#implied lowkey

[megahertzmaroon]

Fool’s Paradise /// Loop

Special thanks two my friends Carol (cowsaresushi) and hatch for helping out with this comic!

Here’s the song that partially inspired the thing.

[notedchampagne]

canaan frat house

[adoctornotatumbl-r]

do y’all remember in star trek ( 2009 ) where academy!kirk was doing the little ship simulation and it was revealed that spock designed it and it was supposed to be unbeatable but kirk hacked and altered the program so he’d beat it we all just moved on like that wasn’t literally the funniest goddamn thing he could possibly do

[winged-bat]

Bernard: And that’s how I know Batman is actually a meta with a no meta rule to throw us off his scent

Bruce: …that’s quite fascinating, bernard was it?

[shrunkenbrat]

old miscellaneous media × dcmk postings becayse why not :3

[mosaixe]

the aftermath (new friendships)

[sudsy-2oap]

Henry looks so squishy in your art style :(((((( I luv him .3.

Squishy fella

[suguwu]

the spring air is chilled.

you shiver in it, even as petals from the apple tree flutter down around you, as pink as can be. they catch in your hair, nature's finest crown.

"is my party so boring that you must escape it?"

you close your eyes for a moment before turning. "your grace," you say, making your courtesies with elegant ease. when you raise your gaze, you meet duke satoru gojo's comet-tail eyes. they burn through the night.

"well?" he says.

you blink.

"my party," he says, voice bordering on a whine. "it bores you?"

"i just needed some air, your grace."

"in the chill?" he asks, stepping closer. his eyes almost glow, and you think of will o' the wisps bobbing through the forest, beckoning, beckoning. he reaches out with one big hand; your breath catches in your throat. he plucks a petal from your hair. lets it drift through the air to land at your feet.

you watch it fall. then there are long fingers beneath your chin, raising your gaze until you meet his. you swallow.

he steps closer still. you can feel the heat radiating from him, like the hearthstones long after the fire has gone out.

"your grace—"

"satoru."

"it's not proper—"

he snorts, tossing his head back. his hair is like starlight; it catches in the wind and dances like a shooting star.

"proper," he says, "is boring."

his fingers trace along your jaw, down the curve of your neck. he cups the back of your neck. pulls you close, until you can feel his breath against your lips.

"you must think so too," he muses. "to be out here without a chaperone."

the world snaps into sharp, clear focus. ice pours down your spine, a waterfall of winter. you start to stumble back, but he doesn't let you go.

"don't go," he says, a grin spreading across his lips. "not when i finally have you within my grasp. courting is so slow."

"your grace!"

he kisses his title off of your lips. you freeze, a prey animal caught between a predator's jaws, and your hand fists in his fine jacket. he feels like fire against you, coaxing your mouth open with a slip of his tongue.

you whine into his mouth. his lips curve up against yours.

"your grace!"

your ears start to ring. satoru presses one final kiss to your lips before he pulls back. you stare past him, into the darkness of the orchard. the apple tree flowers wave in the breeze, a rippling sunset of color, the pink visible even in the dark.

there are murmurs from those who have assembled at the doorway. you turn your head slowly, as if your neck is made of wood. you know your fate is sealed.

the first thing you see is viscount suguru getou.

he's smiling.

[doctorhomo]

why was ruby’s birth mother dressing as claudia winkleman from the traitors at the tender age of 15 to drop her baby off at the local church. why was she dramatically pointing at street signs when she didnt even think anyone was there so they’d randomly realise that she wanted the baby to be named ruby. when i was 15 i wore the same pair of leggings every single day and ate an entire packet of tesco value tortilla chips with philadeliphia and then fell asleep. and i cant even make it snow

[catastrophicgay]

wicked movie is very big for people who’s introduction to toxic yuri was glinda and elphaba

[isthisatragedy]

hello gyatts i drew stomach book fanart

[paddysol]

they're looking at fords deranged ass

[oh-no-its-bird]

The biggest lie Naruto tells its audience is that you can be both a good person and a good shinobi.

[specialagentartemis]

The Murderbot Diaries and Terminator: Dark Fate: What Does a Killer Robot WANT, Anyway?

