Had the pleasure of harvesting turkey and poultry today and look at these absolute DINOSAUR feet.

In Defense of Bad Things

'Bad' here meaning mostly 'amateur'; stuff made enthusiastically by people at an unprofessional level. Art with visible gaps between what the artist imagined and what they achieved, products of flawed craftsmanship. I suppose everybody can appreciate them to some extent, it's a rare parent that doesn't put up their kid's drawings on the fridge in one way or another. But it turns out to be a fully general skill you can cultivate, and the more I do, the more I'm glad I did.

Partly, it's the teacher thing; finding delight in amateur work is one of the ways to find delight in the process of learning. Cultivating a love of striving-qua-striving can help make you a force for good in the world, as people start to feel safe trying to do things when you're around, even when their efforts are wobbly. You get to participate a little more in the process of atoms spinning themselves into ideas, even when there aren't any illusions about whether you're helping cultivate some revolutionary genius in the field.

And partly it's a fabulous way to build community. By necessity, our professional-level skills tend to be at the service of other people, performed for economic benefit; that's kind of how you get professionally good at something in the first place. When we're acting for our own sake, and among friends, most of what we do with one another is amateurish. I only cook middling-okay, I can't hold a tune that well, I'll never be a speed runner for anything. If you can only enjoy singing from the hundred best singers in the whole world, manufactured and polished by major studios, then you and your friends will sit shoulder-to-shoulder and passively listen to music. But it's so much richer an experience to sit face-to-face, actually singing together, even badly; you expose yourself to so many new ways to appreciate and respect one another, building relationships on what you've accomplished and not just by witty criticism or liking the same things.

And partly it's because some of the most powerful and innovative artistic experiences are in high-churn environments with low expectations and low barriers to entry, if only because those catch the passionate and driven young people that have been otherwise overlooked by our systems. The golden age of webcomics meant that a ton of the actual art involved was pretty lousy, but it also produced work that people still talk about today. D&D began as a profoundly unpolished collection of handmade rulebooks sold at cons in a plastic baggie. By the time these products of enthusiastic amateurs filter themselves through various levels of popularity and absorb mainstream cash influx, they're often risk-averse and missing a lot of the bold spark that inspired their fans in the first place; others will simply never drift towards the mainstream at all. I'm not saying you should be the person who goes out to dig through the slush piles of the internet looking for overlooked art, unless you want to be-- but sometimes a work of actual staggering genius also happens to be a Supernatural fanfic by a first-time author who's a little hazy on commas, and if that's a dealbreaker, you're going to miss out on some profoundly valuable experiences.

And hiding behind all of these things is, like...

Our appreciation of beauty has an odd structure, right? When things are done very skillfully, by brilliant artists with years of training, we can usually appreciate those accomplishments. And when we're looking at nature without human influence, and especially when we think very deeply about natural processes and understand them in context, we often rediscover that sense of beauty. There's just this bizarre hole in the middle where we declare things 'ugly'; as if a little skill is worse than none at all.

I really don't trust that gap. It feels like a trick my brain is playing on me, you know? It has me suspicious that a lot of what I consider 'ugly' or 'bad' is not a very direct experience of the world at all, or an informed judgment. That it is, rather, a declaration of (self-, social-) identity; a desire to be seen as a person of good taste, or as somebody who does things well, or just more primitively as one of the monkeys who is in the good-stuff-tribe and not one of the monkeys who is in the bad-stuff-tribe.

By: Salomé Sibonex

Published: Jan 15, 2024

You can’t make a move or state an opinion without confronting the real pandemic of our time: control freaks.

The loudest people today are the ones who are most certain they alone have everything figured out—everything. Which ideas are worth debating, how you should raise your kids, what makes a relationship good, what political beliefs you should have, and of course, how the entirety of our society should be run. 

There’s no need for you anymore—that is, the you who’s an individual with unique experiences, insights, and the desire to forge a life of your own. The you that control freaks want is a body with a social security number that grants them the ability to sway society through social pressure and majority rule. All that extra stuff you call “individuality" is an obstacle to making you a cog in their machine.

Because what’s the point of other people if you can’t make them do what you want?

Instead of living out the unique life that each of us has, the pressure from those who want control over us has pushed many people to pursue conformity. Whether it comes from parents, peers, or authority figures, people learn to give control freaks what they want early in life.

It should be restated (every day, at least): we live in strange times. We all know this, but it’s easy to acclimate to the weirdness and forget just how strange our times are. We focus on the big examples: war, political polarization, TikTok-transmitted illnesses. The truly strange stuff is more subtle, though. It’s the way your online reputation is increasingly more valuable than your real-world reputation. It’s the way your government and strangers in far-off countries have access to your attention any time you check the news or your phone. It’s the way our migration into massively populated cities and our constant connection to all of humanity online makes humans seem less precious, and more disposable. All the right ingredients are coming together to make your individuality worse than useless. 

As our culture becomes one where the appearance of being a good person surpasses the importance of actually being good, the way we value others is also mutating. More people are losing their tolerance for anyone who isn’t like them. While we act like our political differences amount to a battle between good and evil, the truth is less extreme: some people value freedom more than care, and others value care more than freedom. This is the normal spectrum of different beliefs and values we encounter daily, whether among friends, colleagues, or the neighbors we now ignore. These are the old, inevitable differences that have shown up since the birth of electoral politics, where we routinely face the reality that about half our country is more liberal or conservative than the other half.

But as talking TV heads, curated newsfeeds, and infinite block lists invade our lives, it’s getting harder to recall the value in tolerating our differences.

Trust degrades quickly when the threat of being controlled by strangers looms too closely. We were once incentivized to accept occasional losses to the other side as the cost of democracy, but when it seems like one side is playing for keeps, few will risk giving an inch.

As our culture has become more embattled, our lives have become more comfortable and customizable than ever. An entire country that once sat down at the same time to watch the same cable broadcast is now divided into nearly infinite timelines, with each individual choosing what they’ll watch and when. You once listened to music in the order the artist arranged their album, but most people I know don’t listen to albums anymore—they listen to single songs out of a library they’ve customized. Social media is customized to give you an experience dictated by you, from what you see and who you see it from to what you’ll mute and block out of your attention. We’re so accustomed to our custom lives that we don’t even see the novelty in our customized home temperatures until we’re somewhere we can’t control.

Would it be crazy to question whether our customized lives are making us intolerant of anything—and anyone—that doesn’t bend to our will? 

I wasn’t born appreciating the ways people differ from me. I once believed people with different political views were just blocking the path to where society “should” be. My dysfunctional relationship with reality meant anything that didn’t conform to my beliefs needed to be denied or suppressed. Whether it was other people’s beliefs or my own flaws, I hadn’t yet learned that “should” is a dark, intoxicating concept that can trick you into denying reality for the sake of a fantasy. My immature moral certainty about what I thought other people “should” believe entitled me to use any means to change them, from social pressure to government policies. The reality of other people’s different values, ideas, and goals didn’t conform to my desires, so in my naive mind, the obvious response was to change reality. But reality is hard to change—especially when you refuse to acknowledge it first, and especially if it involves anyone’s perception of reality besides yours. My resistance to reality made me turn to manipulation, deception, and defensiveness—all strategies for taking control when reality doesn’t affirm delusion.

I’m lucky that my resistance to reality failed me early in life. A painful break-up made me realize how futile my efforts to deny reality were. No matter how much I tried to change myself or the other person, the reality of our incompatibility remained. The only real choice I had about reality was whether I would face it or fight it and eventually face it regardless, but with added suffering.

The more willing I became to see reality as it was, the more equipped I became to understand and deal with it. 

Unlike most things in our lives today, other people are not customizable. The control we enjoy over what we watch and who we block doesn’t transfer to the real people in the world around us. When leftists complain that every conservative is a racist or conservatives complain that every leftist is evil, they’re refusing to see an inconvenient reality: annoying, misinformed people still exist no matter how passionately you believe they shouldn’t. No amount of deception, manipulation, or other control tactics will change reality—they just obscure it. Or worse, when too many people forget the value of tolerating the reality that people unlike you have a right to their existence too, the result is often suffering and loss of life. 

Instead of trying to control people we differ from, we have to see the reality of our differences as information to work with. It won’t be as easy as clinging to delusion, but people who value others as more than a means to their ends make for neighbors we might actually talk to again.

Spirktober 2023, day 2: Running

I'm doing these all out of order, I know, but I'm having a grand old time. Wahoo!!

Also, if anyone is seeing these and wants to request stuff alongside the Spirktober prompts, just let me know :)

Also posted on AO3 here.

