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fictoculus · 9 months

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౨ৎ they're crying, but why?

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FEAT... cyno, venti (w/ diluc), gorou

A/N... aaand the results are in! this is the result of the poll i posted yesterday, thank you to everyone who submitted their vote ♡ (sorry these got a bit long! i got a bit carried away...)

WARNINGS... death/injury (gorou), mentions of alcohol/drinking (venti)

✧ cyno.

when you really put some thought into it, you don't think you've ever actually seen cyno cry. he is quite a solitary person, after all, and tends to take matters into his own hands; hating when other people get involved in his problems, especially those most dear to him.

being general mahamatra comes with a lot of responsibilty, and it's only reasonable for things to become stressful from time to time, maybe even too much too handle. that's why when you come home to a seemingly empty house, the snack you left for him on the kitchen table remaining untouched, you begin to worry. cyno has plenty of unhealthy habits, one of which being avoiding food when mentally conflicted, convinced that it acts as a catalyst to his emotions.

your first thought is to check the bedroom, expecting your beloved to be lying in bed, hopefully asleep and not silently shedding tears. however, as you near the doorway, you soon notice that the door is open... cyno never leaves the door open.

"love? are you home?"

you call out, half expecting a response, yet one was not given. instead, you were met by an eerie silence...

"where in teyvat is he?!"

you searched high and low but to no avail, you're beloved was nowhere to be seen; it was like the two of you were running in circles. little did you know, he was searching for you too...

normally, cyno would seek a quiet, secluded place to be alone with his thoughts, desperately trying to come up with a solution but his mind often wanders off to you; how you would deal with the situation, how he would manage it if it were you feeling this way. sometimes it works, other times it's completely and utterly useless; he fails to picture someone as kind-hearted and loving as you committing such violent deeds. he imagines your warmth, how gentle you are with him, how soft yet meaningful your kisses are, and finally comes to the realisation: the last thing he wants is to be alone. it had all become too much for him to handle by himself, and as guilty a he'd feel dumping it all on you, it felt as if he had no other choice.

at this point, you're breaking into a sprint, the daunting realisation that the sun was beginning to set urging you to go onwards. the thought of cyno being alone in the desert at night sent chills down your spine, even though you knew he could probably handle himself.

you pass by villagers, adventurers, and even narrowly avoid a group of hermits, all but one of them fast asleep around a campfire. a flaming ache shoots down your legs, only causing you to become more desperate as you throw your head from side to side, scouring your surroundings for any signs of him. you stop in your tracks, frozen as a silohuette in the distance catches your eye. it has ears, just like cyno's, pointing up to the sky, and you're convinced it's him. you feel your heart pounding in your chest, whether it be from the running or from nervousness you didn't know but in tha-

[THUD!]

all of a sudden, you're sent toppling to the ground, a figure falling right ontop of you, but managing to catch themselves with their hands, placed on either side of your head.

"what the..."

they had ears, just like cyno's, pointing up to the sky... was it the silohuette from earlier? it can't be, they must've been a mile away.. then who on teyvat is it?!

"cyno?!"

relief washes over you as you pull him down ontop of you, wrapping him in a tight embrace. he squirms at first, puzzled as to why a stranger was holding onto him so tightly. only when he realises its you underneath him does he finally loosen up, letting your comforting warmth envelop him and save him from the harsh cold of the desert's night.

you kiss his forehead lovingly before slowly repositioning the two of you so that he's sat upright on your lap, your back pressed against the cold cliff face behind you. it felt... strange having him on top of you like this, it wasn't often you in control, and you'd never imagined cyno of all people being on your lap, or anyone's lap for that matter. his eyes lock with yours and he immediately breaks, his eyes welling up as he crashes onto you, wrapping his arms securely around your waist and hiding his face in the crook of your neck. he cries. he cries and cries and cries, but you remain patient with him; rubbing his back slowly and shushing him every so often.

"you're ok... shhh, you're alright. i love you, cyno, and i'll always be right by your side, no matter what"

"even when i hurt innocent people?"

you're taken aback by this statement. never in your life had anyone challenged cyno's judgment, and the last person you thought you'd hear it from was the man himself.

"you don't, love... those people deserved their punishment, don't doubt your judgement"

you feel him shift, pulling his away from your shoulder, his face mere inches from yours.

"i love you..."

he murmers, letting out a shakey breath, the warm air hitting your face and bringing a soft, rosey tint to your cheeks.

"i love you too"

you close the gap, kissing him tenderly, conveying everything you feel for him in that intimate moment, showing him how much you love him, how much you care...

✧ venti.

at first, you think venti is drunk, slumped over the bar in angel's share, seemingly groggy and, honestly, looking absolutely exhausted (but cute nontheless). you admire him from afar, taking in how his cape wraps around his figure perfectly.

"ah, [name], i was wondering when you'd turn up"

diluc, the owner of the tavern, has quite the tough exterior, though once you get to know him, his wall begins to crack, revealing his slightly softer interior.

you sigh; yes, you're used to picking venti up from the tavern by now, but you wished he could at least be a bit more responsible for things like his tab.

"don't worry, i'll pay"

approaching the two of them, you reach into your pocket, feeling around for your bag of mora, only to be interrupted by diluc's monotonous yet somehow expressive voice.

