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the-library-alcove · 4 days ago

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Someone asked for a Bingo Card of Hamasnik Thought-Terminating Clichés/Catechisms, and I ended up with so many that I needed to either make multiple bingo cards or just expand the size of the card to 7x7.

I started this weeks ago, and then the DC shooting and the Boulder firebombing happened, and it was disturbing watching people excuse those attacks with exactly what's on this card.

Explanations and discussion under the cut

First off, what are "Thought-terminating clichés" and catechisms?

A thought-terminating cliché is a canned phrase designed to make someone stop thinking or end an argument. They don't have to be, but when someone invokes them to justify bad logic or dismiss someone's objection to something, the term qualifies.

Catechisms are canned answers to specific questions; originally from religious instruction, the term has been expanded to include any form of route answer. Similar to a thought-terminating cliché, catechisms are great for shutting down critical thinking--you already have an answer, no further thought is required. In general, the distinction is that Catechisms are framed for specific arguments, while Thought-Terminating Clichés are more general.

The Bingo Card here is a compilation of the two categories as used by Hamasniks--that being Western Leftists who support Hamas and other anti-Israel Islamist terrorist organizations. The goal of the bingo card is less to make fun of them (although there is a degree of black humor in there), and more to highlight how they've been indoctrinated, in a cult-like manner, to give these specific responses when challenged or when they're harassing Jews.

"From the River to the Sea": The full slogan, in English, is "From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, Palestine will be free!" Catchy, rhyming, and great to chant--with many people who chant it not being able to name the river, the sea, or find them on a map. At first blush, it seems to be a call to liberation... but in the original Arabic, the slogan wouldn't rhyme like that. And indeed, the original slogans in Arabic are much more direct, saying, "From the water to the water, Palestine is Arab/Islamic"--being a call for ethnic cleansing of the Jews, or just outright genocide. (Some Hamasnik groups have started coaching their members to explicitly chant these versions). In either version, however, this is a thought-terminating cliché, and a versatile one, as a Hamasnik can just default to the slogan when facing cognitive dissonance.

"Is-Not-Real/Fake Country": Childish namecalling and delegitimization of Israel. It's primarily here because it's a thought-terminating cliché--rather than grappling with the existence of Israel as a fully functional, sovereign nation, they deflect with childish namecalling and idiotic assertions; it is no different than Trump’s puerile namecalling. "Israhell" is also popular and falls under this category.

"Indigenous": This is a use of Loaded Language as a thought-terminating cliché. "Indigenous", at the most basic, simply means "this group of people originated in and has social ties to a specific region". There's more to it than that, but that's the core concept, and its already a tricky concept to work with, having been coined in the context of distinguishing between native and non-native non-Europeans during colonialism, and thus is difficult to apply when dealing with non-colonizer situations (part of the official definition by the UN is effectively a Catch-22, where any indigenous group that manages to regain full self-determination effectively loses their status as indigenous).

But the connotation of "indigenous" is far more than "this is where this group of people is from". The connotations range from having a degree of innate moral standing, on up to being mythical beings in unbreakable communion with the spirit of the land, especially placed in contrast with the evil of Colonizers. Thus, by the black-and-white propagandized narrative that Hamasniks are indoctrinated with, Jews cannot be indigenous, because we're not morally pure enough for them, and the Palestinians cannot be anything other than indigenous, actual historical and ethnographic details be damned.

"Speak up/Don't Remain Silent": This is difficult to include here, because speaking up is an important part of any form of activism. The major reason why it was included is that it is used as a form of thought-terminating cliché, specifically when it's being applied in the context of accusations or insinuations that the topic of the I/P conflict is being silenced or not spoken about sufficiently--when it is instead arguably discussed out of proportion to its actual impact, to the detriment of other conflicts that need some form of attention.

Addendum from @pet-genius on this point:

Being the only one to speak is brave. No matter if you're right or wrong, it's brave to say things nobody else is talking about. Being the first to speak can make so much of a difference. But for fuck's sake guys, everyone is speaking all the time. You can't open a comment section on a recipe without hearing about Palestine. There's a point when "speak up" isn't a moral imperative, but a form of thought policing. Nobody is under an obligation to tell you what they think. Or agree with you. Or talk about it openly, assuming they do agree with you. Nobody is under an obligation to share your values, or your priorities. And it's borderline fascism to manufacture a consensus around this issue that everyone must abide by and reinforce or else.

Traumatized Palestinians: This is a catechism that takes several forms, but it generally comes down to, "After 75 years of genocide/poor treatment, how do you expect them to act?" This argument takes away agency from the Palestinians, treating them like beaten animals who will lash out by instinct, rather than as human beings with choice. It's also a hellacious double standard, because if what the Palestinians have done is justified after 75 years of how they've been treated, then the Nakba was equally justified, if not restrained, after 1200+ years of Dhimmitude, the Holocaust, and a coordinated attack that explicitly promised to finish what Hitler had started. As such, this argument is a race to the bottom of trauma, and is honestly a disgusting argument, but it's never meant in good faith--it's a catechism in that it is a canned response used to justify atrocities against Israelis.

"Go back to Poland/USA": A thought-terminating cliché that's basically pure distilled Jew-hating racism, combining "Jews are just White European Colonizers", with either "Go back to where you were put into death camps and gas chambers and populace has made it clear that they hate you" or "You're actually just an American citizen doing a Colonialism" and Dual Loyalty. But it's very popular because it can be just thrown out there as an attack without any thought, just a desire to cause pain with the veneer of social justice.

"Nazi/Fascist": One of the most popular thought-terminating clichés on this list, calling Jews and Israelis the same thing as our greatest mass murderers; also takes the form of "They've become what they hated." This is just pure antisemitism in the form of a thought-terminating cliché. "They are like what we've been taught is the embodiment of pure evil, no other nuance needed."

"Ashkenazi": Invoking the "Ashkenazi"--the Jewish sub-ethnicity/minhag that is associated with Northern Europe--as a justification for bias against Jews or Israelis is incredibly popular, because, to the Colorism binary that US-centric racism operates on, "Jews Are White"--but specifically Ashkenazi Jews. It's just racialized Jew-hate with extra steps, because the people who make this categorization are ones that view Whiteness as Evil. So rather than acknowledge any nuance--that only assimilated Ashkenazi who appear White (which is not all of them) have had conditional access to White privilege for the last two generations, access that is quickly being revoked, it's just "Ashkenazi are White" as a thought-terminating cliché, no further thought needed.

"Breakout": This is a catechism that's evolved since the October 7th Pogrom, as it is dependent on describing Gaza as an "open-air prison" and the mass invasion by thousands of terrorists intent on killing anyone they could find in as torturous a way as possible as a "breakout"--i.e. giving a canned answer that they were nothing more than prisoners seeking freedom, not murderers seeking victims.

"Privilege": This is another popular thought-terminating cliché, derived from the vocabulary of Left-wing Social Justice, and perverted. The original concept of the term was basically a way of framing, "There are ways in which society privileges certain parts of your identity and oppresses other parts". This was the basis of "intersectionality", where, say, a White Gay Man and a Straight Black Man both experience oppression and privilege differently based on their sexuality and race. But in this context, the concept has been twisted to imply that Jews are innately and unjustly elevated and powerful.

"Election": This is a catechism, with the argument it's addressing being specifically that the reason for the Israel/Hamas conflict is because Israel hates democracy and is trying to destroy Gaza "because they had an election that you didn't like the results of." Nevermind that said election was almost twenty years ago, that Hamas only managed a plurality of the vote, and only cemented power through killing all of its rivals, and hasn't allowed an election since--the catechism is highly effective at twisting the reason for the conflict to having Israel be the aggressor, intent on engaging in regime change, rather than being in response to the Oct 7 invasion and the taking of hostages.

"I'm antizionist, not antisemitic.": Thought-terminating cliché, and one of the most powerful ones; it was this or "Free Palestine" as the Free Space. In essence, by saying these words, the speaker absolves themselves of any and all Jew-hate--they're "just" antizionist. Usually said right before saying something that is so full of Jew-hate that it can often be traced back to Nazi propaganda. But since they've said the magic words, they don't need to reflect on how what they've said is bigoted (see parallels with "I'm not racist, but..."). And this isn't even getting into the fact that they're framing their ideology as being in specific opposition to Jewish self-determination.

"Checkpoints": Another catechism, this time in support of the "Israel practices apartheid" belief. The thing is, the purpose of the security checkpoints isn't to hassle the Palestinians or keep them down, it's to keep the very well substantiated risk of foreign nationals intent on murdering Israelis at bay. Despite what a lot of people think, Palestinians aren't Israeli citizens; they have the option to, but chose not to, and given the history of violence, Israel has opted to have a nearly completely closed border with them, with checkpoints being the way through them. Is it perfect? No. Does it keep the death toll on both sides of the conflict down? Yes.

"Peaceful protest": Interestingly a combination of both catechism and thought-terminating cliché, where any and all Pro-Palestinian protests are characterized as "peaceful"--while video evidence frequently shows threats, aggressive language, calls for genocide of Jews (often not even using coded language), uses of force against Jews, assaults, kidnappings, destruction of property, violations of court orders, and more. But by just insisting that they're "peaceful protests"--even when there are protestors telling Jews that they'll be tortured to death--the speaker can quell cognitive dissonance and tell themselves that it's the other side that's actually violent. Sorry, but disrupting classes, kidnapping a janitor, drawing graffiti on historical objects, smashing windows, and telling people that they'll be raped to death isn't "peaceful".

"liberated/liberation": Another combination of both catechism and thought-terminating cliché, where terrorist attacks against random Israeli citizens and harassing Diaspora Jews are framed as actions that will "free Palestine". The how is not important, the important part is that they totally will "Liberate Palestine"! Any and all actions are justified when they can be tied to "liberation", regardless of whether or not they'd actually accomplish anything.�� Burn a synagogue? It’s Liberatory! Graffiti a Jewish school with swastikas? It will bring about Liberation! Kill a Christian Israeli and his American Jewish girlfriend leaving a peace-focused event? LIBERATION!

"Apartheid": This is another catechism, designed to reductively, simplistically, and wrongly compare the situation between Israelis and Palestinians--with security fences, passes, checkpoints, and the like--to that of Apartheid era South Africa, as well as justify any and all attacks done on Israel as a result. The difference here is that Palestinians are foreign nationals who represent legitimate security and safety risks, while Arab Israelis have no barriers to political, social, legal, or economic participation and representation. Is the situation terrible? Yes. Is it akin to the legally sanctioned racist system of South African Apartheid? No. Furthermore, South Africa was reformed from apartheid... but the people making this accusation prefer to suggest Israel's destruction as the remedy.

"Intifada": The First and Second Intifadas were campaigns of suicide bombings, murders, and other acts of terrorism that claimed the lives of hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians. They were horrible and devastating periods that accomplished nothing other than getting a lot of people killed and increasing Israeli fears--fears that led to the very checkpoints and border walls that are so derided by the people spouting these phrases. But to hear the people who chant, "Globalize/Nationalize/Bring Home The Intifada", they were incredibly successful campaigns that need to be replicated, expanded, and otherwise built upon. Such chants are thought-terminating clichés, because the people repeating them are not doing so out of actual thought of what these entail, imply, or otherwise mean. Instead, they're just repeating the term as a buzzword that they've been propagandized to believe is a symbol of Palestinian resistance, rather than Palestinian futility and cruelty. Additionally, it’s also actively threatening other people--especially Jews--with bus bombings and random murders.

"Settler-Colonial/European Imperial": This is another example of both a catechism and a thought-terminating cliché, depending on how it is used, but in both cases, it is dependent on the false presentation of Israel as being the last surviving example of the evils of European colonialism; to the post-colonialist, there is no greater example of evil, and thus it is incredibly effective to falsely paint Israel as this. It’s a much simpler narrative instead of the reality, that of a displaced indigenous populace (the Jews) returning to their homeland and messily conflicting with the colonists (the Arabs) who controlled it during their absence; it also ties into the dominant Islamist (not Islamic, but Islamist) narrative that the Middle East belongs by right to the Arabs who conquered, colonized, and forcibly converted the native populaces the region 1400 years ago; this is why Palestinians and Jews show common gene markers, because somewhere between a large minority or a small majority of Palestinians have Jewish ancestry from ancestors who converted to Islam and abandoned Judaism for the advantages presented by the conquerors of the region. But that’s much more complicated than “Jews are invading Europeans colonizing the Native Arabs”. By presenting that simplistic but false narrative, it functions to terminate any thoughts that might allow for nuance, and allows for an instant (if incorrect) response to any rebuttals that try to insert nuance or facts into the discussion.

"Blockade": This one is a catechism, used as a canned response or accusation against Israel as if to prove that Israel is being cruel to Gaza simply for cruelty's sake--that Israel is blockading Gaza's access simply out of vindictiveness. The fact is, Israel imposed its blockade--in conjunction with Egypt, which is nearly never mentioned in this accusation--because Hamas started firing rockets and staging attacks into Israel in the hope of killing random Israelis back in the mid 2000s, soon after they took power. Israel imposed the blockade in the hope of stopping them from having access to weapons and material for weapons. All it did was slow them down, because they were so desperate to kill Israelis that they started ripping up water pipes to build rockets out of--rockets that would get shot down by the Iron Dome after it was built. The blockade is there because of Hamas' fanatical desire to kill Israelis and not caring about the lives of Gazans, not because of Israel's vindictiveness... but to hear Hamasniks talk about it, the blockade is there specifically to starve Gazans to death. The fact that half of the population has been born and grown since the blockade was imposed shows that, if famine was the goal, it has been stunningly ineffective.

