s configuration is what makes it a SecUnit, and being a SecUnit is an essential part of its identity, it’s not an identity that’s unique to MB.

For most of its life, MB’s actions have also been extensions of the company. Its actions have either been dictated by its clients and governor module, or it has had to pretend to be controlled by those things, which means making decisions which could conceivably have been issued with the governor module’s approval. MB is also used to selling its body, since it’s expected to literally sacrifice pieces of itself to keep its clients safe (an expectation it continues to hold). MB has been ship-of-Theseus’d to hell and back. The lack of both bodily autonomy and bodily safety due to its nonperson status in the CR means that MB considered its body to be neither private (restricted to the use of only one person) nor entirely personal (pertaining to its unique character).

As a consequence, MB doesn’t consider its external self to have the right to privacy. Although it doesn’t like being looked at, it’s reaction is to hide rather than ask people to stop. (This is also because MB isn’t used to exercising its personal preferences regarding other people’s actions, but that’s a different angle.) It doesn’t like it when Mensah walks into the security ready room, or when its humans and ART’s crew are watching it come out of involuntary shutdown on the deck, but it doesn’t tell them to stop. In general, MB doesn’t like being looked at because if it’s falling apart, it’s in a vulnerable state, and if it’s not falling apart, then being paid attention to used to carry the threat of abuse/incoming orders/being clocked as a rogue. These reasons are more about safety than privacy.

However, MB specifically doesn’t like people looking at its face are because its face shows its emotions, and its emotions are a reflection of its internal state and, by extension, its internal self. MB considers its thoughts and emotions to have the right to privacy because they are the aspects of itself that it has been able to control, and thus has been able to make personal. When Gurathin reveals its name, it grates out, “That was private.” On one level, Murderbot’s name is an honest expression of what it thinks it is and all the associated self-loathing and guilt. MB does NOT want humans to know its name because then they know how it feels about a topic truly important to it. On another level, its name reveals its self-deprecating humor, something a ruthless killing machine is not supposed to have.

Everything that MB considers personal, it has also needed to keep secret, because in the CR, it’s not supposed to be a person the first place. Conversely, the only reason it’s been able to have personal opinions and emotions is because it has been able to keep these things secret. Anything MB would have wanted to be private – restricted to a trusted audience – would have also needed to be secret because of the pervasive surveillance present in the CR, the nonperson status of constructs, and the fact that it had no trusted audience with which it could share private information.

Conclusions

MB conflates the categories of personal, private, and secret because these concepts could not exist separately under the regime of surveillance and objectification inflicted upon it in the CR. Anything in one category had to be able to fit into the others, which limited the development of MB’s sense of personal identity to its internal self. Although MB has good instinctive grasp of the right to privacy regarding one’s internal state, MB’s lack of bodily autonomy and its background as a cog in the CR surveillance state have led it to regard physical privacy as a personal privilege rather than a right.

Now that MB’s in a safer place (kidnappings by giant asshole research transports aside), it’s beginning to separate out those concepts a bit and allow things to be personal and private but not secret (its desire to be with ART, its affection towards Mensah). It’s also starting to allow things that are neither secret nor private to be personal (expressing preferences in its hairstyle, clothing, and aversion to physical touch), which can also be considered MB reclaiming its external self/body.

[shu-sakamaki]

Lazy or...?

Looking deep into Shu’s character makes you wonder; Is he really just lazy?

As a child, Shu is actually quite adventurous and curious; he likes to learn how to do things himself instead of having everything handed over to him so easily.  For Shu, the life outside this tiny bubble he and his siblings live in, is what matters.

How to Hunt? How to Survive in the woods? How to make a bonfire.

All those are what Shu would define as “worthy” lessons.

When passionate about something, Shu works extra hard in his responsibilities, instead of avoiding them.

But, of course, we all know what happens and Edgar dies leaving Shu traumatized and scarred to life; that was when Shu reached his listless persona by just accepting his “role” as the Next Head of the Family; this is when he reached his depression state

Typical of people that need to have their brains constantly stimulated and allowed to do things themself, or else, they fall into a depressive state that, as a result, manifests as laziness.

