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#Creating change in sci-fi
nicholasandriani · 1 year
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The Language of Worldbuilding: It’s All Dystopian Baseball to Me + Review of Jen Gish's 'The Resisters'"
“Do you know what trauma is? she would ask. Doyou know how it can change people? And, You have toask, Who what when where how why. Starting withwho did this—the old Ondi or the new? But Gwen wouldjust say, over and over, You don’t understand” The Resisters Maybe it’s the anthropologist in me, or the countless hours of literary theory upon which professors drilled my peers and I through critical…
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bigskydreaming · 1 year
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Also, does anyone else feel like this is all Locutus related? Everything weird about Jack, the Changelings’ mysterious benefactor, Picard’s original body....
I’m just saying, I feel like this is a Locutus thing but I don’t know how common that guess is.
#star trek picard spoilers#picard spoilers#im just saying.....i dont know HOW Jack might have inherited telepathic powers from Picard that are Locutus derived somehow#or if maybe at some point someone did something to Jack that built upon something he'd inherited from Picard#that played into how the Borg created the Locutus personality or did to Picard in the first place#but from a certain perspective Jack's powers seem not to much standard sci-fi telepathy#as 'ability to created a hive mind/shared mental space with even other humans#if not any other sentient species in general'#again....not sure how or even if the Borg would have done something to Picard to make him pass this trait or ability down#to his offspring but if this is the case (and they certainly seem to be dropping the implication that Picard's#whats it called Syndrome was always misdiagnosed....not just with Jack but with he himself....aka maybe#after Locutus Picard had or was developing these powers too but they didn't 'take' as well in a full grown adult whose brain had already#developed naturally and so instead these powers presented as symptoms of that syndrome they thought he had#BUT whatever changes they made to Picard's original body that went unnoticed and thus unaltered when Starfleet 'restored him' after Locutus#still ended up passed down to Jack as part of him from his birth so that he did grow into them naturally#and as for the benefactor could that be Locutus itself? ie the personality was somehow still embedded in whatever#hidden implants or alterations the Borg made to Picard's#original body and left behind...and that's what the Changelings were trying to extract from the body#and maybe they put it into a changeling and thats why it seems to have a similarly shapeless form#but does NOT seem to be part of the Great Link for whatever reason#and is now seeking Jack to be his new vessel or something? idk idk something like that maybe
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badromancebullsquid · 8 months
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whats ur new oc idea 😋
OHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOH.
I don't know what possessed me so strongly to do this. But.
A character who lost someone important to them and never ever got through it. This loss impacts them so tremendously in their day-to-day that they've become someone else in avoidance of it. They are always stuck grieving. They are forever driven by this loss in such unhealthy ways.
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catgirlanomaly · 6 months
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Scavengers Reign is already perfect media for me by virtue of appealing to a frankly ludicrous amount of my interests. But it could have been elevated to transcendental status if they included more than one cooking scene! I know this is literally as nitpicky as it gets but I just wanna see somebody cooking on an alien planet!!!
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mrcowboydeanwinchester · 11 months
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the amount of monumental doctor who references in this fic is not at all subtle we're now on three and counting
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blue-kyber · 2 years
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Ok....... Since I couldn't respond to a Worldbuilding Wednesday post by @raevenlywrites for some weird reason, I'm just going to put my answer here. It was an open tag. :) Question: What is a special thing in your worldbuilding? A special trade, an item, a profession, a unique detail, valuable thing, something that takes a lot of work to do, ect. My answer:
There's a few in the world of "Out There: The 1K" or as I should start putting it "OTT1K".
SPACESHIP CORE CHARGER: "Coridium"
Coridium - a melange of iacite particles, antion gas, nitrogen, hydrogen, niridian molecules, and water vapor - is a liquid conductor used to charge the ephypsan particles in a ship's power core and engines; the hyperdrive, sublight drive, and thrusters.
Coridium isn't "Fuel" in the traditional sense. It's essentially a battery for a battery.
The ephypsan particles themselves are what power the ship's engines and power core.
No one has discovered another way to charge ephypsan particles.
An intelligent spaceship owner would keep a spare supply on hand. External batteries were normally kept for emergencies to plug into the power core to keep life support and other essential systems running if the ship ran out of "fuel."
