enemy of perfect

Murderbot is like, generally slow to recognize when it has raging exceptions to its default state of “I hate everyone,” but I’ve been rereading the whole series and like, ART was always 5 steps further along the relationship train than Murderbot. Like, early on in Artificial Condition, ART wants to problemsolve Murderbot’s fugitive survival because ART has already internally decided “you’re the best and I want to keep you forever and ever” (which it expresses externally by categorizing Murderbot as “like crew”; as a ship, ART’s feelings about its crew are INTENSE).

Anyway ART says to Murderbot, “Why won’t you talk about your plans with me? We’re friends???” and Murderbot is like “We’re not FRIENDS? WTF????? You threatened to kill me 5 minutes after trapping me here?” and like. oh yeah ART used the f-word right out of the gate.

The one thing about ART and its emotions is it’s SO BAD at articulating them? And I think part of it is pride? Like when Murderbot assumes it did something for a selfish, asshole reason it’s really hard for ART to admit to some softer motivation? like “I was desperately terrified and I needed you” in Network Effect, or regarding the supposed “you threatened to kill me” incident, which was actually ART showing Murderbot what a vastly powerful/intelligent AI it was instead of what Murderbot had assumed, a relatively dumb, non-verbal bot pilot, and Murderbot interpreted that coming out as “omg you could squash me like a bug. in my *brain*” and ART couldn’t… articulate the vulnerability of “I showed you that because I wanted you to know me, because I think we’re kindred spirits.” I stg, ART decided five minutes into knowing Murderbot, as a “rogue” (=free, not under human control) SecUnit giving a hilariously terrible cover story about “wanting to find its master” in order to hitchhike across the stars, like when that was all ART knew about Murderbot ART was like, “You’re like me. I also pretend to be so much less than I am, so much of the time. I don’t want to pretend with you.” It couldn’t say that. Murderbot didn’t *get* that.

ART just KEEPS making these gestures at Murderbot and Murderbot is… not tuned to them? ART says “you’re my crew” and Murderbot knows ART is so invested in crew that it can’t watch FICTIONAL HUMANS die in FICTIONAL MEDIA but somehow Murderbot doesn’t hear “you’re super important to me” when ART says that. Murderbot doesn’t grok “you’re important to me” until ART literally launches ze missiles to get Murderbot back. ART says “I want to help you” and when Murderbot presses as to why, ART’s version of I have the capacity and I am interested in your wellbeing comes out as “I’m bored and you’re interesting” which Murderbot manages to interpret as “so I’m the best *toy*???” I think this has something to do with Murderbot–definitely not perceiving itself as a human, but also not thinking about itself, not *wanting* to think about itself, as a person. It’s been told all its life it’s an object, a piece of equipment, and it’s uncomfortable with being treated otherwise, even as it resents that treatment. So ART’s attempts to name their relationship as one between people keep falling flat because Murderbot a) assumes it is an object to ART and then b) gets annoyed that ART is treating it like an object.

and you literally only ever get Murderbot’s POV in the books (or. well. one…and a half…. outsider POV. my point is you never get *ART*’s internality). I am reading a lot into what ART’s saying, because ART cannot say a lot of that shit and Murderbot super is not ready to hear it.

is ART an asshole? (ART stands for “asshole research transport.” ART has an actual name, and even a nickname, but does Murderbot ever use it? No. And ART lets Murderbot, and then proceeds to let at least one of Murderbot’s humans do it too.) yes, ART is an asshole, ART can be judgy, ART is sarcastic as hell, ART is definitely capable of being selfish and duplicitous… to protect the people it loves. But like, Murderbot is an asshole. Murderbot is judgy and sarcastic and takes stupid risks to protect people it barely even likes. Murderbot isn’t going to connect with someone *nice.* I mean, will Murderbot manage to recognize and articulate connection ever, a valid question, but ART… is the kind of entity where that’s even possible.