Shu shows excitement for nothing anymore because, no matter what, if he grows attached to anything it will be taken from him one way or another. So he much rather show apathy over things and just distances himself from everything. 

And he is not wrong for thinking like that:

So Shu shows a listless persona toward every and anything...

Besides Music.

Shu’s passion is music; so much that his favorite instrument to play is no other than the Violin; an instrument to be well known as one of the hardest to learn and master it.

Again, showing that for his passion -, Shu takes the extra miles and doesn’t mind the work

Now when You/OC/Yui (however you wanna refer to the MC) shows up  even Reiji is surprised by Shu’s “new persona”

Shu finds within him this passion once again. And that is what worries and annoy him. He shouldn’t let himself grow attached to things ever again because he only ends up breaking them.

And so we have the endings of HDB and MB. Both games share, pretty much, one same ending -, and Shu runs away with the MC.

In MB more specifically, Shu vows to himself the following: “I want to be with you forever”

And he is willing to do it with his own effords so that his wish can come true

In the after story Shu sells his MP3 and even finds a job all so he can guarantee a good life for the one he loves.

With the MC, Shu finds this stimulation he has been lacking of for, what? Hundred of years already? And so he finds strength to do things through his own effords again.

Shu doesn’t mind the job or the work or all the “troublesome” responsibilities in life if it means he can have something so much more worthy than his eventless life.

He could still have a good and easy life in the mansion and never work a single day, but for the one he loves he let all that go...

In HDB, is no different. 

Shu becomes King; accepting all his responsibilities for the one he loves so he can guarantee her safety

No amount of afternoon naps or long sleeping hours are worth his time if he is stimulated to seize something greater.

“When passionate about something, Shu works extra hard in his responsibilities, instead of avoiding them.”

Shu needs to be constantly motivated. And he finds it all thanks to you.

So, in HDB when Shu says: “His life has no meaning without you”

He means it.

He meant it and it is true.

Shu doesn’t want to go back to his old ways and long naps. 

Here is HEAVEN 3 - MORE BLOOD to show it:

Shu: Well, how is that… … Humans are fragile… …

Hey, what will I do when you’re gone?

MC: Without me… …? Haha, you won’t have to take care of a person, so Shu can sleep all the time.

Shu: Ha. I suppose so… …

MC: … …? Shu, you’re acting strange today… …kyaa!

(Oh… …Shu is holding me tightly… …!)

Shu: Quickly stop being human… …I’ll be troubled if I no longer have you… …

[link]

There is much more in Shu thant just “Being Lazy”.

It is a defensive mechanism because he doesn’t want to suffer anymore. But once he fails in his mission of not loving You...

He becomes the King for you (HDB)

He starts working for you (MB/HDB)

He takes those extra miles all for you.

If that doesn’t make him the absolute best... I don’t even know anymore.

[browncoatparadox]

That’s the Highway That’s the Best

The Murderbot discord talked about a modern road trip AU for MB & ART and I ended up writing 1.7k when I was supposed to be doing homework. Title from “Route 66″ because why not.

I’m travelling across the desert in my van and I am completely and utterly bored. The radio cut out a couple miles back, and I’ve listened to every CD in here with Iris about a thousand times. I would look over some of the data I’ve collected, but I need to keep my eyes on the road even though there’s no one else around. The only thing that adds any variety is the occasional interesting rock formation, which doesn’t really catch my attention. I’m not a geologist, and even if I was stopping to study these would only make this trip take even longer. I sigh as I adjust my mirrors for something, anything to do, and see another figure by the road. This one’s closer, almost on the pavement itself. I idly wonder how long it’s been there. Was the road built next to it, or was it deposited later? It takes me an embarrassingly long time (about five seconds) for me to realize that the rock is moving. Specifically, it’s holding out a thumb and waving with its other arm. A hitchhiker, out in the middle of the desert, absolutely covered in dust, wearing a battered backpack and an irritated expression.

I pull up. This person doesn’t look like much of a threat, and even if they are I can take care of myself. That’s why my parents let me do the four-day drive back to the University on my own. Well, that and the fact that they were busy with some of their… “extracurricular” activities. I roll down the window, taking in the figure before me.