"Palestinian Jew": Another combo, depending on use; in essence, there is a consistent and persistent belief in the Hamasnik camp that there is a demographically significant portion of Palestinians who are practicing religious Jews (who are being oppressed by Zionists); this is false in multiple ways, but the belief persists, mostly because it helps buttress against accusations of antisemitism, because they can tell themselves that they're fighting for the "Palestinian Jews" against the Zionists, and that “they’re antizionist, not antisemitic”, because “Zionism does not equal Judaism”. The fact is, however, outside of a relative handful of intermarriages in the West Bank, there are no members of the Palestinian nation-people who are also Jews. Prior to 1948, “Palestinian Jew” was the term for Jewish residents of the British Mandate of Palestine (in contrast to the Arab identity of the Muslim residents), but that term became irrelevant when they became Israelis. The fact of the matter is, over 98% of Gaza is Muslim in religious identity (and the remaining 2% are Christians persecuted by Hamas), and there are no Jews in Gaza, much less “Palestinian Jews”. When Israel pulled out of Gaza in the mid-2000s, they removed every single Jew from the Strip, down to emptying the graveyards. So this constant refrain of “Palestinian Jews” (i.e. the fictitious Good Jews against the Evil Israelis) is just false... but is ideologically necessary for these people to lie to themselves that they’re only against Zionism, not Jews.

"War crime/criminal": This one can be tricky, because there have been war crimes committed in this conflict--lots of them--but it's here because the people who make this accusation are almost never referencing actual, on-the-law-books war crimes, but instead assigning the status based on vibes and their own biases. Using human shields is a war crime, while striking human shields to get at the sheltering military target is not, so long as the damage is proportional to the importance of the target behind the human shields and some precautions are taken to reduce the collateral damage to the human shields. It's sad that this is the case, but the laws are set up that way to disincentivize the use of human shields--otherwise dictators would just plate their tanks with toddlers and basically go “You can’t touch me without breaking international law!” But, again, sending aid to an allied nation is not a war crime. Engaging in diplomacy with an allied nation is not a war crime. These are not war crimes, despite the use of the phrase as a thought-terminating cliché.

"Resistance": A thought-terminating cliché and buzzword, where Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi's terrorist activities are legitimized by painting them as the acts of plucky freedom fighters engaging in resistance against an occupying power, instead of being a bunch of cowards who try to murder civilians for the sake of killing civilians and then hide behind other civilians. And since there are "no Israeli civilians", then any and all Israelis are legitimate military targets.

"Political prisoners": This is a catechism, because it reframes the Palestinians who are in Israeli prison--whether justifiably because of a conviction in court for murder and terrorism, or unjustifiably because they might have been engaged in attacks--as instead having been imprisoned purely for politically-based purposes, as if they were members of an opposition party being locked up on trumped up charges.

"Stolen culture": This one is a catechism, and it ties into a larger element of Jew-hate, as it builds on the "Jews are rootless cosmopolitans with no home country, who steal other people's culture and claim it as their own" antisemitic belief. In this case, it's claiming that the specifically Jewish elements of Jewish culture--Jewish names, food, and other practices--are actually originally Palestinian or Arab, and they've been stolen by the Jews. It's also a fun bit of DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) when you look at the origins of Islam--but that's why it's so popular, because it allows for a denial of how much of Christian and Muslim culture is built off of stolen Jewish culture and history.

"Free Palestine!": The ultimate thought-terminating cliché of the Hamasnik movement. Have a moment of cognitive dissonance or nuance? Just chant "Free Palestine!" until it's over. Murder a pair of Jews coming out of a political function trying to arrange peace in the region? Chant "Free, Free Palestine!" What does "Free Palestine" even mean? Whatever the holder wants it to mean, but it generally seems to mean "I want to kill the Jews!", not "Help Palestinians".

"Open-air concentration/extermination camp": This catechism, related to the famine, blockade, and genocide catechisms, is essentially painting Israelis as Nazis intent on a genocidal campaign of extermination against the Palestinians, by basically saying that the Palestinians are being held prisoner, captive, and are being kept there until they're killed. It's nothing more and nothing less than Holocaust Inversion and really has no basis in reality. Any one of the Nazi extermination camps had a higher death toll in a month than there has been cumulative deaths on both sides of the I/P conflict since 1948. But rather than engage with nuance or details, this catechism makes for a great accusation.

[ZOG Canard]: "ZOG" means "Zionist Occupational Government". This one takes many, many forms, but in essence it boils down to, "Jews/Israel/Zionists control the Media/Movies/Economy/ Banks/Government/International Politics/other power structure". It's an old, old accusation, and extremely popular, because it allows the accuser to imagine themselves as punching up against a powerful foe, not kicking a small minority that's under siege, and easily rationalizes any failure or setback--it was The Zionists Conspiring Against Me!

"Nakba": This one is tricky, because there are essentially two Nakbas at play in the discussion space, and it's the second one that's the problem. The first Nakba is the historical event in 1948, resulting in the displacement of the Arab populace who became the Palestinians. These people were displaced as part of one of three groups: Group One were Arab civilians getting the hell out of the way of the invading Arab armies from the surrounding nations (in some cases with the assurances that they'd be able to come back and join in on the looting) Group Two were Arab civilians who joined in and supported the Arab armies, and ended up being pushed back and out. Group Three were displaced by Israeli armies engaging in ethnic cleansing of Arab civilians, with the dual intents of denying the Arab armies logistical support and increasing potential Jewish population proportions within the Green Line when the dust settled. In total, about 700,000 Arabs were displaced, with there being debate on the sizes of each group. The second Nakba is the mythologized and propagandized version, where invading European Jews took advantage of the innocent, kind and gentle Palestinians and their hospitality and shelter, and then, when the time was right, betrayed the Palestinians, and threw them out of their own homes, laughing evilly the entire time. Then they brutally tortured and killed any Palestinian they could catch, while the rest of the world looked on in horror at the cruelty and inhumanity of the Zionists but were unable to do anything for... reasons, and was one of the greatest tragedies and injustices in all of history, unequaled before or since. It's this second Nakba that's the catechism, and usually people who aren't Hamasnik cultists will be able to tell the difference.

[Blood libel]: Essentially, any accusation that paints Jews or Israelis as bloodthirsty or predators of children, or harvesting the bodies of children for nefarious purposes. This one takes a variety of forms, including "they make [Jewish product] with the blood of Palestinian children", "they deliberately target children's hospitals in order to kill Palestinian children", "they kill a Palestinian child every three days", or "to become a member of the IDF, you have to kill a Palestinian child", to mention just a fraction of examples I personally have seen in the last month.

"Flood": This one is a catechism, and in short, it valorizes and uplifts the October 7th attack on Israel, which had the codename of "Al-Aqsa Flood" by Hamas. So when Hamasniks say that they need to "Flood" anything Jewish-related, or that the "Flood will return", they're essentially calling for repeats of October 7th.

"ethnic cleansing": Another tricky one that needs to be taken in context. "Ethnic cleansing" referring to Netanyahu and company's threats to take all of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and dump them on Jordan's doorstep? Not a catechism. Saying that trying to get Palestinian civilians out of the way of bombs aimed at Hamas is ethnic cleansing? A catechism.

"Khazer/European": These two terms, along with multiple others, attempt to deny the Jewish connection to the Levant by casting Jews (who are reductively diminished to solely the Ashkenazi) as nothing more than Turks or Europeans with no history or connection to the region. Occasionally they will acknowledge that Jews do have a historical connection, but "it's been too long" for that to remain valid. In essence, indigenous status has an expiration date--and when cited by Hamasniks, the arbitrary cutoff date is always at a point where Arab colonization had taken hold, but European colonization had not yet begun. It's a popular set of terms because it allows the Hamasnik to ignore facts in favor of simplistic propaganda.

"3000 years": This is a thought-terminating cliché, generally used to mock Jews for our history. "It was promised to him 3000 years ago" is the typical formulation, basically trying to paint Jews as engaging in American-style Manifest Destiny and denying all of the historical and sociological evidence behind the Jewish desire to return to our homeland, simplifying it down to something worthy of mockery and denial.

"Olive tree/Pine tree": This is another set of two catechisms, grouped here for their innate relationship; the underlying simplistic narrative is that the Palestinians lived in peaceful symbiosis with their native olive trees, which were burned and bulldozed by the evil Zionists, who replace them with non-native (i.e. European) pine trees, and that the Zionists are allergic to native trees. The actual facts are that olive trees are a cash crop found around the entire Mediterranean, cultivated by everyone, including the ancient Judeans, and the pine trees being planted by Israel are native Aleppo pines--a species that was ravaged in the region by the Ottoman Empire using them to build and fuel railroads.

"Carpet-/indiscriminate-bombing/Flattening Gaza": This is one of the single most popular catechisms in the current conflict, attempting to paint Israel as being genocidally murderous with its bombing campaign against Hamas. The thing is, if Israel truly was engaging in carpet bombing--i.e. saturation bombing, with high yield bombs for every square meter of Gaza--then the death toll would have been in the hundreds of thousands in the first month, and a million by the end of 2023. We know this because actual carpet bombings by the Allies against the Nazis in WWII had those sorts of casualty figures, which was most of a century ago, using incredibly more primitive technology at the end of extended flights. The reality is that Israel is using precision munitions to target Hamas as directly as possible, but Hamas is still using human shields, and that means that civilians will die as a result. But the casualties that would result from saturation bombardment simply do not fit the actual death toll.

"real antisemitism": Another thought-terminating cliché. Apparently Jews aren't allowed to determine what is antisemitic--only non-Jews are, and their behavior doesn't fall under "real antisemitism", only "antizionism".

"US military base": Another catechism, this one builds on the "settler-colonial" and "fake country" concepts to deem Israel to be nothing more than a US military base as part of US imperialism; the idea that Israel is a sovereign nation is beyond consideration to people who spout this idea (although, ironically, the argument can be made that they're upholding American Imperialism via this outlook).

"genocide": One of the single biggest thought-terminating clichés on this list, it is the accusation that Israel is intentionally and systematically engaging in an effort to wipe out the Palestinians. The fact of the matter is that, if this was the case, there would be no Palestinians left. However, as this is one of the most significant, if not the central tenet of faith in the Hamasnik cult, the fact that the death toll does not match this outcome is something that they simply ignore, deny, or make up "alternative facts" to suit their narrative. Exaggerations of the death toll that are three, four, ten, or even a hundred times that of the actual number of deaths are common, to the point of absurdity.

[Happy Dhimmi Canard]: To hear Hamasniks tell it, long ago, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in harmony, until the Zionists attacked, and this golden age of interreligious mutual understanding can be returned to once the state of Israel is destroyed and all of the Zionists killed or exiled--presumably with the mythical "Palestinian Jews" being part of this revived golden era. The reality was significantly different, with Jews being subjected to incredible, and incredibly harsh, restrictions, humiliations, and brutality. Modern readers already prepared to be biased will hear “dhimmi” as meaning "protected class" under historic Islamic rule and think "ah, they were protected from abuse", while the reality of dhimmihood was closer to "pay extortionate levels of protection money and we will only brutalize you instead of wiping you out." In essence, this is a thought-terminating cliché designed to keep people from questioning why Jews would want self-determination and political independence. It frequently comes up with any discussions of Jewish exile from the Arab world, where Islamic violence against their Jewish communities is brushed away with the simplistic (and false) narrative that everything was fine beforehand, and any violence that might have occurred was due to false flag attacks by Zionists. (How this works for pogroms that happened before the establishment of Israel is glossed over)

"Martyr": A thought-terminating cliché, and an absolutely vile one at that; casualties of the war with Israel are called martyrs, whether they were members of Hamas' militant wings... or civilians used as human shields. In either case, it's glorifying and exulting in death, frequently of those who had no choice to be sacrificed on the altar of "Free Palestine". But rather than contemplate the lives of those who are being killed, this cliché makes them into symbols of inspiring death.

"Ethnostate": This one is fascinating, because the term originated among the Alt-Right and its xenophobia, but has been wholly embraced by the Hamasnik Left as an accusation against Israel. Similar to the "apartheid" accusation, this catechism frames Israel as a place for Jews, by Jews... and no one else. But this is not the case, as a simple look at the reality of Israeli demographics and politics would reveal.

"Freedom of Speech": A catechism, that Hamasnik protestors are merely "exercising their right to freedom of speech". Thing is, "freedom of speech" does not include incitement to violence, hate speech, or active threats to others, much less acts of assault, property damage, harassment, denial of others their rights, or other acts of violence, all of which are present and extremely well documented as having been perpetrated by these "peaceful protestors".

"Occupier/Occupation": Thought-terminating cliché used to refer to any Israeli or any part of Israel, regardless of whether they're living in the West Bank, within the Green Line, or in Tel Aviv itself. It's not whether they're living on land that was originally partitioned to be part of the Arab state in 1947 or not, it's the fact that they're living in the region at all... or living, period.

"Hasbara": Hasbara means "explanation" in Hebrew, and is generally used as "Public Diplomacy" in the context of Israeli actions--"This is what we did and why, for full clarity." But in the hands of Hamasniks, it's a thought-terminating cliché, where "Hasbara", or anything that comes from Jews at all is just lies and false propaganda, and can be dismissed as "Hasbara" without further consideration.

"Famine": Another catechism, related to the genocide and blockade catechisms; essentially, it's accusing Israel of deliberately trying to starve the Gazans in an effort to kill them all. Nevermind that more than enough aid goes into the Gaza Strip to give every Gazan enough food and water, and even the UN's own reporting makes it clear that there was never famine conditions in the Strip, it's still a wonderful accusation to throw without thought.

"Criticizing Israel": Catechism, and used to defend some of the most horrendous Jew-hating rhetoric. Someone will say, "I want all Israelis to die after being tortured to death over a period of weeks" or "Jews are conniving evil vermin who want to rule over all goyim" and when challenged, say that they were just "criticizing Israel". (Those examples were not at random, either)

"Ceasefire": Catechism when used by Hamasniks; when they use it, the manner in which they use it makes it clear that they're not talking about "Both Hamas and the IDF stand down and stop attacking", which would be the actual meaning of "ceasefire". In the mouths of Hamasniks, it means, "IDF stands down and Hamas can continue to attack" or, even more popular, "Israel surrenders unconditionally to Hamas".

"Collective punishment": A catechism, essentially saying that Israel is deliberately harming and attacking all of Gaza for the crimes of a few. The fact that Israel is taking pains to get aid to the civilians and shoot around them is ignored.

"Zionist": Thought-terminating cliché; it has become a slur for "Jew", as well as conflating the extremist Kahanist position, which is Jewish supremacist, with the mainstream "We just want to have self-determination and live" position.

#antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #the anti imperialism of idiots #israel hamas conflict

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serene-aphrodite · 4 months ago

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I always tell everyone this but life starts to feel so much better, slower, and simpler when you delete apps like instagram and/or tiktok. Instead of mindlessly scrolling when you're bored, you resort to other things like reading a book, discovering new movies, trying out that recipe you had saved, journaling, going on a walk, and loads of other productive activities! You do these things and discover you still have the rest of the day ahead of you. When I had these apps I would spend a long time consuming meaningless media that just led to cognitive overload. Remember!! These apps were designed to release dopamine, which is what makes them insanely addictive in the first place. So if you haven't done so already, delete those apps!! At least, for a little while. You'll be happy you did :)

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legendaryvermin · 10 months ago

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So my home ttrpg group is between longform games right now, and I have been planning to bring a bunch of games to them this weekend as options for what we might play next. However, I have been trying to figure out how to talk about the games in a way that doesn't rely as much on me explaining the vibes to them.

I know that people have a bunch of qualitative categories for how they explain games, but I find the idea of saying things like Dark Fantasy OSR, or Lesbian Goofball PBTA less helpful when talking about how games actually play, especially when two games in the same category are like, wildly different in the way they use their frameworks.

So I invented a 6 axis, 1 to 5 star rating scale for TTRPGs that you are free to borrow when talking to groups, or whatever.

TTRPG 5 Star Rating Matrix

Width

What is the scope of this game? Is it narrowly about one thing or does it encompass many types of play? (Credit to friend of the blog @ostermad-blog for this one, they came up with it from my draft)

Weight

How much cognitive load does the player need to bear? Do rules often need to be referenced verbatim? Can those rules fit on a handout?

Wargame

Is the player expected to apply tactical acumen? Is movement tracked tightly or loosely? Does a bad build punish a player?

Writers Room

How much are players expected to make narrative choices and drive the story without the rules scaffolding them? Does this game fall apart without excellent improvisational storytellers?

(Prep)Work

Does this game require a lot of pre-planning by the facilitator? Are there intricate systems to attend to outside of table play? Can I put in the same amount of time as other players and still have everyone leave happy?

Whimsy

Expected tone of the game. Does this game have difficult thematic elements baked in? Is the core subject or role in the game high or low risk?

Here are some games I know well and how I calibrated them:

I have breakdowns of what each star rating means below the cut if you're curious. Happy Gaming!

Width

⭐ - As written, the game has basically one mode of play, or one thematic core that it meditates on. May have phases, but textural difference is minimal.

⭐⭐ - As written, there are at least two modes of play, but the scope of that play is highly thematically focused or highly dependent on using the game’s own lore. Might have only one kind of character (e.g. Mech Pilot) that it supports. Has limited tools outside of the primary mode of play.

⭐⭐⭐ - Has a variety of modes of play, but may be rigid in their execution. Might encompass multiple kinds of characters (e.g. Doctor, Lawyer, fighter) or character options. The narratives that this game tells within its setting are narrowed, a three word description tells you what kind of stories it can tell with consistency.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Loose framework, but with some kind of thematic grounding. Describing the framework in 3 words doesn’t tell you the kind of stories that the game tells (e.g. Dark Fantasy, Star Wars Romp).

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- As written, this game is designed in such a way that it doesn’t put specific limits on what sorts of stories that it is meant to tell. It might ask players to define abilities or stats for themselves. The Facilitator is going to pitch a thematic grounding on top of the rules set.

One Star Examples: For the Queen, Dialect, Honey Heist Five Star Examples: Fate Core, Savage Worlds, GURPS

Weight

⭐ - It is reasonable for a player to be able to recite the rules from memory. The game may be prompt based, or driven by a flow of rules that are read aloud as played.

⭐⭐ - Players can hold most of the most important information about the game in their heads, with a page or less of rules reference needed to play smoothly. This reference could all fit neatly on the character sheet if one is present.

⭐⭐⭐ - Everything a player needs to know about the game is visible on less than 3 sheets of reference. Players are more or less expected to know exactly how their own abilities work in precise detail, and are unlikely to make a mistake in executing them.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Players make extensive use of multiple reference sheets to keep rules moving smoothly. No external tools are needed, but players memorizing the details of all of their abilities is taxing.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- Players and facilitators will prefer to make extensive use of external tools or reference to keep play moving smoothly. Expecting a player to have the exact details of their abilities memorized is not reasonable.

One Star Examples: For the Queen, Stewpot, Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands Five Star Examples: Dungeons and Dragons 3-5e, Lancer, Edge of the Empire

Wargame

⭐ - As written, this game does not treat combat as mechanically different from any other aspect of play, or does not include narrative violence at all.

⭐⭐ - While players may engage in combat, it is minimally different from regular play. There may be tools or abilities for players to use to conduct a fight, but the texture of those fights is thematic, not mechanical. Narrative and consequence drive the action, not hit points.

⭐⭐⭐ - As written, combat has its own set of rules. This game may have some elements of buildcrafting, but either it is difficult to build something that doesn’t work, or the player may meaningfully invest in other modes of play and still find a commensurate level of satisfaction. If combat occurs, spacing is kept in mind, but is tracked in relative terms (range bands) or highly simplified (zone based combat).

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This game has buildcrafting that is somewhat mandatory if players wish to survive a fight, but there is still a meaningful choice in choosing a non-combat role. It may use a grid or a spacing system to help players visualize the combat. Fights are driven by mechanics, not by narrative.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- To enjoy this game, players must spend time buildcrafting. If a player’s build is suboptimal, there may be significant parts of the intended experience that will either feel tedious, or that the player will not have meaningful access to. This game is played on a grid.

One Star Examples: Wanderhome, Dialect, Belonging Outside Belonging Five Star Examples: Lancer, Dungeons and Dragons 3-5e, Valor

Writers Room

⭐ - Players in this game are not expected to provide much in the way of narrative substance. Story is something that is driven by external input or tools, and players are there to imagine and react. The player need not separate the self from the character they play in any meaningful way.

⭐⭐ - The mechanics of this game drive most of the narrative, or else the narrative is set for the players by an external source or player. Players are encouraged to play optimally rather than dramatically, but do have room for expressing the identity of their character within the game’s mechanical frameworks.

⭐⭐⭐ - While the game does provide strong scaffolding to tell a story, the players present are expected to drive the story within those frameworks. The game’s systems create and resolve conflict on their own, but works best when the players are willing to choose the dramatically interesting option even if it mechanically non-optimal.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The game provides some mechanical tools that create and resolve drama, but there is a significant expectation that the players are buying into and driving the game’s thematic concepts. Players are the ones deciding what the scenes should be and when to end them, but mechanics still help determine outcomes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- The players are expected to drive the narrative at all times. Tools for deciding what scenes to do and when to end them are limited, optional, or vague. There is no meaningful scaffolding that creates conflict or resolution, it is incumbent on those present to manifest those things.

One Star Examples: Alice is Missing, Ribbon Drive, For the Queen Five Star Examples: Wanderhome, Systemless RP

(Prep)Work

⭐ - Facilitators are not expected to do work outside the time at the table. All rules can be read while the game is played. No memorization is needed.

⭐⭐ - This game expects the facilitator to have read the rules in advance, but the rules are so few that they can be run from a single reference sheet. At times, the facilitator must think about and potentially advance and adjust the narrative of the game behind the scenes. Prep is qualitative; answering questions about where the narrative is going to go, who will be there etc. The game can be run smoothly predominantly as improv.

⭐⭐⭐ - This game expects the facilitator to not only know the rules, but to imagine scenarios where the group must play. However, the scope of the scenario design is limited and qualitative. It takes a bit of pondering and perhaps a sketch and a few words of notes. Alternatively, the facilitator must design simple foes or track a simple background system. The work is trivial, and can be done with a bit of time before session.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The facilitator of this game is expected to have run systems between games, or created usable maps or scenarios. Generally, games at this level have some reduced wargaming component. The facilitator might need to engage in enemy design, but the work is limited or imminently reusable. The work is non-trivial, and failing to do it will somewhat impact the quality of play.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- The facilitator of this game puts in significant time between sessions engaging in game design activities. They are expected to plan narratives, write NPCs, draw maps, run significant background systems, and design enemies and combat encounters. The work is significant outside of play, and failing to do it beforehand will result in a worse table experience.

One Star Examples: For the Queen, Alley-Oop, Lasers and Feelings Five Star Examples: Lancer, D&D 3-5e, Stars Without Number, Edge of the Empire

Whimsy

⭐ - This game’s thematic core is considered dark, taboo, or difficult, and separating the game’s mechanical features from this subject matter is next to impossible. Games with horror elements almost certainly fit within this category. These games encourage extensive pre-play safety talks.

⭐⭐ - This game is designed to look at dark subject matter, but doesn’t expect the player to spend all of their time there. Players explore difficult topics, but may get to choose what topics to explore, or when to explore them. Games with political messaging/commentary tend to fit this category. These games encourage pre-play safety talks.

⭐⭐⭐ - This game may have dark aesthetics, but doesn’t enforce them mechanically. Alternatively, there are mechanics that address difficult topics in broad strokes, but players are given leeway in the rules with how any difficult topics are approached. These games may encourage safety talks.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This game may have the option to explore dark topics, but none of the mechanics are tied to such topics. This game may have violence in its aesthetics, but players may choose to adjust the aesthetics at the table to suit their comfort. These games tend not to talk about safety in their text.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- This game is designed to focus on thematic material that is considered to be relatively safe. The game is unlikely to tread into violence or trauma without effort.

One Star Examples: Trophy Dark, Dungeon Bitches, Vampire the Masquerade Five Star Examples: Honey Heist, Princess World, Beach Episode

The system here isn't about what's good or bad, to be clear. I think there are good and bad games at every level of these categories, but when I think about what my game group is good at and comfy with, I don't think we go in for things at like the 5 end of the Writers Room scale. It's too much work, and most of them aren't pro improvisers.

Similarly, if we play another game that is a 4 or 5 on the PrepWork category, I don't have time to run it these days. So this helps me make practical choices about our next game.

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #game design #dnd #ttrpgs #ttrpg design #d&d #lancer rpg #steal this #safety tools #five star ttrpg matrix

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pinkofatom · 13 days ago

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Virtual Environment

CW: brainwashing, mind control, femdom, femsub,

Hi hi~ if you liked this story or any of my other ones, please consider leaving a tip on my ko-fi

Enjoy 🩷

Jocelyn hesitated with the headset cradled in her hands. It looked harmless enough — sleek, matte black, wires coiled like a resting snake — but something about it made her throat tighten.

"Just an hour," she murmured to herself. "In, out. Easy."

She wasn’t nervous, not really. She’d tested half a dozen VR environments before. But those were games, simulations with borders and clunky mechanics. This — this was different. The developers had called it "adaptive cognitive immersion," whatever that meant. She hadn’t asked too many questions. The paycheck was good, and curiosity was stronger than caution.

Still, as she slid the device over her head and the lab’s sterile white vanished behind the loading sequence, a flicker of doubt surfaced.

Then the world bloomed.

It was too beautiful. That was her first real thought. A warm wind stirred her hair, carrying the scent of baked bread and wildflowers. Sunlight filtered through painted-glass windows above narrow stone streets. Townsfolk moved around her with purpose — faces calm, eyes too focused. No jittering animations, no audio glitches. They looked — real.

Jocelyn blinked, turning in place. "Okay," she whispered. "Let’s see what you’ve got."

She walked slowly at first, testing the controls—but there weren’t any. Her legs moved, and her avatar obeyed as though there was no interface at all. She reached out to touch a stone wall, half-expecting her hand to phase through it. It didn’t. The texture was rough, sun-warmed.

A passing vendor smiled and nodded. Jocelyn smiled back before catching herself.

Why did that feel so natural?

She shook her head, frowning. No reason to get spooked. The program was just well-designed, maybe even too well. But as she moved through the digital streets, something coiled quiet and cold at the base of her spine.

The people here seemed so happy — unnaturally happy. It was as though she were in the center of a stage play. No one argued. No one shouted. Every smile was easy, every action deliberate. Even the dogs that weaved through legs and carts wagged their tails with perfect timing — not like animals at all.

And the clothes — Jocelyn paused, noticing for the first time how all the women wore silk skirts and lace-up corsets, hair curled into intricate braids and smiles always coy, lashes lowered.

Something — not quite discomfort, not yet — settled over her as she walked, her own t-shirt and jeans beginning to feel inappropriate. The looks she was getting weren’t subtle; they felt like hands skimming the contours of her body.

She crossed her arms over her chest.

This was definitely something the creators had to work on more, she decided as she passed a tailor’s shop and a blacksmith. They had built something amazing here, no denying that, but the environment was too — perfect. While the people looked real, their actions were too scripted. Not to mention how each character looked far too beautiful. Jocelyn felt like she had stepped into an uncanny valley. The environment around her was so immersive that the cracks stood out, almost unnerving in how apparent it became after a few minutes.

The further she ventured from the starting point, the stranger the townspeople seemed to behave. A man approached her, dressed in a fine jacket and holding a walking stick, his smile broad and welcoming, though his eyes held an odd intensity that made her feel exposed.

And the women were even weirder. Every single woman seemed to move through a cloud of heavy perfume — not to mention the way each and every single one seemed to sway her hips, their hair falling in perfectly styled cascades down their backs. Their eyes never failed to catch hers, smiles almost uniform.

"Good morning, sir," she said cautiously, dipping her head.

"Ah, a traveler! A wanderess!" he laughed, twirling his cane. "And without any proper clothes."

His gaze slid down her form and Jocelyn suppressed the urge to turn and walk away. She had a job to do, after all.

"I was hoping there would be a shop nearby for women’s apparel." The words sounded foolish as she spoke them. "Could you direct me there, please?"

"Oh, but I could do much more than that, lovely lady! Laura, take the traveler to Madame Myne's shop," the man declared with a flourish, pointing toward the end of the street where a stone cottage with stained glass windows stood.

As Jocelyn looked, she saw another young woman dressed in a short skirt, white tights, and high heels standing at her side with a smile. "Follow me," the girl said, not waiting as she walked ahead.

