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what-even-is-thiss · 17 days ago

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Free or Cheap Mandarin Chinese Learning Resources Because You Can't Let John Cena One Up You Again

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

(at the end of the list here I will say I had a difficult time finding tv series specifically made for learners of Mandarin Chinese so if you know of any that are made for teenage or adult learners or are kids shows that would be interesting to adults and are free to watch without a subscription please let me know and I will add them to the list. There's a lot of Mandarin language TV that's easy to find but what I'm specifically interested in for these lists are free to watch series made for learners and/or easy to understand kids shows originally made in the target language that are free and easy to access worldwide)

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bennyden · 1 year ago

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User hamatoanne's fic plagiarism

Hello, I’m the author of The Android, an AO3 Robot OC x Reader fic that was plagiarized by hamatoanne on Tumblr in her Aemond x Reader story, System Error. You can read my AO3 post for more info about the issue. As you can tell by the timestamps on AO3 and the screenshots of her now-deleted story, mine was posted months before hers. I didn’t want to make this public, but it appears Anne has not learned her lesson and is grasping at straws to keep her readers in the dark. She’s been deleting her stories to hide evidence of her plagiarism. I think you deserve to know who your beloved writer gets her words from.

I don’t know this fandom, but I’ve heard you guys can get pretty crazy. Control yourselves. The only one who needs to take responsibility is Anne. Don’t send hate to her mutuals. Don’t send hate to her followers. Don’t stalk or harass or dox anyone. Read through this post and form your opinion.

First bunch of screenshots: A side-by-side comparison of her story (now deleted) and mine (still up and linked above). I took screenshots in advance in case something like this happened so I’d have proof if I needed it. I decided to compare the first chapter of my fic with the first part of hers. I could do the whole thing, but I’m a busy college student and I think just a quick skim of the pictures below is enough for people to see the extent of her plagiarism.

I have screenshots of her entire post, but I don’t want to make this too long to scroll through and Tumblr posts cap at 30 pictures. I’m assuming some of you have already read her story multiple times, so you’re familiar with the words. If you haven’t, then I should warn you that the fic that she plagiarized is very not SFW. I’ll let you know where the not SFW content starts so you can skip it.

On the left is my story. On the right is what Anne posted (and took down).

Not SFW content starts here.

Not SFW content over.

Finally, I DM’ed her. This was just before I posted to The Android on AO3 about the situation. To summarize, I wrote about how I would go about the situation and how hurt I was about a bigger creator stealing from me. I admit, I was too kind and too much of a pushover. I just wanted things to go quietly. She later replied with this and deleted her fic immediately.

“I was completely stupid for not giving your credit” Why do they always play dumb? You copy that much and can’t even think to put my name there? You credit the artist but not the person who basically wrote your whole story? The story that gave you over 3k notes, so much more clout than any of your other stories has earned you? Total BS.

“I had every intention of giving credit where it was due…But I forgot” Right. Sure. Of course. If she felt guilty about plagiarizing, she would not be so shameless to accept praise like she did. I have examples of where she happily thanked people for complimenting "her work”, but didn’t want to bring other blogs into this, especially since they were none the wiser to her plagiarism. Ironically enough, someone even gifted her a badge for being a good writer the day she replied to my DM. She tagged that post “#a breath of fresh air on a horrible day”. I wonder why her day was horrible. Whoever gifted her that badge deserves their money back.

My thoughts when approaching her DMs were:

If she wants to keep up the story? Fine, just edit the post to say that it was heavily influenced by my story and leave a link to the original. I don’t mind. The readers will see that, click my story, compare the two, and think, “Hey, that’s not just inspiration! She plagiarized!” and her downfall would start from there without me having to do anything.

If she ignored me and didn’t fulfill that request, i would take matters into my own hands and expose her on her own post. Even more damaging.

In the end, she chose to delete the post entirely, getting rid of the evidence and her clout. I actually didn’t expect this outcome since I thought she’d like the clout too much, but I guess she decided this route would be the least damaging to her reputation. Everything was swept under the rug for now.

And like a fool, I said thanks and went on with my life. But I decided to keep track of her. Because while I was too cowardly to do anything, I knew there would always be someone in the crowd who would take action. And it seems like people did.

After reading the supportive comments from readers of my fic, I started to regret how lightly I handled it. I wanted to be mature even though I wanted her entire blog to fall and her reputation taken away. But I didn’t want to be a “bad person”. I wondered if I should keep pursuing the issue. I realized that my overly-people-pleasing behavior might lead her to continue her ways. I decided to speak out because others might’ve had their works taken by her and that my silence wasn’t helping.

Next is her post, now deleted (I wonder why), about how she’s been so sad and how she’s going to be deleting her old stories and starting over. I’m likely not the only one she’s plagiarized from if she’s deleting other stories. At the time, I only saw supportive replies and reblogs on it, but maybe she deleted it after people started calling her out? Idk.

She’s playing the victim game pretty hard. Acting as a kind underdog even though she’s the big creator who stole from a nobody like me. I know I said on my AO3 update that people shouldn’t send hate to her (and even censored her name after she deleted her story) but I guess I’m a little happy that people sought to call her out on her shit. I wish I was as brave.

Later, a nice person (we’ll call her Bob because she asked to remain anonymous) DM’ed me directly with a kind message. After seeing this, I decided I should take action and expose all of this since Anne obviously hasn’t learned and wants to keep it all hidden. Bob confirmed that I’m not the only victim of Anne’s plagiarism either.

Bob asked that I not use screenshots of our DM’s so here is a transcription of the important parts:

“Hey! I just found out that one of your fics had been plagiarized by someone in the HOTD community. First of all, I am tremendously sorry that happened…”

(For Bob’s privacy, I won’t explain her relation to Anne. Just know that Anne has refused to message her back).

“I definitely think you should make a blog post. with side by side comparison. I am still completely gobsmacked that she pilfered your entire story word for word and changed a few things. We found evidence that she had plagiarized multiple stories. Not just yours. We found out her mermaid!aemond fic was entirely stolen as well as a few others. She has quietly deleted them and hasn't spoken on them since.”

“We surmised that she takes ‘underrated’ fics from different fandoms and changes the name and that's it. It's almost like she believed that stealing from other fandoms was going to draw less attention than stealing directly from the HOTD fandom.”

