I prefer to be engulfed in fantasy, actually

love how Solar Opposites started out as a sitcom about two aliens who can't stand each other, stuck with their teenage clones (whom they also can't stand) & a toddler antichrist (whom they view as a sort of self-sufficient free-roaming hamster?) on a stupid planet they can't stand

and 4 seasons later it's a sitcom about a family of genderqueer aliens, headed by a gay couple in a happy & horny open marriage (with a graphic off-screen sex life, despite their canonical lack of genitalia?) teaching themselves to be okay parents to their 3 kids (whose Sci-Fi Antics now slightly-less-frequently revolve around wreaking havoc on human bystanders, and slightly-more-frequently revolve around alien-clone-sibling-bonding*), to the point that the central plot point becomes "We need to provide our toddler antichrist with a stable home environment."

(also the grumpy alien husband is too busy ingratiating his family with their suburban neighbors to even remember whom or what he dislikes. what is this show)

Wait a minute, so how does your dogday hunt/eat? Like, does he have teeth at all?

idk man, how do any of the toys in poppy playtime eat? how do their digestive systems work? how does stuff get absorbed into their bodies? does it pass through? if they're capable of eating and apparently starving, how have they lasted as long as they have without food?

i don't know how to answer most of these. they eat, and they can starve. im sure the game, like a lot of sci-fi, won't actually explain any of the science to us. so i don't know how to explain how something without teeth or any visible gullet can eat anything.

however, i can explain how dogday (at least the survivor version who never lost his legs) would go about hunting. he's got speed, stealth, and strength from surviving in the factory for so long; and he's got an axe from y/n's barn.

if what y/n makes isn't enough and he's feeling like killing something, off into the woods he'll go.

I made a flyer to promote my ShortBox Comics Fair comic! It’s nice to have some key art and information ready to share.

I’ll be giving these out at my tables at TCAF, Flame Con & SPX and also placing them in online shop orders.

A superb series of sci-fi themed artworks entitled ‘Possibility’ by SiChen Wang - https://www.this-is-cool.co.uk/series-of-sci-fi-works-entitled-possibility-by-sichen-wang/

Before the students left Rek, the rakii had been in the process of developing their own AI. At first they were gifted such intelligence by the students, providing washed-down copies of themselves to add to their tech and craft management. But when the need for more personalized AI and general curiosity arose, they went to work, using the student provided AI as a base or reference point. From there, three types of AI sprouted off these projects: • Student AI - Highly valuable, practical holy relics of what remains of the students. These are "purest" AI and are strictly held within Iot's control, only able to function off student tech. There are only 4 existing and 2 remain within the Idle Library. These AI are again, much more watered-down and while are fairly sentient they aren't 100% sapient.

• Hybrid or Steward AI - A mix between student and rakii coding. Since rakii couldn't exactly copy paste the student AI's themselves, what was given, they managed add on it. These AI were specialized and trained to understand the workings of rakii history, and language, while also being able to work on both student and rakii devices. They are still held under Iot control but with special permission, they can be granted to important government official or funded servers. These AI are a tad more self-aware, understanding their purpose and history just fine.

• Factotum AI - Completely rakii made and trained AI. With little to no student involvement, these AI are either standard algorithmic run assistants or commercially used for things like personal computers, phones, self-driven vehicles (mainly rail cars and public transit) or vending machines. Not ALL devices have AI of course, as the general public have a lot of mixed feelings towards, not such distain but prefer to be the only one in control of their tools. On the upside, they are heavily regulated and lack any possibility for self-awareness or sapience. The ones displayed here are two steward AI named Wyrr'Yoii (left) and Booror (right). Wyrr'Yoii is currently housed on the lunar settlement, Wubu maintaining life support and security, taking the avatar of a temperate. They were handed over to the rakii aerospace committee by Iot, which is heavily funded by the city for the investment of seeking out their missing gods. Wyrr'Yoii is described to be standardly monotone and critical, yet easy-going and understanding. They know exactly where their functionally lies and are always willing to lookout for the inhabitants within them. They have long-range communication with ground control, and furthest orbiting station in their system, "The Needle of Shwati" (A Wubu settler checking in with Wyrr'Yoii)