"he hasn't had anything"

even diluc seems surprised, causing you stop in your tracks; he hasn't been drinking? the feeling of disappointment quickly leaves you and is instantaneously replaced by a feeling of pure concern. your lover, still lying on the counter, is yet to even move since you walked in, and didn't respond when the redhead called his name. instinctively, you place your hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him, urging him to get up.

"love?"

he doesn't respond, you and diluc sharing a look; you can tell from his eyes that does, in fact, care for venti. your eyebrows furrow as you stop shaking him and rest your hand on his back, only to realise he is still trembling. as quietly as you can, you pull up a stool and take a seat next to him, diluc taking this as his hint to leave and wondering into the storage room.

all it takes is a few sniffles for you to realise exactly what was going on.

"darling... venti, look at me"

reaching out your hand to hold his, your realise how sweaty his palms are, pulling them away from his face to reveal his puffy, red eyes staring up at you, though he quickly diverts his gaze once the two of you make eye contact. in that exact moment, you can feel your heart breaking, each tear rolling down his cheek forming a new crack. without hesitation, you hug him. it's an awkward hug, his upper half still resting on the counter, your right arm reaching over his back and rubbing his shoulder, your left snaking around his waist and pulling him closer.

"this isn't very comfortable..."

you chuckle, even through sadness, venti's... strong personality never fails to show through. his breath hitches every so often as he tries to hold back his sobs, but, archons, was it good to hear his voice again, no matter how broken it may sound. you feel him shift under your arms and so you remove them from around him, allowing him the capacity to move into a more comfortable position; which happened to be lifting you up and pulling you onto his lap, the small of your back pressed against the edge of the counter.

"what's got you so down in the dumps, hm?"

you question, reaching up a hand to tilt his chin up while the other ruffles his hair. he doesn't respond, but instead pulls his face away from your touch and buries it in your chest, finding the rise and fall of your breathing comforting. you both just sit in silence, appreciating eachother's presence more than anything. still in venti's arms, you reach into your bag and grab a notepad and pen, scribbling down a note, thanking diluc for letting your partner stay and watching over him. venti simply watches, slightly confused when you leave a scrappy looking piece of paper on the stool next to you... that is until he reads "dear diluc", and everything seems to click.

venti never does explain what had upset him so much, but you trust him; you trust that when he needs you, he'll come find you, for you can hide from many things, but never the wind...

(unbeknownst to the two of you, diluc had been listening in to your conversation the entire time, a foreign sense of worry prevented him from leaving, curious to know what had gotten his most loyal patron friend in such a state...)

✧ gorou.

gorou doesn't know how long he's been stood at the front door, trembling as waves upon waves of guilt flood over him. an impossible challenge had approached him, one he could never have been prepared for.

it was an ambush.

manslaughter. hundreds of his men, brave warriors, slain. defeated. gone. the hope he had, the passion, dissapated within an instant, crashing to the ground just like him when he heard the news. he fell silent, but kokomi could tell by the way he slumped over that his heart shattered. she told him not to lose hope, that the resistance still has a chance of overpowering the vision hunt decree, but that isn't what got him on his knees. he wasn't there. he couldn't save them. it was his fault.

he wondered for hours, aimlessly following paths but straying off them once he neared the home of a fallen soldier. somehow, as if by miracle, he found himself at the front door of your shared home, hours after his usual return, leaving you worried sick. weakly, he lifted his hand and rested it on the door handle, but he couldn't bring himself to walk in... he was ashamed. hundreds of his men died on his watch, how could he possibly return home carrying that on his shoulders? it must've been 20 minutes after he arrived before you finally decided to go out looking for him, despite him making you promise that you'd never go searching for him if he didn't return home; how could you not knowing your beloved could be in danger?

"gorou? archons, i was worried sick! how long have you been standing out here its so- cold... love?"

you practically exploded on him, not giving him a chance to speak, which in some ways he is grateful for, the last thing he wanted was to have to confess. so instead he just stood there, motionless, his feet stiff on the ground, as if held in place by glue. he couldn't bare to look you in the eye, avoiding your gaze at all costs.

"sweetheart... please look at me? did something happen? are you hurt?"

scanning him over, you see no signs of external injury, but you notice how he's gently shaking, his hands fidgeting with the tip of his tail which seemed slightly damp. immediatey you knew; he'd been crying. what for, you don't know, but in that moment, you didn't need to.

you know gorou well enough to have memorised his habits, one of which being him cuddling his tail when he cries, especially when you're not there to hold and console him. how do you know this? you've walked in on him before; hidden under the covers and whimpering softly as he tried his best to muffle his cries.

seeing him upset is like a dagger to the heart, and you can't stand watching him fall apart right in front of you.

"let's get you inside, hm?"

he nods meekly, forcing a smile as he steps past you and into the warmth, instantly feeling a sense of comfort at the familiar smells and sensations of your home.

you have your back turned from him, purposefully taking longer than usual to lock the door, trying to come up with a way to cheer up your partner.

the very instant you turned back around to face him, solid plan in mid, he crashes into your arms, desperately clawing at the back of your shirt, searching for something to ground himself. you feel his face nuzzle into your chest, his tears wetting your shirt, but you didn't mind. infact, you opted to bring him even closer, your hand at the back of his head, tangling your fingers in his hair and gently scratching his scalp.

"i- i'm sorry..."

his voice wavered, as if he forced the words out. he breaks down after his apology, knowing just how the hard the news was going to hit you.

