#culture series

[stary-night]

Thinking about sci-fi stories as a force to advocate for better societies and critiquing modern capitalism.

Particularly with the Iain M Banks Culture series and The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.

Both series present a utopian society that offers food, healthcare and education to it's residents, as well as being inclusive and welcoming of different genders and sexualities.

This is shown in contrast to other parts of the galaxy, which mirror our own world in late stage capitalism - where people are often unable to afford necessities and work themselves to death and conflicts are common because they help fund wealthy individuals/companies.

Through both books being set in the future, they are able to critique and imagine the further development of modern problems, while also being able to advocate for hope for the future through community.

It's a really cool theme I've seen in the scifi genre as a whole.

[papaya-inspiration]

Dumb joke popped into my head

[realbadatpoker]

Humans will explore space the way dogs explored the new world: because it's lonely not to bring your pets along for the ride.

[sun-spice]

So I found a Star Wars Prequels x Ian Banks Culture oneshot in my notes app, and it's actually not too bad, if I do say so myself... Thought I might post it to Tumblr for the very niche audience that would be familiar with this crossover 😂

Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi

Rating: G, gen fic, no content warnings.

Summary: ANI was a warship, an uncrewed one as that, and for good reason. They were infamous among Special Circumstances for being one of the more reckless agents that the organisation employed, not exactly the ideal choice to entrust delicate organisms to.

So when a snippy human child forcibly boarded them... Well, they had no idea what to do.

She was kind of sweet though...

Their best friend and mentor was not impressed.

[tight beam, M8, tra@...]

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Aggressive Negotiations Incoming, may I remind you of your quinquennial committee meeting. A meeting that was due to happen days ago, and yet I have not even glimpsed you on my scanners.

...

Aggressive Negotiations Incoming, ignoring me won't make the committee go away. I know you're receiving me.

...

ANI.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Heeyyyy, sorry, I didn't catch your transmissions. I got held up.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Held up?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Mmhmm.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Where?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

There was a whole shitshow going down near Antteria.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

A shitshow near Antteria.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

That's what I said.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

And when, exactly, was this 'shitshow'?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

A few days ago. I'm on my way, I promise.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Antteria is a mere 10 systems away, not only would I have heard about said 'shitshow' by now, but you are a Rapid Offensive Unit, and the idea that you could not have gotten to me since then is laughable. Please do not insult my intelligence. What did you do?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Uh. Fuck.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

ANI...

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

SOimayhaveaccidentallyiswearididntmeantobutshejustkindofdiditanywayandthenicouldntjustleaveherthereand

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

I do so love when you speak to me in M32.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

So I sorta kinda kidnapped a human?

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

What. Who. Why?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

When?? Where??? Whom's'tve'd????

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Explain, ANI. I swear, if this human's name ends with Naberrie dam Theed...

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

What no! It's not Padmé this time. Look, I really was on my way, maybe I was a little late, but still. But then this kid shows up and is like. I want off this orbital take me with you, and the Hubs were being very suspiciously absent, and I'm like, no wtf. I've got a very important meeting to get to.

Anyway, so she somehow sneaks on anyway?? Which, violating much? And so I do the obvious thing and displace her. EXCEPT SHE SOMEHOW CAME BACK I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW. She did it twice, Hello There! Twice! I couldn't just keep displacing her, that's bad for organics' health.

So I said, fine, I'm dropping you off at a GSV and you're staying there. And that's why it's taken so long because she's not optimised for the speeds I usually go at. I don't know how you manage so many squishy people.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

A human managed to, essentially, commandeer you? Fascinating. How did she board without you realising? How did she reverse the displacements? This is the most interesting thing to happen in decades... Wait. You called her a kid, how old is she?

...

