#which makes it less ugh a bot and more bot???

[mistbornhero]

If it makes anyone feel better, I can confirm that there's 0 scanning going on. There's tons of people who post non-fic fanworks to ao3 (art, vids, podfic) and I many of those works got the "scanned by AI" comments. (I'm also pretty sure this bot isn't as active anymore? The Webnovel one might still be alive, but I don't think I've heard much about the AI one, lately)

Quick PSA, if you get one of those "Work scanned, AI use detected" comments on AO3, just mark them as spam.

Some moron apparently built a bot to annoy or prank hundreds of authors.

There is no scanning process, your work doesn't actually resemble AI writing, it's all bullshit. Mark the comment as spam (on AO3, not the email notification you got about the comment!) and don't let it get to you.

[ao3cassandraic]

The depeopleization of *Units in the Murderbot trailer

Just some things that caught my eye as I watched.

The amount of literal and metaphorical dehumanization -- ugh, bad word; Murderbot isn't and doesn't want to be human, so let's go with "depeopleization" -- of bots in a short li'l trailer is... whew. It's a whole damn thing. If you didn't feel as uncomfortable as the Preservation crew did watching the corpos market their SecUnits not with spec sheets (much less résumés) but by putting the most expensive model on blatantly posed display... I'm not sure I know you, because wow, that's absolutely hideous. The books aren't subtle about Murderbot's story being a sci-fied enslavement narrative, but absolutely zero punches pulled in that scene.

(It reconciles me, a tiny bit, to Murderbot being acted by a white person. I still don't love that! But I can acknowledge there's some symbolic utility to it. Thing is, there would be symbolic utility the other way too; it'd just be different.)

While Murderbot itself waves off the corpos' scorn of it as an older and less-capable (by their lights) model, I can't. That, too, is a blatant denial of inherent worth and individuality. (Also I have every confidence that Murderbot could give that new model a fair fight. Experience counts for something, not that the corpos care. So they're being ageist, too! If Martha Wells was using that moment to take a shot at the publishers that wrote her off, more power to her.)

Obviously SecUnit armor is also designed to look deliberately not-human, even perhaps with an ableist touch. Murderbot's visor makes it look as though it has only one eye, and what it wears as it's guarding the door of the crew base is tilted toward what reads to me as a cliché TV robot. The newer SecUnit is entirely faceless (in a very 2020s-riot-cop sort of way, which was doubtless fully intentional).

I frankly got angry (Watsonianly, not Doylistly; I'm not mad at the trailer or those who made it) at the "it can't hear us!" bit. Personal history as a bullied child. I was walking back to school from a fourth-grade field trip, two of my bullies talking shit about me right behind me. One of them finally noticed I was there, shut up, and nudged or poked or kicked the other, who just said disdainfully and in full consciousness of the lie, "she can't hear us." Yeah, so that completely depeopleized bit in the trailer -- again, possibly with a touch of ableism to it -- was perfectly executed, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

And then we get to the Sanctuary Moon clip, in which the soap-opera conflict revolves around the Captain possibly having slept with "that bot," also a completely depeopleizing (though perfectly soapy, doubtless paralleling "that bitch") phraseology. (For what it's worth, I fully believe the Captain slept with that bot. John Cho's face, y'all!)

What's fascinating about that clip is that the crew's reactions of disgust and dismay are ambiguous. Possibly sleeping with a bot is viewed as inherently gross. Possibly it's something about that specific bot. Possibly it's something to do with how humans gender bots in soap operas (which we know nothing about even from the books, because Murderbot doesn't give a crap about gender or sexuality). Given that Sanctuary Moon is a soap opera, quite possibly there's history specific to the Captain, the bot, or both. We don't know! But what's clever about that is that it forces us to allow the possibility that once again it's bot depeopleization.

Cinnamon-roll Ratthi (perfectly cast) gets himself in a perfectly Ratthiesque muddle trying to work out how to be respectful to Murderbot. Using a person's self-chosen monicker is indeed respectful in almost all circumstances! But as Murderbot itself says about its name, "That's private." So Ratthi's attempt falls a bit short, but I'll give him some love for trying.

If you haven't seen it yet, do find the non-trailer clip going 'round of Gurathin opening a conversation with Murderbot. (If you check the #murderbot tag, you should find it.) This reads to me as Gurathin, perhaps prompted by Ratthi's behavior (the chronology here isn't clear), deliberately trying to assert to Murderbot that it is, in fact, a person. Gurathin does this by requesting that Murderbot do what people routinely do when they talk to one another: bare their faces.

Tactless? Yeah, arguably, though again it's not clear how much Gurathin knows about Murderbot's shyness at that point. But I get what he -- and the show -- are driving for.

[tinydefector]

*careless whispers playing* swerve: so this one’s part of a human mating ritual. It’s sad, cliche melody and themes make nearby humans pitty the performer and assume they get none. The dim lighting means the humans can’t tell it’s not night time, and makes them more aroused.

-bumpinSUV

Caught out - Human Effects

Warnings: unrestricted internet access

Word count 2.3k

I had so much fun doing this and working it into the human effects series so I hope you enjoy it. Bumpin, also I can't wait to do the other one you sent in.

Masterlist

Prev

Next

__________

Rodimus pinches the bridge of his nasal ridge as he vents loudly. "Swerve, for the last time, that song is not actually part of human mating rituals. Please it's so stupid" he exclaims in annoyance. Since they got the music set so the crew could listen to the collective Spotify on the human crews request, Swerve had been raving about the song Careless Whispers.  

Meanwhile Whirl is cackling, their one optic on the mini-bot as he sways ridiculously to the music. "Aww c'mon Roddy let Swerve have his fun! I think it's working, look, those humans will definitely feel sorry for ol' Sweeeevy." The helimech cackles. 

Swerve ignores them, enthusiastically crooning along at the top of his vocalizer. "Oh I...I'm never gonna dance again... guilty feet have got no rhythm!" He attempts a crude mimicry of human hip shaking that has several crewmembers watch in mixed emotion.

Rubbing his chevron tiredly, Rodimus cuts in. "Swerve. Buddy. For your own good, please shut it off before the humans see you making an aft of yourself, plus I know for a fact that Daniel would start withering into a husk if he heard that song." 

Whirl creases with laughter at the minibot's antics as Rodimus shakes his helm, wondering if he can find the will to survive another one of Swerve's "cultural exchanges." 

Megatron walks in looking rather tired and ready for a drink when his optics land on Whirl and Rodimus. He pauses in the doorway as the chaotic scene before him registers - Whirl cackling hysterically as always, Rodimus with an expression of long-suffering exasperation, and Swerve... dancing? to some strange organic music. One eyebrow plate arches high, and the barest ghost of a bemused smirk tugs at one corner of his mouth. 

"I leave you all alone for a few cycles and return to find the Lost Light devolved into complete anarchy, it seems." His rumbling voice cuts through the din, Whirl just slams his claws on the table as they maniacally laugh, not an ounce of shame. Rodimus heaves a sigh. "Swerve was just...educating us on human courting rituals. Apparently that song is a big part of it. Which I would argue is a lie! " 

Megatron's other brow joins the first. He regards the tiny bartender with an air of dry amusement. "Is that so. Well, carry on by all means. we wouldn't want to disrupt such... illuminating cultural exchange. But do try to keep the debauchery contained, yes? There are still functioning mechs aboard this ship." 

With that and a brief nod to Rodimus, signalling the matter settled, Megatron turns on heel striding purposefully toward a table hidden in a corner so he doesn't have to deal with the chaos. He requires nothing less than a stiff drink After the cycle.

Rodimus, on the other hand, looks close to joining Whirl in hysterics - though from frustration rather than mirth. One hand grips his audial fins tightly as if to block out the noise. "Swerve, please, for the love of Primus, stop. You are NOT courting humans like that!" 

At that moment Whirl's gazing gaze Shifts to Rodimus. “ I don't see you getting any Captain,  what makes you think you know what the fleshies like, don't listen to him Swerve” calls back loudly Before Rodimus decides he's had enough. throwing his servos up. "Ugh, forget it. I'm joining Megatron for engex, have fun." And with that, he stalks away muttering about finding more suitable crew members to share drinks with. 

But Whirl is having too much fun, falling over themself in mirth. "Go Swervy go! Shake that fine aft, get you some Earth tail! Yeaaah get it!" His exuberant hollers only encourage the bartender, who throws himself with renewed vigour into his poor approximation of human dancing. 

After Swerve's crude example of a dance other bots begin inquiry about it. Some are interested in learning about humans. "But where did you learn about Swerve,  I need sources" Skids states while his optics narrow on Swerve. Nigthbeat sat off to the side not paying much attention. As Tailgate, Nautica and Skids inquired for more information, they doubted he had asked any of the human crew members on ship about such a thing, plus it had been a while since the ambassador or any of the crew had been to the bar recently. 

Swerve shifts nervously under the intense gazes boring into him from Skids and the others. His visor brightens as he attempts a shrug. "Oh you know, around...the holoweb. Places, the internet"

Skids narrows his optics further. "Uh huh. And when exactly were you surfing the human internet from the Lost Light?" He crosses his arms, expression clearly stating he isn't buying Swerve's story. 

Tailgate tilts his head curiously. "But didn't you say you learned it from a human, I don't think they'd teach dancing like THAT..." 

A sly grin spreads across Nautica's faceplates. "Unless...were you watching those strange organic videos? What were they called again - tiktoks?" 

Swerve visibly blanches, waving his arms wildly. "Wh-what? No no, of course not! I would never -" 

But Cyclonus, who has been silently observing, speaks up then with quiet certainty. "He's lying. He has had no contact with humans outside of when they come to the bar, he hasn't talked with any of them except Nadia on the rare occasion” The bartender deflates completely as amused chuckles rise up around him. Nautica pats his shoulder kindly. He had been called out for not really talking with the crew, but in his defence he didn't know how to socialise with them outside of serving drinks. 

