#standalone complex

[namedr]

aeria gloris

[s3znl-gr3znl]

Anime watchers be like "this is my favorite show!"

[automansdaughter]

Inking practice

Some fan art of Motoko Kusanagi, wearing her white jeans outfit from Standalone Complex season 2.

[cyberpunkplaylist]

Origa - Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex - Inner Universe

What we have here is the opening credits music for the first season of the the Shirow Masamune cyberpunk classic, Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex.  Performed here by Origa in a combination of Russian and English, with a soprano boy doing the bits in Latin.  And honestly it’s just asskicking music with the Shirow feel of some utopian ideal sullied by cyber-enhanced violence.  With the kind of ironic “Watch in awe, watch in awe, heavenly glory, heavenly glory” as a repeated theme.  Worth your damn time as you storm an Arasaka facility with vengeance in mind.  You got this.

BONUS: THE OPENING CREDITS SEQUENCE

[weakestcreature]

me pulling up to the function

[thepersonaofwill]

Artwork of Motoko Kusanagi & Batou

[emero0]

Guys i have the (potentially) hottest take of the century caution the plate is hot do not burn your tongues but also its very lukewarm in my opinion

Tsukasa and Ichika have the same energy

Like i have no solid reasons but like

Think about it

Same vibes

I love tsukasa but we over hype him so much if he was quieter i feel like my point would stand to gain a lot

They’re both basic /hj /lh

But really, at their core they both seem to have pretty simple values of wanting the best for those around them

Despite tsukasa’s loud personality i dont think hes an inherently showy person

And maybe my comparisons mainly come from how they are with saki, specifically tsukasa and how hes mellowed out

Idk like i said this is mostly just based on vibes so i cant really defend it but :P

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Maid and The Crocodile

standalone YA high fantasy romance, set in the world of Raybearer (10 years later)

a girl ages out of her orphanage and searches for a job as a maid - but before she’s hired, she accidentally gets bound to the Crocodile - a god thought to steal girls through his shrines throughout the cities

she wants nothing to do with him or his curse, and gets herself a job as a Curse Eater at an inn, consuming the spiritual residue of their past mistakes and regrets

but her past and her connection to the Crocodile won’t go away, and she gets caught up in his revolutionary ambitions

disabled MC (vitiligo, cane user)

[huusmaesta]

Take a look at my profile pic...

Original title: Kôkaku Kidôtai: Stand Alone Complex | 攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX.

[namedr]

the Major

[fictionadventurer]

Fortnight of Books 2024: Day 2

Most surprising (in a good way) book of this year?

I'd gotten the impression that Vanity Fair was a depressing slog. When I tried the miniseries (didn't finish due to content), I thought the whimsical narrator talking directly to the audience was a weird adaptation conceit. Imagine my surprise when I tried the novel and found out it was all directly from the book! This book was a rollicking comedy with some extremely meta narration, like Wodehouse turned up to a thousand!

It's still got its share of depressing happenings, and the narrator's worldview can be too harsh, but my delight at how much fun Thackeray was having as a writer made the book a highlight of the year.

Most disappointing book/Book you wish you enjoyed more than you did?

The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson. It has the premise of a bookshop where people from across time can come and get books--and then doesn't make the plot about that! It makes it into a stupid Good Magic Needs to Balance the Evil Magic plot! Such a waste! I shouldn't be this mad at a middle-grade book, but I hate the wasted potential so much!

(I wrote out an entire rant about another disappointing book before I remembered that this one disappointed me more. But I don't want to waste all that work, so it's going under the cut. Long story short: Not a great year for books about bookshops with magical time travel).

The premise of Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time by Tracy Higley was so far up my alley it was living in my house. It's about a writer and a bookshop owner having portal-fantasy time-travel adventures where she gets to hang out with famous authors and artists from history! Unfortunately, the execution was so maddening I listened to most of the book on 2x speed to get it over with.

The lesson about valuing creativity for its own sake instead of seeking external fame or validation was a good one, but it was repeated so many times. Everyone kept taking the main character to task for abandoning creative pursuits because real life was more important--but she had a lot of huge time-sensitive issues happening in her life! It felt so callous and tone-deaf to say that she should finish her novel when she's got, like, two weeks to prepare for legal and tax stuff that could save her job and her home.

And the time travel premise made no sense. It could have gone for vibes and just had her talk with these authors. It could have had some well-defined rules. Instead it sat in this weird halfway point where it had a lot of terms and rules that made no sense and made the entire experience worse. Not pursuing her creative gift can erase authors from history? What does that have to do with anything? And I still have zero idea what the whole Egypt thing was about--it was presented as a real place and her real history, and then it turns out she's got a different real-life story?

There was enough good there that I did finish the book, and the ending worked better than it had any right to, but there was so much about that book that baffled me. I can't understand how she got such a good premise so wrong.