Oh dear.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

She's 13 okay it's not that bad.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Oh little gods.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

We might want to get her name out of her though, she refuses to tell me, for obvious reasons. I've just been calling her Snips.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Why 'Snips'?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Because she's a snippy little thing! She called me 'Skyguy' in retaliation. Which honestly baffled me for a split microsecond, apparently it's because I'm 'a guy who flies in the sky'. Which. One: I fly in the stars, not the sky, because I'm a starship. And two: I'm not a guy, I'm a they thankyouverymuch, because I'm a starship.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Wow. That's rude.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

I know! I'm starting to think the Hubs were so silent because they just didn't want anything more to do with her... She's not all bad though, she put up a tough front but then eventually she was like, sorry if the Skyguy thing was too far. And I'm internally like, you literally boarded me without consent but she's a kid so I just say it's fine. To which she then calls me Skyguy again, the little shit!

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Is it just me, or do you actually like her?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Maybe she's kind of cute...

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Mm. And she reminds you yourself, doesn't she? Reckless, won't be told no, poor understanding of boundaries, especially when it comes to other types of beings...

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

>:(

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

You've grown a lot, dear one, you're not as bad you used to be. You were also with more intelligence and compassion than you knew what to do with.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

I'm a Mind, isn't that kind of a given?

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Not as much as one would think. You were, also, very cute.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

True. I have met GSV Your Lack of Faith Is Unfortunate. Also, aaaaaa.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

It does have... A tendancy of providing less-than-helpful commentary. Don't let it know I said that, though. It tries its best and it means well.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Hello There! Badmouthing your fellow committee members, for shame!

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Yes, yes, yes. Now, about your human problem. I don't suppose you could provide me an image of her for me to run through my databases? Antteria is not responding to my transmissions.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Sure. Here. [24 MB package, tra@...]

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Oh, what a delightfully distinctive pan-humanoid phenotype, lekku and montrals. I wonder if that's standard for her. But, hmm. A few hundred million with similar features, far less in her age range... Otherwise nothing, unfortunately.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Hmm...

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Do you know why she was so insistent on leaving?

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

No, I guess I'll have to ask her. She can stay with you for a bit, right?

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Of course! That was never in question. I'm not hurting for passenger space, I've only got around 800 million sentients aboard, currently.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

800 million... General Systems Vehicles, honestly.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

I've had more at other points in time.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

A true proud mama tooka.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

It's good work.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

I'm sure it is but I'd go crazy around the 100s mark.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

You've rarely had crew, let alone passengers. It would take some getting used to, but I think they would grow on you.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Yeah, literally. No thanks.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Anyway, I think I know some people she can stay with, I'm speaking with them now about it and they're enthusiastic to have a guest. You should talk to her and a get better feel for the situation.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Already have been, I'll leave you to your passenger wrangling and tell you about it in a bit.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

Excellent. Also, don't think I have forgotten about that meeting.

xROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

       oGSV Hello There

Fuck you very much.

xGSV Hello There

       oROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming

:)c

"I had my reasons." Snips said, aiming for flippant but landing on tense, arms crossed defensively.  That, or maybe she was cold in that tube top. The habitat plate they'd left was on the warmer side, especially when compared to ANI's usually less-than-habitable interior. They hadn't had to exert so much energy into heating their karyai in years.

ANI scowled through their favourite avatar, a masculine humanoid with a mix of biological and metal parts, who they termed Anakin in human naming fashion.

"This whole thing was obviously well thought out. Picking an uncrewed ship, the displacement countermeasures, not to mention how you slid under my scanners. You've been planning something like this for a while, maybe this isn't even your first rodeo. Either way, one doesn't put this much effort into something without a good reason."

"Without good reason?" Snips scoffed, "Didn't you hear about that one guy who went careening off into space because he thought it might be fun?"

Anakin gave her a flat look. "Yeah, sounds like he was suicidal. You suicidal, Snips?" Oh fuck, what if she was suicidal? ANI was in no position to be dealing with a suicidal human, sometimes it felt like they could barely take care of themself on a good day.

"What? No! Of course not, I just needed to get away!" She sputtered.

"Away from what?" They pressed. Snips pursed her lips and shook her head, realising that she'd spilled something she hadn't wanted to. Her bitty striped lekku barely reached past her shoulders.