 "It's okay Swerve, next time just acutely get your information from a human, doubt the ambassador would like you going around spreading misinformation" 

After a moment of processing Rodimus looks up in shock. "Wait a klik We have access to the human internet!?" He asked in shock, when had that happened who set it up and why wasn't he informed. Beside him, Megatron pinches the bridge of his noseplate wearily. "I had hoped to keep that information need-to-know, Rodimus. But yes, Brainstorm installed a transfer several deca-cycles ago to...broaden cultural understanding, and make it easier for a cross line from the holo to the internet so information trade was easier." 

Skids pipes up helpfully. "I believe his exact words were 'for science!', but we all know he just wanted to look at more theories about humans and their social behaviour. Fleshie fragger!." He sings out the last part which makes some of the other mechs laugh. 

Tailgate gasps excitedly. "Ooh, that's really cool, I wanna see the cute Earth pets!" It makes Cyclonus chuckle softly as he watches the smaller bots' optics widen in wonder. 

Rodimus throws his servos up. "Why am I always the last to know about these things?! As Captain I should be informed of any new ship systems or tech!" He grumbles, directing a half-hearted glare at Megatron. The former warlord merely sips his drink placidly. "Think of it as a learning experience in responsible leadership, Rodimus. If you would have read the highlighted parts of the report like i had asked you would have seen that we did this installation"

Rodimus grumbles to him as he takes another sip of his own drink, still glaring at Megatron over being called out on his neglect of the reports, he had been doing more reading of them but it did get to a point where he wanted to slam his helm into a wall.  

It makes Sunstreaker freeze for a moment, realising that it meant the humans most likely had access to their own sites. "Wait if we can access their internet does that mean they now also have access to our holoweb, sites and forums?" He asked rather worriedly, Silence falls over the group as Sunstreaker's question sinks in, optics widening in collective horror. they all know exactly the kind of classified, compromising or just plain embarrassing things lurking on Cybertronian networks. 

Hound is the first to break the quiet. "Primus, can you imagine if the humans found some of the stuff posted on ProwlFanForums? Or some of the theories on WireTap, Commlink?" 

Blaster groans, faceplates pale. "My holovids from Vos Carnival are still online! If they find those videos Primus..." He wasn't expecting this but if one of the humans found it, one of the crew they would know he had shown them a few photos of his cassettes and it wouldn't be hard to put too and too together.  

Rewind sits back watching the chaos in amusement. “It be a shame if they saw how many of you are interface Feral scrapers” he teases which makes even more bots panic. 

“Frag, frag, frag, I need to delete my profiles, I never existed!” 

“Oh Primus, of any of the thirteen listening,  please erase myself”   

“No, no, they can't know about those sites can that, they wouldn't think to look that far!” 

 

Rodimus hurriedly waves his servos. "Alright everyone stay calm! We'll get Brainstorm on containment ASAP. In the meantime everybody delete and scrub everything questionable from your personal archives. I mean it!"

A flurry of typing ensues as bots scramble to protect their digital dignity. Only Megatron seems unfazed, a corner of his mouth quirked in dark amusement. "Humans have proven resourceful. I suspect they've seen far worse than what little dirt we may have to offer..." 

Rodimus shoots Megatron a glare. "Thanks, that's really reassuring Megsy." The chaos continues as a new threat looms for the Cybertronian populace - human seeing their thoughts, questions and information.   

Megatron turns an optic on the fretting collection of Mech's, interest piqued. "So tell me, precisely what sorts of... delicate matters have you been discussing regarding humans?" 

The bots abruptly find other places to look, fields filled with nerves and not-so-subtle guilt. Trailbreaker coughs awkwardly. "Youknowjust,casualobservationsandcuriositiesSir." 

Rodimus, clearly wishing to be anywhere but here, attempts distraction. "It's not important Megs, let's just focus on containment -" But Megatron is not so easily deterred. His crimson gaze settles on Blaster, who shifts stiffly. "I do believe there was mention of a particularly risqué forum... One addressing compatibility between our species, was it not?" 

Blaster tries to look anywhere but Megatron, clearly feeling uncomfortable under the ex warlords stare. “It was merely an... academic discussion of theoretical interspecies relations." Suddenly Whirl howls with laughter. "Oh Primus you should see the threads about 'interface ports vs human orifices'! They go on for orns!" It makes all the bots helms snap to the helimech.  “SHUT UP WHIRL!” A collective yell comes from the panicked Mech's. 

A collective groan arises as Megatron rolls his optics, he had been expecting something else but this seemed quite tame compared to what he was expecting. After all, he had seen what floats around on the human internet and had the unfortunate experience of coming across a lot of stuff. In the end the human Ambassador had been rather embarrassed and apologetic over it. 

Megatron can't help but let out an amused huff of ventilation at the collective embarrassment of the Autobots. Clearly they had yet to witness the depths humanity plunged into given anonymity and technology. "Trust me when I say your little... theoretical discussions would barely cause a ripple among humans. I have borne witness to the unfiltered fleshling internet, and what I glimpsed there was far more depraved." He recalls with bemusement the memory file of Ambassador mortified face.

Skids eyes him curiously. "Really? What kind of thing could be worse than interfacing forums?" He grumbles dragging his servos down his faceplate. "Let's just say their proclivities extend far beyond our frames. Entire databases dedicated to the debasement and degradation of simulated strangers. Acts I'd not care to repeat lest they scorch even my memory banks." 

The collection of Autobots, Decepticons and neutrals recoil in mingled horror and fascination. Whirl cackles gleefully. "And to think we thought WE were deviants! Humans have us beat tenfold!"

Rodimus shudders violently. "Okay deleting that file dump NOW before it ends up in human hands." 

Megatron turns to Swerve. "I would recommend actually looking up the song before trying to perform, it isn't what you believe, and under no circumstances is anyone allowed to play the song Cbat. I refuse to be responsible for what happens by cybertronian stupidity" he explains Megatron pins Swerve with a stern glare, ensuring his message has been received. The tiny bot nods frantically, clearly intimidated. Satisfied, Megatron turns on a heel striding from the bar, Autobots parting hastily to avoid collision with the imposing warlord. 

No sooner does he exit than there are shouts and whoops of laughter from within. Whirl's distinct cackle rises over the din, triumphant and slightly manic. "Oh sweet Primus, humans are WAY more glitchy than I even dared dream! Swerve, you've gotta see this slag, they call it the 'CBAT Incident'!". 

“Frag Whirl dont you ever listen to what anyone says!” Nautica huffs as she tries to make herself seem not intrigue in hearing about the story.

__

“ Hey Millian come take a look at this” Nadia coos tho her friend. The Swed turns and makes their way over to have a look at what Nadia was looking through. “Is, is that a Cybertronian human fucker poll!?” They state in shock only to start wheezing in amusement. 

“Oh you know it Sweetheart, but wait it gets better, seems the bots didn't check to make sure their personal files didn't transfer when we did the Interstellar holo/internet upgrade and by Allah is it juicy” she hums to Millian who quickly sits down eyes glued To the screen. 

“Does anyone else know about this yet?” Millian asked in delight. “Not to my knowledge,  I've been enjoying myself making a little QNA blog for bots to ask questions about humans, and boy has it been fun giving miss information to them.” She flashes Millian a smile while in turn laughs. 

“Oh I'm so down for this, lets see what we can find, Nadia you have just gifted me the best presents ever, I'm about to have a field day reading through these” they press a quick kiss to the side of her face before quickly typing away looking throight the multitude of different groups and forum's they can find. 

________

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[initforthethrill]

also just read freshman cate and Wow thank u for putting that thought into my head.

I have something to add to the pile. flipping the idea on its head a little.

imagine Cate exactly as she is but with user less willing to give her what she wants.

like they're basically the same, both being freshman virgins but on like opposite sides of the spectrum.

cate comes in exactly how you have described her and user comes in as like this studious type, really not there for the sex or parties.

cate sees her in class, or in the library and all that 'prep' and 'obsession' with user starts after the start of college. like cate does all that (practicing her moaning for user specifically etc) while having to like go to class and see her the next day.

and Cate has to put in a LOT LOT LOT more effort to actually get anywhere with her. play the long game Imao, maybe Cate gets her to go to a party once or twice, gets user into her dorm a few times and it's a fucking fail. maybe she gets like a kiss but then user freaks out. and when she Finally FINALLY gets to the sex Cate really has to encourage to get the roughness she wants since user is new to it too, and much more tentative and unsure than Cate would like.

but they get there.

and it does have that sweet thing of like cate was just looking for a one time thing to get rid of her v card but user is just so sweet and oops is Cate in love?

<3

...I have one more haha, sending that separately

ugh i love your thoughts so so much anon<3 this is so cute and fits cate really well honestly. here's your blurb and bot hehehe

freshman!cate who desperately wants you to be her first time

Cate didn’t come to college for the academics.

She said she did, obviously. Wrote some melodramatic little essay about “civic engagement and leadership in the era of social disillusionment,” name-dropped Gloria Steinem and Taylor Swift and called it a day. It worked—God bless private admissions counselors—but the truth was simpler than all that: Cate came to college to get drunk, get laid, and finally feel like a real person. Not someone’s daughter. Not a mistake locked behind a childhood bedroom door. Not a virgin at eighteen with a devastating smile and zero experience to back it up.

She had a plan.

Find someone cute. Harmless. Ideally someone older, with just enough experience to know what they’re doing and just enough detachment to not make it a thing. Just one night. A clean break.

And then you sat down two rows ahead of her in American Civ, and the whole plan went straight to hell.

Because you weren't harmless.

You were serious. Quiet. All lean muscle under beat-up flannels and thrifted t-shirts, the kind of girl who didn’t try to be hot, which made it worse. You took notes on paper, rolled your sleeves up to the elbow like some kind of academic lumberjack, and always sat alone. No laptop. No friends. Just a pen between your teeth and a gaze sharp enough to cut glass.

