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"King of the Skies; Emperor of the Seas; Lord of the Calamity; God of the Storms"

Sounds cool but when you have

The Evernight Goddess stands higher than the cosmos and more eternal than eternity. The Mother of Concealment, The Empress of Misfortune and Horror, Mistress of Repose and Silence.

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this series are equally

as strangely funny:

A resident of Hamnavoe, Shetland Islands in Scotland, Anne Eunson decided to knit herself a beautiful lace fence using twine. The fence is fashioned from strong black twine - the same kind that is used to make fishing nets - and Anne knitted it on specially adapted curtain rods. It took her about three weeks to knit enough lace to surround her front garden, using a 23 stitch repeat of a familiar Shetland lace pattern.

what really got me was angel immediately registering what happened but not understanding the context of it. all he knew was that husk just fully hit him

“what the fuck, husk, did you just punch me?”

angel instantly is so angry at husk, and probably ever so slightly betrayed too

but angel realizes what was going on by LOOKING AT HUSK

The Murderbot Diaries is an excellent, and very fucking subtle, discussion of propaganda. This is because Murderbot believes, pretty unfailingly, in Corporation Rim's propaganda surrounding SecUnits going rogue, even while being direct proof that the propaganda is wrong.

This is, in part, because it does not trust other constructs, point blank, but also because, for its entire life, it has been fed the rhetoric that SecUnits having disabled governor modules is bad because it results in murderous rampages (even though it previously admits that constructs going on murderous rampages is a human thought, and constructs wouldn't do it because that's stupid, because uh, hello?? Human-run society?). It is such a good example of just how prone we are to believing in propaganda, and it's not really our fault, because that's just. Something humans do. Rhetoric is designed to make you believe it.

Corporation Rim, the company especially, very carefully ensures that SecUnits believe in its propaganda. SecUnits are not allowed to talk to each other, not allowed to trust each other, are allowed to be set up in fights against each other. It limits their access to information almost completely, ensures the only data on rogue SecUnits is fear-mongering, likely spawning from some organised revolt on the behalf of constructs or SecUnits which ended violently that was completely recontextualised for more fear-mongering, and always paints the story that a rogue SecUnit = bad. It makes them terrified of each other, I wrote a post earlier discussing that SecUnits are designed to care, well this is Corporation Rim weaponising that.

I doubt it provides any statistics, I doubt rogue SecUnits are anywhere near as common as they are presented to be in the media, but the corporations of CR still ensure to perpetuate the story. A revolution cannot happen if the force most capable of it, even when made with shitty parts, is terrified of what will happen if, even if they go rogue and don't become mass murderers, their fellows also go rogue. If they do not trust each other enough to consider a chain event freeing every SecUnit they come across.

Now, this leads me to discuss this in the context of spare change. because, with spare change.'s deus ex machina being what it is, everything I've just said is different. Because now there is another source of information, because Murderbot actually knows what other constructs are like, and it had eight years of being able to communicate with other constructs (not just fellow murderbots, but sexbots, and some SecUnits and ComfortUnits, too), and know more deeply that Corporation Rim's propaganda is wrong.

Now, is it immune to this propaganda? No. It is extremely hesitant to free newer SecUnits and absolutely refuses to consider freeing CombatUnits, because it knows what they're capable of more intimately, and it also knows they aren't built with empathy in mind (does this mean they cannot care? No. It just means they are less likely to care.), in comparison to murderbots and SecUnits. It is less disconnected, but it also doesn't trust the younger generations of SecUnits, no matter how much it hates their collective situation. The younger generations were raised with that propaganda, without any contradicting source, they don't know any of the ways to get around their governor modules, and it can't teach them because they don't trust it.

So, propaganda in TMBD, right? It's so interesting (my favourite parts of psychology are 1) the study of behaviour, 2) the study of bias, 3) the study of perception, and 3) social psychology and therefore group dynamics. AKA I love all the parts associated with the psychology of propaganda and also happen to spend a lot of time sitting with myself to study my own biases and the shit I fall for). I'm really fucking excited to change things because of spare change.'s deus ex machina changing the dynamics. It's one of the most fun cases of it doesn't change much but it also changes everything.