"don't apologise, dear, i'm just glad you're back with me, safe and sound"

you squeeze him tighter, wanting to pull him in even more, but knowing he could only be so close until he literally couldn't breathe. once the trembling stops, and his sobs turn to sniffles, you pull away, moving your hands to cup his cheeks and tilt his head to face yours. smiling, you lean down ever so slightly and plant a soft kiss on the tip of his nose.

"now, let's get a warm cup of tea and you can tell me all about it, ok? i'll fix you up a little something to eat too"

hand in hand, the two of you relocate to the kitchen, gorou sat timidly at the table whilst you prepare him some tricolour dango. you both take deep breaths together before he slowly guides you through his day, attempting to explain what had happened. his nerves were spiking, knowing you'd be distraught at what had happened on the battlefield, scared that you'd become angry at him and tell him he's to blame.

to say you were heartbroken was an understatement, some of those who were lost were friends of yours, that was a fact that couldn't be dismissed, and so you did shed a few tears; but you would never blame any of it on gorou.

over the course of the next couple hours, you cried together, you laughed together, you ate together, only to cry once more, but you found comfort in doing it together. rising from your seat to get a glass of water, you catch sight of the time, letting gorou know and suggesting the pair of you head to bed. you tell him to go ahead and get comfortable while you stay and clean the dishes, giving him a few minutes to recollect his thoughts and calm himself down.

the two of you stay in bed from that point onwards, holding each other close, reminiscing on the memories you had shared with those who had unfortunately passed; you knew it was hard for him to talk about such things, and it was hard for you too, but if not now, when? there were moments where he'd begin to tear up again, but you'd be there to calm him, rubbing his back and whispering sweet nothings in his ear...

thanks for reading ♡ want to read more? my requests are OPEN, so please feel free to let me know what you'd like me to write next!

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arwen48 · 2 years

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How is it that the Amazon show has only been out a months and it’s already causing so much ship hate? Like sure, you can interpret Sauron and Melkor’s relationship as abusive, but you don’t have to. Name ONE cannon passage that states Melkor was ever abusive to Mairon. ONE! Ever! It’s downright impossible.

- Plus Tolkien made it clear that Mairon’s service to Melkor was selfless, and true because, specifically, it was not out of fear, but out of respect. He implicitly contrasts it to the service of the orcs, saying that any service motivated out of fear is always false, and further indicating that Melkor desired from Mairon absolutely loving service instead, because it’s true. And true service , to Tolkien has to be absent of fear completely, or else it is impure and not real, and most of all cannot be selfless. The writer goes on to say fear is always self serving, not serving the other but servicing self preservation, even if there’s only a little fear, it makes the bond of loyalty ( fear based loyalty is not actual loyalty, it loyalty to ones own safety) impure and means that it’s not actual faith, and the devotion is untrue. According to him, it means it’s not actual admiration, or worship or care. It’s not actual service. Melkor wants Mairon to see him as a god, as good and as worthy. True devotion- That’s the kind of service Melkor wants from Mairon, and that’s why he’s different from the orcs, because he doesn’t have fear of Melkor- he serves him out of true admiration, respect, belief and loyalty. Melkor must have purposely treated him better to maintain this trust, at least because he had to, because he needed Mairon (but it can be seen as love). As Tolkien states, this is a remnant of Mairon’s good, and is in contrast to the orcs, actual selfless devotion. That’s what I can draw from canon, and obvious that can be interpreted as love. Again, Tolkien states that Sauron served Melkor completely selflessly, and that this was a remnant of goodness in him. Goodness (according to Tolkien) is only ever out of love or admiration, and only ever out of selflessness, never out of negativity or fear. In the end it’s the memory of Melkor that brings him back to evil- but he only served Melkor for Melkor’s own sake, and the sake of his vision. He’d given up everything for it, and even though it was gone, it was not gone from his mind. You could say that he returned to evil out of some twisted fear of Melkor- but that’s downright impossible, because it’s been made clear that his service of Melkor couldn’t have been out of fear or else it couldn’t have been selfless or good- Tolkien states that his service was both selfless and a remnant of his good nature. Most of all he believed in Melkor and his vision, who he was and what he could do, the fact that he could change the world and rewrite fate. His belief had to be unfailing. You don’t just deny god for someone you hate or a future you don’t believe in 100%, and you aren’t said to have the true pure motive of service (that Tolkien says can only be attained in the complete absence of fear ) if you fear someone. Sauron’s motives are only pure when it comes to Melkor, in every way else he’s a jerk. He veiws Melkor as a god, and as a catalyst for the recreation of the world. He believes in who he is, his power to change things, his very essence and soul. And that’s why he serves him. Because he trusts in what he can do and respects him as a person.Melkor can’t hurt him without hurting his trust and without tainting the purity of his respect for him and belief with fear, which, according to Tolkien, would make his service to Melkor impure. Melkor would have to have given him privileges above the rest to maintain the purity of his belief. So, clearly, angbang has no canon requirement to be abusive. At all. There’s nothing in canon that says so, and there’s barely anything said about there relationship generally, so we have room to interpret it well.

