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highlandwhackamole · 3 months

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A Grand(ish) Theory of What the Heck

I love the utterly unhinged, super detailed theories about what's going on in Good Omens, especially in season 2. I hope one or more of them turn out to be true, as some kind of glorious puzzle-box-hidden-code monstrosity. And also I think that there has to be a simpler explanation for things, for the people who are at least Somewhat Normal (tm) about this show. (... I assume such people do exist somewhere...) This is what I have been pondering recently.

The thing that started me thinking about this was this post, containing some promotional materials for season 2 that feature main characters with scenes in their heads. Like this:

Seeing this created a very similar situation in my own head, but with a nice shiny lightbulb.

All the weirdness: the car, the sideburns, the clock, the behavior of the folks of Soho, the vanishing storefront signs. The absence of God. I think this is all because everything we see is in their heads.

I don't mean it's made up. At least not entirely. Memory is already a plot point. Why not explore it on a deeper level? I've read theories emphasizing the minisodes' stories being retold by Aziraphale and Crowley. I think the whole season is like that.

You know that sort of conventional-wisdom-fact-concept that you can only dream faces of people you've seen before (or variations therein), because your brain can't make new faces up? So it just fills in what it thinks is close enough? I think that idea, applied to remembering or recollecting things, could explain so many things that are wonky in this show.

Wonky Things

Crowley parking in an impossible London location? He definitely remembers it was in London, so his brain just stuck some obvious London landmarks in there.

Awkward clattering happening when Crowley throws the stacks of books he's inexplicably carrying around the bookshop? He wouldn't actually throw Aziraphale's books! But he'd like to think he's cool and nonchalant enough to do that, and if he did it would definitely make Some Kind of Noise.

Jim walking toward the bookshop from somewhere mysterious? Maggie and Nina saw him first, and he came from that direction, so he must've walked all that way. They don't know about the elevator in the Donkey.

Aziraphale remembers tartan hills and the Loch Ness monster because he was having a jolly time driving through Scotland, so obviously the scenery must've been whimsical Scottish things.

Nina put the Honolulu roast sign up, so she remembers its presence, but perhaps the occult/ethereal visitors to her shop do not.

Maggie really did text Aziraphale about the rent, but a note through the mail slot is a much more dignified way for a scholarly angel to imagine he received a message.

On the Fallibility of Recall

This season is loaded with unrealistic inclusions. The colors are turned up to 11. Some of the scenes are more caricature than believable interaction. Remembering things never copies or reproduces them with what one might call high fidelity.

Scenes recalled by separate memories will inherently vary. One person's hefty jigger might be another person's dash. Who knows for sure where the sun was that day? You and I might recall an event having different lighting or a different color palette, sort of like viewing something with different lens filters.

According to Neil, Crowley is an unreliable narrator of the story of his Fall. He labels the variations in clock times as a continuity error in a show where Everything Is Meant, but he doesn't say whose continuity error it is. He insists that the Bentley is the same through the whole season; maybe it was the same, but remembered differently. Maybe this is part of why there's more CGI but it's harder to spot.

So What?

Is this all there is to it? I sure hope not. I like my Good Omens with enough layers to put to shame an onion wrapped in a cake and covered in a parfait.

Is this possibly the fancy footwork that's distracting from the real magic trick? I wouldn't put it past Our Gaiman. There are a lot of things one could hide in the narrative of unreliable memory.

Is this going to stop me from rewatching and repondering and remaking theories for the next couple years? Not even at gunpoint.

#good omens #good omens meta #ineffable mystery #neil gaiman #good omens questions #good omens 2

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melminli · 7 months

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cats and colors

summery: you talk about how black & white reminds you of satoru and suguru

contains: gn reader, no pronouns mentioned, non curse au, satosugu talk, fluff/crack, satoru being in love with reader a bit, kinda weird ending but really funny

"aww." you exclaimed when you saw two cats playing with each other on the sidewalk. guess it was worth it after all to wait outside on a bench while satoru was withdrawing some money. you nudged geto with your elbow to get him to turn his attention away from his phone. "look. it's you and satoru." you said, pointing to the two animals with a small smile on your face.

he looked a little confused for a second until his gaze went to your finger and saw the scene in front of him. "this again? is it really just because one is black and the other is white?" he asked, not really understanding the concept behind it. he really wanted to, though.

you always spoke up when you saw the two opposite colors together, just to say how it reminded you of them. they usually got it through messages you sent in the group chat, like just a while ago when you sent them a photo of just two side by side chairs in ikea with the caption reminded me of you guys.

you nodded. "yeah. why?"

geto just shrugged his shoulders. "i don't know. i guess i just don't think our hair color is the crucial factor that represents us as you know us and like as friends." he laughed out, making up this little theory. he stopped laughing once he noticed your completely serious expression.

"oh, please. you think i'm a beginner?" you asked a little offended. "it's so much more than just your dumb hair." you began waving your hands in the air as you made your impassioned declaration. "these colors represent you so beautifully because they're opposites who still go perfect with each other, like ying and yang for example. Satoru is hot-tempered and extroverted, which is usually more associated with something light, while you have a more introverted and quiet nature, which is more associated with something darker." you took both your hands and put them together to demonstrate. "like two puzzle pieces... but on second thought, your hair colors also play a bit into that, i guess."

his mouth just opened slightly at what you said since he didn't necessarily know how to respond to that. "that's very perceptive on your part. i'm kind of impressed - a bit scared - but uhm, mostly impressed." he admitted.

"i can't believe they don't accept credit cards in that place. i mean, who carries cash around these days." satoru interrupted you two a bit annoyed because of the fact that he had to go to the bank. he then spotted out of the corner of his eye the two cats that were still playing around with each other, and his mood lifted again as he watched the two. "aww, how cute." he stated and took out his cell phone to take some pictures.

"they're you and me." geto said and looked at you afterward. when satoru heard that, he knew exactly what he was referencing with that. "if the black cat is geto and the white one is me, then you would be a...birmen cat!" he decided, placing two question marks over both of your heads. this statement had little to do with your previous profound explanation.

"...birmen cat?" you repeated, not quite sure what that meant exactly. you were also having trouble deciphering what such a cat looked like, to be honest.

satoru just nodded while looking at you a bit dreamy. "i love birmen cats. they're my favorite."

his best friend laughed slightly at that and looked over at you to see if you could read the meaning between the lines. unfortunatly for his best friend, it didn't look like it since you still seemed to be thinking what a fucking birmin cat had to do with your color theory. "...that's cute i guess?" you said in the end and were pulled out of your thoughts when you heard a loud meowing out of nowhere.

geto quickly spoke up with a stern tone before anyone could say anything. "i'm not going to listen to any theories or sick jokes about this." he said, deeply regretting his previous saying.

three pairs of eyes turned to the two cats who had previously been playing sweetly with each other. the two were now busy with something else entirely as the white cat mounted the black one from behind to...perform certain activities.

oh.

#jjk satoru #jjk drabbles #jjk gojo #jjk #jjk geto #jujutsu kaisen drabbles #gojo drabbles #drabble #jjk x reader #x reader #gn reader #jjk imagines #crack fic #funny prompts #satosugu #x you #fluff

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rassicas · 10 months

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Is there any information on what determines an inkfish's "human" skin color? It's always been something I'm curious about. Because with some band members, they have distinctly non-human skin colors (I don't remember their names sorry) so there's probably something there. I've always likes the skin tone ranges in splatoon but I really wonder if there's any lore explanation for it

Not really. While there's mentions of being able to freely change skin color in directs and such I really think that's just an out of universe thing and not something inklings can do. the character creator for splatoon 3 provides some strong evidence for skin color being simply something that theyre is born with. While hair and clothing can be changed freely, if you want to change your skin color, eye color, and "gender"/species you basically have to go back in time to change it.

Based on the character creation screen, I remember seeing theories about inklings being able to, in-universe, freely change their skin color/eye color and sex. For reasons you can guess, freely changing skin tone is kind of Weird from a human perspective (i swear i saw people use this to justify whitewashing in splatoon art. lol.). And while changing sex freely is something that some animals can do, squids cannot, so I didn't really like this idea... but now with splatoon 3 I don't see anyone arguing that inklings can freely become octolings. its become even more clear that its all gameification for the sake of the players. that was a bit of a tangent LOL but tl;dr evidence points towards the idea that inklings and octos being able to freely change their whole skin color is just gameification, so skin colors must be something theyre born with. and from keaton and beika for example, the range of skin tones may be wider than human skin tones, though its unclear if these are common skin tones or a mutation of some sort

#asks #splatoon lore #inklings #biology #another one dredged up from the depths of the ask box

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tiedyeflannels · 8 days

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Red String Theory

Kim Seokjin x reader

Word count: 1.2k

Genre: established relationship, fluff

A/N: 'Sup! I thought I would take a quick break from Tae's series so I could write this fic for the man, the myth, the Moon that's coming home next month! She's kind of short, but I hope you enjoy!!

“Hey, Y/n/n,” Jin spoke, making me turn my head in his direction.