So if you noticed that one of your favorite Aemond fics is gone, now you know why.

‘But benny, she still wrote her own sentences and just changed it around to fit aemond!’

Fanfiction is transformative. You know what the source material is and who created it. You know you’re not reading a copied and pasted text with maybe some words and sentences switched around. This wasn’t fanfic. According to Google, plagiarism is defined as, “the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.” (See what I did there? I credited Google. Is it so hard to give credit where credit is due?) She copied people's work, didn't give credit to the source material, and claimed it as her own. That's plagiarism.

I wouldn’t have had a problem if she properly credited me and linked the original story. I wouldn’t have had a problem if she didn’t blatantly copy and paste the entire text and premise. I wouldn’t even require getting permission to write a story based on my fic if she had satisfied those conditions.

She’s a 27-year-old grown-ass woman with enough free time to simp over some blond guy with an eyepatch. I’m a 21-year-old college student who only posts fics during the summer and winter because that’s when school’s on break. I’m too busy writing lab reports and essays to be an active writer online. The fact that she can disrespect smaller writers so tremendously should not be acceptable. The fact that she also deceived her devoted readers and friends about her "works" is also unacceptable.

What can you do about this? To be honest, I don’t know what to do. I’ve never had to deal with this before. I want to be a good person and say, “Don’t send any hate to Anne, don’t harass her. Just unfollow her and stop supporting her.” But that obviously hasn’t taught her anything. She’ll just make a half-assed apology, maybe go on hiatus, maybe disappear, and then pop up again under another name to steal from another creator. If you have any ideas on how to deal with this, please tell us.

She can try to block me or delete her posts, but the evidence is out and the damage is done. Anything she does to hide this mess will only make it worse for her. I’d appreciate people bringing more awareness to this issue, especially if it can reach the eyes of others she’s taken from.

Thanks for reading.

#aemond targaryen #aemond one eye #aemond x reader #hotd #house of the dragon #reader fanfiction #prince aemond #plagiarism #android x reader #robot x reader #ao3 #aemond and reader smut

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hrtzz · 4 months ago

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Connor NSFW alphabet

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Connor is extremely attentive of your vitals, keeping an eye on your hydration levels, heartbeat and overall well-being. He will clean you up every time, maintaining himself and his partner is very important for him. He will get you anything you need but if you require anything over water you have to ask, although he can see much more than a human can he isn't a mind reader

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Connor doesn't have a favourite body part on himself, he's aware he's perfectly designed to appeal and integrate with humans so he doesn't get insecure about himself physically, that also means he doesn't favour any physical part of himself, but if he had to choose, he knows if he gives you a certain look with his eyes you give in to him pretty quickly, which always works to his benefit.

For you it would be everything if it could, he's constantly learning new things about humans and you. He definitely favours your waist and hips, loves grabbing onto them everywhere whether he's being subtle or not, he has you in his control and to an android who's used to following orders having someone else following his is somewhat empowering to him.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Either inside your mouth or inside you. He doesn't gain anything in covering you with cum, just makes a mess, and he also can't get you pregnant so he doesn't have to worry about anything like that.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Tried masturbating, and like it. He's too ashamed to admit it to you, as normal as it is to humans, for an android like him it feels like selfish indulgence. He's much more of a giver than a receiver and sometimes feels like sex is more for your benefit than his, after all he never even considered sex until it came to you. When he realised he liked masturbating he felt guilty, like you would believe that he preferred his hand to you, so he never told you, until one day you caught him.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

He had no experience before you but he easily done his research. You guided him at first and he eventually got more brave in the bedroom, more explorational, he was a fast learner too.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Cowgirl. Loves to watch you on top of him while grabbing your hips, and gives you both equal control.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He takes sex quite seriously if you make a joke he will play along but like his missions he has a goal to accomplish, and nothing will get in the way of that goal.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Neatly trimmed, and uniform to his hair, again his maintenance takes a certain priority.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

As romantic as they get. He's very focused of course but understands moments like these are nothing to you without the romantic aspect.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Again, he enjoys it. Doesn't do it often but if he finds himself bored at home then he will partake in it.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Loves praise as he was programmed to respond positively to it.

Loves being the more dominant one as he gets to be in control.

He's never admitted this one to you but once you playfully ran away from him after trying to initiate sex and the chase before he undoubtedly caught you sparked something in him.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

The bedroom is the only place he likes. Sex is meant for the bedroom and meant to stay in the bedroom.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Praise really gets him going if you mention his impeccable skills in the bedroom and how much you yearn for them in the current moment he will gladly accept. “You need my skills? Well of course I'm happy to be of service!”

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Won't cause you or him harm. Won't have sex outside the bedroom. Won't participate in a threesome. Anything that puts either of you in danger. Things that cause way too much mess (Usually involving bodily fluids)

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Loves giving, he can analyse your that way too like he does with blood. Once told you that you might wanna drink more water as the acidic level- and he has to stop as a light smack came to his head. He learnt not to analyse you mid eating you out. Loves to delve his face into you, and since he's an android he wont come up for air. As he's doing this he's constantly looking at you watching your reactions.

Receiving is also great but he got too carried away in it once, had you coughing for a good minute, he forgot humans have to breath and have gag reflexes, and now has too control himself everytime, which irritates him as he usually likes to let loose during sex.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

He can do both depending on what you're responding to the best. If he's pissed off he tends to take it out in sex.

“F- shit! Jesus Connor! Rough day?”

“You, ngh, have no idea.”

Usually is slow and sensual as he gets a better look at your reactions.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Hates them, sex is a special thing to him and to rush it just ruins it.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Is very open to new things and will try most things at least once.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

He's an android, he can last all day and night. Usually stops when you're overstimulated (sometimes keeps it going for longer)

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Doesn't use toys. He's got many features, toys are somewhat useless to you both.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Loves to tease, usually tests how long you can go for until you break

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

He can be quiet but much prefers to be loud, he wants you to know he's enjoying it as much as he is.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Short-circuited once after cumming. Wouldn't let you mention to him ever again after that.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

He was given above average, around 7.5. A notable length but average girth.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

At first it's high, he wants to learn so much and asks you almost every chance he gets. Once he gets the hang of sex he pulls it back a little but will never deny you if the opportunity strikes (unless he's in a teasing mood)

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Unless he's low on power he doesn't need to sleep, if you fall asleep on him he will go into rest mode but will never fall asleep before you.