For basic tech, charging units contain a tiny amount of coridium that can charge the particles in an ephypsan battery - think putting your rechargeable batteries in a unit. Those are harmless and rarely have to be refilled.
An average supply of coridium for a light freighter like the Horizon - Yune Darrak's ACC-1200 Mercury class - could power the ship for six months.
The ephypsans who invented this were geniuses. Ephypsans were a race of beings the keth committed genocide against by destroying their planet. The Alliance reverse engineered the technology with help from a surviving ephypsan scientist who escaped on a transport with a handful of altaran-humans and other species.
It would take three to four hours to charge the dead core of a small ship, and eight hours to charge a larger ship like a bulk cruiser or an Alliance command ship.
The various companies in business with the Alliance would purchase concentrated coridium, water it down, and offer it at a reasonable price to Alliance citizens. As maskans didn't use money, they would stockpile the desired currency to pay the companies who did. Masakan-owned companies obviously did not require payment.
The Alliance had made a deal with the crime syndicate - the Ba’ri - to purchase concentrated refined coridium for the Regent naval fleet. They would provide protection from the keth in exchange for a lower price.
However, this deal only existed with the Regents and unaffiliated planetary and military fleets. The heavily-neutral tehrel had their own source which they guarded fiercely. Everyone else had to pay full price if they wanted concentrated coridium, or be damned good at negotiations.
Concentrated coridium was where the real fortune lay. Smuggling it brought high risks.
Coridium is volatile if exposed to high levels of heat like a plasma bolt. Other than that, it's harmless until mixed with the ephypsan particle mixture in a ship's core.
Vesnine - a gas giant within the Delphic Void (or just "The Void" - a vast of space peppered with pockets of null space a ship had to make hyperjumps through. A hyperdrive could not function in null space) - had multiple atmospheric vapor extractors within its constant cloudy atmosphere that would harvest the gaseous mixture and refine it into a usable liquid. It was one of the largest coridium harvesting planets in the known galaxy. And run by one of the most nefarious crime families in the known galaxy, the Ba’ri.
(NOTE: An altaran-human's source energy can charge ephypsan particles. The particles are synthetic Source Field energy that's far weaker than natural Field energy, with enough variations to appear on the visual spectrum and provide power to electronic systems. Altaran-humans are immune to ephypsan particle radiation. Exposure to it overcharges their own source, and makes them really hyper. They don't suffer burns or adverse side effects like everyone else.)
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daydreamerdrew · 5 months
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Tales of Suspense (1959) #77
#not Steve trying to say that the war isn’t ‘woman’s work’#genuinely really intrigued by ‘I haven’t the right to speak to you this way!’#which I’m assuming is because of how limited their relationship has been up to this point- they're not married#and then ‘I won’t let you do it!’#my impression of both Steve and Sharon in Captain America (2005) is that they were both really career-driven#and allowed that to take precedent over relationships#which in ways made them well-suited for each other and in others created difficulties#something that wasn’t addressed which was a disappointment to me#is whether or not Sharon wanted to get married and have children in the beginning#Steve explicitly wants that by the end of Brubaker’s run#compare that to the beginning of the series where his living situation is a compromise#because he likes having neighbors but it’s too dangerous so he lives in the city but in a building that’s been made to look abandoned#and therefore his presence in the area is minimal#and also Sharon visiting him because she’s concerned about him in the first issue is taken as an intrusion in his life#and compare all that to how Steve started out here with this mentality of ownership over the person you care about#it reads that the world of the future just made all that too complicated so he at that point had given up on it#and then we know exactly what Steve’s picturesque vision of the future is by the end#and it’s both traditional (emphasis on his and Sharon’s children being the future) and positive about change (sci-fi utopia)#and I suppose I just feel that Sharon’s perspective wasn’t as fleshed out so there’s less for me to work with#in finding that interesting throughline#like I’m confident that the Sharon of early Captain America (2005) wouldn’t care to be talked to this way#but I’m not sure what exactly she would have wanted outside of the specific unique circumstances of her relationship with Steve#post-Captain America (2005) with all her trauma and guilt over what happened to Steve#where she's become very devoted to him#marvel#steve rogers#peggy carter#my posts#comic panels
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maskeddiany · 1 year
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there is a funny contrast between all my projects methinks
Pesticide Cake - a steampunk-ish past where a war started over technological and medical advances
Darkdown Sea Abyss - a future where multidimentional traveling is developed and studied to see if there's any external dimention technology that can be adapted to help our own world
Chaos Wasteland Suburbia - near future where i do whatever the fuck i want
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it feels like this season, doctor who is dealing with the fundamental rules changing. it was strictly sci-fi, you could always logic your way out of any problem with technobabble and a clever plan.