We were sitting on the couch together just watching the TV while taking a break from moving furniture. I raised my eyebrows and hummed to let him know to continue.

“I’ve got a question.”

I shifted toward him a little and put my legs across his.

“Shoot,” I said, looking at him with full focus on what he was going to ask.

He looked down at my hands before pointing to my wrists, “Your bracelets. What are their meanings?”

A confused smile appeared on my lips, “What? My bracelets?”

He nodded, “Mhmm! You wear them all the time and never take them off, so what’s their story?”

I chuckled at the question, but nodded all the same.

“Okay, um…” I lifted up my right arm and spread the bracelets one wasn’t overlapping another.

“So these are just hair ties,” I said, stretching the two black bands wrapped around my wrist then letting them snap back.

“This one,” I pointed to a string friendship bracelet with different colors of blue, green and grays, “was given to me by a friend in college during a club we went to together.”

Then I pointed to the last one, which was a small silver bracelet with tiny diamonds spaced throughout.

“And this one’s obviously the one you gave me for our first anniversary.”

He smiled, “And that’s obviously my favorite one out of all of them! What about those?”

Just like I did before, I moved the bracelets making sure that they don’t overlap.

“These are just more friendship bracelets from some of the club members,” I pointed to two braided strings that were made up of three different colors each that were tied around my wrist.

“And this one was made by my high school best friend,” I said, pulling apart the magnets then putting them back together.

I nodded at my finished explanation before Jim hooked a finger under the little red string around wrist.

“What about this one, hmm?”

I looked at him with a smile, “Have you heard of the ‘Red String Theory’?"

He shook his head at the question.

“So there was a TikTok that I had watched a while back and it was of this girl who was telling a story. So she was saying how she had seen something about the ‘red string theory’ and that it reminded her of something that had happened at her work. She worked at a store and this couple comes in and are trying things on and she’s smiling at their interaction because she thinks they’re cute.

“When they were ready, they went up to pay and then left the store. After they left, she saw something on the ground which happened to be a red bracelet-”

“No,” he gasped, fully immersed in the story.

I laughed, “Yes! She noticed that it was the same one the guy was wearing too. She thought that they would come back for it, so she put it in a drawer and forgot about it… until the next day,” I led on.

He simply nodded, urging me to go on.

“The girl that was with the guy the other day had come in asking if there was a red bracelet here. The cashier said yes and went to fish it out of the drawer, but while doing that she noticed the new ring on her finger and asked her about it. The girl had the biggest smile on her face and said that she couldn’t talk about it because it had just happened, but thanked for the bracelet and the ‘congratulations’ she received before leaving the store.

“After that happened, she had searched up what the theory was and decided to wear one too. And she was wearing it for a few months, until she had started talking to a guy- I can’t remember if it was an old friend or someone new, but anyway- one day she was hanging out with her, now, boyfriend when she realized it fell off, making her wholeheartedly believe in the theory.”

“You didn’t explain what the theory was,” he said as I was just about to keep talking.

“I was just about to get to that,” I nudged him in feigned annoyance which made him chuckle.

“Sorry! Please continue,” he gestured.

I huffed.

“Anyway! It’s believed, in some cultures, that when people are fated to be soulmates there’s an invisible red string that ties them together. So if you wear a red bracelet and meet someone, then it’s supposed to fall off if they’re your soulmate,” I finished.

“Couldn’t that all chalk up to coincidence though,” Jin questioned, eyebrows furrowed.

I shrugged, “Maybe so, but I’m a hopeless romantic so things like this or fate were always things that I loved which is why I started wearing one.”

“So then this,” he pulled at the red string bracelet, “Has never fallen off?”

I looked down at the string and let out a chuckle before raising my head to look at Jin again.

“Actually, this is a different bracelet. The first one I started wearing after I watched the video fell off when we met.”

“WHAT?!” I nodded, biting back a smile, “Mhm, it was after that fateful day you spilled coffee on my jacket, invited me to eat to make up for it, then we spent the whole day walking around and talking.”

I happily sighed at the memory, “I got home and realized that my bracelet wasn’t on my wrist anymore, but I didn’t really think anything of it because I had been wearing it for a long time until you texted me later that night to ask if we could go on a proper date… And now, here we are,” I gestured around our apartment.

He nodded, “Ah… so you wear that like a keepsake?”

I snapped my fingers and pointed at him, “Exactly! It reminds me of you and that day so I tend to look at it whenever I’m feeling down!”

He hummed before he looked at his own wrist, “Maybe I should wear one, too, so we could match.”

I chuckled, “Sure, come with me.”

I got up and took Jin’s hand, pulling him along to the kitchen where some of the moving boxes were. I dug through a few as Jin took a seat on a stool, then I found my embroidery string and took out the red one along with a pair of scissors.

Walking over to where he was sitting and taking a seat too, I had him hold out his wrist while I unwound the string, wrapped it around and tied it before cutting off the excess material.

“Tada,” I cheered, placing the items in my hands on the table.

“Hey Y/n,” Jin started and I turned to look at him, humming in question.

He grabbed both of my hands, “I’m really happy that we share this string.”

He kissed the top of my head as we sat in a peaceful silence and looked around at the piles of unopened boxes and half moved furniture in our new apartment.

Knowing what he meant by that statement, I rested my head on his shoulder and happily sighed.

“Me too, Jin.”

#bts fic #bts x reader #bts x y/n #bangtan #bts #bts fanfic #bts x you #bangtan sonyeondan #jin x reader #bts jin #jin #kim seokjin #kim seokjin fanfic

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annoyingenthusiastperfection · 10 months

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Summary : headcanon version¡ Miles (42! & 1610!) Hobie brown , Pavtir Prabhakar , and gwen stacy. Finding out your Mlp collection.

Miles Morales

●It all started with u beeing good at drawing horses. Miles was impressed and asked how you draw so good.

"LIKE HOW??? ARE YOU SO GOOD AT DRAWING HORSES???

"Its cause I drew them alot"

●Miles was amazed on how knowledgeable about real facts on horses and the mythologyical one too. Unicorns? Alicorns? Pegasus? Please you can draw them blinded.

●But no matter what your explanation may be Miles just has a little suspicion that its not just cause your born to draw horses. He caught u doodling a purple oddly familiar alicorn.

"Hey what's that?" Miles pointed at your doodles as you closed your sketch book in emberassment. "nothing!"

●It was a normal day you and Miles on your dorm room studying suddenly beeing called by your roomates outside for some help. Miles was left in your dorm he was kicking his foot til he hit a box to hard making it fall down to reveal....

Ponies???

●You walked in to your dorm Miles brushing celestia's hair. You froze. Your soul leaving your body. Miles turned to you in a innocent smile.

"So you like my little pony? I still remember you drawing the purple one! What's her name? Sprakle Sprinkle?"

"IT'S TWILIGHT SPARKLE"

●It was funny when Miles deliberately or unintentionally mistakes the ponies name and you always corrected him. He once called chrysalis the alien pony. He called Cozy glow a crazy bitch when you forced him to watch all 9 seasons of the show including movies and mlpstopmotion videos.

●Loves the apple family and pinkie pie.

"I cant believe you watched this as a kid. I can understand how your so good at drawing horses now"

Gwen Stacy

●Gwen and you werent too close in the beginning .It was just you two were seatmates so she notice on your "subtle" referance to the show. Be it the elements of harmony colored gems sticker on your notebook. Your twilight sparkle cutiemark earings. Or just you doodling the treehouse of harmony.

"I like your earings"

"T-thank you"

●It was kind of normal of your friends picking or joking on your mlp obsession. It sometimes makes you left out since you couldnt for the life of God relate to alot of they're series of the month. It was hard for you to not cringe at Live action. You were used to animation. The live action just felt stiff compared to animation. Gwen never understood your friends she thought it was cool how you memorize ponies name cutie marks even backround ones.

●It was lunch time and Gwen went to her classroom early and theyre she saw you watching the wedding of shinning armor and cadence. Face full of food as you watch intently.

●Gwen smiled sitting next to you. "Mind if I sit next to you?" You jolted and fell of your chair luckily Gwen caught you. Eversince that day you watched mlp episodes with Gwen everylunch.

●She loved doing theories. Like why theyre never been a baby alicorn born till flurry heart. The connections of equestria magic and the human worls. Loves the idea of Discord beeing the last draconequus and finding solice in invading worlds to feel not alone.

●Loves the seaponies.

"God I love applejack love her honestyand loyalty to her family! And the cutie mark crusaders are adorable! Sweetie Pie is the cutest!"

Hobie Brown

●He didnt meet you as Hobie brown but as spider-punk. It was an accident when beating up some corrupt cops near by he saw you full pinkie pie cosplay. You wearing a pink wig with a blue , pink , and yellow cupcake dress. It caught him off guard of your ballon accecories. He got kicked in the face becuase he was distracted watching you.

●Eversince he saw you he tried seeing you again but god hates him. He couldnt find for the life of himself. He tried going to cons wandering around finding any familar cosplay. He called it a night at 3rd day going till.

"I am sorry-"

●It was you with the same pink wig , ballon clips , pink , blue and yellow cupcake dress.