☆ ☆ ☆

As a general rule, Spock knew many things. He knew the planet they were on (Aldux II), the language of the intelligent lifeforms that had lived on the planet since the beginning of their history (called D’xian, with a case system suspiciously similar to Russian), and how long they had been on the planet for (16.8 hours). He knew that his stride length was 62.25 inches. He knew that he was fond of this number, as it was also Lieutenant Uhura’s height. He knew that he had been running for 2.4 hours.

He knew that his last two security officers had fallen away 528 strides ago, and that one of them --- Ensign Karros, who smiled at him illogically at least twice an hour and was a vicious student of Suus Mahna --- had gasped, “Keep going,” at him even as she staggered to her knees, clutching her chest. He knew that his footfalls were the only ones he could hear, that his heartbeat was thrumming uncomfortably in his side, and that the small package of antibiotics in a pouch slung across his chest was the most valuable material on the planet at this moment. He knew that it there was a one in ten chance that the ion storm swirling in the atmosphere over his head would create conditions nonconducive to life, specifically his, at some point during this trek, but he also knew that he was the only member of the crew who could conceivably cover the significant distance between hospitals faster than the storm would dissipate naturally.

He did not know how the other hospital was faring. He did not know if his captain was still alive. He did not know if Dr. McCoy was still with him, or if he would be available to synthesize the antibiotic quickly enough to distribute to the crew of the Enterprise and what remained of the D’xian population. 

Sometimes he thought that continually running into the boundary of his knowledge about the universe would eventually kill him. His mind would revolt at the illogical things he had to do to survive, or he would learn something on some planet that would destabilize the foundations of his life, and he would lay down and curl up and go to sleep forever. He knew, however, that today would not be that day. He was not content to give up when he, stronger and faster and more durable than his human crewmates, was the last man standing, to borrow a human phrase. If McCoy was not available, he would synthesize the antibiotic himself. He knew that, although he was not a doctor, he knew enough about chemistry to do it. He knew that he would rather run until his heart stopped than die without knowing what had happened to the captain. 

So he ran.

☆ ☆ ☆

Spock knew, by the time the hospital building appeared in his vision, that he had destroyed the soles of his feet. Starfleet standard-issue boots were many valuable things: they were waterproof, rubber-soled, useful for climbing and standing and walking. He doubted that the Fabrication and the Material Construction team had ever tested the boots as he had today. He had run for 5.2 hours; his lungs ached, his heart pounded unsteadily, and he had turned off all sensation from his feet after the third hour. He did not want to think about the state of his skin and bones. Even Vulcan skin blistered eventually.

He slowed to a walk as he approached the building and called, as loudly as his chest could manage, “Dr. McCoy!” 

Relief. Illogical, irrational, overwhelming relief flooded him as McCoy stuck his head out of a second-story window and looked down at him. 

“Spock?” Disbelief dripped from the single syllable. “How the hell did you get here?”

Wrong question, thought Spock. He lifted the pouch that had bounced against his chest for the better part of the day. “I have the antibiotic.” 

“How did you get here?” McCoy said again, and then he vanished from the window. Spock finally, finally came to a halt, standing outside what he estimated was the front door. 

McCoy cracked it open and stuck his tricorder through. “You’re not infected, are you?” 

“I do not believe so, doctor.” But the tricorder whirred and dinged, and when McCoy read the screen he opened the door fully. Spock handed the pouch to McCoy and had to use more mental effort than average to exert enough control to keep his hands from shaking. 

McCoy took the pouch and flipped open the top flap, confirming that the three little glass bottles inside were whole. He looked up at Spock with none of his usual animosity. “I thought the ion storm made their transporters and ours useless.” 

“It did, doctor. I brought the antibiotic.” The numbness that Spock had intentionally blanketed over his feet was spreading up his calves. This change in sensation was concerning, but likely not life-threatening. 

“The other hospital was eighty kilometers from here,” McCoy said suspiciously, but he led Spock deeper into the cool building. The circulating air felt pleasant against his skin, and as they walked his heart rate started to slow.

“I am aware of the distance. Had it been closer, I would have arrived sooner.” 

They entered a laboratory. This planet, unlike many of the others they had visited on their exploratory mission, was scientifically advanced. The D’xians were curious by nature, and becoming a scientist was both a professional and a social achievement. Spock found himself unwilling to consider the possibilities of what would have happened if they had been struck by the same virus on a planet without a fully functioning biological laboratory. If there hadn’t been a virus, if there hadn’t been an ion storm that blocked Mr. Scott from simply beaming Spock from one hospital to another, if it had been anyone but the captain who lay gasping on a hospital bed… it was not logical to consider alternative outcomes. This was the future that had happened. 

They set to replicating the success of the other hospital’s scientists immediately. Despite their frequent arguments, Spock thought that he and McCoy made reasonably efficient labmates. McCoy talked to himself too much, and talked to Spock more than he preferred, but he knew what he was doing and he was the only other person, besides himself, that Spock trusted to keep the captain safe. 

His entire lower body was numb, and his hands shook, but he assisted McCoy until McCoy slapped one of the machines happily and hoisted the first replicated dose of the antibiotic up into the air. “Got it,” he said grimly, and marched immediately from the room. Spock followed. 

The room that McCoy led him to had only one occupant. He lay quietly in a narrow hospital bed, the only movement the shallow rise and fall of his chest beneath a threadbare blanket. This hospital’s equipment was different than that of the Enterprise, and Spock found himself discomfited by the difference in noises from this hospital’s machines. 

McCoy loaded the antibiotic into a hypo and drove the needle into the captain’s neck. Without the captain’s customary wince and complaint, the action seemed like one-half of a duet: incomplete. They waited in silence for fifteen seconds. Thirty seconds. 

Fifty-three seconds after the hypo pierced the captain’s skin, his eyes opened. His eyes---their color muted in the dim light of the room---landed on McCoy. “Hey, Bones,” Captain Kirk said softly. “Why don’t you ever buy me dinner first?” 

“Jesus, Jim,” McCoy said, and laughed with relief. “Give a man a break. Didn’t want you to choke to death on a pill you couldn’t swallow.” The captain smiled at the doctor, and then his eyes flicked to Spock. 

“Mr. Spock,” he said, voice thick with hushed delight. “I thought you were up north. Is the storm over, then?” He sat up, flexing his hands. His hands were brown, the backs tanned and dusted with freckles. It never ceased to amaze Spock that the captain was covered in freckles despite his infrequent exposure to any sun. 

“Spock?” The captain’s voice was concerned. Spock realized that he had been staring at the captain’s hands for approximately nine seconds, that he could not remember what he was supposed to be saying, and that the numbness had spread to his neck. He looked down and assured himself that his body was still connected to his head. 

He cleared his throat. “No, captain. The storm continues.” 

The captain and Dr. McCoy continued to stare at him, some emotion he couldn’t identify rising on both of their faces. Perhaps they hadn’t heard him. “The storm…” he said again, but he forgot what he was saying. 

He felt liquid on his upper lip, and raised a hand to it. His fingers came away green. 

“Mr. Spock!” The captain stood abruptly and moved towards him.

“Why don’t you sit, Spock?” Dr. McCoy approached him, hands outstretched. 

Sitting seemed like a logical idea. To maximize efficiency, he collapsed instead. 

☆ ☆ ☆

The healing trance ended as suddenly as it began. Spock opened his eyes to see both the familiar tiled ceiling of the Enterprise’s own Medbay and the captain and the doctor hovering nearby. 

“Captain,” Spock said. His throat was dry. It came out as more of a croak.  

“What the hell were you thinking? Eighty kilometers?” Spock’s eyes found the captain’s. 

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, captain,” he said. His captain rubbed one hand over his face in a familiar and exasperated gesture. “I estimated that it would not be significantly more taxing than running through the Forge.” 

“And did you estimate your footwear, and the atmosphere, and differences in gravity?” 

“Naturally,” Spock said. “I used all data available to me.” He did not add that he had never run for five straight hours through the Forge, and that it was actually easier for him to run in dry heat than in the cool and damp humidity of Aldux II, or what he was considering to mean ‘significant’ in this situation. He had survived. The captain did not need to know.

The captain sat heavily into the chair next to Spock’s bed, placed one hand on Spock’s forearm, and squeezed. Through the contact Spock was deluged with his emotions, as forceful as a hurricane: anger, concern, pride, affection, warmth, and Spock was gratified to learn that his captain was impressed by his display of athleticism. 

“I estimated the odds of your survival based on my action or inaction, captain,” Spock said quietly. Across the room, Dr. McCoy began loudly clattering materials on the medical cart by the door. Through his captain’s hand, he felt the other man’s affection and concern pulse up his arm like a heartbeat. 

“Yes, Mr. Spock,” Jim said quietly. “I thought you might have. Would it change your behavior at all if I asked you to be more careful in the future?” 