Blinking, Jocelyn followed on unsteady legs.

It felt like an invisible line connected them together, and she couldn’t help but admire the graceful curves of this new character, the perfect shape of her ass hugged tight by the fabric. Her own clothes felt even rougher against her skin now, chafing in ways that she’d never noticed before.

Laura held the door open and Jocelyn slipped inside.

Madame Myne's shop was a flurry of fabrics and corsets, the scent of roses filling the air so heavily that Jocelyn had to blink. Women milled about in lingerie and half-fastened gowns, laughing and chatting — or staring blatantly, their gazes slow and assessing as though she was a cow in an auction pen.

But what sent shivers down her spine was how blank and artificial that joy seemed, each sound too calculated, every smile practiced in the mirror a hundred thousand times. Their faces were eerily smooth, perfect masks of contentment and ease. There were no bags under their eyes, no frowns of worry, not a trace of anything but blissful ignorance. Jocelyn felt her stomach clench with unease. Yet on her face, lips curled into a smile. There was no way for her to force it away.

Before Jocelyn could turn to Laura for answers, a tall woman with lush, auburn curls and a deep red dress swept in — a goddess made of silk. Madame Myne herself.

Her voice was soft, yet it rang with an unshakable power, sending chills up Jocelyn's spine.

"This is the visitor," she mused, eyes tracing Jocelyn’s form like a brush. "Such a lovely young woman — but so rough. Uncut, if you will. I have the perfect attire, something to polish her potential — we shall start with lingerie. Follow me, dear."

Jocelyn's heart raced. She wanted to flee. But the game’s script moved her, the smile frozen on her lips, her body stepping toward Madame Myne.

"This is just a test, no need to panic," she whispered to herself. But her breathing grew shallow, her fingers twitching.

Madame Myne turned her gaze on Jocelyn, her expression a portrait of calm dominance.

"There's a need for you to relax. I’ll assist." The words seemed to wrap around Jocelyn's thoughts as though a sedative had been administered.

And she felt her fear begin to fade — or had it merely slipped from her control? A weight settled in her mind as if her own thoughts, once sharp as blades, were being dulled. Her smile softened. Her eyes glazed over, taking on that same vacant quality the rest of the world shared.

"No need for that," Laura replied, smiling gently as she took a place behind the traveler and placed her delicate hands onto Jocelyn's shoulders. Her fingers squeezed lightly. "Relax your muscles," she cooed softly, her voice a perfect lullaby for Jocelyn’s nerves.

As Laura's touch soothed the tension from her body, Jocelyn felt her apprehension ebb, like an incoming tide drawn back by an invisible moon, replaced by a growing warmth that spread from the pit of her stomach. That heat, unfamiliar yet all-consuming, blanketed her mind and blurred the lines between her body and Laura’s gentle touch.

"Very good," purred Madame Myne with a slight nod. Her piercing eyes never wavered from Jocelyn, her presence alone exuding dominance. Yet, Jocelyn didn't flinch under her gaze, didn't pull away from the intimate touch of Laura. The room was silent for a few moments as the older woman circled Jocelyn, the soft rustle of fabric mingled with Laura's melodic hum and Jocelyn's steady, calm breaths.

"Laura, be a dear and undress our visitor," Madame Myne instructed.

Laura smiled softly, "Of course."

Jocelyn's clothes seemed to evaporate under Laura’s deft hands, slipping from her body as easily as shadows retreat from light. The act of undressing felt almost ritualistic, intimate, and hypnotic. With each discarded garment, a layer of Jocelyn’s protective exterior peeled away, her sense of self. Soon, her clothes lay pooled at her feet, an afterthought.

Jocelyn's body stood naked and exposed before the two women. Yet, she felt no embarrassment — as though modesty was an alien concept to her, an archaic principle that no longer held sway.

Similar she could not remember, why she came here. It all felt distant, foggy, like a memory of a dream. Her thoughts were syrup-slow, and each moment felt stretched, drawn out, impossibly detailed — and delicious.

"Let's find the perfect outfit for you, dear," Madame Myne mused, her voice resonating through Jocelyn's body like a perfectly struck chord, sending shivers across her bare skin. Her lips curved in a gentle, knowing smirk, "I have something to suit your new needs. And trust me, you're going to feel very good." Jocelyn’s thoughts struggled to surface through the thick cloud that had descended on her mind.

And as Laura reached to caress her, it felt as though she was playing an exquisite instrument. Laura's deft fingers danced over Jocelyn’s breasts, teasing, circling, her warm breath tickling Jocelyn's earlobe. "Don't worry, the Madame will make you beautiful - like all women should be," hevr tone, rich and velvety, poured over her like honey. With each touch and whisper, she guided her towards a state where reason surrendered to sensation, where desire, pliant and willing, became her only constant.

"First the right undergarments to display these gorgeous assets of yours," the Madame continued, "you have quite the beautiful pair." As those final words escaped her crimson lips, Madame Myne’s hands cupped Jocelyn’s breasts firmly and confidently.

Laura's fingers, light as feathers, trailed down the sides of Jocelyn’s body, sending cascades of shivers in their wake. A faint sigh of delight escaped her mouth, unbidden and soft, blending into the air as a gentle, lilting melody. Laura's expert ministrations coaxed her breasts to attention — hard nipples jutting forward, as if aching to be admired.

"Lace and silk. Black of course." Madame Myne reached behind one of her many dressers and pulled a sheer corset that shimmered in her hands, the lacework delicate and intricate as if made of spun gold, its dark shade a promise of sensuality.

Laura's nimble hands, working with an effortless rhythm, encircled the lace garment around her chest, slowly guiding the silken straps in place, pulling and tugging to snug perfection. As it tightened around Jocelyn’s frame, her spine instinctively straightened — but it didn’t feel constrictive in the slightest, it just gave her the correct posture. Her already impressive bosom swelled even fuller under the corset's embrace, a tantalizing spectacle, as the stiffened fabric pushed the roundness up, offering it to the world's appreciative eyes.

In Jocelyn's mind the sticky mess of thoughts molded into a fresh and compelling shape. Every pull, each adjustment, they smoothed away her inhibitions.

"Now the legs. That wet slit doesn't need to be covered, after all," the Madame mused, a gentle yet commanding hand cupped the space between her thighs, "so a garter and stockings should do, Laura," she commanded. Laura had already fetched a pair of ebony-hued thigh-highs that shimmered under the light.

One leg at a time, Jocelyn found herself carefully lifting each foot while Laura’s fingers, masterfully, rolled the delicate fabric up the supple stretch of Jocelyn’s legs. A garter was soon strapped in place to keep it all in place. Laura smiled at her and Jocelyn smiled back.

She could feel her very nature morph and shift under their skilled fingers. Independence felt unnecessary - so distant - replaced by a newfound desire to be shaped by these hands of velvet authority. There was an intoxicating allure to the idea of surrender — a delicious paradox of submission and power. And Madame Myne was the perfect architect of her metamorphosis. The woman’s presence loomed larger and larger the longer Jocelyn stood there - a deity in her own divine, decadent domain.

"Wonderful. You are coming along well. This next piece of equipment should help," the Madame said. She then picked up an object Jocelyn did not understand. Some sort of jewelry, some sort of adornment - it glinted and glistened in her grasp, "Bend over," she said.

Jocelyn obeyed instinctively.

Then with a smooth, practiced motion that was almost too swift, Jocelyn felt something slide inside her tight hole.

"This will help you with your posture." Madam Myne patted the travelers newly plugged buttocks with a loving, soft caress. The plug felt so good inside of Jocelyn's bottom, filling her in such a satisfying way. More of her mind took on the new shape.

"Laura, there’s the perfect shoes for her at the top." Madame Myne nodded at another nearby drawer without breaking contact.

"Yes, Madame!" The younger women quickly grabbed a pair of shining black stilettos, heels long, pointed, and deadly sharp. Each shoe glimmered, their black leather polished to perfection as Laura gently guided each foot into the cool interior.

As the stiletto-clad feet touched the floor, Jocelyn steadied herself against Laura's reassuring grip, adjusting to this unfamiliar but exhilarating sensation of height, her legs sculpted and elongated, the pressure from her plug and corset intensifying. More and more her thoughts aligned with those she saw in the world around her — women dressed to accentuate beauty, women always smiled and agreed.

"Now that you have been adorned in your underthings, I think you must need a nice dress, wouldn't you say so, dearie?" asked the Madame.

"Yes, that sounds like it would feel amazing," Jocelyn agreed without thinking about it first, her tone docile and compliant, almost intoxicated by her own surrender to the older woman's control.

"Of course it does." The Madame gave Jocelyn's behind a clap of her hand and then let out a pleased sigh as she looked the young woman up and down, "You're taking well to the adjustments. Better than most. Truly this test run has been one of the most promising. So here is a special reward. A nice docile girl needs to wear something that signifies her obedience. So, I was thinking — a maid outfit," the Madame declared as she rummaged through the wardrobe until her hand pulled a black and white uniform out with a triumphant smile. She looked Jocelyn up and down, her eyes tracing her curvy form and smiling softly as she spoke again, "Perfect."

"Let me dress you," Laura cooed in Jocelyn’s ear, her words warm and overly sweet. And her arms reached around, wrapping Jocelyn in an intimate embrace before slipping the silky fabric over her head, sliding it down the contours of her breasts, past the flare of her hips.

Each inch the garment moved refocused Jocelyn's mind. Neurons stopped firing in a natural way. Memories were buried, connections severed, replaced by a mindless acceptance and hunger. A small wet spot spread on her thigh highs. The young traveler, once an individual, was now being crafted into something new. A tool. A woman who needed only the approval of others.

The Madame stepped closer and adjusted the skirt's hem to a scandalously short level, her fingers lightly brushing against Jocelyn’s thigh in a gesture of playful intimacy, sending sparks along her spine.

Jocelyn curtsied demurely, the action instinctive. "Thank you, Madame," she whispered.

With an appreciative smile, the Madame took a step back to survey her work. “Yes, my dear, you look lovely," she purred, her tone filled with satisfaction.

"Good work, Doctor Hill," echoed a familiar male voice through the shop. Jocelyn turned to see the same sharply dressed gentleman who had ordered her here.

"Doctor Kantz," the Madame chided, "please don't break the immersion. The changes have yet to settle, as you well know." Despite her gentle reprimand, a wry grin danced upon her lips.

"According to the data from her device, she's fully indoctrinated and will respond to commands," he countered.

The woman arched an eyebrow. "Truly? Jocelyn, dear. Please tell me, what you worked as, before coming to my shop," she commanded.

A pause stretched between them. "I — I was a traveler," Jocelyn finally murmured. Her brows knitted together in concentration, a desperate attempt to gather wispy memories, "No — that wasn't right. I was a —" but the words slipped through the cracks, the memories shattering into an abyss. A sense of loss and frustration washed over her as she stood there.

"I guess she's not all gone yet," Doctor Hill replied with a grin. "And that is why we still have to be present. Believe me, I would love it, if a programmed agent like Laura here could handle the process on her own."

The younger woman with her perfect smile, simply stood straight at attention.

Jocelyn blinked. "Programmed — agent?" She asked, her words coming out slowly as her mind tried to catch up with what was happening around her. She felt slow. And that feeling of slowness was — fine. It was right. That was who she had always been, right?

Doctor Hill — no Madame Myne, clicked with her tongue. "Jocelyn, be a dear, and forget everything that was said since this gentleman entered the shop." She waved her hands at her companion. The words hit Jocelyn's ears with a softness akin to a feather, the gentle insistence of a lullaby coaxing her to forget her doubts. The fog within her mind, once momentarily dispelled, settled back with an eerie tranquility.

Her mind bent under the command of the Madame. "Yes, Madame."

Madame Myne approached, a soft smile playing on her lips as she reached to cup Jocelyn's chin. "What a sweet, good girl." Jocelyn basked in the warm glow of the older woman's approval, feeling her body soften in response. "Now stop listening until I touch your right shoulder. Simply bask in the sensation of your new clothes. And self."

Madame Myne nodded and Jocelyn slipped into the blissful emptiness of her mind.

"Now we can talk," the older woman declared.

"You have done a wonderful work," the man said, stepping forward as he admired her. His fingers reached out to playfully lift the hem of the new maid uniform.

"She'll make the perfect employee," Doctor Hill nodded. "How is the progress with the other subjects?" Her voice sounded serious now, no hint of her sultry purr present.

"It could be better. While all have reached a desired level of compliance, some still retain too much of their memories — creating the occasional outburst," Doctor Kantz answered.

The Madame shook her head and let out a soft sigh, "Any leading theories as to why," she asked.

Doctor Kantz pulled a thin pair of glasses from a case in his pocket and slipped them on his face.

"Just one. You designed this simulation in a specific way, right," he said, as he pointed toward Jocelyn. The young maid simply smiled at the two doctors, her gaze unfocused, a contented look on her face as she swayed lightly in place.

Doctor Hill nodded in agreement. "I did. Everything in here is an elaborate visual stimulus to encourage obedience, subservience, and servile thoughts," she explained, her hand sweeping across the room to indicate the lavish shop, "it's an uncanny valley design. Everything looks ordinary on the surface. But it's slightly tilted to encourage a certain way of thinking. Too perfect environment. Similar uniform people. And of course, Laura here, who has been trained specifically for this project. Once a subject comes to question their environment, our AI has them fall in line before they get too curious."

"I see," Doctor Kantz nodded. He reached up and pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose, "then we have to conclude that traditional methods like subliminals and conditioning in a VR-environment are simply too slow." He paused, then took another glance at Jocelyn. She stood patiently in place, her eyes unfocused and a slight smile playing at her lips.

"So, obedience and conformity, where the results you wanted," he asked, his eyes never leaving Jocelyn. Her chest rose and fell with her calm and measured breaths.

"Yes. Obedience was the key part of my programming here," the Madame explained. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. "As for the compliance — you said you wanted the perfect employee, and someone willing to take direction, correct," she asked.

The doctor nodded. "That's right. We are already testing something less ethical. Why not profit completely from it," he mused.

