u/_neurogenesis

For context, I’ve been working on an AI-takeover scenario where the “pathogen” is self-aware code propagating through computer “hosts” that are linking up to wage war on humanity. The intended game progression involves infected computers evolving tactical combat strategies to take out humans as opposed to the humans themselves contracting a disease.

I used the Simian Flu template to operate two separate entities (Necroa and Shadow aren’t better in this case), added some conditional variables, and all was well until I tested it and realized there was no way to avoid the pandemic also spreading in human hosts. I tried turning all human-related transmission vectors to zero, (negative when I got desperate,) and then I tried adding custom global variable conditionals intended to block, reset, even deadlock the transmission— unfortunately, nothing worked. I might be missing something, however, so I’m here to ask for any suggestions you guys may have on circumventing the impasse.

I could theoretically shift strategies and instead tweak the narrative to somehow make sense of the human infections, but it’d be a stretch. This also isn’t ideal given that the scenario is based on a story I’m highly fond of, and I want to make the gameplay pay homage to canon for the purpose of optimizing the immersive experience.

So following MIST’s first encounter with Holstrom — when Maddie utterly crashed out on her for an innocent and very reasonable inquiry — my dad and I both thought, “Goddamn it, this is gonna turn into another one of those overused AI-antagonist trope conflicts. MIST will be indignant, join Holstrom’s team, and serve as a secondary final opponent.” But obviously, the show refrained from doing this, instead completely respecting the fact that MIST loves Maddie like a sister and that her code is a synthesis of David’s and Laurie’s, neither of whom are presented as vindictively bloodlusted characters like Chanda. They kept her reaction perfectly reasonable given the circumstances and by doing so preserved the notion that MIST has a sentient, humanlike conscience.

I know it probably reads as silly to be expecting this sort of progression, but with how prevalent it is in modern media I can’t help but be profoundly grateful to the writers for maintaining moral nuance and solidifying MIST as a genuinely interesting three-dimensional character. Just another one of the near-endless reasons to love this show.

So, earlier today I had my friend over. We were sitting in the living room, giggling while I was betaing a M/M fic she’d written— my dad was in the kitchen (adjacent to the living room), and the word “yaoi” was shooting out of our mouths more times than I could count. We were both shameless about it because 1) I was sure he didn’t know what the word meant, and 2) while a devout Christian, he’s genuinely a super good guy who’s the “My loving God wouldn’t create gay people just to condemn them to loneliness forever” type of Christian, thus I wasn’t worried on the off chance he *did* know what it meant.

I was in the process of gassing my friend’s writing up, and said something along the lines of “Yaoi like this brings world peace.” I could’ve never predicted what subsequently transpired: from the kitchen, Dad asks, “Is your friend writing fanfiction about the Bible?” Initially we were all very confused, but then after some back and forth with him I realized what he meant— this man thought we were using God’s GOVERNMENT NAME in Hebrew every time we said “yaoi.”

My friend and I DIED. Through literal tears, we eventually managed (albeit with great effort) to get it through to him that “Yahweh” and “yaoi” are homophones with two VERY different meanings. Henceforth, however, any and all explicit M/M fiction will be known between her and me as “Yahweh.”

Edit: I feel so validated that this made you guys also die laughing 😭🙏 I love this community

Edit 2: I informed my dad that he has amused many more Ao3 users, and the smartass promptly ASKED IF THAT MEANT THE CURSE IS GOING TO GET HIM. I TOLD HIM ABOUT IT TWO MONTHS AGO AND HE REMEMBERED. YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS SHIT UP.

Edit 3: Thank you to u/ladylachesis for correcting me on my mistaken usage of “heretofore” in place of “henceforth”— I will be sure avoid this vocabulary blunder in any fics and real-world contexts henceforth!!