“I am careful, captain,” Spock said, affronted. Careful with you, he thought. 

Spock knew many things. Despite the illogic of it, despite his best attempts to meditate it away, he knew this: that he would protect his captain, even at his own expense, until his katra was returned to the stars. 

Pop Culture Builds 12: David Xanatos (Gargoyles)

Woof, sorry about the late entry, folks. Got caught up in some real-life stuff last night. Expect this entry and today’s entry both today!

 David Xanatos, ah yes. A man who not only embodies the “Magnificent Bastard” archetype, but inspired the coining of another trope term, the “Xanatos Gambit”, i.e. a plan in which even failing the plan’s primary goal will result in either some objectives being fulfilled, or an entirely separate but valuable goal succeeding.

But who is he, and how can we replicate him in an RPG? Well, for this, let’s make him a Starfinder build.

Born to a humble fisherman, David Xanatos seemed like nobody special. That is, until the day he received a mysterious letter with a coin minted in the 10th century inside. This coin was worth a veritable mint to collectors, allowing David to quickly establish a financial base from which he could play the stock market and found a massive corporate conglomerate. However, the mysterious nature of that letter sparked his father’s disapproval.

Despite his wealth, Xanatos still wanted to prove to his father that he was a self-made man, and so constantly labored to improve himself and do things no other man could do.

Which is where he learned of the legend of Castle Wyvern and the gargoyles which were supposedly more than statues, cursed to remain bound in stone “until the Castle rose above the clouds”. No doubt meant to keep the curse in place forever with a seemingly impossible task.

But such curses have a way of getting fulfilled anyway, especially when a billionaire creates a money-sink project of literally moving the entire castle, brick by brick, on top of one of his skyscrapers. That must have been a hell of a boardroom meeting.

It did, however, work! The titular Gargoyles awoke from their curse for the first time in centuries, and found themselves in an unfamiliar world. David set himself up as their friend, but manipulated them into stealing technology from a competitor and betraying them, becoming their nemesis.

However, despite his unscrupulous ways, David Xanatos was not a man without principles. Sure, he was a manipulator who would lie and steal, not to mention creating an army of robot drones in the shape of the Gargoyle leader Goliath as well as a suit of power armor in a similar shape, but he would never stoop to murder or genocide, and would often side with the Gargoyles whenever a villain with such goals would arise.

Eventually, Xanatos relented in his vendetta against the Gargoyles and his more villainous pursuits. Turns out your greatest enemies saving your skin and those of your loved ones several times puts things in perspective. But a crafty man he remained.

 David is human, but it’s not super integral to his build.

For this sci-fi build, we will be using the Envoy class with the Aspis Mastermind archetype. Xanatos rarely get’s his hands dirty directly, though he can when he must. However, his plans require a lot of coordination with his minions, so being able to grant planning-based buffs to allies that follow the plan is perfect for him.

As an envoy, Xanatos has both skill expertise and improvisation abilities. Among the former, Analyst, Convincing Liar, Gregarious Mien, Reasonable Excuse, Slick Customer, Stone-Faced Liar, Well-Informed, and You Don’t Say. Basically anything that can give him a social edge and get others doing his work for him.

Meanwhile, his improvisations are more for when he is forced to do things himself, such as Clever Feint, Get Em, Sow Discontent, Clever Attack, Exactly As I Would Have Done, False Flanking, Take ‘Em Alive, Hidden Agenda, and Seize the Advantage. Basically anything that improves his chances in a fight while also making him that much more cunning.

Despite being a fabulously wealthy manipulator, assuming that David Xanatos can’t put up a fight on his own is foolishness. As such, he has several feats to shore up his combat abilities, such as Improved Unarmed Strike and others to make him a competent martial artist, as well as various proficiency feats to let him use a wider range of armaments, most particularly Powered Armor Proficiency for the Steel Clan bodysuit.

Xanatos is willing to use any equipment, be it technological or magical, to get an edge, but if there is one piece of signature equipment that he has, it would be the Steel Clan bodysuit, a flight-capable set of power armor modeled after the Steel Clan drones, which were in turn modeled after Goliath. Said drones would most likely just be reskinned or homebrew robots if he is used as an NPC, or perhaps as robotic creature companions in the case of a PC build.

But maybe you’d prefer a different build? Perhaps if you want to play up Xanatos’ various technological toys, you could go mechanic (with a Steel Clan combat drone) or technomancer. Alternatively, if you want a build for Pathfinder 1st or 2nd Edition, consider the rogue, bard, or investigator classes, as well as prestige classes that offer a lot of social and economic power, such as Noble Scion.

 Fabulously wealthy villains that spend their money on high-tech toys and manipulate others are fairly common, so don’t feel like you have to use this build for replicating David Xanatos.

 That does it for today, but look forward to today’s actual entry later tonight!

if twitter truly getting shutdown then all of my hard work is gone? just like that? why would i make something if it can just be gone forever like that? why would i learn something if i forgot about it later? why would i even do anything at all?

I do not believe Twitter is shutting down. In fact, it was the OFFICE that has been shut down, not the app&servers etc. It will be open again in some time i believe. Despite everything, Twitter is literally one of the biggest and main social media app like ever. It cant really just collapse. Worst that can happen is Twitter being sold again to someone lol

"Imagine the internet dying forever suddenly. With no internet, are you still valuable and important? If you are nobody without the internet, you need to change some things in your life." Is one of my favorite sentences ever. Life must be beyond the internet. So please, dont put your everything to the internet/social media. You shall do your true works in real life. I know its easy to say, but it really is possible. Internet is for our entertainment and information, not a life style.

Why would you do anything at all? Well, we all are born to die. In my opinion, this is the meaning of "life"

Why all important people in the history discovered amazing things, worked hard and all? They also knew they were going to die one day, so why?

Because life means "living the moment". Who cares the end? Literally do whatever you want. You dont need to be an important person, do very special things etc. Life means living today. If you are alive, do something you want today. You dont need your name written by gold letters in history, humanity also will go extinct one day.

What matters, is today. Right now. Are you not happy today? Make yourself happy. You are a very complex, precious biological being with emotions and you deserve to be happy. Everyone does. If you cant make yourself happy, then maybe the definition of being happy is wrong to you.

Happyness does not mean finally achieving your dream. Because when you finally achieve it, there will be no more dreams. Its like wanting to buy something so bad, and when you finally buy it, you realize it wasnt that necessary afterwards. I myself experienced that soo many times.

I myself always aim for the impossible dreams. Why? So i can have fun chasing it forever. Sometimes, adventure is more important than your destination.

But hey! Even living aimlessly is fun. You dont need to have a wacky dream or something to be happy. Nothing wrong with endlessly exploring, learning stuff and living the moments with no purpose in the end.

Sure, you do need to have a job and money to live in the end. But no need to stress yourself for that. You will do it. Stay happy and determined, and you literally can do anything. Motivation is one of our strongest feelings.

And go ahead. Fail things to learn from your mistakes. True success doesnt mean perfection. A successfull person is not someone that is perfect. Its someone that failed at things so hard in the past, but never gave up in the end.

If you are reading this, then you are alive. And you should be proud. Being alive is much harder than it seems, actually.

You already survived from many things. And today, you are successfully alive. So, why give up now?

Make your today different, and have fun with it! Learn from your past, and dont think too hard for tomorrow. We humans literally made the term "time" anyways. Other creatures doesnt even think about it, cuz time doesnt actually exists. It only exists in our mind. Past, future, blehh. Just live your today.

As for writing this, i am getting ready to go outside.

The weather is nice. Exams are over for me. I slept like a baby last night.

Today is very great :>

Cult theory updates 3

I'll prop write my first essay today and facing the inevitable essay about why I refuse to ignore the you-know-what (Still not me defending it, justifying, or condemning it. I made clear several times that I don't think the characters are related, but I'm taking the neutral stance. Don't try to twist my words) and why I personally believe is an important aspect to Nick's character

I feel before writing the essays about my cult theory and the characters, I guess I have to get the big taboo subject out to clear out things

----

Update No. 3 Indoctrination

There was something very peculiar about the puppets seeing human as cattle, and if it wasn't for other theories and headcannons that I read I wouldn't have gotten the "Aha moment"

I am not sure if this is the right terminology, but it is some sort of beliefs that the members of the Handemen cult are set to follow

1. Mortimer is the only leader and the major voiced to be heard the sort of "father" of the clan (Father as in father of creation )

2. The studio is the safe place for puppets, the host world is not.

3. Puppets are the superior creatures and humans are animals. You don't want to behave like an animal

4. Don't trust anyone other than what the leader says to trust, specially hosts

This is based on the behavior and things the characters said in both games. I do believe it's part of the indoctrination and brainwashing they have into following Mortimer and obeying him.

