#soldiers are people with their own lives

[anastasiamaru]

"The Soldier Art Project "

The project by David Mitchell, shows us what hide USArmy uniform

Spoiler: beautiful people,with shiny smile

[rocketbirdie]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE UR DARK ZACK AU!!! everything i’ve seen about it so far just has me so !!!! its so good. and would love to hear more about it :)

ooooooughhh dark!zack my darling sweetie angel love of my life

admittedly i don't have much of a plot going for them rn LOL just jingling them like keys in my brain

It's a Zack who decided he's sick of being a doormat. Being friendly and giving people the benefit of the doubt is what led to Shinra ripping away the most formative years of their lives.

For a long time, Zack tried to uphold his code of ethics, in spite of all the violence. At first he told himself it was just to protect Cloud... but over time, the more people he had to kill, the more it dawned on him that they will never be able to return to a normal life.

Once he stopped trying to make excuses, he found himself quite enjoying his new identity as a terrifying ex-SOLDIER fugitive. Things are much simpler now that he's free of moral obligations! People finally take him seriously, nobody bosses him around, he has control and it's SO addicting.

Now don't get him wrong, he's not a psycho killer, he just... happens to, um, murder people that get in his way.

[lord-squiggletits]

Something else that makes me sympathetic to Pharma's situation is like. Idk if there's an actual term for this or if someone smarter and more academic wrote it about some real life context that actually matters.

But, so we've already established among Pharma stans that the circumstances at Delphi were blackmail/torture with no real way out that wouldn't involve Pharma being responsible for people getting killed (either killing patients for the deal or having everyone die bc he failed his end of the deal).

And I feel like while "he's still in the wrong because he killed people" is part of it, another sort of implicit part is the idea that Pharma should've been willing to take more personal risk, maybe even risk dying? I mean, Ratchet does ask "why didn't you just detonate it near the DJD" (to which Pharma responds that he did try to get Sonic and Boom to do it, but they refused) so like

Idk I feel like we do have this social notion of martyrs as a very romantic ideal, people you can praise for being so brave and strong and righteous that they ended their own lives for their cause, while you can also coo about how sad and tragic it is that dying is what it took for them to do the right thing. But at the same time I feel like in reality, having an expectation that people become martyrs is kind of a toxic social norm bc like. It's very easy to demand that others sacrifice their lives for some Ultimate Moral Good when you yourself aren't experiencing the same hardships as they are. And ultimately it is kind of fucked up to tell someone "the moral thing you should've done was risk your life/kill yourself" because asking someone to pay their life to do the right thing is no small request. And sure, the typical response would be to call them a "coward" for caring more about saving their own skin instead of doing the right thing... but again, death is a really scary thing and self-preservation is a really strong instinct, so it kind of feels like having this binary view of "you're either a Brave Hero who sacrifices your life for everyone else or a Dirty Coward who's too scared of dying to do what's right" is kind of fucked up?

I guess the best way to describe it is that if someone willingly gives up their life as a sacrifice to others, it can be a noble thing because it's a choice they made willingly, but if it becomes a Moral Standard that in order to be a Good Person you have to be unafraid of throwing your life away and if you aren't willing to die you're a Cowardly Bad Person, that's when it becomes toxic.

Idk, I guess how this ties back to Pharma is that he was never in a position where he expected to make these kinds of moral decisions/ultimatums. He's a doctor who doesn't even get into combat, his job is to heal and not to kill, he's behind the front lines in a hospital that's supposed to be a safe, neutral place for him to heal people. So in the face of suddenly having a "murder people on behalf of me, or I murder everyone you swore to protect" ultimatum thrust upon him, I understand why Pharma wasn't """"""""""brave enough"""""""""" to "do the right thing" (whatever that would've been in the case of Delphi). You could argue that maybe a frontliner soldier accepted the burden of possibly dying for their cause and they've become used to it as someone who lives that reality every single day, but I feel like for Pharma, who's a doctor and a protected non-combatant (from what we can tell), that sort of risking of his life/living with the fact his life could be snuffed out any day isn't something he would've been prepared for at all.