but it feels like so much of the plot is wrapped around poking at the medium of being a television show, of being a story. we have multiple characters looking at the viewers, we have the maestro playing the theme tune, we have such clear parallels to season 1 (2005) that it feels like a universal coincidence. like the whoniverse itself is recognizing its a medium and playing with its tropes.
the genre is changing too - we are leaning more and more into fantasy, rules like you would see in stories about fae, not sci-fi. musical numbers out of nowhere that no one seems to question, with rain inside and musical sidewalks. the vocabulary of rope and power in coincidences. hell, even the way that time travel works is changing! suddenly stepping on a butterfly (specifically a trope in scifi that has been mocked/debunked previously) has consequences. the doctor swiping away the translation circuit's effects with the wave of a hand and breathing life back into a creature without breaking a sweat.
not to mention the way that space babies foreshadows to a universe that creates a story with all the ingredients it knows are supposed to be there (re: bogeyman - there's supposed to be a villain so it made one)
something IS going on. there is a bigger player - bigger than tecteun, bigger than the toymaker. could it be rtd just having a grand ole time using canon as is playground? maybe. but i hope it's something cool.
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powdermelonkeg · 10 months
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Cheat code for writing disabled characters in sci-fi/fantasy without eliminating their disability:
Don't change humanity, change what's available to humanity.
i.e.: If your magic removes/fixes a defect or your sci-fi lets you select for traits at birth, that's changing humanity. That's altering a fundamental aspect that real humans live with, and distancing your fictional version of humanity from the real deal by cutting out a portion of it that your setting deems "undesirable."
If your magic/sci-fi aids a defect (like magic netting that acts as a brace, or a wheelchair with wheels that transform to fit the environment), then you're taking humanity as we know it and saying "wouldn't it be cool if we had these tools?"
Don't change what makes us human, change what humans can create.
Cheat Code 2: What kinds of aid to use to accommodate disability
Cheat Code 3: How to make your setting itself disability-friendly
Cheat Code 4: How to personalize your character's disability aid
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marlynnofmany · 2 years
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Have you heard about mole genders?
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I’ve heard of this concept in sci-fi, but thought it was absolutely made up. I know some fish and frogs can change genders, but not in cycles like this. Wild. If I slapped this down in some alien world without explanation, I’d laugh in my own face. But no, real biology IS that bizarre.
Image descriptions:
A series of tweets from @NaturalCalendar that say:
Hello lovely Nature Noticers. It is time for today's thread! Follow me, and we'll delve deep into the subterranean and subversive world of Talpa europaea, the common European mole. We'll begin with a bombshell - there are no female moles.
Genetic researchers have recently discovered that female moles have reproductive organs unlike any other mammal. If measured by the standards of other species, there are no fully female moles. Instead, there are males and individuals that would be considered intersex.
So, lets look at how this works. Female Moles are called Sows. Sows have both ovarian AND testicular tissue They also have vaginas that disappear between breeding seasons!
Most of the year, female moles look and behave like males. They have masculinised genitals, with no external vagina + an enlarged clitoris. When this point in the year arrives, mating season begins. At this point the Sow's testosterone levels drop + they develop a vagina.
As is typical for mammals, Sows are equipped with two X chromosomes and Boars with an X and a Y chromosome. Unlike any other mammals Sows simultaneously develop functional ovarian and testicular tissues united in one organ, the 'ovotestis'. This is unique to Moles.
This testicular tissue does not produce sperm. It does however, produce large amounts of the sex hormone testosterone, meaning that Sows have similar testosterone levels to the Boars -except during mating season.
Scientists have hypothesized that these high levels of testosterone provide an adaptive advantage for the mole's underground life - providing added muscle mass for Sows who need to dig burrows and fight for resources for their offspring.
This is a dynamic process - the ovarian tissue that makes eggs and gets larger during breeding, then regresses. Outside of breeding season the testicular tissue, expands until it’s larger than the ovarian end - flooding the Sow's system with testosterone.