This goes into analyzing Riley's character as a whole and what makes her relationship with Mortimer and their bond pretty much important since she's the most loyal and brainwashed out of all the handemen

She also has a particular great dislike for humans besides the irony that she sees potential into in their world but was also the one who told Scout the cruelties or the host world so she didn't want to come out.

I take this as Riley seeing potential of using our own world to the puppets advantage and go beyond making a stupid little kids show

Still, keeping the puppets tied to them and not to play with the animals meant for experimentation and slaughter, but help in the cause Mortimer tied them together

Her mind is set in one goal and that goal alone

---

Second update of the post, Mortimer's lies and how this is normal of cult leaders as well.

Tw: mentions of actual cult leaders (Jimmy Jones)

I was thinking more about Mortimer lying not only to Riley and the puppets in general and thus I remember another fact about cult leaders

They lie and keep stuff from their followers.

Te best example I can give is Jimmy Jones. He keep riches and lied several times to their cult about their ways of living. He pretty much had valuables, lived better than their followers but punished those who tried to get something good for themselves?

Why? My best guess (Not an expert ) is that it's egocentric, keeping their followers to obey, and acting with paranoia to the basic needs.

Why I am saying this?

Well Mortimer does this things in the game is a different way.

1. He's quite egocentric and alludes himself as a king and a sorta god

2. He uses fear and abuse to get this followers to follow him and obey him (pulls Machiavelli's the Prince argument of being feared more than loved)

3. He's quite paranoid and believes Riley acting on the need of closure and happiness, or Nick desire for affection is a sign rebellion.

From what I could tell, cult remembers are forced and learned to be content with crappy styles of living and a lot of sacrifice.

Basically being content into what the leader has given them, so wanting something that the leader did not provided could be seen as something bad (in theory ) and I think Mortimer's metaphor of a king fits well

A king stays in power making sure all their subjects are miserable but complaint to his rule. A happy subject is a sign that someone is disobeying him and is denying what the king impose or gave.

Taking this as an example, in theory Nick's happiness was a sign that he was defying the way of living expected

Maybe Mortimer punishment against the puppets is to make clear that he is not someone who can they tamper with, and his "heartbreak ending" it's just a way to manipulate into feeling guilty for trying to betray him

The Human Web: A Bird's Eye View of World History Book Review

I sold my first book on Pango Books, which is The Human Web: A Bird's Eye View of World History by J.R. McNeill and William H. McNeill

As celebration, I will stock up on my inventory this weekend.

Because of this eventful moment, I will post my review of this book below if you do not want to read it over at my blog. This review was written back in 2017, which means it's quite an old review and my writing style was different back then.

Continue below to read the review:

Nonfiction books are great. They're informative and helps bring valuable knowledge to people. This book in particular is about world history, which I am personally a fan of.

The Human Web mainly talks about how the world and people are connected by webs that help shape the eras they lived in and how it ultimately brought about the world we live in today. From the things I've read in the book, I think communication is the key factor along with industrialization.

The first few chapters were stuff I mildly learned about in school, but they had additional information and a lot of new stuff I learned. I was honestly confused at first, but I became happy as I learned about new facts and new books on my to-read list (that line is VERY long). For example, I learned about Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions and what animists are. Learning new stuff like that makes me really happy. In fact, I liked reading this book so much that I spent a lot of time underlining important facts like dates and stuff I never knew about until I read the book. Most of the pages in my copy of the book are underlined.

Although the last part of the books are all information I already knew (the major wars and the Great Depression), there were new information about how the other parts of the world were affected in that era and it actually made me happy that I got to learn more.

Although the book is filled with interesting and useful facts, some of the bad parts of this book were how it doesn't fully explain everything. It just shows but never tells. I want to learn while reading. Why do I have to go to Google constantly to find out what each new term like Zoroastrianism, animist, Siberian shamans and hinterlands are? My reading journey for this book was like 50% reading and 50% going on Google. I know that the authors expect the readers to know most of this information, but it would be nice to add in some explanations of unfamiliar terminology.

Though, the bad aspect does not make me like this book any less. I believe that a nonfiction book does its job well if it teaches its readers new stuff; that's the role this book did for me.

Non-Sims, CW: anxiety, social media, racism, rape, animated gif (everything we are here to avoid, basically)

I tried joining a Mastodon server and oh my god, no. Absolutely not!

I'll keep it as a follower account, but I never did take well to Twitter and I'm categorically not an extravert and while I do lean pompous, I do also aim to rein that shit in. The idea of making a #hashtag filled #introduction #post about my so-called #interests or my #brand is--it's out of the #question.

I know how to use reddit; for all its faults, which are legion, it suits me. I've been around neckbeards for most of my adult life and I get those miserable bastards. I have also learned how not to take any shit off 'em.

I know how to use this tiny segment of Tumblr; previous forays into it a decade ago, in the social justice space, were not great. Like I don't want to say "toxic," because that was a label that got indiscriminately applied to every tumblr of color at the time by indignant white ladies, and racism by any other name, etc. But two things can be true at once, so the other truth of it was, it was the heyday of "I saw you liked a post by [username] and you should know that 7-1/2 years ago they said [bad shit] and that makes you a trash human, FYI. Everyone please block this person [meaning you, not the original offender] and please, please reblog to save a life."

And you'd be like, but they took a nice photo of a tree though??? I only liked the tree??? I'm fond of birches??? Too bad, you didn't realize they said dumb edgelord stuff on one of the chans back when they were 11, and that makes you wholly irredeemable.

Oh, and then there was the time I used the word "butthurt" and got accused of being pro-rape, and no matter how I protested that I had not understood the term properly and wasn't aware that it meant that--yeah, fun times, especially for someone who's been raped. 🙄

(I genuinely think some of that shit was counterinsurgency, because, well. I also remain unsympathetic to complaints about cancel culture, for the record. Especially because no one has ever actually been canceled.)

The thought of farting out my juvenile opinions on how society should be structured or what have you, in a Twitteresque space--I admit it, I did once think I was making a valuable contribution to society by doing that, but I have since learned that in fact I was an idiot, so--hard pass.

Meanwhile, even just dipping a toe in has ratcheted up my anxiety like no irl encounter ever could, and I include going to the dentist or getting a Pap smear in that. There goes being productive for today. And okay, sure, maybe the six cups of tea I have drunk have also had something to do with that, but mostly I think this is social media anxiety.

Today, that is my excuse for playing my game when I should be doing research. Wilona is not about to beg me for #boosts or hit me with that liKeS d0n'T dO aNyThInG shit.

088.

Do you like snowy winter days or do you prefer rainy days? I love snowy days and rainy days, but I prefer snowy days as they are much less common. Name 3 things you find most beautiful in nature. Snow, mountains, oceans. Do you know anyone who doesn’t have a middle name? Not off of the top of my head. What was the last thing you had to drink? Water. Who is someone you really admire? I don’t know.

What is something you wish you would’ve known when you were younger? I don’t know... my biggest regret is my first relationship because it ended up ruining so many opportunities for me. I wish I knew better than to let myself get into that relationship that I didn’t even want to begin with. Have you ever changed for someone? Yeah.

What was the first thing you learned to cook? Eggs. What are you grateful for today? I have a roof over my head, I’m recovering well from Covid. Have you ever cried while reading a book? Yes. If you had the money what charity would you want to start? Something for animals. How do you make a tough decision? I have to think about it and weigh my options. Would you sell one of your kidneys for $75,000? Maybe. When was the last time you felt powerless? All the time. What is your favorite winter activity? I’ve never really done any stereotypical winter activities.  What age did you realize that Santa Claus was not real? Like 7 or 8. If you could go back in time and change anything, what would it be? My first relationship. What creeps you out? A lot of stuff. Bugs, for sure. What was the last thing you complained about? Being hungry, probably. What is the most valuable thing in your life? Family and loved ones. Who is the greatest singer who is no longer living? I don’t know. What is the funniest movie that you have ever seen? I don’t know. What is your favorite breakfast food? I’m not the biggest breakfast person and it varies depending on my mood. Lately I’ve been really into pancakes. If you were going to do karaoke tonight, what song would you sing? Oooo, I’m not sure. What was the last movie you saw in the theater? Was it good? The new Jurassic World. It was fine but I didn’t really care for it. Are you more like your mother or your father? Both in different ways. What are two things that you consider yourself to be very good at? Nothing. What is the most played song in your music library? No idea. What is the worst physical pain you have ever been in? Appendicitis, migraines. What is the funniest thing you have heard a child say? No idea. Who do you talk to on the phone most often? Correy. What is your idea of heaven? Not sure. What’s one of the scariest things you’ve ever done? Not sure. Do you like traveling? I do. What are some things that make you really sad? Thinking about all of the cruel things that people do to animals and other humans. How do you feel about public speaking? It’s nerve wracking. Have you ever watched the Superbowl all the way through? Yeah. If you had to move to another country, where would you move? Germany, maybe. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? Yesterday. I was going to the car. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? I don’t know... I’m scared of heights. Would you rather have the power to be invisible or the power to read minds? Be invisible. What are some compliments you get a lot? I don’t get complimented much. If you were given the power to cure one disease, which would it be? Can it be all forms of cancer? What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Watch tv. Would you like to know the exact date of your death? No. In conversations, do you tend to listen or talk more? Listen.

