#maybe bc of the whole android/cyborg thing…

[marinecorvid]

on the endless list of things to do: work out scifi android/cyborg “nonexistent” govt agent who goes rogue and finds her way home to the desert beyond the broad strokes of it

[applejuiceyjuice-art]

twitch cloutchase fun facts!

twitch was originally blue and green when it first emerged from justin.tv. i actually like the original branding bc it was unique looking, while the purple rebrand simplified everything, maybe a bit too much. even though twitch rebranded to purple literally 1 year in, in cloutchase, she phased from blue to purple over a couple of years, aligned w her transition. the blue phase was very “call of duty man gun weapons” kind of thing so at least the purple branding was gender neutral.

when twitch entered the scene, they were befriended by steam and youtube, who each introduced him to the two halves of the gaming sites and video sites (wow more duality imagery-) of course there’s overlap between these two things and that’s why twitch exists

at the time she leaned more towards the video sites since they were more her kind of people, being outgoing personalities who just also happened to like video games. the gamer sites were mostly kinda mean except for steam and itch (though itch didn’t play conventional games with the rest of them). even tho twitch felt more at home playing more competitive games, she felt out of place within the group socially, partially due to being in the closet and that most of the gamers were seemingly cis men that spent more time yelling at each other than cooperating

twitch was always a cyborg on her face/head since the start, like she says in the route, but she used to digitally mask it so the only indication was from her eye being a different color. it works similarly to detroit become human androids. she can do this to her other robotic appendages, too but chooses not to, now.

she was the one who crushed on youtube first because she’s always admired the big shot sites and aspired to be like them. he used to call her “starlet” because of that. i don’t think he took her that seriously until the whole falling out thing, because at that point he also lost vine and google+ like bro is not ok

the story behind the accident that took their leg changes all the time, because what actually happened doesn’t matter. the point of her being a cyborg narratively is a physical representation of her self destructive tendencies and workaholic/grindset nature. and obviously the original duality design, being streamer and chat. but in my opinion this is canon:

[erigold13261]

What is a human in the Eriverse? (Bc some people don't look human, androids/cyborgs are a thing, and eventually there will be organic robots)

Basically a human is any character in the Eriverse who isn't a full animal or robot.

Elementals, organic robots, anything that can naturally be born from another "human" in the Eriverse is technically a human.

There's obviously a different standard for humans in the Eriverse compared to our world. If someone like Catherine or Nova came here to our world, they would not be classified as human at all, not even remotely (maybe as like a half human, or just humanoid).

But in the Eriverse (or even just NSR) human has a whole different meaning to it. Like it's a much broader term I would say. Characters such as 1010 and Lyla are not human at all (when they upgrade themselves with biotech then it becomes a blurry line), but characters like Neon or Jade are still considered humans (for the most part, there is some contention with organic robots when they first start appearing).

I think I usually try to not use the word "human" at all when answering asks or talking about characters, because I don't want "human" to mean "non-elemental" since I do consider elementals as humans.

So yea, that is the best answer I can really give. I hope that is good enough for you. It is definitely confusing, but let me just say that even in our own history some people were considered "not human" just because they were different from the people in power, so the word human can shift over time (like how it will grow to encompass organic robots. Pretty sure the term didn't always refer to elementals, but that changed over the course of history).

[garlic-sauc3]

Cyberpunk world bc why the fuck not

Basically the world improves a lot and has a lot of robots and androids and shit and it is really advanced and stuff until a sort of incident happens and something goes wrong in the factory or a nuclear thing happens who knows but some big boom happens and boom humanity is wiped off of the face of the earth and the few survivors have to scrape by and stuff

Main character finds and old broken rusty half dead android in the dump or somewhere and takes it home and fixes it and boom new friend

The robot takes a bit of getting used to bc it is kinda annoying but later MC discovers(through trial and error) that said android thing is sapient through some sort of glitch(?) and feels things and has personality that isn't made up from code and shit

The entire vibe is like orange ashy like the world in wall-e and the garage looks super cool and there's the whole montage type thing of fixing the android

And basically its like post apocalyptic world where the remaining bits of the advanced world from before are all rusty and messed up 

Maybe the android sometimes has these like lapses and shit where they glitch and shut down for a second especially when they are upset or anxious 

MC lives in an old abandoned apartment building has the whole thing to themselves bc they are like one of the only people left and also they have a workshop in the garage

A lot of different types of androids and stuff to help with stuff and the main android is probably one that isn't considered useful and that is part of the arc where they get used to each other 

MC has an undercut

Like cyberpunk type stuff

Long jackets and stuff like with cool colors and stuff

So sweatshirts but the length of a trench coat with neon based colors that are washed out and the other color is black 

Mostly black but the hood being cyan or bright pink and also the sleeves have a strip

The sleeves are like the whole sweater type thing with belled sleeves(?) and stuff 

MC has a cool undercut and like a swoopy hairstyle and stuff also cool ass earrings and black nail polish

MC has like the cool cyber punk eye thing, and arm gadgets(they made themselves?)

