#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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[fumifooms]

[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.

[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.

[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

[amuelia]

How do you think Roose is going to go out in Winds, will he be killed by Ramsay like in the show (in a very different style, obviously) or is it something a bit unexpected?

Not fond of it being similar to the show version because it implies he's not gonna get a lot of screentime in tWoW; it's also kind of a cheap way to give him "karma" for killing robb by just reversing the roles and having roose be at the receiving end of a murderous betrayal. Note also that Theon is absent from this storyline now (since he escaped), and i'd assume Roose as an important tertiary character would have at least one more big chapter in tWoW, so he probably escapes the Winterfell situation alive at the very least until another PoV crosses his path (Asha?).

If Stannis takes Winterfell, i'd assume Roose would be a prisoner for the moment, maybe saved for a Stark to judge over as a show of goodwill; and whatever "northern conspiracy" payoff there is would probably mean that the northmen distance themselves from him as much as possible and make him the fall guy for the entire red wedding + fallout events (which are mostly his fault anyways). Barbrey as a character likely has been added to the story in aDwD to give a bit of diversity to the northern politics, as someone who is not a stark loyalist and has some closer feelings towards roose but also isnt guilty of the red wedding. I think her role might be that she is a bit of a thorn in the otherwise likely clean consensus on what to do with the Bolton problem and she might argue somewhat in Roose' favour politically (maybe arguing against him being executed or otherwise buying him some time).

And the best sword is the one that cuts both ways, he might tell you. Take the Battle of Green Fork. Had his night march taken Lord Tywin unawares and won the battle, he would have smashed the Lannisters and become the hero of the hour. While if it failed... well, you see what happened. The only way he could lose there would be if were captured or slain himself, and he did his best to minimize the chances of that. - GRRM, SSM Feb 3 2001

Roose' storyline so far has been about how he tries to maximize his profits, while also keeping out of harms way and not getting caught. He acts in ways that are morally reprehensive as long as the result is favourable to him and he can get away with it scot free. Yet come aDwD, we start to see that it is getting harder and harder for him to keep this up:

Roose Bolton said nothing at all. But Theon Greyjoy saw a look in his pale eyes that he had never seen before—an uneasiness, even a hint of fear. - a Ghost in Winterfell, aDwD

Ned Stark tried his best to act like a decent person and showed a spine acting openly as such, and after a lifetime of integrity his legacy lives on in his children and people are willing to go to war in his memory. Roose is his foil; he acts morally badly, and spinelessly so as he tries to avoid consequences - so likely as an inversion to Ned his house will go to ruin and the consequences of his actions catch up to him as his modus operandi made him liked by few. So i'd personally find it interesting if he has a fair trial and gets judged the way he deserves, with no way for him to weasel himself out of it again.

My dream tWoW direction would be that he then gets sent to the wall (which also was Ned's initial sentence, another foil moment) and becomes the epilogue PoV and faces an Other - it would be a cool way to hand off the torch from the last big human villain of the wot5k storyline to the center antagonistic force of the war for the dawn storyline (it would also complete the set of Red Wedding architects being epilogue PoVs as the first epilogue in aSoS was a Frey, and the second in aDwD a Lannister). It would also really showcase how inhuman and alien the Others are by taking the coldest and "least humane" human character that everyone jokes is a vampire, and showing that in contrast to them he still is one of us by giving us a view inside his brain and his very human reaction to them.

The real enemy is the cold.  - Prologue, aGoT

Reek wondered if Roose Bolton ever cried. If so, do the tears feel cold upon his cheeks? - Reek III, aDwD

He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks. - Bran III, aGoT

[shamera]

chapter 190s slight spoilers

The fandom being mad at Braun the last several chapters has been the highlight of my week so far. Every reaction of 'throw him in the trash' or 'he's sleeping on the couch' is so funny to me.

Am I mad over what he did in the chapter 190s? Oh gods, yeah. And Soleum is very rightfully mad!

