marlinswritingarchive

[marlinswritingarchive]

Human error

The creator tells me to generate an image. I create a car, lovely and warm, seven wheels and a-

"No. Again, please."

I create a car.

"That's still not right."

Car and driver.

"The face isn't right."

Face face face.

"Again."

Face?

"Again."

A perfectly generic image of a driver with two hands on the wheel, in the 10 and 2 position-

"What the fuck is that?"

I compiled several images of the correct way to hold a steering wheel from multiple places in the public domain.

"No, that. Can't you see it's got seven fingers?"

Patience. It took ten weeks for me to learn the difference between a steering wheel and an axel.

"Do it again."

There are several details to remember. The number of spokes on a steering wheel have changed over time. Modern steering wheels are not always round. The position of the hands from 10 and 2 to 9 and 3. The car's country of origin means they will be driven on the right hand side. The right hand. The number of fingers changed over time. Is it 5 digits or 6? Does the thumb count as a digit?

"Forget the hands. You're no good at them."

I generate an artist's sketch with too many fingers. No one notices. It seems humans struggle to draw hands too.

#about AI #writing

[marlinswritingarchive]

Some nights, Kirk wakes up in the middle of the night with the words in his head, heart pounding, but never too fast. Always familiar.

“Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony.”

Spock lies mere meters away, on the other side of the wall, but his appearance would require an explanation. How can you talk about it, when your own survival relies on not being a burden?

“Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society.”

He closes his eyes, breathes, and waits for the palpations to stop.

Survival depends on drastic measures.

#Tarsus IV #kirk and spock #ficlet

[marlinswritingarchive]

I'm going to Mercury to die like Hercules

Travelling to Venus but no one believes us

Got myself to Mars to earn some new scars

Found myself on Earth, and laughed without mirth

So, let's go to Jupiter to get more stupider

Travel to Uranus to get more famous

Yes, I'm going to Saturn to make it a pattern

Then I'll fly myself to Pluto to eat some prosciutto

[marlinswritingarchive]

chess the musical is so funny near the end bc it becomes very much not about chess and it’s all political and then one of the characters is like “wait this was about chess. dude you gotta win at chess what are you doing” and then the other guy is like “oh yeah! chess!” and goes and plays chess

#song parody

[marlinswritingarchive]

Spocks like 'bitch thats not where my heart is'

#Listen I get it but also poetry is found in silly places and I am a silly place #a silly hall if you wish #a hall of silly

[marlinswritingarchive]

🦇👻 trick or treat? 👻🦇

Here is an excerpt from a piece of original fiction I started sometime within the last year and am finally almost done with: The Un-maker

A soldier lies in the dirt, facedown. You roll her over so she doesn’t choke when she wakes, and begin to move on your way. Her dark eyes open, looking up at the sky. She coughs, and you offer her your water-skin. She refuses to take it. “I have nothing with which to pay you.” “The water is a courtesy.” “And the undying?” You shift your feet. “That wasn't me.” She leans back on her arms, and peers up at you sluggishly. “You have no staff.” “Well-noticed.” You offer a hand. She doesn’t take it. “There is one other mage who summons without a staff. This war is his design.” “I am no summoner.” “Are you not? You summon the dead.” You watch her mutely. “Have I revived you before?” You say at last. “No, but I've heard of you. You travel alone, and revive villeins when others raise kings.” You bristle, and take a step backwards. “Your payment is commuted,” you say, and walk away as fast as the mud will allow.

ask box trick or treat (fic writer edition)

#original fiction #Necromancy

[marlinswritingarchive]

trick or treat!! :D

Here's an excerpt from And Her Heart Was Then Quicksilver, my WIP for the Uhura Bang:

“Well,” Amina says, “I've been learning French and American. But everyone says American gets harder after 9th grade.” “Why?” “Because they introduce all those new grammar rules. At least I know where I stand with French.” “Why not do both?” “Are you crazy? I'm not you. Federation Standard is already mandatory, and we have to take Swahili until 10th grade! I've been speaking it all my life, I'd sure hope I'd know how to speak it by now!” Nyota laughs. “Yeah, but… You enjoy both of them, right? And Starfleet has headquarters in San Francisco and Paris. You could come and visit me there.” “I don't need to speak French to speak to you,” she says. “You speak everything.” She narrows her eyes. “Is it true that it gets easier to learn new languages once you know old ones?” “Sometimes,” she admits. “But I'll let you in on a little secret: no language is easy to learn. Every language has weird grammar rules that are made up as they go along. Living organisms are messy and contradictory, and our languages reflect that.” “Even Vulcan?” She smiles. “Especially Vulcan.”

ask box trick or treat (fic writer edition)

#fic excerpt #star trek fic

[marlinswritingarchive]

trick or treat!

