#code-as-ritual

[zomb13s]

Titulus: Bellum Linguae Symbolicae: On the Construction of Symbolic Payloads in Socio-Technological Architectures

Abstract In this paper, we construct a formal framework for the design and deployment of symbolic payloads—semiotic structures encoded within ordinary language, interface architecture, and social infrastructure—that function as ideological, emotional, and informational warheads. These payloads are not merely communicative, but performative; they are designed to reshape cognition, destabilize…

[thimblings]

viago "fashion police" de riva

[guided-by-stars]

Hey, do you ever think about how when doing Wish Craft the specific number of repetitions of a wish is genuinely meaningless (the important thing is just that it’s repeated at all), but when Siffrin is first explaining how to Wish he says “you wish three times” instinctively before correcting himself that it could be any number and how every time he ever does Wish Craft he always repeats phrases three times?

Do you think about when they later think about it, they think that it’s about what number feels right?

…That’s OCD. That’s a distinguishment between the cultural rituals of Wish Craft and Siffrin’s own personal mental rituals.

[childofthestone]

rook and solas...narrative foils? rook? a narrative foil? to SOLAS? rook? to solas? ROOK? ROOK????

[homoquartz]

while i'm thinking about edwin's sacrifice, it's really fun to think of what would have happened if it had gone the way the bullies planned

because what they WANTED to do was kidnap this kid out of his bed, bind and gag him and hold him down, and convince him he was about to be murdered, and make it very very clear it was because he was gay - then let him go

they wanted to scare him, but more than that they wanted to scare him with the knowledge that EVERYONE KNEW he was gay, and that he was never safe at school

like i think edwin's forgiveness was very important to the story, it was about letting go of internalized homophobia and also a showcase of edwin's kindness and pathos

however on just like a watsonian level simon was at no point playing an innocent game, it was definitely a step too far even before the actual demon showed up

[natesmack]

I know we talked to you a lot at the beginning of the year about playing with Nate..you obviously had such great chemistry with him, knew where he was going to be back in the day. Seems like you guys are starting to find that a little bit again (...) just how is that coming with him? [x]

[lizzybeeee]

Me watching my Inquisitor walk off with Solas at the end of the game like :) "aw cute ..hey if Mythal hadn't told you to stop would you have murdered her,," (I haven't played the other endings yet).

This!!!

(Obviously, not murdered her personally, but he absolutely had no qualms about doing the ritual once more - knowing the consequences of it.)

Let me preempt this by saying that I wanted there to be a happy/fulfilling ending to Solas and Lavellan. I'm not a blind hater! Just someone who finds it very hard to put my own Lavellan in the place of the 'Lavellan' provided to us in DATV.

The Solas/Lavellan relationship already was kind of iffy (power imbalance, constantly dragging her culture, removing her vallaslin/then dumping her, constantly lying to her, etc...) but DAI did a great job of making you feel sympathetic towards his plight - especially after Trespasser! He woke up in a world so divorced from his own that it was unrecognizable - the people he had done so much for were suffering from the consequences of his actions, justified as they may have been at the time (stopping the evanuris). His actions led to great suffering in the pursuit of preventing even greater suffering.

Even after we learned of his plans in Trespasser, it was very much: "cool motive, still murder."

I felt sympathetic towards Solas and the implication that we could change his mind, given to us in Trespasser, gave me hope that we would be able to convince him of another path. That he could find a place in Thedas as it is now and look to the future. That was why I chose the option to try and get through to Solas, despite knowing that his plan would lead to mass death/terror if it went ahead.

I always expected the Veil to fall at some point, but i was hoping there'd be some more nuance to it than: veil gone, demons everywhere, lots of people die. Well, I was very wrong lmao.

But, if anything, the game made me entirely unsympathetic towards Solas.

The moment he started his ritual he chose the old elven empire over Lavellan - over her family, friends, home, culture, and anything else she may have loved/valued.

And he did this twice.

He chose to pursue lowering the Veil - knowing that thousands would likely die. For all his insistence of 'minimizing the damage' he went in knowing that many more people would die because of his actions. There was no justification of stopping the evanuris this time either - no excuse of not knowing the potential consequences of his actions like the first time.

He chose to begin the ritual that ended up releasing the Elven Gods - knowing full well the risks it entailed.

He killed Varric - whether by accident or not, it was by his hand.