"You look dench in that."

"Thank you! I worked really hard on the dress"

●Eversince that day Hobie offered to ask you about the cosplay finding out your suppose to cosplay pinkie pie from mlp. He was a little confuse at first but after watching 4 seasons he gets it. It took him a while to catch up but he thinks the show is enjoyable at the least.

●You convinced him to cosplay twilight as you cosplayed spike. Imagine him with purple glitter extensions , a pony ears and horn with wings. It was funny but he didnt mind. He was Qreally into you wearing loads of spikes on your outfit since you were cosplaying a dragon.

●When he showed up like that on a meeting with Miguel he didnt give a single crap only reapeting.

"I look awesome and you aint doing nothing about it"

●He loves discord and pinkie pie but has a soft spot for thorax.

"The changelings look cool before and after. You can't CHANGE my mind"

Pavtir Prabhakar

●200% already knew about the show. Was actually obsessed as a kid but nobody like to talk about it with him well except for you.

●You two rant about the better element and pony almost every week.

"RAINBOW DASH ISNT A SELF CENTERED FASHINISTA!"

"How dare you ..."

"I am sorry-"

"You say that to Rarity" *caressing Rarity plushie backpack*

●He honestly jsut took potery just to make mlp statues why? To flex on you thats why.

●Will and have bought every single main six plushies but you have the cards of the mainsix and princesses. Even his favourite. Big Mac. This man has begged and pleqded for that card but he held it ONCE.

●How can you hate him so much? It was all for the tease and who got the best merch.

●Loves loves spike and starlight.

"C'mon trade with meeeeee"

Miles G.

●You hid your mlp intrest from him to the point he never even visited your apartment. Not once.

"Hey can we hang out your place?"

"Sorry I have a rat infestation"

●He didnt push it any further and so everytime he asked theyre was a new excuse. The bathroom sink broke. My AC isnt working well. The place is a Mess. A fire recently happend. I almost got robbed so its unsafe. Excuses and Excuses.

●But this time you can't escape. It was you having you having a fever so he had to go your apartment. Nothing out of the ordinary it wasn't to big or to small but when he entered your room.

●Your bed was surrounded with mlp plushies from the main six , to the princesses , to the ponies of pony vill and more. Rapped in a twilight cutie mark pattern blabket sick out of your mind you stood up looking at Miles in you fluttershy pajamas.

"So this is why you dont want me to come here?"

"Ughhhh ... Shut up your lucky I am sick"

●Since you getting sick it became a habit of Miles just watching an Mlp episode or two to cool off. One time Uncle Aaron walked pass him watching the mlp movie and he was flabergasted to the brim.

"The hell are you watching?"

"Something good got a problem?"

●He likes to see your collection of mlp castles his favorite the crysatl empire the little flurry heart jusg warms his heart.

●He loves fluttershy but relates to applejack about family and uses Raindbow dashed motto.

"I GIVE AM 120% AWESOME STFU"

#mlp #miles 42 #miles 1610 #miles morales x reader #across the spiderverse #hobie brown x reader #gwen stacy #gwen stacyx reader #pavitr prabhakar #atsv pavitr #astv gwen #pavitr x reader #hobie brown

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1moreff-creator · 5 months

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Happy Birthday Eden Tobisa!

Turns out our favorite clock girly has her birthday on New Year's Eve! What a nice date for such a nice girl! Let's do a character analysis, fun facts, and songs!

-We know relatively little about Eden's backstory. The most notable thing we know about her life before the killing game, apart from her fascination with clocks, is what is revealed in her chapter 2 secret: "Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendships." Which is pretty straightforward; she's canonically a lesbian and is worried it would negatively affect her friendships.

-Literally the only other thing we know about her backstory is that she lived in Japan for a small period of time when she was younger, before moving back to the US. This was revealed in a Q&A.

(... You know, I made a deranged theory in my Mai post that maybe the girl that Eden kissed was actually Mai. It wasn't very serious, since it was just a silly way to try to explain what the hell Eden's quote in the Mai page could mean. But... we know Teruko was in Japan for a while when she was younger, and it's theorized she knew Mai before being separated from her at some point. Combined with Mai's name being seemingly Japanese, it could imply Mai also lived in Japan at some point. And if that's the case, it's possible she met Eden there? To be clear, that's still an insane possibility, but I do find it a funny possibility, which is why I'm sharing it)

-Apart from that, Eden's defining trait is her optimism and her trust in others. She sticks to Teruko's side even after she starts pushing everyone away in CH 1, and confesses to her that she believes "not caring about others is the worst way to live." She's importantly not naive, she does know their situation is horrible, but still she constantly searches for an exit and tries to build good friendships with the others.

-This includes baking with Min, Rose and Teruko in CH1, inviting Teruko and Arei to make clocks on CH2, etc. Basically, she's awesome and nice and mature.

-Also she loves clocks. Regular Ultimate stuff, she can apparently spend hours and hours working and losing track of time.

-Although for such an optimistic character, her secret quote is quite ominous. "You can't go back, no matter how hard you try." We have zero clue what this means at the moment, but at least it does fit the symbolism of time always moving forward.

-Meanwhile, her quote in the Mai page is "She kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up." This is even more incomprehensible! Eden, what in the world are you talking about?

-Alright, David MV. She doesn't have a color in Color Theory, but her numeral is XII (twelve). Go to 1:48:28 in this video for an explanation. God it's so convenient to have that lol.

Alright fun facts!

-As stated, her birthday (December 31st) lands on New Year's Eve. Maybe representing new beginnings or change, which certainly goes well with her character. How nice!

-Like most of the cast, she's American and right-handed.

-She's one of the only characters with dyed hair. Her hair was originally just brown.

-Her favorite color is daffodil yellow, because it's happy, and her least favorite color is blue, because it's "kind of a downer color." Areden shippers in shambles.

-Her favorite ice cream flavor is honeycomb. I didn't even know that existed but go off queen.

-She enjoys cute fashion, but also enjoys wearing androgynous style clothing.

-She likes food which is fun to make or prepare. How nice!

-She's biracial; her mother is black and her father is Japanese. This is why she spent a bit of time in Japan when she was younger.

-Her name in kanji is 飛佐【とび・さ】楽【いーでん】. Gonna leave any actual meaning as homework, but it's worth noting her name was anglicized. I think that would translate to "Iden", but her mother liked the name "Eden", so they went with that instead.

Finally, songs that remind me of her!

-Positive Parade by DECO*27

-Gone Fishing by Ghost & Pals (friendship!)

-Aura by Ghost & Pals

-In Iolite by Ghost & Pals

-Magnet by minato

-Those Who Carried On by Ghost & Pals

-I'm Glad You're Evil Too by PinocchioP

And Happy Birthday! And a happy new year! Well wishes to all you Tumblr peeps. Take care!

#drdt #eden tobisa #character birthday #danganronpa despair time #i am again sorry for disappearing i swear i’ll return eventually

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nardo-headcanons · 3 months

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Hi there, nice person. I love your headcanons and I thought maybe I could send some requests. So, how does this work? Can I ask, for example, about your theories for things that bug me and that I never found an explanation for? For example, why the hell do the Akatsuki paint their nails? Not me, of course, I am pretty enough without cosmetics. But those people were so obsessed with nailpolish I could never understand why. Take care and good day!

If it isn't my favorite avenger and revolutionary. Hello there, my dear! That's a perfectly valid thing to ask, and I think there's a reason behind it that goes beyond mere cosmetics. Big thanks to @the-real-sasuke-uchiha for that great question.

Why the hell do the Akatsuki wear nail polish?

Aside from looking menacing as hell, there's a practical reason behind it. Your nails can say a lot about your health, more than you might think. And for several people, this might be a benefit. There's Pain, who's literally an undead corpse. Dead bodies undergo quite some chemical changes, the discoloration of nails is a direct result of that. It's easier to hide it that way, by wearing nail polish.

Then there's your beloved brother Itachi, who is chronically ill. We don't know for certain what kind of illness he has, but if it comes with purpura or any other skin or nail discolorations, this is an easy way to cover it up. Kakuzu is a frankensteinian amalgamation of different bodyparts, I wouldn't be surprised if his hands aren't his own. The discolored fingernail part also applies to him.

Sasori probably doesn't even have fingernails anymore, but painting them on gives it the illusion that he has.

As for the nail polish itself, it is most likely aquired from Kirigakure. Why, you might ask? The water country is known for its extravagant beauty industry, and since the affiliation of rice farmer is a very popular one, nail polish is used as a sealing coat to protect your nails from water damange. Didn't take long until they started mixing colored pigments into it. If osmosis makes your fingers look like a sponge, why not let it happen in style?

#naruto #naruto shippuden #naruto headcanons #naruto fanfiction #naruto crack #naruto shitposting #akatsuki headcanons #akatsuki #naruto worldbuilding

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bonny-kookoo · 1 year

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Jungkook

𝓜𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮. 🔞 [TEASER]

Jeon Jungkook hates hybrids. Jeon Jungkook is scared of hybrids. Jeon Jungkook is creeped out by hybrids. Jeon Jungkook just doesn't like hybrids. It's a fact every fan knows about him, convinced by his reserved and sometimes even defensive behavior whenever he's confronted with any hybrid, no matter what kind or gender. And while most can only speculate, only few know the true reason for his behavior.