The Terminator (1984) is probably the most famous killer robot in media, setting the image for a what a killer robot is.  It’s shaped like a bodybuilder, weapons built into its metal skeleton, eyes hidden behind cool and impersonal sunglasses, a threateningly “foreign” accent, and no feelings, no remorse, and no desires besides killing its target.  Kyle Reese describes it to Sarah Connor bluntly: “That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!”  And the film supports this wholeheartedly.  We get a few scenes from the Terminator’s perspective, and they do not really indicate that it has much in the way of personality or free will.  It’s scary because it is a ruthlessly efficient, tireless, and analytical machine built to kill.  It will not stop until its target is dead, or it is.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) gives us a nice Terminator, a Terminator captured from its controlling Skynet and re-programmed to help Sarah and John Connor rather than hunt them.  This Terminator gives slightly more suggestions that it has a personality of its own, but ultimately it is still now ruthlessly efficient, tireless, and analytical in protecting its charges, but it still dies at the end in the course of fulfilling its objective.  It was, after all, programmed by the human rebels to protect John Connor, and it did.

Did the Terminator want any of that?  The second film halfheartedly cares a little, and the first film certainly did not at all.  It’s an irrelevant question.  It’s a robot; it’s incapable of truly wanting anything, it just does as it’s programmed.  It fulfills its objective.

In modern sci-fi, that’s not really a satisfying answer anymore.  It looks like a human, has human organic parts built into it, and it clearly has the ability to process large amounts of information and make complex and reasoned decisions.  Why do we write it off so thoroughly?  Does a Terminator like what it does?  Would it choose this?  What does a Terminator want?

The Murderbot Diaries (2017-present) by Martha Wells isn’t a direct answer to this question, but it sure is considering it.

The titular Murderbot is very similar to the Terminator: a human-form cyborg, a robot with human organic parts built in, a machine with guns in its arms made to do a job and that job being to protect and/or oppress humans.  But as a thinking, feeling, complex entity, it has opinions about that job.

You know what else is a clear response to early Terminator movies’ fundamental uninterest in the Terminator’s inner life and personal opinions on things?  Later Terminator movies.  Specifically Terminator: Dark Fate (2019).

The fact that The Murderbot Diaries and Dark Fate came out at roughly the same time, in the same sci-fi AI-story zeitgeist, looking back critically at the 80’s and early 90’s Terminator and asking, well, what would it do if it didn’t have to murder, who would it be if it had the choice, is telling.

The Murderbot Diaries stars Murderbot, a SecurityUnit owned by a callously greedy and corner-cutting company that uses such SecUnits ostensibly to protect but in reality to intimidate, control, and surveil human clients.  It calls itself “Murderbot” and all SecUnits as a whole “murderbots” for a reason.  The world of the books sees SecUnits as mindless killer robots kept in check by their programming, in a very similar way that the Terminator was presented in 1984. We see the story from Murderbot’s point of view: it’s snarky, depressed, anxious, bitter, funny, and very opinionated.  It also really, really hates intimidating, controlling, and surveilling people, and it specifically broke its own programming meant to keep it compliant so it wouldn’t have to hurt people.  Instead, it wants to half-ass its job and watch soap operas… but it’s sympathetic to humans in danger despite itself, and when it chooses humans it cares about, it will go to great lengths (ruthless, but very tired and full of fear and pity) to protect them.  What does it want?  To be given space; to not be given orders; to have the ability to take its time and watch its shows and determine what its job as Security means to it.

Terminator: Dark Fate takes a different tack.  (It’s actually about three badass women and I’m very sorry for focusing on the man-like character here BUT) Dark Fate presents an alternate timeline off the main series, where the Terminator succeeded in killing young John Connor.  Previously, we had seen Terminators that would not stop until they were dead; this one fulfills Reese’s other warning.  It will not stop until John Connor is dead.  Well…. it succeeded.  John Connor is dead.

Now what?

In the opening scene, we see this from his mother Sarah Connor’s perspective.  The Terminator appears out of time, ambushes and kills young John Connor, and then stands there looking impassively at the destruction it wrought while Sarah screams.

It looks cold and satisfied when that scene is first presented.  But when we see it again from the Terminator’s perspective, it seems to just stand there, staring stupidly, suddenly with no direction in life.  It fulfilled its objective.  It followed its programming.  Now it has no more objective, can receive no more orders, and its programming has nothing more to tell it to do.  It eventually disappears into the woods, learns more about humanity, grows a conscience, lives in a little cabin with a woman and her son fleeing an abusive husband in an apparently mutually very supportive relationship, chops wood, drives a truck, and gives Sarah Connor insider information to allow her to track down other incoming Terminators as a way of atonement.  It does have remorse, if given time to think for itself and realize it.  It doesn’t really want to hurt people, and even, similar to Murderbot, has a drive to use its strength and intimidating-ness to protect the people it chooses.  It mostly wants to be quietly and safely left alone.

