#extraphysical
Text
Astralogic Projectors
Summary
Astralogic projector is a branch of extraphysical technology, enabling a user to astral project into a specified operating range.
The main purpose of an astralogic projector is to project the operator's self across its operational range, often defined by its strength but also the physical dimensions of the information repository, like a library or a bank of folder cabinets.
History
Derived from older methods of astral projection, the technology was pioneered in Trinovantum, Albion, in 2856, as a form of mass surveillance technology, but was ineffective. It was used in the Great War as a form of advanced scouting and espionage. (See: Wartime Applications for Astralogic Projectors)
With the invention of the computer in 2948, many more applications for the projector had been discovered, mostly in mass communications, virtual environments and personal entertainment. (See: Full-Immersion)
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Crossposting from an old reddit convo because this beautiful post got me thinking about it again. How can we square the circle of Revachol begging for Harry's help in stopping the nuke VS the fact that not only Elysium's entire narrative structure hinges on the circumstances of that damn nuke falling, but also that Revachol herself is, on other occasions, dead certain that the world will end very soon ("THE AGE OF MAN IS OVER" etc)?
She knows what will happen and says as much in no uncertain terms. That doesn't mean she can't hope. Rodionov also knew what would happen, and Rodionov still hoped, still worked to help his fellow countrymen even in the face of annihilation. What did Revachol say to Dros's comrades, whom he saw speaking to her as they were being gunned down? She must have known that the Revolution would fail just as surely as she now knows about the nuke. I think she still put her faith in them, because what else could she do?
I'm also sure that her appeal to a RCM officer means that there WILL be some strange window of opportunity when this whole thing could theoretically be stopped here, in Revachol, on the ground (certainly not 22 years on, given the specifics of where the nuke comes from. No way to stop THAT, practically and almost ontologically). I just don't think it'll succeed, for a variety of reasons. There's plenty of precedent for characters wanting to accomplish something and failing. In the game itself, the narrative emphasis on the figurine, for one.
But there's also the possibility that she's referring to something stranger than what you or I could possibly imagine. Some weird extraphysical third option. For example the fuck is "I CANNOT PERISH WITH IT", how the hell is she expecting to keep existing past the very end of the world? In this branch of the nuke conversation in particular, it almost seems like she is expecting Harry to perform something that will not change the course of history per se, but rather preserve her essence somehow.
Sigh. I really hope we'll find out some day…
110 notes
·
View notes
Note
Lots of peoples irl think an immortal soul/eternal essence/unforgettable memories is/are a defining characteristic of humans.
cont. "I mean to say that to those people it isn't so weird for humans to persist while the inhuman fade with their material being."
--
I know, I think that's most people. Humans tend to intuit some kind of extraphysical existence, the same way we intuit a flat earth and free will and a sun that moves across the sky - if we don't investigate all this and learn any different. I don't personally see how such a phenomenon is possible when we know that consciousness and indeed everything we are is produced by our brain. When the brain dies, we go black like the light on my ceiling fan when I flick the power switch off. We don't ask where the light went. It's just gone. Wolf's not still flailing around somewhere trying to avoid flung poop from an angry monkey when I end sekiro.exe.
I do understand the intuition though. When my dog died and I was carrying her out to the car to go to the doggie crematorium, her body was so shockingly pliant, heavy, and suddenly empty. It was like she'd left it and gone somewhere else. She didn't go with her body out to the car at all, she was just laying in my room behind my desk chair, still. It felt like that for weeks.
A lot of Unsounded's cosmology is the result of me wondering what the consequences would be if there really was extraphysical conscious existence. Like, there are so many versions of you. Which one would be eternal? Would your consciousness and memories at the time of death lift off you in one intact blob, or would everything break apart into all the selves you were? Your five year old self has no idea who your fifty year old self is, and vice versa, more or less. I don't see how they could stay together. If your five year old self simply doesn't get to be immortal like your death self, what about if you die with terrible dementia or a brain injury, would that just be you forever? Or does it roll back to a previous version? Where is that previous version coming from? Are there back-ups? So your child selves DO persist? What about all your trauma? Do you have to remember it all forever? Maybe you have no memories at all and are just an empty consciousness. Is there much satisfaction in being the equivalent of a disembodied houseplant for all eternity? Can you make new memories without a brain? How would you do anything without it? Or eyes or any senses?! AAAA!
Of course the simplest answer to all this is there's no reason to think it's a concern, the whole concept is just something we intuit incorrectly. Like the inak, I'm pretty cool with that. Because the alternative is really scary to think about.
Duane imagines Ssael seeing the khert and the eels and the squishes and all that, and deciding immediately that the Gods had to go.
52 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pale 10.z
Every time she complained, her parents reminded her she was eleven. Those toys were for children half her age. Not for her.