Cate saw you once in the library and spent the rest of the night with her legs crossed in bed, sweating through her pajama shorts, whispering your name into her pillow like a curse and a prayer.

It got worse after that.

She started showing up to class early just to watch you walk in. Practiced her moaning—not like generic porn star moaning, but the kind she thought you might like. Breathier. Needier. Soft and a little ruined, like she was being edged in a dark room with her wrists tied back.

She even tried to flirt once. Asked you for help with a reading she’d absolutely skimmed, leaned forward too much, smiled too sweet.

You looked at her like she was either annoying or on fire. Possibly both.

Still, Cate wasn’t deterred. If anything, it made her worse. She learned to play the long game. Invited you to a party and pretended she didn’t care when you said no. Invited you to another. Eventually got a yes—probably out of guilt—but you showed up in jeans and sneakers, stood stiff near the door like you were waiting for a fire drill, and left before Cate could even brush you arm.

You made it to Cate’s dorm once. That part felt like progress.

Cate had lit candles. Played music. Sat a little too close on the twin bed. She kissed you.

It was a good kiss. She knew it was. It had teeth, heat, the kind of chemistry she could bottle and sell.

But you pulled away so fast it was almost like Cate had burned you.

“Sorry,” you mumbled, already standing. “I can’t—I’m not…”

Not what? Gay? Interested? Human?

Cate didn’t ask. Just swallowed the rejection, curled back into herself, and told Marie later that she was over it.

(Lie.)

Because the thing was—you never looked at anyone else. Never flirted. Never dated. It wasn’t like Cate had competition. It was just…complicated. Like you'd built a wall around yourself so high that no one had ever bothered to climb it before.

Cate decided she would. Not because she was desperate (she was), and not because she needed it to mean something (she didn’t, not yet), but because she’d started this, and she didn’t like to lose.

It took three months.

Three months of strategic party invites. Of studying in the same places. Of “accidental” run-ins. Of keeping her touches casual—just a hand brushing your wrist, a shoulder bump in the dining hall, a thigh pressed close during a late-night study session that definitely wasn’t necessary.

You kissed her again in December, just before Christmas break.

It was slow, like you were figuring it out as you went. Like you hadn’t done this before and didn’t want to mess it up. Cate kissed you back with all the practiced hunger of someone who’d been waiting all semester to be ruined.

When they finally ended up in bed, you were…tentative.

Careful hands. Questioning eyes. One finger at a time like you were unlocking Cate instead of fucking her.

It wasn’t what Cate expected.

But something about the nerves—the reverence—broke her clean in half. It wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t just virginity. It was you shaking beneath her, asking if it was okay. If you were enough.

Cate cried a little. (She blamed the orgasm.)

Afterwards, you kissed her forehead. Held her through the comedown. Whispered a thank you like Cate had given you something holy.

And maybe she had. Maybe it wasn’t what she came here for, but it was something better. Something real.

So yeah, Cate Dunlap came to college to lose her virginity.

What she didn’t expect was to lose her heart in the process.

♡ | everything but easy

[harukamitsuki]

I realized that I don't hate Bakugou, I just think he's a boring character, besides being a complete Gary Stu. I don't understand how the fandom thinks he's the most complex character, like even Tokayami manages to be more interesting than him. Besides, his fandom treats anyone who doesn't like him as if they're committing a mortal sin. What's your opinion?

If his fandom didn't actively undermine everything he did, if they weren't trying to shove him down our throats, I wouldn't hate him as much. And if Horikoshi didn't try to shove him down our throats, I would probably even enjoy him to some extent.

I don't like him as he is now. Or was, considering it's over now. He was abusive as hell, loud and obnoxious, rude to anyone and everyone, didn't change at all, and most of all, the narrative bends around him.

Characters who would hate him somehow adore him. Characters who wouldn't take his shit from anyone else somehow adore him. Physics don't work the same way for him. His quirk has, like, four awakenings. Death literally doesn't stick around for him.

He's not allowed to work for anything - it's given to him, which makes it hilarious when Aizawa, aka Horikoshi's mouthpiece, justifies everything he does with 'he works harder than everyone'. Especially when Izuku is right there, who worked for ten months straight just to get a shot at placing high enough for U.A.

The world bends for him, because Horikoshi didn't want to put in the effort of, ahem... writing a good, compelling character.

And, no, I don't mean good as in morally good. Characters don't have to be good people to be good characters.

However, if the character is both a bad person and badly written, people are far less compelled to enjoy them.

Prime example: Doflamingo from One Piece. He's a bad person, but his writing is so good that people either love him or love to hate him.

Bakugou doesn't even work in the 'meant to be hated' spectrum, as he's not. Horikoshi genuinely wants people to love him, without realising that he makes it hard to do so with his terrible writing.

Look at Shou Tucker from FMA - 2003 and Mangahood. Everyone, and I mean everyone, hates this piece of shit. We would were all happy that Scar filled him, and we wish he was real just so we could disfigure his face. He is hated universally, because that's what he was supposed to be.

Ugh, I'm going off-subject.

Anyway! Back to the ask!

Bakugou is a very boring character. The only reason people think he isn't is because of his 'redemption arc' and his angry personality. Those two things are generally what people point to if you try to tell them that he's boring.

What they don't understand is that the 'redemption arc' doesn't work, because he never even reformed himself, nor did he work for it. It was all handed to him.

His anger is very generic, but it stands out due to everyone in 1-A either being very cheerful, very bland, or emotionally stunted. Not even Endeavour is eternally angry; most of the time, he feels very cold, ironically.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: he would have been more enjoyable if he was left behind post-Battle Trials, as was the original plan. It only changed because Horikoshi drew him crying.

As a minor antagonist, he would have been great. If his redemption happened in the background, I wouldn't have cared. Personally, I probably would have actually liked him if he stayed as an antagonist.

His fandom are so obsessed with making him seem like the best character ever. The irony is that most of them hate Endeavour, despite them being incredibly similar.

I know that it's not all Bakugou fans. There are a lot of them, but there are also a lot of them who just want to keep to themselves and just enjoy their fav without trying to make everyone adore him. To a lot of people, it doesn't matter if you hate or dislike Bakugou.

But, to a lot of them, it does. There are people who spend about 2k on bots to make sure B*kuD*ku wins the polls, or people who spend more to make sure Bakugou wins the popularity contests.

Heck, there are people who were crying over IzuOcha being canon, despite all the hints that it was canon since EPISODE FOUR. I thought it was obvious that IzuOcha were the canon ship when they first met and Izuku was flustered, despite him never getting that flustered over other girls.

But, nope. They're crying and blocking Horikoshi and harassing people over IzuOcha being canon. They claim that B*kuD*ku was canon and Horikoshi queerbaited them, when he really didn't. They convinced themselves that it was canon and blamed everyone else that it didn't happen.

Man, this is why Hiroshima didn't make NaLu canon in Fairy Tail.

Bakugou fans concern me, because they seem to not realise that things not being canon is the reason fandom exists. Fandom exists because people, (specifically white women watching Star Trek), asked themselves, 'what if'.

'What if' these two characters k-k-k-kissed!? 'What if' this character survived? 'What if' this happened?

Bakugou fans just don't seem to understand that.

Honestly, just writing him off as a boring character and nothing more is better for your mental health.

(Just don't tell the Bakugou stans. They'll gut you alive.)

[pico-farad]

aaaaaaa omg you've finished vrains?? what did you think of s3? any fav moments? :D

I've got a lot of thoughts and I'm working on a huge Vrains post (actually, two huge Vrains posts)! S3 is interesting to me, it's understandably a mess, but it also has some of Vrains's best writing.

My favorite episode(s) of Vrains are the Ai vs. Pandor duel.

"Yeah we could duel in virtual reality.... but we could also duel on top of a moving plane"

yesss... YES......!! Now THIS is Yugioh. 

The line writing is surprisingly good, and Ai's VA does a fantastic job with it. The grief and resentment that sit just beneath the jokes serves to make the whole thing more bittersweet. I have some concerns with how sharply they veer Ai's character, but this duel sold me on it.

What gets me about this duel is that these are two people who like each other. You can see it in how they talk to each other, how Ai can't help but be honest, coming close to confessing everything to her.

Pandor: Have you given up on co-existing with humans? Ai: Seems so. I've already hurt humans, so I don't think they'll forgive me. And I have no intention of turning back. Pandor: You're going to exterminate humans? Ai: I don't intend to, but it may end up that way. I don't know, myself. Pandor: Is it impossible for humans and AI to co-exist? Ai: I don't know that either. It was impossible for me. But I won't say it's impossible for you, or for future AI that have free will. As long as there is free will, I can't deny that possibility, that everyone's lives can be one. All I'm saying is that I couldn't co-exist. Pandor: Ai... I sense an incredible sadness from you. Ai: Ugh, stop with that... I don't want anyone to know that. Except for one person.

Unlike all of Ai's other duels, he doesn't have any resentment or mixed feelings towards Pandor; he sees her as kin. That's why their interaction feels so tragic, because Ai is the last of his kind (Roboppi isn't quite self-aware yet) so he gets this opportunity to talk with someone who's like him, someone who is not complicit in the deaths of the Ignis, but they're on opposite sides, and he has to kill her. Which probably feels like how he had to kill his friends.

And Pandor is the only character who sees Ai without betrayal or defensiveness clouding their judgment -- and she sees through him completely. It's amazing. This damn therapy-empathy bot just won't stop seeing into his soul and telling him to stop hurting and killing himself -- while they're both trying to kill each other. FANTASTIC. THAT'S WHAT I LOVE TO SEE.

He wants her to be free from being controlled by humans just as much as she wants his salvation. But they have to fight each other, and die, while the humans all get to live.

