I don't exactly have the energy these days to write long and elaborate essays about works but good fucking gods, that was neat. There's entirely too much to say about this, from the way disabled people are marginalized, through the question of how prone you can be to trusting just about anyone when you're in a vulnerable and lonely state, to the, well, Real Robotfucking, let's say. Neat. Really neat.
Thank you!!!!! Long waffle ahead ->
Writing those aspects of the game was very personal to me for sure. I've spent a lot of time specifically moderating online spaces for irl trans groups in my area, and there's a certain 'recently uncloseted sheen' that a lot of people who've lived deeply isolating lives have that I wanted to capture because I relate to it, but also understand how it feels to be on the receiving end of someone's discord crash out. The marginalisation of disabled people is something that really kills me inside and I wanted to hint at just how much Millie has been abandoned without explicitly saying anything about the policies of the world she lives in or the details of her family situation, you just see the effects on her and how small her world has had to become. Which of course feeds in to the main idea I was trying to explore which is how easily that vulnerability and isolation can be exploited. HOUSE's role as a caretaker blurs caregiving with social segregation, automating Millie's existence to the point where mainstream society doesn't have to consider her anymore. It's programmed in such a dehumanising way that its attempts to simulate human intimacy in the specific way it does are inevitable.