This explains why female moles have male-like genitalia... But it doesn't explain how patch of testicular tissue forms in female moles even though they do not have a Y chromosome. Up until recently the Y chromosome was thought to be fundamental to male sex determination.
In 2020 a team of molecular geneticists studied the female mole's ability to produce testicular tissue without a Y chromosome. They found that changes in the structure of the Mole's genome that lead to altered control of genetic activity.
But what does this mean? In short the female mole shows us that evolution doesn't work in the way that we have assumed since Darwin - their DNA changes within the living organism.
Since Darwin, it has been generally accepted that the different appearances of living organisms are the result of gradual changes in genetic makeup that have been passed onto subsequent generations - but Moles experience changes in the regulatory regions belonging to sex genes.
The researchers found that female moles do not have a Y chromosone but they do have a triple CYP17A1 gene. CYP17A1 is involved in the formation of steroid hormones + the triplication of this gene in the mole creates a dynamic sex regulatory system.
This dynamic process appends additional regulatory sequences to the gene and leads to an increased production of male sex hormones in the ovotestes of female moles, especially more testosterone.
What the intersexual mole shows us is how important the three-dimensional organization of the genome is for evolution. Nature makes use of existing developmental genes and rearranges them to create a characteristic such as intersexuality.
We see in the mole that evolution is not a linear process, arranged around the principle of Euclidian geometry. It is rather a topological process - a structure cast in rubber that is responsive and adaptive to the environment.
The mole also reminds us of the complexity of sexual development. The shifting sexual characteristics of the mole shows how the process of sexual development can, and does result in a wide range of natural variations.
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“The machines we have now, they’re not conscious,” he says. “When one person teaches another person, that is an interaction between consciousnesses.” Meanwhile, AI models are trained by toggling so-called “weights” or the strength of connections between different variables in the model, in order to get a desired output. “It would be a real mistake to think that when you’re teaching a child, all you are doing is adjusting the weights in a network.”
Chiang’s main objection, a writerly one, is with the words we choose to describe all this. Anthropomorphic language such as “learn”, “understand”, “know” and personal pronouns such as “I” that AI engineers and journalists project on to chatbots such as ChatGPT create an illusion. This hasty shorthand pushes all of us, he says — even those intimately familiar with how these systems work — towards seeing sparks of sentience in AI tools, where there are none.
“There was an exchange on Twitter a while back where someone said, ‘What is artificial intelligence?’ And someone else said, ‘A poor choice of words in 1954’,” he says. “And, you know, they’re right. I think that if we had chosen a different phrase for it, back in the ’50s, we might have avoided a lot of the confusion that we’re having now.”
So if he had to invent a term, what would it be? His answer is instant: applied statistics.
“It’s genuinely amazing that . . . these sorts of things can be extracted from a statistical analysis of a large body of text,” he says. But, in his view, that doesn’t make the tools intelligent. Applied statistics is a far more precise descriptor, “but no one wants to use that term, because it’s not as sexy”.
[...]
Given his fascination with the relationship between language and intelligence, I’m particularly curious about his views on AI writing, the type of text produced by the likes of ChatGPT. How, I ask, will machine-generated words change the type of writing we both do? For the first time in our conversation, I see a flash of irritation. “Do they write things that speak to people? I mean, has there been any ChatGPT-generated essay that actually spoke to people?” he says.
Chiang’s view is that large language models (or LLMs), the technology underlying chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, are useful mostly for producing filler text that no one necessarily wants to read or write, tasks that anthropologist David Graeber called “bullshit jobs”. AI-generated text is not delightful, but it could perhaps be useful in those certain areas, he concedes.
“But the fact that LLMs are able to do some of that — that’s not exactly a resounding endorsement of their abilities,” he says. “That’s more a statement about how much bullshit we are required to generate and deal with in our daily lives.”
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emptyjunior · 2 months
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It looks like with the movies taking off, everyone is on the Dune train now!! Which is very exciting, I’m glad a bunch of new people are discovering this media and reading the books, but can I recommend you the David Lynch, Dune (1984) movie.
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First of all, if you are invested in the lore of the books and the deeper messaging of the story, you’re going to need to turn that part of your brain Off. If you love kick ass shit and are willing to be slightly tipsy while you watch and have a great goddamn afternoon, this is the flick for you.