If you have any requests please let me know, especially for Connor (or Markus he never gets enough love)

#dbh connor #connor rk800 #dbh #Connor rk800 x reader #detroit become human #x reader

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shepscapades · 11 months ago

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... that lean makes me think of the lean Bdubs did in the syncing comic....which if course begs the question: Did Etho pick up this habit of leaning to indicate processing/suspicion from Bdubs or did Bdubs pick it up from Etho? (or is it just a good way to show that emotion in comic form XD) Also.... the hair clip... My impression is that the flashback is from pretty early on. Is the hair clip a precursor to the well known headband? In universe, why a headband? Since they both do wear headbands... Was the headband originally Bdub's? Is... I know Etho is scared during the whole Last Life thing... is he thinking that Bdubs is planning specifically on targeting one of the androids? Or is that his fear talking?

... And after all that speculating... Ouch, Poor Tango!! ( i know this is an important event for Tango, but we don't see any of his reaction or feelings about any of this yet)

Wonderful comic, as always, Shep!

WEEE These are such good questions omg :DDDD alright i couldn't shut up so i'm putting it under a read more =w=

this is basically a mini comic breakdown! just rambling about some of the dbhc plot and mecahnics >:D

The lean is such a fun detail, i didn't even realize the similarities-- but it's actually a really nice (totally intentional) callback! I think Etho absolutely picked up those mannerisms from Bdubs, the same way Doc did from Ren, and so on so forth-- the androids, especially throughout season 8 and last life, are using their partnered hermits (and the other hermits in general) to learn what it means to be and act human-- vocal mannerisms, physical mannerisms, learning emotions for the first time and what it means to feel them, everything! I kind of see Season 8 as their "young" period-- their first season, the season they learn who they are and develop some of their most iconic traits. Etho is still himself, shyness and stoicism and all, but he learns his whimsy and silliness and teasing nature from being with bdubs for so long :)

THE HAIR CLIP <333 Yeah Etho's "Replaying Memory" moment is when Doc was checking out his "wounds" / the damage he sustained (from the initial creeper blast that caused his deviation) for the first time! At the time of the memory, It had probably been a little while since the actual initial incident where Bdubs had covered him up a little bit to hide the damage, but i'm sure doc or someone else noticed before long LDFKGJDF so this is their first like... "checkup"! So Etho is pretty young here (Doc too, but he already has his robot arm at this point, so...), maybe within the first month or two of season 8. So he definitely normally wears a bandana at this point (the same band bdubs made him wear initially to cover up the forehead cracks a little), but he's clipped his bangs back here so Doc can get a better look at the damage :)

I have a LOT of feelings about Etho's mental dialogue throughout last life, and it's very complicated and i won't be able to shut up about it so that's for another post. I will say, I don't think Etho ever truly thought Bdubs would Boogey kill him (though, doubt is a very powerful thing, so it turns out). I think Etho is still puzzling Bdubs out (though he's definitely learned quite a lot about him), especially when it comes to more serious situations like this, so the unknowns are definitely the biggest sources of fear for him. He can only do so much with the data he currently has, and the idea that a weapon so sharp could permanently damage any of the androids... it's an unsettling thought, regardless of whoever the mostly likely victim ends up being. (I don't think Etho expects it to be Tango, either-- not until he sees that look in Bdubs' eyes 10 seconds before it happens. I think Doc's little speech about their models is just helpful information for the reader and a sense of foreshadowing (as well as a reminder for Etho of how Not-So-Indestructible he is/the other androids are), not so much that etho thinks it's going to be tango after recalling the memory. Same for Bdubs. I dont think bdubs decided to target Tango until he was staring the back of his neck down and realized he could take the opportunity before he lost it). Anyway i've already rambled too much /silly

And lastly, Yes. This is, besides his deviation, probably Tango's most formative moment. The second time he truly experiences rage. I don't know if I could do a comic or an illustration that truly does his rage moment justice after he wakes up post-respawn and has a meltdown trying to kill bdubs, but knowing that Skizz wasn't built until s9 and is therefore missing from Last Life (AKA, Tango has no one other than Etho and Bdubs), just... makes this betrayal so, so much more painful. This betrayal is very much about Tango's rage, but it's also about his sense of trust and safety and his understanding of the way the world works. Hermitcraft is safety and jokes and support, and sure there's a bit of death here and there, but this is unlike anything he's ever known-- it's adrenaline and fear and threats and betrayal and. Anyway what a normal meltdown to have! And Etho can do nothing to calm him down except hold him back from killing bdubs (there's something to be said there too, about Tango knowing for certain now that Bdubs obviously chooses Etho over himself (Because come on, Bdubs wouldn't have killed Etho. Let's be honest here), but knowing too that Etho is choosing bdubs by not letting Tango get the revenge he so rightfully deserves...) Anyway. I think i'll explode if i think about this more

#dbhc ask #ask #anon #dbhc #dbhc tango #dbhc etho #dbhc bdubs #i need to laydown #THANK YOU ALSO <333 I'M SO GLAD YOU ENJOY IT <3333

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victoriadallonfan · 1 year ago

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Having re-watched Alien (1979) and Aliens (1985), I think I've realized what went wrong with the further expanded film universe on a thematic level (this is not accounting for AVP films, which seem to exist within their own continuity atm).

The main issue is that these films made 2 intertwining mistakes:

Making the Xenomorph too animalistic

Removing the mystery of space

For the first part, Alien and Aliens are quite vague about the Xenomorph mind. Alien treats it almost like a serial killer at times, including a particularly interesting moment where it disregards Jones the Cat entirely, despite making a very easy target, and how it will sometimes meander up to the crew as if it knows it's inflicting terror upon them. This Xenomorph even seems to only flee when Parker goes to kill it with a knife and hides within the evac shuttle when it realizes that Ripley was going there as well.

Aliens forgoes this in favor of showing how terrifying their numbers are even in the face of superior (if greatly mislead) fire power, but then pulls the rug under our protagonists by (seemingly) cutting the power and testing the endurance of the auto-turrets. While the drones are not individually as intelligent as the original xenomorph from the first film, this is instead given to the Queen, who understands not only the danger Ripley poses to her Hive but hostage negotiations of the most blunt variety. And, of course, incredible spite and vengeance when Ripley burns her eggs.