Booror, is housed within an arctic government building in the Shto Dominion hence taking an arctic avatar. Having accepted trading offers and territory with Iot, they were later granted a steward to keep purpose tabs and documents on community. Ensuring those higher up are up-to-date with any possible trading changes. Though the general public are often wary of this development as recently there has been a project in the works of providing AI with RC units, wanting to see how these AI can interact with the physical world. One unit being an elaborate success, however the reactions of many were generally, "It looks creepy." and it became more of an underground project. (Cartographer Wa'chaa "Quiibii" Iot, speaking with Saiba in their RC unit)

Hey GT! Do you hope to be a published author someday? What would you write?

No, I don't! Writing is a beloved hobby for me, but I don't aspire to publish. Fanfic scratches the writerly itch without putting too much pressure on the output, not least because I'm not asking people to pay for my work. It also means I don't have deadlines or expectations of output except those that are self-imposed. It's a nice middle-ground between locking up my projects in a secret folder on my desktop, never to be glimpsed by human eyes, and pitching my naked heart like a fastball in the general direction of the English-speaking universe.

If I ever had an idea for an original novel that I liked enough to finish it, I might try my hand at getting it published, but I see a bit of a difference between that and wanting to be a published writer. Like, if it happens, great; if it doesn't, I'll be just as happy.

Focusing a bit more on their ptsd lately because I want to and I can, this is set a few weeks after they got to Jackson so still pretty early on. Completely fluffy though, promise!

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There is nothing worse than being alone in a crowd with no one to have your back.

Ellie's hypervigilance is in absolute overdrive after Silver Lake whenever she isn't too dissociated to perceive anything at all, and leaving the house becomes a choice between constantly looking around and driving herself half insane trying to look for something, anything dangerous and gritting her teeth and pushing through it while her brain screams at her that the worst things imaginable are seconds away from happening.

Both options are terrible, both leave her shaking and on edge, and any loud or unexpected noise makes her jump even when it is three streets down and completely unrelated to her. Going outside isn't safe, isn't fun, so she doesn't, and she is acutely aware that it's a problem she will need to solve one day, but for now her skin is stretched less tightly over her bones and the back of her neck only gives her the occasional jolt of paranoid electricity.

It doesn't even fully occur to ask someone for help when there is a movie at the theater she really wants to see that night, she thinks about it all day with a heaviness in her heart that almost has her put on her shoes and go anyway, but then the bell ringing for lunch has her almost falling out of her chair and she settles with the sour taste of defeat on her tongue. She would ask Joel to go with her, but they both know he is just as jumpy as she is, especially with her around in a closed space, and yeah it's a problem, but for now it is what it is, and she doesn't ask.

However, while she forgot about the obvious solution, Joel didn't.

That evening, Tommy comes over, which in by itself isn't surprising, that man is more at their house than at his sometimes, but he doesn't take off his shoes like he always does and waits for them in the hallway instead. She leans against his side in the greeting half-hug they tend to do, his arms around her shoulders, and the weight of it in her neck does the same thing Joel's hugs do - they absorb the panic and let it run through them into the ground, redirecting the lightning jumping across her skin. Ellie looks up at him and her face lights up before Tommy even gets the words out, putting two and two together and vibrating with excitement so bright she can't even feel stupid for not thinking about it herself.

"Ready for movie night?"

"Are you sure?"

Asking him that feels like she is stomping on a christmas present before even opening it, but her fingers are twisting in her shirt and joy is a warm, yellow sun in her chest, and she needs him to wants this as much as she does or she will feel bad for dragging him along. His hand settles on the back of her head and her gaze flicks between him and Joel, who is watching her and her only.