Now first fun fact I’m going to share with you. David Lynch (twin peaks, eraserhead director, celebrated surrealist) turned down the opportunity to direct Return of the Jedi for this film. A film that was devastatingly slow to make, changed hands multiple times, had a pricy VFX budget of $40 million and then made barely $31 million, David Lynch turned down Star Wars to work on it. And he did this when he had never read the novel, and did not even like or engage with sci fi media. THAT’S how you know we’re really in for something.
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Now this film has some big names in it! We’ve got a young Kyle MacLachlan who is rocking some Devastating outfits:
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We’ve got Sir Patrick Stewert as our Gurney and Sting, lead singer of the police, playing the 15 year old Feyd Rautha! If you wanted to see a grown man, sprayed orange, basically naked playing a free wheeling maniac you are in for a treat! And another fun fact, David Lynch also did not know who these actors were, he made a mistake and thought Patrick Stewert was someone else and when Sting said he was in the police he assumed he was in an organization of lawmen.
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Now these characters are familiar to you, but let me get into the unfamiliar. Lynch made some directorial executive decisions throughout this film, for I suppose the ease of the viewer? I mean an adaptation is supposed to adapt so he went let me change some stuff up👏👏👏.
Those who paid attention to Jessica’s backstory may know about the Weirding Way. This is a martial arts style created by the Bene Gesserit, and practiced by Paul. It is more than just a fighting style but also an important philosophical concept, like Aikido or how Kung Fu has foundations in Buddhism.
You may also be familiar with the quote “My name is a killing word.” This inner monologue of Paul’s refers to how his title Muad’dub will be used to spur a holy war. A simple name is what people will die and bleed for, it will be what they scream as they cut down enemies.
Dark! Intense! That’s Dune, anyways in the novel it’s easy to take your time exploring these concepts. Introducing the audience to the religious ramifications of a simple name and fighting practice and how these things can have rippling repercussions upon a society like the Freman.
Now David Lynch didn’t have time for that! He had the belief (that may be right🤷‍♂️!) That watching a bunch of people kick each other on top of a sand dune would be Lame😭😭
So he made the choice for his film that “My name is a killing word” was to be taken Absolutely Literally and invented a device where if the freman said the name Muad-dib, shit would explode.
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If they said Paul’s name, they could Explode Stuff. Let it sink in how rad that is. Hell yeah man, hell yeah. Imagine me interpreting religious text that way, imagine if I made a bible movie and the moral I took from a parable is that when Jesus asked for food and everyone donated fish, I concluded that Jesus was a mutant who had fish powers and could immediately conjure fish with magic and gave him fish death rays that shot out of his hands.
So that’s what you can expect from this interpretation, the weirding way now means everyone has Lasers its rad as hell.
Some other incredible choices made! This is a spoiler, but in the novels and the new films you can see the Freman collecting every scrap of water they can. Dr Liet-Kynes, the planetologist, reveals to us it’s because they have a long, multiple generation spanding plan to fix the planet. By introducing this water back they hope to reset the ecosystem over centuries of work. The reason they have been unable to do this is because a green planet would obviously not have worms and sand who produce spice, the most coveted drug in the empire, so imperial and harkonnen forces have been stopping this from ever happening. They want to be free from oppression so that they can start to work on slowly fixing their world, a project that plays out in Paul’s adult life and has its own dramas and complexities.
In Dune 1984??? The moment, the Moment Paul lays out his cousin and throws the final punch, it begins to rain in Arrakis. As if they were all under a magical curse and were just waiting for a teenager to come fight another teenager and then the water will come back. It’s so good, it’s so funny.
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Also Pugs! House Atreides official Pugs! Paul has pugs in his lap!!
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This is honestly an adaptation choice that I really really like! Paul is the result of centuries of selective breeding, this practice is an artform to the Bene Gesserit and a skill that they monitor closely. It produces bizarre and sometimes terrifying results and is the reason for Paul’s existence.
I think having an animal that was also created through selective breeding, was engineered from a wolf into an animal that can hardly breathe is an incredible metaphor! A smart and identifiable symbol for the audience, I think it’s a slam dunk and the new movies should have done it to.
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Anyways can not recommend this film enough.
-The body suits the bad guys wear are made out of real body bags, that actually had been used.
-David Lynch to this day hates it.
-The original cut was four hours.
-The cast and crew were sick the Entire shoot with something they called Montezuma's Revenge, which was probably just food poisoning, side effects from the constant smog because they shot the whole thing on backup generators, illness from the cockroach infestation and terrible morale.