And on then on top of being deeply tragic, this is also the funniest episode in Vrains. Because tragedy makes comedy funnier, and comedy makes tragedy sadder.

BRO JUST WANTS TO SEE TOPOLOGINA NAYBEE.

I definitely think that if season 3 was allowed to be its full length, we would have gotten more from Pandor, maybe even see her join Ai's side. After all, it's a classic Chekov's gun to have Revolver of all people create a sentient AI and be like "it's fine, I programmed her not to betray humans." Bruh, of course she's going to betray humans. It's as classic as the story of Pandora's Box itself.

Anyway, if you want to know my top Vrains duels, they are:

Ai vs. Pandor

Spectre vs. Lightning

Yusaku vs. Revolver (s1 finale)

And my favorite characters are 1. Ai, 2. Roboppi, 3. Aoi.

To be honest, at the end of season 2 I was feeling pretty bummed about characters I liked at first becoming less interesting as time went on. I was fully prepared with the joke about my favorite Vrains character being Hatsune Miku, mostly on the virtue of "you can't write 10000 words about a character and say you don't like her." But these two cat-coded AIs snuck in at the last moment to charm me.

[shinakazami1]

TFTBL GAMEPLAY NOTES: EP 1 (Zer0 Sum)

my good pal @astralflumph let me watch them play my fav game and since I was curious on which side Rhys smiled more, I decided to take notes in general. Hope someone will enjoy this!

RHYS:

Side smiles: right-tilted 21 ; left 13

General - Drolls when he sleeps - He gets sad when Sasha says she doesn't trust his face :( - He can be the one trying to warm Sasha up to him - pinky promise and "we're best friends" after lending her your stun baton. - In his imagination with August, he tears the guy's heart with his normal hand. The same happens earlier when he punches a bandit with his normal hand before using the stun baton. Either his arm is expensive he never thought of using it for harder tasks, or it might be a fresh thing. - Jack comments on Rhys being a code monkey the moment he is plugged in. He might have gotten already merged with Rhys a bit.

Vaughn: - He seems open to Vaughn's therapy idea if only they have the money. Hope CEO Rhys has it,, - Rhys' first instinct while talking to Vasquez is to protect his friends. It's the second dialogue option that lets you consider betraying Vaughn. Rhys also gets the promotion to make THEIR life better. Friendship is essential to him, though the player can choose how important it is. - Vaughn is good with motorbikes. Prob drove a bit before going to Helios.

Work on Hyperion: - Hyperion is the only job he has. As he is prob 27 like Vaughn - and we know he went to college, he might have also been in university. - He got a new haircut to fit in. Wish we had some art to compare,, - Rhys worked for Henderson for 3 years. Seems not to like him, as his only comment about the guy is losing the nice suit - Rhys got to meet Nakayama - thinks of him as an asshole - The last log in this episode from Handsome Jack is about the Atlas Logo: edited by HJ69 342 days ago. Jack died less than a year ago. - Besides stealing the money, Rhys also broke the user agreement while modifying the Loader Bot. Ugh Oh! - He and Vaughn had some project related to an eridian mine. - When Vaughn suggests getting wine for their celebratory lunch, Rhys seems confused. Man of some taste for sure. This made me realise we see Felix and August and some NPCs drink beer, but no one else throughout the games. Tho tell me if I'm wrong. - "I'll name my firstborn loader bot. Prob not" Sure, robot dad.

Planets: - Rhys has some property on one of Eden's (tried to give the offer to the stranger). In this episode, Eden 6 ( August: Marcus said it's nice) and 7 (Vaughn says it's a nice vacation spot) are mentioned. - In the Van, there is a Dionysus poster that Fiona and the gang want to go to. It's Lilith's home planet. Dionysus is also God of Tragedy. Ouch.

==

FIONA

General: - The con is their biggest yet. - Only Fiona has the posters. Either she keeps on covering for Sasha, or she is the one who keeps doing the harder work and being exposed. However, the Echo Eye scan suggests she still is packing a lot of crime stories. - Maliwan might be their fav company: Sasha uses 2 of their guns, and 22% of Fiona's jacket are of Maliwan material. - Sasha has a bandaid on her splashscreen. Seeing the different layers of clothing, she might have some wounds hidden behind them. - Sasha recognises immediately Rhys' Echo Eye. Either there are more people with them, and she saw them on Pandora, or her being a gun freak means she read about them. Either is interesting. - Sasha is said to be a horrid shot. And based on the amount of shots it took her to finally hit all the skags (at least 20 shots), I would say y e a h. Same with the alpha skag.

August: - He met with Vasquez a few times. - He has a good memory and knows his way around the business (pretending to be stupid), gets rapid in romance (doesn't listen to Sasha at first, only later considering something is wrong; when it turns out to be a con, he mostly screams words, saying her name). Lack of emotional intelligence ig - Has some connections with Marcus (talk about Eden-6) - WHY DID HE BRUSH BLOOD OFF FIONA'S CHEEK THO EWWWW

Felix: - Immediately, as he hears gunshots, he runs to the Purple Skag bar to check if Fiona is okay. He cares, in his weird ways - He might be pushing even more responsibility on Fiona, as she's the older sister. Maybe that's why she's the one who got the poster.

Bossanova uses voice modulator.

[thebrokenmechanicalpencil]

Get away from the walls.

( @quibble-auk I tried, PLEASE let me know how out of character this is for Sunrazor. Or in character if I'm feeling chipper. Maybe this isn't too rushed feeling, I hope you enjoy it. TW. Gore, Sunrazor, Comet Eater.) (Not beta read)(Also, if you happen to be reading this, the scary lady belongs to quibble as tagged above!!! GO LOOK her arts and writing is the cool!!)

-

She shouldn't have had to come along. As Sunrazor meandered she hardly held her jaw clicked shut. This wasn't a mess she needed to have her hands in, yet she traversed the broken mine carrying two engineers in tow. Because there had been an extra bot a cycle ago. As the group shuffled past old dead equipment and rotten shells, they kept their red shiny optics open for their runaway. Curlshaft had disappeared off one of the sights marked off from redistribution and overall digestion of equipment, Sunrazor couldn't care less about the scrawny rustbucket bot. But, his disappearance could lead to worse things than just a death. “What if it was a defection? An autobot siege upon the already low moral in the engineers..” It had been whispered through the subservient tumbled maws of her higher ups.

Curlshaft, though not high in rank nor in firepower, held high intelligence and a genuine sway among the “recruited” engineers.

Such as the two bots now trailing Sunrazor.

“Commander, we.. we passed our toe hook!” 

Sunrazor was moments from counting this hash of a mission as a loss. She clenched her teeth and forced one sharp breath before whipping to glower at the small ratty mech who had piped up. Jawsnap flinched under the intensity of his superior’s gaze and lights. Said high beams had almost been comforting going through the twisted slick of a mineshaft, now it seared and burned. “What?” Grounding out past her shadow of a face,  Jaw almost choked. “O-our toe! It's ughm what we used a landmark ughm for when we- go lower into the shaft..where ugh..” Patience thinning and already on the edge of just stomping the pitiful mech into goo, Sunrazor allowed a harsh snarl of her engine. It effectively shut her guide up, making his partner flinch lower than a dying scraplet. “What Jaw means Commander, is that the cavern seems to have,” he breathed deeply, his friend nodding hard enough to dislodge his helm, if Sunrazor didn't do it first. “Shifted due to the destabilization of cybertrons mid layer-” Garble and more nonsense Sun had no interest in. This ramble when he finished only explained the very obvious. She and the two baggage claims were lost in a crumbling tunnel. Trying to find a corpse. Which she had already spent far too much time doing to begin with. Sunrazor felt her cannon heat as the frustration began to bubble and split her processor. She was coated in dust, one of her lights were cracked, and stuck with two soft armored brainiacs that have no sense of direction. In a tunnel three sizes too small for her.

Another growl escaped her, she couldn't help but wonder if she could say the engineers fell down a pit. In pieces. As if trying to save the situation, the silver bot who distinctly lacked a stutter suggested, “We could turn back, it mustn't be too far.” The mech nodded back squinting in the lights adorning Sunrazor like a bird of paradise’s plumage. Said bird forced a hard vent, staring out into the dark of the cave. Engine already hot and her need to just gut the two mechs leaching into any orders she received. With a sharp snarl she turned to see two bright lights hanging over Jawsnap. Helm turned and her light illuminating the other side of the passage, she turned her frame to catch his helm being crushed in a mass of teeth and flesh.

 Battle programming activation took only moments. It slowed the descent of the rather cybertronian face from the dark, it highlighted the split of said face stretching and widening its jaw. Like a flower blooming, thousands of teeth emerged. By the time her lights snapped and her battle programming gained a foothold, that mess of teeth and spilt energon was dragging a limp engineer up the cave wall. She managed a shot missing completely. “Get away from the walls!” She shoved herself back towards the middle of the room snatching a now shellshocked mech with her. SunRazor’s processor whirled and snarled, calculating the angle in which the thing had dragged itself up into the pitch black. Her lights slithered up along the ceiling catching nothing. If what the engineers said was true, she couldn’t just shoot or this section of the mine may come down on them.

The sound of ripping metal and half awake screams tore through the air, the cave warping the noises of agony into a chorus. She squinted hard trying to keep the screams from distracting her sensors. Then the cries of a caught newspark grew to be duetted by the sounds of eating. Her tanks roiled in the realization. In the tight space she could only move so much, getting away and at a safe distance was impossible. Sunrazor had learned before that you don’t fight in too close of combat with what was slurping and ripping out the insides of her charge.