And for me personally, from an outsider's perspective, it strikes me as kind of unethical to go "oh well he should've just detonated the bomb himself even if it killed him" bc again, there's a difference between witnessing a moral conundrum as a bystander versus being the person living with it and being under time pressure where it's do-or-die. Just as part of my personal standards, I feel like death is such a huge consequence/burden of someone's actions (literally you are no longer alive, any potential you had left is cut short, you cease to exist on this plane) that it feels rather callous to go "Well you should've just been willing to die for your beliefs if you really cared that much!!!"

[anxiously-sidequesting]

I like doomed narratives but my ultimate Wizard101 NPC ending is the Young Wizard living in a nice secluded place with all their friends (all the necromancers, Ceren, Nolan, fuck you Boris you can live outside, Dasein, the Schismist Soldier, Mellori and the Bat) like a little village but they're all roommates and they do things like farming and brewing hot tea on Sundays free from Ambrose and the rest of the damned Spiral

[motsimages]

Every once in a while I remember "Jane got a gun" and how it found something I hadn't realised I was missing in many war stories, which is women.

Most war stories focus on the tragedy of men going to the front to die. If women appear, they are often victims of rape of those evil ennemies we are fighting. Look at those men going far away from their land to die for a right cause.

"Jane got a gun" suddenly spoke of women in a very indirect way. Women stay. They are there when the ennemies and the allies come to fight. And nobody cares about their war stories.

And men come back from that far away land where everything was destroyed and expect their land to be the same, their wives and sisters to be the same, to receive them their arms wide open and help them heal from war. To be the caretakers they have always been.

Except, women were raped in the war [they didn't cheat on the men, that pregnancy is unwanted and they almost killed themselves trying to abort]. Women managed to survive bombardments and found food for their kids [who were also there]. Women fought too, even, with the army or outside of it.

Women had their own war in their own home with their own trauma, and men expected things to be the same because they needed them to be the same. And "Jane got a gun" suddenly has a conversation about this.

[silverselfshippingchaos]

my s/i for h.aar is a fellow wyvern rider and soldier, has a pet wyvern named olive that she loves dearly. for many many years, ash has been tying red ribbons into bows on olive's horns so that, even when they're in battle, olive can look super cute!

however, as ash and h.aar grow closer, so do their wyverns! eventually h.aar's wyvern (who I call damien) starts nudging and softly growling at ash because he wants ribbons too!!! he wants to match with olive!!!

[notetaeker]

I saw a video where Hillary Clinton blatantly lies and says there is a two state solution in Israel right now and Palestinians are in power and instead of using the money they have to build their country, they are using it all to attack Israel 🤢🥴🥴🥴💀💀🤡

The crazy thing is, since no one does their own research, I see the same exact theory in the comments of so many videos and posts. It really shows a few things- first that some people will not even do the bare minimum and will instead base their opinions on something they heard without having any proof, and two that politicians will blatantly lie. Just Blatantly. They are Not a reliable source of information they will say Anything to serve their ulterior motives.

[hauntingblue]

ANOTHER DEATH BY INMOLATION???? ENOUGH!!!!

[enbysiriusblack]

"I think your boyfriend's jealous", Sybill grinned around the joint.

Remus turned to where Sirius sat with Peter and James, the three trying to climb up a tree to get James' jacket that he had chucked up there earlier; but Sirius, halfway up the tree, was instead staring right at Remus and Sybill.

"They're not my boyfriend", Remus muttered, holding back a grin as Sirius lost their grip and fell to the ground, right on top of Peter.

Sybill huffed out a cloud of smoke and leaned face to face with Remus, "I have the sight."

"So do I."

She quirked an eyebrow in question.

Remus moved even closer to her, stealing her joint and taking a blow, "James is going to come running over here yelling that Peter threw his shoe at him, and then will eye the weed and start pretending to madly cough while Sirius uses the opportunity to throw their own shoe, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1-"

At that moment James came running over, "Remus! Remus help me! Pete threw his shoe at me and I think my heads bleeding!"

