tushanshu | video

[ Yeah, she's not talking about her fanfic history without the veil of anonymity, the way its supposed to be. ]

Rule 63.

Some or all of the characters are 'genderbent.'

Edited 2017-09-19 02:50 (UTC)

[Aya was well versed in multiple languages, both written and spoken--though, admittedly, she was far more proficient at the latter, courtesy of her Green Lantern Energy's Translation Matrix. However...almost nothing of what was sent to her in this message made any sense.]

I am unfamiliar with these terms. Please define.

Okay so. Well, how well do you know 'gender'? Like, male and female, feminine slash masculine? Rough categories to stick a large majority of humans in, although some find the binary chafing.

Edited (keep forgetting to take off my homestuck formatting) 2017-09-19 03:06 (UTC)

Gender, I am well versed in. Although I might add to your explanation that it is not an exclusive concept to the human species alone. There are many within the worlds I have traveled which embrace such labels, among others. Myself included.

Oh, right, sure. I didn't want to speak for more than my own race, though.

Okay so like... Rule 63 / Genderbend means that the characters in the story are the opposite gender instead. Conversion quality differs by author.

Anyway, in most of my stories, at least the ones involving shipping, everyone is inexplicably a girl.

[Well, that was one question answered. And so many more forming, starting with:]

Why?

Because fanfiction is at its core self-indulgant,
and I'm a girl who likes girls.

[ Shrug. ]

[Hard to argue with that line of logic.]

Is there any specific benefit to alter the gender of known male characters to female in lieu of simply focusing on characters that already identified as female for the purposes of your...fanfiction?

Yes, actually.

Fiction is overwhelmingly male where I come from.

That is...inconvenient. Is the population of your world overwhelming male as well?

No, we outnumber them.

Edited 2017-09-20 00:46 (UTC)

Then does your preference of fictional scenarios simply fall within a smaller percentage than those who enjoy alternatives, regardless of the gendered ratios of your world?

[ Yeah, nope, she can't parse that. ]

What are you asking, exactly?

[...sorry, Sonja. Etymological habits were difficult to break, especially when conveyed through text in a language she had to categorize over the last few years word by word.]

I am attempting to discern a logical explanation why such a thing is not more common amongst those in your world, given the gendered statistics you provided.

[ Aw damn, is she gonna have to introduce Aya to the concept of sexism? ]

Tradition, mostly.

[...possible. Although, it wasn't as if Aya had been shielded from the concepts of discrimination and oppression. Maybe not so much for her gender, but definitely for being a "robot".]

Perhaps that is one tradition that would be worth re-examining.

It's not like a program that we can just end the process of. It's more like a recurring theme of code that runs throughout the entire operating system.

It might be possible to surgically remove it, but not without causing the system to crash.

[She sees what you're trying to do. And while it is appreciated....]

Your metaphor is more suited when speaking of a mere machine. One that is incapable of learning and growing from example as living beings are. Unless I have misunderstood or made false assumptions, your species are not machines. They are capable of independent thought and free will, and can be influenced by others, as I was.

That's a very gracious view, but I think you give us a bit too much credit.

Human beings are just complicated machines. They're products of their environments with a relatively large capacity for variables that results in some individuals interpreting the same data in different ways.

And when you expand that view to a society, where an individual human is just a cog in an immensely complex interconnected web, we act much less like individuals than you might think.

Human beings are, largely, predictable, given enough data points and at a large enough scale.

Perhaps you are not giving your species enough credit. I will admit, I have limit experience with those from Earth originating from my own universe. However, the earthling I do know, I know well. And he is precisely the opposite of 'predictable'. Here, as well, those who have claimed to come from parallels earths have often surprised me, regardless of previously offered experience and data.

Or maybe you're just not very good at predicting people.

[ Oh, shit. Whoops. Good thing this is anon. ]

[...that was uncalled for. But still not the worst thing anyone had ever said to her, and so she was able to brush the criticism relatively easily.]

Perhaps people are simple not so easily predictable. By anyone. Yourself included.

Unfortunately suggesting an alternative reality in place of the actual reality does nothing to undermine it.

Human beings have built many societies, all of them plagued with rational fallacies, hidebound traditions, and dangerous ideologies. This is fact.

In option one we attribute the growth of these traits much like one would a diseased gene in a growing organism, where every individual human is just a cell in a massive system. No one cell is responsible for anything, they only tend to their own special roles, performing their own particular functions.

