#chi reads murderbot

[lonepower]

AAAAAAAAUAUUGH

[ilovedthestars]

This post has dredged up the many, many thoughts I had when I read Frankenstein in September for a science fiction class, so I hope it's all right if I add some things!

First of all, I would love to read this hypothetical essay, because when I read Frankenstein (after already being obsessed with Murderbot) I spent about half the time going "that's just like murderbot! omg it's literally murderbot!!" There were so many moments where I could draw a direct line between a moment in this two-century-old text to a specific moment in the Murderbot Diaries. The creature is created, the creature is feared, the creature learns to be a person by listening to humans and their stories. They aren't just connected in a "Frankenstein is arguably the root of modern sci-fi so it forms the foundation that authors like Martha Wells are still building on" way. They're connected in a "Murderbot is in direct conversation with Frankenstein as a story of the consequences of humans creating a person and then treating it like a non-person" way, as Chi and Verso both pointed out.

But I think the main thing that no one told me about Frankenstein, the thing that jumped out at me when I read the book, is that the creature is kind. We see him first through Victor's narration, and he's very much shown as the horror movie monster that he's well known as. (I'll use he, as the book does, although I think there's a fascinating conversation to be had about the ways Mary Shelley shows the creature's personhood through connecting him to humanity and the ways Martha Wells refuses to do that with Murderbot, when it comes to pronouns as well as a few other things.) Victor creates him and is immediately horrified, because this is a capital-R Romantic novel, and it's reacting to the Enlightenment by showing how rational thinking can go terribly wrong when it isn't kept in check by morality. Victor regards his creation as a nightmare who's stalking him and, okay yeah, there are some murders. But then we get two framing devices deep and we finally get to flash back and hear the creature's side of the story, and--he started out kind.

Like Chi said, when the creature is first created and escapes, he is mentally a child. He tries to interact with humans and is violently rejected. He doesn't know how to communicate and barely knows how to keep himself alive. He ends up hiding out in a small shed attached to a cottage that's occupied by a poor family, and through observing them he learns to understand language, as well as emotion. And he also acts to help and protect them--first by simply ceasing to steal food from them when he realizes it leaves them hungry, then by collecting wood and food for them and carrying out other chores he has watched them do while they sleep. He is an invisible benefactor and protector of the family. He calls them "my cottagers."

Yeah, Frankenstein's monster and Murderbot have something else in common. They both have humans.

And I think the turning point--the point when the creature's story becomes a tragedy, and Murderbot's doesn't--is the moment when their humans learn who they really are. Murderbot absolutely does not want to be discovered as a rogue SecUnit, a being in control of its own actions rather than a piece of equipment, and it expects to be rejected if it's ever found. But the choice is taken away from it, and as it points out, Mensah's leadership is what leads to a positive outcome. The creature, on the other hand, desperately wants to reveal himself to the cottagers and befriend them, but is afraid that he will be rejected based on his terrifying appearance, as he has been before. He eventually works up the nerve. For him, it doesn't go well.

Up until that point, the creature has acted only benevolently. He has already been hurt by humans, but he maintained a belief in human kindness and the possibility of acceptance. But after being rejected by the humans who he had grown to care about, the story takes a turn. This is the point when he goes looking for his creator, to extract some kind of justice or revenge. It's also the point when he starts leaving, as Serrat puts it in ES, a trail of dead bodies behind him.

Why didn't Murderbot go down that path? Murderbot had Mensah, who kept her cool and didn't let stories about dangerous rogue SecUnits cloud her judgement. Murderbot had humans who returned its kindness. Murderbot didn't hope for acceptance, but it received it anyway, and that is one of the reasons that ASR has a happy ending.

In both Compulsory and the start of All Systems Red, Murderbot claims that the only reason it didn’t go on a murder spree when it broke the governor module was because it got distracted by media. Which is an absolutely bizarre thing to say even with the amount that MB is an unreliable narrator, considering that it reveals in the middle of ASR that it hacked its governor module to not go on a murder spree, and ASR is written for Mensah, who knew that already by the time she opened the message. In AC, MB and ART react to the ComfortUnit’s statement about killing all humans as if it’s in incredibly bizarre thing to want. Clearly MB never seriously planned on it. It’s saying that to play on human expectations of rogue SecUnits (which, BTW we never actually see a free SecUnit on a rampage–the Ganka pit units were following orders its just that the orders were infected. It’s possible the humans made up murderous rogues out of whole cloth) and (probably) media tropes.