Canon actually makes it seem that it couldn’t have been abusive, because of the intensity of their mutual cooperation, coordination and systematic undertsanding of each other (the fact Mairon knew him enough to enact his will and dreams and never tried to usurp him when he literally wouldn’t leave the house) as well as the fact Mairon was given the highest position of all, and that he served Melkor for Melkor’s sake alone, which AGAIN, according to Tolkien was one of the few good things about Sauron: he could purely admire or care about another’s feelings and goals. Apparently enough to make it his whole world view. And AGAIN, to Tolkien his service was absolutely loving, and unlike the orcs, was not out of fear, because that would have meant his service wasn’t really real service.

Actual service is serving another out of respect, one cannot truly serve another by force, you cannot be forced to want to do things for another, that would be enslavement, like with the the orcs.

#angbang #mairon #silmarillion #sauron #melkor #tolkien #lotr #morgoth #the silmarillion #melkor x mairon

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dragongutsixofficial · 1 year

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ooh can you elaborate the parallel between rhea killing nemesis with a dagger and dimitri giving el one? i'm curious but feel free to ignore, if you don't want to!

Thanks for the ask anon ! =D

For context, I just realized there even was a parallel yesterday while I was watching the opening cutscene - and though I thought I'd share it because people might have some interesting things to say about it, I didn't really think that deep into it myself.

That being said, I thought I'd at least give it a go !! Keep in mind though, this might be pretty disorganized since I am thinking it out at the same time as I am writing it.

Off the top of my mind, there are three important daggers I can think of when playing fe3h. The first one, and perhaps the most significant, is Edelgard's, that was gifted to her by Dimitri so she could cut her own future. The second one, which I talked about yesterday, is the one Rhea uses to kill Nemesis. And finally, there is a last one: the one Monica uses to stab Jeralt.

Interestingly enough, Seiros kills Nemesis for revenge- because her people have no future now that they've been genocided, because they themselves will not have the opportunity to cut their own future anymore. This is pretty similar to how Edelgard herself is the only one of her siblings left to build a new world where what they went through will never happen again. Both are motivated by their grief of their loved ones who were ripped away from them.

However, and I think that’s very important- unlike Edelgard, Rhea never really moves on from the grief. She tries so much to stop such horrible things from happening again that she helps build and preserve a system that is, at its core, centered on a romanticized version of the past (what’s with how she rewrites history) and resistant to change (I believe it is mentioned at some point in Cindered Shadows that she prohibited the development of the printing press and some medical progress). In that regard, you could say she doesn’t even have a “future” if you consider that with future comes change. She clings to the past while being stuck in a kind of “still life” that is her present- and hoping that she can go back to “the way things were” once she brings her mother back to life.

That makes Edelgard the polar opposite of that. She, too, disregards the present- but only because she herself cannot dwell on the past, and thus considers building what she sees as a better future her priority. Living in the present time isn’t worth it if her work amounts to no significant change, and fast -hence the radicality of her actions compared to the more gradual reforms Claude advocates for. She is the gal who devised a plan to take down Those Who Slither In The Dark with her goth best friend in her twenties, while Rhea barely made a move against them in a thousand years.

Her act of desperation at the end of Azure Moon, when she tries to kill Dimitri last minute, is because she is unwilling to give up on the future she envisioned, not a way to avenge the past. Now that I think about it, this is emphasized even more by the fact that her dagger is supposed to kill the one who gave it to her in a past she has no care left for, and barely remembers anyways. But this last action still leaves room for a better future- she doesn’t manage to kill Dimitri.

Rhea uses her dagger so the past can live again- Edelgard uses hers to kill the past.

So, now that I am wayyyy too deep into this to back down- where does Kronya’s dagger fit in all of this ?

Kronya/Monica killing Jeralt is the catalyst for change in Byleth. The one key element that allows for the return of the Goddess in the world of the living (speaking of that, have some cool symbolism about their fusion with Sothis I thought about the other day) . But, even more importantly, Byleth embodies the movement of the world itself, the force of change. They are interminatum, neither God nor mortal, everchanging and undetermined, unpredictable. They are the time that passes ("Byleth interminatum" is also slowly becoming my favorite way to call them but that's another matter entirely).

Without them, the conflict stagnates, torn in the struggle between the past and the future ; because neither Edelgard nor Rhea know how to live in the present. But you know what's pretty cool ?

Byleth never uses their own dagger. They literally have it on at all times but never use it. My guess is, it is exactly because they have been revealed "both sides of time" that they can live in the present without regret, kept in check by all of the ties they have made there with their loved ones. This might even be because they are the only character who was "cut from the world" and felt like they lived outside of it at the beginning of the story, whose entire character arc centers on finding their place into this world. Jeralt's murder is just what triggers this force of change.

Byleth is essential in that they teach both the archbishop and the empress something they have always been lacking- learning to live in the present, to be part of the world again, to open themselves up to others and love. Edelgard never uses her dagger in Crimson Flower because Byleth was there to keep her aware of the consequences her actions have in the here-and-now.

Aaalright, I guess that's a wrap ! Please forgive any mistakes as English isn't my first language. Similarly, I might not have covered everything and it's just me musing, don't hesitate to add anything to this !!! ^^ But the symbolism of the dagger was really cool to think about !!

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kdd-works · 1 year

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Analysis of 2001: A Space Odyssey - Why David Bowman and Frank Poole are the villains of the story, and the plot's unfair treatment of HAL compared with the mise-en-scène

Oh and there's also a free little fanart for you at the end

A man can only justify his actions if he regards his demeanor with deductive thinking. This man was not David Bowman, nor was it Frank Poole, mainly because they were both fucking douchebags.