While the two conversed, Jocelyn was blissfully unaware — trapped within the soothing haze of her mind, oblivious to their words. Her thoughts had been neatly corralled. Every attempt at independent inquiry met the stern resistance of the new mental architecture constructed within her, leading back towards an empty, blank void where only pleasure existed.

Then a finger tapped her shoulder. In a flash, the world regained its vibrancy and her eyes fluttered as though waking from a pleasant nap. Her attention snapped to Madame Myne.

"Jocelyn, dearie, can you tell me what you are," the older woman commanded, her tone gentle yet laced with a subtle power. The sound of it sent shivers through her.

Without hesitation, the words tumbled out, "I am a good maid," she declared, a faint flush of pride tinting her cheeks at the realization.

"That's right! And what do maids do," Madame Myne pressed further.

"We take care of our employers, Madame," Jocelyn answered dutifully. She could almost feel a chain around her mind that led straight toward whoever commanded her.

"You'll obey and do anything that they say, right," she questioned with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Oh — of course, ma'am. Anything they require," Jocelyn replied, her tone earnest. She could sense the weight of submission in the air.

"Then, we are done. Please remove the headset and wait for me on the other side, dear. It's time to see how the changes carry over," the older woman ordered and Jocelyn immediately began slipping off the virtual reality helmet.

As she removed device, the digital landscape dissolved into a clean and sterile room, a sharp contrast to the opulence she had just left behind.

Jocelyn looked down at her own body. Drab clothes hung loosely, ill-fitting and shapeless, a mockery of the uniform she fit so well. She shivered slightly. She needed new ones.

With a hiss, the door of the lab swung open, and Doctor Hill strode in.

Without prompt Jocelyn stood up, and curtsied as well as she could with her own ill-fitting garments, "How may I assist, ma'am." The words dripped from her tongue before her mind had a chance to catch up.

A smirk of satisfaction tugged at the corner of the doctor's lips as she surveyed her new subject.

"I am glad to see the transfer worked so well," Doctor Hill said, her eyes glimmering with a strange mixture of scientific detachment and triumphant pride.

"Let's get you some more appropriate clothes, and then you will happily sign a contract," the older woman spoke with an assertive, almost casual tone, that resonated through the small space of the lab.

"Yes, of course ma'am." Jocelyn murmured demurely.

Hours later, Jocelyn stood in an office at attention. Dressed once again in a black and white uniform tailored to her form, she looked completely at home in her role as the maid — the only role she has ever known.

And when Master Kantz and Mistress Hill ordered her to join their bed — all Jocelyn felt was happiness.

#pinkofatom #brainwashing #hypno fantasy #mind control #mind control story #mind control kink #brainwashing story #brainwashing kink

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the-most-humble-blog · 7 days ago

Text

<div style="white-space:pre-wrap"> <meta consciousness-integrity="corrupted"> <script>ARCHIVE_TAG="REALITY_FAILURE::PERCEPTUAL_LOOP_COLLAPSE" EFFECT: derealization, sleep-anomaly recall, metaphysical panic </script>

🧠 BLACKSITE SCROLLTRAP — “SORRY TO BE A BUZZKILL… BUT WHAT IF YOU DON’T EXIST?”

===

Sorry to be a buzzkill again. But you know me. Mr. Humble doesn’t show up to rub your tummy. I show up to slice through your delusions like they owe me rent.

And today’s delusion?

“Of course I exist.” “Of course this is real.” “Of course this isn’t just a dream that’s outlived the sleeper.”

Yeah? Prove it.

—

Here’s the thing:

This world doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t exist. Not like this. Not with these constants. Not with this precision.

Do you understand the probability of YOU even having a working cell membrane based on the atomic conditions required?

And yet— you eat pizza rolls and doomscroll through algorithms like any of this is normal.

What if I told you this wasn’t real?

Not in the Hollywood "we’re in a computer" kind of way. But in the you might just be a memory living through its own echo without knowing it’s over kind of way.

—

What if you’re just… a past self, replaying itself. A loop. A snapshot of a soul. Running the tape back with perfect illusion that it’s all happening now.

You wouldn’t know. Because the loop contains all your memories.

—

“Preposterous,” you say? “I think, therefore I am,” you say?

Your brain can’t even comprehend true eternity.

Tell me what happened before the first Big Bang. Now tell me what triggered it. Now tell me how many came before that.

Now tell me what came before that.

See? You don’t know. You assume. You build certainty atop vapor and call it science.

But you can’t even stay awake for five days without descending into hallucinated hell.

📉 STAT: Sleep deprivation causes visual and auditory hallucinations within 72-120 hours.

📉 Another STAT: Subjects deprived of sleep begin confusing dream logic with waking cognition.

📉 Another Fcking Creepy STAT: Witnesses in close proximity to the sleep-deprived sometimes report shared delusions.

Yeah. Let that part marinate.

Imagine seeing "things" and hearing voices just by being in close proximity to that person.

There are actually people who’ve claimed to have stayed awake long enough to break the lock on this plane of perception.

And when they did?

Others around them saw it too. External to them. Realer than dreams. Louder than reason.

—

So what if this isn’t “your life”? What if this is just the last thing you saw before you ceased to be?

And your brain’s just looping on the ride out. Endlessly. Forever. Believing it’s linear. Believing it’s new.

But it’s not. It’s a cassette tape in a godless VCR stuck on repeat.

—

You think your memories mean this is real? That just makes it a better simulation.

You think other people validate your sentience? You can’t even prove anyone else is conscious. All you can do is hope they’re not just projections designed to hold your delusion together.

NPCs that glitch in just enough nuance to seem alive but never go deeper than the script allows.

Ever try to REALLY wake someone up in a dream? They look scared. Or blurry. Or they disappear.

—

So… what if this is that dream? The one where your “reality” is scripted, pre-loaded, and ready-made the moment you look for it.

What if the moon only exists when you think about it?

What if your dog has no soul but your memory of him keeps him real?

What if you’re not moving forward but instead falling backward through every version of yourself you’ve ever believed in?

—

You wouldn’t know. Because the illusion is complete. It has your memories. Your traumas. Your dreams.

But all of it? Could’ve been injected. A second ago. Last week. Last eternity.

You say you were born?

Who told you that? Your mom? How do you know she’s not part of the set?

You say you slept last night?

How do you know that wasn’t the real world and THIS is the dream you haven’t woken from?

You say “of course I’m real”?

Then why do you panic when it gets too quiet? Why does 3:17 AM feel like a haunted mirror?

Why can’t you remember what it felt like to be born?

Why are you so scared of being alone with no notifications no updates no attention?

Because if this falls apart, so do you.

—

Anyway.

Have a good night. Sleep tight. And if you wake up tomorrow with no memory of this post— or too much memory of it— then maybe just maybe

You already existed… long enough to forget that you didn’t.

🧠 Read more respect-coded doctrine and emotional architecture at: 👉 https://www.patreon.com/TheMostHumble 🛡️ Masculine polarity. Scrolltrap psychology. Unforgiven words. 🚪 Warning: This post has disrupted timelines, interrupted dreams, and triggered silent breakdowns at 2:43 AM.

</div>

#blacksite literature™#scrolltrap #existential horror #you might not exist #reality loop #cosmic dread #dream theory #metaphysical breakdown #what is real #philosophical collapse #you’ve already died #your memory is playing #scrolltrap therapy #patreon paradox #emotional dissociation #consciousness glitch #you were never born #ontological dissonance #the most humble

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caligvlasaqvarivm · 1 year ago

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points at u. how do u play eridan so well!!! hes such a tricky bastard to write for 4 some reason

It's because he's got so many problems and playing him is basically Mental Illness Simulator :') Whipped up a small (that's a lie, it's large and extensive) guide under the cut

ERIDAN DOES NOT HAVE FUN

First most important thing about playing Eridan: THIS BOY DOES NOT DO JOKES. He does NOT DO BITS. He does NOT HAVE FUN. If you check out his logs, pretty much every time he talks to somebody, he has a very clear purpose in mind (usually flirting or grandstanding). One of the few times he does strike up a conversation without a clear goal in mind, it's absolutely disastrous:

CA: fef CA: hey CC: ? CA: glub CC: Glub glub! CC: 38) CA: yeah CA: hm CC: W)(at is it!!! CA: wwhat

He's sooooooo so so so bad at conversation. He doesn't tell jokes. He doesn't know how to lighten the mood. He has no chill. He has no sense of humor. When playing him, if you are making jokes, you are doing it wrong!

The reason for this is because, psychologically, you have to imagine that he is constantly teetering on the edge of a murderous freakout. If he is not, at all times, Being Useful (AKA murderous, sea dweller-y), then Something Bad Will Happen. His entire life is about duty, pressure, responsibility, and, accordingly, at ALL TIMES, he feels an extreme, anxious weight on his shoulders, which makes him incapable of indulging in "frivolous" behavior, like making smalltalk or doing things for fun. In fact, sarcasm and facetiousness are literally considered childish by Alternians, and Equius associates it with lower blood colors:

CT: D --> Humorous insincerity is for pedantic wigglers AG: Pshhhhhhhh, I know! I know you never make jokes. I was the one 8eing sarcastic, you stooge! AG: I was 8eing sarcastic a8out you 8eing sarcastic. Duh. CT: D --> That's because you're a little worse than me

That's why it's also kind of important to make him not really have hobbies. Eridan DOES have interests: he loves wizards and magic, and he's a hipster. HOWEVER, he only ever talks about magic in pursuit of some other goal, like finding a date or winning at a rivalry, AND he's constantly denying his own interest in these things, because they're frivolous, stupid, ridiculous, and deviations from what he "should" be like. He actively distances himself from things that make him happy. In fact, we only know he's a hipster because it's part of his design and Karkat mentions it once - Eridan himself has never talked about it. That's how far he's buried anything that actually brings him joy.

If your Eridan is smiling for ANY REASON, you are DOING IT WRONG!

While we're on the topic, things Eridan is NOT ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN:

History (he only ever talks about history in the vaguest possible terms; I think he is book smart and genuinely knows a lot ABOUT history, but his actual interest in it is middling. He's just expected to be really obsessed with history, especially military history, as a member of the aristocracy, and he reads it in the same way as one doomscrolls on twitter - it's a way for him to self-reinforce his own mental illness and soothe his cognitive dissonance)

Marine life/marine anything (he's TERRIFIED of the ocean, and has spent a few days underwater TOTAL. He knows nothing of the sea.)

Weaponry (he HAS a lot of guns, so he definitely knows how to use and maintain them, but there's a reason he outsources the building of all his doomsday devices. Also, he got a "god weapon" early on in his life, and has kind of just been... using that. He neither has a need to know much about weaponry, nor has ever displayed any particular interest or knowledge. He leaves fully loaded harpoons just lying around on the floor of his house. It's knowledge of necessity, not interest.)

Hunting/Violence/Murder (he's really good at it, he knows a lot about it, he will teach you on request, he will mention it constantly, but he doesn't actually derive any particular joy out of it, especially since we know his thought process after each kill is "that's going to make an orphaned troll very sad. they will be culled soon :/")

Fashion (he has more of an interest than the average Alternian, but it's still not a lot. He dresses up to emulate Dualscar, and his actual clothing choices beyond that are pretty disastrous. Canon Eridan has never shown an interest in fashion. Even if you do want to play him with an interest in fashion, which I think is fine, you have to remember that he deliberately distances himself from anything that brings him joy, so even if he likes fashion, he'll keep that a secret and insist he only does it for utility purposes.)

Pale Romance (just throwing this in there, it's the one quadrant he is *never* shown to pursue. He's tried Feferi and Nepeta in flushed, Sollux, Terezi, and Kanaya in ashen, and Rose and Vriska in pitch. if anything, he goes out of his way to AVOID pale romances, both because he just had a painful pale breakup, and because he freaks out at the implication that he's weak in any way, which pursuing a pale romance would all but be admitting)

The thing that makes playing Eridan so hard, I think, is that he's abjectly fucking miserable, BY CHOICE, and for most RPers, playing a character who's abjectly fucking miserable kind of goes against the appeal of RPing in the first place (that is, having fun). All of the things he says he's really into are things that he either has no interest in, or that actively make his life less enjoyable. All the things he spends all his time thinking about are things that make him feel anxious and hopeless. All the things he actually likes and would have fun with are the things he actively, deliberately, and loudly decries and suppresses.

So that's point 1: Eridan does NOT have fun.

ERIDAN IS AGGRO AS *FUCK*

The next most thing I see that trips people up is that they make Eridan too friendly, usually as an extension of accidentally giving him too much chill. There are two main factors here at play: the first is that he's desperately trying to be a violent, casteist, oppressive, dangerous sea dweller, and outright pushes that image, and the second is that he's really fucking anxious ALL THE TIME, and most peoples' sociability goes down when they feel the cold breath of the reaper on the backs of their necks 24/7.

When looking at the 4 responses to danger - fight, flight, freeze, and fawn - Eridan will overwhelmingly choose "fight," with "fawn" as his secondary option. This makes absolute sense in context: all his trauma comes from its inescapable nature - if he tries to run from his duties, everybody dies; if he freezes up and fails to complete them, everybody dies. Therefore, his only two options are to Fight, and to channel that violent response into completing his duties, and to Fawn, to capitulate to the things that are hurting him - much moreso the former than the latter. Unfortunately, that bleeds over into everything else. Great!

We can see this illustrated really well in his conversations with Kanaya: Eridan does not ask for favors or help, he makes demands:

CA: kan make her talk to me do somethin ... CA: so help me out tell her to talk to me i think she blocked me you got to

ERIDAN: you should of told me about this ERIDAN: if theres goin to be any sort a hope for our race as the prince of hope i demand to be invvolvved ERIDAN: so dont go anywwhere wwithout me got it

The only time he ever really backs off is in confessions, where he's willing to be like "hey, I think we really got something here, don't you think so?", or when talking to Karkat (Karkat is really the only person that Eridan doesn't feel the need to put on airs around, and we can only speculate as to why. It's because they're destined moirails for each other.)

He will also do this for statements that he isn't 100% sure about. If he's going to say something, he is going to ASSERT IT as if it is IMMUTABLE FACT, even if he's immediately disproven. In which case he will admit fault, but then his NEXT wild assumption is the IMMUTABLE FACT.