MC cyborg? sounds fun idk

The android was in a dump from previous “malfunctions” the prev owner did not want

After being fixed the android was still kinda rusty and sometimes goes non verbal or repeats the beginning of a sentence, their limbs sometimes get jammed bc they hadnt used them in a while

@insomniwillow bc you missed when i explained it in chat

@parker-presents bc you seemed to like it when i explained the concept and this one has my og ideas

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

hot take

if you’re gonna write a story that takes place in china

maybe actually do the research abt china???

fair warning: if you like really like cinder and/or marissa meyer you may just wanna sit this one out

in these trying times of lost innocence of childhood and being more aware of social justice issues, i find myself being very critical of the entertainment media i consume

esp when it comes to representation, bc representation is important to me. and it’s becoming more and more important to me the older i get, as an asexual chinese-american woman. i’m still on the fence abt no rep v. bad rep, but this isn’t what this post is mainly abt

i’m currently reading cinder, by marissa meyer for my book club

and i just...i have a lot to say abt it. a lot that i really gotta get off my chest before i feel i can continue to read it

i’d preferably like to talk abt it with my friends (and maybe i will when the time comes), but i’d have to wait until june 1 and finish the book. as i said above, i really have to get this off my chest before i can finish it, so here i am, screaming into the void

so to begin, and i usually comment abt this when it comes to A LOT of east asian rep i see in entertainment media: my beef with the combination of east asian culture to mean one (1) asian/east asian culture

in this case, a combo of east asian cultureS (plural) into one (1), which would be china

honorifics

there are honorifics in china--like you definitely want to apply the correct honorific to your authority figures (i.e., parents, teachers, doctors, bosses, etc.)

and that part of china’s culture was taken, and then adapted into japanese culture today, HOWEVER, the way it’s used in japanese culture today is very different than how chinese ppl use them

okay so disclaimer real quick, chinese is my second language, and i have not taken up learning japanese, and am i’m going off information i’ve learned from my friends who took japanese as their second langauge; so the information i provide here may not be precisely accruate (hence, having trouble finding better words to explain this)

a lot of china’s honorifics aren’t as “““specific”””--for major lack of a better word--as japan’s

they have mr., miss, mrs., teacher/master, doctor, etc., and, in general, it’s custom to use them bc they are important--authority and hierarchy is v important to collectivistic cultures

japan has “““specific””” identifiers that are often, if not always, used to identify any of those older, younger, or equal to you

senpai, -chan, -san, -sama, etc., as well as other identifiers as placeholders for the person’s name to communicate who they are in relation to the person speaking (e.g., oniisan, oniichan, oniisama)

how honorifics are used in cinder is almost completely wrong, not just in culture, but also through translation

from meyer’s website:

-dàren: for a high-ranking official today is simply means adult, or grown up. it can be used as a respectful honorific toward superiors, but it mostly just means adult. archaically it did mean “your/his excellency.” but again, today, it’s mainly used to refer to an adult. and i imagine however far into the future this book takes places, they’d use it the same way??? but i mean i guess if they went back to imperialism

-shìfu: for an older male this is actually master (as an honorific, such as teacher is, or to specify a very qualified worker). sometimes it can be used to address strangers, specifically older men (not necessarily specifically, or often, used for an older male)

-jūn: for a younger male idk where she got “younger male” from bc it’s mostly used as a measure word. it can be used as an honorific, but translates to “your” not younger male. had she been going by the “honorifics” she uses below, it should be dì, which comes from dìdi (弟弟), which means younger brother (but not necessarily younger male)

-jiĕ: for an older female my best guess is this is derived from jiĕjie (姐姐), which means older sister (not necessarily older female)

-mèi: for a younger female once again, she probably derived this from mèimei (妹妹), which means younger sister (not necessarily younger female)

these specific pinyin (more specifically the last two/three) that she picked cannot be separated from the other pinyin that help to identify them. jiĕ and mèi don’t exist by themselves in the chinese language (compared to -chan, or -san do in japanese), and therefore do not translate as such in meyer’s book. not to mention, multiple characters can be applied to jiĕ and mèi depending on the context and other pinyin/character next to it that helps form the word, or helps distinguish the context

she perhaps simplified these honorifics a little too much. so much so in fact that they lost their meaning. quite literally

and, as i said before, these honorifics aren’t used like they are in japanese culture/language. you don’t tack on honorifics behind someone’s name (like a suffix) as they do in japan. the whole honorific (not just half of it, not like a suffix) comes after someone’s name, such as Lín lăoshī (林老师), which means Teacher Lin. or replaces their name entirely, such as tā shì wŏ de dìdi (他是我的弟弟), which means “this is my younger brother” (as opposed to, “this is bob, my younger brother” or variations of that same sentiment)

names

now, in this futuristic world, i can understand if there are names from other countries (esp. other east asian countries)

however, if your crown prince’s name of china has a japanese name...i’m probs gonna call you out on it. esp bc china and japan don’t have The Best history. now maybe they’ve worked thru it after all these yrs, but still

he’s the crown prince of china

he’s mostly just refered to as prince kai. which i would be okay with if it was just that bc kai is chinese

however, his full name? kaito. kaito is japanese

rikan? japanese. like wtf, if your the emperor of china, you should probs have a chinese name. i mean, you’d think hope?