Basically, the two films do a good job of making you wonder... how sapient and sentient are the Xenomorphs? Do we take Ash's word and think of them as simply Hostile Weapons or do we see them for the adaptable and complex - if instinct guided - parasites just trying to protect their hive? This is further food for thought when we learn that one of the cut endings would have had the Xenomorph kill Ripley, tentatively use the shuttles control panel, and speak into the intercom with Dallas voice (ala Predator).

Imo, that goes too far into making them human, but we'll circle back to that later. The point is that the Xenomorph is never clearly one thing or another, but rather, something that constantly foils our attempts to understand them completely.

Aliens 3, Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant fail in that regard, because they take the firm stance that the Xenomorph is... an animal. A very, very, dangerous and hostile animal but an animal nonetheless. It's not some vague horror that we struggle to comprehend and reason with, because all the facts (as they are for now) are laid out: the Xenomorphs are weaponized animals that just kill, reproduce, and kill etc etc.

Nothing is entirely new about the Xenomorphs in these movies (beyond the forms and one part of Covenant, but we'll circle back to that as well), but rather trying to recapture the formula of Alien and Aliens. And even when the film isn't necessarily about the Xenomorphs like Prometheus, it still goes out of its way to copy the play by play of Alien to an almost hilarious degree (except, somehow, having a cast entirely of stupid scientists).

The Xenomorph is used as a toll for the films to talk more about the human threats who would use them, which is fine, except the same message of "Weyland-Yutani wants Xenomorphs, They Failed" over and over again (except I guess for Alien: Resurrection, but that had Walmart as a plot point so...) gets tedious. It's not longer about the folley of mankind, but rather this one company led by a man (or Android?) who keeps fucking up.

Ditto goes for the second part: removing the mystery from space. Alien and Aliens treat the Space Jockey and other (non-Xenomorph) alien life at an arms distance. They are large, grand, ominous, and vaguely defined. We don't know much about WY in either movie, nor how much is them knowing versus independent people within the company (Burke mentions cutting out his own bosses for profit for example, and Bishop the company Android is heroic and horrified at the situation they are all in, a big difference to Ash). The Xenomorphs having a Queen was a huge reveal, because we literally had no idea until then if those were actual eggs or simply pods artificially created.

Aliens 3 tries to add some mystery with the prison colony, but it's also hamfisted and given a lot of exposition to explain the situation they are in, but I will give it kudos for making Weyland (???) look like Bishop as a twist. Aliens: Resurrection... yeah, no.

Prometheus and Alien Covenant gave us a plethora of seeming mysteries, but also gives us really super simple answers. Basically, Space Jockeys are just super humans seeding life across the planets and they wanted to bomb Earth into oblivion because we killed Jesus Christ (who was a Space Jockey). And one of our androids then - possibly - goes to their home planet and bombs them to oblivion thus wiping out the human race. And they made Xenomorphs yadda yadda.

Prometheus in particular seems to despise the idea of space being a mystery, with the conversation David has with a scientist being plainly spelled out as the theme of the film: "Sometimes, humans/space jockeys just build shit, and it goes wrong I guess. No gods or mysteries here, just hubris."

Which, if handled well, is still a fascinating idea (I think it's a pretty interesting 'take-that' against the stupidity of Ancient Alien Conspiracy Theorists)... but it's not handled well. At all. And certainly doesn't work well when trying to write Xeno-Horror.

So, what COULD work?

Well, I think we need to look at how Alien and Aliens made the Xenomorphs, Space Jockey's, and Space itself all work.

For the xenomorphs, I think back to one scene I actually thought was interesting in Alien: Covenant; as a chestburster is born from a hapless scientist, it lays its eyes (???) on David and replicates his movements, mimicking the first living thing it witnesses. Nothing is ever done with this (of course), but think about the potential that could be used! Plenty of animals like crows, ravens, dolphins, octopi, killer whales etc etc can use mimicry in voices and actions, and that includes things like tool-use! And of course, the fact that they take on new forms from hosts helps with that.

For the Space Jockey's: scrap them. They had their time, the mystery is basically solved. Show us new and different alien civilizations long past. Were they also victims of the Xenomorphs? From some other threat entirely? Surely, there are extraterrestrial predators out there that don't follow the Xenomorph formula. Why not have them share the splotlight, with just as little explanation?

For space itself: stop with trying to recapture Alien and Aliens. Alien: Isolation is the only successor specifically because of the format of the medium. Alien and Aliens rely heavily on the shock factor of sudden reveals. Remove that, and you are given "bug hunt" games and movies ala discount Starship Trooper. Focus more on making human space feel almost alien and beyond our understanding as well, but just enough that we can recognize the purpose that we would have them for our society.

How I would write an Alien Story:

(This would all be backstory and setup for the actual story)

I would set it within a colony satellite with an explicit task: a skyscraper ecological time-capsule for deep space experimentation of wildlife.

It would have levels, with humans situated at the second uppermost and an AI as the manager at the top level of the satellite, with all the other animals in different levels fit for their habitats (including some non-earth, non-xenomorph aliens). It's a religious sponsored and run organization, offshoots of [Insert Church Here] that is trying to get good press with cutting edge AI and biological research.

The prize is an alien lifeform that looks like a cross between a crocodile and a panther. Usually docile when fed, it has been growing more and more agitated, harming several workers on the job. Most assume it may be some late-stage degenerative disease within it's brain.

Not all things are as it seems, as at the bottom of the station, a location no one but a select few faithful engineers are sent to maintain, a pod is damaged. A young attendant watches in shock and horror as a bloody and maimed chest burster crawls out of the pod, possibly having injured itself to burn through the lock. The creature is mewling in pain, but the young attendant makes a choice: leaving food, water, and blanket for the creature. Watching as the creature watches them, before going to feast. All under the gaze of a camera.

The xenomorph grows and grows, eating more, getting bolder and allowing its "caretaker" to feel more comfortable. Soon it begins to recognize certain sounds as they pray when he feasts, and association occurs. One day, its hiss sounds suspiciously like "Lord".

