#knightsofrayx

[alhashimis]

Hi! I'm working on an outline for a Pitt fic that follows (most of) the general plot lines from S2 while giving the non-Robby characters more development and "screen time".

One stumbling block that I've run into is how to deal with Dr, Al-Hashimi's generative AI program. I know a lot of people are vehemently anti-AI, and that is what turned a lot of people against her.

I am mainly looking for advice, and you are one of the main pro-Al-Hashimi blogs I've seen here.

Do you think I should just cut that plot-line entirely, and not deal with the AI discourse? Should I replace it with some other type of assistive charting technology (but if so, what could it be)? Should I keep it and make it an assistive AI program (explicitly described as such) rather than a generative AI program, and have the ethics discourse be over that?

ooooooooh this is a fascinating question!

so, i'm not the most knowledgeable about the reality of ai in the medical field the way baran uses it (which seems to be mostly just recording and filling in gaps to write a text?) & i've read other people's posts that have been making the argument that the use of this specific ai program baran developed isn't actually... doing much of what people criticize about gen ai.

personally, i would probably just keep it in? you're absolutely right in assuming that people will take that negatively, but to me it characterizes baran in a fascinating way. she's trying so hard to make things easier, to alleviate a problem that's been explicitly shown to slow doctors - mainly trinity - down.

honestly, the main thing i would change is baran saying, "generative ai" every time or even at all. that's a personal pet peeve but i just think it's very, VERY clear - obnoxiously so, in my opinion - what the writers are going for there. they want to include the very real usage of gen ai in the medical field and they think it's a problem but... then they shut down all the servers of the er so uh... none of that actually works anymore. and the only issue was ONE doctor coming down about a mistake that COULD have lead to a negative consequence but DIDN'T beyond pissing someone off? like... i understand that they may have just wanted to portray something but given how polarizing this topic is they just kind of dropped the ball? idk i just think this might have worked better if baran had just said, "so i developed this app to help :D" and then the issues with it might have come out retroactively and you wouldn't have frontloaded this conversation about all these problems that never actually occurred.

i also think you should write what's most interesting to you!! i super understand thinking about this but i very much believe that fic writing is supposed to be what YOU want to explore in media so go for the story that compels you the most! i think that can reflect in fic and hey, maybe it can even sharpen some of your thoughts that you haven't been sure about.

this was such a fun ask to get, tysm! flattered you thought to ask me 🥰

[daisychainsandbowties]

lol did Shin take Sabine's poncho???

haven’t even kissed yet and already stealing each other’s clothes 😌😌

[birgittesilverbae]

Camila + Lilith (platonic or romantic) -> "Do you still take requests?"

The tug is always, always fierce now, tearing at her skin, at her bones, and she lets it pull her into the firestorm. It's her choice. It's her choice. The tug comes hard and angry and she takes a deep breath and she chooses to follow. 

Camila sits on the floor of the bell tower, her hips flush to the smooth stone of the wall, tablet sitting in the cradle of her crisscrossed legs. Her head bent, she pokes idly at it, a note here, there. 

"Are you just going to lurk?"

Lilith almost startles over the edge of the tower but catches herself, sets herself back upright.

"It prickles when you're nearby," Camila continues without looking up, fingers drawn magnetic to brush at the back of her neck. "Early warning sign, you know? Though you've started bringing a scent with you too, so it's not quite as useful as it once was." Lilith hazards a sniff at the collar of her jumper and Camila laughs, a single sharp note. "I don't think it's you, unless you've taken to arson. And we both know that's not really your style, don't we?"

Lilith doesn't know how to respond to that, so she remains silent, tips her head forward to get a better look at Camila's tablet. She still has the piano application open, even with Lilith hovering over her, and that feels a slight as much as anything Camila has said to her, as any way Camila has acted towards her. She's long since passed the point where she feels the bite of the cut, though, long since passed the point where she still felt as though she deserves anything other than Camila's ire.

"Do you still take requests?" She ventures it carefully as Camila picks at the edge of her screen protector where it's curling up away from the glass. It's an olive branch further removed from their recent history than any other she has attempted to offer. Her intel that Beatrice was in Brussels had been met with an acid I'm aware, her mention of discovering another possible FBC base rebuffed with a clipped I've already investigated it. 

"I do," Camila replies, and something frighteningly near to hope wells up in Lilith's chest. She waits with bated breath as Camila raises her head to meet her gaze. Her eyes are hard. "From friends. From you, I request silence."

[birgittesilverbae]

Hey, just wondering, at some point in the tmtl-verse could we get the backstory of how/why exactly Mary shot Lilith with a pellet gun?