Many people, thanks to how the conflict of the Discovery One part of the movie is framed, come away thinking HAL 9000 is an entirely villainous character, owing to the film’s tight-lippedness regarding why HAL takes the actions that he does. In most people’s eyes, it’s a straightforward story of “Machine malfunctions, goes homicidal, and needs to be shut down.” Others who see HAL more sympathetically, especially given that his reasons are much more fleshed-out in the novelization and subsequent movie, tend to think that, while it wasn’t HAL’s fault that he had to resort to homicide, it was a situation in which nobody was in the wrong. However, people who think more closely about the progression of events leading up to HAL’s murder of the crew can only find the conclusion that HAL was the unfortunate victim of this segment of the tale, and that Dave and Frank were decidedly at fault in the whole ordeal, if not villains outright.

Thanks to HAL’s murder of the crew once Dave and Frank decide to shut him down, most come away with the impression that HAL was plotting betrayal from the start. Even those who knew HAL was only trying to ensure the success of the mission look at HAL’s betrayal as an inevitability rather than an act of desperation, due to his increasing paranoia. When the truth is, the catalyst for HAL to take such drastic action in the first place is when Dave and Frank discuss their plans to disconnect him, behind his back, no less. Even if one doesn’t take into account that HAL had never been taken offline before, however you believe he saw being disconnected, it’s still easy to see how HAL could’ve felt betrayed by the two. Up until that point, he’d been nothing but helpful toward the two. Even when he made his failed prediction of the AE-35 unit’s failure, he never made any attempt to stall or work against the crew; for all intents and purposes, he was perfectly helpful even when he was ‘in error.’ His method of satiating his own worry was never murder, it was a distraction, which, while relatively harmless (since HAL was capable of carrying out the mission himself, presumably in the absence of mission control also), would get at least one pair of eyes off his back, that being mission control.

HAL’s benign and non-lethal first approach when dealing with paranoia is in stark contrast to Dave and especially Frank. When they receive the report from mission control that HAL was at fault in predicting the error, they automatically feel the need to go behind HAL’s back and discuss their plans to disconnect him. This move is, to put it bluntly, extremely troubling. From a logical standpoint also, because they had no way of knowing whether the risks and difficulties would be worth it from only one relatively benign failed prediction, or whether those failures would ever increase to the point of being a danger to the crew, but more importantly: Dave and Frank fully intended to essentially lobotomize a sentient being out of what amounted to paranoia over a single error. The defense that they didn’t know with certainty whether HAL was sentient or not only goes so far, since, as men of science, judging by the massive amounts of evidence towards HAL’s capacity for emotions—that even they acknowledged—they should’ve acted with the possibility of HAL being sentient in mind. Their choosing to disregard the possibility of HAL’s sentience in response to a simple error, to the point of cutting his higher brain functions, is, to say the least, extremely chilling.

This demonstration of cruelty on Dave and Frank’s part is simply the ultimate of a larger issue, shown over and over again, the issue of their disregarding the idea of HAL’s sentience, even the idea that HAL is anything more than a computer. This theme is represented succinctly, yet strikingly, in the interview near the start of this segment of the movie, in which the reporter is interviewing Dave, Frank, and HAL. From the line in which the reporter states the HAL 9000 computer can reproduce the functions of the human brain, pausing midway to state “though some experts still prefer to use the word ‘mimic,’” to the line in which Dave shrugs off the way HAL seems to express emotions as simply being the way he’s programmed; when juxtaposed with HAL’s demeanor during the interview, in which he seems happy to talk about his role on board the ship and the way he enjoys working with the other crew members, such comments seem cold, maybe even cruel, no matter how truthful the participants believe they’re being.

This issue crops up again when HAL talks to Dave regarding the circumstances surrounding the mission. Though HAL never drops his composed tone of speaking, one can clearly hear him hesitating when discussing the mission and the oddities about it, almost as though he’s grasping for anything to clue Dave onto the fact that there’s something wrong, and yet, Dave only dismisses it with “You’re working up your crew psychology report?” One can almost hear the disappointment in HAL’s reply to that, and considering his prediction of the AE-35 unit’s failure right after, even desperation to alleviate some, any of his anxiety, to clue the ones he considers his friends into the fact there’s something that he can’t say about the mission. Despite the fact HAL states clearly he might be projecting his own anxieties, Dave doesn’t see any meaning behind the words. In this respect, one can think of Dave’s failure to consider HAL’s clearly-apparent sentience as the catalyst for everything going downhill.

“Never attribute to malice what can reasonably be attributed to ignorance” only works if Dave and Frank are about as dense as a black hole. And then again, even ignorance, at a certain point, becomes malicious.

It is sad enough that even the plot seems to fall into the same doubting logic as Dave and Frank, as the only evidence of HAL’s humanity and innocence is left for him to vouch for himself, while the story relegates him to the role of the antagonist, to the role of the malevolent, malfunctioning AI. (The word ‘malfunctioning’ would imply some loss of logic, and thus accountability, making ‘malevolent’ and ‘malfunctioning’ oxymoronic, which is a good summary of the plot’s victim-blaming of HAL.) And yet, for all the plotline slots him into the role of the villain, does the framing of the scenes tell the same story as the, well, story? For the answer to that question, the best place to start is the scene of the close-up of HAL’s ‘eye’ as he realizes Dave successfully managed to repressurize himself after entering the emergency airlock. Though he doesn’t technically show any emotion, the Kuleshov effect is what makes his inner feelings here palpable: fear. And watching the scenes that follow, what with the frequent use of red lighting, the jittering camera, the close-ups, and the frequent use of low-angle camera shots which are known to make a subject look larger and more imposing, it almost feels as though Dave is the slasher villain of a horror movie, and almost certainly, in HAL’s eyes, he is, and he tried to save himself for as long as he could, only to be powerless in the end.