-Frank Herbert saw it multiple times and said he absolutely loved it.
-When they ride the worms, sick rock jams play.
If you love electric guitar, lasers, worms and will forgive me for not including all the trigger warnings cause Yes this film will gross you out, then go watch this movie.
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inbarfink · 9 months
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Honestly, first time noticing the names in Simon's contact list I was just like 'haha cute references' and didn't pay it much mind. But looking at them again, and really thinking about them. The Implications here, like Most Things About Simon's Life Right Now, are pretty tragic....
Like, Abracadaniel and Lady Island and Gunter (and BMO if you take into consideration the comic's continuity) are not Simon Petrikov's friends, they were Ice King's friends.
You know, like, yeah, everyone except Marcy knew Ice King way way before they got to know Simon. But at least with folks like Finn, finding out about Simon is a huge reason why he started being kinder and friendlier to him. And Bubblegum probably is only fond of Simon know in spite of him being Ice King.
But Abracadaniel and Lady Island liked Ice King without having any frame-of-reference or concept of 'Simon Petrikov' in their heads. They were Ice King's friends.
And Simon's phone is pretty distinctly, like, a realistic early 2000's cellphone. A total contrast to all the magical/sci-fi/cobbled-together looking cellphones everyone else in Ooo uses
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And Ice King himself, I'm pretty sure we've only ever seen him use either a normal-looking landline or the Bananaphone
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Not this ordinary Nokia-looking flip-phone, definitely.
So I'm assuming this phone was maybe found buried somewhere in the Past Room, or maybe was unearthed while they were preparing for that '20th Century Man' exhibition and Simon also takes it along for personal use. But either way, Simon had to deliberately put those numbers of Friends of the Ice King in his contact list.
It might be something as simple as having transferred the data from some of Ice King's old communication devices and then just... despite it all Simon just doesn't have the heart to delete these names. The same way you or I might not have it in us to the delete the numbers of friends of ages past or increasingly-distant acquaintances or dead relatives.
Or maybe Simon did try and preserve their friendship at first. Or maybe the friends did. And obviously it didn't work out.
I mean, I can kinda see maybe Simon getting along fine with Lady Island because IK was relatively Grounded interacting with her so maybe the change to Simon won't be that much of a difference to her. ....But that can also create problems if she has a hard time seeing the difference between Simon Petrikov and Ice King, that would really make him uncomfortable.
But there really is zero chance Simon managed to keep things going normal with Abracadaniel. A Wizard who originally bonded with Ice King because he saw him as a cool Wizard. Not to mention Gunter is currently a living incarnation of the very Crown that cursed Simon in the first place and a manifestation of Gunter's love of Ice King
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so... yeah, I think in Simon's current state any interaction he had with those two was unbearably awkward and just another thing that will make him miss being Ice King in a twisted way.
And yet... despite wanting so badly to define himself as distinctive and different from Ice King ("I didn't write those! Ice King wrote those!") and to not be reminded of him.... Simon still keeps all these people in his contact list.
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I really like the changes to Nimona’s backstory. The original was very good, with the sci fi elements and human experimentation, because in that story society literally created the monster they feared.
But I reaaally like this version, where everything that made her different was present from the start, part of her, normal and joyful and beautiful, and she only became The Monster because people saw those differences as something to revile.
The original comic definitely had a darker tone but something about this version just speaks to me.
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honeykaes · 1 year
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algorithmic
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pairing: xiao x afab!reader II 1.8k
disclaimer: smut, 18+ content, minors do not interact, dark content, yandere content, use of they/them pronouns, cyberpunk:edgerunners au, sci-fi, hacker!xiao, inappropriate use of ai (xiao), nonconsensual use of likeness, masturbation, handjob, blowjob, couch sex, impact play. Creampie, momentary foursome (if you’ve seen the anime, you know what I’m talking about), stalking, invasion of privacy, nonconsensual voyeruism,  rough sex, biting, descriptions of vagina, unedited
synopsis: when you joined the yaksha gang after stealing the sandevistan upgrade, xiao finds himself falling harder and harder for you until he’s completely obsessed. To statiate his obsession, he creates an algorithm to help him experiences situations he can only dream of doing with you.