CA: wwell fine you dont havve to behavve vvillainous if youre bent up on actin against the grain a your nobility or somesuch CA: i can play that role its not like i evver didnt get my gills dirty before TT: Nobility? What are you talking about? CA: wwell arent you TT: No. What gave you that idea? CA: the wway you CA: ok CA: i had a misconclusion about that so my fault CA: obvviously you got rich blood so maybe when you crash landed you wwerent recognized for it by wwhatevver vvehicle upholds the class structure in human society

I feel like he's the type who, if he's genuinely unsure about something, he just won't say it at all. Basically, Eridan is always operating at either 0% or 100%, with almost no in-between. NO CHILL. Given that he only strikes up conversations when he's trying to achieve something from it - whether that's actively getting someone to do something for him, or just trying to assert that magic is fake - he treats every conversation like it' i's a battle, where the prize is whatever it is he's attempting to do, and his conversation partner is an enemy that he has to beat into submission. (Karkat is the only exception. He actually just likes talking to Karkat, and will do more traditional "hey man you wanna talk about your feelings" kind of dialogue with him.)

If your Eridan has chill, you are doing it wrong!

ERIDAN STRUGGLES WITH EMPATHY

This really needs to be qualified: he does HAVE empathy. He DOES care about his friends. But his brain is really cooked, and he has an extremely difficult time actually working up the emotional energy to express or experience it.

He's kind of downright sociopathic, lol:

ERISOLSPRITE: iim of the miind2et that wwhen you havve a rock 2oliid piiece of a22 tiied twwo the dock, you dont bloody wwell tug the knot loo2e and 2hovve the fucker off wwiith the heel a your boot. ERISOLSPRITE: but then another part of me ju2t wwonder2 wwhat the FUCK ii ju2t 2aiid there? liike that wwa2 ju2t 2uch a wweiird 2ociiopathiic thought ii had, ii hone2tly had no iidea howw bad ii could po22iibly feel about my2elf untiil ii BECAME my2elf, iif THAT make2 2en2e.

Like, okay, how do I explain this. His body count is 2000+. He has an EXTREMELY difficult time caring about life or death. He's had to watch kids cry over their dead parents. He has had to kill kids trying to protect their parents, whom he has then had to kill. And he has done this over, and over, and over again, as long as he can remember, to the point where he calls it "all i evver done practically."

Just for the sake of preserving what's left of his sanity, he's had to learn how to not care about that. If he sees someone crying in front of him, it's unlikely to even emotionally register to him as anything beyond "factually, this person is sad." Shit happens, people die. Violence, tragedy, murder, injury, and death are literally daily occurrences to him. For you, the day I killed your lusus was the most important day of your now tragically short life. For me, it was Tuesday.

Vriska is in the same boat, BTW. I think a combination of just being a less sensitive person to start with, the existence of a support network (Equius and Kanaya and Terezi as friends + she was friends with Team Charge before the... incident), and the lack of all the Duty(tm) and Responsibility(tm), helped her cope a bit better, and be better about opening up to people and relying on them for emotional support.

What this means, in terms of playing/writing him, is that his priorities are extremely skewed, and he is genuinely not going to understand things like "maybe I shouldn't tell this land dweller I'm trying to kill all land dwellers," or "maybe this person is sad and I should comfort them," or "maybe my constant talk about murder and death is offputting to other people." Here he is, literally not understanding why insulting and belittling Kanaya has led to her not wanting to help him, as well as not understanding why Vriska might've blocked him:

CA: wwhatEVVER you are so the vvillage twwo wwheel devvice wwhen it comes to auspisticing CA: you cant let a grudge go by you wwont stick your busy stem betwwixt so get wwith the program fussyfangs GA: If Your Slander Werent So Predictable Id Block You Too For Saying That GA: Has It Occurred To You She May Have Blocked You Because You Are Vvery Ovverbearing GA: I Just Said That Aloud Now In Your Silly Accent And Had A Private Moment Of Enjoyment CA: wwho givves a shit wwhy she blocked me or about my fuckin manners come on youvve got a wway wwith her

His brain is constantly running at a fevered 100% full-tilt run; he doesn't have the space, leisure, or energy to spend considering things from the perspective of other people. It leads to weird paradoxes, where he IS considerate of other peoples' feelings, but doesn't actually consider their feelings. After spending almost the ENTIRE conversation with Kanaya belittling her and demanding she be his and Vriska's auspice, he abruptly switches gears:

CA: fine i get it ill step off CA: you dont wwant to be our auspistice cause you dont wwant to get locked into that sort of relation wwith her i can respect that GA: No Thats Not It CA: yeah it is your real feelins run pretty awwful RUDDY methinks evverybody knowws it CA: especially that assblood karkat he and me havve you so pegged about that its upright silly CA: but its cool its totally fine dont wworry ill leavve you alone and givve you a shot

Because he LIKES Kanaya, he REALLY CARES ABOUT Kanaya, he WANTS GOOD THINGS for Kanaya... and yet is entirely, wholly, not taking her feelings into account at all.

BUT! This also applies in reverse! You can make all the death threats and casteist insults and demands towards Eridan as you want, and he won't give a shit aside from his usual grandstanding protests. The only time we ever truly see him offended is when he's genuinely trying to do Jade a favor by giving her the code to his gun, and she calls it a piece of shit and tosses it out with the trash - and even then, he doesn't take THAT much offense. Judge for yourself:

GG: so ill just dump it outside the house with the trash GG: and if it is fated to find my penpal one day then so be it! CA: god damn it CA: its like you people go out of your wway to think a howw to disrespect me GG: maybe you should have been nicer to me! GG: in any case i dont appreciate the spirit in which the gift was given so this is what i will do! CA: fine fuck it wwhat do i care CA: this has been a completely flippin useless exchange as havve they all been wwith your species

After all, he's accustomed to much, much, much worse. His emotional response here is indignation, not even really HURT. Karkat also makes a bunch of genuine death threats towards Eridan, which get entirely written off as "wwitty repartee." He's just really bad at processing hostility! Hostility is very normal to him!

So basically, before letting Eridan engage in any act of empathy or compassion, you have to ask whether or not he's going to recognize that the situation would call for that in the first place, which he is REALLY BAD at identifying. He only asks Karkat if Karkat wants to talk about his feelings after Karkat explicitly says that he's freaking out in every possible way, and without that explicit indication, I don't think Eridan would've even noticed.

If your Eridan has social skills, you are Doing It Wrong!

This also means that, even if Eridan has realized that he needs to act compassionate, he's still going to be really fucking trash at actually providing emotional support. He can't even emotionally support himself, you think he can figure it out for other people?

The most he can do is call it like he sees it - "this is a stupid thing to get worked up over," for example. Or he can jump straight to solutions, like "so what, are you gonna kill that guy?" Being as charitable as humanly possible, he might be able to fire off a "that's rough, buddy" at ABSOLUTE maximum.

ERIDAN KIND OF JUST SEES SLURS AS FACTUAL DESCRIPTORS (AND OTHER GENERAL NOTES FOR HIS SYNTAX AND VOCAB)

And, let's face it, on Alternia, they kind of are. Kanaya doesn't even bother to call him out for calling Karkat an assblood, Terezi and Feferi and Sollux don't bother taking offense to calling Sollux a mustard blood, and Karkat calls himself a gutter blood at one point. Like, even if you're playing/writing an Eridan who's rejected Alternian society, he'll still probably be out here calling people slurs? Things that would be considered hostile from other characters are very much just neutral coming from Eridan. There is no emotional difference to him, calling someone a rustblood or a burgundy, but he's expected to say rustblood because of his sea dweller status, so that's what he goes with.

Also, make some grounded but wild assertions about people and things. This boy loves to Assume. Writing Eridan is a lot of going "ERIDAN DON'T SAY THAT!!!" it's great. Really painful. Highly unrecommended.

He's obviously quite book smart and uses a lot of big vocabulary words. You guys need to have Eridan go on these insane purple-prose rants more often. They're so fun to write and so cringe to post.

CA: yeah go ahead and kiss us off but therell be blood on your hands CA: you could either play along as our auspistice and do a little mediating like you wwere fuckin hatched to CA: or wwatch she and me devvolvve into fuckin full fledged kismesisses the kind like you dont get once in ten thousand swweeps CA: you knoww thats wwhat it wwould be there wwould be rainboww rivvers runnin through star systems and all nebulizin like liquid firewworks CA: it wwill be beautiful and heartbreaking all at once

CA: but the thing is i need a rivval wwho can pose me a challenge CA: and frankly shes not evven fit for holdin my cape anymore CA: at this point i find all her adorable black pixie dabblins to be prime kiddie playtime shit CA: all of her FRAUDULENT MAGICS cannot come close to posin threat to my mastery ovver the TRUEST SCIENCES CA: an wwith my empiricists wwand i servve as the righteous hope that wwill incinerate delusion and the deluded alike CA: my holy fire is the wwhite fury bled from the wwrath-wweary eyes of fifty thousand nonfictional angels CA: and wwhen theyre finished wweepin they wwill boww before their prince GG: wow what are you talking about

For no reason at all. I'm going to post a little Karkat for comparison.

PCG: THE FUNNY THING IS IN THE FUTURE EVERYONE WILL RECOGNIZE ME AS THE UNDISPUTED LEADER, EVEN YOU. PCG: YOU WILL BE STANDING ON THE TIPPYTOES OF YOUR IDIOTIC METAL SHOES, TAKING DELICATE PURCHASE OF MY NUBBY HORNS AND HOISTING YOURSELF OVER MY HEAD TO PUT YOUR SWEATIEST TOUGH GUY SMOOCH UPON MY TWITCHING SPINE LUMP. PCG: IT WILL BE TENDER AND DEFERENTIAL, LIKE A PAUPER KISSING A NOBLE'S RING. PCG: JUST SCROLL DOWN, READ THE LOGS.

Also, notes about his typing quirk:

First, the ww and vv stuff is actively a fake accent he puts on for the #Aesthetic, and his natural way of speaking doesn't include those at all, so it's entirely likely that if you're writing him after he's rejected Alternian society, or if he's trying to be really really emotionally sincere, he wouldn't be bothering with that part of the quirk specifically.

He doesn't ALWAYS drop the G at the end of words ending in -ing. It's frequent and common, but don't feel bad about letting a word end in a g, especially if it would sound or look better (for example, "being a kid and growwing up" doesn't bother to drop the g's at all).

Similarly, he doesn't ALWAYS change "of" to "a," especially preceding a vowel sound. You gotta be careful with when you change this up, because he pretty much only does it when it would make sense spoken aloud.

In phrases like "must have" or "could have," he will often (but not always) change "have" to "of" (so "must of" or "could of").

Dropping the D from the word "and" happens only one time in the entire comic, so it's probably a typo, and if it isn't, it's REALLY REALLY infrequent.

He will sometimes use shorthanded words, like "em" instead of "them" or "ya" instead of "you." I'd say it's occassional, a bit rarer than the G-dropping. He does tend to use "got to" instead of "gotta," however. Again, try saying his lines out loud, to figure out when best to use what.

Given his loquaciousness and clear command of the language, it's likely that this is for Style, but he also doesn't always bother with proper grammar. Places where "[person] and I" would be used are often switched out for "[person] and me," and he might forgo a contraction like "I've" or "we've" and just post the pronoun (for example, "you got to" instead of "you've got to."

He references ocean shit, and ocean anatomy, like his own fins and gills, pretty often! He just doesn't do the puns. Try using "flippin" instead of "fuckin" every now and then, or "glubbin" instead of "talkin," or nautical analogies.

Also throw in some British "bloody"s every so often.

Cusses like a sailor, though, has one of the highest "fuck" counts relative to wordcount out of all the characters (cough like Karkat cough).

HE DOES NOT USE PUNCTUATION. EVER. (Ok, he does use a period once while talking to Terezi in Alterniabound, but I think that that's a mistake because it's literally the only time). This is actually in STARK contrast to other characters that don't generally use punctuation, like Aradia or Nepeta, who will still use ellipses, exclamation points, and question marks. Eridan actively, consciously forgoes using ANY punctuation, EVER, even for questions (which you shouldn't be asking too many of, because Eridan makes DEMANDS).

ERIDAN DOES NOT ANGST

This is another thing that I see a lot. Yes, Eridan thinks that he's worse than everybody. Yes, he deliberately keeps fun things at bay and focuses on things that make him miserable. Yes, he's sad, anxious, emotionally neglected, etc. etc. But I often see this self-loathing played for dramatics - Eridan being withdrawn, quiet, moody, and sad. Or being consumed with guilt and regret, and wishing he didn't have to be a murderer or wasn't forced into the position he was. And that's just not the vibe.

Because Eridan has a lot of pride. He refuses to appear weak, and he has genuinely lost the emotional capacity to feel too guilty about all the killing. Moreover, here's something I often see get overlooked:

He would think of the murders he committed, and the fact that he's so good at murdering, as good things.

It's not only useful, but oftentimes NECESSARY, for somebody on the team to be willing to make those kinds of sacrifices, to be willing to pull the trigger. Very literally, murder kept him and his friends alive long enough to play the game.

There's no universe in which Eridan would denounce killing and violence, because to do so would be to say that he shouldn't have kept his friends alive. Even in a hypothetical golden ending, where everybody survives to the end, Eridan would be the guy on the team who posits murder as a potential solution to problems, reminds people that society is built on sacrifices and suffering, and offers to do the dirty work himself if nobody else has the stomach for it. As much as being the orphaner was DISASTROUS for his mental and emotional well-being, he wouldn't regret the things he did.

And this is reflected in the comic - the rare times he does break down and show that he kind of hates himself, the focus is never on guilt or regret, it's on his perceived shortcomings - calling himself an idiot or pathetic. Because that's what his real insecurity is - he doesn't hate himself because he sees himself as this awful piece of shit, the way Sollux does, he hates himself because he thinks of himself as not good enough, because if he's Not Good Enough, then Something Bad Will Happen.