A bright blue illuminated above the trio as a rain of energon dropped down above them. The life blood getting in her optics and coating her lights. She caught a glimpse of the grotesque face and the spark, still alive and beating, slipping down its wet throat. Sunrazor fired. Jawsnap screamed loud and hard as the rocks began to slip and crack, and his friend’s mangled corpse dropped with a wet thud. Along with the mangled energon covered monster. It stood only for a moment, its long organic legs bowed in a crouch and its serene face painted in gore.  Its wet eyes narrowed in a glare at Sunrazor, recognition clear. Sunrazor only smiled, winked, and blew its side open. It was up in the metaphorical rafters in moments but from the rain of its familiar yellow blood she knew she had hit home. Jackjaw stood frozen staring at the corpse of his friend, and then screamed again. His guardian snarled in distaste, realizing she didn't have time to get reacquainted with her old friend. “Move.” Jack jaw only choked on a sob, dribbles of energon dripping from his mouth as he purged his tanks. Sunrazor had no time for such grief. She threw him down the length of the cave with a yell, plating flaring. “I SAID MOVE.” Sunrazor let out a couple warning shots in the direction of the yellow pool as the cave began to heave. As if wanting nothing more than to puke them out from causing its innards so much pain.

 Her lights painted the cave in a sickly pink as she tore back up the shaft. Exhilaration warmed her as she kept up with the creature in the dark, laughing when it got a good strike on her face. She returned it by slamming the amalgamation into the craggy cave wall. It quickly stuck its clawed hand into a deep pocket of her armour, her arm spasmed as it wiggled out from under her. She caught the fear however. “Frightened little one?!” She roared, firing after its blood trail, “Good, I can smell it!” A snap made her roar as one of her lights was ripped from its sockets. A whisper gentle as a breeze flashes along her audials. It was a heaved breath of rage. Another hot plunge of her battle computer had her ramming her back into the wall. She missed. A claw caught her left optic. A flash of the smell she associated with her prey. Then it was gone again. Sunrazor screamed in rage at the agony in her senses. The agony snitched itself to an unbridled snap of satisfaction.

 She could see she had almost made it to the main tunnel, a quick scan saw the engineer was gone. Good. She stopped venting a blast of steam. Her inner workings blazing in the thrill of a challenge. “Little thing,” her voice purred over the echo of the cave, her optics chasing the drops of its life. “You’re not shy now are you?” A hiss, a shot. Sun razor smiled softly at the thunk and harsh scream. She turned her helm to the sound, bright optics shining demonically past the machinery. “You need practice, you’re too loud.” She waltzed toward the heap that breathed cloying breaths, “Didn’t those autobots teach you anything?” She crouched easily over the thing, face plate cruel as it was thoughtful. The thing made the valiant effort to snarl, she snatched up his neck before he could finish. Gasping and whimpering it clawed weakly at her large hand,  meanwhile Sunrazor studied its face. It was young obviously, young and so full of potential. She had caught those traits when she had her first encounter, and her second. Her frame burned with reminders of all the wounds this creature had inflicted, and in such a short time. “You're a wily little thing, sad you're being wasted.” She murmured this mostly to herself, her fingers moving to cradle the thing’s face. It stiffened as she turned its head back and forth, almost gentle. She slowly contemplated how it would be to have this creature as a dog. It would be quite the project. Sunrazor  lifted it by its soft young face plate, it howled in pain at the motion. “What do you think about that? I could teach you how to keep this from happening.”

It stared at her swathed in fear. “Since your masters back home sent you here, I assume they thought you were strong enough to do what was needed, hm?” She leaned close to the creature as it whimpered. “Or maybe, little one, they decided you were too much trouble and named me to put you down.” It winced. Sunrazor smiled gently, perfect. “What if I told you, I could make you strong enough to never be pinned again?” She saw it, the flash of thought. The crack. The pain. The doubt. Sunrazor smirked at the mind killer. “Now- AGH-!” Pain exploded in her already hurt optic as the thing had the gall to swipe at her. She squeezed, her once gentle fingers bruising and cutting flesh. “Fine,” She reared back to slam its helm into the rock, a good way to neutralize such a rodent.  It responded by snapping her own helm back with, a wing? The extra appendage blinded her already limping optics. In seconds claws found her face, and raked. She screamed as energon poured down her front. Unable to see or stabilize herself she felt it run. Sunrazor slammed a fist in a vain attempt to catch the now winged beast, but she met only rock. Wind from the thing’s escape bathed her face, and then it was gone. She stood quickly and listened intently. Turning slowly, before slamming her other fist into the rock. 

She had let it get away again.

[autobots-in-training]

Question for the big kids. Why did the war started?

Sideswipe- UUUUUUUGH i hate history class. Sunny, you take this question.

Sunstreaker- idiot.

Sideswipe- I heard that!

Sunstreaker- I meant for you to hear it. Now shut up, the smart twin is talking!

Sideswipe- Neither of us is the smart twin.

Sunstreaker- Theres only two of us! One of us has to be the smart one, and its me!

Sideswipe- Yeah yeah whatever, just keep it down, im gonna play Zelda.

Sunstreaker- ANYWAY! Basically, the Functionists were in charge, we were split into castes, poor bots and anyone in the lower undesireable castes weren't allowed to procreate or even have romantic partners, cause romance leads to sex or whatever. Some bots were sterilized for speaking out, others were sterilized because the Functionist council couldnt risk them having kids even on accident. We were actually the kids of an upper class mech and lower class mech. They kept us hidden for a few years but they were found out.

Sideswipe- Can you just skip this part? I hate it.

Sunstreaker- The anon asked a question, I'm just answering it, go back to your game.

Sideswipe- Yeah yeah...

Sunstreaker- They were able to help us escape, our creators were killed by the council and we were on our own well into the war. Ironhide found us when we were... I think we were close to Springer's age.

Sideswipe- We were closer to 12.

Sunstreaker- Oh yeah, 12,000, so a bit younger than Springer and the other two. The war started because bots weren't allowed freedom of... pretty much anything. The further down in the caste system you were, the less rights and privileges you had. Even upper class mecha were restricted on some things, so even they weren't free. Frame types couldn't mix. It was a whole fucking mess.

Sideswipe- They started "decommissioning" "undesirable" mecha too. Decommissioning meaning killing and undesirable meaning old models.

Sunstreaker- It was fucked up.

Sideswipe- Hey Sunny, Mirage was from the Towers right?

Sunstreaker- Yeah, he mentioned that in class last week.

Sideswipe- How do you think he and Hound met? Hound was in the Cybertronian Army. Army mecha and high class mecha didn't really mix before the war, he said so himself in class.

Sunstreaker- For someone that hates history class, you sure know a lot.

Sideswipe- Oh please, it's just random stuff that i remember, i dont actually remember whole timelines of historical events like you.

Sunstreaker- And thats why im the smarter twin.

Sideswipe- Oh shut the fuck up.

Sunstreaker- No, im going to keep going.

Sideswipe- Fine by me.

Sunstreaker- D-16 who later became Megatronus who even later became Megatron and Orion Pax who later became Optimus Prime, teamed up, and rallied a bunch of mecha that were sick of the rules of the council. They were pretty quickly overthrown, more people hated functionism than the council realized.

Sideswipe- And then Megs and OP couldn't agree on how to go from there, and they started bitch fighting, and have not stopped since then, the eeeeend.

Sunstreaker- Can you be more articulate!?!? ... Also yeah, thats basically what happened. They kept disagreeing on how to build a new government, people took sides, and the rest is... well, history.

Sideswipe- Ugh, the beginning of the war took like, 6 months to get through, Hound just went on and on and ON. This was so much faster.

Sunstreaker- Because i left out a bunch of details!! Details which are important to know!

Sideswipe- Why do i need to know them?

Sunstreaker- Because the war isnt as black and white as some of the adults make it out to be!

Sideswipe- I mean, i get that, but it took so long to just get through the events leading up to the war.

Sunstreaker- Because it was thousands of years of unrest that lead to the revolution and the war to happen!!

Sideswipe- yeah yeah. Hey, wanna play mario kart?

Sunstreaker- *sighs* Yeah, sure. I call peach.

Sideswipe- That's who you always pick, I know not to touch her.

Sunstreaker- Good.

*end transmission*

[missamyrisa2]

The clit cleaning story was sooooo hot...I have such a thing for tickle-cleaning, and I used to think that was really weird and unusual but reading through the asks you get I feel less weird knowing apparently other people have the same kink. Nothing is hotter to me than the thought of being drenched in sudsy water while someone tickles my tummy or feet going "scrub a dub dub!" Ugh anyway thanks for doing those asks, you're such a good writer!

eeee hugssss for youuuu~!! Because I always felt the same~ like any time I saw cleaning machines or bots or someone being cleaned or whatever in tv shows or movies I would always get that lil tingle of excitement like ooooh gosssh I would just loooove being put through that sort of situation of teasyyy cleaning tickly attention~!

And it just lends itself sooo much to the matter of fact teasing, like someone who is merrily working away on your squirming body telling you it's for your own good as they endlessly scrub and massage over hot spotssss with bubbles and water flying everywhere~~

I especially love the thought of being in a big tub, positioned so my feet are sticking out~ and having a whole cleaning team around with some of them working by hand with soft washcloths and others using long scrubby brushes to dip into the suds and chase my squirming body~ as two have my ankles locked so they can use their detail brushes to work under the toes~

And then there's the cleaning machine~~ which can't be reasoned with and is determined to cleanse my writhing struggling body, buffing around with spinning brushes and polishing my royal areas endlessslyyyy~ only to make me dirty again which will require more cleaning~!!