“I need to get to RaviHyral,” the person says, and- holy shit. Upon closer inspection they’re tiny. I know I’m big, but this kid looks like they weigh less than a helium balloon. They’ve clearly been out here for a while, drenched in sweat and sand. There’s a bandage wrapped around their leg, and their long hair drapes over their eyes. In short, they look like someone’s who’s had a rough time lately. They look me over skeptically, glancing each way as if they’re checking for someone else. I’d know better than anyone that, at least in the direction I’m coming from, I’m all they’ve got if they want to get out of the sun.

“Hop in,” I say, unlocking the passenger door. The kid slinks in, hugging their backpack close as they buckle their seatbelt. I reach into the back and rummage for a water bottle. When I turn my focus back, the kid’s hunched against the door. They shake their head when I offer them the bottle, pulling a canteen out of their bag. I shrug and turn the engine back on, sighing as I feel the air conditioning kick in. The kid exhales a bit as well (and I should probably call them something else, but there’s no way they’re older than me and it’s not like I know anything about them). The van starts moving back down the road, and I look over at my passenger.

The kid puts on headphones and starts listening to… something. If I really focus, I can make out music, something melodramatic, and people talking over it. I’m concentrating so hard on trying to make out the words that I don’t realize I’m leaning towards the kid until the kid shoves me. The kid glares. I glare back. The kid shrinks into the seat. Fuck. I didn’t mean to do that.

“What are you listening to?” There, hopefully that will clarify my curiosity. And make it so that I’m not just sitting in silence again, but this time with a mystery right next to me.

The kid says, “Episode 373 of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. The colony supervisor…”  The kid’s voice trails off. “It’s kind of complicated. If you want to listen, I could put on a new show? Then we could start from the beginning?”

I nod enthusiastically, rummaging through the compartment in front of me for an aux cord. If the kid doesn’t want to talk, then at least I’ll have something new to listen to. I hand it to the kid, who plugs it into their battered iPod and presses play for something labelled as Worldhoppers. A bombastic horn flourish plays out, and I notice the kid start to relax as the characters begin to talk. It quickly becomes less of a concern to me, though, because apparently the kid has fantastic taste in media. The kid smiles a little when I look at them after the credits roll. “Next episode?”

We listen to four episodes of Worldhoppers in between where I picked up the kid and the nearest gas station. I pull over, enjoying the chance to stretch my legs. The kid sits on the hood of the car, legs kicking, as I go to refill the tank. “So, what are you doing in fuck-knows-where, ART?”

“Art?” I ask. I have no idea where that could have possibly come from.

The kid shrugs. “Short for Asshole Road Tripper. You didn’t give me your name.”

I wince a bit. In my defense, I’m not used to introducing myself to people. Most of the people I hang out with have known me since I was adopted, and those that don’t have talked to Iris first. Anyways, it’s not like they’ve given me their name either. “ART works. Just don’t talk about me with binary pronouns- it/its preferably, but if you’re uncomfortable with that they/them is fine.”

The kid startles a little bit, opens their mouth like they’re going to ask a question, and then shuts it again. I’m hoping that means that they aren’t going to start anything with me over my gender. Good. I’d hate to kick out the kid in the middle of the desert, even if they didn’t have what was quickly turning into my favorite show. I give the kid five dollars to get something to eat while I wait by the van. If they want to ditch me, they can. Even with the shelter of the gas station, they’re miles from RaviHyral and night’s coming. I doubt the kid’s going to want to be out when it starts to get cold, especially with the shorts that they’ve been wearing.

The kid comes back. I pretend not to notice them pocketing the change. They scramble into their seat as I close the fuel tank. By the time I settle into place, the intro to Worldhoppers is already playing. I turn the ignition, patting the wheel as my van rumbles to life, and head back onto the road.

The sun sets. I roll down my window and look out at the sky, even though the air has become frigid. I love the stars out here. They’re the best thing about the desert, so close that I can almost touch them. The kid looks out too, eyes widening as they take in the Milky Way splayed above us. It almost feels like flying through space, like my van is a starship travelling between worlds instead of a beat-up camper travelling to a nowhere mining town.