Tags/Warnings: Angst, hurt & Comfort, Idol!Jungkook, Hybrid!Reader, Cat Hybrid!Reader, mentions of depression and depressive thoughts, heartbreak, homelessness, it's a bit heavy sorry, mentions of mental abuse and manipulation, betrayal, slow burn, eventual smut, dead dove do not eat

Dead Dove do not eat: warning for potentially triggering content that can't be tagged without spoiling the story.

Length: Long, Teaser is rather short though

-> Out Now!

~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~;~✿~

It's fine, really. He knows that the fans understand after all, even if they don't know the reason for his rather rude behavior. He's grateful they excuse his actions with whatever theory they might come up with- he'll apologize later, give them at least some sort of bandaid to cover up the hurtful sting of his avoidance.

But he can't bring himself to even look at them, not even after years in between what once was and now is. It's frustrating, really, how he can't seem to heal no matter what he does. You're stuck in his mind, every glance he takes at the young cat hybrid fan in front of him morphing into your face instead for no reason other than to spite him. But she's not you.

None of them are, or could ever be.

Jungkook can't even bring himself to think what might have become of you now. He's chosen not to know anything after all, has no way to contact you or find you again, your name and ID number changed to something he doesn't know and never will.

He knows it's better like this. For the both of you.

He loves his fans, he really does, but the way some of them will morph into monsters out for blood if they were to know of your existence and more so your connection to him; he knows he wouldn't be able to protect you down the line. You'd never be safe, you'd never be able to live a normal and happy life with him tied to your name and face.

It's the one thing he hates about his chosen life.

He poses for a picture the best he can, though careful not to touch any of the fans present in the photo. It's like the slight brush of the girl's cat tail against his pants stings him like sour acid, burning into his skin even though all that really sticks to him are a few hairs on his black cotton pants.

But even those, he immediately brushes off, bowing to the fans that leave, apologetic because he knows how awful that must've looked to her. He doesn't want to be like this, he doesn't want to come off as such an awful person, but be can't help it.

Later, at home, he makes a public post on weverse: an open letter apologizing for his behavior, and a promise to do better in the future.

Everyone understands, sends encouraging comments, and he feels even worse now, because he knows he won't change.

He can't.

Not when he's still got some of your old clothes in a backpack in the back of his closet. Not if he's still keeping your favorite comfort plushy on his couch, ready to be held by him whenever he feels particularly lonely. Not when he still tries to seek out your scent by jumping the same bodywash you did back when you still lived with him. Not when he can't let go of the past.

There's numerous theories amongst his fanbase as to why he's like this to hybrids in particular. From a past friend having died, to him being the victim of an attack at some point, there's a wild and colorful variety of explanations they've come up with over the years. Some are chilling to read, while others make him rather frustrated.

He hates that he tends to be portrayed as the vulnerable victim in all of them, when in reality, he never was and never will be. But he doesn't comment on any of the theories to keep them occupied. As long as they think they've got it figured out, they won't dig any deeper than they should.

Today it's a bit easier. Today, he's a bit lighter, having fun singing karaoke on his livestream, before he ends it to shower and go to sleep later. Today, it's not that bad, but he knows it'll only be a matter of time before he's hit with it again, memories and what-if's haunting him again like some curse put on him.

His phone rings, and he picks it up. An unknown number, probably a fan who's overstepped the line again. He denies it, before it calls again- tongue clicking as he accepts the call.

"Please don't ca-"

"Jungkook?" An older woman's voice asks, and he freezes, because even through the natural distortion of his phone's speaker, he knows that voice.

"..." he swallows thickly, collecting his thoughts for a moment before he answers back with a dark tone to his voice. He doesn't need this. "I told you to never contact me-"

"I know, I know, but I fucked up." She tells him, making him nervous. What is she talking about? "I fucked up bad, and now- the police isn't doing anything about it, and I don’t know who to call anymore.." she explains almost as if out of breath, and he's looking at nothing with furrowed brows. "Its been weeks, and I've honestly.. I don't know anymore, I need help, and at this point, you're pretty much my last chance."

"What are you talking about?" He wants to know, irritated by her cryptic rambling, while simultaneously feeling his blood run cold at the prospect of what she might be talking about. About who she might be talking about.

"She ran away, Jungkook." She says.

And all falls silent for a moment, as he processes what he's just been told.

#bts imagine #bts fanfic #bts fic #jungkook imagine #hybrid imagine #jeon jungkook imagine #jeon jungkook x reader #bts jungkook fanfic #bts jungkook x reader #bts jungkook imagine

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scarletslippers · 10 months

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Why I'm Okay with Nancy/Tristan Having a "Soulmate" Connection and What That Means for Nace

Okay, this is going to be less of a theory explanation than a deep dive into the most prevalent (?) theory I've read/the theory I subscribe to, and why I think it's going to play out in an amazing and satisfying way for our beloved star-crossed lovers.

First, the theory: Tristan is the Sin Eater, destined to reincarnate throughout time and consume the sins of Horseshoe Bay. After what we've seen in 4x10 (the *spark*, "We've walked this path many times before.", "It was like he knew you."), it seems Nancy is some kind of light-energy-Sin Eater-counterpart. An Angel of Truth, perhaps? It seems she is also destined to reincarnate throughout eternity in order to reveal the truths of Horseshoe Bay.

Why I love this theory: Nancy is passionate about finding out the truth and has a dedication to honesty. It's ingrained in her from a young age, and plays a huge role in why she solves mysteries and how she navigates her relationships. She solved the biggest mystery of all (her own heritage) by "always seeking out the truth, even when it hurts.” Just like Kate taught her. And every single one of her relationships is colored by it—Nick pulling away because she wouldn’t be honest with him. Uncovering that Ace was lying and working for McGinnis. Pushing Bess to reveal her real identity. The list goes on.

We’ve also known Nancy to lie when it’s incredibly important for her—Recanting her testimony and destroying her credibility to save Ace’s life, lying by omission to Ace about the curse to keep him safe.

(also Carson calls Nancy their “better angel” and wow do I love a show that makes things work from 2 seasons ago).

How I think it will play out for Nace: Right now, Nancy seems pretty heavily into this so-called “romantic” connection with Tristan, and Ace seems rather forgotten doesn’t he? She talks about him as an “ex” and that Tristan is an “open and honest” communicator, and a “mature” relationship, implying that those things aren’t/weren’t true about Ace, which we all know is obviously not true.

But we learned that Nancy was the last sinner. Personally, I think (and hope) that Nancy’s confessed sin was about (momentarily) giving up HB in order to have a future with Ace. However, regardless of what the sin is, it’s HIGHLY likely that it is Ace and curse related, and if it’s Ace and curse related that means Nancy’s, and Ace’s (...and the crew’s, and the dads’, and…everyone’s) memories are altered. And you know what? If your memories are altered in some way that makes you forget you are cursed or forget that you love someone, this mystical Sin Eater/Angel of Truth soul spark connection thing is gonna feel pretty darn romantic to you.

So what happens when the truth is revealed? We have two truths to uncover here: Nancy’s sin, and the truth about what she is/her past lives.

Number 1: Revealing Nancy’s sin will help her see her relationships more clearly and remember her relationship with Ace. Remember, “our memories make us who we are and that is worth fighting for.”, and we have seen Nancy fight tooth and nail for Ace this season, every fight/break-up they had about their relationship and the curse being colored by their desperation to be together. When that comes rushing back, it’s going to be a big shift. Nancy tells Ace “That's all you're really left with... just messy, stupid memories that stick around, and... good or bad, you get to make more of them.” Nancy has memories with Ace and she’s going to fight for them. She’s going to fight to make more memories with him.

Number 2: We already see Nancy feel pretty strongly about freeing Tristan from his fate as the Sin Eater, and wanting to stop him from having to be reincarnated forever. When she finds out she’s the same, she’s going to fight to end it for herself too. So much of Nancy’s life has been fated/determined—being a Hudson, learning her life was a lie, being taken in by the Drews (Yes, they choose to raise her but did they really have the option to say no? Come on, it’s Carson and Kate), and now this? And so much of Nancy’s life has been about clinging to normalcy. She just wanted to go to Columbia to get away, to be normal. To have a regular family and regular friends. She didn’t ask to be pulled into a murder case and to hunt down supernatural killers. She didn’t ask to be haunted by Lucy Sable. She didn’t ask to be some supernatural reincarnated truth entity.

Nace is endgame. We know this. And right now the ‘star-crossed lovers’ of it all has taken on a new twist. Once cursed to not be together, we now learn that one of them is reincarnated and the other is not. Unable to even spend eternity together.