[wander-wren]

got another bot-spam comment on ao3, but this one is extra weird. let’s do some investigating!

for those not in the know, The Haunting is my dark whumpy “todoroki gets adopted by aizawa” fic. it’s also 60k words long. so right away i’m doubting this person read it. that plus the generic vibes? bot comment. but i’m also pretty sure i’ve heard of this channel before, specifically because it wasn’t crediting authors. hm. so i go check it out: http://www.youtube.com/@DnWhatIf

first of all, these are the videos i’m greeted with:

now, i don’t want to bash anyone’s taste, but this is so extremely not my thing. nooooo way. some of these read more like crackfic, which is fine, but tonally the difference is SO much. and just makes it even more glaringly obvious that they aren’t reading the fics they’re spamming or even giving them a cursory once-over (or putting strong filters on the bot? i’m not clear how bot comments work)

because this is the first thing you see about The Haunting:

i’m guessing, if it wasn’t completely random, it’s the fact that i tagged izuku as a character. and really it’s just lazy, the whole thing. it’s all bots. ai art in the thumbnail, ai voice reading the fic, bot making comment spam for you. zero respect. if this was an actual podficcer i would consider it! hell, i might even accept ai voice readings (MAYBE), if it was obvious there was a human person who cared behind them. it could certainly be a tool for good, since podficcing isn't very common (we love you podficcers. if i had a little bit more confidence i would be one of you).

but anyway, hang on, lets back up a step, because the whole reason i looked into this was the credits issue. the video “what if deku became a teacher at ua” (ugh) (i hate the title gimmick also) is going to be my guinea pig.

so in the little intro (also done by ai), it says “all credits to their respective authors” which, yikes. however, they do link to their permission statement and the fic in the description, so it….could be worse. but also, these are the comments

(and it continues like that for a bit)

the channel name also has a 4.0 after it [edit: it did when i started this post, then i got distracted for two days, and now it is gone. hm], which implies they’ve had a lot of trouble with keeping it up. so it seems likely that this is the channel i heard about stealing fics, they just finally learned to get permission and give credit to try and keep it up this time. the permission statement on this video is real (i wondered if they would just link to something else and assume no one would check), but even THAT author references being “freaked out” (positive?? unsure) when they heard of people finding their story on youtube. before giving permission to upload with credit. so that’s not great

also this sludgepit of content is absolutely the thing that attracts people with no patience clamoring for updates literally one day after the video goes up. go figure. bad vibes all around.

also, if you’re wondering about the quality of the reading (i’ve stumbled on some pretty good ai voices as of late!), it’s, uh. i don’t actually know about how all this works, but i feel like when you pick a voice to read a story it should at least be able to approximate character name pronunciation. and flow.

but alas.

i also don't want to bash the authors in question but the truth is from the very minimal poking around i did (not giving this channel any more of my time than absolutely necessary), the writing featured is....mediocre at best. which is fine and good for the fandom ecosystem and i will NEVER be anything but happy that people are writing and posting less-than-perfect works, especially since some of these premises are pretty unique and i think it's better to have the fic than not. we all start somewhere, fanfic is an excellent way to practice and get feedback at the same time, etc.

but these channels, these kinds of operations, they're going to prey on new and young authors and that's who is going to be saying yes to them. because they want the exposure, they want to be told their work is good enough for someone else to care to record it for youtube, they haven't been around long enough to recognize this for what it is: someone taking extreme shortcuts to get views and likes and a bit of notoriety off of other people's work. and that's shit.

and remember that youtube videos can be monetized!

now, i doubt this channel in particular has been monetized, although it does meet the minimum requirements as far as numbers go:

it shouldn't meet the requirements for the monetization policies, specifically these ones:

especially with the disclaimer in the beginning that the content is not their own--which might be why previous versions of the channel did not give credit. who knows.

however, youtube DID just have some scandals about people making videos that were pretty much entirely plagiarized, which were monetized, so i don't have the highest hopes in the world. still, it doesn't seem monetized, so no strikes against this particular creator for that, at least, but defo something to look out for if anyone ever brings up hosting podfics on youtube.

so yeah, bot spam, not a complete scam this time but definitely really sketchy, bad vibes all around. and i still kind of want to give them permission to use my fic just to see what would happen, lmao

[canyouhearthelight]

Nihilus Rex, Ch. 40: Overlapping Work

Wonder if anyone has figured out who 'Ayanti' is. Hmmmm....

Also, don't forget to keep an eye on Lash and Nils' dynamic, like @baelpenrose mentioned in the previous chapter. Huge thanks to him for helping with this chapter!

They said, "All teenagers scare the livin' shit out of me" They could care less as long as someone'll bleed So darken your clothes, or strike a violent pose Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me

"Teenagers", My Chemical Romance

Lash

Food finally settled and parents/surrogate family mollified, I took my cell out, plugged it into a charger, crammed my most comfortable earbuds in, and called Nils.  Exactly zero part of me thought this would be an easy call, but at least if I was in my bedroom I would have to moderate my tone.  The first call went to voicemail, but I was interrupted in my message by a call coming through.

“Ignore the empty voicemail,” I answered, my stomach in knots. “I called, it went to - “

“I was on the phone,” he cut me off, curt but cheery. It was bizarre, unnatural.

“That makes sense. And… I’m sorry for not responding for so long. I was working, honestly.”

“Same, oddly. Once I got over the dread, I reached out to some contacts in India and Central America, tried to do some good. How’re you holding up?” His voice was tense, but oddly light. 

“Essentially the same,” I admitted. “I’ve probably done more charity work in the last three days than I have in the last three years. Let’s hear it for effective self-flagellation, yeah?” I chuckled. “But people in hot spots now have cleaner water than they ever would have otherwise, plus vaccines they probably would still be waiting on while they die, so hey! Net neutral to killing kids….” I ground my teeth, which I was pretty sure he could hear. “I hope so, at least.”

“Yep, and a lot of necessities for an innocent little orphanage in a truly unstable part of El Salvador, some water filters in a slum in Mumbai, and a few crates of cholera vaccines, I think we managed to save more people than we’ve hurt. Offset. If it works for the wealthy it works for us. We just keep doing this.” He took an audible breath. “Funny story though, there’s some smart, determined teenager, made some good arguments, says she wants to meet the Phoenix Queen, figured out that ANothing49BCE and Nihilus Rex were the same guy. Not too hard when she’s super smart and they have the same typing style, and the same pfp, even if Nihilus tends to be much more grandiose.” His voice hardened slightly, though at what I couldn’t tell. “I told her I’d need to discuss it with you, when she asked if she wanted to join up. I told her no at first, but she did point out that she’s being forced into adult working hours by the system, so she thinks she should get adult agency to throw her lot in with people trying to overthrow it.” 

“Ugh,” I grunted. “Let me guess, this person is in an impoverished country and does some kind of child labor that doesn’t hit the radar?  It’s a thing.”

“MMORPG gold farming, yeah. I’d put money down that she’s also one of those marketing video splicers, the ones that just…churn out viral content for shows that always seem to have too much fan content to keep the conversation and hype around them up? Yeah, that’s a thing that third world teenagers get hired to do too…I gave her some load lightening bots for the first thing, can’t do shit on the second, especially since she won’t say either way.” 

I drummed my fingers on my knee. “That was prudent,” I admitted. “Even just a good keybinder lets five people take turns farming rather than grinding all at once.” Humming, I thought to myself about the deliveries I had promised to Ayanti less than twenty-four hours ago. “I may need to get this person connected to my contact in Daravi… There’s a girl in the slums who is doing great shit, honestly. And they sound like they have a lot in common.  So yeah. Put me in touch with this person. As soon as possible, preferably - monsoon season is coming in the next couple weeks, and that shit is hella unpredictable.”

“Except the cholera it brings with it. That’s very predictable, which is why my contact was real clear she wanted crates of vaccines for that specifically. I got a few thousand doses distributed in Daravi for her - they share a slum, not that that says much in a place that big. Unfortunately that’s all I could get shipped without getting some real uncomfortable questions asked by the contractors who normally supply these NGOs.” A series of taps that had to be him rapping his desk. “She’s gonna be working for another couple hours…and her boss is a real prick, I don’t speak a word of Hindi, but I can read tone well enough.”

“Nils,” I sighed. “I’m not stupid. I literally just told you I had a contact in Daravi, who I was speaking to maybe an hour before I called you. Yes. Vaccines, water purification out the ass, all that. Literally why I want these two in contact. Local networks are stronger, especially when they can coordinate.”

He grunted. “Right, I’m sorry. Uh…Yeah. I’ll ping her as soon as I can and get you two in contact.” I heard him shifting around on the other end. “Were you okay about…everything?” 

That was when something clicked. “Okay? Hell no. But… did you really think I’ve been sitting here sobbing into my hands uselessly and giving up?” I didn’t even wait for a response. “Say no, right fucking now. Because the only other option is that I am going to choke you to death in not-a-fun-way if I ever see your pasty ass face again.”

“No.” He said bluntly. “I thought you were having a nervous breakdown, which from what I’ve seen of how you react to anxiety in general - “

“Bud, you ain't seen nothing yet,” I swore. “I’ve been grinding my fingers to the fucking bone saving people in areas we don’t have influence yet.  One thousand for every one we killed. If I get close to that, I can die without regrets.  So, fuck ME if I don’t answer a few texts or calls while I’m saving the goddamned world - “

“ - was going to be either working yourself to death in a fit of conscience or doing something very risky.” He finished. “I am glad you’re trying to help people. I’m glad you’re helping expand what we’re doing and helping people that are outside where we already have reach. I still worry.”

Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I forced myself to nod even if he couldn’t see it. “Yeah. I’ve been focusing on that for the last several days. And every time I stop, I see… Why did those images have to go public? The kids…”  I shook myself, physically. Hair pins went flying in the privacy of my bedroom, hair snarling. “Your contact. Male or female?”

“Female.” His voice was flat, the same timbre it took on when he was trying not to think about something. 

“Does she speak English, or am I translating?”

“I’ve been speaking with her directly, and as I said, I don’t speak Hindi. I believe she’s pirated a language course somewhere.” 

I rolled my shoulders, because I didn’t speak Hindi, either, but there were even odds this girl spoke Punjabi. “Put her through. The Phoenix Queen would love some handmaidens, I guess.”