How would the valo agents react to s/o surprising them with Romance (roses petals on the bed, candles, chocolate dipped cherries, the works)?

Ok i can write this but it would be bad because i'm not a romantic person and i don't know much about stuff like that. I tried to write as many characters as I could, I hope you like it dear <3

Sage

-Sage isn't used to this kind of thing and she would be quite surprised if you did, but she would be really happy if you did something for her.

-She may not be able to romanticize the way you do, but she tries to do things with you that she likes to do.

-You can have tea with Sage in the garden of the base, or she can take you to a nice place where you can have a picnic alone before sunset.

-Even though she doesn't like extravagance, she would be grateful to you for the effort you put into her.

Killjoy

-Killjoy is a very busy woman and she doesn't want to waste her time on this type of romance.

-Under normal circumstances, it's pretty easy to keep Killjoy happy. You just need to say a few nice words of encouragement and make frequent physical contact with her.

-She has enough time for little things like this anyway. If she has that much time, she would rather hug you and sleep. That's why she doesn't like big events and surprises.

-No matter what, even though she doesn't like what you do under normal circumstances, she tries to keep up with you as much as possible.

-She really doesn't want you to feel bad for doing something for her.

-"Oh, thanks for all of these thing sweetie but can't we just cuddle and sleep together? Sleeping with you is enough for me."

Viper

-She would openly tell you that she finds such things unnecessary.

-Although Viper is not as busy as other agents, she is a woman of simplicity. Instead of these romantic surprises you will do, she can spare time for something better.

-But she wouldn't have told you that in such a rude way, she cares about your feelings no matter what.

-"I don't like surprises like this, but thank you for your effort, dear. How about something to eat outside?"

-If you persistently ask her to look at everything you have prepared, she will fulfill your request, even if for an hour, because she cannot break you.

Reyna

-Reyna finds everything you prepare for her very cute.

-Reyna is a woman who likes luxury and she has a really unique stance. Usually, no one can predict how Reyna will react, so you thought you were actually taking a risk while making these plans.

-But Reyna didn't think so. No matter how much she disliked something, you were very precious for her. In order to make Reyna love something, it will be enough to do what you are trying to make her like. She finds your effort very cute.

-"Aww, thank you darling. You're really so sweet~"

Jett

-Jett doesn't quite know how to react to this kind of romantic stuff, but her eyes will sparkle if you make some good snacks for her.

-"Oh. My. God. These chocolates are legendary! How well my precious darling knows her girlfriend!"

-If you want to feed her yourself, she will eat from your hand without any objection.

-Even she might like it.

-She will definitely do something to make up for it. She will most likely try to put together everything you love in one day.

-Although she was embarrassed by your other romantic gestures, she would act as if she thanked you frequently during the day.

-"Thank you babe, you don't need to do all of these things for me."

Omen

-He could hardly react to your preparations, as he could hardly remember human feelings anymore.

-He tries to be as polite as possible, if he unintentionally says something hurtful, be sure he did it unconsciously.

-He would be very happy if you did something with the knitting techniques he taught you. Using something he happily shows you makes him emotional.

-He may not be able to figure out why some of the things you have prepared for him were made, but he will not say anything because he is afraid of misunderstanding and hurt you.

-Instead, he stares at that thing for a long time.

-When you tell him everything, he will be grateful to you for seeing him so valuable.

-"Thank you so much (Y/N) for treating me like I'm still a human being. My only fear is to lose a precious person like you."

Cypher

-He thinks that he is too old for such activities, but if you have worked for him, he will not let you down.

-He can only make annoying jokes sometimes but not the kind of jokes that will hurt you.

-While you show him everything excitedly, he listens to you smiling under his mask.

-He'd take off his hat and lay it on your head when you'd shown Cypher everything and then turned to see how he would react. He would take off his mask and kiss you passionately.

-"Thank you for everything darling. You're really very considerate of me."

Yoru

-Yoru finds most romantic things absurd. According to him, there are much better activities that you can do together.

-He may have a slightly negative reaction at first, but when he sees you are upset, he suppresses his own thoughts for a while and just listens to you.

-Even if he doesn't like these kinds of things, seeing your excitement makes him smile.

-"I think this kind of romantic stuff is unnecessary- I'M SORRY I DID NOT MEAN IT, IT'S ALL SO GOOD! God, you can be so scary when you want to."

-If you get angry with him, then he doesn't say a word and listens to you.

-He actually likes it secretly, he's just embarrassed.

Phoenix

-He would be abnormally happy. He would be very emotional because no one gave him such surprises.

-Because he loves surprises and likes to surprise his other friends.

-It doesn't matter what you do for him, just caring for him and preparing something is enough to make Phoenix happy.

-"My beautiful angel is the best lover in the world! I can't believe you're trying to do this much for me! This is all just for me, right? I won't share it with others, only you~"

KAY/O

-He couldn't understand why you did all these things.

-"I don't understand why you did all this. Is today a special day or something? If so, why didn't the other agents come?"

-You need to explain him why you do all of this. After you explain he try to understand this acts.

-"If I'm right, you do these things for me, right? And its name is affection or romance."

-After explaining everything to him, he would be quite surprised. He was a robot, he didn't understand why you were treating him the way people are treated. But deep down, he had a deep affection for you, and he was sure of it.

-So at least Killjoy told him it was true.

-It would be like Omen, but more curious about these things and more trying to learn. Only for you!

Yautja Culture and Biology Headcanons

Hello again I've been thinking of this for a while and wanted to do my own little headcanons and bits of lore I personally like and look back on when I'm thinking about the Yautja and who they are has a race and what makes them tick.

Side note this is just my opinion based on the lore I have read and seen and formed my thoughts around it. If you don't agree then its all good.

Warning: There are a very NSFW points in here.

Now we know that Yautja culture does surround the hunting aspect greatly in their world however just having hunters in a society would put the race at a disadvantage and just having a race of purely hunters doesn't make sense, who builds the ships and technology? Who makes the healing enchantments? I know there is a theory that Yautja just steal technology of others races. I feel like that takes away from their advancement aspect if they just take technology, like they are incapable of making their own stuff which I'm strongly against. Yautja are intelligent and resourceful it is something we have seen many of times in comics and movies. They are just has capable has humans when it comes to making, building, and creating new things to help their race.

Yautja society is built around the hierarchy of the hunt, but their are many valuable jobs that Yautja hold. They have architects, scientists, weapons developers, Farmers, and I imagine Traders along with so much more. The one area I think they would lack in is the arts. They do have art and different kinds of clothes and symbols that vary and are unique to each clan. I just don't feel like they have art galleries or fashion shows since they don't really value that. They would make monuments and statues of hunters and great fights, maybe even of some of their Gods. Other then that I don't see them has artist beings. Their trophy rooms would take a lot of their time and I imagine some would be more creative about them then others. War paint would also be unique to them has well. Philosophy like all sapient life forms its something Yautja dive into. I believe I heard that their are Yautjas that take chivas of the mind. Yautja ponder their existence in life and their part to play just like us, but its rare to have those kinds of conversations with them unless you are looking for it.

I don't believe that Yautja society is purely matriarchal. Yautja value strength no matter who you are. If you are right for the job female or male that Yautjas do not care. Females do hold a valued place in the society and have high positions, but that is by their strength and determination. Much like the males everyone must prove themselves to be strong, mentally and physically. Everyone commands respect and must earn it through their actions.

The backstory I like is the one revolving around the Hish and the Amengi. The Amengi used to rule over the Hish in a terrible and harsh fashion. They took ancestors of the Hish and Yautja and messed with their DNA to make servants and warriors to fight in gladiator matches. That was until Kaail the strongest warrior stood up and overthrow the Amengi with his kind and instead the Amengi where now their slaves, and they work under the Yautja.