Mary, assigned to teach this lanky new rookie with the world's biggest chip on her shoulder and a legacy to match how to shoot.

Lilith, knowing full well the life expectancy of Sister Warriors, wanting to give herself every opportunity to succeed in field missions, asking Mary what it feels like to get shot

Mary: I haven't been stupid enough to get myself shot

Lilith: but if you were to get shot, how quickly do you think you'd be able to regroup and continue with the mission?

Mary: hell if I fucking know

Lilith: ... can we test it?

Mary, flatly: are you asking if you can shoot me.

Lilith: I'm asking you to shoot me. what other reason is there for us to have pellet guns?

Mary: Superion likes taking pot shots at mice. and I'm not gonna shoot you (what the fuck is wrong with you)

Lilith: because you're too much of a coward

Mary: because it's moronic

Lilith: because you're a coward

Mary: because it's idiotic

Lilith: because you're a coward

Mary: because it's asinine

Lilith: coward

Mary: go get a pellet gun and some body armour

Mary sets Lilith up and then makes her turn around and shoots her in the ass because "there's slightly more padding that way"

Lilith can't sit comfortably for about a week and a half and Shannon gives Mary her "I'm not mad I'm just disappointed" look often enough that Mary finally caves and apologises to Lilith for letting herself get baited into it

[birgittesilverbae]

prompt: Camila + Shannon + Piano

The music begins hesitantly, a few notes turning to quiet scales. On the mats, Shannon leans forward over her knee, sinks into the stretch until the tension in her glute releases all at once. She holds the pose a moment longer before switching legs. 

The piano bench scrapes across the stone floor, followed closely by a rustle of fabric, a thud, a soft exhalation. Shannon presses deeply into her stretch, trying her best to see around the pillar that blocks her view of the piano.

Shannon slumps onto her back, starfished across the mat, but this position doesn't afford her any better a view, just flashes of navy. She knows it must be a member of the newest recruit class, though. It's been almost three years since they'd last had a pianist among their ranks. 

The thought pinches between her shoulder blades and she smacks a hand flat against the mat in protest. The twinges have grown more common of late, unsurprising given the tension she can't help but carry in her shoulders. No amount of stretching is enough to fully free her of aches, not when the weight of the Halo is their cause just as often as not. Not when the unease is almost all in her head.

Shannon flops onto her side, stretches her arm out to make an attempt at grabbing her hoodie. She's an inch short of the fabric, though, and has to squirm on the mat until her fingertips just manage to hook the edge of the hood. She reels it in towards her and rolls back up to a seated position, tugging the hoodie on before popping up to her feet. Her back cracks ominously at the rapidity of the motion, and she has to twist from side to side before it feels quite like it's fully supporting her again.

Her soft shoes render her footsteps all but silent, so she makes a show of yawning loudly as she crosses towards the piano. The pianist stiffens, her hands going still on the keys, and then glances back over her shoulder.

Shannon smiles softly as she closes the remainder of the distance to the piano. "Camila, right?" she asks, settling herself on the piano bench at the girl's side. 

Camila nods, matches the smile with one of her own. "That's me."

"I'm Shannon," she replies, and she watches amused as Camila seems to bury an urge to respond with something along the lines of "Clearly". "Don't stop on my account," she adds, knocking her elbow against Camila's arm.

"I hadn't seen anyone else use it, so I wasn't sure if I was allowed–" Camila starts.

Shannon cuts her off with a laugh. "Oh, you're very much allowed. We just haven't had anyone to play for us in a while."

"Is that why it's so out of tune?" Camila's nose crinkles in barely concealed distaste.

"It is?" Camila nods emphatically. The smile that pulls at the corners of Shannon's mouth feels unfamiliar. "Straight-shooter Cam telling it like it really is, hey?" Camila's cheeks darken slightly, and Shannon nudges her again. "I admire that. I'll ask Mother Superion to see if we can get it tuned up for you."

"You don't have to–"

"Oh, this is purely selfish. I can't pester you for concerts if your instrument's not up to snuff, can I?"

"I guess not."

"See, purely selfish intent. We're all in the mood for a melody around here, and you'll have us feelin' alright." 

A chuckle bursts out of Camila, seeming to surprise her, and then just as quickly her face falls. "Billy Joel is my mom's favourite," she admits, and there's a heavy weight to the words. But her face shifts again, rapid fire, a cheerful mask slipping back into place. "I learned to play Piano Man sitting on her knee."

They'll tackle that conversation later then, Shannon decides, mentally adding yet another sister to the parental baggage list. "And you? What's your favourite?"