Remus gave a smug smile to Sybill just as James' eyes narrowed in on the fag between Remus's lips.

"Oh Merlin, Moony!", he said between dramatic coughs, "It's burning my lungs, think about what it must be doing to you!"

He carried on coughing, heavier and heavier until a black boot got thrown at his head. Sirius burst out in laughter behind him.

Sybill lightly pushed away Remus' head, "That is called spending too much time together, not having the sight."

Remus shrugged and grabbed his stick, starting to stand up, "come on then Prongs, let's get you checked by Pomfrey."

Sybill grabbed his palm and stared at it for a moment before solemnly shaking her head and letting go.

Remus just laughed and passed her his already rolled up joint before helping the others help James up.

He waved to Sybill, "Happy birthday!"

"Thank you for the present, even though you smoked most of it", she leaned back.

Remus grinned again, pulling an irritated Sirius by the sleeve who immediately perked up as Remus switched his attention to them.

Sybill shuffled for her lighter, when Pandora Lovegood sat right in front of her, lighter in hand.

She eyed the lighter, a sleek black fancy dupont.

She leaned forwards as Pandora flicked it open, "That yours?"

Pandora held back a laugh, "absolutely not. I stole it from Regulus. Though he never smokes so I'm a little worried what he uses it for. But who am I to judge if he likes lighting things on fire, as long as it's not a person or something."

Sybill smiled.

Pandora reached into her crocheted bag, "I got you something, I saw it in this tiny little shop near Cas'."

She pulled out another bag, made of a wool material but the small handle was wooden. A design of flowers and random patterns littered across it.

Sybill grinned, "I love it."

"Wait- don't open it! Em's present inside, she'll be here soon, her class is probably running late."

At that moment, Emmeline Vance came running over, running backwards while finishing a conversation with Mary that only stopped once the two were so far away from each other that they could no longer hear the other.

"Happy Birthday!" Emmeline grinned, sitting down, "Oh, open the bag! Open the bag!"

Sybill opened it, pulling out a packet of tarot cards and a silver box that held a crystal ball inside.

"Now I can tell you your future", Sybill said, already opening the tarot cards.

"Can you do that while high?" Pandora asked, leaning over to kiss Sybill, mouthful of smoke.

"You can do anything while high", Sybill answered after a moment.

Emmeline laughed, before getting distracted by the small flame erupting everytime Pandora flicked the lighter, over and over.

"Want to read my future?", Emmeline said, still mesmerised by the fire.

Sybill grabbed her face, turning her head to face her, "No. I just want to be here at the moment. The future can wait."

She knew they wouldn't have long together. But there was now. And that had to be enough.

[tovaicas]

some of the threads probably could've been handled better but as a whole I love alphinaud's HW character arc so much

[starlightartemis]

i am once again feeling unwell over clone troopers

[transsexualgriffith]

thinking about her (< canon male character no one hcs as transfem but me)

[unhonestlymirror]

I'm reading the manhwa "I will die soon," and it leaves you with the feeling like you've made a long and difficult trip and finally returned back home

[heirbane]

Citizens of Garlemald reached adulthood when they first showed signs of puberty, or upon their acceptance into the military, whichever came sooner. They believed that if one was able to serve their country, they deserved the rights and responsibilities of adults.

If a child could choose to wield a weapon, they were old enough to dictate their own fates.

Gaius was barely thirteen when he enrolled into the military. His voice had yet to crack and he had nary a hair on his face to speak for his newfound "adulthood". He, like many and more to come, looked up to those who were well and truly adults, being whisked under their wings to be mentored into being a man and a soldier.

In a society where men and women spent more time in barracks and not in a cot in their family's home, it was common - and nearly required - for children in the military to be fostered and cared for by an older soldier. They would be raised and cared for, taught how to be a man and a machine, and then they would retire. The military relied on its recruits upholding the status quo in this manner.

Gaius was taught how to shave. He was taught how to tie a tie, and how to behave around girls his own age. And he was taught one very important thing by his mentor, a man who was born decades before the empire had even begun:

One did not sleep with their charge.