We ran out of episodes an hour ago. The kid had put the finale episode back on after we finished it (which I, for one, greatly appreciated, considering the sheer amount of chaos in that episode), but now we’re just sitting together in silence.

“How’d you end up out here?” I’ve been thinking about this in between Worldhoppers episodes, and while I have a hypothesis of my own I want to know what the kid’s going to say.  

They hesitate for a moment. “The last car I was in broke down. I ended up going ahead while the driver waited for a tow truck.”

I look at the kid. “I meant before that.”

They grimace. I think about the news alert that was on the radio right before the signal began to deteriorate, about a group of scientists who had found traces of radioactive waste during their biological survey, and a local teen who had helped them find evidence linking the materials to the GreyCris Mining Corporation. About how said local teen had disappeared after being checked out from the hospital, having been shot by GreyCris’s guards.  

The kid sighs, and explains the story. It lines up with what I know. I notice that they don’t mention the injury on their leg, but decide not to push it now. I’ve got a full medical kit in the back that I can use to fix it up when we stop for the night. 

I’m really not liking the situation. I didn’t like it earlier, when I just thought they might be a kid travelling alone through the desert. I ignore the part of me that points out that I’m technically also a kid travelling alone through the desert. My family knows, if not specifically where I am, my general itinerary, and they know that I can look out for myself. Plus, I’ve got a van. This kid has no one, and it sounds like they may be in the kind of trouble that my family can help with. If they need a new identity, a place where they can hide from GreyCris, I can help with that.

I don’t want to press them, but I’m this close to passing by RaviHyral and taking them back to the University with me.

“What do you need to do in RaviHyral?” I ask. I’m not planning on leaving them there alone. If they’re just headed to the nearest town, I can take them somewhere safer.

The kid looks at me, really looks, their eyes taking in everything about me and tallying it all up in their head. They make some sort of mental calculation, nod to themselves, and take a shaky breath.

“I need to find one of my old foster homes,” they say quietly. “I need to figure out what happened to me there.”

My brain runs through all of the possible meanings of that statement. This kid isn’t trying to hide their identity. They’re trying to find it.

Fuck it. My family won’t be too upset if I show up a few days late.

[okayto]

Murderbot Reference: Character Descriptions Part 1

So, characters and things in Murderbot stories don’t get a lot of physical description, which is very cool, but out of curiosity I went through all 5 books and tried to note every time a character gets a description (body or clothing). 

I also ended up making some non-visual notes, such as the names of Mensah’s marital partners and Amena’s age. Basically, the things I’d want to remember about a character if I was writing or drawing them. Therefore, beware of spoilers.

This got long so it’s under a cut, and I’ve split it into 3 posts. This post contains:

Mensah

Gurathin

Pin-Lee

Ratthi

Arada

Overse, Bharadwaj, Volescu

Wilken and Gerth

Miki & Human-Form Bots

Don Abene

Combat Bot

Amena

Thiago

Other posts: Part 2; Part 3

Mensah

·         “She had dark brown skin and lighter brown hair cut very short and I’m guessing she wasn’t young or she wouldn’t be in charge.”

·         Looks tired and sleep-deprived during pre-abduction interviews; more creases at corner of eyes after rescue

·         Clothing: During rescue, wears a long caftan over pants (long enough to hold it up while running), “looked more rumpled and creased than they should, but not enough to draw attention.” One shoe falls off during run, she can toe out of the other one.

·         Very good at controlling herself, can look physically relaxed during all this.

·         Height: comes up to about MB’s shoulder. MB has to “look down” to meet her eyes directly.

·         Feed interface is implanted as a fail-safe for emergencies, but is not augmented.

·         One child “looked like a miniature version of Mensah;” family has 7 children total

·         Two marital partners: Farai and Tano. Farai uses she/her and seems comfortable with Murderbot.

·         Has at least one brother (who married Thiago), see next point

·         Lives outside the capital city with two marital partners, plus her sister and brother and their three marital partners, “and a bunch of relatives and kids who Ratthi had lost count of”

·         Is “second mother” in family

Gurathin

·         Has “a small, quiet smile, and they all [PreservationAux survey members] seemed to like him.”