Younger than I'd thought, but it makes her behavior make more sense (I'd expect a teenager to avoid grabbing food from a child, or at least have more complicated feelings about it. At eleven, "children" is not yet a separate protected group for her)
Nothing was for her except this dangerous, dancing light. This was hers in a big, out of control way.
She gulped in air, lungs hurting, breath still held. Muscles released because she couldn’t hold them taut any longer and then she clenched them again, and in the process almost nodded into the fire, nose touching it. She held onto the flame for as long as she could.
I can't tell really if this girl is an Other/becoming one/Aware, or if this is just normal pyromania
She found a place to crouch, to devour the stolen snacks. To chug a soda until her throat hurt. Trying not to eat, but to release that tension.
There was only one way to release that tension.
this cannot be a sustainable rate of arson
She had an impulse, a desire to eat, to reach for food, but the walls that stretched to her left were without window or door. Any energy food might have given her was denied to her.
I was wondering about the food thing, but it might be linked to the fire as well: if she's more flame than human, it makes sense she would be hungry as fire is. I'm also reminded of the norse myth where Loki fails to out-eat a man who is revealed to be the anthropomorphizication of fire, because nothing eats more than fires
A crowd dispersed, blurry, barely there. Behind them, they left the echo of a song sung, filled with faith, of love and loss. Behind them they left a wreath by the roadside, a girl’s portrait in a heart forged out of flowers, the image on the portrait bleeding away in the rain and the dark.
The light helped to clarify her. The feelings heavy in the air helped to lift her up.
This was a dying image, the rain putting out candles, the darkness creeping in.
This was a door.
oh. She's the Girl by Candlelight.
Lantern, candlelit vigil and arson. She was three halves put together.
beacon and boundary, grief and remembrance, destruction and delight
Following the swell of pain from the people in the car as they fought to get out as the fire erupted around them, the traces of darkness from her proximity to the Abyss were fed with another sort of power.
not wild about that! But she doesn't seem that sentient or capable of decisions against fire at this point, so I'm not holding it against her. It just seems that early power from killing people might be a bad influence
A girl who saw beauty and glory and herself in fires faced a group of men and women who held the small candles, who were awash in emotion and faith and remembering the beauty and best parts of a young teenager who’d crashed by the side of the road.
There were alignments there. Places to meet.
The chasing of the flame, the self-destructive pursuit, the fear, running… that was common ground between the pyromaniac and the girl who was suffocating in smoke. They found places for the parts of themselves that weren’t whole to meet and to marry.
The vigil and the suffocating girl married in their own ways, in the senselessness of a tragedy still in the making. They met and joined in hope.
I love this worldbuilding, complex spirits are rapidly becoming one of my favorite kinds of Others
And I guess the lantern doesn't count here, because it was just a tool collected, not a consciousness embraced. I wonder if Bailey could have become part of the Girl by Candlelight if she hadn't fallen into the Abyss?
This was a cell, yes, and she was imprisoned for life, but that life was to be a short one. The parts of the diagram that had yet to be used were a kind of extraphysical machinery made of lines in the ground. Machinery that would saw her open and puncture her, machinery that would leech out power, machinery that would latch onto her and pull pieces of her in separate directions with more brutality than if she was flesh and they’d lashed her to four chains and four horses, each horse set to run in a separate direction.
She would be spiritually butchered and the pieces of her portioned out like so much meat. It waited for a single word.
yeah okay that would leave you with some antipathy about binding
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be cool about this so I assumed you wouldn’t,” Moss said, staring at them with empty eye sockets. “Cut away my ability to feel pain, cut away fear, cut away mercy. I put other things inside. Curses. Lesser Others.”
fucking hell Matthew (do not let Verona find out about this technique) (or either or the others actually)
Fingers hooked in empty eye sockets, and she could feel the echoes there.
You have to do it yourself, Matthew. Reach back and around and then tear them out. Then we’ll awaken you.
I’m scared.
The fear in the moment is the price you pay for advantage later.
fucking hell Matthew's parents!
A man who had been wounded early on, who had been condemned for the sins of his father. Who had found peace and contentedness, but in the smallest and simplest way, and had no drive to venture further.
Take away what he’d managed to scrabble together for himself, however, and…
No ambition, so it's not for that that he would pursue the Carmine Beast (at this point I'm assuming he knows what Edith is up to). But to keep her safe and prevent the Doom...
“We did as you suggested, and found the origins of the original echoes. Sydney is twenty years old now. She gave up the pyromania. Became a different kind of wild teenager. Found release in drugs and sex, instead.”
hey, she survived! And maybe isn't doing great, but it's still something
“Kennet. I’ll be blunt, Matthew. They get impatient if I spend more than a few days here, and they like and trust me more than they like or trust you. You’ve been here for months.”