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children need healthy platonic friendships with adults. children need all manner of platonic relationships with adults and segregating children from ALL interactions with adults simply because some adults would like to cause them harm not only doesnt stop that from happening but also makes children EVEN MORE susceptible to abuse.

children should have literally no shortage of adults in their lives who they know, feel comfortable with, and are safe around. isolation ALWAYS increases the risk of abuse. children who dont have positive interactions cant identify behavior that isnt okay because they dont know any better! a child that has a healthy network of adults in their life does! they can compare behavior between adults and say “this isnt how everyone else treats me and i feel weird about it. maybe i can ask xyz who doesnt treat me this way if this is weird or not”

this also gives them more places to turn when things go wrong. a child whos in trouble but only has their parents and peers has a very limited number of options. ESPECIALLY if their parents are the adults in their lives who are harming them, which is overwhelmingly the more likely option. children are much more likely to abused by a family member than by a stranger. a child with more adult friendships, like for example, the woman who works at the library and always talks to them about tv shows they love, the guy from the comic book store who they see every week and who always recommends them new titles to try, the college age coach of their after school sport, the nurse from their school who they eat lunch with because the feel more comfortable there, that child has a large number of adults who they can now turn to in a crisis.

And then almost immediately i realized i was an idiot. I was so careful with my identity online as a teenager, yet here I was just giving personal information out to random strangers. Random adults. I was going to end up murdered on the news if I wasn’t careful.

But I didn’t want to rope my parents in because that would have meant admitting that I had done a foolish thing and at that age, there was no greater horror or shame. So instead I went to my French teacher, a jovial eccentric that I spent my free period with, by choice, watching claymation movies and talking about comic books.

When I told her about the interaction, she was immediately concerned without being judgmental or disappointed, and that was honestly such a gift. She helped me track him down. Her support empowered me to be able to trust my instincts, the people around me, and to go forth with a solution that I arrived at myself, rather than immediately going to my parents or pretending nothing had happened and hoping it would go away.

So when the dude called later, breathing heavy and asking if i thought he was attractive, i KNEW he was being a creep. And with my sister’s help (because I didn’t know how to phrase things strongly without being terribly rude, and she seriously didn’t give a fuck) we told him off and then called his employer to express our concerns. He never called again.

Just because an adult is friendly with a young person doesn’t automatically make them predatory. Predatory behaviors make them predatory.

like here he is, being INTENSE PERFECTIONIST AND CONTROL FREAK (in a way that he isn’t, in the rest of his life) and the second one of his plants shows a flaw, even a single leaf spot, he puts it down the garbage disposal, discarding it the way he felt he was discarded????

crowley, go to therapy

go to therapy, crowley

(or possibly he did go to therapy and the therapist was the one who suggested he get a hobby like gardening and he twitched a bit and went “mmm yeah Gardening, right. i can go make a Garden for myself sure. right. it’ll be very therapeutic.” it is not very therapeutic, it is just picking at an old scab)

Hey, sorry for all the unrelated posts, but no one outside seems to pay attention to this? Hong Kong, the city I’m from, is kind of under crisis?

To summarise, the pro-CCP controlled government is trying to pass an extradition law to China, where people can be sent to mainland China for ‘trial’. We don’t have that in the first place for a reason. To put this into context, their CHIEF JUSTICE literally said that constitutional democracies, judicial independence and separation of powers are ‘erroneous western notions’ that threaten the leadership of the ruling Communist party.

If this passes, the entire city is in danger. People could be detained at any time. Some people who sold books that were banned in China (which SHOULD NOT include HK according to the law) were KIDNAPPED to the mainland, and the law has not even passed yet!  Can you imagine what will happen if it does?

Please reblog this, it could be a very important resource that one of your followers needs right now.

Scene 1:

Person A: (gesturing toward an image of two men kissing) “I love this ship! It’s mlm and the creators say it’ll be canon!”

Trans guy: “Oh! I love them! I headcanon them as trans!”

A: “Oh! Here’s the thing…Trans headcanons are usually fine, but this ship is really important to a lot of fans so it’s kinda problematic for you to say either of them would be attracted to female bodies to make them less gay. Only if it’s an AU, ‘kay?”

Scene 2:

Trans guy: “I love this tomboy character!”

Person B: “Ah! I know! She is so hot!!!”

Trans guy: “I acted just like her as a kid! I actually get a bit of a trans vibe…”

B: “What, a girl has to be a secret man to enjoy masculine things!? Why not just cut the crap and admit you’re a misogynist!”

Scene 3:

Trans guy: “I think i’m–”

So, as it’s roughly explained, the state alchemist program is a kind of “recruit potential human sacrifices” mechanism, with a side-order of “brute strength for the army”. But basically, the state alchemist title is mostly about being a researcher–given people like Shou Tucker exist, and given that the only requirement to stay a state alchemist is to submit a yearly report of your research that says “look I’m still being a useful scientist”.