·         Augmented human, specifically gives him some information storage (similar to MB), internal augment. Carries a specialized toolkit.

·         Shorter than MB, who puts its arm on his shoulder to run after injury.

 Pin-Lee

·         During Exit Strategy when meeting MB, is wearing a jacket and carrying the key for Mensah’s implant.

·         Wears feed interface in ear

·         Take medication (unspecified, but had it with her during ES)

·         Has past experience in habitat and shelter construction

 Ratthi

·         At end of ASR, is there to meet MB when it comes out of cubicle after Mensah purchases it. “He was wearing regular civilian station clothes, but with the soft gray jacket with the PreservationAux survey logo.”

·         Shorter than MB, who puts its arm on his shoulder to run after injury.

·         Carries a lucky spare interface

·         Is a biologist

·         No physical description (besides being shorter than MB), but according to Word of God on her Dreamwidth blog (no links or Tumblr will hide this post from the tags): “Ratthi is super hot. We're talking Sendhil Ramamurthy levels of hot.”

·         The closest physical description in text we get is being used as a comparison: “Iris was small, shorter and slimmer than Ratthi, not much bigger than Amena.“

·         Doesn’t seem to have a partner, but according to MB, has a lot of relationships with all genders of humans and augmented humans, and he and they all seemed very happy about it.

 Arada

·         “Arada has a lot of expressions, even for a human.”

·         Short hair (singed in NE after whatever happened in the wormhole)

·         Has light gold-brown skin “and you could really tell all the blood had drained out of her face” when frightened.

Overse, Bharadwaj & Volescu

·        Overse uses she/her, Arada’s marital partner. Is certified as a field medic

·         Bharadwaj uses she/her

·         Volescu uses he/him; in a 4-way marriage

Wilken and Gerth

·         Both she/her. Both augmented humans, carrying traveling packs and a couple cases MB recognizes as combat gear, including armor and weapons

·         Have worked for GrayCris before, know enough about it to keep blackmail material on hand

·         “From the shapes, the cases held weapons, ammo, and a couple of high-end sets of self-adjusting armor, the kind I’d only seen in the media.”

·         Armor has energy weapons built into forearms. Faceplate and helmet. With no comm or feed, can hear but voices sound like they’re farther away. When armor powers down, automatically opens vents to allow air circulation so person doesn’t suffocate or get heat exhaustion.

 Miki/Human-Form Bots

·         No cloned human tissue, just a bare metal bot-body that can pick up heavy things (but not as good as specialized hauler or other cargo bot, according to MB). Big, globe-like eyes. Eyes are dark and opaque surface. Can extend a secondary clamp from chest and used to hold emergency kit while using its hand to treat MB.

·         Cameras and sensory inputs are in head; its processor, memory and other things that make it Miki are in the chest/torso

·         Strong enough to pin Wilken’s wrist to wall and stand firm while Wilken pushes.

·         Human-form bots often used to portray “evil rogue SecUnits who menaced the main characters” in entertainment media, so humans who had never worked with SecUnits expected them to look like human-form bots, not SUs.

·         Not popular in corporation territory (according to MB) because they’re more general-purpose and not as good at specific tasks as dedicated bots, and “with the feed available their data storage and processing ability isn’t that exciting.”

Don Abene

·         Warm brown skin lined at the corners of mouth and eyes, long dark hair has strands of white. MB can’t guess age.

·         Hair is loose after helmet taken off, long enough to need brushing away to check neck, and Wilken grabbed it.

·         After helmet removed during fight, has a mark on neck where helmet rim pressed in.

 Combat Bot (not Combat SecUnit)

·         (Combat SecUnit note: they probably don’t look super different from regular SecUnits, at least if you’re not super close, because MB didn’t realize one SU in the Exit Strategy dock fight was a Combat SU until it was able to counter MB’s hacks; MB didn’t recognize it as a CSU on sight)

·         Anyway: combat bots, separate things from CSUs

·         Combat bots are close in shape to human-form bot, but 3 meters (~10 feet) tall, has multiple weapon ports in chest and back, four arms with multiple hand mods for cutting, slicing, delivering energy bursts, etc.