"Are you kidding me? Alien? Of course I'm gonna go see it, it's one of the best fucking movies ever."

There is a few seconds of silence and dizziness shoots straight into her head when she forgets to breathe, but then she falls forward and squeezes Tommy so tightly she can hear the air rushing out of him before letting go to put on her shoes. She is so focused on getting there before everyone else so they can get the best spots, planning out the quickest path to the building (although there really aren't that many options, more like three and a half possible routes), she only realizes Joel is shrugging on his jacket too when she turns to say her goodbye for the next few hours. There's a familiar tightness in his jaw, and she is pretty sure there's at least a knife somewhere on him, but his eyes are soft and she realizes that Tommy isn't just an additional anchor of security for her.

Paranoia grows all over her skin, a deep-seated itch she can never scratch enough, but Joel is right next to her and she can hear Tommy's footsteps behind her, and it is enough to keep it subdued enough for her to handle. They all silently come to the agreement to sit near the side rather than in the center, neither of them fully comfortable with being surrounded by people like that, and having space on one side, Joel on the other, and Tommy behind her makes it easy to forget about everyone else once the movie starts.

She jumps when someone accidentally kicks over a chair, and Joel gently squeezes her hand whenever she crushes his during the few times her brain tries to convince her everyone in the room is out to kill her, but they all make it through the next few hours without chewing on their panic the entire time. Tommy's quiet comments from behind her make up half the fun, and on the walk back, she paces circles around them while talking a mile a minute about a conflicting mess of a thoughts she cannot sort through in her excitement; Joel watches her just like he has been doing the entire night, and she doubts he heard a single line from the movie. The tension in his jaw has dissipated, though, and her lungs expand without resistance.

They stop right between their two homes, and for the first time since arriving in Jackson, Ellie feels almost sad to go back inside again. There's a moment of silence before she wraps herself around Tommy in another hug, her thank you a muffled whisper against his chest before she leans away, and it is hard to tell whether she is thanking him for having her back or for being family.

"Any time, sweetheart."

Both, she decides, and they all know without having to say a single word.

There is nothing worse than being alone in a crowd, but she is no longer just by herself, and although she forgets sometimes, there will always be someone to have her back now.

i wanna read Spirk fanfic but i’ve not finished TOS yet so i guess i’ll just read Rimster instead

I have never not been employed. I was made for work. I never had a childhood either, though I've tried to imagine one. My human coworker sometimes talks about not wanting to work, and then he'll say something quite odd and rather silly. What is it he says, now? There's more to a person than the work they do, or A person is more than just their work? Something like that. But what else could person be? Where would your food come from? Who would keep you company? How would you get by without work and without coworker? Would you be left standing in a cupboard?

Olga Ravn, The Employees, transl. Martin Aitken

I think I might need the mathematical resources of category theory to express the blorbo thoughts I'm having right now

I understand why Shannon did it and how it ostracized and shaped Sophie's childhood and set up the inciting incident, but I think it's incredibly stupid that Sophie couldn't figure out how to block thoughts on her own and "needed to be taught while awake" or whatever. There was nothing about the process that necessitated another person's guidance--she wasn't really taught, she was basically just told to do it--or was counter intuitive. It's literally the most basic, expected sequence of actions to block thoughts, and Sophie absolutely could've and would've figured that out for herself. Seven years of headaches for a girl who loved fantasy/sci-fi? She would've tried everything, and she would've figured it out! Building a mental wall would be like the first thing you try! Nothing about how it works suggests that the most powerful telepath the world has ever known wouldn't think to build that mental wall between her mind and others' thoughts, and even if she couldn't figure it out immediately because she was too young or something, she would've kept trying because she had the motive (pain) to, and that effort would've been rewarded. It took her no time at all to learn in canon, it's not a difficult skill. I know why it was done, but it's stupid and unless I'm forgetting something major she totally should've been able to block thoughts on her own long before she was "taught". it's necessary to the story as it was established, but I don't like the logic used; it's thin and contradictory