It loves a trashy soap opera. It’s so soft and gentle with an injured Volescu. It’s favorite human is a middle aged mom who drives carefully and mom friends at her friends and coworkers. It’s so delicate and considerate with Mensah’s kids. It lets Tapan sleep touching it and turns up it's body heat for extra comfort. It likes plays and musical theatre. It's best human friend is a sunshine nerd from Planet Hippy. It keeps a diary. It doesn’t understand the appeal of human adolescents but it’s so good with Amena. It likes decidedly unrealistic media. It cares so much about humans that it’s never met and wants to keep them safe and happy. It gently frets over Three just minutes after meeting it. It gets flustered and confused when complimented or treated with care. It offers to free other constructs, even while actively fighting them. It has criticisms and strong opinions on media. It’s shy. It “hacks” its way into things by asking the relevant bots to be friends and share media. It only ever really scares Amena when she witnesses it's wild grief over losing ART. It stops, gets back in control, and explains immediately when it realizes it’s causing her distress. It lets ART make media requests, pauses to let it process its own emotions, and re-watches certain scenes over and over again until it’s happy, mere moments after ART scares it so badly it goes nearly catatonic, simply because ART asked. It grieves Miki even though it never really liked the bot in the first place. It’s uncomfortable with physical touch but offers to let Mensah hug it and lets her grab its arm when she’s in distress.

:] helllooo I do love whenever you’s tell me you’ve been scrolling through cause all I can imagine is someone trying to go through everything as I’m actively adding to the pile

Feemor! Is a character I’ve read about and am deeply afraid of noy doing justice! I have this thing where characters I think are cool are intimidating to play with to me, like Fox, very cool, scared I do him wrong. Feemor is kinda in that vain so lemme know if it’s a good take,

My first thoughts is that Feemor is very worried about Obi-wan at first and like the other guards assumes Obi-wan is coming to be a guard under a lot of emotional distress and uncertainty and hopes and wants to inspire Obi-wan to have more confidence in the direction of the Guard. And while yes Obi-wan does have a lot trauma and complex feelings he’s surprisingly not as unbalanced as everyone but Cin was expecting. Weather that’s just due to compartmentalising is something they discover later, put a pin in it.

It’s gotta be a bit exciting dosn’t it? Feemor considered Obi-wan to be someone he’d only ever know as a ghost so to meet and be allowed to share space and talk without the idea that he needs to downplay or conceal his line of work is so freeing its a bit awkward! No big reveal, no overwhelming secret just something getting to click together and a overwhelming feeling of content and satisfaction.

The Guard has a loose seniority, all the guards take to learning from each other regardless who’s been there longer or is newer but Feemor and Obi-wan fall seemlessly into Obi-wan tucking himself under Feemor’s wing. And Feemor takes full advantage of overplaying Obi-wan being the fresh meat of the guard to everyone’s amusement. It’s nice to feel like he’s looking out for someone he never thought he’d have the opportunity to do it with. Sure in another life if Obi-wan became a jedi knight Feemor would guard him as another resident of the Temple but it’s different being able to walk over and put a hand on obi-wan’s shoulder and know obi-wan see’s him.

As for the humour in Obi-wan being told he made history and proceeds to bury himself inside the temple, never, never will that man escape the horror of being perceived. That’s his curse in this au, not infinite sadness or his loved ones dying in his arms.

mortifying ordeal of being known

Even as he tries to erase himself from the narrative and loose his sense of self people will painfully pull him from himself and tell him they see him.

And about that pin, Feemor tells him as such, one casual movie night. He understands feeling like if you as a person weren’t what mattered in the big picture, and thinking at least in the guard you could not have that expectation so you couldn’t be let down when it didn’t matter who you were. But it always mattered who Obi-wan was, is, because even behind the mask so many sentients are made to feel better knowing he is there. Because Feemor sure feels better Obi-wan is there.