Both the Terminator and Murderbot are killer robots left adrift, aimless, reeling, suddenly having to decide for themselves what to do with their lives for the first time.  Both are stories that circle back to the original Terminator premise and say, okay, but that killer robot isn’t killing for the sheer thrill of it, it was forced into doing that by a top-down authority in control of its programming.  That would kind of fuck someone up, actually.  It’s a hopeful narrative: these things are people, and they don’t want to be hurting other people.  When given the option, they just want to rest, make amends, understand the truth, find a place they belong, and see the people they care about safe.  And I think it’s fascinating that not only is smaller, literary sci-fi asking this question and telling this story, but so is the Terminator franchise itself.

We also just as blatantly see the evolution of Sarah Connor as a character.  In The Terminator (1984) the Terminator is sent to kill Sarah Connor.  When I was watching it recently with some friends who had never seen it before, they guessed—almost correctly—“oh, it’s because she’s the rebel leader in the future!”  Sorry guys, this is a 1980s mainstream sci-fi blockbuster.  Her as-yet unborn son is going to be the rebel leader.  That’s why the robots in the future need to kill her, before she gives birth to the hero of the humans.  Blech, I know. 

Over the course of the movie, though, she becomes tough, fierce, and brave, the type who can and will survive the apocalypse; in future movies and tv series (like The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 2008, where she gets to be the eponymous title character this time!), she gets to be a strong leader in her own right.  This is particularly true in Terminator: Dark Fate, where Sarah Connor is a tough, grizzled, middle-aged Terminator-fighter, who steals heavy weaponry from the government to track down and kill Terminators arriving from the future.  She becomes a mentor to the new woman being hunted down by the new Terminator threat, Dani Ramos.  This time, though, Dani isn’t fated to be the mother of the human rebel leader—she is destined to become the human rebel leader herself.  Along with Dani’s own Kyle Reese figure, a cybernetically-augmented human fighter from the future named Grace, women get central action-hero and rebel-leader roles in Terminator: Dark Fate, feeling like an awkward apology for the sexism inherent in the premise of 1984’s The Terminator.  (However, Dark Fate stops short of committing to the Dani-Sarah/Grace-Reese parallel and letting them be lesbians.  It’s still a mainstream action movie, I guess.)  We even see the development of a curt but resentfully respectful understanding between Sarah Connor and the Terminator that killed her son.

I lay this out because in the same way I see the literary DNA of the Terminator in Murderbot, I see elements of Sarah Connor in Dr. Mensah.  She’s the human protagonist—the one who would be the protagonist if All Systems Red had been from the human perspective—and feels like the answer to a similar question to “what does a killer robot want?”, namely, “what if, instead of enemies locked into battle to the death, the badass human and the killer robot worked together and came to an understanding? What if they could be friends instead of enemies?”  Mensah also feels like a feminist response to some of the issues I had with Sarah Connor—that she didn’t get to be the leader herself, that despite her own strength and tenacity being the mother to the leader was the most important thing she would do—and responds to them in a similar way that Dark Fate somewhat apologetically does. Mensah is the leader of her society (her planet).  Mensah is a mother and she is a scientist and a leader and gets her badass action-hero moments (MINING DRILL).  She is the first to reach out to Murderbot.  To ask it how it feels, and calm down the others later when they’re afraid; her relationship with Murderbot is unique.  She’s a foil to Murderbot in a parallel but opposite way that Sarah Connor is a foil to the Terminator.  And while in Dark Fate they are not friends (the Terminator did still kill Sarah’s son, even if it didn’t specifically want to) we see the same kind of desire reflected: what if they were at least allies?  What if they were working together?  How would that relationship go?  What kind of understanding could they come to, about what it means to be human and to be machine? It's a smaller part of the movie and they don't give a whole lot of answers, but it's there.

Both All Systems Red (and the subsequent Murderbot Diaries books) and Terminator: Dark Fate were released in a very different sci-fi zeitgeist than The Terminator was.  They’re both looking back, and reacting to it: Dark Fate directly, The Murderbot Diaries indirectly.  And they’re approaching the concept of the Terminator and its Sarah Connor figure with similar questions: What does the robot want, aside from its programming to kill, and if it could be freed of its programming to kill, what kind of relationships—with society, with the concept of self-determination, and with its human woman foil—could it potentially be able to develop, with that freedom?

[romeoeatzkorn]

No fucking way more drawings of these FA- /j

I enjoy MSI songs, I just fucking hate Jimmy

[starmocha]

Rafayel: what happened?

Xavier: *trolling*

Zayne: I am innocent, and I have the evidence to prove it.