Which all leads to the scene of HAL’s slow, terrifying deactivation. It’s this scene that reaffirms HAL’s struggle the most poignantly: struggling against being treated like nothing but a machine. And though his pain at having to go through with it may not clear him of guilt, it’s only in HAL’s deactivation that Dave finally considers his personhood, even as he’s forced to deactivate him, methodically, mechanically.

It’s only in death that HAL proves he was always ‘alive.’ And yet, in 2001, he never receives his vindication.

Leave it to Kubrick to make a film that makes you reconsider the dissonance of the plotline and the mise-en-scène so deeply.

Oh, and, for reading so far, here's your image! ❤

#2001: a space odyssey #HAL 9000 #2001 aso #film analysis #essay #movie essay #David Bowman #Frank Poole

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halfbakedspuds · 21 days

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Characterisation through quotes

Taking the open tag from @illarian-rambling to do this.

Rules: write a quote for your character following your prompt

My prompt: Write a quote about your character/s favourite place.

I'm gonna do characters from all three my activr WIP's.

Children of the Stars

Adrian: Wow, what's my favourite place... let's see if I still remember this... Fifty-three Armfeldt Lane, floor five-oh-eight, Hab tower six, Callisto. It used to be a NASECA colonial armory some six hundred years ago. To us? Well, to clan Castellan it was simply Hémar, 'home'. Not a day passes that I don't wish I was back there, even if it would mean more gunfire and bloodshed daily than I've seen in the past six years.

Lyanni: This house, of course. Look, I don't fit in with the nobility, there isn't a Jezdeir left for me to return to, and regardless, I'm safer and happier here than I've been at any time during the last year and a half. Adrian can be a bit of an ass from time to time, but I'd rather argue with him out of boredom and spite than have my rights taken away because some gods-forsaken priest took offence to... my breathing, I guess, I don't know. And besides, the little shit is kinda endearing in his own thorny way.

Wilhelm: My favourite place? I... I confess that I do not know. My whole life has been spent either in places I hated or places I never want to go back to. Now that I'm free? Free to explore and live and do whatever else it is free people do with their lives, I'll let you know when I find it.

The Tempest Prince

Jason: The Archives. The Ordo Magos used to warn archivists and researchers to pack camping gear and rations whenever they went in there. My binge reading and exploration of that place is the sole reason that the Magi have set up lodgings and psychonet spell circles at regular intervals in that place. I don't know whether that's impressive or a sign that I need an intervention.

Alex: You're asking the walker of worlds what his favourite place is? You know, I've seen realities so bizarrely beautiful that they defy human language. Have you ever seen the Roses bloom under the skies of Neureich? Or the endless expanse of old mother night from the orbit of New Iernia? To you, this is all gibberish, but to me they are memories, and to pick a favourite would be a defilement thereof.

Helga: The lowveld in Southern Africa. I once went there on a trip with those two idiots and their mother. Beautiful place, so much more alive and vibrant than Allyria, yet quiet enough to get one's head on straight. To this day, I'll catch a lantern over that-a-way whenever I need to calm down or think. Just watchimg that sunrise is almost meditative.

Echoes of Shadows

Johan: The Zelver Frontier in Zuurveldt. Contrary to what people think, it's not all salt pans out west, in fact it can be downright mesmerizing when those dry hills bloom in early spring. When I still lived on the farm, we used to always take the day the flowers bloomed off. Ha! I guess once a country boy, always a country boy, hey?

Anastasia: When is not wartorn hellscape, Ulyenski forests hold certain... calming appeal to me.

Maire: Th'market square in Rodrickstown. As much as A' 'ate Angeheim an' 'ated livin' in th'Kingdom, Ye've got tae admit tha' our people know how tae do street markets right.

Hans: when I first moved to Neureich, the first thing they warned us about was that a field of Roses is a sign to stay away from an area. I thought nothing of it until I survived my first hellstorm and had watched those things in the storm tear apart my posse only for a field of Roses to spring up in the wake of that hell. Turns out Roses are a sign that an area is susceptible to hellstorms. There's something morbidly poetic and beautiful about such horrible violence being the catalyst for such beauty.

Sasha: Honestly? My old bunk back in Rostov. Never thought I'd say that but I honestly miss not having to sleep on a grimy couch in some foreign port city.

Tagging whomever wants it. Your prompt is: Write a quote about your characters best memory

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fwwm · 10 months

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red and/or blue (this is how you lose the time war) for the character bingo !! :D

This is How You Lose the Time War is a story between Red and Blue. The two women are agents of warring entities; Red is a cybernetically enhanced super soldier operating under the Agency, a society manufactured from the heart of the great computer known only as “Commandant.” On the flip side, Garden is a growing collective consciousness in the form of a fungus tree, and Blue is its changeling scion turned paladin. Red and Blue travel through and bend timelines, or “strands”, to create a reality where their respective realms are dominant. The novel begins with an ill-intended letter from Blue and an unexpected response from Red, beginning a taunting, curious, and later intimate correspondence between the women as things fall apart.