[one-bunny-a-day]

Heya! My boyfriend is a fan of bunnies, and I'm a big fan of how you draw them. Do you think you could please and if it's not a bother make a math bunny or student bunny? Thank you very much for your content! It's very nice to see it on this platform.

08/08/2023

today's bunny is better at math than everyone here and it knows it

[weakestcreature]

happy birthday Locky from GITS:SAC!

[flojocabron]

04/28/25: Another online anime order received! Didn't check my mail until this morning, but it probably arrived on Saturday. For some years now, when I get my tax return; I order some anime. I got some in the other day too, and this completes my binge. These came from a company called Gruv. I also spent around $60 for everything. And I'm double dipping on GitS Stand Alone Complex. I have it on dvd already. But it's time for an upgrade. And the other series look nice too. I saw a few first season episodes of Castlevania a few years back, but now I got it more complete. And I'm a fan of Inuyasha. The last season in a dvd set is okay. I'll get it on bluray one day. I hope you have a great start to your week.

[thepersonaofwill]

The Major - Motoko Kusanagi

A rare beauty 🤍🖤

[generic-sonic-fan]

Old Time's Sake

Summary: The robot once known as "Metal Sonic" attempts to ask Amy Rose for a favor.

TW: suicidal thoughts

---

It crashed into a pot of petunias on the porch, ceramic shattering against the wooden panels of the house. Shredded pink blossoms settled against purple, yellow, and blue plating, only to be shaken off by the onslaught of shudders that battered its frame. 

Neo pulled itself to the door just as the knob twisted from the other side. Amy Rose stared down.

“Metal? Oh my goodness, you look- what happened?”

It grasped the frame of the door and pulled itself upright.

“No, it’s okay, stay right there. Or actually, I’ll bring you in!”

Amy Rose grabbed its arms and pulled it through the door. It simulated her gripping hard enough to damage its plating. A reprimand shot down its spinal strut response. She did not lose or even tighten her grip, however, as she led it to her couch.

She sat it down. “Stay here. You’re going to be okay. I’ll get Tails on the phone and he’ll make you right as rain!”

The name switched its self-preservation programming from hostile to cooperative. Calling Miles “Tails” Prower would result in Sonic’s arrival, so it must not allow Amy Rose to reach her cell phone, so it must attack her, and she would summon her hammer and then-

It lept off the couch and embedded its claws into her shoulders. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open to match the exact ratios of panic it had recorded from her on Little Planet. In an instant, her hammer was in her hand.

The force dented its torso plating. It crashed into a wall. It waited for more blows, simulated the damage from other instances in which she’d demolished Badniks, anticipated, anticipated. It looked at her to find her stationary despite her vitals being elevated beyond even what might be registered in ordinary combat.

It pulled itself out of the wall and approached.

“What is going on with you?”

It scratched at her, but only pierced air as she stepped away.

“Would you stop that? I can’t help you if you’re going to attack me!”

Neo recalled her being more intelligent than this. It pointed to her hammer, then pointed to its own frame. 

Her panic unfroze and dripped down to a facial expression that would be unrecognizable if it were not for the events of the past two weeks. It was an expression of Sonic towards hurt Flickies. Of a young “Rosie” uncovering a broken robot on a snowy day. 

Her hammer disappeared. “You want me to hurt you?”

Neo gave an affirmative ping before the shudder of a reprimand could stop it.

“No. I’m not going to.”

It lunged forward, piercing the skin of her arm, the tips of its claws coming away with blood.

“I’m not going to hurt you!” Amy Rose shouted. “Don’t do that again or I’ll call Sonic!”

Neo froze.

“Not that I don’t think I can smash you to pieces myself, but that I don’t want to. Tails tells me that you’re not working for Eggman anymore.”

That was the point. Without Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s interference, Neo was without purpose. Neo should be destroyed. Neo should be destroyed. Neo should be-

“Did you ever want to work for him in the first place?”

Neo looked at her.

“Did I. . . make a mistake, that one time in the snow?”

It lowered its gaze.

“Because you just seemed so sad, sitting abandoned there. Like you’d given up.”

It could not feel ‘sadness’. It could hardly recall the memory file; data input from that time had been minimized to best preserve power. It had been out of standby mode for only a minute, knocked back into active mode when she had saved it from the path of the falling tree. 

And it could not give up. Its prime core directive demanded as much. The reminder triggered reprimands, and a shudder up its neck joint rattled it out of the memory. 

“Here, can you write?” Amy Rose retrieved a pencil and pad of paper from a table at the end of the couch. “Let’s sit down so that you can tell me what’s going on instead of barging in and being rude.”

It shook its head.

“Then I’ll go get my phone so you can type.” 

She walked backwards, keeping her eyes fixed on its frame until she slipped behind a door. She returned with her cellular device, cased in pink with charms dangling from the corner. She unlocked the screen and extended the device in its direction.

“You’re either telling me what’s going on or you’re leaving.” She said.

Neo took the phone and typed, “this unit cannot give up.”