(Yes, I have Thoughts and Theories on how Nancy putting Ace’s name in the jar at the Lover’s Vigil may have created some connection here, perhaps forging an eternal/after death bond that wasn’t there before. And I also have Thoughts and Theories about that ‘mystical wedding vibe’ of the curse break attempt in 4x03 and how in a wedding ‘two shall become one’ and maybe now their souls are bonded which could influence everything, but that’s A Whole ‘Nother Post.)

So Nancy is going to choose Ace. Break out of whatever Truth/Sin eternal connection this is and choose Ace. Remember that Carson said “maybe we get more than one [soulmate]”, and he also told Nancy “You control your fate. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Maybe Tristan is Nancy’s supernatural soulmate, but Ace is Nancy’s person and she’s going to choose him.

The Naceplications:

Here’s why that’s an incredible thing for Nace, and is going to be an important thing for their character arcs, both individually, and as a couple.

Ace needs to be chosen. Ace struggles with insecurities of feeling lost, without purpose, and being unworthy. So much of Ace's life has been about proving himself—proving to his father he’s not a child and can make adult decisions, proving to McGinnis he’s not a screw up after he got caught hacking that database, proving his worth to Grant even as a brother by helping him, proving to Nancy he’s worth her time and attention by trying to always help her (and only in 4x06 does he realize maybe that’s flawed).

But what he doesn’t realize is he’s always been enough just how he is. Nancy loves him just how he is. She opens up to him about tanking her grades, tells him he’s brilliant when he starts making connections with Charity (actually Hannah) in 3x09, tells him “You never were [lacking].”, or even when she tells him in 4x08 “You really showed up for me, I noticed.” by knowing Kate’s anniversary, giving Nancy the necklace while in his body, supporting her breaking and entering. Those weren’t about doing stuff for her but just being there for her. Him. His presence.

So for Ace to learn she’s some immortal-truth-light-being-thing that’s been reincarnated and has this counterpart connection to the Sin Eater, he's going to think he has no chance against that, right? Of course she’ll choose Tristan. Except Nancy can’t lose him. Nancy is willing to and has risked it all to save him, to be with him, multiple times. He doesn’t think he’s good enough, and yet she chooses him.

Nancy needs to be chosen, too. She feels abandoned by everyone in her life (losing her mom, losing her perceptions of her family/her parents, even losing Lucy to an extent), and she feels that so much is out of her control. Nancy worries that she’s only the worst parts of everyone who came before her, and in light of everything—being a source of light and good, reincarnated throughout time—how much of her life was her choice? Does she solve supernatural mysteries because it’s a connection deep in her bones? In her soul?

She’s prickly and complicated and messy and has walls ten miles high, and she needs someone who will choose her through it all. Ace is that person.

There’s a recurring theme of choice for the two of them across the show. Think about Ace knowing there is a choice beyond something that’s bonded to your soul after his connection with Charity. Think about Ace remaining in Horseshoe Bay and telling Laura “I believe I have a purpose here.” Think about Nancy making the unthinkable choice, but saying “Blind spots, Temperance. I choose this.” Think about Nancy and Ace reading emails that say “I want to be with you. I don’t care what anyone else says.”

Think about Nancy, an Angel of Truth, tied eternally to a Sin Eater, choosing a mortal life. Choosing to be with the man she loves.

Think about her turning away from eternal reincarnation and saying “I face the mystery of this journey with courage because it is with you.” “In this world that tries to silence me the most dangerous words I can speak are that I love you.”

Think about how “it’s always been about love” and Nancy is choosing who she loves, not who she’s connected to through fate.

Love is an action, and love is a choice. Love is putting someone else’s needs first and choosing that person over and over. And really, someone that chooses you is far more romantic than a predestined soulmate anyway.

#nace #nancy drew cw #nancy drew spoilers #cw nancy drew #nancy and ace #nancy drew meta #i need a meta tag #my meta #scarletslippers posts #it’s about CHOICE. it’s about FREE WILL. it’s about CHOOSING WHO YOU LOVE

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racefortheironthrone · 2 years

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The Walrus Was (Is) Pa(u)l

Introduction

Like a lot of you, I was pretty consumed by Nona the Ninth - I ended up reading the entire thing in one night/morning, because there would be an enormous twist every twenty pages and I had to know how the story ended - and, like a lot of you, one of the most affecting plot developments in the book was the culmination of Palamedes and Camilla’s arcs and the creation of Paul.

In reading people’s reactions, I noted a lot of people who were heartbroken that one or both of their favorite characters were now dead. I also noted a lot of people who were very confused about why the fusion of Palamedes and Camilla was called Paul, and what kind of Biblical allusion Tamsyn Muir is pointing to with that choice of name. I also noted a lot of people who thought that the reveal of Paul was a very fascinating gender moment.

In this post, I’m not going to talk about all of that: I’m not really qualified to talk about the Biblical stuff, as I’m neither Catholic nor Christian, and while I’ve read enough stuff to think that Muir is thinking about Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians, I don’t really know that text well enough to talk about it. Likewise, I’m not really qualified to do a gender theory or trans reading of Paul, and I’m going to leave that to people who know what they’re talking about.

What I am going to talk about is the question of death and love and lyctorhood. Because while I’ve seen a lot of people say that Camilla and Pal are dead, I am not so sure. I think things are way more complicated than a simple binary of alive or dead.

The Dialectics of (True) Lyctorhood

One of the key mysteries in the whole Locked Tomb series is the nature of lyctorhood and especially True Lyctorhood, and this is especially true for Palamedes’ arc across all three books.

In Gideon the Ninth, Palamedes is the first (or second, depending on when Ianthe worked it out off-page) to theorize that Lyctorhood is the gestalt of eight theorems into one Megatheorem (what the OG Lyctors called the Eightfold Word). Unlike Ianthe, Palamedes comes to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with the theory, both in a scientific sense and a moral sense. We’ll learn that Palamedes is not the first person to come to this conclusion - Anastasia thought that the Eightfold Word was wrong and tried to perfect the process to something that wouldn’t kill Samael Novenary, but either got the execution wrong or (more likely) was prevented by John from completing her revised megatheorem. However, Palamedes doesn’t get an opportunity to act on his conclusions, because right after he gets an explanation of the full scope of the Eightfold Word from Ianthe, he unexpectedly solves the murder mystery and then blows himself up.

In Harrow the Ninth and As Yet Unsent, both Palamedes and Camilla are off-page for much of the book, but are still very much actively carrying out their Plan B (which they probably got the idea for from their solving the Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex). In the material world, Camilla moves heaven and earth to get Pal’s bones, keep them safe, get the bones to Harrow, and get Harrow to both make contact with Pal’s revenant and remake the bone shards into a suitable vessel. In the River, Pal undergoes an impossible endurance trial to keep his mind together...and when he isn’t keeping himself occupied with his new career in romance novels/erotica, he spends a lot of time thinking about the EIghtfold Word. Notably, when Harrow finds him in the bubble, he thinks that Harrow has cracked it, and then gets wrong-footed by how Harrow’s “work” has scrambled her memories...until he sees Gideon. Back in the material world, Harrow reshapes Pal’s bones into a suitable vessel for his spirit and confirms to Camilla that Pal is in the bones. Then at some point between then and the Epilogue, Pal is able to jump from the bones into Camilla’s body, and we see that they’ve undergone the eye color shift that betokens Lyctorhood.

In Nona the Ninth, we learn a lot more about how what I’ll call Plan C actually functions. In a mirror image to Gideon and Phyrra, Pal’s spirit is in Cam’s body but (at least at first) only one can be conscious at a time. Moreover, there’s a pretty strict time-limit to Pal’s control of the body, both to avoid hurting Camilla or falling prey to the blue madness. While they try to hide it and compensate as best they can with written notes and audio recordings, this is awful for the both of them - Cam is pretty depressed about not being able to touch Pal (hence the bit where she has to sit in the dark in the bathtub when Nona first does the hand kiss trick), and Pal is very anxious about whether he’s harming Camilla’s body or infringing on her selfhood.

As a model for Lyctorhood, then, the Sixth’s revised megatheorem seems less than ideal. Then all of the sudden, we learn that Camilla and Palamedes can be present in the body at the same time. This radical shift in the paradigm scares the shit out of Pyrrha, who describes it as “Synthesis” and is totally convinced that it is a “one way ticket” that will kill both Camilla and Palamedes. This is obviously concerning, because Pyrrha is the only one of the OG Lyctors left who remembers how the Eightfold Word was constructed, so presumably she knows what she’s talking about.

But both Camilla and Pal disagree. Leaving aside the massive power boost, Camilla clearly feels that the brief window of Synthesis is the moment at which they are truly alive - “it was good. We were happy.” (Keep an eye on that “we.”) As is his wont, Palamedes intellectualizes his disagreement with Pyrrha, and we see that this is what he’s been building to since GTN:

“I think a true Lyctorhood is a mutual death...a gravitational singularity creating something new. A true Grand Lysis, rather than the Petty Lysis of the megatheorem.”

