#lilith continues to be so unhelpful. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thehandsomeasshole · 3 years

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@starttheanarchy from X

"And how efficient can it be in production and combat when the parts are poor to begin with? You go for quantity over quality and it shows." Sure it was mean to keep taking shots at robots that were designed more for warehouses then combat, but she couldn't be absolutely nice to the talking jackass.

"You really are not helping the point of how corporations are not evil when you just keep talking." And it makes a shiver roll down her spine at how easily he can just talk about killing other people, as if it was like they were his toys to destroy. It was on the same degree of glee she heard from psychos screaming about rib cages. At least they had the excuse of being driven insane.

Gaige lets out a whine at him mentioning the placement was for aesthetic, the inner engineer in her wanting to scream out all the reasons why that was poor choices. So many fixes that she could easily see in her mind, but she had to hold her tongue because she was not going to give ideas to the person who made it very clear he wanted all vault hunters dead. No matter how many ideas were popping up in her brain.

Nope.

And then he back onto talking about his robots over a rather annoying click that got herself moving once more. Something to work out the emotions so she could think through what was said and what to say. And hearing him accept her point that not once has she ever claimed to be the good guy, she smirked before it feel. Her pace increased in speed as she left the garage and headed to the back where the spiderants were. All while Jack was in her ear, trying to shake up her beliefs. Avoiding her actual questions.

She knew she needed to be somewhere no one else was since she knew she was about to get rather vocal.

"Well, I wouldn't say pissed off. More annoyed then anything else. " Hands stretch out before her as she splays out her fingers and collect her own thoughts. Far too many wanting out at once. "Lets work backwards here. Yes I do think about what I am doing, of what I am being told what to do. Most of which is fixing messes left behind by a lot of others, but you wouldn't know that since you only have a superficial view from above on what we are actually doing. Thus allowing you to paint your 'bandit' narrative over what we are doing."

Shoulder get rolled back as she keeps walking, her robotic arm flicks out and DT is digistructed before her. Spiderants clamber off in the distance. She rather not have to worry about her safety.

"And that isn't what I wanted as an answer. I want facts, give me an actual example of a time of someone who is marked down in history as a good person, as a hero, has done actions similar to your own. Not just old moral and philosophical debates, because those are what ifs and this isn't just a what if. This is the lively hoods of everyone on this planet, innocent or not."

And then a dry laugh escaped her lips as she worked her way to the last part of her rant. On him trying to make her feel some sort of doubt.

"And I'm sure the Crimson Raiders can do no worse then Hyperion on that track record. After all they weren't the ones that invited others to the planet only to blow up trains in the middle of the Frozen Wastes. One hell of a life experience sitting on a rather peaceful train when the boxes start turning into loaders that start firing immediately. Only for the world to go sideways because everything is exploding. Have you ever had to un-bury yourself out of snow filled with corpses both old and new? I never knew what that was like until I ended up on a Hyperion train."

"Well, duh. Of course it's quantity over quality, you know how many loaders we have to produce each day just so they can get their jobs done while you're destroying them? It's a lot, dum dum. So, thanks, for that." The last few words were laced with annoyance, though as he continued speaking there was no trace of it, "I'd love to see your little baking soda volcano of a robot do the stuff the loaders do. Really, I would. I think it'd be hilarious to watch it slowly crush itself trying to lift a shipping container from the loading bay all the way down into customs."

He didn't. It killed him a little inside whenever he had to see yet another one of his bots blown to kingdom come by some idiots. He just figured it'd be another step closer to pissing her off so bad she screamed and hung up.

"I know! Great, isn't it?" Jack laughed, clasping his hands above his head and stretching until he felt the little knot in his back relax, "Hey- If you're super lucky, I'll even tell you about the time someone from middle management didn't turn up to a meeting they'd requested. Bet you can guess how well that went. Let's just say he wouldn't be walking home to his wife and kids anytime soon."

"Ah, annoyance is close enough, right? Gotta love mildly inconveniencing people I don't like." Jack's brows raised. Wow. She was taking him super seriously. He'd already forgotten the majority of their conversation.

"No, trust me, kid. I'm fully aware of what y'all think you're 'actually' doing. It's just… bull, to put it lightly. Sure, maybe you just came to open a vault, get rich." He leaned in closer to the echo, "But what are you doing now, exactly? And no, I don't mean looking all pathetic like you always do and digging through scrap. I mean to get to the vault. Let me guess… Good ol' Lilith's got you doin' her grunt work, right? Running place to place, 'kill this guy!', 'get this thing or person!'. I just- I just know I'm right."

"Let's- Just let me pull up the definition of a bandit, m'kay?" Jack took barely a second to find it on the echonet, and he turned back to the echo, "Alright, here. A bandit is an outlaw, in this case you, who belongs to a gang, the Crimson Raiders, who operate in an isolated or lawless area, Pandora. So, tell me, princess… Where was I wrong? Or do big words just make your head hurt so darn much?"

"You know, your argument would make total sense. The whole… People's livelihoods… Thing… Except for the fact that nearly everyone down on Pandora would kill you and sell you for parts." Jack's expression darkened, and his tone grew serious, "There are people down where you are who'd do that to a kid. And you really think that they deserve to be spared? Do they deserve trust and respect? Or do they all deserve a big ol' moonshot to the face?"

