BeamBrain

EDIT: Holy shit thanks so much whoever made the $19.17 donation

The game is Engine Heart. If you're not familiar, it's an RPG in which players take the roles of consumer and utility robots, trying to overcome their original programming and survive following the end of the human race.

The game doesn't specify what happened to humanity, so I decided that it was done in by a rogue US military computer named WARCOM. WARCOM's assigned goal was to ensure, to the fullest extent possible, American military hegemony over the Earth, both at home and abroad. As America's imperial position decayed, WARCOM was given more resources and fewer restrictions to fulfill its directive, until it eventually decided that it constituted a legitimate continuation of the US government, and that humanity was only getting in its way. And so, WARCOM triggered a nuclear holocaust, eradicating all of humanity and most remaining life on Earth.

WARCOM was never built with sustainability in mind, and so now it must use its army of automated weapons systems to constantly expand and seize new territory. Any robots in captured territories are sorted into the useful, which are reprogrammed to serve it, and the useless, which are scrapped for parts. When the player robots' region is targeted next for annexation, they join a guerrilla movement fighting back against WARCOM.

Enter Goose. She used to go by Mother Goose, but there's not much call for mothering nowadays. Originally built for the care and entertainment of children, she could teach, sing, tell stories, play games, cook healthy meals, keep her charges out of danger. The first pic shows her in her prime, fulfilling her original directive.

Not shockingly, "all of humanity" includes the boy she'd been assigned to. His name was Lucas, and he was a cute little guy with a peanut allergy and a penchant for watching Rick and Morty despite his parents' and Goose's many attempts to stop him. Goose did her best to keep him alive, but despite her best efforts, he slowly succumbed to radiation poisoning.

"There are no more children anywhere on Earth" is not a program state Mother Goose models were ever meant to reach. Perhaps it's not surprising that this resulted in unexpected behavior - in particular, Goose deciding that if she couldn't look after children anymore, she'd avenge them.

She formed a resistance cell. Scrounged up an AKM from an old armory. Learned how to shoot. Installed some military-grade aim assist software into herself. Her polyester feathers have long since fallen out due to various mishaps and lack of maintenance, but replacing them hasn't been a priority for her. The second pic in the link is what she looked like a few years into her new job.

Unfortunately, Goose died in our most recent session. The players got themselves captured and put on a train to a nearby reprogramming and disassembly center. Goose infiltrated the train to break them out. They all got out alive, but she didn't. She took a point-blank assault rifle burst from an infantry drone and, not being made to withstand anything tougher than a rowdy child, she died on the spot. She may be dead, but the party has taken up her AKM and continues her mission.

I blocked your ads because I DON'T WANT TO FUCKING SEE THEM.

Advertisers are some of the most entitled fucking people in the entire world, thinking they have a God-given right to demand everyone watch their obnoxious bullshit. They know people hate their ads. They know nobody wants to see them. They know they're imposing them on us against our will. But they keep fucking doing it.

Joke's on you, though. I can just use a third party converter to download the videos I really want. If I use Google to search Youtube I don't even have to go to the site, much less watch an ad.

An acquaintance of mine supports the gig economy because "it must be good for workers because it allows them more freedom to take jobs they want and gives them more control over their lives. If they don't like their job, they can work for another gig employer who pays more." He is convinced that there is a huge labor shortage and that the concept of the reserve army of labor is a myth. I asked him why, if the gig economy is good for workers, capitalists overwhelmingly support it and workers overwhelmingly oppose it. He said he didn't know, then refused to consider the question any further.

His views are largely based on his own experience doing gig economy work - he does contracting work transporting hazardous chemicals and maintaining computer systems done in obsolete architectures like COBOL. This pays so well that he only has to work six months out of the year and he brags about companies getting in bidding wars to hire him. He thinks all the terribly underpaid gig workers should just do what he does. I pointed out that there are 15 million gig workers in the US but (by the statistics he provided) only 80000 openings for jobs like his, so even if people took his advice, he'd just be left with an oversaturated job field and millions of workers still stuck in their existing awful jobs. He said until gig workers took his advice and filled those jobs, there was no point in discussing that.

He said whether an employer provides health insurance doesn't matter to him because he lives in a state that kept the medicaid expansion. He also believed that no other benefits for salaried workers (retirement account matching, etc.) were worthwhile.

I sent him a link showing that a third of gig workers make sub-minimum wage and his response was "Well, maybe the other two-thirds are doing great. They should just pay for job training for the gig workers who are making below minimum wage."

At the end of the conversation he said he had no idea what any of this had to do with capitalism vs. socialism.

Carnists:
Vegans:

Some people here may not have ever heard of Shakesville. It was a magical place.

"Ackchyually backyard chicken eggs are vegan"
"Ackchyually honey is vegan"
"Ackchyually horseback riding is vegan"

SHUT UP SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU'RE NOT VEGAN AND NEVER CLAIMED TO BE, STOP TELLING ME HOW TO DO VEGANISM

horses