“That does sound like a regal thing to say.” he quipped. He keyed a call somewhere, on my phone. 

“Alright, Ayanti, this is Nihilus Rex, conferencing you in with the Phoenix Queen. We talked, we are at least open to an interview with you.” 

The second I heard the name ‘Ayanti’, I held my breath, praying it wasn’t the same person.

Unfortunately for what ending up being the rest of my life, the girl I had just been speaking to an hour and a half ago started pouring her guts out. “Queen. I am so glad I have an audience, I’ve been trying to get in touch with you - “

I couldn’t. I just couldn’t tolerate the charade any further. “Tū chupī kutī!” I shouted. You sneaky bitch. “Iha pāśa hai!” This is Lash!

“Oh fuck,” Ayanti swore. “Lash? Shit, I didn't know…”

“And you know now… Are you profiteering?”

“Nonononono! We are in need and I didn’t want to be a beggar….”

I muted my mic. “As angry as I am, she’s legit. I know her. I was literally messaging and talking to her while I was ignoring you.”

“And we are angry because..? This does make our lives slightly more inconvenient, but this is just the Bishop situation again. We both know the same capable person, who has worked with both of us. Unless we have reason to believe it’s a scam, and - be so real, Phoenix, we both hit pretty close to our limits of what we could throw at Dharavi and it absolutely did not manage to cover ALL of what they needed - she drew from two different wells of resources to get as much coverage as she could. A twerp after our own hearts.” His voice was mild, almost amused. “Though, hey, if we had a nickel for every time my guy and your guy turned out to be the same guy, we’d have a dime, which isn’t a lot but it is weird that it’s happened twice…” 

I blinked very hard. I am still, to my death, sure that I blinked “fuck you” in morse code. “Nihlus, If she had been transparent that she needed more resources, she would have had them. It’s the hiding the actual need that I’m upset about. Ayanti literally could have just avoided the confusion and gotten all resources at once.”

Ayanti cried. “No, ma’am, I couldn’t! I…you gave me a bunch, which was great, but I’m trying to get them to - “

“AYANTI!” I shouted. “Me, Rex, it’s the same source. Just tell us what you need! We can send it, we just need a heads up so it gets there before it’s too late. We’ll figure out the rest!”

“Wait, so this is going to get flagged or it isn’t?” 

No,” I assured, kindly. “I have ties in all kinds of shipping and R&D stuff. This won’t be flagged any more than anything else I’ve shipped to you. So just tell me - us - what you need, and it will get there. Let us worry about the complicated parts. We’re good at that.”

Ayanti took a shaking breath at the other end. “So…am I allowed to join with you two after all? And…what are you planning, really? What’s the plan for India?” 

Nils took a breath, and I realized as he spoke he was speaking as Nihilus. “Broadly, that’s up to the Indians. But specifically? It needs to serve the Dalits before it serves anyone else.” 

I muted my mic and tapped out a question to NIls. I am for it if you are. I know Ayanti, she’s more solid than Bishop.

I don’t love bringing a child into this shit. She made a good argument. And if you say she’s more solid than Bishop well, that’s quite an endorsement. He didn’t have to be in the room for me to see that sad, half-laughing, far-away smile on his face.

Babe, she’s an adult by her cultural standards, and I want to puke when I say that. But it’s true. She has two full time jobs and is supporting her family. May all the gods bless that she is unmarried.

I am well. WELL. Aware. How good the argument is. We can’t say she has responsibility but no agency. I just hate it. And I refuse to make any comment on relationships.

He activated his mic before I did. “The Phoenix Queen and I agree. You’re in. We’ll develop more assets in India as we go, and with your assistance.” 

[greatwyrmgold]

Back to Factorio. Last time, I came within one inserter of setting up nuclear power before noticing that my other solutions had finally brought the factory to a decent equilibrium. This time, I'm making green chips. After some uneventful building, I throw together this prototype.

Very simple; separate train stations for the two inputs, and a belt of output that would go to its own separate station. But that single belt of output is kind of a problem. It can only carry a couple dozen assemblers' worth of green circuits, and if I want this one outpost to make a significant fraction of the circuits I'll need once I start plowing down the tech tree, I need way more. I think I'll aim for four belts of green chips.

Cool, but new problem: Input. Four belts of chips require four belts of iron and six belts of copper. Well, a little less with productivity modules, but not whole belts less. I can't build this as one big line. I have to build it as three little lines.

Well, "little" is perhaps not the right word here. Three sets of eighteen chip assemblers, compared to the five I had in my starter base. My bots are busy.

Wait a second. That's a lot of bots.

Oh, there goes my power again. But on closer inspection, this has less to do with bots charging than it does with coal vanishing, due to the coal train getting stuck at the mines.

After like an hour of messing around with train signals, redesigning intersections trying to figure out what screwed-up rail code is causing these problems...I realize a couple of rail segments in a curve are missing. Pretty much invisible to human eyes. Ugh.

...

That's where I logged off for the night, and thank goodness for this self-inflicted log forcing me to keep track of what I was doing, because a bunch of real-life stuff kept me from playing Factorio for several months. But now I'm back, and I have a log of what I was trying to do back in March. I started by making sure the coal-fired boilers were back online (getting there), and I noticed something I'm pretty sure is a visual bug.

I think the solar panels are casting shadows on the belt despite A. the presence of a light source on the other side of the belt and B. the fact that it's the middle of the night. Also the shadowed plastic looks too dark either way, especially with the normal plastic next to it.

Anyways, just two paragraphs after thanking March Me for his brilliant foresight, I have to curse him for his stupidity. Apparently he either never set up automated long-handed inserters and assembling machines, or tore it down when he started disassembling the starter base. Foolish either way.

Once I rectified that with a bit of spaghetti stapled onto the starter base, I realized I needed a lot of power poles for the new chip build, and also that I only automated the big ones. But that means I had everything for medium poles in one spot, and I just needed a little spaghetti to get everything into place.

Word of advice: Don't play with the Renai Transportation mod if you don't want to face constant spaghetti temptation. And if you do, make sure not to power thrower inserters until they're set properly.

Anyways, in the time it took to set that up and take the provided poles to power the new build, all the assemblers and inserters were pretty much produced. And in the time it took to figure out the Screenshot Toolkit, they were delivered.

All I need to do is get the trains set up.

Iron is easy enough; I've already got an iron train running from the iron mines to the starter base, so I just tweak its schedule so it switches between supplying the starter base and the circuit station.

I don't have anything like that for copper; the starter base is still running off the, um, two mining drills which still have ore. About 5,000 between them when I checked, one of which should last a bit less than an hour, the other almost two hours. Hm. Maybe I should have set up something for getting copper to the starter base.

I didn't, though. I didn't even get copper delivered to the circuits. That's because of a terrible mistake I made when setting up the copper mine's loading station.

Whichever way I curve this track, it runs into cliffs. That's what cliff explosives are for, but I never researched cliff explosives. And I tore down my starter base's labs ages ago.

Next time, I will do one of three things:

Find some fortuitous route between cliffs that gets me out of this mess

Set up temporary labs to research cliff explosives, and also temporary cliff explosives production

Move the station five meters to the right

I should probably also do something about our copper situation.

[the-travelling-witch]

Now I’m nosy to figure out this copy and paste situation

How Does it work? Like is it just, Holly write Childe in a bunny suit, Holly what would Childe be in a- why didn’t I pick bunny suit? (Man ok ya that would be something else to deal with copy and pasted)

ugh it’s a little frustrating but nothing we’ve never seen before, so it’s not all that but let me explain

basically, i received an ask a while back when i was still “active” on my nsfw blog and it was rather demanding in tone (for lack of a better word), more or less consisting of “i need [these 8 characters (separately)] with [this scenario] pls pls pls”

call me petty but for several reasons it ticked me off; 1) i think the tone is not it, as i said it feels kinda demanding and i don’t feel respected as a human (goes back to the whole “i’m not a writing bot but a person with feelings” argument), there’s no acknowledgment of past writing or so much as a hello

2) 8 characters in separate scenarios is a lot to ask for, especially considering the length in which i usually write a character’s scenario for, some people might be able to crank that out but i’m not; i know in my first post on there i had like 6 or 7 characters but that was of my own volition bc i was inspired, which makes a big difference

3) i don’t take requests

so yeah, the ask itself wasn’t received very well by me in the first place and i just sent to a group of writer friends basically going ‘is it petty of me to have negative feelings about this or am i misreading the tone here’

and we all just kinda came to the conclusion that it is the kind of request/ask someone would copy and paste into several writers’ inboxes, whether that’s because they just want their scenario written out or whatever, i don’t really understand the motivation behind it

and it seems we were correct because i happened to be scrolling through the tags for that fandom and saw the exact same ask, word for word, from roughly the same time period too; the writer seemed to have been happy about receiving it and wrote a paragraph each and it seems to have been well received, so i’m not here to take that away from them in any way

it just personally rubs me the wrong way but, at the end of the day, those are just my feelings on the matter

anyway, take away: be nice and appreciate your writers when they go out of their way to grant your request; be nice to them in general hehe ^^

[iviarellereads]

System Collapse, Chapter 1

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we're back on the forward-track of the timeline.

Dr. Bharadwaj once told Murderbot that she thought it hated planets because it feared being judged expendable and left behind on one. MB lied to her, and said it's because planets are boring. Well, planets aren't boring, but it's less-boring in a bad way. Especially when you're investigating pre-Rim possibly alien contaminated sites in an environmental suit because you were being weird about wearing your armour.

MB decides to back up the conversation a bit for context.(1)

About 47 hours before our story starts, MB wanted to punch something in the face, preferably Art, or itself. They were already on the alien-contaminated planet. MB was surveilling a building. Having chased Ratthi,(2) Iris, and Tarik into the building, Hostile One, an agri-bot like the ones MB found scary in Network Effect, couldn't fit to follow.(3)

Art is asking for a status report, and MB waves it off, but it wants MB's personal status, not mission status.