He chose to use blood magic to manipulate Rook into thinking that Varric was alive - puppeting his corpse around in Rook's eyes and putting his words into Varric's mouth.

He chose to manipulate, mold, and guilt Rook into the old 'switcheroo' in his mind palace/regret prison

He chose to 'free' the elven people by bringing down the Veil - regardless of their feelings about it (elven Rook can call him out on this!), never mind the consequences or ramifications of a bunch of people suddenly having their bodily autonomy overwritten by now being magic/having immortality.

He looked at the devastation caused the by the Gods and still went ahead with trying to bring down the veil again.

These are the thing he does in-game - not even mentioning making the dwarves/titans tranquil, creating the blight, started the chain of events that led to SOUTHERN THEDAS BEING DESTROYED, and taking my good gear from Inquisition!

Aside from the 'all lore leads to Solas' reveal just being really dull it also does nothing to help with making me sympathetic to him as a character. The audacity of this man to say: "it was like walking in a world of tranquil" when he fucking lobotomized the dwarves/titans is wild in retrospect.

If he didn't do the ritual at the beginning, if something else went wrong and that resulted in the God's being released, I could understand why a Lavellan would still want to get through to him. It would make sense - she could stop him from doing it again at the end too! You can still have him conflicted and torn between the restoring the past or pursuing the future - but this doesn't happen!

He never chose Lavellan in this game! Hell, it's Mythal who convinces him to stop?!! He owes her nothing! He's learned nothing from this!!! He's only stopped because Mythal 'pardoned/freed' him - once again showing that he values the ancient elves/mythal over her!!!

How impactful would it have been to have him choose Lavellan over Mythal! To show us this! Mythal, who 'crawled through the ages for a reckoning' (which was retconned to her being sad about the elves lmao) telling Solas to go through with the ritual and him touching grass and saying 'no'.

It's something I feel was wildly out of character for him as well - he never came across in DAI as being subservient to Mythal, if anything the ending cutscene gave me the impression they were equals?!

After everything he did in this game - after all we learn about what he did in the past - I had no interest in reasoning/appealing with his ass. None whatsoever. My inquisitor/Lavellan asking if Solas can be reasoned with only made me regret making that choice - perhaps other people's inquisitor's would say that, but mine would not, especially after everything that happened in game.

She came across as delusional: standing on the ruins of a blighted Minrathous, the south blighted to hell, dead all around them, blight tentacles everywhere, a gaping hole in the Fade right next to them:

Lavellan: "I forgive you! All you have to do is stop." Solas: "But I cannot."

Boom! There it is.

At this point it's not romantic, it's just sad! Sad that she's spent 10 years pining after a man who seemed to learn nothing at all from what happened in DAI.

------------------------

There should have been some sort of a dialogue option with Lavellan right before you go into the big fight - she can ask you what you think of Solas, if he's truly regretful for everything that happened, and then you can give her an answer that can 'change' her approach to Solas in the end - giving the player some agency as to how their Inquisitor would actually respond to this.

Ending One: Bye Bye Bye

Rook: "HE'S A GUY."

alternatively, "Look around you! Look at what Solas has done - what he's threatening to do even now after all of this! You gave him every chance to turn away from this path. So did Varric...and look at what he did!"

Lavellan is bitter/angry with Solas: "It seems we never were people to you after all."

Refers to him as 'Fen'harel' and not Solas - dig the knife in deeper, give us angst!

"Just go. You love the Fade, don't you? Enough to do all this - enough to kill Varric for your pride in a dead world that no longer exists. We were never 'real' to you, were we?"

Solas says his goodbyes, expresses his love, and Lavellan steps back.

Solas leaves voluntarily, his 'situation-ship very much over', to stew in his regrets for the rest of his life.

Ending Two: Bittersweet Goodbye

Rook: "Girl, it's been 10 years."

alternatively, "You loved him once, perhaps you still do even now - after all he's done - but love wasn't enough. Love does not excuse this."

Lavellan is firm with Solas, does not excuse his actions, but has a bitter sweet farewell: "I had hoped…it doesn't matter what I hoped. You made your choice - it wasn't me. It wasn't our friends. It wasn't this world. You can make a choice now - if I ever mattered you. If I, if our friends, were ever real to you."

They can have a final goodbye, a goodbye smooch, and then he can go off to the Fade.

Bittersweet ending - acknowledge what they had and then provide closure.