In option two, every single human being a completely rational agent, with total power over their own mind and body, and they have decided, collectively and consistently, that some people should be treated better than others, receive more resources, be given more opportunity, given the right not to be demonized and othered, for completely arbitrary reasons.

Which reality is true? Which one would you rather be true?

Your words indicate a strictly binary way of thinking. Perhaps I am not as intimately familiar with the ways of your world and culture. However, I have ventured to many others in my relatively short lifespan, and as such, allow myself to remain open to possibilities which can not be theorized in their entirety by one extreme or the other.

[ Blah blah blah, everything has nuance, etc. There's no room for nuance in statistical analysis!

...but fine, point made. ]

Well if you can think of some way to orchestrate sweeping social change without a coup d'etat, I'm certainly open to hearing it.

[Aya was increasingly fond of nuance the more she evolved.]

At this time, I have not formulated such an idea. The only incident I have witnessed in the past of the beginnings of such a chance involved a heated battle between myself and my fellow Lanterns against members of their royal court. Although it was in partial defense on our part.

[ Very diplomatic phrasing there, Aya. ]

Well, it depends actually. If it's something along the lines of a legend--or anything of a world's past, I think hearing it is better.

Other kinds of fiction, though, they're better read than heard.

[ And she's not just talking about porn. ]

[She tries.]

Is there a significant difference in the ability to process a story aurally as opposed to reading it independently?

[ The ninja stops to think. ]

Well, when someone tells it, they tend to really get into it, making you feel as though you're reliving it.

Reading it makes it seems too dry and detached--that you're separate from everything.

Uh...I dunno. You ever watch TV?

[Miles, do you think she's ever watched TV in her life?]

No.

[...yeah, that was it. She knew what a television set was based on second hand anecdotes, mostly from Hal, but they didn't exactly have one on the Interceptor. The closest would have been a view screen showing real time events.]

...neat.

[Okay, he's gotta explain TV now.]

So it's basically people acting out stories instead of reading them or saying them aloud, and instead of live performances where things change, it's just one that's recorded so people can see it any time they want. And there's music, and costumes, and if you're really lucky, there's William Shatner overacting.

[She was with you for the most part. The idea of acting out stories. Live performances. Pre-recordings. Music. Even costumes. However...]

Who is William Shatner?

[Oh, yes.]

The greatest thespian of our time.

[He's probably like 30% not kidding, too. What a nerd. ~~Of course, Sisko is best captain. HE CAME OF AGE DURING DEEP SPACE NINE, OKAY.~~]

I apologize, then, for I have never heard his name before.

The Guardians...included many aspects of a wide variety of cultures in my database. This is not one of them.

It's okay. You're from space or something. I forgive you.

So these Guardians didn't have TV? Is humanity the only civilization in the mulitverse to develop the idiot box?

[It took Aya...a moment to recognize that idiot box was meant to be another name for this 'tv'. She did not understand the moniker, but would not question it.]

They did not.

Such frivolities did not have a place on Oa. Time was consistently spent, if not focused on new technological advances to better the universe, managing diplomatic relations with multiple worlds. Often simultaneously.

And yet, Earth invented the Slap Chop, so which of us is really the superior civilization? [He laughs a little, to emphasize that AYA, HE IS NOT BEING SERIOUS.]

Yeah, humanity's not really...we're not given to being useful or productive. We kind of suck. But it's okay, we make cool dumb diversions.

[What luck! Aya actually understood the lack of seriousness to the statement. Even smiling...a little...very weakly...at the attempt of humor.]

It has been my personal experience, from the multiple words traveled to and cultures experienced, that...with few exceptions...no single civilization is superior or inferior to another.

[Except the Star Sapphires. They suck.]

They are simply different.

[Pity smiles are still smiles!]

Yeah, that's a concept we haven't grasped back on Earth. Hell, we haven't even done that with arbitrary social divisions. Still can't believe we've ever achieved manned spaceflight with all the crap we get up to.

[That was one way to look at it!]

Perhaps this is true, and yet, there must be a number of positive attributes to those originating from your planet, given the world of Tu Vishan has chosen to bring many of your kind here.

Or - and hear me out - low standards.

[Another crooked grin.]

Wait, there is one thing we're really, really good at.

Cruelty.

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