I'm curious as to who "they" are at this point. I guess Miss, the Faerie, some of the goblins, Alpeana, John? Not the Choir yet. That's a small group, I wonder if there were more Others who are no longer around?
“No. They’re asking him to kill her. She’s too dangerous. Kennet’s become too large a town, things that would be fine on their own in a smaller place are concerning in aggregate.”
huh. So this is probably pretty soon before the Hungry Choir was made... I wonder if it was partly as a power source to replace the lantern?
“I wish… I had sworn something else. The things I have in abundance are things he lacks. Fire inside, something desired, a goal to move to. I can patch over damage and he is so damaged. I have the eyes of two people and a crowd, glittering with flame, and his eye sockets are empty and dark. We would fit together so…”
oh that would be neat, I love a gestalt/mutual possession. And this is why you should qualify your oaths more! Saying "I will not possess your body without your uncoerced consent" would have fixed this
“No. Possessive desire. I want to live in the spaces inside his skin. I want him to be mine, bright and alive. I want to mix with him beneath the surface of his skin.”
this is very much my jam. Thinking fondly of shards from ward.
John had shot his longtime friend and companion, the girl Yalda.
huh. I'm admittedly a bit fuzzy on the timeline, but I'd assume that creating the Choir would have to be done soon after Yalda's death. And the Girl by Candlelight doesn't seem to be involved in that, which would mean she didn't make the Choir, and so isn't the mastermind behind the murder of the Carmine Beast
She needed and wanted something else. The light and life that was Matthew.
She would find some echo he’d left and marry herself to it, and she had no illusions that she would live for long after.
Blackest oblivion would claw her to pieces and disseminate those pieces over dark void, but she would go with the echo of a man who made her life brighter.
awww
“We’re going to remember them, reminiscing on deeds and dares, and I challenge the everloving shit out of you, goblin and all, to name the best way to remember each of them. Take your turns, give us your best memories of them, name their best deeds, or come up with the best way to remember them. We’ll settle for the best one, with respect and spoils from the dead going to the person who came up with it.”
this is oddly touching and sentimental for a goblin funeral. Of course, I imagine most of the stories will be crude, but the structure is sweet
“And you shouldn’t draw any,” Snowdrop said. “Nobody wants them, they suck. It’d be thoughtless.”
Cherrypop burst into laughter, pointing, while Peckersnot quietly glanced around, made sure nobody was arguing with Snowdrop, then smiled before sitting down.
I think the art is Verona's influence, good to see it encouraged
“We’re holding a second service later. John’s swinging by, he’s out on patrol now. The trio will visit. We could have words with them then.”
“Mmm, maybe. What do we even say?”
“We make peace. If the Witch Hunters come in greater numbers…”
does Matthew know? I feel like he'd have to, but this does not seem like the thought you'd have about people you were trying to kill
“You want, Edith James. You desire, you hunger, you have a spark of dancing flame you chase, and you have thoroughly cornered yourself. You want a release of this building tension, and you will do something destructive or self-destructive to find that release.”
don't love that!
“Miss has returned. The practitioners know. If they don’t already know you and I are collaborating, she will tell them.”
I'd hoped they could keep that quiet for a bit. At least Maricica doesn't seem to know about Rook?
She’ll focus herself on the witch hunters who are on the approach, next.
goddammit more of them
“Guilherme hired the Witch Hunter. He used the contact he’s been in touch with, a human who interacts with the courts. I can’t ever be sure when he outclasses me in scheming, and he may never admit it clearly, but I think it didn’t go as he wished it would. His attention is divided, and mine is singularly focused on countering what he does.”
what. why.
did he want the witch hunter going after Edith and Maricica? Because that's basically the opposite of what happened
“The door has been opened and I don’t think it will close until summer’s end, at the earliest.”
thing's happening at summer's end:
Carmine Furs ascension
witch hunters peak
Verona's housing situation goes back into flux
school starts
Maricica approached until their toes nearly touched, a foot of space between them. She pulled back the wing and showed Edith the syringe.
“How did you know the other one-”
“A look in your eye, as you glanced at me. Fear, apprehension, need. Few things match to those specific proportions of those three things I saw. Seeing how you looked at your husband confirmed it for me.”
so I had assumed the syringe was a weapon of some kind. But is it medicine instead? Maybe almost a vaccine against the Doom?
"The girls are motivated, thanks to Guilherme’s Witch Hunter. They will come for you. They will bind you. Perhaps until the end of Summer. Perhaps this is the only way you’ll ever be free of that binding. However it unfolds, I will buy your silence with this gift. Do your best to avoid the binding, fight them, maneuver, enlist my help if you wish, enlist anyone’s, but you must swear that if captured and compelled to talk, you will say nothing about us.”
fuck! That's cutting off a line of inquiry. Good to know Maricica thinks the girls will succeed against Edith though?