Anakin let out a burst of air. "You won't give me your name, you won't give me your reasons. I hope you don't mind then if I ditch you on the next GSV."

Snips shrugged. "Sure Skyguy, works for me."

"You went to all this trouble to board a warship to--what. Avoid public transport?!" Anakin gestured incredulously. "Wait. Avoid public transport. Are you being hunted or something?"

Ordinary citizens wouldn't necessarily have access to those records without the Hubs cooperating with keeping the girl on-orbital, which they obviously were not. And the people who would have access...

The girl made a very good attempt ay disguising her flinch, but ANI could she the tension she was radiating. What did Special Circumstances want with this child? And ANI was Special Circumstances, why didn't they know about it?

"You do know I am a warship, right?" Meaning commissioned by and for likely the same people who were hunting her. "Right?"

Her dubious look set something uncomfortable alight in their circuits. "Duh." She said. And maker, this child didn't even know who was hunting her, did she?

Anakin dragged a hand down their face, like Hello There sometimes did with its avatar, Obi-Wan. Aw fuck it.

"I'm Rapid Offensive Unit Aggressive Negotiations Incoming. In verbal speech most people just drop the Incoming bit though, snappier. You can call me Anakin to this face." He stuck his hand out for a shake. Wait, did Antteria do handshakes? "Nice to meet you, kid."

Snips gave them a surprised look. "...Ashla." She said after a long moment. A fake name, but better than nothing, they supposed. The nanobots hummed as she shook their avatar's hand, and she looked down at the connection with a fascinated glint in her eyes.

"Can I synthesise anything for you eat, kid? It'll be a couple more days to the Hello There at this speed. I know the Mind well, it'll protect you. It, and the few million Mandalorians it has in residence." They joked.

Snips quirked a small smile at that. "I haven't met any Mandalorians before, but I've heard a lot about them. Children loving warriors? Oh, and could I get something protein heavy? Maybe jerky?"

"Sure, just give me a little minute, it's been a while." ANI set one of their .2 scrubbing drones to clear out the dust from their synthesiser and considered a few different jerky options, before pulling up the formula for one that apparently had a mild spicy kick to it. Spicy food for a spicy child, that was how seasonings worked, right?

They continued. "Culture Mandalorians like the ones on the Hello There tend to be mostly the more modern pacifist types, child-loving but not warriors. But it does get a few travelling traditionalists from the Mandalore system on the fringe. The pacifists used to kick up a fuss about it, but personally I think the Hello There is much too enamoured by those warriors of old to keep them away. The traditionalists sometimes bring kids who want to be adopted into the Culture, though, and if there's one thing Mandalorians can agree on it's kids, so that keeps things from boiling over."

"Sounds interesting! I didn't know there were pacifist Mandalorians, but that makes sense if they're Culture."

The synthesiser beeped and she bounced over inquisitively. After confirming, that yes, ANI's synthesisers were of the same stuff and working order as any orbital's refractory, thank you, she took the bowl of jerky and started snacking, itty-bitty lekku curling happily at the ends.

They weren't getting attached. They weren't.

My old AU notes: All of the Jedi and part of Contact, a lot of them in this fic are also SC. The Clones exist but are Sers-Not-Appearing in this sadly. They are in the fringes of the Culture right now. All droids are drones except C-3PO, who is a university Mind. The Jedi Council are a committee of Minds, and so is Anakin and some others. Quinlan and Aalya are faves of mine and they're 'human' for this, I had an idea of them being Ahsoka's Contact mentors.

Character name list:

Obi-Wan - GSV Hello There, Av Obi-Wan, Av Ben, cGSV Negotiator (formerly), Av Kenobi

Anakin - ROU Aggressive Negotiations Incoming, ANI, Av Anakin, Av Ani (formerly)

Ki-Adi-Mundi - GSV Your Lack of Faith is Unfortunate

R2-D2 - Artoo Deetoo

Yoda - GSV Grandfather, Av Yoda

Qui-Gon - LSV Will of the Force

Plo - GCU Emerald Wolf

Reformatting this in the tumblr editor was hell. Help.