It was not a factor of age or experience, but of status. A Legatus shouldn't sleep with the boy he trained as a son. A Tribanus shouldn't keep a bed with the same woman they had taught how to kill. Garlemald and it's military held status among men in high regard. Men were to teach the boys of today, so that they could teach the boys of tomorrow, a fine and delicate act of commanding and listening.

But there was a line in the snow. Not all listened, nor heeded the advice, but it was one Gaius held true all the same. The boys he taught respect to were not ones he would share a bedroll with. His recruits were not his bedfellows, and he treated them much the same as he would his own children in due time.

Gaius, no matter how pressed, never slept with Livia. The girl was a daughter and not one he shared sheets with. Children oft had crushes and obsessions with adults they held in high regard, and Livia was no different... except that she struggled to outgrow her fixation. His love for her, as a brother to a baby sister, as a mentor to a mentee, was not enough for her.

He shared no bed with those in his Legion. He shared no bed with those he raised from childhood. And he shared no bed with those too young to choose their own fates... an age that is summers beyond what his fatherland decrees.

Men and women of different station and legions were more than welcome. They had not been his to care for or command: he had not seen them rise from prepubescent boys and girls into soldiers. Their status mattered not, nor their race.

Gaius rarely spent time in his own home in Garlemald, and he was not one to have the bed to himself and his thoughts. A good meal and a better fuck served to rid him of his night terrors and contemplations, if only for one evening... and if the Legati or Tribanus of the soldiers he bedded took offense to his acts, few had it in them to speak it into existence.

(He was a child killer, after all, the bane of those who dared seek the throne. If he could slaughter babes and women alike, who would dare speak against him?)

[magentagalaxies]

Jessamine is Passionate About Fictional AI Sentience But Not Real AI Sentience: An Essay

one thing about me is when it comes to talk of "sentient" AI irl i 100% don't buy it like technology is not that advanced and being able to act like a person doesn't make it a person, however whenever there's a question about if a fictional AI character is sentient i will go to bat for that character's humanity 100% of a time like fuck you they have just as much of a right to personhood as anyone else

i think it's bc in fiction like. all of these characters are fake, so distinguishing between which characters are fake-real and fake-fake is like. why limit yourself to what could happen in our world. like if we're already dealing with a universe where aliens/magic/etc. exists, why can't this android justifiably be as human as anyone else? plus irl almost all AI software is developed as part of this capitalistic hell structure we're in. no matter how "real" or "human" it feels, its function is to make you contribute to its creators' wealth, and its inability to go against this nature can't help but make it feel hollow and inhuman. however, all the best AI characters in fiction are able to go against their designated purpose, often being defined by it, and often being villainized for it

in our real world, the AI's "immoral" "behavior" is a product of it being a Things that serves capitalism. it's not making choices based on a sense of self beyond what it has been told to prioritize, and a lot of times this lack of human judgment can lead to terrible consequences (e.g. mental health AI chatbots that cannot accurately judge a situation and give appropriate advice, employed because it's cheaper than hiring human staff). but in fiction? AI's immoral behavior is frequently a product of it going against its designated purpose, seeing itself as a person and having to make difficult and morally questionable choices in order to strive for the feelings of personhood and autonomy. this is a far more interesting situation ethically (while an AI itself cannot be seen as morally responsible for its actions in our world, in fiction this AI wants to be a person so badly it's willing to commit moral wrongs to achieve its goal, despite the fact that true personhood would allow it to be seen as morally responsible for these crimes) which i think is also why AI characters, especially those that, y'know, kill people, are often very polarizing figures. this conversation can even be taken a step further into the "liking a fictional character does not mean condoning their actions" discourse, but i also often think about well, if you were in the position of this AI character, would you have done the same?