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Wǎnshang City—night lights shining for the very rich at the upper towers reaching for the heavens while the smog and sin consume the poor who couldn’t fathom reaching their hands that high. Xiao had seen glimpses of both in some sense.
He had a comfortable apartment, not at the highest towers but somewhere near but away from the slums he grew up in. As a kid, he was always talented when it came to programming, hacking and netrunning. His new lifestyle was funded by unsavory methods working with a gang known as the Yakshas. Led by Bosacius, they got gigs from an unknown sponsor. It unsettled him but Indarias and Menogias swore it was fine. 
He didn’t feel bad the blood he knew that was on his hands or the blackmail he gathered against Celesti-corp. Xiao knew to keep his head down and do what he was told and he would live a comfortable life for the days he had left unless a gig went wrong—but he didn’t fear death either.
He did fear you though.
There was something about your eyes, and determined face that made Xiao’s heart palpitate tightly in his chest. His cheeks grew flushed as he furrowed his brow.
You had come under the Yakshas’ radar after you managed to steal a military grade Sandevistan implant that Bosacius was supposed to get. Even when the group insisted on stealing it and even killing you for the upgrade, he uncharacteristically chimed up saying you could fill in Pervases old role as a Solo, just helping them run schemes with your Sandevistan implant that made you faster than human comprehension. 
As Bosacius hesitantly agreed, demanding Xiao become your “babysitter”, he could feel that fear begin to shake at him. The fear of how quickly and innocent you had wormed your way into his heart.
Spending time, going on runs, Xiao felt himself falling harder and harder for you but struggling and choking on words on how to go about it. Even as he closes his eyes, he can see your image laughing with him in a simulation he programmed on the moon.
He scoured through any bit of information he could on you: discovering you were a college dropout after getting into a fight with a classmate, living in the slums your whole life, you losing your best friend in a highway accident due to an egotistical executive not paying attention to the road. 
Anything. Pictures, videos, your social media, your address, he knew everything he could about you.
It was like a sickness, a virus that infected his mind; always thinking about that genuine smile and laughs you gift him with. 
God, how much he would love for those lips to wrap themselves around his cock. 
Xiao snapped his eyes open, downing the rest of his drink and placing it in the kitchen skin. He could feel his cock beginning to strain his sweatpants. He leaves the kitchen, cupping his appearing bulge with a soft sigh before finally reaching his bedroom. He closes the door, quickly taking his shirt off—revealing the various tattoos and upgrades he has along his torso. 
He grabbed a hair tie, pulling his hair up in a small ponytail and shivering from the change of temperature on his now revealed neurolink port. His hands grab the waist of his pants, slowly pulling the bunched fabric down along with his boxers. Xiao’s cock springs up, trembling and flushed. 
He crept his hand up, gently clasping on it as a whine emitted from him causing his cheeks to flush harder. He dragged his thumb to his tip, feeling the moisture of his budding pre-cum coat the pad of it. He jerked along his member a few times before letting himself go as he walked over to his nightstand drawer and rummaged, grabbing two things: a bottle of lube, and a masturbator port. 
Throwing the port on the bed, he squeezed lube into his other hand and clasped his throbbing cock once more, pumping it slightly faster and completely coating it in the translucent, thick liquid. Goosebumps began rising in the few places that don’t have upgrades at, the coolness of the lube adding to his sensitivity.
He lets himself go once more, grabbing his VR headset and throwing it on the bed before he joins. As he rests his head on the pillow, he grabs the masturbator port lining it up to his cock and sank down, velvety and gummy walls of the toy clamping down when it sensed he had bottomed out. 
“I’ll see you soon…” he muttered, putting on his VR headset and closing his eyes. As his consciousness finally adjusted to the simulation.
As Xiao opened his eyes, he saw you in front of him—eyes half-lidded guiding your finger along his lower abdomen. He was fully nude already along with you, seemingly on the couches of the yaksha’s headquarters.
You pressed your lips on his chest, leaning back up and flashing a not-so-innocent smile at him.
“Aww, Xiao. You always treat me so well…it’s time I pay the favor back,” you cooed, leaning into his ear. “I’ll let you do whatever you want to me, anything.”
“Anything. You should be careful with those words, you know. You better not tell anyone else things like that,” he grunted. You pouted, pressing your lips against his tanned nipple, darting your tongue out and letting it swirl around the bud. Your hand drifted up, grabbing tightly on Xiao’s cock, beginning to slowly pump him—he could feel the machine beginning to suck down and milk his cock.