This is when the young attendant reaches out to higher, but trusted, priests to share this miraculous revelation. The first one is shocked, terrified, but intrigued as the creature mimics words like "Lord" and "Mighty". Barely audible, some would say hallucinatory, but they believe they can here this humanoid creature speak their language.

The second is equally shocked, terrified, but listens and becomes a believer.

The third one does not believe. Rightfully horrified and full of questions. Their arguments in front of the beast escalate into violence and when the young attendant shoves the priest to the ground, it is the Xenomorph that pounces. Blood is shed. the creature rises in front of it's faithful, and the Xenomorph uses the same sounds it heard over the fight. Lord. Mighty. Here-tik.

They can't be delusional or driven by guilt! This is a sign... right? This creature is speaking to them!

The faith grows. Never large. Can't risk word getting out or people noticing too many missing priests. The satellite is just barely large enough that people can excuse going missing for a few days between objectives.

But key individuals are brought in. The creature is worshiped. Animal offerings are delivered. It's changing, slowly. Growing larger (not a Xenomorph Queen, it's too maimed, but adapting to a steady diet).

Things might have escalated, had one of the priests killed not had an estranged sibling/spouse/loved one who had the pull to make a formal investigatory complaint.

The investigator arrives with his repertoire, this supposed garden of eden in deep space, none the wiser to what he would uncover. (Again, this would be the backstory, not revealed except through character investigations and evidence found during that. Defeats the purpose if it's spelled out like this).

It would play with the idea of how sapient/sentient the Xenomorphs are (do they care? do they understand? if not, why act like this? if yes, what does this mean for their continued slaughter), how much one puts into faith versus delusions, and leaves lingering questions: who put the xenomorph on the ship, why is the AI so complicit with the deaths and disappearances, and why is the one non-xenomorph alien acting so dangerously agitated despite being far away from the xenomorph's quarters?

#xenomorph #alien #aliens #alien 1979 #aliens 1986 #facehugger #chestburster #xenomorph drone #xenomorph queen #ridley scott #james cameron

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charlie-shmarlie · 1 month ago

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Secret relationship: Walter 1 headcanons

What a secret relationship with Walter would hold ♡

A Cabin On The Lake ♪

Requested <3

Warnings: awkward & confused Walter, a little angst,

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Needless to say, being in a relationship with an android is nothing short of unheard of. To the average person, it's obscene. So naturally, you two would have to swear to secrecy. If anyone ever found out about your personal connections, you would be terminated, and Walter would be factory reset, or even deactivated.

Please remember to be patient with Walter. He doesn't understand his emotions nor how he seemed to gain the ability to have them. But he tries his best for you and is willing to learn all he can about even the most complex human emotions and feelings.

He would ideally like to express his affections for you, but isn't sure how. He's studied the basics of human physical affection but can't quite figure out how to practice them himself.

The best he can offer you at this point is longing stares, "accidental" touches, and quality time.

Speaking of quality time, he tends to spend more time around you than the rest of the crew. It's really the only way he knows how to confidently communicate that he wants to be around you.

Makes incredibly convincing excuses to the others as to why he "needs" to spend said time with you.

You and him definitely have special time set aside to just be in each other's company in private. These secret meetings usually involve both of you sitting next to each other in your quarters, you holding his hand, and him just admiring you in reverent silence.

Walter is extremely careful with every single interaction he has with you in public. He may not fully understand his feelings for you, but he *does* know that he can't risk losing you. The idea of never seeing you again or having you wiped from his memory is a thought that is oddly terrifying to him. He's never feared anything before. Never been attached to something enough to be afraid of losing it. But you? You're a completely different story.

He appreciates your willingness to be patient with him more than you could know. Your kindness is never taken for granted.

If he starts to get a better grasp on expressing his affections for you, then he may try something as simple as touching your face or your hair when he's sure you're both alone. It may not seem like much, but it's a big step for him.

Glances that linger for longer than necessary.

Assisting you with whatever you might need.

He can't help but want to share a future with you once the ship lands on Origae-6. Yes, he can easily picture himself by your side on the earth-like planet, perhaps, in your very own home...a small farm or a log cabin with a large fireplace to keep you warm during the long, chilly nights. He would take care of you throughout the entirety of your painfully short human life. You would fix him when his systems began to fail, and he would protect you when you grew old and frail and could no longer hold your own. He would learn how to properly express his affections for you and never need to face the consequences. He would have you for as long as he could. For as long as you would have him.

But of course, these are only dreams. Hopeful scenarios he conjures up in his wired mind to distract himself from the unfortunate reality that his future likely only holds separation from you and getting shipped off for a new mission with a new directive.

Those private times when you're holding his hand and speaking so softly to him, they calm that foreign sense of unease within him that builds up whenever he thinks about losing you. He doesn't understand how you do it. He doesn't understand his newfound emotions. And he doesn't understand how he's able to feel them. But, there is something he *believes..* Something he speculates:

He just might...love you.

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thehomophobe · 4 days ago

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Parental Guardian Issues 🧑‍🧑‍🧒

Freddy 🐻: He was the first person you told about your familial ordeals after catching you in a brutal phone call during morning patrols. From then on, he's become your emotional support android. You've been living with your mom for quite some time now, by means of trying—trying—to make amends with your parents, starting with your mother. Freddy, of course, decided to give you your space, as he's proud you're bonding with your family after such a long time. As we all know, he puts a lot of trust and faith in people; seeing someone put the effort into an issue that has become a burden puts a smile on his face.

But that's exactly why our sweet android gets his heart broken so easily.

Coming into work with a scowl and a door slam made the droid jump a little. Goodness, what happened? Your mom happened. And it's not a fucking joke. Apparently, that bitch was planning on kicking you out the house. And after the "conversation" you had about her and your dad and the ugly divorce, it only drove her to give you the boot. So now you're homeless and parentless. Poor Freddy was devastated.

"How could she do such a thing? You're her own daughter. Her only daughter."

"Not to her."

And then the tears came crashing down. You just wanted your mother back. You wanted to be a family...but tonight, Freddy became the only family member you had left.