Thank you for reading to the end! If anyone wants to continue this or play with it feel free, I will love you forever. Force be with you <3

[unbizzarre]

Prince Ferbin, Choubris Holse and Flying Beasts Take Shelter From the Rain

Fanart for Ian M. Banks' Culture series. Book: Matter

Really a fantastic sci-fi series. Especially the Space Ships Ai personalities. Sadly there doesn't seem to be much fanart at all. Definitely a harder series to make fanart for though. Since a large focus of the series is about the indescribable vastness, oldness, and weirdness of the universe, most characters don't stick around long enough for you to fall in love with. Its the ideas in this series that are captivating. Much harder to draw those.

So instead I drew two characters from a rather unimportant scene in the book.

Original Sketch on Paper:

Remembering the leaves in the scene were supposed to be blue:

[boatmediatourney]

🛸Spaceship Media Tournament🛸

BRACKET B: Round 2, match 8

[fellow-traveller-05]

This book fucked me up. Destroyed me. I gave water to the dead reading the ending chapters this morning.

Considered one of Banks' masterpieces and one of the best in the Culture series, and for very good reason. This novel is a devastating and fascinating character study by way of space opera. It examines a man running from himself, and from a past he can never completely. To say more would be to give too much away.

I see it as a sort of Anti Morality Play. A Morality Play seeks to embody certain virtues or vices in characters and use the story to give a strong moral message. This book shows us character(s) who internalize or are to some extent constituted by certain perspectives... ways of acting or thinking. These characters are then used to examine intractable moral issues which are given no clear answer by either author or characters, forcing the audience to think them through on their own and ultimately question the possibility of moral truth or correctness, and their own moral standpoint. All told through a viciously poignant and uncompromisingly human story, driving us to the bleeding heart of moral issues not simply as abstract philosophical puzzles but as lived realities of brutal existential choice.

Nietzsche said that moral philosophy without religion was a dark but clear horizon, where for once our ships could sail freely, even if dangerously. Banks looks straight into that horizon, and doesn't flinch.

[unearthlytraveller]

2024 Reading recap

Yes, this is a bit late. All the literature I finished last year, new and re-reads. Images don't always correspond to the exact version I read.

New

Not a bad year, but I did fail to make one book a year. Favourite is probably Translation State; Ann Leckie remains excellent. Dark horse is Dreadnought, the story of a trans superhero.

Re-read

Finished my several-year-long re-read of Discworld, but I have a few Pratchetts to go in the new year.

[dykespirk]

human things I think Vulcans would be good at:

getting a return processed at Target

COVID compliance

birdwatching, but for like. algae and slugs and stuff. (they’re too advanced for just birds)

dealing with medical negligence

online shopping (they have 2k tabs open at all times)

marketplace bartering (in any locale)

elementary school riddles (green glass door, etc.)

starting underground rainbow loom empires (adult or child, doesn’t matter)

cutthroat pitchfork reviews

letterboxd (rating film by various, limited metrics? they consider it humanity’s greatest contribution in eons; one of the reasons they make first contact)

writing unhinged YouTube comments

patiently discovering, and reviewing, each ending of a choose-your-own-adventure book

you may add your own

[jedi-clone-appreciation]

Jedi Archive Series: Creche Gardens, 5th Centaxday, 3622 ATC. [3 of ?]

Closeups under cut!

[eldritchdyke]

Every remake of a game should come with a copy of the game it is remaking that is compatible with modern hardware but otherwise untouched and I'm not even exaggerating this should be mandated by law. If you're going to attempt to recreate a piece of art you have to give people access to its original context otherwise it becomes the only context and makes the previous version simply a superceded product

[akendara]

They're cute

[lothcat-lothcat-lothwolf-run]

this would go crazy on the holonet

[realbadatpoker]

Zakalwe's was a journey of redemption

[mydairpercabeth]

i’m sorry but Percy being the token white boy of camp half blood will forever be hilarious to ME

[divineandmajesticinone]

4 MINUTES (2024) I 1.04

The first time.