In other words, Pal thinks Pyrrha is wrong about dialectics. In Hegelian philosophy, when Thesis meets Anti-Thesis and produces Synthesis, it’s not supposed to be destructive. Rather, it’s described as the resolution of tension, a peaceful overcoming, a unity of opposites. Notably, Pal uses the term “lysis” to describe his fully-worked-out version of True Lyctorhood - lysis is a biological term describing the breakdown of cell walls, so the metaphor is about the dissolving of barriers between cav and necro. More precisely, Pal argues his version of True Lyctorhood is better than the Eightfold Word because it is “mutual” - rather than a one-way sacrifice that eternalizes the hierarchical inequality of the necro/cav relationship, here necro and cav are equals engaged in a generative process.

Now to a lot of fans, that doesn’t sound much better than the Eightfold Word. After all, as a friend of mine put it, with traditional lyctorhood you’re only killing one person, and with this you’re killing two. However, I’m not convinced that Grand Lysis is the death of two to make three.

To be fair, there is evidence that runs counter to my argument: after Camilla and Palamedes do “the best and truest and kindest thing we can do in this moment,” Nona observes the result and concludes that this is “not Camilla’s, not Palamedes - that it struck Nona all at once: they were gone - they had left her - they were no longer there.” I would argue that the text of the novel is priming us to accept this verdict, because we’ve seen it established before that Nona looks at the world with eyes that see the truth of the body. (Nona observes similarly when they’re on the Ninth that Paul interacts with the world differently than either Camilla or Palamedes would have done.)

And yet, I’m still not convinced.

The Thematics: Love, Death, and Memory

My reason for this position has to do with how Tamsyn Muir writes about love, death, and memory.

Shortly before they carry out Grand Lysis, Palamedes gives a short speech where he characterizes his relationship to Camilla in a way that he hasn’t ever before, even after the duel with Ianthe: “Camilla, we did it right, didn’t we...we had something very nearly perfect...the perfect friendship, the perfect love.” I would argue that there is a thematic parallel being made between perfect (true) love and perfect (true) lyctorhood.

This produces a profound catharsis for Camilla, but before she commits to going through with this, she asks a critical question:

“Warden - will she know who we are, in the River?”

“Oh, she’s not stupid....In the River - beyond the River - I truly believe we will see ourselves and each other as we really are. And I want them to see us.”

This is a really significant exchange, because it points back to Abigail Pent’s belief in the River Beyond (something that I’m convinced is going to be the focus of Harrow’s descent into Hell and/or the Tower in the River in Alecto), and because it’s also referencing Dulcinea Septimus and whether her soul will recognize the souls of Pal and Cam. (What that exchange says about the Cam/Pal/Dulcie love triangle and/or throuple I will leave for others to debate.) Pal is taking a double leap of faith, both that Abigail is right about the existence of the River Beyond and that Grand Lysis won’t destroy Pal and Cam’s soul. (Speaking of faith, here is where I think Muir is really starting to dig into Corinthians, but again, I’m not going to discuss theology.)

(Also, keep an eye on that “we” and that “us.”)

That’s before; what about after? Well, once they die and are reborn, the as-yet-unnamed “new person” does something really unexpected - after briefly comforting Nona, they have a conversation with Ianthe. Ianthe - whose necromantic specialty and obsession is where the soul goes after death - concludes that “there was another way, Sextus, after all.” And the new person responds by reaching out:

“I know how hard it is for you to kick against the goad...but there are more worlds than this. Come with us. We are the love that is perfected by death - but even death will be no more; death can also die. There’s still time, Ianthe. Time for you, and for Naberius Tern.”

This is a wild exchange for a couple reasons. The first is that, even as a non-Christian with limited understanding of Corinthians, I can see what Muir is doing with the idea of love transcending death. Second, while it is characteristic for their first action to be one of radical compassion, it’s absolutely wild that their offer to Ianthe is one of transcendental love...with Babs. I don’t think Ianthe would consider it for a second, but the implication that it’s even possible after the Eightfold Word process has been completed is startling. Third, it is yet another instance in which the new person uses “we” and “us” to describe themselves. (This pronoun use isn’t entirely consistent - in some places, the new person uses “I” or “my” - but there’s certainly a trend.)

This brings us to the role of memory - and its relation to love and death. It’s most prominent in Harrow the Ninth and Harrow and Gideon’s arcs about remembering, forgetting, and the attempt to preserve love past death, but it’s also there in Pal and Cam’s arcs (”Palamedes remembers everything: That was his problem.I always remember him. That’s mine.”) - in the arcs of the OG Lyctors, and on and on.

Here’s the critical point: Paul remembers, and remembers Camilla and Palamedes separately and collectively. It’s a bit ambiguous at first; when Paul’s very first action as a new person is to remember Nona’s birthday, and it’s absolutely vital that it is a memory grounded in love, it’s not clear whose memory is being accessed. But later on, when Nona is confronting the existential annihilation of love and selfhood, Paul’s response is that “Camilla and Palamedes were loved by Nona...Pyrrha was loved by Nona. It’s finished, it’s done. You can’t take loved away. We loved you too. Palamedes and Camilla loved you.” Again, the intertwining of love, death, and memory, but critically Paul describes these memories separately - “Camilla and Palamedes...Palamedes and Camilla” - and collectively, with a return to the “we.”

On a more mundane level, when they get to the Ninth and encounter the corpse of a devil, Paul says “I’ve seen this before. My memory’s split.” Paul’s memory is split because only Camilla remembers seeing Colum Asht become possessed - Palamedes had left the room during the fight, so he never saw it happen. It’s a small detail that reveals much.

So here’s the TLDR:

Love transcends death through acts of memory.

Paul is not a tabula rasa, Paul remembers.

Paul is not purely a gestalt. Cam and Pal exist within Paul.

The Metaphysics: Grand Lysis and John Gaius

Here is where I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, but I couldn’t stop myself from drawing a comparison between the ritual Cam and Pal carry out in the main narrative and the secret ritual John did with/to Alecto that we learn about in the interstitial narrative. And to compare the two, I’m going to use a more metaphysical approach.

There are two metaphysical analogies that I see at work in John’s secret, original lyctorhood process. The first is Biblical, unsurprisingly. Tamsyn Muir quite clearly alludes both to the Book of Genesis - “I ripped half of my ribs from my body and made you from the dirt, my blood, my vomit, my bone” - and the Book of John - “For she so loved the world that she had given them John.”

The other analogy, and this might be more controversial, is from the occult - specifically, Aleister Crowley’s concept of the Scarlet Woman. In Crowley’s occult theory, the Scarlet Woman is a living woman who becomes the avatar of an earth goddess (very much in the sense of a fertility goddess), so that a male magician (i.e, Crowley) can tap into the female side of the cosmos and attain enlightenment. Significantly, the Scarlet Woman is thought to be an entirely passive entity - Crowley writes “she cannot say no. Her decisions are devoid of authority.” - and is meant to be used and then discarded.

To tie it back to John Gaius, who is a very Aleister Crowley-like figure, we have a male magician who tries to unify with an earth goddess, but can’t manage it - “I took you into myself and we became one...I mean, I tried. There was so much of you...you didn’t fit....I realized you were too much for me.” So instead he builds a vessel to contain the goddess - “a house to put you in” - in the shape of a beautiful human woman. His connection to that vessel gives him godlike power...but it’s all for his benefit. Not only does John not save the world for Alecto, but he sticks her in a body that she hates and then shoves her in the Locked Tomb.

Cam and Pal could not be more different, in no small part because they’re borrowing from very different metaphysical analogies. Yes, there’s still the Biblical stuff going on that I’ve been diligently trying not to talk about, but I would also argue that there is a heaping helping of alchemical imagery at work. Let’s start from the way that Grand Lysis is described - Cam and Pal ingest a mysterious powder (some sort of holdout drug or poison - EDIT: as others have corrected me, this is probably Pal’s powdered bones), then they suddenly erupt into all-encompassing flames, then they emerge from the flames...like a phoenix. And to alchemists, the Phoenix represented transformation, the attainment of the Philosopher’s Stone, the accomplishment of the Magnum Opus.

Another key alchemical concept/symbol is that of the Rebis. Like the Phoenix, the Rebis is meant to symbolize the end result of the Magnum Opus - a union and reconciliation of opposites, both spirit and matter, moon and sun, and male and female. And, in a book that is also borrowing pretty heavily from the Tarot - hence the Tower in the River - the Rebis is also associated with the World card, the last of the Major Arcana. Both are depicted as hermaphroditic figures, both represent the union of the material and the spiritual, and both are the end result of a process of enlightenment.

Doesn’t that sound just like Paul?

Conclusion

Paul is love.

#nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #palamedes sextus #camilla hect #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #Youtube #the sixth house #paul tlt #campal #campaldulcie

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tanadrin · 7 months

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@sadoeconomist

Something politically aware people on every part of the political spectrum from the left to the right think is true and leaders of the Russian, Chinese, Israeli, etc. governments believe in enough to talk about publicly and make major geopolitical decisions based on maybe is not just a crazy fringe conspiracy theory, could be that there's some truth to the CIA, NED, etc. having more involvement in these events than the video author thinks I watched all this stuff happen in real time, and I read your notes, which went over how Russian hybrid warfare succeeded in Crimea in 2014. Every major power takes hybrid warfare seriously, what's objectively stupid is your mischaracterization of how it works. Trying to astroturf a revolution out of nowhere simply by paying random citizens en masse to overthrow the government would indeed be stupid but that's not what it is. Your notes seem to suggest that the video says US was paying little attention to eastern Europe until 2013 but Russia was frequently reacting to imaginary US provocations because they are stupid. It's like there's a giant America-shaped hole in the video's narrative. Ukraine was understood to be a NATO-Russia geopolitical battleground long before Euromaidan, it wasn't just Putin shadowboxing imaginary opponents out of pure stupidity that led to this.