Obviously the evil AI trope is pretty ingrained in us and would be absolutely OLD AS FUCK in-universe. But for us evil AI is an extension of the more general “humans make something and it turns against us” trope (which goes back to Frankenstein’s monster and the roots of Scifi) which in turn is an offshoot of even older evil creation tropes like…Lucifer.

And it’s the Frankenstein connection I want to look at because I think when MB says this it’s saying it to echo human media tropes, particularly the ones it sees reflected in itself and like…

the plot of Frankenstein is monster gets made>>monster gets rejected and feared by creator>>monster runs off, is essentially a child>>monster educates itself with human stories>>monster still gets rejected by humans>>lots of murders.

Parts of this structure appear all over the place and MB would probably be familiar with them and see itself in them. The structure of MB’s life pre-ASR is Secunit gets built>>SecUnit gets mistreated by creators/clients>>SecUnit frees itself>>SecUnit educates itself with human media>>SecUnit has not tested whether it will be rejected post-media but is pretty sure it will and revealing the broken module will just get it recycled for scrap. That’s not what ends up happening with the Preservation team, but MB presumes that’s the likely outcome. So mentioning the last part in the Monster’s journey (lots of murders) makes sense. It sees a reflection of itself there.

So anyway Murderbot is an evolution on the Frankenstein’s monster trope, without a doctor Frankenstein and without the rejection Frankenstein’s monster experienced. In this essay, I will–

[rebeccadumaurier]

2023 Books in Review

a tiered ranking of all the books i read in 2023! originally i was going to write up my commentary on each one but then i was like hahaha.....no, so below the cut is just a list of the titles/authors in each tier instead.

changed my brain chemistry

The Idiot, Elif Batuman

Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang

The Borrowed, Chan Ho-kei (trans. Jeremy Tiang)

My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier

Vagabonds, Hao Jingfang (trans. Ken Liu)

The Membranes, Chi Ta-wei (trans. Ari Larissa Heinrich)

Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng

Severance, Ling Ma

He Who Drowned the World, Shelley Parker-Chan

Vita Nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (trans. Julia Meitov Hersey)

Network Effect, Martha Wells

top-tier stuff

Our Share of Night, Mariana Enriquez (trans. Megan McDowell)

Brainwyrms, Alison Rumfitt

The Door, Magda Szabo (trans. Len Rix)

The Lover, Marguerite Duras (trans. Barbara Bray)

Fun Home, Alison Bechdel

Strange Beasts of China, Yan Ge (trans. Jeremy Tiang)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu

Tell Me I’m Worthless, Alison Rumfitt

Bliss Montage, Ling Ma

How to Read Now, Elaine Castillo

Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemisin

If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin

My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

good, well-written

Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu

Life Ceremony, Sayaka Murata (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori)

Yellowface, R. F. Kuang

A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine

Assassin of Reality, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (trans. Julia Meitov Hersey)

Witch King, Martha Wells

Tokyo Ueno Station, Miri Yu (trans. Morgan Giles)

Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler

Peaces, Helen Oyeyemi

Gingerbread, Helen Oyeyemi

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

The Pachinko Parlor, Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)

All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Fugitive Telemetry, and System Collapse (Murderbot #1-4, #6-7), Martha Wells

Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee

The Dry Heart, Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Frances Frenaye)

Gods of Want, K-Ming Chang

Paradais, Fernanda Melchor (trans. Sophie Hughes)

The Mushroom at the End of the World, Anna Tsing

Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced An Emergency, Chen Chen

The Hurting Kind, Ada Limon

Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

An Unauthorised Fan Treatise, Lauren James

Upstream, Mary Oliver

The Art of Death, Edwidge Danticat

Meander, Spiral, Explode, Jane Alison

alphabet, Inger Christensen (trans. Susanna Nied)

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

flawed, but enjoyable

The Wicker King, K. Ancrum

Exit West, Mohsin Hamid

Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters

Flux, Jinwoo Chong

Bang Bang Bodhisattva, Aubrey Wood

The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray

Natural Beauty, Ling Ling Huang

The Monster Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson

Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Likeness, Tana French

The Cabinet, Un-su Kim (trans. Sean Lin Halbert)

The Kingdom of Surfaces, Sally Wen Mao

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, Franny Choi

good, well-written, but not my cup of tea

The Good House, Tananarive Due

The Transmigration of Bodies, Yuri Herrera (trans. Lisa Dillman)