And interesting "us". It's a bit weird phrasing if Maricica was just referring to her and Edith, so who else is involved?
“If left alone, the Doom of Edith James will dwindle and fluctuate in strength, getting weaker over time. That darkness that binds Matthew to you will lose strength over time and Matthew will be left to wonder and theorize why it changed its behavior. In the midst of that wondering, it will cross his mind that it was convenient that you two were drawn together by your need for him. He knows you better than anyone, and he will connect changes in your mood and approach to the changes in the Doom and see your hand behind it all.”
oh, so the opposite of a vaccine! What the hell Edith, that is incredibly manipulative. So she's been dosing herself to keep the Doom strong so that Matthew thinks he can't leave, I guess that's a mark towards him not knowing what's going on.
“You’re a villain more degenerate than any of our local goblins, Edith. Fostering the darkness inside yourself so it gives him a reason to save you, to stay close. Letting it fill that space inside you, extracting it, over and over, to make your own monster. Making it stronger to match his growth in strength. Do you put it in his food, or do you inject it into him while he sleeps?”
or dosing him I guess! what the fuck.
thinking about how desperate Matthew seems to find a way to save her permanently, how worn down keeping the Doom has left him, how it's blocked him from all other practice...
I was somewhat sympathetic to Edith on the assumption the goal of her schemes was to stop the Doom for good. What the hell.
Maricica laughed. “That ugliness from inside you has grown to such terrible proportions as you’ve used it to poison the man you love. You’ve no idea.”
no wonder this Faerie of Dark Fall likes her
The sweeping dark of oblivion that reached over her wore her face, now. It slithered inside Matthew because she couldn’t.
...
Edith’s parents were the wary, dancing, ever-pursuing shadows at the edge of her life, always wanting to be closer to her, when she didn’t care enough.
The body of Edith, at least, was happy, content she had spared them too much grief.
this is reminding me a bit of Mary from Twig. wildbow returning to the concept of someone who looks like one's child but is not playing the role half-heartedly
“Good luck with our local practitioners, dear Edith. Put on a good show and convince them you’re our primary culprit, and we’ll release you from any binding or circumstance when we’re done.”
WELL IT FOOLED ME
and here I was thinking that "Edith was behind it all" was a bit of a letdown as a solution
"For now, you should do your best to survive. If you can keep your relationship with Matthew in the wake of this, it’ll be a miracle."
lol
She still held stasis, maintaining vigil, holding onto love even as it hurt. Even if that love, if she really were able to be honest with herself, was as good as gone.
:\
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
Last time on APJFM...
Spoilers under the cut for chapters 1 - 106.
Reader sold herself to Sans to pay for her sister Sasha’s hospital treatments; Sans bought Reader to help him forget his failure to stop the anomaly. Against their better judgments, the two of them fell for each other. When Reader learned the truth about the anomaly, she and Sans made a plan to stop him: she would distract Jerren for as long as possible while Sans figured out how to destroy his power to turn back time. Sans pulled it off — sacrificing himself in the process. Now, no one remembers he ever existed.
Sasha, Frisk and Asriel managed to break the spell on the Surface and bring it down to earth. Then they attacked the Institute for Extraphysical Studies, Jerren’s personal laboratory for studying magic. Jerren anticipated the move, and trapped them in the basement. But breaking the spell sent the magic back to the humans who were present. Both Reader and Frisk’s magic has manifested itself.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'll throw in an interesting tidbit about the spiritual things that surround me. This doesn't just fit into one religion because it's seen by various fields of study, so there can be variations according to cultures and sciences.
But how are cords seen from a spiritual point of view and how is this present in Death Stranding? Let's see…
We know from the spiritist view that when we go on astral journeys (our spirit "detaches" itself from the material body) we are still connected to it through a cord. So there are two types of cord here. One is extremely strong and resistant and the other is more or less fleeting.
-> Silver Cord - also called fluidic loop or astral cord. It is made up of a semi-material substance that connects and keeps the psychosoma or perispirit connected to the physical body or soma. Each cell of the spiritual body is linked to the corresponding cell of the physical body; however, when these bodies dissociate through unfolding or projection, the subtle elements of the psychosoma form a kind of appendage, which is called the silver cord. At the moment of physical death or disincarnation, it is definitively broken, while during the process of unfolding or projection of the incarnate consciousness, it is what maintains the connection between the spiritual body and the physical one, preventing the death of the latter and keeping both not only connected, but in constant communication. Anatomically, the silver cord is elastic, with variable density and diameter. It is formed at the moment of conception and spends most of its time collected or shrunk in the intimacy of the physical cells.