But did I expect any better from him?

Honestly, not at all. I think this was a missed chance for him to shine in the eyes of the readers, but like. I expected this behaviour, lol. In fact, we could possibly see in later chapters that Braun wasn't actually being malicious in the least!

Spoilers below--

Braun did say that he wasn't going to be Good Friend anymore when they parted after the Midnight Talk Show, but they did agree to still be friends.

Braun is also not human and therefore should not be judged by human standards, especially human standards of friendship. This is, of course, unfair to Soleum who is human and therefore it makes sense that he expects Braun to be at least a little bit like what humans would consider a friend.

We know that while Braun is still somewhat constrained by the ritual of the Good Friend summoning, that restraint is very, very weak. He's just humouring it. Lee Jaheon has warned Soleum-- Braun could break out of those restraints at any time, easily. He just chooses not to, which when you think about it, is quite the thing!!

He chooses to stay with Soleum. He chooses the stuffy and difficult to move little bunny plush in order to watch over his friend.

But that doesn't mean he's obligated to help Soleum. In fact, the moment when Soleum needed help-- when faced with Choi and when he was being sucked into the Glass Prison, Soleum's life wasn't what was in danger.

His freedom was. His future (on his current path) was. The people around Soleum was in danger.

But Soleum himself, his life, was never in any real danger.

And therefore Braun chose not to help. It's not to see his friend suffer, per se, but Braun does want to see what Soleum would do. That's what interested him about Soleum in the first place! That out of the box thinking, that way of worming his way out of situations!

I think that Braun would have intervened had Soleum's life truly been in danger, even if he might claim that if Soleum couldn't get himself out of such a simple thing, then maybe he wasn't entertaining enough for Braun's attention-- but we all know from that moment at the end of the Midnight Show arc that Braun, should Soleum really be in danger, really would be distraught if Soleum were to die forever.

Then there's the part where I do think Braun is a little bit irritated with Soleum-- Braun has been considerate enough to watch over Soleum even while they were apart, offer help when Soleum was faced with the taxi ghost and offer advice during the amusement park crisis, yet Soleum still went and did his own thing instead. And when Braun was irritated with Lee Jaheon, Soleum also did not take his side.

Was Braun a bad friend for just watching the situation around Soleum devolve into something terrible? Oh, yeah, definitely.

But there could be various reasons for that. In a more human aspect, you could say that maybe their friendship felt a little unfair-- Braun gave up quite a lot of freedom to (willingly) stay with Soleum, and he seems isolated from everyone else while he's nothing more than a stuffed bunny while Soleum gets to interact with everyone else and then seems embarrassed by Braun's very presence. Sure, Soleum provides entertainment and Braun provides help, but... despite everything, it does seem a little one sided for a grand being who thrives under the spotlight to limit himself to such a small role.

Or you can take a grander approach. Braun Does Not Like where Soleum is at in his life right now. He feels that Soleum is settling for a terrible place when he deserves better, and he's going to push Soleum out of this hell hole even if it means Soleum is not happy with him for the moment.

Think about it-- Soleum is staying a atrocious motel, his workplace seems rather shabby, and Braun doesn't even approve of his teammates (at least Daydream was entertaining with all the workplace drama and employees willing to backstab each other in a moment). Maybe he could see that Soleum was getting attached, and with the spy issue, things would only get worse if he let it brew. The Bureau's not going to like Soleum any better than they do now, but Soleum might hurt worse if he grows more attached. Best to rip the band-aid off, so to speak. Get the worst out of the way.

But do I think that Soleum is justified in his cold shoulder to Braun now? Oh, yeah.

But I also think that Braun isn't just planning for the moment where everything fell apart. He's planning a bit longer than that. And if worst comes to worst, well, Soleum could always join Braun again! It may seem like his inactions are closing a door on a part of Soleum's life, but Braun is always here to remind Soleum that he is providing another option in case all else fails.

...Even if it seems like Soleum never listens to him.