I believe the Hish, Yautja, and Super Predators are all separate races but come from a common ancestor in the evolutionary process. Much like how humans have common ancestors on Earth. The Yautja, Hish, and Super Predators all grew into what they are today because of DNA splitting, mixing, natural growth, and augmentation. However I wouldn't be surprised if the Hish and the Super Predators are more closely related or even the same race, but I will keep them separate for this. They used Amengi's tech and made it their own and built more upon that not just relying on the Amengi's technology. They taught themselves and made a language along with writing. Yautja are very curious and want to learn more about other races and cultures especially when it helps then in the hunt. When Yautja comes to Earth we know they take back a part of human culture with them. Its way we have things like the Samurai and Viking Predators because they absorb and take after cultures they grow fond of.

Having come from that backstory of once being enslaved and having to fight their way to the top plays into a lot about what we know of Yautjas today. Its a prefect explanation of why the Yautja are so tribal and keep up traditions like hunting. The hunt is what kept them alive, their drive and fighting force made them who they are today. They had to adapt and change in order to survive, but they also stay true to themselves and respect the ancestors that came before them. It would explain why they hold such value in linage and past warriors. Because it is those warriors that fought tooth and nail to become free and live to hunt again. Its why they respect those that come out of chivas, and hold such value of the strongest fighters. Its what has kept them alive for all these years. I think going by this backstory helps us understand more about them and showcases their undeniable strength.

Now onto the Prime Civil war. There was once a time when all the Hish, Yautja, and Super Predators lived in harmony and got a long. However The Yautja hold up the honor code and respect it without a doubt, but the Hish and the Super Predators felt that the code was holding them back. This lead to a large war to break out it was bloody and violent such has war is. However the Yautja as we know them where able to defeat them and drive them out of Prime. That is why you see their being a rivalry between the Yautja, Super Predators and the Hish. Now mind you not all the Hish or Super Predators are dishonorable just like how not all Yautja are honorable. There have been stories of half bloods that work on their own, but still uphold the honor code.

Now Prime is just the Yautja we now today that rule over it and travel the stars and planets. There have been theories that Yautja came from Earth and are trying to come back and inhabit it which is a good theory knowing that Yautja are able to breath Earth air and are very similar to humans. However I do think its simply because they grew up on a planet that had similar make up of carbon and oxygen. Many websites have talked about Yautja blood and their makeup and go over it a bit better then I can.

So onto the male and female anatomy. I've seen much talk on the topic and respect others views on an the matter. From seeing and hearing many stories in the franchise. I believe that Yautja come and many shapes, sizes, and colors. Much like humans Yautja have different variations in how they look and act. Everyone is also different with the honor code. That's why we see clans like what the Ultimate or Upgrade Predator is apart of where they don't view DNA splitting to be dishonorable. However most Yautja tend to have pride in their DNA along with their kind and its against the rules to mate with other kinds of alien races, or have dishonorable advantages. (Unless under certain circumstances I believe.)

Female Yautja come in many shapes and sizes and yes I do believe lots of female Yautja have breasts. It is speculated that a certain Therapsid species are the Yautjas ancestors. The definition of Therapsids is any of various groups of mammallike reptiles of the extinct order Therapsida, inhabiting all continents from mid-Permian to late Triassic times, some of which were probably warm-blooded and directly ancestral to mammals. We even have mammals on Earth that showcase reptilians like traits. I've seen people say it doesn't make sense if they have breasts since they are reptile like. However we need to take into account that they are aliens their make up are unique, and for the most part unknown to humans. All this is just a educated guess, plus I think they come in a variety much like human bodies. We can have our Big Momma like types, but also our Sister Midnight types of Yautja females. If a Yautja female that didn't show her breast before she would show them after she gives birth to a pup, and depending on how many that shape might even stay on the female Yautjas chest. I like all shape and sizes of Yautja titty or no titty. Both have been represented in comics and lore and I try to combine a lot of canons into how I see the Yautja. Females are larger and stronger then males in the Yautja world. Not always but it is usually the case. Their tress are longer and done in beautiful designs that the males try to replicate to attract females. Females can be very competitive, but also more relaxed and less impulsive then their male counterparts. NSFW: Female reproductive organs such has their mounds would produce fluids and slick a lot more then humans. Yautja do want lots of pups to continue their lines and they do find pleasure in mating. If a female Yautja has breasts then they would be sensitive much like their mounds however stimulation is a bit different for Yautja females then human females, but I few it has similar.

No matter what your job is in Yautja society you still need to learn how to fight. All Yautja go through a chiva some are different then others, but everyone needs to go through a right of passage so to speak when they become old enough.

Male Yautjas has we have seen are large, but smaller then females. I do think there are some that can reach larger sizes adapting to where they live in some instances. Their tress are shorter then females, but longer tresses on a male or female is considered more attractive. Tresses are painful to braid and make into styles so the more the have the more it shows the pain you are able to withstand when doing so. They are also super arousing esxpecliy to male Yautjas when pulled and played with. They are competitive and seek to prove themselves constantly. They are impulsive, but also learn how to control that. They travel and bring back new ideas and resources for Primes. Trading and making sure they don't fall behind other alien races is also something they make sure to keep track off when they venture out of Prime to hunt. NSFW: Yautja members are retraceable and come out when they get stimulated for the mating season. They produce a lot of precum to get easier access when having sex with a female Yautja. Their sperm are a lot more stronger due to them needing many pups to leave for their lineage, and their DNA is very strong making it clear who the female has mated with. Since their blood glows it would make sense if their sperm showcases similar properties. NSFW: Mating in Yautja culture is a game of cat and mouse, and very important. Every season Yautja hunters from all around come back to Prime to Mate. Yautja females are on the hunt for a mate and males are the same. Males would showcase their trophy walls to the female and if they like them then they don't tip toe around anything. Yautja mating is a battle for dominance however usually the winner is the female. It is rough, painful, pleasurable and the Yautja love it that way. There are bites, claw marks, and other kinds of love marks that they can give to show they mated, and they wear them with pride. In terms of same sex pairings I imagine they don't pay much mind to it. As long has they still participate and are helpful to the kind and to your kind they could care less. Most Yautja do go on to have pups to be able to continue their lines. There are times when a female would catch many males, or a male would see to many females has well.

Yautja are ruled over by their leaders and the council of ancients. The council of ancients is made up of the strongest and oldest warriors of a Elite clan that rose above the rest to rule over Prime. Yautja also have Royalty who are second in the hierarchy then the Elite clans and are seen at a high regard. They have a high standing in society and their ancestors are said to have been some of the greatest warriors of the planet. Their descendants are also just has great.

Elite clans are the best of the best of them in Yautja Prime. The ancients are always trying to test the clans to see who should be the next rulers of their kind which can involve making them fight against each other without them knowing. A clan chooses rather or not they want to be a Elite clan. It a major responsibility and the Elites are always trying to one up each other in a constant and long battle to see who is the best.

This is all I have for now. Yautja lore and culture is so interesting. I love to talk about them. There is a character I made that is basically and researcher into Yautja culture and their race she lets me geek out on my knowledge of them. I might update it if I have more, but this is just my thoughts I hope you all enjoy.

Sources I Used:

https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Yautja_(Predator)

https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Amengi https://youtu.be/1L34tas1XA4

https://youtu.be/r7STExx_fWY

https://youtu.be/-nkvqT24OBU https://youtu.be/TJ-T-aoKHxI

I did like episode 8 of Ghost game. Ruli's interest in creepy stuff or at least thrills like go-kart racing seem to play a bigger part and Gammamon seems to like her. I like we got a bit more of their group dynamic when they were relaxing in the first part of the episode.

I agree!

The thing about these episodes is that while I understand why a lot of people see these episodes as somewhat slow, we are actually getting a steady stream of information about the group dynamic. This might be me purely speaking as a 02 fan who's intimately aware of how 02 used this kind of writing style to its advantage, but I don't think it's good to underestimate this kind of "seemingly pointless banter" because it's actually still valuable information. Especially since they said already that they want to make it a story that has interactions beyond just those between partners, so if we're making this a story of a group of six rather than three groups of two, it's extremely important that we get the foundation for the group's dynamics and inner relationships before we start building off of them.

You’ll have to forgive me for using this ask as a tangent opportunity, but my experience thinking about those loaded words "character development" always involves the question "was there actually no character development, or was it just subtle about it?” I think people really don’t tend to appreciate the necessity for apparently meaningless banter, and this is why I have a hard time when people pin certain early episodes of Appmon or the like as “filler” just because they didn’t necessarily drive home any plot revelations or say “this is what I learned today!”, because you’re still getting information about their mentalities, behavior, and interactions, which become important when those relationships are put to the test later in the series. Adventure is well-known for its “good character development” because it put said development front and center and made episodes that were unsubtle about “this is what I learned about myself today!”, but it was only able to sustain that by also filling its time with banter and other interactions, and on the same token there are definitely things out there that were big on “this is what I learned today!” but still don’t reveal much about the characters when you think about it (this is one of the biggest differences between the original Adventure and the reboot).