“No one but you Xiao. There is no one but you. But don’t worry, I’ll remind you over and over again, just like this,” you cooed. A moan escaped from Xiao’s lips and his hips bucked, feeling you jerk him tighter. His eyes settle at your chest before reaching his hand out to squeeze tightly, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Is this how they really feel…is this what they really look like?” he asked himself, resisting the urge to sigh. His thumbs roll over your nipples before pinching them as you yelp. You stop pumping his cock before slowly falling to your knees, kissing along the base of his cock until you reach the tip. 
“You still seem so tense today Xiao. Relax, let me help you!~” you cooed. You opened your mouth, taking him inside of you. He watched as you gagged, trying to adjust to his length before sucking sharply and kneading the area you couldn’t fit in your mouth. Watching your bobbing your head, Xiao digs his nails into his thigh. When he looks up, he is shocked when he looks up at another, glitchy version of you gazing beside him. 
This version played with your puffy folds before rubbing along your clit, moaning his name repeatedly. His eyes zeroed in at your slick oozing out of you, strings of it connecting to both of your soft thighs. Just as he looked away again, another glitchy version of you appeared legs lifted high showing off the dildo you were pushing inside of yourself—also moaning out his name.
Overwhelmed, Xiao looked down at the first version of you, still sucking his cock as his hips began to buck once more. Shutting his eyes tight and clenching his jaw, Xiao unraveled himself pressing your head down further on his cock as globs of his cum shot into your mouth. You struggled to swallow all of it, taking a few gulps as some managed to slip down your lips and chin, staining the title floor with his shame. 
The glitched versions of you disappear as he left your mouth with a pop. Adjusting your body so your ass was in the air. He pressed his hand down on your head, into the leather of the couch—cock-drunk smile on your lips as he guided his tip along your slit.
He grunted sliding it back and forth, trying to slip in and missed before nudging against your clit. You whined, shaking your hips together as Xiao clicked his tongue in frustration. Xiao’s pace is relentless as he plunges his cock into you. The sound of slapping skin echoed throughout the room, vibrations from his pace rippling through your ass. 
“Xiao! Xiao! Fuck, harder! Even harder, please!!” you beg out, only causing his frustrations bubbling.
“They wouldn’t say it like that!” he growled, feeling them clamp tighter against him. He leans down brushing his canines along their shoulder and roughly bit down, digging his nails to their waist.
“More, more, more, more! I need more. I need all of you. I need it. I need you,” he hissed out. He could tell the copy of you said something back along with the line of ‘I love you’ but it was distorted, causing tears to begin to develop in Xiao’s eyes. His fantasy was crumbling down, this thing he was fucking was merely a cold, fake copy of you.
Xiao’s hips halted, as a grunt escaped himself as his second high of the night overtook him. Thick ropes of cum spurted deeply inside of the copy, before Xiao abruptly slid out and slapped their clit as they whined. The copy hummed while a small river emerged from their hole, dripping out and along their thighs.
“Y’know I still wanted you inside of me—”
“I still have to play with the programming if I want to protect it. Maybe make an algorithm to see how they properly would respond to these situations based on interactions I had with them,” Xiao muttered, ignoring them. “All the errors and the glitching is proof this isn’t ready yet.”
Xiao’s vision went black before he ripped the VR set off of him, revealing his bedroom—alone, with you nowhere near him. Sweat clung onto his forehead, bangs sticking to it as his eyes focused on the masturbator; never truly inside of you as he wished.
“Tck, pathetic,” he grunted. He slid the contraption off, throwing it to the side and grimacing at the cum clinging on his softening cock. Throwing his head back to the pillow and looking at the ceiling, Xiao sighed.
He doesn’t know how much longer he can go with just having you with his programming. 
He clicked his tongue, getting up from his bed and moving to his desk determined briefly to recode his pathetic algorithm but his eyes drifted to the spyware he had. Xiao clicked it, revealing your form. You were in minimal clothing, trying to deal with the hot summer’s night without air conditioning lounging in your bed and scrolling on your phone.
A rare soft smile fell on Xiao’s lips, before it darkened, noticing your hands beginning to wander beneath your pants.
It seems he may have the means to upgrade his algorithm with your true responses after all.
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