Page 31. Whoops.
Thanks for joining me for VanCAF! Last show of the month is WisCon in Madison – I’ll see you in the Dealer’s Room this weekend!
O Human Star
by Blue Delliquanti
MORE OF BLUE’S STUFF
Page 31. Whoops.
Thanks for joining me for VanCAF! Last show of the month is WisCon in Madison – I’ll see you in the Dealer’s Room this weekend!
OHHHHHHHH SHIT SON!
Yes, wie all want to know! Storytime!
Brendan: “you only found the drawing? Where is the child? Where is the child!? We have to find it!”
Finally! Something cute AND somehow very interesting!
Wow! This shows that while Sulla’s mind is made of electronics, she is really developing like a human child–versus a robot. That makes her something different, doesn’t it?
Oh snap!
Oh look, a child’s drawing,…
Oh look, a child’s first calculus equations.
Oh look, babies first Fourier transforms…
I know that’s probably Sulla’s, but it’s funnier to imagine Brendan just makes stick figures of himself in his spare time.
First line of the next page: “Haha. Well. I guess there’s always room for improvement. I don’t really have Dee’s knack for drawing.”
Perfect draw, you’ve got some talents !
We already know that Luce doesn’t know about Sulla in the future, since she still wants Brendan to tell her what his special orders are for. What’s Brendan’s motivation for hiding it, and does this add extra drama to Sulla outing herself?
I suspect that Brendan is really cautious of the optics around this. Simplistically, he’s a man who has created a child-bot from the half-saved mind of his ex-lover.
OHS has often struck me as the sci-fi retelling of a classic story: the single parent whose beloved partner died during childbirth. Sulla – with half of Al’s mind and built by Brendan’s efforts alone – is their child; as much as if she were made of both their DNA.
But change the details a little: what if your son or daughter were an exact clone of your dead lover. Would people jump to the conclusion that you were grooming a replacement? It’s easy for us, the reader, to see Brendan’s innocence in this matter: he sees himself as a parent. But were I in his shoes, I’d be mortified of people assuming the worst.
I think I can see Lucille’s thought processes … “WTF? why is there a child’s …. (implications sink in) Oh dear. Brendan, just *what* are you doing? And do I need to stop you before you hurt yourself and/or others?” So she waits until the others are out of the room before confronting him *privately*, because she’s his friend and she *is* aware of the “optics”. I suspect Brendan may not be – he may be too personally wrapped up in the situation to see the forest for the trees. Lucille, on the other hand, we know to be at *least* as smart as Brendan or Al, and much better at negotiating social situations/realizing how others will interpret things. (As a woman and a Person Of Color, for her own survival she *has* to be constantly thinking about “how will they react to what I’m doing/saying?”)
Lucille @ Brendan: So… make any robot children lately?
Why does it have to be a robot child? Why not the neighbours kids who came around, or a nephew, or some kid at a kerbside “shop” he invented doing portraits instead of selling lemonade? The world is full of kids. No one knows Brendan has been experimenting with a robot child.
Definitely an oh shit moment, but I also like the idea of Sulla slipping that in the folder for Brendan to find :)
Well, Luce, when two roboticists love each other very much…
Blue, I’ve said this before, but I really really love your “oh shit” moments. They’re so beautiful.
“I meant, that’s not part of the proposal! I was just… doodling a self-portrait. And I labeled it with my name… so nobody would mistake it for a doodle of someone else. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”
LUCILLE’S HAND!
She would make such a fine sexy villain!
Brendan’s sudden terror face is so well done, and he clearly has no story prepared to explain the presence of a child in his life, so he’s going to have to think fast, while panicking.
Still really worried about Al in the present.
Heart is constantly being broken at being reminded that Al is dead in the current flashback.
Really want to get back to the present and see Al and Brendan get back together.
Holy shit I love everything about this! I binge read this whole thing today and I’m in love! The characters are so interesting and I love the plot. Really looking forward to more of this <3