-> Golden Cord - also called the extraphysical umbilical cord. It is an extraphysical organ that connects the psychosoma to the mental body and is responsible for higher-level energy transfers. It is responsible for the information and mentalizations carried out from the mental body towards the psychosomatic body, which is lower in vibration. It has survived the biological shocks and clashes of disincarnation and reincarnation over the millennia. It has a physical and extraphysical role, as it participates in the paraphysiology of the psychosomatic body and the physiology of the physical body.
source
[image taken from the internet, not mine]
And then, when we go to Repatriate in DS, we know where to find Sam's physical body because we are guided by the golden cord.
Things sometimes get confusing because we have 7 bodies and they all have their functions, but let's keep in mind the idea of the astral body and the material body.
I'm going to explain the interpretation of the 7 bodies and the levels of action of each of them, but we don't need to get too attached to this because it's not something seen (literally) in Death Stranding like the golden cord (or other cords/connections).
I've taken this information from a book I own. The visions explained here are reports of the author's clairvoyant experience.
#1) The Etheric Body
-> First layer
-> "Ether", intermediate state between energy and the matter:
Note: the circles around the body are the seven main chakras, including the vortices at the head and base of the body.
It is made up of tiny lines of energy "like a glowing web of light rays" similar to the lines on a television screen. It has the same structure as the physical body and includes all the anatomical parts and organs. The etheric body consists of a defined structure of lines of force, or energy matrix, on which the physical matter of the body's tissues is molded and fixed. The physical tissues only exist as such because of the vital field that sustains them; and for this very reason, the body, which precedes the body, is not the result of this body. Note: the color of this body can vary between blue and grey.
#2) The Emotional Body
-> Second layer
-> It is associated with feelings
Its colors can vary from bright light matrices to dark and cloudy ones, depending on the clarity or confusion of the feelings or the energy that produces them. Clear and highly activated feelings, such as love, emotion, joy or anger, are bright and clear; confused feelings are dark and cloudy (it's basically a thermometer).
#3) The Mental Body
-> Third layer
It extends beyond the emotional body and is made up of even finer substances associated with thoughts and mental processes. The mental body is also structured. It contains the structure of our ideas. Almost all yellow, within it you can see thought forms, which look like bubbles of varying brightness and shape. These thought forms have additional, overlapping colors that actually emanate from the emotional level. The color represents the emotion, linked to the thought form. The clearer and more well-formed the idea, the clearer and more well-formed the thought form associated with that idea. (Have you heard that sometimes thoughts take shape? I think that's where it comes from...)
At this point we can say that the 3 lower auric layers (etheric, emotional and mental) are associated with energies related to the physical world and metabolize them, while the 3 upper auric layers (astral, celestial and keteric) metabolize energies related to the spiritual world. The fourth layer (astral), linked to the heart chakra, is the transforming crucible through which all the energy that goes from one world to the other passes. In other words, spiritual energy needs to pass through the fire of the heart to be transformed into the lower physical energies, and the physical energies (of the three lower auric layers) need to pass through the transforming fire of the heart to become spiritual energies.
The fourth layer is associated with love and is the door through which we can enter the other states of reality. Each layer above the third is an entire layer of reality, with beings, forms and personal functions that go beyond what we normally describe as human.
(Do you remember Heartman's studies on how the Egyptians believed that the spirit was connected to the brain and/or the heart? That's the way to go. The heart is one of the paths. It's one of the bridges.)
#4) The Astral Level | Astral Body
It is amorphous and made up of clouds of a more beautiful color than those of the emotional body. It usually has more colors, but they are generally imbued with the light of love. When people fall in love, you can see beautiful rainbows of pink light between their hearts. When people establish relationships with each other, they create cords from the chakras that connect them. Such cords exist on many levels of the auric field in addition to the astral one. The longer and deeper the relationship, the more numerous and stronger the cords. (This is where things get very Death Stranding...) When relationships end, these cords are torn, often causing great suffering. The "healing" period of a relationship, as a rule, is a period in which the cords in the lower levels of the field are disconnected and re-rooted within the self.
