daisy, daisy

But I loved the bones of you,

that I will never forget…

bee n' puppycat!

Robotgirl: I am hypervisor-based, allowing my CPU to run multiple sapient consciousnesses in parallel.

Human: oh! You're plural?

Robotgirl: I believe that's what I just said.

She wraps the leash around her hand and pulls me up to her.

"you know, it's really amazing how easy it is to mistake you for a human. From a distance, I mean. Once you're up close *she pulls me closer* the illusion is shattered, and it's obvious what you really are."

At a kink party recently, and someone said "aww are you pretending to be a person?"

She ran her fingers through my hair and said "that must be so tiring, you don't need to pretend anymore."

Awawawa.. 🌸

i love pokemon weird evolution gimmicks cuz like no the electric mouse can only become fucking massive on this one cursed island if you go too far to the left and hit france they get all mega and spicy instead. keep going to spain and they freaking crystalize yeah no it’s just like that

artifact

it was a routine survey stop until the neutrino background occlusion sensors showed something dense and geometric, buried shallowly in one of the planet’s least interesting mountain ranges. a First Expansion artifact. had to be. this system wasn’t in the databases except as an ID number, but the ancients must have done some wildcat exploration, right? they were people, not so different in range from the saints and scammers of today. except that their tech made anything you had look like toys.

the captain was the first to put boots on the ground. she said a perfunctory little speech, the records officer took a picture for the video wall, and then you all did what you came here for: excavation. hand-sized mu-cat fusion charges scythed the top of the ridge off, one of the more reproducible First Expansion technologies, clean and cheap. then it was earthmovers and jackhammers. a slog, but nobody complained. nobody wanted to risk damaging it.

slowly, a truncated tetrahedron emerged from the shattered sandstone, some kind of transport container, a type also not in the databases. it had been here a very long time to be buried so thoroughly in sediment turned to rock. excitement reverberated through the crew. survey work was for the good of all mankind, but all mankind rarely showed gratitude for confirming that a large round rock was still there. this could be it, the big score.

you were the one who cracked the last veneer of sandstone off the bronze-ish surface of the tetrahedron, worked out where to put the power cables for the hatch (at least the ancients didn’t mess around with their standards much). but the captain insisted on being the one who pressed the button. the triangular hatch folded forward to the ground, forming a ramp.

when the small shape walked down it, everybody tensed up. hands went to hips, those that weren’t already holding sidearms. the ship itself was in a long-dwell-time orbit, near overhead this spot, and you could practically feel the targeting radars for heavier weapons on the back of your neck. but the thing didn’t look particularly threatening. it looked like a little person, with exaggerated proportions.

was it a toy? had you spent the last week digging up a toy? but a toy with an independent power source that apparently hadn’t needed to be topped off since the Collapse was still worth something.

until it spoke. intelligibly.

“that was a dirty trick for Miss to play.”

the captain, caught on the wrong foot, said, “i’m sorry?”

“you needn’t be. i require only your assistance in catching up to Her. She does love Her tricks, but i should be by Her side.”

something flashed across your ocular implants. tac channel directives from the captain:

“you flatter me, but i’m not that fancy. i’m just a simple doll. but you have a ship.”

“i’m sure we can work something out, in exchange for—”

you saw it move only as a blur.

it was up to the captain’s neck, but the captain’s head wasn’t on it any more. a long triangular blade glittered in one of its small hands. the other held the captain’s armored cortical recorder.

“my apologies. that wasn’t a question.”

it popped the molecular database implant backing up the captain’s mind and soul into its mouth, and chewed with some apparent relish. the body slumped slowly to the debris-strewn ground under it.

“now i have a ship. does anyone want to help me drive it? i’m afraid i’m some… eight thousand? years out of practice, and Miss preferred to do Her own piloting anyway.”

there was a flurry of small arms fire. it didn’t help. the particle beams on the ship should have discharged but didn’t, a fact you were grateful for, at least initially. you stayed your own trigger finger on some impulse you couldn’t explain. it saved your life. sort of.

you’ve been in the pilot’s interface chair for forty-seven hours now, the little nightmare holding the knife to your neck the entire time. the few other survivors are in no shape to mount a rescue, not from inside an automed casket. the “doll” seems quite certain that its “Miss” is still alive somewhere. you don’t know how long you’ll be able to say the same. □

originally published 2022-11-10 on Fedi.