You seem to be operating on the basic assumption that governments don't do stupid things for no reason, or fall prey to obviously inane conspiracy theories. That's simply not true; governments are led by human beings, human beings are subject to a common set of cognitive biases, and when you're an authoritarian right-winger (as the leaders of Russia, China, and Israel all are right now), an explanation for your apparent unpopularity that pins all the blame on the CIA instead of your shitty policies and your attempts to cling to power flatters those biases.

But we don't need to speculate about the propensity of governments to do stupid shit, because we have plenty of historical and contemporary examples of governments believing in nonsense: Havana Syndrome in the US, AIDS denialism in South Africa, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in Nazi Germany and Imperial Russia, etc., etc. And often these false beliefs lead to real strategic blunders: the Bay of Pigs, the Iraq War, World War II, etc. Sometimes world leaders are stupid! Like, leadership probably tends to select for some kinds of intelligence and ability--charisma, social intelligence, and so forth--but it doesn't automatically make you a geopolitical genius, or make you immune to believing false things about the world.

And the biggest problem with the conspiracy theory outlined here isn't just that we can trace its origin to a fringe American political cult, it's that it's not necessary to explain any development in politics since 1989. There is no problem in understanding the revolutions of '89 or 2000-2014 that CIA involvement is necessary to solve. Indeed, as the videos point out (if you would actually watch them), trying to use "the CIA did it" as an explanation adds considerable problems, bc color revolution theory doesn't work. It's based on misconceptions, misunderstanding of data, and a healthy dose of paranoia.

The only real problem is trying to explain Putin's behavior--and that doesn't require color revolution theory to be true, only that Putin believes it is true. And why he would believe something is true, when he has the supposedly vast power of the Russian state at his beck and call, is easy to explain: authoritarian dictators surrounded by yes men do not have accurate pictures of the world! From Idi Amin to Saddam Hussein to Vladimir Putin, there is a common pattern of authoritarian dictators losing touch with reality, getting really weird, and coming to believe all kinds of counterproductive stuff that flatters their egos. It would be an even bigger problem to try to explain why Putin was immune to that dynamic after 24 years in power.

"World leaders don't shadowbox opponents out of pure stupidity" is an assumption that seems wholly ungrounded to me. Why not? World leaders do foolish things all the time on large and small scales. World leaders make mistakes. World leaders can become paranoid and out of touch--and if they lead countries without functioning electoral democracies, they can stay in power regardless. World leaders are not a magic special class of human being. They're just people. And whether it's because they're your uncle who watches nothing but OANN and Fox, or they're the President of Russia and they have yes-men and the Global Research guys telling them only what they want to hear, they can end up making absolute nonsense a load-bearing part of their worldview.

#like putin has benefited from this myth of being hyper competent and calculating for years in the west #and i just don't think that was ever true #he's not some super capable genius supervillain #he's just a run of the mill authoritarian #who was willing to placate russian elites to get what he wanted #and once in power gradually solidified his power base #in a very run of the mill fashion

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eltanin0 · 1 month

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doubt I'm ever gonna get around to properly conveying my characters and their story so I think I'll just dump some text about them. keep in mind some of this may change, isn't thought out fully, or doesn't have a proper ingame explanation yet.

Unfathomable amounts of rambling below. nobody is forced to read it.

About Requiem of Silence (ROS) and general stuff on the campaign

They're a kind of iterator prototype, a simple proof of concept for the ancients before they began production of fully functional iterators. Far more limited than a normal iterator, they were designed with the purpose of testing artificial intelligence and their ability to be self sustaining. They are housed in a can far smaller than typical iterators, however it is still incredibly large compared to it's surroundings. it's location is in a large crater we'll say, and the low elevation makes it relatively closer to the surface of the void sea. this helps with the fact that they are largely powered by the void fluid, and the closer proximity aids with the collection and utilization. They have very basic functions that pale in comparison to the complexity of future iterators. They do not have the ability to manipulate gravity, not even in their chamber. They do not possess a large amount of neuron flies either, and thus have more limited mental abilities and intelligence than normal iterators. they were not designed with the ability to speak, instead they emit a high powered lazer from their fingers to write and communicate through text that they draw on the surfaces of their chamber. The puppet design is fairly simple. where modern iterators seem almost biological with their body, the seamless transitions between appendages and other stuff that I cant be bothered looking into, ROS' puppet is far more mechanical. arms and legs are separated at the joints, clearly distinct parts that are connected together. the metallic material making up it's body is largely unchanged, save for the markings on the head the body is a very metallic grey. the first marking, directly on the forehead, looks like a volume symbol directed downwards, it is colored golden similar to void fluid. the second marking is two lines, 1 coming from either eye, which travel downwards and across the face, intersecting, ending between the chin and somewhere along the jaw (it's also colored gold like void). the intersection point is right where the mouth would normally be placed and when coupled with the volume symbol at the top would combine into a mute symbol. this along with the inability to speak leads into it's name, Requiem of Silence. an important thing about ROS is their relationship with the ancients, or more so, lack thereof. story wise, after being built by the ancients and confirming their theories, they were neglected, tossed aside, and forgotten. left to live forever in their can with no purpose, ROS slowly became resentful of the ancients and bitter towards lifeforms in general. envious of their ability to travel, and later their ability to escape the cycle.

Over time, the general neglect of their own can caused their structure (which was not as solidly built as normal iterators) to eventually collapse. the legs collapsed and walls deteriorated over time. it's overall appearance is quite similar to LTTMs' collapsed structure, minus it being submerged in water and the size difference. now seeing as ROS is meant to be a prototype, they were made long before the iterators we know today. so far back that the landscape around them has changed drastically from what it once was. after the collapse of their can, they slowly sunk under their own weight, and as nature took it's course, dirt and rubble piled over. the machinery inside would slowly clog with dirt and debris, restricting functionality and causing pain to ROS. eventually after a very long time, they were completely covered and submerged, and the life that grew atop it flourished, looking very much like the Outer Expanse. as the can continued to sink, the distance between itself and the surface grew, and the distance between itself and the void sea shrunk. during the time when the campaign would take place, the superstructure is so far below the surface that there's no sign of it's previous existence above. it's fallen so deep that it's even began to dip into the void sea itself, speeding up it's deterioration and in turn, causing immense pain for ROS.

now with the collapse and sinking into the void sea and disregard from ROS, the can and the puppet itself is in terrible shape. the puppet would be fairly broken, unable to walk, and upon first meeting, would be partially buried in dirt. gameplay wise they would function similarly to LTTM in their ability to maneuver, but of course they wouldn't be able to communicate with the player through words. they would have only one neuron fly remaining and they keep it physically inside the puppet. they would attempt to communicate with the player through writing words on the walls to no avail. eventually they would offer their last neuron to the player in an attempt to end their suffering. it's up to the player whether they accept the neuron or not, but eating the neuron would end the campaign. should the player not eat the neuron fly, during their next hibernation they would experience a dream sequence/custcene which would end with them deciding to help ROS. they would then travel deeper into the collapsed structure in search of the biggest problem within it. as they travel deeper, eventually the environment around them would begin taking on aspects of the void (the gold colors n such) and they would eventually reach the void sea. this void sea would function similarly to the saint void sea, the one that kills you when you touch it. it would be more focused around the platforming aspect and avoiding the fluid. eventually they'd reach some kind of goal or something to help ROS regain some functionality. i'm not fully certain of what the solution would be so i'll just ignore it. after fixing the issue, the player would travel all the way back up and reach ROS' chamber again. this would be the trigger for the ending and campaign over.

that's a fair amount that's in my brain, mind you I've barely talked about the slugcat and their story. some of the concepts and ideas were picked up and changed from other people, tho I don't remember which parts or how much. the only one I'm fairly certain was kinda yoinked was the can in the void sea. I think it was an ask response or something but someone asked about ascending iterators with the void sea, and I think the answer was to dunk the whole can. I thought that was a fun idea and mixed with the Rubicon void stuff, it could make some interesting platforming.

I think that's all I'll talk about for now, sorry for rambling so much. let me know if I fucked up anywhere

#:I #rambling #rambling :I #rw oc #iterator oc #sorry

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ms-scarletwings · 11 months

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A Speculative Analysis About Irkens No One Asked For: Part I

Dem green fellas. Them lil guys, they’re an interesting pack of critters, aren’t they?

