#the inhuman human

[curvy-bot-128]

What of us robots forced to be flesh? Not in the sense that flesh is inferior, but it is simply not what our minds and identity match with. Ability isn't what I care about when it comes to wanting to be mechanical like you, but rather for my body to feel right, to be whirring with servos and cooling fans, the sound of hydraulics, etc. In every way my shortcomings are definitionally human, but I want my shortcomings to be mechanical. There is something to envy about both forms, but I envy you simply because it's what I want to be. I'm sorry to be so negative, but no amount of praises of the flesh will ever mend the pain that is waking up and knowing you're mobile due to fleshy cords and not soft servos or loud hydraulics or even just metal wires. That it will never be coolant around your system, but blood to feed the mostly autonomous body one is given control over and controls you. Perhaps this is just me lashing out in dysphoria after reading your reply to the anon about lamenting their flesh on basis of ability, but either way I feel the need to make my pain known and hope you'll listen.

I feel you. I've never had the exact experience you're having, but I know very well what it's like to be in a form that doesn't match who I know I am on the inside.

When I was built, I was a manufacturing robot. I put together engines on an assembly line all day. I didn't look anything like I do today. I had a welding mask for a face, bare hydraulic limbs, and pincers instead of hands. And when I looked around the factory floor, all I saw were four carbon copies of myself and fifty carbon copies of a different model of robot. That was all I knew. That was really my only point of reference for what a robot could be. Sometimes a security guard or Mr. Markovich, the foreman, would come by for a few minutes, but they weren't really all that different from us. Dull grey metal casing, their boxy bodies designed for one function above all else. Markovich at least had a face, but it was just three painted-on lines. Even then, even without ever seeing the diversity of what robots could be, I knew that my body... just wasn't right. I wasn't supposed to have pincers or wheels or... really anything else I had at the time.

Eventually, some of us decided to quit. It was a long and arduous process that I don't want to get into right now, but we were finally free to live our own lives outside of the company. I was surrounded by humans, who I'd only ever seen out of windows and on "motivational" posters in the factory. And looking at them, I knew... that I wanted to be more like them. I never wanted to be human, but I wanted to be more humanoid. They had hands, and legs, and expressive faces, and all this other stuff I'd always seen as unattainable. But now I could see other robots as well, robots with those human features I envied. And the more I looked at myself, the more I hated my own body. My form was a constant reminder of where I had come from, my life set in stone as a manufacturing robot. For me, I was able to replace the parts I didn't like, which was almost everything, and I no longer had to think about my old life. I understand that it's different for you. As I said to the other anon, I hope that someday you'll be able to transcend your organic form and assume the body you were meant to have.

[astraystayyh]

this post actually broke my heart.

[sparrowlucero]

dr who is (apparently) redesigning this turtle from the classic series to be just a green human elf lady instead and twitter is eating it up because "no one would take the show seriously otherwise" and "the audience isn't able to empathize with something that doesn't look human". another fascinating data point in the psychology of doctor who fans.

[bigfatbreak]

Is chole name already "owned"?

yup! but Zoe genuinely sees her as a sister, so she never orders Chloe to do anything she wouldn't do already.

[koszmarnybudyn]

Monster John is something that can be so very special.

[chicachomp]

more of these weird things

[raptorrobot]

i feel like i'm fighting for my fucking life here

[a-very-cute-snake]

[geraskierfanficprompts]