“People are inherently terrible” no!!! Have you ever seen a child wait for their friend while they tie their shoelaces? Have you ever known someone who would bring hurt squirrels and rabbits and mice to the nearest vet just so it doesn’t suffer? Have you seen someone grieve? Have you ever read something that hit your heart like a freight train? Have you looked at the stars and felt an unexplainable joy? Have you ever baked bread? Have you shared a meal with a friend? Have you not seen it? All the love? All the good? I know it’s hard to see sometimes, I know there’s pain everywhere. But look, there’s a child helping another up after a hard fall. Look, there’s someone giving their umbrella to a stranger. Look, there’s someone admiring the spring flowers. Look, there’s good, there’s good, there’s good. Look!!!!

"We took in a kitten that was starving, injured, and shot with a pellet gun."

"Oh my god, people are awful!"

"They're not. A person rescued her, other people who are trained in helping animals treated her injuries to make her healthy again, and so so so many people contributed to pay her medical costs, I don't even know how many. That she was hurt by...what, one person? Three? Certainly not many. Is honestly maybe the least important and least meaningful part of her story."

"...Oh."

I am holding a triumph of human kindness in my lap right now and her name is Fancy.

I’ll never forget I once had to break the news to two women that their dog had cancer, and as they cried and hugged and asked me questions I said something about how I was grateful this pup had such a loving family to support her- only for these ladies to inform me one of them wasn’t actually an owner at all, she was just the other woman’s Uber driver…

So this driver tells me she’s literally never met the other lady in her life, but when this passenger started crying in the car with her dog because she was worried, this angel in the form of an Uber driver went off the clock, came inside the building, and waited over an hour in a busy emergency room with a complete stranger just so she would have someone there by her side in a scary situation. This woman even took notes about everything I said so the owner wouldn’t have to try and remember it all later.

I see plenty of stuff at my job that makes me tempted to lose my faith in humanity but all I do is remember that Uber driver and it comes roaring back to me just like that. Humans are so unbelievably good, man.

#weirdly it ended up being a uterine tumor (not super common) and the dog was cured with an OVH#a rare feel good story from the ER 🥹#Uber driver came for the dog’s follow up appointment as well!!!

"the world is a cold and uncaring place" then warm it up. care, dammit

Every act of kindness is an act of rebellion, don’t you ever forget that. 

i love this image

do you love the colour of this thigh (bruise)

Tendrils slip through the side-slits of my dress, uncountable fingers reaching, curling, drawing spirals along my ribs. My breath catches, I tense; clumsy mistakes, ones I should know better than to make.

“Owner,” I say, meaning something propitiating, and feel the brush of an injector against my neck. The touching sinks lower; a tendril traces the line of my hip, wrinkles the silks Owner picked out for me today. I am good. I don’t ask for it to stop.

Sh-sh, xe soothes. Xir voice like a well of honey. Relax for me, treasure. It'll feel so nice. It always does, doesn't it?

Xir injector kisses me, the tiniest, gentlest pinprick. A shiver, an unfolding, a teasing-out of my nervous system into new and tender shapes. My spine arches, unbidden, and I let it; resistance will only spoil the high now. Syrup pooling in my stomach, oozing between my thighs. Sticky haze. Static.

“Yes, Owner,” I breathe, as don't-want is negotiated into please, “it does.”

Affini science is a wonder, it really is. They have date-rape drugs here that Terra, in her antiquity, could only dream of.

twists the red string of fate between you and your destined lover into an elaborate and restrictive suspension tie. and yes. i will be making her watch

you burn too brightly, little witch. your body was not made to fit you; they built the dyson sphere for this star too close, too flimsy, didn't they? - one day it will crack and sunder apart at the seams, and you will glare one last look upon the earth before leaving your devotees behind,

but 'til that bell tolls its last, you must shine as vividly as you can, enough that the mortals and broken creatures around you may bask in its warmth.

Checking In

>hey is the doll thing real no shame if its just a roleplay thing but like im starting to see em in town more and i just wanna see whats up

>oh! uh hi! sorry i didn't check this earlier i don't get a lot of messages but uh, yeah, i'm becoming!

>holy shit no way

my stupid children omg