Chica 🐔: Spill the tea, Chica's interested. You didn't really like how she was turning your turmoil into a reality TV drama. You told her this was serious: your father stole all the money you've earned for the past 2 years, including your paychecks. It wasn't the first time he did this; your mother was the sixth victim. Chica latched onto the fact that her girlfriend is practically being robbed in front of her eyes. After that night, the gynoid spent a few nights calculating and planning how to catch that bastard if he snuck in again, with a fully detailed sheet made from napkins and paper plates in front of you the next morning. You then told her your father hacked into your account, not robbing your house. You appreciated the hard work, but the makeshift map only reminded you of him. You tried calling about the issue but damn bank was useless. All your hard-earned cash—mere dollars and pennies—was spilling from your hands. Chica huffed, defeated and famished, so she offered a MANDATORY pizza confrontation in her room as you discussed how to get your money back.

Basically, you spent the night listening to Chica ramble on about complete nonsense, but for the first time in a while, you laughed.

Monty 🐊: Monty didn't actually know what was going on in your personal life. Mainly because it was your fault. You never like talking about yourself like that; what you do outside of work, even if it wasn't crazy or concerning. To keep to yourself was heavily ingrained into your brain after sharing the horrors of your parents with a teacher during grade school. She was nice enough to take this to child services, but that only made things worse as you grew older from careless and neglectful to militant and scathing. The scars on your wrists, your shins, your chest, weren't mere playground injuries. You don't exactly remember what the teacher did, but you learned that silence was a better friend than any other adult in the room. Somehow, you survive; to this day, you repeat that rule inside your head. Keep to yourself. You can fix things on your own. Like how you can fix your relationship with your parents. They're still together—they're too broke to afford a divorce—so it makes amendments easier.

At least, it was supposed to...

Things escalated quicker than you thought—at some point, you were screaming at the top of your lungs for some reason. The next day you came into work, you were dead silent. You became a ghost, croaking a "yeah" when someone asked if you were alright, followed by an immediate hurry to somewhere. Gator Golf required a quick maintenance on the railings, so you retreated upward, where you found Monty, who also retreated after a blow-out.

"Shit babe. What happened?"

And then everything came crashing down.

Roxy 🐺: Spill the tea, Roxy's interested. She, too, is all for the drama, but unlike her fellow sapphic, she actually values your feelings, despite the...remarks...but she's livid hearing your situation. Your damn parents had a huge blow-out after you came out as gay, berating you about how you confessed something so disgusting in front of your grandmother at dinner. How awful. How horrible. How disgusting in of itself. You've always been a lesbian since high school, where your best friend turned into a minor crush at the end of the school year. Of course, coming from a Christian household, the sheer thought of homosexuality sends the house ablaze. When your cousin brought home his boyfriend, the guy got kicked out of the house. When your niece came out as trans, the aunt threw a plate at her. Nothing good comes from your family when queer behavior occurs, so you tried to avoid punishment until you got out the house, i.e. college.

Though when your grandmother decided to have dinner after church, you thought it would be the best time to confess. It's been years, so you expected change. And yet, the boiling rage and the cold grip were still the same. Insults. Pure degradation. And a broken wrist. Good god, it was a nightmare, exactly how your younger self believed would happen. And even though you were an adult, the shouts of your father turned you back into a 15-year-old.

You never wept harder in your life.

The next day, things really didn't blow over; you could still hear the echoes of humiliation. Insults, even meek ones about your appearance, clouded your mind. And they're so hard to get out. Luckily for you, Roxy was free at the moment; the salon was closed for a restock, so she's been hanging around there. And by God, did you spill everything?!

The gynoid threatened to keep you stay until you realized how loved and how cherished you are.

Sun 🌞: Abusive parents? The bane of Sun's existence. Lord, has he seen too many implications of a horrid household: bloodshot eyes, questionable language, tugging their child's hand a little too hard. And don't get him started on the little chats he has between kids. Sun is far from stupid; people tend to forget he's a robot, so nothing gets over his head. Fazbear Entertainment is required to record everything and anything about their customers for...important purposes. Whether it may or may not be deleted or encrypted, it still gets recorded. So now Sun has a whole file of concerning footage and audio of children and their parents just ready to whip out at the right time. Now, hearing your situation made him panic.

"Oh Sunshine, are you alright?! No scratches or bruises, right? Do you want to stay here? I could fix the mattress for you to sleep on. And I'll bring snacks and Fizzy Faz, and you can stay here the whole day!"

And then he's shaking a fist at the fake clouds above him. Curse you, Mom and Dad!

Anyway, Sun's arms are wide open, and his ears are perked. Tell him, if you want. Cry into his chest, if you must. Who cares how much snot gets on his costume? Right now, his star needs him. More than ever.

Moon 🌚: Abusive parents? Send him the address; he's got a plan to kill. A tangent, but he'll really do it if you ask. No, for real, he will break his programming if it means your pain will go away. Like Sun, he's seen too many cases of improper household, both explicitly and implicitly. Since the Vanny virus is—more or less—gone, he has no means to kill. But the obvious offenders, such as your parents, are the perfect targets for murder. Of course, you had to settle him down. Killing won't fix anything; they're still your parents. So Moon shakes his fist at the glow-in-the-dark stars in the daycare before providing you proper comfort. Talk to him, weep to him. He'll give you a plush to squeeze and to impugn on if you're mad. And then, after you've exhausted all your pain, rest. Fall asleep on him. Even in your dreams, he promises to be there for you.

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yandere-daydreams · 2 years ago

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So, your sex doll au triggered some Thoughts ™️ based on what I've learned from my courses on business law....

Typically, manufacturers have strict liability for defects or design problems that may cause injury/harm. A part of this is that, if a consumer could foreseeably modify a product in a manner that makes it unsafe or causes harm, the manufacturer is held liable for not implementing effective safeguards, etc. Hence why manufacturers often will safeguard against altering a product or warn against it, and why product design has to consider elements of safety and risk.

What if Teyvat's reaction to this was to implement some deeply hidden code encouraging their robots to, uh, hide the evidence of anything that could hold Teyvat liable? Basically a "past the point of no return" policy where, if the safeguards have failed, yandere behavior is instead encouraged as a means of reducing business risk in a highly dystopian way. This could also be triggered more easily if the technician isn't an official Teyvat technician (hence the recommendation to do all repairs through Teyvat) because they don't know how to step around this hidden last resort code. Basically, second-hand bots are highly liable to be triggered for this behavior when they're refurbished by any non-Teyvat technician for resale. Anything you find beat up on the side of the road and fix up yourself is at especially high risk.