#5) The Etheric Level | Standard Etheric Body (author's designation)
The author gave it this name because this body contains all the forms that exist on the physical plane in heliographic or standardized form, as if it were the negative of a photograph. In this way, the standard etheric level of the aura creates an empty space, or negative, in which the first level, or etheric level, of the aura can exist. The etheric pattern is the pattern for the etheric body, which then forms the grid structure on which the physical body grows. The standard etheric level of the universal energy field contains all the forms that exist on the physical plane, except for the standard level. These forms exist in negative space, creating an empty space in which the etheric grid structure grows and upon which all physical manifestation exists. (works as our " blueprint")
#6) The Celestial Body
-> Sixth layer
-> Emotional level of the Spiritual Plane
This is the level through which we experience spiritual ecstasy and we can achieve this through meditation and many other forms of transformation work. It is the point where we know our connection with the whole universe, when we see the light and love in everything that exists. It is the connection and recognition with "God". (I put it this way because god has many interpretations)
#7) The Standard Keteric Body or Causal Body
-> Seventh level
-> Mental level of the spiritual plane
When we raise our consciousness to the seventh level of the aura, we know that we identify with the Creator. The external form is the oval shape of the aura body and contains all the auric bodies associated with the individual's current incarnation. In addition, this plane contains the tracks of past lives within the eggshell. The Keteric level is the last auric level of the spiritual plane. It contains the plane of life and is the last level directly related to this incarnation. Beyond this level is the Cosmic Plane, the plane that cannot be experienced from the limiting point of view of a single incarnation.
source
So in a nutshell I'd say: YES! Death Stranding looks like a great walking simulator and (ironically enough) it would never make me think about the things that shape it. :)
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
so about four years ago i wanted to spend twelve years torturing scrooge (and i'd like to say it's in a funny way, but i've actually made myself irreparably sentimental) about that one time donald disappeared. since it's just a series of vignettes i will try and see how far i get :) hopefully not in real time.
part 1 is here
part 5:
The phone rings…
—
Grandma asks the boys how they're doing, and they say they're fine. They say they've been accompanying their uncle on business trips. They say they're learning a lot about modern agriculture, even if it isn't anything good. Recently, they had to learn about squatter laws and the legal rights of the undead, too. They're receiving a highly diversified and practical education.
The four of them have a riveting conversation about topsoil and whether it might benefit from the presence of the howling spirits of the damned, at least in the sense of driving unsustainable farming operations away, and then they say good night, grandma, we love you, and she says good night, boys. I love you, too.
—
Gyro tells the boys about another prephysical, postphysical, extraphysical or superphysical phenomenon he's been researching every other week, expressing great distress over the fact that he started building his time machine before he fully understood it. Most of the words he uses have more syllables in them than there are people in the world who could explain them, but they listen to him, anyway.
The call is largely one-sided - Gyro doesn’t so much as pause to take a breath during which they could interrupt him - until he concludes, and they tell him to take care of himself, and he tells them that he’ll try.
—
More and more often, the boys ask Grandma what their uncle was like when he was their age, and what it was like to raise him, and she can only tell them that he was always going to be himself.
He was always there to help her when it counted, no matter how loudly he complained. It was easy for the other kids to make him angry, and it was easy for him to retaliate, but it was impossible to make him so angry that he wouldn’t come back for them. He could pick up any skill, but only if it interested him, and if it did, he seemed to have little ability to do anything else. He was just as adventurous as them, endlessly curious and heedless of the consequences.
He was her nephew, and her grandson, and… he was her boy, so he was perfect. Just like the three of them were always, at the end of the day, going to be perfect to him, and to her.
He was perfect to them, too, they say.
—
For three months now, the phone has been ringing at five in the morning on the dot every single day, and lately, it’s been waking him up more often than not. Whenever he’s already awake for it, he thinks of the boys and feels vaguely guilty.
He can never get to sleep after the call, either. If he works through the night, he just sits at his desk, head in one hand, and rubs at his little helper’s head while he recharges.
—
The moment Grandma picks up, her attempt at a greeting is drowned out by three loud little voices, talking over each other in uncharacteristically uncoordinated outrage. He did it again, they say. What, she says. The thing, they say, the thing, the dumbest thing in the whole wide world that he could possibly do and does do on a regular basis because he’s the world’s dumbest duck.
It was like this, he had the forest, and the plans to tear it down, and the contract, of course! The conditions on which he wouldn’t do it. And he went behind their back to fill the conditions, and then he acted like they beat him. Who does that? And more than once? And why go to the trouble of something so stupidly expensive and complicated as importing endangered birds?
Well, she says, at least the forest was saved, but the kids won’t be soothed this time. He can’t keep doing this. He should know that they’re not stupid little babies anymore. They could do it all on their own. And he didn’t have to do it at all! What’s wrong with him? He must’ve agreed with them, so why didn’t he?
They just want to talk to him. He never talks to them for real.
—
Gyro has been steeling himself. He’s considered all possible responses: Bawling, yelling, silence. Worst of all, another endlessly kind and patient acknowledgement of the facts he, himself, still isn’t ready to acknowledge, and from people one third his age. He chokes on the words again and again, until, finally, he confesses that he’s started working on other projects on the side, just to keep the lights on.
The boys are shocked into silence on the other end of the line, but mostly because they had no idea that this hadn’t already been the case. He’s not sure what to say to that.
—
Did uncle Scrooge ever love uncle Donald? They’re just curious. They just miss him. They just need to know.