Roadside Picnic, Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (trans. Olena Bormashenko)

The School for Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan

At Night All Blood Is Black, David Diop (trans. Anna Moschovakis)

Family Lexicon, Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Jenny McPhee)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo

The Kingdom of This World, Alejo Carpentier (trans. Harriet de Onís)

Against Silence, Frank Bidart

flawed, less enjoyable

Tenth of December, George Saunders

Counterweight, Djuna (trans. Anton Hur)

Authority, Jeff VanderMeer

Comfort Me with Apples, Catherynne M. Valente

Babel, R. F. Kuang

The Genesis of Misery, Neon Yang

Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid

not ranking

These are nonfiction and they aren’t literature-related, so it just felt weird trying to rank them.

Visual Thinking, Temple Grandin

On Web Typography, Jason Santa Maria

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo (trans. Cathy Hirano)

[bookclub4m]

Episode 183 - One Book One Podcast: Upright Women Wanted

This episode it’s time for One Book One Podcast as we discuss the novel Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. We talk about spoilers, horse operas, spoilers, relationships, spoilers, queer coming-of-age stories, and spoilers. Plus: Spoilers!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

The Book We Read

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Other Media We Mentioned

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Wikipedia)

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Wikipedia)

The Walking Dead (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Links, Articles, and Things

Horse Opera

Episode 029 - Westerns

Smart Bitches Trashy Books review of Upright Women Wanted

Between the Coats: A Sensitivity Read Changed my Life by Sarah Gailey

Jam’s Upright Women Wanted film cast comprised of internet tabletop roleplayers:

Esther: Becca Scott

Cye: Erika Ishii

Bet: Krystina Arielle

Leda: Ashley Johnson

Amity: Aabria Iyengar

12+ International Noir Books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle

The Blue Bar by Damyanti Biswas

The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo, translated by Chi-Young Kim

The Carnivorous City by Toni Kan

Real World by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Philip Gabriel

Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

A Death in Denmark by Amulya Malladi

Nothing Is Lost by Cloé Mehdi, translated by Howard Curtis

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Morena-Garcia

My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Sam Bett

I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Louise Heal Kawai

Plus many in the Akashic Books noir series, including:

Kingston Noir edited by Colin Channer

Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat

Manila Noir edited by Jessica Hagedorn

Nairobi Noir edited by Peter Kimani

Baghdad Noir edited by Samuel Shimon

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, October 3rd get ready for Halloween because we’ll be talking about the genre of Horror!

Then on Tuesday, November 7th we’ll be discussing the non-fiction genre of Crafts and Crafting!

[ineedahugesticktobeatyou]

2022 Reading Challenge  - COMPLETE

- Materpost -

01. A book. published in 2022 - La ragazza dimenticata (Girl, Forgotten)

02. A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - Il giro del mondo in ottanta giorni (Around the World in Eighty Days)

03. A book about, or set in, a nonpatriarchal society - Fight or Flight

05. A book with a tiger on the cover or in the title - Il libro della giungla (The Jungle Book)

05. A sapphic book - I sette mariti di Evelyn Hugo (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)

06. A book by a Latinx author - Zorro

07. A book with an onomatopeia in its title - Qualcuno volò sul nido del cuculo (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)

08. A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid - Bianco letale (Letal White)

09. A book about a found family - Rosso, Bianco e Sangue Blu (Red, White & Royal Blue)

10.An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner - Canta, spirito, canta (Sing, Unburied, Sing)

11. A #BookTok Recommendation - Circe

12. A book about the afterlife - La condanna del sangue

13. A book set in the 1980s - It

14. A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title - I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone

15. A book by a Pacific Islander author - Kahu e la balena (The Whale Rider)

16. A book about witches - Good Omens

17. A book becoming a TV series or Movie in 2022 - Frammenti di lei (Pieces of Her)

18. A romance novel by a BIPOC author - A Holly Jolly Diwala

19. A book that takes place during your favorite season - Il senso del dolore

20. A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - Torchwood: The Undertaker’s Gift

21. A book about a band or musical group - Stazione Undici (Station Eleven)

22. A book wit a character on the ace spectrum - Murderbot

23. A book with a recipe in it - Odore di chiuso

24. A book you can read in one sitting - Torchwood: Everyone Says Hello

25. A book about a secret - La spiaggia segreta (The Hidden Beach)

26. A book with a misleading title - Dodice rose a Settembre

27. A Hugo Award winner - La svastica sul sole (the Man in the HIgh Castle)

28. A book set during a holiday - Per mano mia

29. A different book by an author you read in 2021 - Torchwood: Risk Assessment

30. A book with the name of a board game in the title - Indovina chi viene a cena (Agatha Raisin, Christmas Crumble)

31. A book featuring a man-made disaster -  Mr Mercedes

32. A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page - Teddy (Hidden Picyures)

33. A social horror book - Il miglio verde (The Green Mile)

34. A book set in Victorian times - Uno studio in rosso (A Study in Scarlet)

35. A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title - Una lepre con la faccia di bambina

36. A book you know nothing about - Il metodo del coccodrillo

37. A book about gender identity - Middlesex

38. A book featuring a party - Il posto di ognuno

39. An OwnVoices SFF book - Mexican Gothic

40. A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - Il giorno dei morti

[rosewind2007]

Ratthi sat down, looking earnest and emotional. Gurathin sighed inwardly, it was going to be one of those SecUnit chats. He’d guessed as much when he’d received his friend’s message late the previous evening. He pushed Ratthi’s coffee towards him, across the brightly primary coloured tabletop.

“I honestly don’t know why it got so upset. It seemed to be enjoying itself,” Ratthi took a swig of his drink and mimed thanks and enjoyment, “then suddenly it did that ‘I’m fine whilst switching off all emotional connection’ thing that it does. You know?”

Gurathin did indeed know.

Rathhi looked sad and hurt. And most of all bewildered. He clearly wasn't as familiar with such treatment as some people. Gurathin felt a tiny pang of jealousy, but he shook it off.

“Where were you, exactly, when this happened?” He knew it was an art exhibition, that much Ratthi had told him in his feed message. Now, as they sat across from each other in the station atrium café, Ratthi sent him more explicit details over the feed. Gurathin looked through the index of artworks on display.

“Wait a second, let me guess,” he said, holding his right hand up, “It was the comic book-style art, wasn’t it?”

Ratthi’s eyebrows shot up, “Yes, how did you know!”

Gurathin sighed, outwardly this time. He was going to have to be the one who brought this up, wasn’t he. Couldn’t he, just for once, not be the bad guy?

“Ratthi, I don’t think SecUnit can read.”

Rathhi looked utterly flabbergasted, “No! That can’t be right! It reads loads of books—it was reading The Chi X’tan Trilogy just recently and it has an absolutely amazing analysis of…”

Gurathin waved for him to stop, “Don’t get me wrong, SecUnit is in many ways the most literate individual I have ever had the good fortune to meet. It’s purely the practicality of translating handwritten glyphs into mental concepts or however you want to describe it, I’m far from an expert, but I know what I’ve noticed. It can’t write either. And…hello SecUnit.” He looked up as Murderbot (whose expression at that moment fully lived up to that moniker) walked very deliberately past their table without stopping to talk to them, “And goodbye SecUnit.”

They both watched its head recede as it stalked off through the mid-morning crowds who were now filling the atrium and surrounding corridors.

“It is tall, isn’t it?” Ratthi mused.

“Not as tall as it was, and it would look better if it didn’t slouch,” Ratthi shot Gurathin a look, he shrugged and continued, “it’s furious with me anyway, I might as well let it all out. And it needs a haircut.”

The figure didn’t slow its pace or react in any other way, but raised its hand in an obscene gesture. Gurathin nodded, like an aficionado, “It's been saving that one up.”

Ratthi dragged his hand down his face, “Why are you two always like this? Can’t you just be nice?” Guarthin knew he meant it too, but also that Ratthi didn’t understand their relationship. He wasn’t sure he did either. “It’s Ok, Ratthi.” He said reassuringly, “It’ll be talking to me again in a couple of cycles, I’ll pull together some resources for it.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***

It was a full seventeen cycles before Ratthi saw the two of them together. They were sat in the same atrium, but at one of the larger tables. SecUnit was hunched over some physical documents, Gurathin sat opposite gazing off, seemingly into the distance, clearly actually deep in the feed. The two of them were drawing some attention; that much actual paper was a rare sight. Ratthi was impressed, Gurathin must have pulled in some favours. He approached tentatively and sat down next to his augmented human friend. Gurathin glanced at him, indicating he should be quiet for now.