Ugh, my status. I wasn’t supposed to come down to the planet again. Me, ART, Mensah, Seth, and Martyn had all made that decision, because of redacted.(4) I had even had an assignment during this day-cycle, sort of. It wasn’t really busywork, but it wasn’t not busywork, either. Karime had an in-person meeting planned with a faction of colonists at the main site habitation, and Three was going with her for security while pretending to be a human (always a fun time) and I was supposed to monitor Three and make sure it knew what to do and to not let ART give it anxiety. (Or more anxiety than it already had on its own.) I had been lying on the bunk in one of ART’s cabins watching The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (episode 121, on repeat) while waiting for Karime and Three’s shuttle to arrive at the meeting site, when ART had slammed into my feed and said, I need you.(5)

Art couldn't use a pathfinder to take out the agribot, because that explosion would hurt the humans, so it became MB's turn.

On the feed, Ratthi asks how MB is doing. MB says it's fine, but not to let anyone get closer to the ag-bot's tentacle. Ratthi says it's a growth stimulator,(6) and it's fine, there's no rush.

You’re not fine, Ratthi, for fuck’s sake. (For however many corporate standard years, all I got from humans was “Run in there now no matter how likely you are to get blown to tiny pieces when a quiet tactical approach has a higher percentage of success” and now it’s “Oh no we’re fine, we can hang out in this objectively terrifying immediately hazardous situation for however long.”)(7)

MB continues to grumble in its thoughts about humans' penchant for understating things, and how Bharadwaj says even good changes can be stressful. While it does, its drones keep scouting for a position to take a good shot at the ag-bot with the recall beacon Art decided to repurpose to take it out. MB is glad for a weapon that won't bring it close enough to get its ass handed to it, again, by one of them.

A paragraph is spent comparing this ag-bot to the ones in Network Effect, and how similar and different the alien contamination was. Another paragraph is used to show Seth explaining the recall beacon, and apologizing to MB for having to go on-planet despite whatever the earlier redacted portion was. MB told him it was fine, and reiterates to the reader that it's fine, just fine, dangit.(8)

At any rate, a drone finds a good vantage point, but something about the threat assessment number, as well as the likelihood of successful retrieval, gives MB pause. As it reviews the numbers and the situation, it realizes it's not going to work. This is the problem with letting Art and the humans come up with the plans, really, and MB would have been more proactive about it, but the redacted incident.(9)

MB is on the move again, and sends its calculations to Art in place of an explanation. It would love to have Three here, but that would mean interrupting Karime's meeting, which is very important. And, there's no reason MB can't handle this. It already has a new plan, even! And threat assessment likes it more, because the explosion is further from the humans.

MB drops two transponders then gets the ag-bot's attention. It gives chase, and as it approaches the first, MB signals to detonate it… but the ag-bot jumps, as the contamination must have increased its processing and access to local networks.

As it's about to land on MB, two things happen: first, MB rolls to point the launcher for the last recall transponder up at it, and second, MB receives a ping from another SecUnit. At first it assumes it's Three, somehow, which would be embarrassing but also a relief. Only, it literally can't be Three, there wasn't time for it to get here, which means… it's a Barish-Estranza SecUnit.

Four days after Preservation showed up in Network Effect, a B-E explorer had arrived with three fresh SecUnits, minimum. The B-E group has been more proactive about evaluating the situation and talking to the colonists. Art ran the numbers, more than once, and it wasn't worth just killing them all on principle.

The other SecUnit hits the ag-bot with projectiles, right in the central processor as well as some shots to break it up, as it falls toward MB. MB, for its part, is able to roll out of the way of the debris. Art says that was too close to a murder attempt.

MB has everyone lock down for security, since it knows what a SecUnit is capable of intercepting, and runs all its new and improved human movement code. It asks if they can call off their SecUnit, and tries to groan and rise like a human would have in its situation. It even makes the effort to look at what it now terms B-E Unit1, and as Ratthi runs up to check on it, it asks him to pretend to help it up.

Ratthi, thankfully, picks up the situation immediately, and tells the B-E party that was too close. MB thinks about what it would have done differently, or at least tried to do.

(Obviously this is not actually what I’m upset about, it’s just easier to be angry about B-E Unit1’s fuckup and/or disregard for minimum client safety.) Safer to be angry about it, ART said on our private connection. I was not even going to respond to that. ART had told Mensah it wouldn’t push me. Just because its MedSystem was certified for emotional support and trauma recovery it thought it knew everything.(10)

Iris goes to meet the B-E leader, with Tarik close by and wearing his visor the way MB is, so it doesn't look out of place for covering its face. The leader is someone they've seen before, Sub-Supervisor Dellcourt, who is one of the smart ones. Iris thanks them too-politely,(11) and asks if they'll be billing later. Dellcourt says they'll add it to the creditor's statement.

MB explains how the billing is not a joke, Pin-Lee and Turi, Art's accountant, have been preparing a counter-bill if this ever ends. Money fights between corps are common and boring.

If you wonder why Art has an accountant, Martyn said Art is perfectly capable of doing its own accounting, but ends up with extra numbers that not even their best accountants can track. Turi does it with hardcopy backup ledgers, to make sure Art can't edit the data. There's a question about whether Art is making up numbers for fun, or if it has credit balances somewhere they don't know about.

Back to the story, where Dellcourt asks what business they have here. Iris asks the same. MB thinks it's some human posturing thing it doesn't understand, but it's pretty obvious Iris's group has been repairing the routers, and given the projectiles Unit1 had, the B-Es were looking for contaminated bots.

MB takes another aside(12) to describe the first interaction between the fresh B-E explorer and Art, which ended with B-E scuttling off and probably believing Art is an asshole human commanding officer. It clarifies that Art's sapience is a secret from everyone except the ranked levels of its university, and its team, and MB's team, so B-E have no way of even guessing what Art really is.

The rest of the B-E group is watching MB and the other humans. MB is glad it refined its human movement code, so it knows what to do with its hands. Still, it can tell Unit1 is staring at it. Iris, whether she noticed this as well or not, turns to thank Unit1. Dellcourt is dismissive, saying it's a SecUnit. Iris ignores him, and her team collect their equipment and leave.

=====

(1) Much appreciated, old friend. (2) Hey, I thought Murderbot was the only one sticking around for Art's missions! Nice to see another familiar face. And, Ratthi's really grown on me this reread. (3) Nice callback, not mentioning the book name (I did that myself) but making the connection for the reader. (4) Do you think we'll get an unredacted version of this in the book? Is it just referring to the events of Network Effect? (5) And, of course, what is MB going to do when its friend is in need? Help, that's what. (6) Oh that's what they're calling it these days? (7) Yep, sorry, people acknowledge your personhood now, and will be as polite to you as they would try to be to anyone else. (8) The more you say it, the less I believe it. Sorry. (9) Every repetition just makes me more curious. Why is this event redacted? (10) And to be fair, Art knows a lot. MB's just as stubborn as Mensah was about needing emotional help and support. (11) I very much imagine this in the vein of the "Bless your heart" of the southern US. (12) Every other paragraph in this opening chapter, I swear. To some degree I understand the necessity, since there's obviously been some time skip, and things need clarifying, but even so.

[mrfancyfoot]

Fancy's complaining about medication and insurance

I take an immuno-suppressant (generic) that my insurance company has classified as a "specialty medication" with a bunch of hoops to jump through for them to cover it (last year when I started it, it had to get approved and they require a bs re-approval each year for a medication I need to live and will probably never come off of barring an amazing medsci break-through), plus they force me to go through their pharmacy fulfillment partner (which makes me feel like I'm paying them twice since they don't cover it %100), so I can't shop it around to other pharmacies and still get it covered by my insurance. Their fulfillment is such a PITA to deal with. They can never tell me the price upfront, I just get a mystery bill after that is usually in the same ballpark by +/-10$ (but it does keep going up; I started off last year paying much less for the same amount and it's not because of my deductible). I have to call them every month and sit through attempting to explain what I need to their damn bot for half an hour before inevitably being transferred to a human because their online site and texting never works for me to order my meds. They take weeks to "process" and ship my medication to me, so I'm in a constant cycle of calling them. I request "easy open" caps on my medication because I have trouble opening the "child-proof" ones they ship them in due to my condition, but I have to request that constantly.

And then I found out that Amazon carries it in their pharmacy. I still need the prescription but it is, I shit you not, 1/3 the price! Without my insurance covering it! I can order a 3-month supply for the same amount that it cost me for 1 month through my insurance. My doctor even said that it was easier to send them my Rx than to the prior pharmacy fulfiller. I already have to rely on Prime since I can't go out much and don't have many local options. I very much feel like they're undercutting medication prices the same way that they did to other things like books (I was previously on famotidine and my insurance wanted $75/mo while Amazon had a 3-month supply for $18), but the difference is so broad, that, as someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, it makes a massive difference.

I knew the exact price before paying. I put in the order for it and it was at my door in 2 days. There's an easy option on the page that lets me automatically select what kind of cap I want, so they all shipped with the caps unlocked. All of my info is easily accessible and I can find what I need to find. I could throw it on auto-order if I wanted.

I feel and sound like I'm shilling for gd Amazon (I don't want my health info going through them, ugh), but with the profits my insurance company makes (and they're one of the big 3), there is no reason for their process to be so fucking difficult, frustrating, and squeezing even more money out of me. They deny practically everything my doctors send them and make mistakes during the appeal process that are their fault, and drag out the process way longer than it has any right to be. I hope they fucking eat each other because that's the only way they'll be better.

CostPlus Drugs also carries this specific medication for about the same price as Amazon but is a bit harder to navigate (it reminds me more of my insurance's site, if I'm being honest). I have some reservations about it since I burn out quickly from juggling getting my meds from so many different places, but may give it a chance at some point in the future.