Elvira almost responds on autopilot, the same way anyone in their family would: Scrooge is just bad at connecting with people. Scrooge is just too prideful to admit it. Of course he does, and he always has, and he always will.
But she gets the sense that they’re really asking a different question. And she still wants to say it, and she wants to make up for what he won’t say, and she wants them to be a family, but then, there also has to be a limit. These boys do deserve better. Even Scrooge deserves better than to be coddled like this.
Scrooge certainly loved him when he needed him, she thinks, and then realises that this would be catastrophic to say. He loved him when he was there for him? He loved him when…
He loved him on the day before Christmas, when he was just ten years old. Donald had planned a snowball ambush that enraged his uncle until it escalated into an avalanche that almost impressed him, until he felt justified in fighting back at full force.
They came inside soaked and freezing and chattering and Scrooge, having forgotten all about the evils of federally mandated bank holidays, laughed out loud about how he’ll have to get bigger if he really wants to fight him, and he’ll have to get a whole lot smarter if he ever wants to beat him.
Donald said he could beat him at anything, and that one day, he could even be a better businessman than him, if he wanted to. And Scrooge clapped an arm around his shoulder in front of the fireplace and said that that’s great news. He always did want an heir.
And he loved him, then. She’s sure of it. She can’t be sure of anything else.
Uncle Donald always loved uncle Scrooge, they say. Not just on the day before Christmas.
And she says- Well, they were never perfect to each other. Maybe that’s the difference. They always wanted the other to change, and they never did, but they also never stopped wanting it. She’s not sure what to call that.
The boys don’t say anything.
There’s love everywhere, she says. They’re never going to run out, not if they keep looking. That’s what matters. They just have to keep looking.
—
The phone rings…
49 notes
·
View notes
Text
I think there’s something thematically central to “self-chilling” - it already looked poignant with how monumental Ulv’s scene is, and then the term comes up again like a wink-wink-nudge-nudge in Zigi’s last scene. Memories, connections, thoughts, thinking about each other, bonds, a lot of the setting’s extraphysical phenomena are concerned with the collectivity. And then there’s Ulv...
#back to my favourite pastime - thinking out loud on tumblr#this may be completely off the mark there's a lot to chew on#Püha ja õudne lõhn
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
In the cosmos, our xeno species finds itself at the crossroads of existence, our fear of death an unrelenting specter. Our essence, like a fleeting whisper in the cosmic winds, is governed by the ceaseless flow of time.
With our yearning eyes, we seek answers in the cosmic enigma, a yearning for an elixir that can bestow eternal life. The call to transcend the boundaries of mortality is an echo that resonates deeply within our collective soul.
Amidst the cosmic tapestry, we encounter a presence, an entity of extraphysical nature that exists on the very threshold of existence itself. It beckons to us with the promise of immortality, a path that appears to lead to a realm beyond time's grip. This entity is both a mystery and a beacon, a paradox that tugs at our curiosity and trepidation.
Yet as we draw closer to this liminal being, we confront the great unknown. Is it the key to our eternal aspirations, or merely the edge of the abyss, a final destination devoid of answers? In our relentless pursuit of everlasting life, we grapple with a fundamental question: Is there something beyond this threshold, or is it the very precipice of our journey, where the mystery of death remains a riddle that endures beyond the edge of existence?
1 note
·
View note
Text
tvmy. bright. it seems to work. vertical black columns on a gray flickering memory. it was old. it was artificial, manmade, constructed. it was not human in construction. another race's extraphysical architecture. it seemed as though it could have been the upper reaches of a deep temple.
is she praying to speak to me, too...? nb.
1 note
·
View note
Text
the more i read about classpects, the more i’m convinced i’m an heir of heart. the concept of a a malleable and changing identity is very interesting and i think personally i think it fits well. it’s quite difficult for me to find labels to fit myself, even picking my own classpect was a bit of a challenge, as a witch of time, then a rogue of time, a sylph of heart, then a muse, then bard, and now heir. i spent years trying to figure out my own gender, eventually landing on genderfluid which is itself a constant state of motion. i’m still not entirely sure my own romantic orientation, though aro seems to be a good fit? still not sure about that though, because when i find a label that fits it definitely seems to click immediately. anyway i think way too much about classpects lol
#dear listeners#hs#classpecting#also shoutout to that one test which gave me heir and immediately i was like ''ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh''#yeah the whole concept of your aspect taking on different meaning based on the players' own interpretation of it makes a lot of sense to me#because i see heart as more a romantic thing or possibly dealing with the outer workings of a character#OH also the concept of like masks and identity are very important to me#i generally don't believe in souls or any extraphysical shit like that so i personally dont think that would have much sway over my#theoretical powers#anyway ramblings over
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Magic, Spirit Energy and Extraphysics
Summary
Many cultures around the world have a name for it. An ephemeral energy that permeates all life everywhere, from the lowliest worm to the tallest of giants and the highest of birds.