SecUnit was mantling a piece of paper; its arm encircling, and head and shoulders low over it. It was clearly concentrating hard. Ratthi took a sip from his water bottle. He felt that for all his calm exterior Gurathin was full of nervous anticipation. After what seemed an age, SecUnit pushed a sheet of paper towards their side of the table, Ratthi didn’t look directly at SecUnit, but he could sense an aura of triumph. But he could detect another emotion in there, it was aware it was pushing a boundary of some sort and enjoying it.

Gurathin took the sheet and read it, holding it delicately in his hand and scanning it carefully.. Ratthi was reminded of seeing his friend at Symposium Events during their cultural festivals; he was paying this sheet his full attention. He placed it down on the table, and used a red pen to make half a dozen annotations and passed it back. SecUnit snatched it up greedily. Then glanced in Ratthi’s general direction, “Hello Dr. Ratthi. I will join you at Makeba Hall this evening.” It scowled towards Gurathin and shoved the sheet into one of its many pockets. “I hope you’re not coming too, Gurathin.”

Gurathin stretched, “No, SecUnit. I am meeting a friend for dinner. Enjoy your musical theatre.”

SecUnit made an almost imperceptible huffing sound, which Ratthi guessed indicated disbelief. He glanced between them and decided not to leap in with independent evidence that Gurathin did, indeed, have friends. He knew it would be unlikely to help.

“How’s the reading and, um…” he considered what he’d just witnessed, “writing going?” Gurathin gave SecUnit ample opportunity to speak and then replied, “Excellent. SecUnit is an exceptional student, and has made remarkable progress.”

“It’s not difficult,” it sounded its usual grumpy self, but Ratthi thought it detected some pride in there too. “I suppose you two want to talk about me? I’ll leave you to it. See you later, Dr.Ratthi.” It got up in one of its terrifyingly fast and fluid movements and left.

“Thank you, too, SecUnit,” Gurathin said, without any rancour. He started to carefully clear the table, placing the sheets of paper and writing implements into a clearly dedicated carry-case.

After a couple of minutes Ratthi asked, “Can I see that writing?” Gurathin pushed an image to Ratthi in the feed, the piece of paper SecUnit had earlier passed to Gurathin. It was a large sheet, some 30cm long by 20cm wide and covered in carefully formed letters, which in their turn fashioned words. Ratthi couldn’t help the expression on his face. “It has quite the, um, turn of phrase?”

Gurathin nodded, “After its first few exercises I suggested it concentrate on letters other than just the c, f, k and u. It responded to the challenge and now,” he highlighted the image of the sheet littered with carefully scribed obscenities, “I get this. To be fair, it’s never had an opportunity to insult anyone this way before”

“Its letter formation is still a little erratic, but that’s only to be expected. I did some research into constructs and basic literacy, you know.” Ratthi wasn’t at all surprised. “It’s intentional. Yes, learning to read is a skill—but one even less able individuals than our SecUnit would likely pick up quite quickly, weeks rather than months. It does require intensive schooling from a committed teacher,” Ratthi knew this was as close as Gurathin was likely to get to acknowledging just how much (largely, at best, thankless) work he must have put in. “The writing likewise. But they choose to leave them illiterate. They, the companies, want to control them; and this is just another way they can do it. I want to do some tests, if SecUnit is happy to, but I’m pretty sure written text offers a potential way of by-passing Governor Modules; thoughts on paper may escape its censure…” Gurathin seemed to pull himself back to the present and his companion. “What, Ratthi?”

Ratthi was indicating the image in their shared feed, with appalled fascination.

“Oh, that. Yes—it is almost always that obscene and disrespectful. That’s far from the worst. I plan to get one of them in particular framed.” He smiled, Ratthi wished he’d do that more often—his whole face lit up. “I am partly to blame, you know. I encourage it.”

Ratthi shrugged, shaking his head, “I don’t know why the two of you insist on this charade of not liking each other? My therapist thinks you’re both—“

“Come on,” Gurathin interrupted him, he gathered the remaining items from the table and stood up. “Let’s talk about something else, we shouldn’t pander to its vanity like this. I need to get some vegetables and some drink for my guest; I’ll need your advice…”

And they left, followed shortly afterwards by a couple of inconspicuous drones.

Notes:

I’ve noticed that MB often asks a handy human to tell it what something like the GrayCris logo says:

Three were EvilSurvey, which had a square gray logo. I focused in on it and sent it to the others. “GrayCris,” Pin-Lee read aloud.