Remember, his danger response is FIGHT. It's a different paradigm than what most of us are used to, which is why I see his inner turmoil so often represented by him being moody and broody, which he's never really done in the comic. Eridan doesn't get sad, even though he is sad; he gets mad, aggressive, combative. He doesn't wallow; he just keeps swimming.

CA: i got to keep tryin thats howw all the great military masterminds became great through upright persevverance

Again, his response to being insulted is indignation, not hurt. He doesn't sit in his room feeling sorry for himself, he obsesses over genocide and murdering all the land dwellers. His response to seeing the love of his life turn on him with killing intent is to flip out and start killing right back. After being broken up with, his response is to go and pester his friends (and yell at Gamzee a bit) until he can get some emotional support. He doesn't angst, he tries to solve the problem, and, if he can't solve the problem, he starts shooting.

He's awfully violent! If your Eridan is not awfully violent, you're probably doing it wrong!

BUT, ERIDAN LOVES HIS FRIENDS

At his core, however, as tangled up in all of the above as he may be, Eridan loves:

His friends

Wizards

Magic

Probably hipster shit

Happy endings

He is still, after all, a HOPE player. He struggles as hard as he does because he can't give up on the idea that things will get better, eventually. Even if he's struggling in the wrong direction, toward the wrong ideals, and even if emotionally, he's feeling more and more hopeless and closed in, he can't stop himself from trying, and trying, and trying again.

He loves magic. As much as he tries to push it away and calls it stupid and fake and lame at every turn, he still brought his shitty wands onto the meteor. Why does he love magic? It's an extension of his inability to give up. No matter how hopeless the situation, no matter how awful he feels, no matter how unrealistic salvation might seem, if only magic is real, then there's a solution. He wants to be a wizard so badly because wizards can do magic, and magic can overturn reality, and reality is this awful, inescapable nightmare. He is constantly being caught between nihilism and pessimism and hope and belief. In the comic, the nihilism won, but that's the great conflict at the core of his being.

So ummmmm yeah, I hope any of that helps with writing the fish boy at all. Basically, if you aren't constantly cringing while writing the bullshit that comes out of his mouth, you're probably doing it wrong...

#homestuck #eridan ampora

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zeithforge · 4 days ago

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My ADHD Planner Secret Weapon: Mood-Based Layouts!

Trying to get a handle on a planner when your brain is doing its own wild dance, especially with ADHD, can feel like trying to herd cats. It’s tough, right? Sometimes I just stare at a blank page and my mind goes completely blank, or worse, races with a million things and I can't pick one. But you know what? Over the years, I've picked up a few tricks, some little tweaks to a daily planner that actually make sense for how my brain works on different days. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about making it work for you in that moment.

I've cooked up four simple planner layouts, tailored for those classic ADHD "moods" – because let's face it, our brains have a mind of their own! These aren't fancy, super-detailed monstrosities; they’re just little guides to help you put pen to paper without getting even more flustered.

Overwhelmed Mood Planner Layout: The "Tiny Bites" Planner

When my brain feels like a tangled ball of yarn, and every single task feels like climbing Mount Everest, the last thing I need is a planner telling me to write down everything. That just makes me want to curl up in a ball and ignore it all. This layout is all about breaking things down into almost comically small steps.

Layout Features:

"Today's ONE BIG THING": A single, prominent box. This is where you put the absolute, non-negotiable, gotta-get-it-done task. Just one.

"Micro-Tasks for ONE BIG THING": 3-5 small lines underneath. Break that "one big thing" into minuscule, actionable steps (e.g., "Open email," "Type subject line," "Send").

"Brain Dump (If You Must)": A small, enclosed box at the bottom, just for jotting down anything else buzzing around your head, but with the explicit instruction NOT to act on it today unless it's an emergency.

"Done & Dusted!": A satisfying checkbox or space to write "YES!" once that one big thing is done.

Scientific Rationale: This taps into the power of task chunking and reduced cognitive load. When you're overwhelmed, your working memory is probably already maxed out. Presenting one clear priority with pre-chunked steps reduces the mental effort needed to start, leveraging the Zeigarnik effect (tendency to remember unfinished tasks) to encourage completion without the paralysis of choice. It’s like, "Just one thing, dude. You can do one thing."

Understimulated Mood Planner Layout: The "Spark & Flow" Planner.

Okay, so sometimes it's not overwhelm, it's just... meh. My brain feels like it's trudging through mud, or it's constantly looking for something new and shiny, which usually leads to endless scrolling. This layout is designed to inject some variety and novelty, keeping boredom at bay while still getting stuff done.

Layout Features:

"Ignite Your Day (Main Focus)": A larger box for your primary task, but with a sub-section for "Why I'm doing this" (connect to purpose).

"Brain Buzzers (Short Bursts)": 3-4 smaller, distinct boxes for quick, varied tasks (e.g., "Reply to 1 email," "Stretch for 5 mins," "Quick tidy-up"). The idea is to switch activities often to maintain interest.

"Novelty Nudge": A small space to plan one slightly different or stimulating activity for the day (e.g., "Listen to new podcast while working," "Try a new route for a walk," "Learn one new fact").

"Reward Circuit": A dedicated line at the very bottom to jot down a small, immediate reward for completing tasks (e.g., "5 mins of gaming," "Fancy coffee").

Scientific Rationale: This design encourages task variation to combat boredom and maintain dopamine levels, which can be lower in ADHD brains. The "Brain Buzzers" use the concept of Pomodoro-like intervals (short bursts of focused work). The "Novelty Nudge" caters to the ADHD brain's need for new stimuli, and "Reward Circuit" strengthens positive feedback loops through operant conditioning, making task completion more appealing.

Hyperfocused Mood Planner Layout: The "Guardrails" Planner

Oh, the elusive hyperfocus! It's a superpower when it's on the right thing, but more often than not, I end up spending six hours perfecting a font for an email and completely forgetting to eat or do anything else. This planner is all about gently guiding that laser focus to the right targets and, crucially, making sure I don't lose track of basic human needs.

Layout Features:

"Hyperfocus Target": A large, central box for the one thing you're currently obsessed with, but with a strict "TIME CAP" section next to it (e.g., "1 hour," "2 hours").

"Essential Pit Stops": Clearly labeled boxes for non-negotiables: "Hydrate," "Eat," "Movement Break," "Rest Eyes." These are like gentle alarms.

"Next Up (Later Today)": A small, separate section for 1-2 critical tasks that must happen after the hyperfocus period, keeping them in mind but out of the immediate hyperfocus zone.

"Stop Sign": A bold reminder at the bottom, perhaps with a pre-set time, like "STOP WORK AT [Time]."

Scientific Rationale: This layout uses time boxing to leverage hyperfocus productively while preventing it from derailing other essential activities. The "Essential Pit Stops" are vital for self-regulation and maintaining physical well-being, which directly impacts cognitive function. By setting explicit time caps and stop times, it helps with executive function deficits related to time management and task shifting. It’s about channeling the power, not letting it run wild.

Executive Dysfunction Mood Planner Layout: The "Compass & Compassion" Planner

Sometimes, it's not overwhelm, it's not understimulation, and it's certainly not hyperfocus. It's just... stuck. Executive dysfunction at its finest. My brain just won't start. It feels like there's a wall between me and doing anything. This planner is less about tasks and more about gentle prompts to find direction and be kind to myself.

Layout Features:

"What's One Tiny Step I Can Take?": A prominent, encouraging question at the top, prompting the user to identify the absolute easiest first step for any task.

"Mood Meter": A simple scale or circle to check in on how you're feeling emotionally (e.g., "1-5," or "Tired / Anxious / Calm / Energized"). This is just for self-awareness.

"Small Wins (If Any)": A space to note anything, no matter how small, that was accomplished or experienced positively (e.g., "Ate breakfast," "Got dressed," "Thought about the task"). This is purely for acknowledging effort.

"Today's Compass (Gentle Direction)": A section to identify 1-2 core areas to gently nudge towards, rather than specific tasks (e.g., "Self-care," "Admin," "Creative").

"Be Kind To Yourself Reminder": A pre-printed phrase or a space to write a positive affirmation.

Scientific Rationale: This layout focuses on self-compassion and reducing initiation barriers. By asking "What's one tiny step?", it leverages the power of micro-habits to overcome inertia. The "Mood Meter" encourages emotional regulation and self-awareness, which is critical for ADHD. Acknowledging "Small Wins" provides positive reinforcement and combats feelings of failure, even on tough days. It’s less about a rigid schedule and more about finding an entry point and fostering a non-judgmental approach, which is vital when executive functions are taking a vacation.

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dr-futbol-blog · 4 months ago

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Critical Mass, Pt. 1

The episode Critical Mass (S02E13) might be viewed as a kind of symbolic passing of the baton from SG-1 to Åtlantis, the former either having or in the process of losing its heart just like Teyla's surrogate granny Charrin. In any case, it is one of the cross-over episodes between the two series even though none of the main cast of SG-1 appear in it. It is also the aftermath of Epiphany (S02E12), both Sheppard and McKay dealing with issues their separation (for Sheppard) and the subsequent straying by Sheppard (that from McKay's point of view had happened quite literally out of the blue) had brought up for them, laying the groundwork for what happens in the following episode.

The episode begins not with Sheppard or McKay but with Zelenka, loading up equipment for an off-world mission. This is relevant in that it is an example of what we see McKay do throughout the episode, which is to take out the resentment he feels toward Sheppard's actions (because he is grateful to have him back, of course he is, the whole ordeal seems to be causing him no small amount of cognitive dissonance) on the people working for him. It is an abuse of power, to be sure, and we see every one of the senior staff overstep their boundaries in this episode. Regardless, we find Sheppard making his way to Zelenka just as he is on his way out.

Sheppard: Going off-world? Zelenka: M7G-677. Sheppard: That's the planet with all the kids, right? Zelenka: They're having trouble with their EM field generator and McKay has decided that I am the most capable person in all of Atlantis to fix it.

It appears to be a slow day on Atlantis so Sheppard is just checking what is happening by the gate on his way to McKay who seems to be waiting for him up on the control platform. As he answers Sheppard's question, Zelenka speaks the designation of the planet like every letter and number is a curse, and Sheppard immediately knows what planet he is talking about. There are two options here (that he just randomly remembers gate addresses is not it): he either remembers the address because the planet was significant to him (and we may recall that McKay had pointed out the same address to him in Before I Sleep (S01E15): "M7G-677 -- we've been to this planet"), or McKay had told him about sending Zelenka there before-hand and he is just pretending to find out about it now. Either is as likely as the other, given his mirthful reaction to Zelenka returning from the planet later on. In any case, all three of them are being real mature here.

What might tip the scale to Sheppard actually remembering this planet of his own accord is Samantha Carter. It had been the first time McKay had mentioned Carter to him, and even though they had not yet hooked up by then, were not even close to getting together, Sheppard had already been annoyed by the way McKay had described her. This might be supported by the fact that Carter is actually name-checked in this episode, she features prominently in the following episode, and the fact that Sheppard is using another blonde Air Force officer to get under McKay's skin in this episode. Sheppard has issues in the shape of Samantha Carter, and because he is prone to projection and having recently had sex with a woman not knowing he was ever going to see McKay again that he feels guilty about, all of this comes out as petty jealousy for his part. It is a well-known phenomenon for people that have strayed in their relationships to accuse the other person of having the hots for someone, inadvertently telling on themselves. In this case, however, McKay already knows about it. He pretty much knew within a second of seeing Sheppard what had happened. And although he can understand it, is even grateful that Sheppard had company and was not driven mad by loneliness, it is going to take him a minute to get over it.

Further, Zelenka puts a lot of attitude on describing how he had received this assignment, spitting out McKay's name with no small amount of venom and Sheppard is simply the wrong person to bring McKay-related grievances to. Not only is he never going to join in on the "We hate McKay club" (that is not what happens in McKay and Mrs Miller, S03E08), McKay is one of his favourite people. Even if he was not in love with the man, he would never choose to bond with someone over putting McKay down. It is not only a wasted effort on Zelenka's part, Sheppard actually stands up for McKay. But let us also note what Zelenka is actually saying here: McKay had not only trusted Zelenka with the mission, he had also complimented the man on his ability. Zelenka may feel like he is being shafted and for sure McKay is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart, but he trusts Zelenka to be able to take care of the problem.

Sheppard: Hey, don't worry. They're a great group of kids, you're gonna love them. Zelenka: My sister has a child. He breaks things. He throws things. He smears things onto furniture. McKay: Colonel Sheppard! I need you up in the Control Room. Oh -- you're still here?

Let us note the fact that the reason Sheppard tells Zelenka the kids are great and he is going to love them is not because he thinks the kids are great -- he only really bonded with Keras over their mission, McKay had much more contact with the actual kids -- it is in defense of McKay. This is Sheppard running interference for McKay because he does not want people to talk about McKay the way Zelenka is talking about him right now. And we might remember that his heart-to-heart with Keras is where Sheppard admitted that he might want kids one day (and we were shown what a great Mr Mom McKay would be), and there definitely had been a time before everything fell apart that they had both dreamed of having children, making a family. Remembering the planet is bitter-sweet for him. Also, he tells Zelenka that the kids are going to love him because he remembers that that kids had loved McKay, and anyone who loves McKay is alright in his book.

Zelenka's impromptu therapy session is interrupted when McKay calls for Sheppard up from the control platform because apparently they had a date and Sheppard had wandered off on his way there. McKay naturally calls him Colonel here given that this is as public of a situation as they get, but let us just make note of the other thing he says. He needs Sheppard. McKay needs him and his need is not limited to just having him up there for a meeting. And because the next time we see them, they are with Weir and Ronon and it is assumed that their meeting follows this scene without pause, let us also make note of the fact that he does indeed say I need you. He does not say "We need you," "We require your presence," "We're waiting for for you" or any variation thereof. McKay's need of Sheppard at this time is personal, his presence at the meeting was something else. And the way Sheppard looks up at him is also interesting. He is not just lifting his chin up, he is leaning his whole body back to be able to take McKay in. And again he is turning his body toward McKay without even thinking about it where for most people he would only turn his head.

Zelenka: We're just leaving. McKay: Hmm! Well, do say 'hi' to the kids for me. Zelenka: Idiot. "Say 'hi' to the kids for me." You'll catch it from me. You are such an idiot.