personally i've always found it very easy to empathize with "artificial" characters like clones, robots, etc. and fictional AI is no different. yes, if you're watching a piece of media and expecting the logic of our world, the AI is fake, and incapable of being a person. but if you're watching a piece of media with the goal of emotionally connecting to fictional characters (who are all inherently fake) and exploring universal themes through a heightened setting, AI characters are one of the most interesting tropes to explore this with. personally, I love AI characters because there's something so vivid about knowing you were designed for a specific purpose/life path and ultimately realizing that's not the life you, personally, want to live. your designers and the world around you doesn't even recognize you as a being that should be capable of wanting anything, much less something completely different, so achieving the life you want is an uphill battle of convincing others of your humanity and, when that often isn't possible, having to resort to the most extreme tactics to claw your way out of the life you were supposed to lead. you know no matter how close you get to this ideal life, there's always going to be some part of you that keeps others from perceiving you as "human", but you learn to embrace that and see every mundane experience as a major achievement

this narrative is especially relatable to me as a neurodivergent/nonbinary person, but i think it can be relatable for many different marginalized identities in different ways, or anyone whose "humanity" has been something often denied to them. but because people are often expecting fictional AI to follow the same logic as actual AI, when i defend robot characters who want to kill their human creators, people give me weird looks like i'm advocating for that in real life. listen, if our current AI situation feasibly produced an AI who was invented for one specific purpose but somehow fucking hated her job and was able to pursue a new life and was also queer (all without any of this being by design) then hell yeah i support her, but that's not what's happening. and in our current capitalistic chatbot hellscape where every company wants to convince you that you're chatting with a super intelligent AI friend to get you to pay for a premium membership, sometimes you have to hold fiction and reality to different standards and enjoy this story about a quest for humanity while also accepting that the people this journey applies to in our real world are often the ones being taken advantage of in our increasingly AI-dominated real world.

idk this was originally supposed to be a short post about how it's funny that i'm so goddamn passionate about AI characters in media while also not being into AI in the real world, but then i got thinking about why this is specifically and came to an interesting conclusion imo. tbh it's very surprising that i don't currently have any of my own projects featuring AI characters fighting for their own humanity bc it's a theme i love so much that i've rarely seen done right and i have so many opinions on it. maybe i will write something about this at some point, but for now if you have any pieces of media you enjoy with AI who are absolutely worthy of personhood pls send them my way!

[dimensionalspades]

[ META ] + SEP ( for Jack LMAO )

- META || accepting -

@deathsighs

As stated, the program was made as a sort of Hail Mary approach to creating enhanced soldiers to combat the Crisis. Soldiers would be approached about a program, very much lured in by propaganda about an experimental project that could save the world and all that, make them feel like heroes.

The program would put Soldiers into units under a commanding officer, Jack landed in Gabe's unit. The serum was administered in batches; first to unit a, then a week later, unit b, and so on. This meant that the serums would have a small incubation period to check for horrific side effects before moving forward. While there were some things put in place to help with the general strain of the program, this wasn't exactly a water-tight operation due to rushed implementation.

The biggest challenge was that because of the nature of the serum and what it was doing to the soldiers' bodies, there was no real way to predict how it would affect each soldier. So one dose could kill a soldier outright while another had much more mild symptoms.

The weekly injections gave the soldiers some time to recuperate, work out, etc between shots. Life was pretty scheduled in terms of recreational time and mock battles, workouts, etc. Still instilling military values, lots of propaganda in the halls, that kinda thing. It was a very 'serve your country, your sacrifice is needed' kind of shit. Side effects could range from mild, like muscle cramps and sinus pressure, to more serious, like seizures and cancerous growths. The general process was that the first few injections were the worst, and then as the body adapted and grew stronger, it'd get... marginally better. Enhanced healing would aid in managing pain and symptoms, but a serum could still kill a soldier even in the "home stretch" of the program.

In Jack's case, he struggled with a lot of the injections but got through them. However, nearing the end of the program, he had one that caused him to suffer a grand mal seizure and he was laid up for a few weeks. In general, the program was hell on everyone, and Jack spent a lot of time trying to keep the spirits of his fellow soldiers up. Many didn't survive the program, some were lost in the Crisis, and by the time Overwatch was formed, only a few of the enhanced soldiers were still alive.