iko? also japanese (i admit this is being a lil nit-picky, bc cinder or adri or whoever is free to name their android whatever-the-hell they want to, i’m just saying)

and i mean, i guess i can see names from other countries in the real world too, but you have to remember china has the largest population of ppl in the world, so the chances that there are ppl within a certain district who don’t have chinese names is v slim (esp bc you have to take the hsk to show you can contribute to society in china before they grant you a visa to live/work there).

compare that to cinder’s district, where we have cinder, adri, iko, peony, pearl, sacha, fateema, and dr. earland. oh and then the lab tech named li, who’s most definitely the only one i can assuredly say is chinese (and i would hope looks chinese)

now, again, bc it is the future, maybe more (like A LOT more) ppl have moved to china lbr tho, they’ve moved back to imperialism, why would you choose to live there? but i’d still be bitter abt it regardless, bc like china, in theory, should have chinese ppl? w/ chinese names??? i imagine it’s still a p big country in this future

optics

i really wish cinder looked chinese. this is more of a personal thing, and i get that genes aren’t so cut and dry, and if she’s a lunar, then yeah she probably won’t look completely chinese

but a girl can dream for representation other than just mulan ya know (not saying mulan sucks or anything, but it’s like, kinda the only thing i have so)

esp bc the book takes place in china. and she is said to be at least mixed “““““asian”””””

i also wish the fucking prince looked chinese--his skin is fair according to the wikia

bruh

why are you so afraid to make your main characters brown

on a more serious note, and this is getting really nit-picky (kinda) again, but i really wish meyer had put more thought into dr. earland’s character. okay, now, i haven’t finished the book so the good doctor may, in fact,,, be...a...good....................doctor..............?

but my point still stands in that dr. earland comes of as very sexist (with undertones of racism, wheeeeee) bc he hates fateen (who has dark skin, btw) bc she’s taller than him

and he’s also super creepy (as in, “where i’m from, that’s called pedophilia” kind of creepy) bc of his strange interest in young, teenage (cyborg) girls...

yeah

and okay, again, i haven’t finished the book, so maybe he’s supposed to come off that way

but an old, white dude showing too much interest in finding a young woc? not v good optics, regardless of dr. earland’s character yeah?

the fact the fateen points this out does absolutely nothing (aka lampshading).

if you point it out, but continue to fall into a harmful stereotype, you are still perpetuating the stereotype. full stop

misc

i say “misc” but most of this really falls under criticism of the author herself, misc is just shorter

i think it’s great that she’s taking this age-old fairy-tale and putting it into my place of birth, bc representation means the absolute world to me. also i really like this idea that the first telling of cinderella took place in china like fuck yeah, steal that white disney princess from the europeans

but i really wish you’d do it right

in her faq, she apologizes if she got anything wrong, but that’s like putting a band-aid over a bullet wound

how much research is research? did she just google a bunch of stuff, or did she sit down and actually talk to ppl from china? or chinese-americans who have kept their chinese culture?  participate in chinese culture to gain a better understanding?

going by the fact that she wrote cinder in a month, she probably stuck to google

which...i mean i guess i’m glad she made the effort, but it woulda been nice if she’d, after getting a book deal, consulted chinese ppl and edited what needed to be edited yeah? i know she did a little editing, but she said the whole process took 3 months from the time she found an agent to getting a book deal, so like...i’m willing to bet she didn’t sit down with some chinese folk and talk abt their culture (and so on)

and look, it’s really not that hard. and, sure it may delay when the book gets published, but at least it’d be more accurate. and better representation.

rather than falling into what most ppl do these days (i’m looking at you miraculous ladybug) and combining all the east asian cultures to make one (1) culture, and call it--not even east asian--but asian

as if that one (1) monster culture that’s mostly made of up east asian cultures could speak for the variety and diversity of a total of 48 countries, and their respective cultures, that are within the asian continent

now, this whole “calling it asian culture” isn’t meyer’s fault--it’s a side-effect of our society. like i get that, and i’m not trying to put the blame solely on her shoulders

but she still perpetuates it by choosing not to talk to chinese ppl abt a folk tale the may have originated in china, in order to ya know, make it more accurate to china. considering it takes place...IN CHINA