Ending Three: Happy Ending (?)

Rook: "He didn't mean it babe. He's tots sorry."

alternatively, "He seems to regret what's happened - I've seen his memories, his regrets. He believes this is the only path he has. Perhaps you can convince him to find another."

Default Lavellan ending basically

"There is no fate but the love we share" blah blah blah

As happy an ending as it can be when you have Lavellan fuck off to the Fade - leaving behind her life, friends, family, and whatever remains of the world for an eternity.

I'm being mean but I genuinely wanted a happy/fulfilling ending for them both too - despite the fact that this game seems to want that ending as well, it did little to convince me of that. :(

I genuinely liked Solas in DAI - despite his flaws, I thought his romance was compelling and I was hoping to be able to convince him to change/alter his path. I can see what they were trying to do with him in DATV but it's so hard to feel sympathy for him when we see/know the results of his actions. The story in this game is doing anything but convincing me to give him a 'happy ending'.

'Love' can't excuse what he did and neither would my Lavellan.

Also RIP Sandal's Prophecy about the Fade lmao

[deepspaceboytoy]

I mean historically they’re more of a “violent bigoted landed class” than whatever weird shit this is. But what do I know.

[highoncatfood]

old thing that i never rlly finished lol check out this song thats where the lyrics frommmm i lov devi

[zomb13s]

Titulus: Bellum Linguae Symbolicae: On the Construction of Symbolic Payloads in Socio-Technological Architectures

Abstract In this paper, we construct a formal framework for the design and deployment of symbolic payloads—semiotic structures encoded within ordinary language, interface architecture, and social infrastructure—that function as ideological, emotional, and informational warheads. These payloads are not merely communicative, but performative; they are designed to reshape cognition, destabilize…

[aliusfrater]

i love it when sam's open about the information he has with other people while working and they either take to him immediately or get creeped out

[maraudersoncrack1981]

Sirius coded outfit

(Wore this for a ghost ritual but it was giving Sirius)

[oppitfs]

They placed Yuji with the meatball dinner. I'm crying.

[luvuomi]

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄.

゛people spend their entire lives searching for a love that transcends time and fate itself. whether you realize it or not, you’ve managed to procure just that. so never allow your heart to waver in his presence and in turn, neither should he dare to loosen his hold on you. though.. i doubt he would even entertain the mere thought of it. for you are his darling muse after all. dare i say, he would draw his own sword and fight the fates for you — demand that in every lifetime, he is yours as you are his. it brings me relief to see he has done just that… - 𝓜𝓪𝓰𝓮 ‘𝓜’

🎨 →⠀﹐⠀╱⠀thank you to yunhhj_ for this beautifully commissioned piece to serve as a celebratory piece for kazulie’s four year anniversary 🤍 !! uwaaa it was a struggle keeping this in the drafts for so long 🥹but im super happy about finally getting to share it on such a special occasion~ be sure to check them out if their artstyle caught your eye! as more than satisfied commissioner, you won’t be disappointed (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

[gomzdrawfr]

Here's other updates on my acnh just to clear up the Apollo stress posts LMFAO

Wil, my darling, gotta start off the post with him as always

I redid my home (again, for the 4th time, and I'll probably redo the music room because I'll probably move my kitchen upstairs and bedroom downstairs)

I also tried to decorate the town area, I think yall already met Joey the big crab in the other post

Oh! and the smug villager I got was Tex, and you know what? I like him already KJSHDAKJH

I redid my flag :D

I tried to add the Raven mask over my panda as suggested buuuut it looks kinda weird tho so

and finally, our 7th villager is Merengue <3

[laurellala-comics]

A couple of years ago I made a few comics about an alien shapeshifter named Shiv that tried to look as hot as possible to distract everyone around him from how out of place he was. It worked on everyone except his butch lesbian coworker who hated his guts and kept pointing out his weird behavior (it's ok, they become besties later). Here's some snippets from that:

other highlights from this comic:

Shiv was an actor who played an alien on a tv show for children that was basically The Wiggles in space. It was called Silly Space Squad (or SSS pronounced like a snake sound)

Shiv understood conceptually that some people were more attractive than others but didn't really get it on a personal level (aro ace king), so he moved in with 3 male models so that he could study them intently and copy how they looked

Vampires were also real in this universe, but this was glossed over because the alien thing was more important to the plot