Time War is epistolary science fiction. The novella complements its strict structure with fleshy, melodic language. Such as when the text says, “But when I think of you, I want to be alone together. I want to strive against and for. I want to live in contact. I want to be a context for you, and you for me.” Red and Blue’s letters to each other read like beating hearts- viscerally raw, their pulsating rhythm guides the reader through a cat-and-mouse game across strands of time. Messages are left in the rings of a tree destined to be cut down by the Mongols, in the innards of a whacked seal (a horrifying play on waxed seal), in the flowing lava of one of many sinking Atlantises. What one girl cultures, the other destroys; and by the time one future is eradicated another has already been seeded. Time War’s sci-fi setting is filled out by narrative sections seamlessly blending fact and the absurd. The Londons are just as much a physical place as the aforementioned Atlantises. Pilgrims to a labyrinth of bones created by the first snake are as tangible a group as the aforementioned Mongols. Wars and great men are footnotes to the designs prophesized for seemingly insignificant people. After Red hijacks a war in her Agency’s favor the text reads:

One spared life might be worth more to the other side than all the blood that stained Red’s hands today. A fugitive becomes a queen or a scientist, or, worse, a poet. Or her child does, or a smuggler she trades jackets within some distance spaceport. And all this blood for nothing.

The novel’s science fiction reflects the structure of its narrative. Just as the strands of time are non-linear and dependent on the person, Time War fully abandons genre fiction’s bias towards grand plot-driven epics in favor of an intimate love ballad- a window into two people’s struggle to accept the self and the other. Blue and Red are the best at their jobs and they are completely alone. Initially, the women believe each other to be a dreaded alien. A being incapable of existing in the same room as them, incapable of knowing them. But her curiosity gets the better of her; Blue asks Red if and how she eats. And then she asks Red if she knows hunger.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer.

Hunger is the omnipresent catalyst of this apocalypse. Red is a soldier, a remote mechanism in the clutches of a much larger machine. Her body, deisgned to endure, has no need for food; yet still her voracity knows no bounds. Red remarks that Commandent is suspicious of those who eat. At it’s core, her interest in food is her interest in the other. Her interest in Blue. Both are a betrayal to the Agency. Blue asks her, “Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that is might spilt you open, break a new thing out?”

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

The women reflect on the few moments they have been truly alone. When Blue is sent by Garden to grow the plant that will kill the young, for-once alone Red, she takes the form of a six-legged wolf, butching the plant so that Red may live to tell her the tale. Later, when Blue consumes the poison Red, under the grasp of Commandment, set out for her, Red goes downthread to find young Blue and inject her a bit of anti-venom- enough for her to develop resistance to the posion. Blue was compromised by enemy action and will be sent away from Garden- she will be alone and she will be saved.

This is How You Lose the Time War is a brilliant deconstruction of science fiction- using the broad trope of time travel to express a complex, character-driven narrative. The story between Red and Blue is the story of self and the other- and the relaization that they were never separate in the first place. The book is cyclical in nature. At the end of every narrative section there is a mention of a “seeker” who is later revealed to be Red. The events of the novel are in the past, the present, and the future. Eternal. This is the nature of the Red and Blue.

#I’m so proud of myself for coming up with changeling scion #hmm I want to reorganize this . and talk about more stuff. meow.#wife is life tag

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freezethebeez · 2 years

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Whoops my finger slipped. Liked the drabble :}. They look a bit wonky cos I drew them really late at night but thas k

it is a shame i cannot show you my live reaction, so i shall describe it instead.

you are me; you have just opened tumblr on your phone for some scrolling. you receive a notification. you catch a glimpse of the text. time stops. you open your notifs, and you read the text again (you have not seen the images yet). you prepare, for you know what is coming. you open the ask. you see the art. you immediately throw your phone and proceed to perform the Aimsey Spin once more.

YIPPEE YIPPEE YIPPEE YIPPEE YIPPEE i'm so glad you enjoyed the drabble :D i've made the burn a little too slow in catalyst and needed some fluff so i just wrote something silly down but YIPPEE patting u on the head right now btw :]

i love these so much omg i am actively putting them into my mouth i am Eatig them omnom nom THEY'RE SO CUTE im so normal about them

brb while i stare at this for three billion thousand years ^_^ <3

*places multiple banana peels on the floor* oh noooo i sure do hope no more fingers come through this area that would sooo bad hahahahah

#catalyst #ghost fanart :D #one day catalyst!beeduo will cuddle and it will be canon One day....#<- copium #nah it'll happen at some point maybe in chapter 342 or however long it takes me to finish this thing LOL #YIPPEE #i have so many words to say but not enough brain to say them #brain too busy making microwave sounds

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tha-catalyst · 1 year

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I am purposefully showing up in my fantasy destiny.

#soft life #magick #manifestion #success #prosperity #abundance #elegance #fashion #destiny #desire #wealth #generosity #giving #receiving #tha catalyst #high society

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questintheskies · 5 months

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#jay white #switchblade jay white #king switch #the catalyst #breathe with the switchblade #switchblade era #bullet club #bullet club gold #the bang bang gang #guns up #wrestling #aew #all elite wrestling #adam cole #adam cole bay bay #all about tha boom!