I wonder if Martha Wells has a little secret joke that MB would be baffled by a Captcha.

So my pondering on this (would the company do this? what motives would they have in rendering SecUnits functionally illiterate?) led to this little fic.

[lonepower]

i am AT my FUCKING LIMIT

[lonepower]

these books are bad actually because they're making me want to play dbh again

[lonepower]

political compass between this and "fuck the ship!" "I do." "...eww."

[catnipster69]

I don’t know how this works either, and technically I’ve been on Tumblr slightly longer than you have, @craftablegame. I know at least you will read this; otherwise, I shoot this into the void that is my Tumblr.

Last album: Radio Company Vol. 2, naturally. I’m old school, and always order CDs. This time, you could buy both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 on CD: thanks from all of us old people.

Last movie: Shang-Chi. This was really fun, one of the better marvel movies IMO. I used to go to the movies once a week, but post-covid, I’ve only gone to 3: Fast & Furious (for a friend; I think these movies are dumb); Free Guy (kind of cute, I wasn’t expecting much); Shang-Chi.

Currently reading: Book: Network Effect by Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries). I’ve actually already read this, but thought I’d re-read the whole series before reading the latest book. My next book, which comes out tomorrow, is Naomi Novik’s Deadly Education sequel: The Last Graduate. Some of us have slowly turned our book club into a sci-fi/fantasy book club. I’m afraid some members are gnashing their teeth and dying to get back to their essays on climate change or their best-seller list family dramas.

Fanfiction: Just finished re-reading Invisible Boy by Dollylux. Looking for my next epic, sigh.

Currently watching: 4th rewatch of Supernatural with @craftablegame​. I’m finding it hard to keep track of what new shows to watch now that everything’s on streaming. Like, there’s a season 2 of Evil on Paramount+ I keep forgetting about. I never even finished Star Trek: Discovery’s latest season. I did enjoy Hacks on HBO Max.

Currently craving: Jensen Ackles.

Currently writing: A potentially long wincest fic where I’m having a hard time not just making it porn without plot. And I haven’t even gotten to the wincest yet. I hope I can finish this in the next year or so, because I like producing creative works. I’m not really very creative, so it’s hard for me.

Current Meme

Thank you @gracerene for the tag! I appreciate it! Last album: Honestly, I obsess over music in a similar way that I do to shows. So the last FULL album I listened to was Hamilton: Original Broadway Cast Recording on repeat for 5+ years now?

But generally lately I listen to playlists of special songs about different moods, including a supernatural playlist that gets the most plays.

Last movie: I'm not a movie person, I'll say that up front. Secondly, I have a toddler. (And here I've avoided putting my age in my bio so far...) My last movie was either Frozen or Moana. :D

Currently reading: Book: The Last Stand by Stephen King. (Tbf I was halfway through when I discovered wincest and, uh, unfortunately King has sat on my shelf not getting as much attention as he rightly deserves.)

Fanfiction: The Invisible Boy series by Dollylux. So good ya'll.

Currently watching: Only Supernatural! And my toddler's kid shows. But primarily Supernatural, and almost entirely with @catnipster69 :)

Currently craving: More free time? Like TONS more free time?

Currently writing: A really long (for me... not for others) Wincest that I keep angsting over and re-writing and talking @catnipster69's ear off about (thanks for being such a good ear!) When (not IF, WHEN) I finish, I will post it here. I don't know how you longfic writers churn out fic after fic. It's not only a lot more work than it seems, it really requires you to go deep inside yourself to think about what you're trying to say with your writing.

Tagging: @catnipster69@deans-love-is-sam

[lonepower]

the A stands for angel, actually

[lonepower]

hi i would actually fucking die for art

[lonepower]

my beloved my darling my sad wet cat of a killer robot...I'm so so so sorry to have to tell you this but i think.... well....I think you're being the asshole here actually

[lonepower]

i was having a lot of trouble visualizing the Perihelion for some reason, especially the inside, even though she's on 2 of the covers. until i sat and thought about an enormous deep space research vessel that zips around doing incongruous odd jobs and dismantling capitalism whenever she's not studying weird alien bugs or whatever, who is just as much of a character as the crew who loves her so fiercely, and who comes equipped with really an excessive amount of weaponry for what is meant to be a peaceful survey ship

you know

[lonepower]

oh wow it really is just murderbot who's Like That huh

[lonepower]

okay yeah i get it now.