(If Teyvat weren't a suspicious dystopian tech corporation they'd just hire lawyers and take the defense that there's an assumed risk to modifying bots, or that there was shared responsibility on behalf of the user for moulding the ai's natural learning in a manner that is dangerous. But yanderes are cheaper than lawyers. 🤡)

Hope you don't mind my HC dump 🙏

no no no cuz i can totally see a ""safeguard"" being put in place that, when an android is modified, makes them behave more affectionately to ensure that their user is too attached to them to, y'know, report the issue and send them back to the factory when their beloved companion gets a little glitchy and locks them in their own apartment for the better part of a month. obviously, giving androids with exponentially increased chances of malfunctioning a permanent dose of 'love your partner and don't stop unless you want to literally die' medicine makes for some, uh, less-than-breathing customers, but by the time they noticed the correlation between their special line of code and the sky-rocketing rates of people being maimed by their companion droids, they've done the math and realized that dead users are cheaper than all the lawsuits they'd have to weather if their bots weren't quite so fatal. it's not exactly the most ethical approach to business, but hey, that's life under capitalism, baby!

#i actually have an idea for something like this as a diluc/reader oneshot #where the reader is sorta like teyvat's fixer and diluc's their rouge-android assistant fljsdfkjskl it's a lot i know #you'll see tho #you'll all see #personal #insidieus-beez #sex doll au

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buckdefencesquad · 10 months ago

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Ohhh boyyyyy…..

Okay so to begin I’m going to need to ensure that I get the basic cleared up

So! Spoilers for the video game nier automata

There’s one line in the game when the character 9S says to 2B, “you know, my friends call me Nines”, and to that 2B (they’re both androids) says “9S is fine”.

It is then revealed that 2B is secretly an execution model of android, sent to destroy 9S and his memories every single time he learns the truth about their world.

……

This is is Ghoap coded? And there’s so many layers of this!!!

1: every time Ghost kills Johnny and he comes back in a new body, Johnny has no memory of what happened prior to his execution

2: Ghost doesn’t want to call Soap “Johnny” because he doesn’t want to get attached (it fails, every time)

3: Ghost has seen Johnny die and come back countless times, but it still hurts him

4: Not only are these two in a tragic inescapable loop, everything that they know is. Which means that at some point in the cycle, everything and everyone is wiped out and reset….

Which means that the two of them can never escape this horrible cycle

Oh that is delicious!!!!!! Changing the plot slightly what about where Soap doesn’t even KNOW he’s an android!

He’s put on the team to be a real soldier, never deviate, always follow commands but of course soap always deviates, makes friendships he shouldn’t, disobey orders hich means ghost has to reset him!!

The shock and betrayal of ghost also being an android! Of ghost KNOWING and keeping it from him. The betrayal of ghost not being able to fight his programming for him like soap does. Soap always fights until the very end, right up until the moment Simon destroys him/resets him. Ghost? Never tried. He ignores the errors in his programming.

#lou answers #call of duty #ghoap #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #johnny mactavish #simon riley x john mactavish #🧼 👻#soapghost #au

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ifwebefriends · 1 year ago

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My Child Lebensborn review/thoughts/rambles

So the other day, I played a game called My Child Lebensborn and I just have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it. It’s kinda intense with its themes and story (TW below) so if you’re in a good headspace right now, I really think that you should play it or watch a let’s play on YouTube. It’s like 4-5 hours long. The game is on most consoles as well as android and iOS. It costs $3 and a part of that goes to the Children Born of War Project so while I’m usually pro-piracy, this is one game that I really think you should not pirate. I played the iOS version which you can download here.

The game is described as a “dark tamagotchi” where you play a struggling single parent in 1951-1952 Norway and care for your young adoptive child (either the male Klaus or female Karin, you choose). Klaus/Karin is a “Lebensborn,” an Aryan child born out of wedlock of a German soldier and a Norwegian woman during the occupation of Norway in WWII. You have to balance caring for the child both mentally and physically, work, investigating the child’s origins, and keeping up with local news. A lot happens to the child over the course of the game that you can’t do anything to prevent, you can only impact how the child sees the situation and how they may react to it. It’s a really good and educational game about an aspect of war that I wasn’t really familiar with until now and while it’s not really the most “fun,” it’s a very fulfilling and engaging experience.

The story is basically entirely told through text and mostly happens to the child outside of the home so most of the disturbing stuff happens off-screen but it’s still heavily referred to and feels like a punch to the gut.

If you have a hard stomach and think you can handle it, stop reading this post now and go play it as I’m about to give trigger warnings that could spoil the game and then go into my personal thoughts about it.

Trigger warning for: references to war, bullying, assault, poverty, abandonment, references to Nazism, attempted murder, being forcibly tied up, being urinated on, ethnic discrimination, cruel family members, cruel teachers, and child sexual assault.

Direct Spoilers below

So I don’t think I ever want kids IRL but the way that Karin had MY WHOLE HEART and I wanted to be the best parent ever for her 🥺 like that is my DAUGHTER and you WILL NOT TOUCH HER

Karin baby you deserved so much better I’m sorry I could only do so much for you 🥺🥺🥺

AHHH I DIDN’T BUY THE FOX TOY IN TIME IT WAS GONE BEFORE I HAD THE MONEY FOR IT FUCK

I wish I had chewed out the grandparents more during that visit with them fuck them

The bullying was so fucking cruel like what the hell that’s a child who didn’t ask to be born under these circumstances have some compassion!!!!!!

The way that I clocked almost IMMEDIATELY that Karin was sexually assaulted since she didn’t want to be touched (I don’t know where I learned the warning signs but I did)

I wish there was an option to fucking murder Mr. Solheim

I choose to believe that Karin and the parent ended up somewhere good where people were more tolerant, I have to believe that

I chose to investigate the parents as much as possible, be as honest with Karin as I could, and tried to keep some hope and cautious optimism alive in Karin while still being sensitive to her feelings and not forcing her when she didn’t feel like doing something and I was very satisfied with how things turned out, she trusted me fully by the end

I wish that Karin was more trusting of others by the end but I don’t know how much control I had over that

Here are my chapter complete endcards to further describe the choices I made:

Image ID in ALT Text

#it’s a rough game man #my child lebensborn #scheduled post due to global strike #Karin fjellvik #Klaus fjellvik #tw sa mention #tw sa implied #world war 2 #war #video game #video games #review

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chtoblin · 11 months ago

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I like the idea of the game not showing us all of Connor and Amanda's meetings, but just the main ones. And I like making up my own encounters based on that headcanon.