Alchemists and sorcerers and wizards of the past have given it names like "magic" or "spirit energy", an unseen but often felt presence that with the correct rituals and rites could be manipulated into performing all kinds of feats.
Although modern science is no closer to understanding this energy, scientists of today simply call it "extraphysics"; the missing unmeasurable numbers that avoids detection even by our most cutting edge technology.
Most people of today would not think of extraphysics as necessarily bizarre, as we take a lot of it for granted. Self-propelled flight being a major backbone of our global trade infrastructure, our airships wouldn't nearly be as effective had their electro-turbines not be lifted by the missing numbers; psychic powers and ghosts being a common element in our day-to-day; tapping into the astra-radio frequencies to transmit signals across the globe; and now the use of astralogic calculators to ease the management of our office lives.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
In this centur- no?
...okay these past decad- still too optimistic?
...these...
(checks calendar) for the next FIVE MINUTES at least we're still in the Solan era, y/y? Dictating the spirit of the times? As Her Innocence herself would say, down with this sort of thing? Why are we looking at the innocentic institution like it's a good idea overall, and like it's a prize for a beloved character, and also like it's based on the objective merits of an individual's outstanding extraphysical attitude (as opposed to the power squabbles of an inbred institution that's been trucking along since before isolas were a thing)
10 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Lilik-Hiriadi Death Cloak
STATS:
+1 Inland Empire: We are each other
+1 Behaviourism: A mesmerising abyss
DESCRIPTION:
Ultra-fashionable cloak from the atelier Lilik-Hiriadi of Boogie Street. The designer (a known pyrholidon addict) claims it possesses “extraphysical, psychological effects."
The fabric is covered in Death Head’s Moth Sprawl -- a *horror vacui* pattern perfected by Semenese-Revacholian artists in the Twenties. For some reason, it reminds you of your thoughts.
14 notes
·
View notes
Link
A completed physics would represent a total and finished description and explanation of reality; would represent the only complete description (the only actual description). There can be no “nomological dangers” (Smart, Feigl).
All non-physical facts can be either reduced to purely physical facts (the non-physical element was a superstition), or they can be eliminated from the schema (the fact was a superstition in toto).
Three formulations: (1) An exhaustive list of all scientific facts is an exhaustive list of all facts. (2) To possess every physical fact is to possess every fact. (3) Knowledge of every physical fact grants knowledge of every fact.
Unity of the sciences is both a methodological and ontological goal/claim; the ontology holds primacy, as methodology is resultant from, and dependent upon, ontology.
At least some token folk schematic statements/theories can and do prove functional. This is reason to attempt reduction; it is not inherently a sign that the folk schema is ontologically correct.
Analytic reduction and/or elimination works only where there is no ontologically-obtaining basis for the language, i.e., when it is meaningless. When there is an underlying ontology to the language’s point of reference, however misguided and incorrect the language may be, it is not totally reducible or removable. This can be seen in the success of analytic reduction in ethics (where there is no ontology) and the failure of analytic reduction in mind (where there is some ontology).
Physics is subjectively objective; it offers an “objective” viewpoint from the perspective of a subject. A completed physics is beyond the capacity of a physical entity.
Human failures of explanation and analysis (i.e., of science) do not signify or justify the introduction of extrauniversal, extraphysical entities, properties, or processes.
The attempt generates its own rewards, both applicable and abstract.
Unity of the sciences and the non-sciences is a political, and not a scientific, programme.
‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it’ (Marx). ‘The scientific world-conception serves life, and life receives it’ (Neurath).
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Last time on APJFM...
Spoilers under the cut for chapters 1 - 105.
Reader sold herself to Sans to pay for her sister Sasha’s hospital treatments; Sans bought Reader to help him forget his failure to stop the anomaly. Against their better judgments, the two of them fell for each other. When Reader learned the truth about the anomaly, she and Sans made a plan to stop him: she would distract Jerren for as long as possible while Sans figured out how to destroy his power to turn back time. Sans pulled it off — sacrificing himself in the process. Now, no one remembers he ever existed.
Sasha, Frisk and Asriel used her knowledge of what happened in the year that was reset away to create a cult, so that they could break the spell keeping the Surface floating in the air. Now they’ve brought it down to earth, they’re going to destroy the Institute for Extraphysical Studies, Jerren’s personal laboratory for studying magic.
4 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
incorrect-camp-camp-quotes
Camp Camp Incorrect Quotes!
hastortrainingcenter1
Untitled
shelbgrey
Queen of the Lab
urban-paradise
Welcome To My Jungle
erikglz
Untitled