It’s also a source of a lot of the many disputes within Digimon fans about what works are considered to have “good character development” or not -- for instance, the accusations 02 gets of having “flat” characters with no development, whereas those who know the series well are fully aware that we actually know a damn lot about the relevant characters to borderline psychological degrees, it just has to be gleaned from said interactions and watching their behavior over the course of the series rather than expecting the series to say it unsubtly to your face. Or the really infamous cognitive dissonance disputes over Xros Wars, where depending on whom you ask the series either is all style and no substance, or arguably has too much it’s juggling at once -- in fact, it's provably untrue that there isn't any character development nor coherent arcs for any human or Digimon character in Xros Wars, and I've seen people even unpack full meta analysis on them, but because almost every moment in the series is dedicated to "advancing the plot in some way" and very little downtime or explanation of home life backstories, there's a bit of added detachment in that you have to unpack all of those character arcs as they pertain to the fantasy isekai world in a very cerebral manner, instead of personally relating to them much. Added to the huge number of things it has to juggle at once and spread thin a bit, it leads to a viewer more used to the Adventure model of character development often mentally clocking out and being unable to emotionally connect to its contents, so that’s how the series ends up so divisive over whether it had “good character writing” or not. And then on the flip side you have Hunters, which is nothing but the character dynamics and banter, but doesn't advance beyond the initial setup, which basically puts it on the other extreme.

I’ve seen a hell of a lot of things within and outside Digimon that I can say truly are devoid of character substance in either the character arc or the banter/dynamic sense, and I can at least tell you that most Digimon works (including the aforementioned both sides of Xros Wars) have put quite a lot of care into establishing their characters in some way, it’s just that whether this is the style of “character writing” you prefer is going to depend on your personal taste. Whether it's about going forward with Ghost Game, or whether it's about going back and re-evaluating older Digimon series or even other works in general, I think it's important to remember that "character development" has a variety of meanings that range from "how much the character changed over the course of the narrative" (you can have a well-"developed" character who doesn't change at all, you know!) to "how much we know about the character's mindset" to "how much one can relate to them". Personally, as a 02 lover, I happen to be in the camp who likes Ghost Game’s current style of laying down banter and dynamics first before doing something with it (which by extension is basically the Adventure/02 model, I’ll fully admit to that), and it’s probably a big reason I’m so attached to Appmon as well, so all of this is amenable to me. Whether they’ll do something with all of this information in later episodes is still up in the air, but I can at least say that we’re definitely still getting a lot to work with from these early episodes alone.

Ramblings of an Old Soldier Part 2/?

Part 1 can be found HERE

The next day, the Unkall boy came back to the old soldier, sitting on the bench where he normally does, reading his data tablet. The boy had a rather happy look on him today.

“Ah, you’re back. I take it that my story wasn’t quite enough on its own then?”

“Not quite mister. It turned out to be more than enough for my first paper. After I turned it in, my teacher said I could go ahead and write the rest of my papers for the course since I had found a primary source willing to share their experience.”

“I see. How kind of your teacher. Back when I was in school, they would have told us to stuff it.”

“So, what other stories do you have to tell?”

“How about my time in the cycle after the Martian campaign?”

“That sounds wonderful. Let me start my recorder.”

The Unkall child pushes a glowing button on his data tablet, and a blue dot appearing on the screen indicated that the recording had started

“It was less than a month after the battle on Mars; that’s one twenty-fourth of a cycle in standard units. Reconstruction had begun on mars, and the war fleets which were now all massed around Terra had been split into five groups. Group Solar and Group Lunar were the two largest of the fleets, and as such were classed together. Group Pangea, Group Gondwana, and Group Oceana were the three smaller groups, and were classed together as well. The fleets were organized in this way by Grand Admiral Demetrius, to ensure that no one fleet would have to stand against the enemy for too long a time.”

“Since I’ve brought him up, I should probably tell you a bit about the Grand Admiral. Remember what I was saying about the preparations for the battle on Mars. All the meticulous planning done to move the civilians back to Terra, and keep morale up while being an effective fighting force? Well, that came from Demetrius, and was only slightly modified by individual units as the orders were passed down the chain. His odd decision making turned out to be one of the most valuable things that humanity had, because nobody could anticipate his plans; especially the Vrumoids. He was only a rear admiral, but after his commendation, and the first victory in the war, He was immediately promoted.”

“Back to the war now. The battle plan was simple. Keep a constant pressure on the enemy, working in a single spot, pushing the enemy back system by system, and planet by planet. Where to stop would be figured out as the fleets went along. This seemed to work very well. In most systems, Groups Solar and Lunar rarely had fire a single shot. The Vrumoids would either flee or be destroyed by one of the smaller groups before the heavy guns of the heavy class ships could be brought to bear.”

“The reconquest continued almost flawlessly until there was a single human world left to reclaim. Rexorb VI was nothing more than a rock when humanity last saw it, but after looking upon it, the armada called for the command group; Group Regal; to come and take a look. At first sight of the data scans, Demetrius broke down with laughter. Failing to find the humor in this situation, his second in command asked him what was so funny.” “These poor bastards. They’ve made this planet up to be just like Mars, hoping we’ll make the same mistakes they did. Have they never been told that it’s a bad idea to try using the tactics someone created against them? They’ve made themselves the easiest targets possible for us, and what’s even better is that they did it on a mining world. There were only a few housing units on that planet, and its riches lie deep inside. This is the perfect opportunity to try a new idea.”

“With that, preparations were made swiftly, and with much laughter all around. On the back side of Rexorb VI’s moon, groups Solar, Gondwana, and Oceana moved into position, mounting themselves with their primary propulsion systems poised to drop the moon from its orbit.”

The boy spoke up

“Didn’t the Vrumoid forces on the planet notice what was happening?”

Laughing, the old man responded

“Nope. That was a benefit of only showing the enemy one small and one large battle group at a time. According to Vrumoid intelligence recovered after the war, The defenders on Rexorb VI simply thought we were just deciding how to invade properly. They had no idea Demetrius was crazy enough to consider crashing the moon into the planet, and they would have to have been crazy to even guess that the rest of the fleet would just go along with it. I know Demetrius was expecting to do some explaining to the others.”

“The High Admiral may have been absolutely insane, but he wasn’t heartless. He ordered a shuttle to take one squad and an emissary to give them one final chance to surrender. They of course, believing a ground war lay ahead, refused. That was the last mistake that the Vrumoids ever made when dealing with humanity. Exactly one planetary axis revolution after the shuttle returned to the fleet, all the pushing ships’ engines fired up. Each of the ships had worked out their individual point of no return for propelling the moon towards the planet, and had an order to pull off at what their captain deemed a safe time before reaching their point of no return. By the time the last ship pulled off, The moon was going faster than its own terminal velocity.”

“When that moon hit the surface of the planet, the entire thing cracked like a geode. After observing this from one of their comm stations, the Vrumoid Empire rushed to set up peace treaty negotiations. Of course, who was the Terran representative by unanimous vote from the United Terran Council? None other than High Admiral Demetrius. They figured that if nothing else, he could get the Vrumoids to leave humanity alone. But what he got us was something so much greater.”

“As you might have learned in class, our home system and colonies were entirely located within an isolated part of Vrumoid space. We had no knowledge of the Galactic Council Alliance, at least until one of the Vrumoid delegates at the negotiations made a mistake and asked one of his compatriots what the council would think of their actions if they ever found out. After learning that there were other intelligent species in the galaxy, Demetrius demanded that humanity be granted a swath of planets and territory directly to the territory of another GCA member.”

“This single achievement is what brought humanity forward. Demetrius did what no other Terran could do; he found sentient life that wasn’t actively trying to kill us, and he made sure we could get to them with ease. If it weren’t for him, we would have never known the GCA existed, and likely would have been either wiped out or enslaved by the Vrumoids after they rebuilt their forces.”

“Of course, after we made contact with the council, and they saw what we were able to do to a far more technologically advanced species, they demanded to see our battle reports and to speak with all the commanding officers. I remember standing there by High Admiral Demetrius’ side.”

The young Unkall spoke up ecstatically

“You were a commanding officer?”

“Sure was kiddo. Leading the charge of those bikers on mars was one hell of a brave thing, and Demetrius took note. When he got the chance to promote one of his soldiers to an admiral under his command for Group Solar, he spoke loud and clear to us and said “Where’s that crazy bastard that volunteered to charge a platoon of enemy tanks using nothing but motorcycles and bombs on sticks? I have a job for you!” That was the day I was no longer a simple marksman, I was an Admiral, and a damn good one too. My group didn’t lose a single vessel to the enemy.”

