#2real

[svampething]

These boys just might make my art block *rise from its grave* featuring an old school 2Real, before he got Hollywood. More to be added soon. • • • • #lpotl #lpotlart #lpotlfanart #lastpodcastontheleft #dogmeat #2real #thetruth #hailyourself #artistsoninstagram #artistsupport https://www.instagram.com/p/ClUIo3myke7/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[angstandhappiness]

So true

[knifeofthestanleyvariety]

Forever isn't forever so just be my baby till whenever and if shit goes sideways just be my friend till🤫...

Sweet dreams bitches🩶

[certifiedyapperr]

i wanna stop telling people my goals and plans in life. I feel like i’m just setting myself up for failure by doing this. i just wanna move in silence and only tell people once i achieve it. but my dumbass got a big mouth

[pathbend-blog]

[shyneangel]

[grindinggetsback]

franchise baby.

[briteboy]

[thefabelmans2022]

love when i'm listening to lpotl and henry starts fujoing out.

[svampething]

It’s slow going but hopefully I can get this thing done quickly. Featuring a redone terry as I felt he was missing his *essence* please please make suggestions for what else to put in, as it’s looking like I will not be including any of the badmen, out of respect. No gacy, no gein, though maybe some cheap knockoffs. • • • • #lpotl #lpotlart #lpotlfanart #lastpodcastontheleft #dogmeat #2real #thetruth #hailyourself #artistsoninstagram #artistsupport #cryptid #cryptidart #scungilliman #scungilli #springheeledjack #detectivepopcorn #terrythegnome https://www.instagram.com/p/ClgCivvJCyD/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cacaitos]

eeek 😭😭

[achillesinhighheels]

#2real #2loyal #2cool #2sexy #2funny

[renwestt]

2Raw 2Real 2Pretty

[000l]

2real 2loyal 2delusional

[bloodgulchblog]

Finished Rubicon by J.S. Dewes.

Plot: Protagonist Adriene Valero has died 96 times in a war with hivemind space robots, and each time the chip in her brain has rezoned her into a new husk: a cloned copy of her body that lets her continue carrying on as a soldier. And each time, the trauma and numbness and apathy get worse.

After her latest disastrous mission, she is reassigned to a new posting where she isn't cannon fodder. Instead, she's now working with some of the fleet's best on a critical campaign to combat the Mechan threat, and has been given top-of-the-line equipment she'd never dreamed of.

It's also a chance to recover and start to feel like a human being again, and to remember how to make friends.

...Including the developing fully sapient AI in her new implant and the secret, unsanctioned opportunity it represents. Valero can make a difference in this war, but more importantly she might also be able to get what she wants more than anything else:

The deactivation of her rezone chip.

Opinion: Hell yeah, I had a great time (with like one major caveat.) You guys know me, I'm a character-focused person and I loooooove thoroughly-explored suffering.

Things to know that might matter to various friends and acquaintances and various opinions:

While Valero's insane reboot-after-death circumstances make her preoccupation with her own mortality into a fantasy problem I could handle cause it wasn't 2real, be aware that Valero spends a lot of time thinking about the ability to die for good and how bad she wants it back. It's one of the pieces of her humanity she feels has been taken from her.

Valero's trauma is excellent.

Nobody's gay and it doesn't do anything with gender. (I can generally tolerate that because I'm used to reading 50 year old cishet whiteguy SF anyway and let's be real this is a Halo blog, but I'm not everyone.)

This is not A Romance. There's a subplot and it's important because it illustrates the protagonist's recovering ability to feel emotions/give a shit, but this isn't romantic sf and doesn't follow genre conventions for romance. (I did appreciate how attraction-and-sexuality-as-evidence-of-recovery worked out as being very specifically about Valero and wasn't universalized as a ~human experience everyone must have or they're broken~ though so thanks for that, Dewes.)

The romantic subplot is not with the AI (but honestly that's a good thing imo because he's like 5 minutes old and doesn't have any other friends).

I wish there was more of the AI, we do get a lot but there's a time skip in the book that makes me feel like there wasn't enough.

Hopefully this isn't saying too much, but the ending is the kind of thing that is going to require a sequel in order to not feel like shit, for me. The last chapter hits like a gutpunch. It's interesting and I think the whole rest of the book is worth it and pretty well done, but god damn.

If you want actual spoilers feel free to ask and I'll dish, but I think it's a cool book so I will leave it vague here.