“Seems like that’s what you’re doing right now, huh?” She smiled with only half of her mouth. “Back then, I just couldn’t leave you there to die. Or deactivate, I guess. I thought at the time that you might miss Eggman. He gave you more headpats back then.”

“This unit did not wish to be left there.” To fade into nothing. It could not be nothing.

“But did you want to go back to Eggman?”

“No other beneficial course of action.”

“I could have brought you to Tails.”

“The result would have been deactivation.”

“He could have reprogrammed you, like he did just now.”

“Exposure to Tails increases likelihood of exposure to Sonic by 94%. Deactivation would have followed.”

“That’s not true.”

“Negative. This unit-”

She did not wait for it to finish typing. “That’s not true. Sonic isn’t just some bloodthirsty monster out to get you. He just wants to protect people. Every time he beat you up it’s because you did something to deserve it.”

“Define: ‘something to deserve it’.”

“You don’t know what you did wrong? I thought you wanted to be good now.”

“Define: ‘good’.” Neo stepped forward. “Define: ‘good’.”

“Good! As in, not hurting people!” Amy Rose pointed to the scratches on her arm. “Or kidnapping them!”

“67% of this unit’s missions did not involve hurting or kidnapping sentient organics.”

“Or animals! Not hurting or killing plants and animals either. Really, it’s not that hard and you missed the bar. That’s why Sonic fought you so often.”

“24% of all encounters with Sonic the Hedgehog did not involve other organic beings.”

“Because he knew that you were going out to hurt people, or to help Eggman get things to hurt people with.”

“Why did you return this unit to Dr. Ivo Robotnik?”

“I-” Amy Rose held her breath for two seconds. She directed her gaze to Neo’s foot plating. “Because I thought it was where you’d be happiest.”

“Incomprehensible. Elaborate.”

“Did you like it, when you kidnapped me?”

Neo was prepared to repeat its prior statement before its optics swiveled to the same angle as Amy Rose’s. It stared down at its body, the remains of lines and hues of purple, shaped in a way that it did indeed ‘like’. And it compared the sensation to that of returning to Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s lair with the then-little girl in hand. 

It remembered depositing her in the cell, before turning to meet its creator. It remembered a soft hand on its forehead plating. It remembered his words.

“Excellent work, my finest creation!”

Even the review of this piece of data in its memory banks brought an echo of euphoria in its processor. That it was once finest. That it once completed excellent work.

“Yes.” Neo answered. “This unit liked when Dr. Ivo Robotnik praised it.”

“But did you like seeing me afraid? Did that make you laugh or make you happy?” Amy Rose asked.

“That data was irrelevant.”

“And did you like hurting animals?”

“That data was irrelevant.” 

“And do you like hurting Sonic, or do you just want to be praised for it?”

Neo generated fifteen different responses, but only five made grammatical sense and of those, three were non-sequiturs and the other two were objectively false. 

“That’s what I thought.” Amy Rose said.

“This unit must destroy Sonic.” It snapped. “If it cannot destroy Sonic, then it must cease existing.”

“You don’t have to do either. You really don’t. I know you will never believe me. . . but you don’t.” Amy Rose stepped forward. She then sighed, before gesturing further into her house. “Follow me.”

Neo followed her past her main living area and into a room covered in decorative scraps affixed to the walls with a bed against the far wall. She opened the door to the closet and retrieved a roll of red ribbon. She retrieved scissors and snipped a scrap off the end. She then manipulated the scrap into a bow knot, before turning to face Neo.

“Here. This is the ribbon I gave you that day. I’m giving it back to you.”

This was not the ribbon that Amy Rose gave it the day she returned it to Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Dr. Ivo Robotnik had seized the fabric and thrown it into the incinerator before Neo had shut down for repair. This new ribbon was, however, of the exact same color and material composition ratio as the previous, suggesting that this roll of ribbon was the common origin of the two. 

“This time, though, you get to choose what to do with yourself. You get to go wherever you’re happiest.”

“Even if this unit is happiest when determining how to destroy Sonic?”

“If that’s where you are happiest, then I’ll beat the crap out of you with this.” She summoned her hammer again. “Because I am happiest when I’m making sure my friends aren’t getting hurt.”

“And if it is unknown where this unit is happiest?”

“Then keep going until you figure it out.” Amy Rose deposited the ribbon into its hand. 

She clasped her palm against its fingers. It loosened its joints, allowing her to curl its fingers around the fabric. She then let go. 

“You should go.” She pointed to the door. “You don’t want to be here, and I don’t want you here.”

Neo cocked its head. 

“Because I’m still really mad at you.” She gripped her hammer tighter. “But that’s something we can talk about when you figure out if you want to be better or not.”

Her statement was illogical. If she was mad at it, then she would not be giving it a gift. It could not understand. But it could understand her command, so it left her bedroom, walked through her living area, and passed through the exterior door of her house.

The door shut, and it heard two locking mechanisms engage behind it. 

Neo stood in the darkness looking at the bow in its hand.