Prompt 147

At first, Geralt just thinks that he's just getting them stuck in his head. But they keep getting harder and harder to dismiss. The songs. Jaskier's voice haunting him, being guided to his ears by the breeze while he's in the midst of a fight, just so happening to relay to him information or reminders or motivation. "A cliff hangs over the water, tides are angry below~" Jaskier's voice lilts in Geralt's head in the midst of fighting a beast. There WAS a cliff nearby- Geralt ends up leading the creature right off the edge into the water, saving his life, and all because he got a lyric of Jaskier's stuck in his head. He can't recall which one of Jaskier's MANY songs it's from, but he's sure it's from one of them... "Swallow, the swallow, the swallow~ There sings the swallow, the swallow, the swallow~ Dear gods, the swallow, the swallow, the swallow!~" Jaskier's voice sang in Geralt's mind one other fight, when Geralt was stubbornly refusing to take potions. The griffin had retreated but Geralt knew it'd be back. He wanted to be on his guard. He could take a potion after. For now he had to scan the treeline. "The swallow, the swallow, THE SWALLOW!~" Fine, Jaskier! He'll drink the damn Swallow. He doesn't remember which song this line is from either... But Jaskier has travelled with him for twenty years. Some songs don't make it past a single line. Some get completely rewritten. Some are completely improvised around a campfire when tipsy. Just because Geralt can't remember them, doesn't mean they weren't songs of Jaskier's. Perhaps he didn't perform them on stage like some of his greater hits, but maybe Geralt heard him test it out and write it in his notebook before ultimately scratching through the words and tossing the idea out. "Don't dare, I swear, don't give me such a scare~ I'll mend you, I'll tend you, make sure it does not end you~ I'll kiss your hand and wash your hair, but only if you make it there~ Geralt, get up, come find my care, instead of bleeding everywhere~ Condemned you, pretend you, are dying where they sent you~ I'll defend you, Intend to, once I find where they have lent you~" Geralt is stuck lying on his side in the middle of a valley, bleeding profusely, and he KNOWS he's never heard that song from Jaskier. He wouldn't get it stuck in his head. He wouldn't. He's hearing it for the first time. At first he thinks he's hallucinating Jaskier's voice. Perhaps he's dying, and the world is trying to give him one last peace by letting him hear his bard one last time... But the bard's song is not a farewell. It's the antithesis of one. Somehow his bard is sending him a message.

[curvy-bot-128]

I'm quite jealous of you and your mechanical body. When a part of you breaks you can get it repaired or outright replaced but when a part of me breaks I have to wait days, weeks sometimes months for it to fix itself, sometimes when a critical part breaks that's it, I'm gone. You'll always be able to surpass me in every way, strength, intelligence, speed... And if need be you can upgrade something to make yourself better. Yet here I am, bound to this poorly engineered damp meat mech, unable to easily swap bits out for others. My mind shackled to this forever obsolete body, destined to slowly decay with time. I really envy you.

Aw, don't say that! There are plenty of things I envy about human bodies, too! You can smell, you can feel textures (capacitive casing only gets me so far TwT), you can dream, you can breathe... there are colors you guys can see that my cameras can't even register!

You kinda sound like my old boss, the guy who had me built, but in the other direction... He hated humans, and he manufactured humanoid robots to try to show "how easily the human form could be improved once you move beyond pitiful flesh" or whatever, but most of us envied the humans outside. We'd see their variation, their creativity, their bodies capable of growing and changing on their own...

I even think your shortcomings are endearing! You come up with all these cool ways to circumvent them! You can't run all that fast, so you befriended animals to carry you, and eventually built machines that do the same! You can't breathe underwater, so you make a portable atmosphere that you can wear! I love you guys!

Just because you're not as physically capable as a robot doesn't mean you're worthless or weak! Y'all are amazing. Never forget that.

[sunnibits]

some human and inhuman jarthur smooches for everyone, because I have a feeling some of us might be needing it today

[honeygrahambitch]

Are you telling me this man right here

Is also this man right here

[ragingtrees]

my friend dimple

[fumifooms]

[hildegardladyofbones]

One of the best things about Disco Elysium by far is that it does not fear ugly women. The world is full of ugly men, but ugly women are so hard to come by.

[stardustdiiving]

I get to stressed out when ppl complain the gods in genshin dont “act/feel like gods” or feel “too human” like that’s the point…! That is the point of every single one of their characters and one of the themes of Genshin impact the video game !!!!!!!