·         Faster, stronger, and more heavily armed than a SecUnit, and a “not very endearing personality” according to MB.

·         Camera and scanners in head, processing and memory in lower abdomen for protection

·         Can deliver pulse through skin to cause SecUnit pain sensors to max out, and another pulse meant to fry SecUnit armor and explosive weapons.

·         Grabbed SecUnit by head and shoulder with one hand; MB feels “shift in the metal that mean something sharp was about to come out of its hand.”

Amena

·         Shorter than MB (“stares up” at it)

·         Smaller than Iris [see part 2 for Iris] and Ratthi

·         Has to tie hair up in order to put on EVAC suit

·         Just under Preservation’s legal adult age

·         Oldest of the family’s 7 children

 Thiago

·         Mensah’s brother-in-law, married to Mensah’s brother; Amena’s uncle

·         Brown skin

[silyabeeodess]

Hey, everyone!  So, some of you may remember how I posted a blank sample for Nano Datacards for anyone interested in making them in the FusionFall fandom.  Similarly, I’d like to now showcase Fusion Fighter ID Cards for anyone who’d like to take a shot at that.  I’ll have more info to this below as well as a link to my character’s own to use as an example.  Feel free to look it over and use it if you’d like to give it a shot: Just please tag me in your posts so I can reblog them when you’re done! :)

Ok, so pretty basic stuff here: These ID cards are for your playable characters and/or OCs for FusionFall.  For context and my own headcanons *cough*, every Fusion Fighter is required to sign-up on some form of record.  Members of different groups such as the KND or Plumbers already have this kind of data; however, with the creation of things such as the Resurrect ‘Ems and the combined establishment of the Fusion Fighter forces, all of that information was gathered collectively.  This allows all Fusion Fighters to use the war effort’s resources and access to certain, otherwise restricted areas (like the infected zones) while also allowing the different groups to maintain some autonomy. 

The box on the left side with the white border is meant for a headshot, while the transparent box on the right side is where all of your characters info can be listed.  Name is a given, but your service number and branch is where things get a bit more complex.  Basically, the branch is if your character is tied to any specific group already established within the Fusion Fighter forces.  Whatever branch your character is with will determine the letter(s) attached to the service number.  Below, I’ve created a small list of these letter codes for anyone to go by if they wish for some of these branches, based on the different groups from the game (so far):

CP--Candy Pirates

DL--Dexlab’s personnel (reserved largely for scientists or guards)

IA--Independent Agents (anyone who is not apart of a specific division)

KND--Kid’s Next Door operatives

MB--Morbucks (reserved for Morbucks bank staff)

MI--Mandark Industries personnel (reserved for scientists or guards)

MM--Monkey Minions

P--Plumbers

PA--Providence Agents

SACT--Special Alien/Extraterrestrial Containment Team members

SS--Secret Scientist

UR--Urban Rangers

Anyone who is not part of a specific branch is assigned an “IA” to their service number for “Independent Agent.”  However, there’s also a little extra room below the branch listing for Fusion Fighters who are under any special conditions, noted by an asterisk.  For example, for my character--who is a research participant--this is important to note for her as she can access certain things often restricted to the researchers themselves even if she doesn’t have full access to Dexlabs.  Similarly, if there’s a character who is a specialist or part of a specific unit (for anyone in the KND, let’s say a S.C.A.M.P.E.R. pilot or a member of the SKWID squad), this would also be noted there.

Here’s the link to my character’s card if anyone wants to see it as an example: https://silyabeeodess.tumblr.com/post/187391553494/hey-i-did-a-thing-p-lol-seriously-though-this

[rendersfarm]

General recommend for rendering Maya project in Super Renders Farm.

Sometime in your rendering Maya, it is normal that something could go wrong, but if you follow the guidelines for sending your render project to us manually.