I used to really fixate on them back in middle and high school, stronger than everyone else seemed to be on the spazz in the dog costume. Jhonen Vasquez’s worldbuilding has always towed a very fine line between nonsensically ridiculous and surprisingly logistical, and this balance is typified in everything we know, and can infer, about these bug-eyed imperialists at the center of everything Invader Zim. So, let’s infer, and take a crack at it since no one’s stopping us anyway- More specifically, some thoughts and ponderings I had about how they “tick” as a fully realized society, not just a sci-fi monster..

A Homeworld Obscured

Now, to really understand the history and “deal” of any civilization, or any animal, usually you would turn to their environment first to give you some handy clues and context.

Small problem, though: We actually don’t get much in the way of direct, explicit showing or explanations about Irk itself when it comes to the show. This makes some sense, given that the whole of what they do worth showing (and the most notable members of their kind) exists almost entirely off-world. So instead, we mostly find out more about Irk from what Invader Zim does tell us about its natives. As far as confirmed canon goes, we know that Irk’s atmosphere appears red, its surface is entirely and densely urbanized, and it’s long been depicted in starmaps with a set of Saturn-like rings.

This last fact is probably the most interesting, because planetary rings are usually something we, in our own little solar system, would only associate with massive, gaseous worlds, not terrestrial ones. What These rings are made of is really anyone’s guess- could be ancient debris from natural satellites, Water-ice particles, maybe even some form of artificial defense network put into orbit by the Irkens themselves. If they aren’t artificially created, this would suggest that Irk has quite a strong gravitational field- greater than that of any of our neighborhood’s rocky planets. This is the common theory I personally like to subscribe to, because it would also go hand and hand with explaining why the average height of the irken race is so much shorter compared to that of an adult human. It fits neatly into the “why” question for the sort of athletic skill and agility we’ve seen invaders able to demonstrate on Earth, too, for otherwise being of meek physical prowess. It even adds some credible context for why the very achievement of growing to a more substaintial height is both uncommon and associated with extreme survival fitness to them.

A Fun fact that’s about to be relevant: “Rayleigh scattering” is the term given to when light wavelengths become shifted and scattered through an atmosphere medium. Long story short, it’s the reason our sky has color to it during the day. Stay with me on this.

I’ve also seen some people take a go at the red-looking surface, guessing a different gas makeup than the elements on earth responsible for our blue skies. I’m gonna go against the grain here, and actually contest that. I think that Irk’s atmosphere is coincidentally extremely similar to Earth’s. We know well enough that they both have a similar composition of gases breathable to both societies, given that Zim, Skoodge, and Tak all seemed pretty comfortable without some form of assistance on the same dirtball as humanity. Instead, I propose that Irk’s magenta skies are actually the symptom of heavy pollution. Sunsets and sunrises in the real world are known to make the sky appear more reddish-orange, even pink, as is. Usually, Rayleigh scattering has the light From the sun appear bluish in full midday, but during low sun, the rays are coming at an angle making them have to travel farther before reaching us, so you have already stretched light waves getting the same treatment from the air and, well, a higher frequency blue turns down to the lower end of the spectrum, red and yellows.

And wouldn’t you know, air pollution can actually do the same thing. THIS is why there's a scary ass orange haze known to accompany the presence of massive forest fires and volcanic eruptions. Earth’s most polluted cities even experience longer and redder sunsets for the same reason.

Left: Image of a lilac sky over a Chinese city experiencing heavy smog levels Right: Intense red haze spotted over towns in Indonesia in the wake of rampant rainforest fires

On Earth, Zim stared directly into the midday sun without hesitation, nor concern that it would literally blind him. I think the planet hue and this is plenty enough to guess the likely case that Irk’s surface probably doesn’t get a lot of direct sun on an average day as is, and the sheer amount of unbroken cityscape that covers the homeworld would be the more obvious suspect than just having a more distant star from them. If they overcrowded to the point of their expansion, why build their civilization deeper into the ground, instead of up? Maybe there's actually a good reason or two they don’t raise their young topside.

A Psychology Molded for Domination

As well, I want to chirp about real world space again for a second. So, anyone up to the buzz in geek circles and aware of the math on the matter probably got the memo: humanity is almost matter-of-fact certainly not alone in this sandbox of a universe (or at the very least, we won’t always be alone). Like, about as certainly as we were about Black holes’ existence before we up and observed the real thing. And while it’s probably not going to happen in any of our lifetimes, sci-fi and media generally have been trying to take a crack for years at what the theoretical first contact with an alien civilization is going to look like.

And I’m gonna go ahead and say it,

As “cliche” and Hollywood as the conquering little green/grey dudes trope might have become… it’s actually not a wild take after all. The little and green thing, that’s creative liberty, but the part about them being hostile and something we may not actually even WANT to be aware of our existence? That’s an idea that even the smarty pants experts have been fearing the realistic odds of, even including the late Stephen Hawking .

The Evolution of intelligent life is a hard thing to really pin down and predict, given that we literally only have the one example to study. Under the right conditions, what reason would another advanced species NOT have to be equally as expanding, as exploitative of its resources, self-destructively short-sighted, and as supremacist as humans have already demonstrated themselves to be capable of? There is a lot of very interesting literature that suggests BOTH empathy/altruism and or aggression/tribalism to be (at least in the short term) very rewarding characteristics for an intelligent social species to develop.

And that’s the thing about the behavior of the Irken Armada I think has always been fascinating. Their drive to be the biggest definitionally invasive species across the cosmos is framed exactly as irrational, bumbling, and pointless as it deserves to be; however, is it not just the extended conclusion of every empire that has existed here on Earth, if only it had survived long enough to achieve the technology of Irk? And yet, it’s reminiscent, like the rest of their design, to the far from sapient, yet very real world creatures they appear to be most inspired by: hive and colony building arthropods. Whether the next point I'm about to touch on should be seen as a rejection of that resemblance, or further elaboration of it is anyone's to answer.

Transhumanism, or.. Transirkenism, in this case?

Like the specifics of what Irk really looks like and how it realistically works, a bunch about the aliens’ physical biology is left to scattered tidbits to ponder and piece together into a bigger picture. A few of those tidbits are as follows, drip-fed to us over the course of aired and scripted but never released episodes:

+ From the mouth of Vasquez himself, it has been confirmed that Irkens lack any form of reproductive organs. Instead, they rely on industrialized facilities to grow and produce them in a factory sense.

+ Yet curiously, they still demonstrate something akin to sexual dimorphism, or at least the cultural existence of masculine/feminine genders, where females are aesthetically set apart by the presence of curled antennae, eyelashes, and higher voices.

+ Irken lifespans are able to stretch far past that of an average human’s (Zim himself is cited to be around 2 centuries old in earth years).

+ Invader class soldiers have been implanted with surgical upgrades to their eyes.

+ Every Irken is fitted with a PAK that serves a wide array of utility and life-sustaining functions for its owner. These units are physically and neurologically connected into an Irken’s spine from “birth” and contain a cybernetic backup of an individual’s personality, assigned occupational programming, and memories.

That’s not close to a complete list by any means, but it’s got the gist of what I want to dwell on most, starting with the last bit; because the PAK isn’t done true justice in one statement. It is not an extra addition the way a prosthetic enhancement is, and it is not a tool the way armor and weapons are. It is literally analogous to a vital organ to these aliens, and they are shown to die within 10 minutes of being forcefully detached from their own.

The degree to which Irken bodies and minds rely on this technology, and how seamlessly they are integrated into it, ALONG with their completely artificial life cycle all directly points to the fact that their civilization has advanced into a cyborg-like stage of evolution. It may even be on track to reach a post-organical peak in due time, phasing out more and more of their “vestigial” and feeble meatsuits until they’ve become a true drone army. And that actually begs some huge questions now that we realize we will never know how much of the Irken anatomy was ever originally a natural feature. An Irken’s own brain practically comes secondary to the superior efficiency of the supercomputer on their back, capable of literally holding their own essence and being in the form of code. A code that can preserve the “self” even in the event of meatbody failure, being uploaded post-mortem into the Control Brains’ collective data and repurposed for a future generation of workers. It absolutely would stand to reason that the species has continued this biological self-tampering to other heights- extending their lifespans, incorporating untold amount of mechanical upgrades into their bodies, and maybe even genetically engineering their smeets to be so compatible with this technology. The control brains themselves are a mesmerizing reflection of this change over time- the result of an evident shift long ago from technology serving them, to them serving the directives of computers. When you really pay attention to the control brains’ role in the series, it comes clear to you who (or what) is really in charge of their society. The Tallest still maintain their symbolic/cultural importance to the Irkens, but outside of their part in spearheading the active intergalactic invasion, they ultimately are figureheads when it comes to actually running the homeworld and ruling the lives of Irk’s inhabitants. If I had to bet money, I would say the Brains may even have the ability to choose and predetermine the next Tallest when a replacement is needed. But what does that make the Tallest? A meaningless title and transformation, chosen arbitrarily by the AI overlords? Well, I don’t think so, actually… but maybe that, and more on the “meaty” morphology of their race is all a tangent fit for another day and post ;)

#invader zim #irkens #long post #sci fi #iz fandom #scarlet talks about things #oh boy here i go hyperfixating again

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