Camila glances back over her shoulder before leaning in conspiratorially. "I really like covering Frank Ocean," she admits, catching the tip of her tongue between her teeth when she grins. 

"I don't think I've heard of him."

"No? Let's rectify that!" Camila shoos Shannon down to the very edge of the piano bench and settles her hands on the keys. "This one's called Pink + White." 

And she begins to play.

[daisychainsandbowties]

okay, but does Shin ever blink?

fingers crossed for her to do stunned gay blinking after sabine kisses her. i want to see her unmoored by it, sabine taking her in both hands and telling her she doesn’t have to keep looking anymore, “because i see you.”

[birgittesilverbae]

In honor of yesterday's confusing anon, can we have the first time Shannon "language!"ed Mary in the tmtl-verse?

The midday sun burns hot across Mary's scalp, and she presses her face into the mat with a groan. She pulls her knees under herself, balls up her fists and shoves upright, struggles to her feet. Shannon watches her with a lazy smirk, then raises her hands in front of her again and curls two fingers, beckoning Mary towards her. 

"Jerk," Mary groans, but she's quickly learned just how incapable she is of ignoring any request from Shannon, no matter how much of a fucking dick move it is. She wipes her mouth on her sleeve, navy fabric going black with the blood from her split lip, glares up at that stupid grin.

"Coward," Shannon retorts, eyes sparkling. "Come on, Mary, let's have another go."

"More like you should go to hell."

"Language!" Shannon hisses, darting a glance back over her shoulder.

Mary furrows her brows, a headache growing that has nothing to do with her smarting mouth. "What?"

"Suzanne won't hesitate to make you pray a hundred Hail Marys if she catches you talking like that."

"Oh, fuck that," Mary groans, spitting a mouthful of blood out in disgust. "I got my fill of those at boarding school." She eyes Shannon thoughtfully, pumps her eyebrows up and down. "What'd you say, Shan? Did you tell her to choke on a dick when she was being a twenty-four-seven bitch last week?"

"No." Shannon tries to affect an aloof tone, but the corner of her mouth jumps towards a smile. "She was getting on me about coming to training tired and I said I hadn't gotten much sleep because I'd been too busy fucking her mom the night before."

[birgittesilverbae]

(PLATONIC PLATONIC FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLATONIC) Lilith + Adriel -> monsters

Lilith's suit smokes faintly as she slumps back against the alley wall, the tendrils drawn towards her feet as though pulled by a downdraft, curling down her legs, puddling around her ankles. She wonders distantly whether it's an effect of the fabric. Adriel had said the spandex was a new formula, but she's never seen anything make smoke act this way. Anything other than her own powers, that is. 

She focuses on the pools of smoke as they grow dark and stagnant, clinging to her feet in thick black smears. Tries to block out the roar of the inferno across the street. She hadn't meant to– She hadn't meant– She'd tried to stop it. She'd tried. Pulled the flames back towards her like so many times before, opened herself up, tried to bury them back beneath her skin, but they hadn't gone. Had slipped between her fingers like so much sand and danced up the walls of the bank, finishing the job she'd been sent to prevent. And now the smoke and ash of her failure burrows through the leather of her boots as she shoves upright and continues down the alleyway. 

A black SUV pulls up in front of her as she stumbles towards the next street. The rear door is thrown open and she climbs inside automatically, working hard to keep herself from pitching forward across the seat. 

Adriel looks up from his tablet, his lips curling in distaste as he takes in her state of disrepair. "You'd better not have ruined another suit," he says, clicking his tongue in admonishment. "My budget can only cover so many costume changes before you're stuck in rags." He tilts his head, considering. "Though, you might be able to pull that look off, with the right–"

"The bank," Lilith interrupts, turning to look back towards the alley as the SUV pulls away from the curb. She can't make anything out, but the clamour of fire engine klaxons grows steadily louder. 

"Is no longer your concern. You did well."

"I– I did well?" She barks out a laugh that gets caught on the soot in her throat, sends her into a coughing fit. She bends forward, sucking in air through gritted teeth, watching the way the smoke inside her boots makes the leather pitch and heave as it wends its way around her feet. "I did well," she repeats, still bent double, hands cupping her shins. "I burned three people alive, and you're trying to tell me I did well. I was monstrous." Laughter rises manic and desperate in her chest, a tinder pile waiting for a spark. 

"A monster? A monster?" Adriel turns his tablet towards her, the corner of his mouth quirking up into a slight smile. Lilith's eyes race to absorb the information scrawling past. Positive coverage, all of it. She was a hero. She was a saviour. The smoke burrows beneath the skin of her feet, collects there in burning coins, but she can't tear her gaze away from the screen. "Lilith, you were a marvel."