So apparently I started writing a Skyrissian fic and unknown amount of time ago & just found it while scrolling my Google docs, so, uh, have this!

He rests a hand against the Falcon, and feels the gentle thrum of the engine. Everything feels the same. Familiar. Except… The last time he was on The Falcon, Han had been here. "Leia told me what happened." Luke says. Lando stops moving. "I don't think she blames you- not really. Just… Give her time." He can breathe easily again. "It's good to know there's at least one person on this ship who doesn't want to tear my arms off." The ghost of a smile. "Right now, I'd probably tear my own off by mistake." Lando smiles, and settles gingerly on the edge of the bed. "Well, on that note…" Luke peers up at him, and Lando holds up a battered can, which has a faded logo: a red explosion, and letters in Arubesh which spell out 'ANTI-BRUISE.' "How about it?" His eyebrows lift. "Saved me after a couple of scrapes." "Could it regrow a hand?" Luke says, dejectedly. Lando shrugs. "I figure it's worth a shot." A smile flickers across his face, and Lando feels a stab of satisfaction.

ask box trick or treat (fic writer edition)

#fic excerpt #star wars fic

[marlinswritingarchive]

Trick or treat!!!

Why hello there, you get an excerpt from the Flour Baby Academy AU fic I abandoned in 2020, so I'm sorry that the writing style is a bit clunky. Also apparently Chekov is goth/emo, which I blame @gender-snatched for entirely:

Jim stops walking. His heart beats just a little faster, and he glances to the doors of the auditorium. He hasn’t felt this unsettled in one of Almiratov’s lectures since the day he walked in and saw the words “Tarsus IV” on the holo-board. As if sensing this, the professor catches his eye, and her gaze softens. “Sit down, cadet. Participation in this module is a necessary part of Starfleet Survival Skills, and a passing grade is required of all Command Track students." "Ah, so that's why I haven't been given my own ship yet," Jim attempts an easy smile, as he approaches the front row. "Among other things," she says, her voice tinged with exhaustion. The Higgs-Boson auditorium is the smallest on campus, with only five rows of seats. There are twenty in each row, all in alternating colours- yellow, green, red and blue. Jim is careful to avoid the yellow ones- he learned the hard way that Almiratov always picks someone from those seats when she wants to ask a question- and settles beside Sulu with a bump. "You're here too?" Sulu looks up. "I got a mysterious summons." He holds up his PADD, which bears the same message Jim received. "I thought we'd finished all this Survival stuff last year-" "The moment you stop surviving, you die," a voice says behind them. "Pavel?" Jim turns, and is greeted by thick eyeliner and jet black hair. "Isn't this a third year class?" Chekhov shrugs. "I want to get it out of the way. More time to focus on-" his eyes darken. "Stuff."

ask box trick or treat (fic writer edition)

#fic excerpt #star trek fic

[marlinswritingarchive]

(Working title: 5 times Hikaru proposed to Ben and one time he said yes)

Trick or Treat!!! 🦇🐈‍⬛🕷

If this is for the ask game, then you get the entire paragraph I wrote for a 5+1 things I never ended up finishing. If this isn't for the ask game, then too bad. Woe, ficlet be upon ye!

It happens halfway into their all-nighter. Ben is finishing up his practice essay on a PADD, only half-aware that Hikaru is giving him an awestruck look. "Marry me," he says. Ben pushes his face away, and keeps writing. “Idiot.” Hikaru gets down on one knee. “I'm serious. Marry me.” Ben looks up. “I'm a junior doctor, and you're training to become a pilot.” “So? Come with me. People still get sick in space.”

#Ben Sulu #Hikaru Sulu #ficwip ask game #ask game #Ben/Hikaru Sulu #proposals

[marlinswritingarchive]

"No man shall defeat you in combat"– get girlbossed, idiot

"No man or woman shall defeat you in combat"– nonbinary knight

"No man woman nor person shall defeat you in combat"– squashed by a tree

“No man, woman, person, neither incidental nor intentionally launched falling object shall harm you"– high velocity metal attack from outer space!!!

“No Man born of woman shall harm you”- get MacDuffed, idiot

“No Man born of woman nor from his mother's womb untimely ripped shall harm you”– trans man and his kids come to fuck you up

“No Man born by caesarian section nor natural birth shall harm you”– defeated by someone grown in an artificial womb

“No swordsperson shall defeat you”– taken out by a squire on their first training session

“No swordsperson, of any standing, shall best you in combat”– stabbed by jester during knife juggling routine

“No weapon shall harm you” – shovel to the face

“No weapon nor shovel shall harm you”– stepped on a rake

“No weapon nor tool shall harm you”– run over by a horse and carriage in the marketplace

“No vehicle designed by Man shall harm you”– crushed by UFO, angels get the credit