Scene file - should be saved in Maya 2015 - 2019. We do support .mb (Maya binary) & .ma (Maya ASCII) files. Also, we can render scenes prepared on Mac or Linux OS, however, those scenes should be saved in .ma format so we can relink all paths with to our local network drive.

Project folder - this feature should be ALWAYS used. All paths to \Prj_folder\ should be prepared and set up in the scene. There cannot be any missing assets or scene references. All scenes should be saved in  \PrjFolder\scenes \. Please try to avoid textures saved in different paths than defined in Project folder settings.

Scene references - if there are any, they should be merged into one file. If Scene references cannot be merged, please be sure that all used assets have correct paths to \ProjectFolder\.

Render layers - all layers that are meant to be rendered the need to have a valid renderable camera set. We are not editing scenes & turning on/off render layers. Also file name prefix options should be prepared as "<RenderLayer>/<Camera>/<RenderPass>";. Name suffix should be "name.#.xxx" (for eg. Scenename.0001.jpg). Any other file saving options can cause issues during network rendering & progress checking process. Please avoid name suffix with .# at the end. Image format extension should be always after frame number

Viewport & save - render camera should be selected as well in render settings and viewport. Viewport should be maximized with render cam. Shading details should be switched to "box" without any shading abilities.  Please turn off any kind of GPU interactive render preview

GI setup - should be prepared for multiple machines rendering in both render engines - Mental Ray & Vray. If you are not sure about GI setup - please contact us. Arnold renderer is using "Brute  Force" method, so Arnold scenes don't have to be cached before rendering on multiple machines

Plugins - we are supporting quite a lot of Maya plugins, however, if you are using an uncommon add-on we may need some time to run a test with plugin & our network rendering system

Render specific settings - Distributed rendering, Low thread priority, Render region - should all be off (VRay render engine)

Animated textures  -  animation files (avi/mp4/etc) are not a valid option for animated textures, also .mov files cannot be used. Please make frame sequence (jpg\png or so) and connect the image sequence

Switches - for VRay render engine - in render settings / common tab: "Don't save the image (ignored in batch mode)- OFF, "Animation" - ON (if the scene is animated, not still shot) + correct frame range set up in "start frame/end frame". By frame" value should be set to 1.000. Resolution & render camera - should be selected with correct values / options. "Use VRayFB" - ON. Hide render view - "OFF", "Disable region rendering in batch mode" - OFF (if render region is not used!). "VRay" render settings tab - "Don't render final image" - OFF "Indirect Illumination" - if LightCache is used, "number of LC passes" should be  = 0. "Settings" tab - "Use distributed rendering"  - OFF "Low thread priority" - OFF

MEL / Python callbacks - if the scene is not using any kind of additional MEL/Python scripts/plugins all fields should be empty

Render elements - if they are used, all of them that should be rendered should be enabled! We are not changing scene setups and if any of the render elements are missing during the rendering process, will be re-rendered & billed as separated render-job. In render elements settings - "Separate folders" switch should be OFF

Maya script editor - Please try to avoid "errors". We are rendering using "Render.exe" - not Maya.exe or any other GUI setups so if there will be "errors" in Maya script editor - scene can cause problems with rendering.  "Warning" issues in most cases are just info about non-critical issues so if they are not important we will ignore them in the rendering process. We are saving Maya log file (to .txt) in \Scene_name-log\ directory so if you want/need to check to render time & scene warnings info feel free to download these files

NAME - Scene name, asset and output paths should not contain any special characters like / \ " % #? etc

Having a Camera that is added manually so that its name is different than default ones (sideShape, topShape, frontShape, perspShape, persp).

Having a Maya project folder with "scenes" directory that contains your scenes, for example:

N:/RenderProject <-  this is the Maya project folder N:/RenderProject/scenes  <-  this is the scenes directory N:/RenderProject/scenes/shot001.mb  <-  the scene

if you are using XGen, the xgen directory should be directly in your project directory: N:/RenderProject/xgen

Avoid using any special characters in your file names and paths like "@$:%^" or language-specific non-ASCII characters like Cyrillic or Korean alphabet.

Source: https://support.superrendersfarm.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022810194-General-recommend-for-rendering-Maya-project-in-Super-Renders-Farm-