He let out a breath, eyes flickering over to the paperwork stack in consideration, before they returned to the echo.

"Oh, and I'm fully aware that isn't what you wanted as an answer. I just- I really do love being unhelpful. Especially with people who work with backstabbing bastards who've wronged me in some way or another." He shrugged slightly, "And, no. No, I won't be doing that. You wanna know why? Because no one's ever made an entire military composed solely of robots with AIs to try and fix a whole planet. You're just fueling the raging inferno that is my ego here, babe."

"But, trust me on this one. The Crimson Raiders can, and have done worse. They ever mention why exactly I want y'all dead? Or, did they sugar coat it and cry 'Jack is just bad!' at the top of their lungs?" He laughed, the sound growing even louder as she described the train events.

God, he wished he'd seen their faces…

"Sorta! Well, not in the snow. It was more, y'know, dirt." He seemed to space out a little after that thought, eyes on the echo but not particularly focused on it.

It took a while for him to zone back in, but when he did he continued with the exact same intonation and volume as before.

"Anyway, y- you wanna try and take another shot at me? Or has your fragile little heart had enough?" Jack laughed loudly, and he finally made a move for the paperwork.

#ahaha i get you #it's definitely helped pull me out of my writer's block #it could've been paradise // borderlands 2

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pumpkins-s · 4 years

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Year's not over yet! If you want to 14 15 24 25 27?

The year is over because I’m slow but fuck it here we go–

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

Uhhhh double-dealing here with “Of the Dead and the Wicked” and “Nothing Small.” My goals for this year were supposed to be to just work on Not As Simple, but life (and new ideas) happen. “Of the Dead and the Wicked” was written because my friends and I all got into Good Omens about the same time, and they fell in love with the AU idea. “Nothing Small” was…incredibly spontaneous. I wrote the first chapter in two days haha…

15. something you learned this year

This is probably a weird answer but it is related to fanfic–

Fanfiction? Genuinely teaches you solid writing skills on so many levels–characterization, pacing, endurance, grammar, tricks with perspective–that many people otherwise lack. It’s amazing what it can do for you, and how much you realize that difference once you get outside the world of fanfiction.

Context? I started my MFA in Creative Writing this year. I won’t specify where but let’s just stay it’s a prestigious program–not top five maybe, but…very good. Very competitive. Not cheap. Not easy to get into.

And dear God…some of my classmates cannot write. They cannot write the way fanfiction writers can. They do not have the same stamina for long projects. They do not have the same depth of imagination. They do not have the same…well, they don’t have the same balls I’ve seen on some of the best of fanfiction writers to take the absolutely batshit and make it incredible. They are not willing to go as deep, or as hard, or as ridiculous (and no, this is not a sex joke, but I heard plenty whenever I mentioned fanfic). They do not, to quote my favorite meme when discussing creative writing in academia, have the range.

I have survived a semester of shocking grammar and spelling, sexist writing, and a godawful lack of self-awareness about what they are putting out into the world, what it says, and what it looks like. I have received truly, staggeringly unhelpful feedback–I have sat through class sessions of classmates misgendering the main character of my novel, telling me my two main characters need to fuck, and that the main problem of my story is that my nonbinary protagonist doesn’t seem “nonbinary enough” (this said by cis people to me, an openly NB person), when I’d made it clear my concern with that story was how to write a science fiction cop novel that can criticize cop culture and discuss police brutality while also indulging in the age-old drama of the detective story and without overstepping my bounds as someone who has been lucky enough in this life not to directly experience police violence myself.

There are amazing people in my program, too. Incredibly talented people. But there’s also so many that I cannot believe got in here. In short? I get laughed at a lot when I loudly declare I write fanfic, but fanfic could have done a lot to give these writers some very necessary practice and feedback. And, perhaps, a little more reflection on what they’re writing, why, and what it’s accomplishing.

24. favorite fic you read this year

I sadly cannot confess to the first fic that came to mind for this because it was a crack fic and I will…never live it down.

Instead, let me offer to you the Nanny Knows Best series for Good Omens. Which broke my heart 10 times over and I pray daily that the sequel fic will resume updates (they also stopped updating in August, like when I stopped updating “Of The Dead and the Wicked” so perhaps…this is my penance…Nanny will not return until Lilith does??)

25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read

Sure as the Setting Sun, a BNHA/Mob Psycho crossover (yes I know what that sounds like but Work with me here), blew my fucking mind. It’s basically about Mob joining UA and trying to aggressively Pacifist his was through hero school while All Might interrogates quirkless and unlicensed hero Reigen in the background. It’s fucking glorious and I look forward to every update.

27. favorite fanfic author of the year

Honestly I’m bad at tracking authors (pitiful…pitiful…I know) and I could scrounge up the like…6 dabihawks authors who’s pages I keep accidentally returning to but I’m bad at names so. I will instead give my customary finger-guns to @queenangst who continues to turn out amazing content even if I run out of time to read as much as I should like. And also because she wrote this ask meme so it’s Funny.

#ask meme #Anonymous #asks #questions for Nik

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