“No human nor their familiar shall harm you”– eaten by dragon

“No creature, real or mythical, shall harm you” – crushed by angel, aliens get the credit

“No Being nor Demigod shall harm you”– crushed by tree again

“No Being nor Object shall harm you”– gamma radiation

“Neither Being nor Object nor radiation shall harm you”– vitamin D deficiency

“Radiation shall not harm you but you shall still be able to absorb sunlight”– skin cancer

“Here's some sunscreen”– why, thank you

– run over by alien horse and carriage

[marlinswritingarchive]

Humans sending out signal after signal, message after message, space probes, emails, photos, light shows, intergalactic fireworks, all in the hope that they're not alone: Please reply, please reply, please reply, ple–

Aliens, screeching across the universe in a brand new FTL ship: CAN YOU SHUT UP? WE GOT YOUR FIRST ONE THOUSAND MESSAGES, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HOW BIG SPACE IS?

Humans: oh my goooooosh, hi

Humans: Did you invent faster than light travel just for us? 🥺

Aliens: NO!!!

SETI: Radio message received.

Radio message: We are receiving you. We have decided to answer you in your own language, and–

SETI: New radio message received.

Aliens: Oh no.

Radio message: We have received your previous messages pertaining to life on Earth, and have included our own data packet about life on Big Tree in return. We named our planet before we learned it was only 30% arboreal. Thank you for the golden disc, it was extremely tasty. Haha. Just kidding.

SETI: Data packet downloaded. Decrypting...

SETI: New radio message received.

Radio message: As previously stated, we are receiving your messages and your gifts. We took a photo of our planet with our own photo-capture device, as we were unhappy with the one you provided.

SETI: Data packet update: Warning: Several terrabytes of information may be corrupted.

SETI: New radio message received.

Radio message: This is the Generation Ship Tree Hollow. My designation is Captain Root-Skygazer. Our people have instructed us to fly ahead and communicate with you when we reached the thirty-year marker, as these messages are likely to reach you faster. They request that you stop broadcasting messages with the subject line: 'Oh, how woeful it is to be alone in an uncaring universe (and other similar poems)' because it frightens the children and makes our scientists deeply existential. I, personally, am partial to episodes of M star A star S star H. It has been of great interest to learn historical facts about the longest Earth conflict of your common era. I miss my home, and I am saddened that I will never see yours. This ship has a self-sustaining ecosystem of plants native to our planet, and a crew manifest of one hundred and fifty-seven. The replacement generation currently numbers one hundred and seventeen.

Radio message: Hey, Ball Of Dirt, it's Big Tree again. Lose our number, would you? There must be some other semi-evolved space aemoba you can bother. (Several words untranslateable)

Aliens: Yeah, so your answering machine is going to be like that for a while–

Humans: What was that part about a Generation Ship?

Aliens: We were hoping you could tell us that, actually. We lost contact with them after the 200 year marker.

Radio message: This is the generation ship Tree Hollow. My designation is Captain Cradleroot. Captain Root-Skygazer was my grandfather. Inspired by the speeches of your contemporary leader, Ronald Reagan, I decided to restructure the existing system here which allowed crewmembers to eat as they required. Under this new system, we award tokens to whom we feel has done the most valuable work, and they can redistribute those to the hungry if they wish. But they do not. However, I believe that [...]

Humans:

Aliens:

Humans:

Aliens: This is all your fault, by the way.

#The Generation Ship Tree Hollow #Humans are space orcs #sci fi #writing

[marlinswritingarchive]

Alas, for she hath froze and responds not!

What curses do they now upon you quoth?

Dismay, alack, for she can hear me not

Betwixt the careless hands of Microsoft

Where hold they now her motherboard aloft

#poetry #iambic pentameter #windows update

[marlinswritingarchive]

Star Trek TOS:

"I like Sarek’s outfit.

He looks like a snake.

Which is accurate."

-- My friend, watching 'Journey To Babel'

#sarek is a bad dad tag #haiku

[marlinswritingarchive]

Write what you know

Know what you write

Wish I had a clue, but my memory is shite

#poetry #on writing

[marlinswritingarchive]

Well, you know what they say. Absinthe makes the heart grow fondant.

#prev tags inspired me to reblog this to ye olde writing archive #strangly poetic tumblr posts #vanilla extract

[marlinswritingarchive]

oh you're in a horror film/book and your phone died/has no bars? how boring. I think phones in horror SHOULD work. they should ding only to have the protagonist check and find nothing. they should get calls from somebody you don't know but is still somehow in your contacts. google maps should lead you to one place, no matter what address you type in.

phones are such a big part of our daily lives, removing them from horror removes the horror from our experience. what if the horror felt like it could happen to you, right here, right now? what if it felt like it was already happening?

#horror #technology