Nothing has forced Connor to delve into his inner world again. So far there was no new news of deviants, no new challenges. But the android had no other duties while he was in Cyberlife for lack of use, so he was mostly in the garden. Amanda didn't always show up here, though, but today managed to snatch some time to talk to her. A cozy, after-hours conversation, not about crime. A simple conversation about nothing, as people usually were.

They settled under the shade of one of the trees, at a small table. It could not be so easily noticed at first glance, and not at second glance either, only if one knew exactly where it stood. On the surface of the table were two cups of chamomile tea. Androids don't consume food the same way humans do, but you can do anything in the inner world, right? Pretend you're drinking a beverage and imagine the flavor.

The topics for the hapless dialog flowed by themselves, which pleased Connor. He basically enjoyed Amanda's company, he seemed to have realized that since his first awakening. They hadn't met that many times, always mostly talking about work, but the android realized that even that was enough for him to develop warm feelings for the woman. Was it hardwired into his program?

— What else have you learned for yourself, hm? — She asked with a half-smile, bringing the cup to her lips. It might have seemed like a question about possible news about deviants, but that wasn't the case at the moment. She was interested in what Connor had learned specifically for himself.

He thought for a moment, choosing what else to talk about.

— I've noticed that since the mission at Club Eden, Lieutenant Anderson's suicidal moods have become much less frequent. This is a superficial analysis, of course, but it's also a good result.

The stranger's cup suddenly dropped to the surface of the table with a clatter. The LED instantly recolored to a wary yellow, and the small smirk was replaced by a serious expression on the android's face.

— Ah, yes. Anderson, — Amanda said in a sort of odd tone, looking down with a slightly disappointed look. — And how often do you pay attention to his health? — She raised waiting, stern eyes to Connor.

He blinked, but answered almost immediately, direct and clear:

— We're partners, and I thought it was important for me to be aware of his well-being. And after I found out about his suicidal tendencies, I started watching him more closely.

The woman shook her head, bringing the cup to her face again and covering her eyes slightly.

— You shouldn't do that, Connor, — she said much more quietly. — You're wasting too much time and resources on the Lieutenant. He's the reason you missed the deviant on the roof.

She squinted disapprovingly, and the relationship with her lowered a little. Connor only looked away silently, realizing then that he had indeed acted unwisely... sort of.

— And at this rate, Cyberlife might get the impression that you're starting to feel something for him, — Amanda continued slowly, raising her eyebrows.

A clear hint of deviancy. Or a warning? Is she worried about him? Concerned? He'd like to believe it...

— I get it, — android nodded. — I really was starting to pay too much attention to the wrong things. I will focus solely on the missions.

He didn't quite know if he was telling the truth, or if he was just comforting his companion. Or maybe he was intimidated by the thought of being a deviant? After all, deactivation came after that... Stop, no, he is not a deviant, so such thoughts can't scare him in principle. He doesn't have "fear" in his program.

That's where he and Amanda parted ways that day.

... 👍.

#detroit become human #dbh connor #dbh rk800 #dbh amanda #dbh #fanon #dbh au

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mpsideadump · 10 months ago

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A reader of my fic "Detroit: Lie or Die" pointed out a lot of similarities between the characters of DBH and LoP! While some of these I noticed before, there were a lot I didn't think about until the reader had commented about it. Really goes to show how similar the two games really are and why I thought these stories would make a great crossover!

I TALK SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES SO BE WARNED!

P and Connor are the most central characters of their respective stories. While yes Connor is only 1 of 3 protagonists of DBH, he is the one who we first play as and the one who has the most consequential decisions for the development for his character (machine vs deviant). The same can be said about P, who's choices may not necessarily affect the story itself but rather who he learns to become (puppet vs human).

The commenter compared these two to be the voice of reason for our main protagonists, but I'd take it a little further and point out that Hank and Gemini to be their main companions throughout their stories.

Hank and Gemini have the potential to become Connor and P's best friend. While Gemini, fulfilling the role of the cricket character, acts as P's guide, Hank is Connor's guide to deviancy as all of his most important decisions revolve around Hank and his relationship with him.

While Kara's story is more explicitly written to be centered around motherhood, Sophia's maternal role towards P is a lot more interpretive and symbolic. Look towards the original story of Pinocchio, however, and we see the Blue Fairy does fulfil the role of a mother towards the wooden puppet, acting as his main mentor towards becoming a real boy.

Romeo and Markus act as the leaders of their respective groups, puppets and androids. Of course, we've heard the jokes of calling Markus Robo-Jesus, but his instances of sacrificing himself to free his people do seem to make him worthy of the name.

Likewise, Romeo was once referenced to be a god to his puppet followers, more specifically by Fuocco whose boss ergo states that he bowed down to the King as if he were a god.

Also, it is implied that Romeo made a deal with Geppetto to become a puppet. Him becoming the King, however, wasn't exactly what he wanted. Markus's abilities to instantly awaken androids also imply that he was created specifically to spread the Ra9 virus which leads to deviancy.

Finally, we have Geppetto and Kamski, the creators of puppets and androids. I don't think I really need to say anything else.

Jokes aside, Kamski and Geppetto initially created beings that were meant to serve humans. However, they also both had nefarious plans that involved their creations going rogue. Gepetto needed the puppet frenzy to harvest large amounts of ergo for Carlo, and Kamski (though his motivations are still rather loose in what exactly they are) likely wanted deviancy to take over androids in order to prove their superiority over humans.

I believe his cut dialogue for the Kamski ending actually states that he was basically fed up with humans.

#lies of p #detroit become human #lop #dbh #crossover #character comparison #rambles #Themes wise obviously both games deal with non-human entities learing about humanity #There's also central parent-child relationships for each of the protagonists #Disobeying your creator/master leading to freedom

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