So far, so far this is sensible, yeah? Father and the delightful children from down the lane are running a recruitment program for potential human sacrifices. So sure–butter them up! Give them lots of money, get them buddy-buddy with the government, and give them endless resources for research. It’s be pretty easy to trick a state alchemist in that position to open the portal if Sugar DaddyBradley is nudging them to do it.

And I’m still willing to go with this logic for the whole “draft the state alchemists into war” move. They make it pretty clear that was something of a last-ditch effort. And the blood transmutation circle around Amestris was an absolute necessity for Father’s plan. So the risk of a few state alchemists dying or resigning from your Potential Sacrifice Pool is worth it for the completion of the circle.

Now. To get to my fucking thought. 

Edward fucking Elric. This fucking fight-me 12 year old troglodyte shows up to the exam and performs circle-less transmutation in front of mother fucking Bradley, demonstrating to one of the seven Actual Fucking Homunculi that he’d already opened the portal. Ed was literally prepped as a human sacrifice before he showed up to Central. A fully set human sacrifice showed up at the homunculi’s door, said “hey look what I can do!”, proved he’d opened the mother fucking portal already, and said “hey yeah hire me”. Human sacrifice, free shipping, no assembly required, handcuffs not included!

They could have just tossed Ed into a shoebox and kept him there until the Promised Day. They wouldn’t even need to make up an excuse he attacked the f u  c k i n g president. That’s fucking treason babey. He’s 12, he’s an orphan, he’s from a rural town in buttfuck nowhere, he’s literally the easiest person alive to disappear. They could have arrested him for assassination crimes, kept him in gay baby jail, and just popped him out for the Promised Day

What do they do instead?! “Oh lmao this kid’s great. Let’s give him infinite money, no supervision, no governmental responsibilities, access to all our secret resources, and toss him on a train to who-the-fuck-knows-where-land”

They fucking did that

And like? They then had the audacity to be concerned when Edward “Fight Me” Elric almost got himself killed about 293 times. Just an endless game of “I thought u were watching him” from one homunculus to another when Ed fucking absconds half-way across the globe to go entice some other hostile entity into murdering him to death. That’s the whole series. Every arc is Ed baiting death while the homunculi are in the background like “:/ wish he wouldn’t do that”

This only gets worse when you consider they later learned Al opened the portal too because really?? These two stab-happy globe-trotting public menaces are 40% of your final evil plan for godhood. 40%. Almost half. You couldn’t fucking set aside a cardboard box to keep these idiots in?

Father didn’t baby-gate Ed because humans are like ants to him and he had no concept of how thoroughly Ed and co. could fuck his shit up

Father and the Hot Topic Brigade didn’t lock Ed up because they recognized the unbridled chaotic 12-year-old energy compressed into such a small vessel and they understood no jail cell on earth would reliably hold this thing

Goooooooood morning troops. The UK will now definitely be participating in EU elections so register your arses to vote. If you’ve voted before you should be on the electoral register but if you’ve moved house then you need to re-register.

It takes 5 minutes and it’s all online, you’ll need your national insurance number to register.

Octopus Typewriter by Courtney Brown

Like a relic recovered from a sunken ship, still hosting its former resident, Oakland artist Courtney Brown fashioned a typewriter I pray makes it as a backdrop for the next 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake. Brown used a 1938 Underwood typewriter affixed with sculpted bronze tentacles - a beautiful fright right out of your dreams or nightmares.

Do you want to know what you can really do to help, though? We’ve got killers referencing “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in all seriousness. Can we agree, as a group, that jokes coming from it aren’t cool? Can we stop perpetuating the antisemitic canards?

This means:

No secret lizard people jokes. These come via David Icke, who proposed that Zionists were reptilian aliens hiding among real people.

No Illuminati/‘secret cabal of bankers, media moguls and politicians running the world’ commentary. This is also often a dogwhistle for ‘them rich Jews run everything!’

Diligence to avoid promoting the blood libel–the ancient lie that Jewish people kill Christian babies for our matzah, or other lies that make us out as predators who seek the blood of our enemies.

Shut down Holocaust denial. Do I need to explain this one further?

A detailed list of antisemitic canards ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitic_canard ) can be found on Wikipedia. If you hear these come up, whether it’s at work or at home, with older people who ‘just don’t know any better’ or your children, please shut this shit down. It is literally getting people killed.