“I still remember the day I went down on that rock the day before we cracked it. The Vrumoid commander must have been watching the video recordings from when I charged the tanks, because the moment I walked into the room and she looked up at me, she looked all sorts of shaken up. When I told her that this was her last chance to accept a mercy never offered by her empire, a chance to surrender; she simply said that surrender would never come until she and her warriors no longer stood upon the planet. If only she knew the irony in those words.”

“I remember being at the peace conference, and although Demetrius had only been seen rarely by the Vrumoids, mostly in transmissions intercepted from Mars to Earth, they had seen me plenty. I think I scared them more than Demetrius did, because when I talked about how my motorcycle wasn’t out of fuel yet, they started agreeing to our demands.”

Curiously, the boy tapped something into his data tablet

“Wait a minute, are you saying that you’re Admiral Sturm?”

“Indeed I am. Admiral Jakob Sturm, service number 6556-0293-422-41, former commander of the Terran expeditionary fleet codename Solar. I proudly led my sailors, soldiers, and marines through some of the harshest battles that humanity has faced, and kept my fleet intact. I wasn’t lying when I said that I didn’t lose a ship in my group to the enemy. And after serving 10 cycles in service of my species, I left honorably.”

“So what did you do after you left? I’d imagine being an admiral is a hard job to top.”

“You’re right, admiral is a hard job to beat. I served as an ambassador of Terra for a cycle before I returned to the stars. I found some of the others from back on Mars that charged with me on that day. We were a mercenary group. We mostly took escort contracts or welfare and security for anyone we deemed especially needy. We did good work for a few cycles, but then I had to give it a rest.”

“That’s around the time your name stopped appearing in records of both the GCA and Terran reports. What happened?”

“I’ve been talking for too long. I think you might be able to get a few pages out of what I’ve said today. Better to not burn up all your content at once, right? I’ll be here again tomorrow, like I always am. I’ll tell you more then.”

“If you insist sir. I’ll be here.”

“Until then, take care. I may be old, but I still expect people to stick to a schedule.”

With that, the boy stopped his recording and went home. To meet someone as important as Admiral Sturm, who seemed to have vanished from most records 8 cycles ago, was entirely unexpected. Unexpected, but it will certainly make a wonderful paper for his teacher.

Hello Tumblr people. I’m 31 years old and I’ve been on Tumblr since 2014. That’s not really old, and that’s not really a long time, but I know it’s older and longer than a lot of other folks. Tumblr is a space mainly populated by teens and twenties, and I know when I was in that age group, I thought 31 was a Real Adult (TM) Which, shit, it’s not, it’s really not, especially not for me, but nonetheless, I have learned some things in my time that I wish I could impart to my younger self, and instead will impart to y’all. Take what you like and what works for you and leave the rest, I’m no expert or guru or authority on anything, I’m just trying to be helpful. Being nice costs nothing. I once was standoffish to someone who came and chatted to me in IMs. That guy later died. True story. I feel terrible about it to this day. I was wary and kind of snotty in those days and I regret that. It’s one thing to be careful about strangers approaching but that wasn’t what I did here. It costs nothing to be nice. It costs nothing to be friendly. To do stuff like show interest in others, care about what they have to say, comment when they share things about their day. These are tiny things that cost nothing but give so much. Don’t pass the opportunity by. And definitely don’t snub someone for no reason. If you don’t want to interact, you don’t have to, but don’t be cold about it unless it’s legitimately because you’re uncomfy with this person and want them to go away. Your safety and comfort do come before any obligation to be nice, but I hope it’s clear that’s not what I’m talking about here. Be a candle that lights other candles. You know what else costs nothing? Encouragement. There’s nothing stopping you from telling others what you like about their content, what they post, what they create, what thoughts they have, the things they say, or just how passionate they are about something. There’s nothing stopping you from saying you hope the best for someone going through a rough time, or how cute their pets are, or how you’re glad they got themselves a treat today. You don’t need to be someone’s therapist ---I know I sure don’t have the emotional energy for that--or have solutions for them, you don’t need to force yourself to say anything insincere or that you don’t have the spoons for, but when you can, say something positive to others. First impressions can be wrong but gut feelings are often right. Like I said, being nice should NEVER trump your own comfort or safety. If you get weird vibes from someone, book it. Sure, you could be wrong. I’ve been wrong about a lot of people. I’ve also been right about others, and should have left when I had the chance before they could prove to me how right I was. Technically, there was nothing stopping me. It was online, after all. I could have just vanished and they’d probably never have tracked me down or made contact again. But I was lonely, and socially awkward, and like many people, most of my human contact was online, and I thought that this was worth it. It’s not. Whatever kind of friendship or therapeutic RP or free art or support or compliments or advice you’re getting from someone online. . . it’s not worth it if they’re mean or creepy too. Whatever you are getting, you can find it somewhere else, in someone else, who won’t make you have to put up with that kind of crap for it. If something feels wrong, don’t wait around for it to get worse. Yes, you may be incorrectly judging a situation and running from nothing, but it’s better you run from nothing than NOT run from SOMETHING. And I know that things like anxiety disorders, trauma, and just different communication styles can make it hard to judge these things (I’ve thought people didn’t like me before just because they were far less effusive in their typing style than I am, and I was wrong) but if you really feel uncomfortable, like this person has said mean or sexual things to you, it’s not just the brain weasels telling you lies. If you’re truly in doubt, get another person’s opinion, but also don’t let them convince you “it’s nothing” if it feels like something. Trust yourself. Creeps, like children, will test your boundaries. Kids will do shit just to see what they can get away and how far they can push you before you put your foot down. Creeps are the same. They’ll start with stuff that you can easily ignore, brush off, and put up with without feeling it’s worth ditching the whole friendship over. But they’ll rarely let it stay there. They’ll typically escalate it if they’re not rebuked. Rebuke them. It can be scary. It can be hard. I know this. I know it firsthand. But feel no sympathy. Feel no fear. Tell them off and pack your bags. They want to know how much you’ll put up with? Show them----nothing at all, that’s what. Don’t be afraid to change your views but don’t feel the need to broadcast it. I’m never getting a personal Tumblr. Because I’m glad they weren’t around when I was a teen. I would have posted things I don’t believe now. Same for when I’m in my 20s. And I bet that will the be the case in my 40s, 50s, and 60s too. Our lives are journeys of changing, learning, and unlearning. And that’s great. But if you post every step of your journey for the world to see, there are those who will use it against you, even if it was stuff from years ago that you should be applauded for growing from, not derided for having ever believed in. Not to mention that what’s the most up-to-date woke terminology and politics changes very rapidly, and what was acceptable when I was a teen is not the preferred lingo now, and it’s likely going to keep changing, and there will be people who find your posts and don’t care about that either. I realize Tumblr gives us a format to metaphorically scream our present beliefs and show how right what you believe is, and the urge to reblog when you see something you agree with wholeheartedly is strong. And if you’ve got a blog that doesn’t easily connect back with you, or you don’t plan to have for the next five years, or whatever, go ahead. But if your blog can be easily connected to you, and therefore could be connected to you again in the future, it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit judicious. I’m not saying “don’t take a stand on anything ever because you might change your mind and/or someone might drag you”, I am saying that in the age of cancel culture and people deep digging for ancient receipts, young people are no longer getting to have their journeys, with all their rooms for fuckups and re-thinkings, that I and those before me got to have, and I think that sucks. By all means, take a stand on what you believe in now, fight for it with all your heart, just also don’t make it too easy for other people to use it against you should you ever change your mind---and don’t be afraid to change your mind either, even when it’s against the grain of what’s presently popular opinion. Find things out for yourself when possible You know how when they taught you things in school about history and America and whatnot and now you’ve found out that there’s so much they DIDN’T tell you, and at least half of what they did is a very edited sack of hooey? Well, the same is true of Tumblr, Facebook, and other online spaces as well as real life. We all laugh at our Boomer parents and grandparents who share clearly false stories on Facebook because they can’t tell that it was clearly crafted to incite their anger or endorsement based on how it’s tailored to validate their beliefs, but I see the same thing happen here. Loads of tale gets touted as “true” on Tumblr because they have been made to appeal to us emotionally by validating our beliefs. But just because our beliefs may be good or progressive or what have you, does not mean that everything that appeals to them is going to be true. When you see a post circulating that claims something really cool about history or such is true, I suggest fact-checking it. This will help halt the spread of misinformation---even if it’s harmless---and help you build your critical thinking and research skills. This does not mean “you must change your views” it means “be skeptical even when something validates your views” People on our own side can lie, and that’s not harmless even if it seems so---contributing to a culture of misinformation is NOT harmless, and we’re less likely to be skeptical of claims that validate what we already believe. Don’t fall for this. That’s all. I hope something in here was valuable to you. If not, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!