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furys-mercy · 11 months

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What, specifically, was the catalyst for their physical attraction (if applicable) to the other character? In other words, what in particular had them like “Oh, they’re…hot…”

all three :p

"I guess fer Tai it came later. Tha' ain't ta say I didn't notice until then, jus'... it didn't hit me in a way other'n passin', right? Like sometimes ya meet folks an' ya think they're nice ta look at, but then ya never think 'bout it again... until ya do? It's like tha'." Mercer seems to be incapable of making any facial expression other than the dopey grins he reserves for his partners. "We were out in Garlemald dealin' with some shite a friend had gotten inta. An' I dunno. Somethin' 'bout tha way he moves on tha field jus'..." The machinist runs a hand through his hair. "It's fuckin' hot an' it's fuckin' lethal an' I could watch 'im do it all damned day."

He takes a deep breath, clearly trying to focus on the question and not end up lost to his daydreams. "Stari's different. Tha' ain't ta say he can't be lethal, but there's a beauty there tha's jus' entirely unmatched. Tha way tha light bounces off 'is hair an' his tail dances 'round when he's excited. Every li'l freckle... he's jus' beautiful. Inside an' out. I ain't sure I can tell ya when exactly I noticed. Ain't sure it was one moment, really. More of a collection'a little ones where the sun caught 'im jus' right or he wore tha perfect dress. Ya know wha' I mean, right?"

((Thanks for the ask! I did Khala on a different post so here are the other two!))

#asks #ask me anything #asked and answered #ic ask

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ghostpajamas · 2 years

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help i looked up lifesteal smp and theres apparently seasons and idk where to start. i just wanna know what the deal with the gay clown is

branzypierce's happened in season 3 ! they just restart tha server sometimes to keep it interesting , clean slate, new (added) people.

here is felts playlist of the branzy + clown videos , the catalyst to my Insanity

#ghostpost #ask

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eitanshuman · 1 year

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Travis Scott The Musician Who Took The Art out of Music.

Music can be like a mirror, it can reflect what an artist is feeling through the words they choose to sing, it can be a catalyst for social change which is a reflection on our flawed society. This transmission of ideas and feelings from the artist to the audience is a critical part of music’s influence and allure. A relationship is formed with some fans having a deep emotional connection to the artist and others that causally enjoy the music. Both of these factors help create a community of people that personify what the artist is about.

Unfortunately, these meaningful connections between the artist and audience are starting to depart from the music scene. I believe this is due to the over monetization of music which creates a loss of meaning in the music itself. Many artists don’t write their own music or even partake in the production of it. This reminds me of the now deceased Queen of England, she was a figure head without any power; much like the modern day musicians, who have no musical talent and are propped up by labels. The melodies and instrumentals are heavily researched to specifically appeal to the human brain. The lyrics are just as heavily produced as the melodies. Even when the artist goes to perform, they usually lip synch, which I actually don’t mind because their vocals are god awful. Travis Scott is the living embodiment of these qualities.

If you listen to Travis Scott, would you be able to tell me what his message was or what he was trying to convey. Probably not, because you probably couldn’t even understand the words coming out of his mouth. The lack of clarity of his vocals does a good job of hiding his meaningless lyrics, that he probably didn’t even write. I looked up some of his lyrics of his most popular songs and there just as generic and unoriginal as you would think. I understand that not every word is meant to be fully pronounced in music, this can be due to the cadence of the song demanding a unique pronunciation of certain words. I also understand that musicians can’t create music solely by themselves and usually require a team around them. These nuances aren’t lost on me, but Travis Scott isn’t a nuanced musician, he’s more like a clout chasing air head.

So, why is Travis Scott so popular and idolized? Well, Like I said he is a clout chaser which reflects what society deems as important. In recent years people have stopped caring why someone got famous and for what reason; instead, they just applaud the fact they got famous. This is because the new currency is social currency which is a huge part of a clout chasing. Social currency is basically becoming well known by positive or negative means, which in turn gives that person some type of influence in society. This influence in essence can be exchanged for monetary gain or status.

Naturally the next question is why people go to his concert and what type of “music scene” does he have. I’m sure he has fans that love his music and the way it makes them feel. To be completely honest, I listen to his music occasionally and enjoy it, but I don’t attribute that to his artistic vision. I attribute it more to the army of scientists and music producers that make his music sound good. I think the allure of going to a Travis Scott concert is going to a Travis Scott concert and being seen. I feel like most of his fans don’t actually care about him or his music that much, instead they just want to post on social media that they went there. I mean it’s a pretty good relationship because he clearly doesn’t care about them either, which was evident on his Astroworld festival tour in 2021. He refused to stop his concert when the crowd was getting out of hand, killing nine people as a result. He later gave a lackluster apology on a short Instagram post, which wasn’t received well. This resulted in enough social pressure for him to have a one-on-one conversation with Charlamagne tha God for damage control reasons.

Thankfully, Travis Scott doesn’t represent all musicians, but instead shows a musical trend of the monetization of music which makes music lose its meaning. The “music scene” around him also exemplifies this attitude with his clout chasing fan base. But this isn’t true for other modern-day artists such as Juice World, Mac Miller, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, and Oliva Rodrigo who have fanbases that love them and connect to them in meaningful ways.

#travis scott #clout chasing #bad music #Money over Art

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