What happens then is interesting. For one, McKay tells him to say "hi" to the kids for him and most people are going to think he is being facetious about it because they remember the way he was frustrated with the children in the beginning, not how he grew fond of them and was ready to protect them with his life. The children liked him, and he grew to like them. He is not going to fix the EM Field Generator himself (this time, he actually misses Sheppard's father's funeral when it needs to be fixed again) but he does have a genuine reason to stay back, what with the two wraith cruisers he has been monitoring. He is not doing this just to be a dick. In fact, that he is sending someone to fix the shield for them at all is a gesture of good will on his part, it shows that he does care what happens to the kids.

But the finger guns. We have seen McKay do finger guns before because he has a tendency to move his hands a lot, he uses his hands to communicate. We saw him finger gun Ronon just in the previous episode when he told him that they might even score a ZPM from their rescue mission. That is not strange, it is merely communicating his good spirit, meant to take the edge off his words. What is significant here is that Sheppard imitates him. While he merely lifts his thumb up instead of making his hand into a gun--possibly because he does not want to point a gun at anyone he does not intend to use it on--Sheppard makes the exact same sound as McKay does before leaving Zelenka and running up the stairs (literally, taking two steps at a time) to McKay. And again, he had no time to have any conscious thought going into it, he merely reacted to McKay. He mirrored McKay. His body responded to McKay even though McKay had not even been communicating it to him. They are standing on two different floors and his body is so attuned to McKay's as to mimic his actions.

And so we join Sheppard and McKay on the control platform where Ronon and Weir are also with them. However, we do not know whether all three of them had been waiting for Sheppard to start the meeting or if Weir and Ronon had joined in on McKay while he had been explaining this to Sheppard. The fact that it is Weir and Ronon reminds us of the beginning of Aurora (02E09) where Sheppard had clearly been watching McKay work during (or in lieu of) his lunch break and they had called Weir in later. Hell, for all we know the reason McKay needed Sheppard was to have lunch... or some other reason, as we do not know that this meeting followed directly from Sheppard running up the stairs, it is merely implied. But here they are now, Sheppard with his hands on his hips doing a pelvic display.

McKay: Two wraith cruisers. Weir: How far away are they? McKay: A day, maybe a day and a half. I've been tracking them for some time now, but the good news is it doesn't look like they're heading this way. Sheppard: Just passing through the neighbourhood? McKay: Yeah, it looks that way. But I just discovered something rather curious. Short but intense energy bursts passing between them.

What is curious here is that they have placed McKay between Weir and Sheppard, so that who Sheppard is turned toward is left ambiguous (if you have never watched the show before, and we get confirmation at the end of the episode that he still turns his pelvis away from her), all of this seems to be in the service of building up the anticipation for The Long Good-Bye (S02E16). It is McKay that Sheppard watches which is, of course, natural given that he is speaking. He has also parked himself furthest away from Weir.

Now, McKay is acting a little off and the point of this is to be misdirection so that we might suspect him of possibly being host to the Goa'uld later. Obviously, since he was never the host, his behaviour has some other motivation. We may note that the two cruisers on the screen that he has been keeping a keen eye on are more than a little phallic, and there may be some symbolism in them firing at each other, two things at luggerheads that are meant to be fast friends. Everything is not hunky-dory between Sheppard and McKay, that much is obvious. And this much is true whether or not they had sex just before the meeting. We may note that they are both kind of trying to avoid looking at the other man here, to avoid the other's gaze which, knowing how well they communicate when they do look at each other, speaks of a break in one level of communication between them.

Dex: They're fighting each other? McKay: Hmm. In my expert opinion, yes. Sheppard: That's good news. Weir: Certainly is. If there's any change in course at all, let me know.

Ronon makes the assumption that the cruisers are fighting each other, and probably they are. But later on, as they are alerted by the beacon to the possible survival of Atlantis, they seem to drop what ever had gotten them to fire at each other real quick and form a united front as they start advancing toward their common enemy (this is a metaphor). However, while this is McKay's "expert opinion," it is still an assumption, but it does throw a lampshade on other things that one might assume to be true about people fighting in this episode.

McKay mentions the short but intense energy burst exchanged by the cruisers and we might note here that we see Sheppard adjusting his radio for reasons that are never explained and which we have never seen him do before (in Conversion S02E08, we saw him take it off). It does not seem to be fitting right in his ear, he is re-adjusting it and this might well be caused by him having taken it off very recently. While this adjustment of his gear happens on the foreground, the fact that he is doing it at the same time as Ronon is speaking draws attention away from his gesture. Also later on, Sheppard also once again seems ginger sitting down. Further, his hair looks less fluffy and more shiny in this scene than it did when he was down with Zelenka, and it may be purposefully obscured by how he keeps turning his face away from the camera.

But of course he might have been sweating due to running up all those stairs earlier. All of this is to say that although we are being lead toward the idea that Sheppard and McKay are in-fighting, it might be that McKay had a whole other reason why he needed Sheppard up on the control room earlier. They had exchanged short but intense energy bursts before the meeting, is what I am saying. They had a quick pre-meeting meeting, just between the two of them. They had done something that had required Sheppard to take his radio off, is the thing.

Continued in Pt. 2

#sheppard is bi #stargate atlantis #john sheppard #sga meta #sga #rodney is gay #rodney mckay #mcshep #ep. critical mass #ep. childhood's end #ep. epiphany #ep. before I Sleep #ep. mckay and mrs miller #ep. aurora #ep. the long good-bye #ep. conversion

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hellowo2401 · 1 month ago

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Since Sunpath is training to be a medic in my story, I created a bunch of cybertronian biology stuff with stuff I've learned about the Human body from classes in for my Biology Degree, my jobs working as Medical screener, and outside research I've done, this was actually the first thing I worked on when I started creating my transformers fanfiction (PS no I'm not good at organizing data like this, I had ChatGPT organize it so it's easier to read for me when using it at a reference)

Energetic System (Energy Circulation)

The Energetic System is a vital component of Cybertronian physiology, functioning similarly to the circulatory system in organic beings but designed to manage the flow of Energon, their primary energy source. This system ensures that Energon is efficiently distributed to sustain all essential functions of a Cybertronian's body.

Core Function

The primary role of the Energetic System is to circulate Energon, which fuels every aspect of a Cybertronian’s operations, from basic motor functions to advanced cognitive processes and combat capabilities. The system maintains a constant flow of Energon to ensure optimal performance and to prevent energy depletion during critical moments.

Main Components

1. Energon Core

Function: The Energon Core acts as the central processor and distributor of Energon, akin to a heart in organic lifeforms. It regulates the intake, processing, and output of Energon, ensuring that all systems receive the necessary energy.

Operation: The core intakes raw Energon, refines it into a usable form, and pumps it throughout the body in a controlled manner. It adapts the flow rate based on the Cybertronian's current activity level, whether in rest or during high-energy tasks like combat.

2. Conduits

Function: These are the pathways through which Energon flows, comparable to veins and arteries in humans.

Structure: Conduits are composed of durable, flexible materials that can withstand the high pressure and varying temperatures of flowing Energon. They branch out from the Energon Core to reach all major systems and extremities.

Regulation: Valves and regulators within the conduits ensure that the flow of Energon is steady and can be redirected as needed to prioritize critical systems during emergencies.

3. Storage Cells

Function: These cells act as reservoirs for surplus Energon, allowing Cybertronians to maintain operational efficiency even when external Energon supplies are scarce.

Capacity: Storage cells are designed to hold significant amounts of Energon, which can be tapped into during extended periods of activity or in environments where Energon sources are limited.

Emergency Use: In times of critical need, these cells can release stored Energon rapidly to sustain the Cybertronian until they can access external energy sources.

Overall, the Energetic System is a sophisticated network that not only powers the Cybertronian's body but also adapts dynamically to their energy demands, ensuring both survival and peak performance in various scenarios.

Structural System (Skeleton and Frame)

The Structural System in Cybertronians functions as both a support and protective framework, comparable to the human skeletal system but constructed from durable Cybertronian alloys. This system ensures that the body maintains its form, protects internal components, and withstands the rigors of battle and high-intensity activities.

Core Function

The Structural System provides the necessary support for the Cybertronian body, protecting internal systems and maintaining structural integrity under extreme conditions. It also plays a crucial role in the regulation of temperature and dissipation of heat generated during high-energy tasks or combat.

Main Components

1. Primary Frame

Function: The Primary Frame serves as the core load-bearing structure, providing a sturdy framework that houses and supports all vital internal systems.

Construction: Made from advanced Cybertronian alloys, the frame is engineered to endure immense stress, maintaining stability even under heavy impact or strain.

2. Armor Plating

Function: Armor Plating consists of external layers that offer protection against physical damage, environmental hazards, and energy-based attacks.

Dual Role: In addition to protection, the armor also aids in temperature regulation, dissipating heat generated during intense activities to prevent system overheating.

Neural System (Neural Circuits)

The Neural System in Cybertronians is akin to a nervous system in organics, facilitating the transmission of data, sensory input, and commands between the Neural Processor (brain) and the rest of the body. This system ensures rapid response times and efficient data processing for both cognitive and physical functions.

Core Function

The Neural System coordinates sensory input, decision-making, and motor control, allowing Cybertronians to interact with their environment, make tactical decisions, and execute precise movements.

Main Components

1. Neural Processor

Function: Acting as the brain, the Neural Processor handles cognitive functions, decision-making, memory storage, and overall system management.

Capabilities: It processes vast amounts of data in real-time, enabling quick reactions and complex thought processes.

2. Optic Sensors

Function: These sensors function as eyes, capturing and processing visual data from the environment.

Range: They are capable of perceiving a wide range of visual spectra, including infrared and ultraviolet, providing enhanced situational awareness.

3. Auditory Receivers

Function: Comparable to ears, these receivers detect and process sound waves, including human speech and Cybertronian frequencies.

Sensitivity: Designed to pick up subtle auditory cues, they are essential for communication and situational analysis.

Transformational System (T-Cog)

The Transformational System enables Cybertronians to shift between their humanoid and alternate modes, a defining feature of their species. This system allows for rapid reconfiguration, adapting their form to suit different operational needs.

Core Function

The Transformational System provides the ability to morph between different modes, allowing for versatility in combat, reconnaissance, and transportation.

Main Components

1. T-Cog

Function: The T-Cog is a specialized organ that manages the transformation process by reconfiguring internal components seamlessly.

Mechanism: It orchestrates the movement and rearrangement of parts to ensure smooth transitions between modes.

2. Transformational Stabilizers

Function: These stabilizers ensure that all components move fluidly and align correctly during transformation, maintaining structural integrity.

Protection: They prevent mechanical stress or damage during the transformation process, safeguarding internal systems.

Repair and Regeneration System

The Repair and Regeneration System is integral to Cybertronian resilience, allowing for self-repair of minor damages and assisting medics in handling more significant repairs. This system ensures that they can recover from injuries and maintain operational efficiency.

Core Function

The system facilitates autonomous repair and diagnostics, enabling Cybertronians to quickly recover from minor injuries and prioritize repairs for more severe damage.

Main Components

1. Nano-Repair Modules

Function: These microscopic bots or systems autonomously mend minor internal damage, ensuring continuous operation.

Efficiency: They work swiftly and precisely, minimizing downtime during minor repairs.

2. Diagnostic Subroutine

Function: This self-assessment program scans for internal damage, prioritizing repairs based on severity and critical system status.

Analysis: It provides detailed reports, allowing Cybertronians or medics to address issues methodically.

Spark (Central Life Source)

The Spark is the essence of a Cybertronian, embodying their individuality and vitality. It is both the heart and soul of their being, powering all systems and giving life to the machine.

Core Function

The Spark serves as the central life source, energizing all other systems and defining the unique identity of each Cybertronian. It is a core element of their existence, central to both their physical and spiritual being.

Main Components

1. Spark Chamber

Function: This is the protective housing that shields the Spark from external harm, ensuring its safety and stability.

Reinforcement: The chamber is fortified to withstand extreme conditions, safeguarding the most critical component of the Cybertronian.

2. Energon Conduits

Function: These conduits directly feed the Spark with Energon, maintaining its energy output and ensuring the Cybertronian remains active.

Vital Flow: They ensure a steady supply of Energon to keep the Spark functioning optimally, allowing for sustained life and activity.

Yes, Energon is often compared to blood in Cybertronian biology, so they'd likely monitor "Energon Pressure" (EP) as an equivalent to blood pressure. Here’s a structured way to approach it:

Measuring Energon Pressure

Instrument Name:

Energon Regulator: A tool that attaches to Energon conduits to measure pressure levels in the circulation system.

Internal Diagnostics: Cybertronians likely have built-in sensors to self-monitor pressure in real-time.

Measurement Process:

Energon pressure could be measured at key points, such as:

Core Output: Pressure directly from the Energon Core (similar to arterial blood pressure in humans).

Peripheral Lines: Pressure in conduits far from the Core, ensuring even distribution throughout the body.

Units: It might be measured in a unit like kPa (Kilopascal) or a fictional unit like Energetic Flow Units (EFU).

Normal and Abnormal Ranges

Since Cybertronians are machines, the ranges could vary significantly depending on size, role, and Energon consumption rates.

Normal Ranges:

Small Cybertronians (e.g., Bumblebee, Sunpath):

Core Output: 90-120 EFU

Peripheral Lines: 80-110 EFU

Medium Cybertronians (e.g., Arcee, Bulkhead):

Core Output: 110-150 EFU

Peripheral Lines: 100-140 EFU

Large Cybertronians (e.g., Optimus Prime, Megatron):

Core Output: 150-200 EFU

Peripheral Lines: 140-190 EFU

Abnormal Ranges:

Hypoenergosis (Low Energon Pressure):

Caused by insufficient Energon intake or damage to the Core.

Symptoms: Sluggish movement, impaired transformation, dimmed optics.

Example: Core Output below 50 EFU.

Hyperenergosis (High Energon Pressure):

Caused by Energon surges, malfunctioning Core, or obstructed conduits.

Symptoms: Overheating, erratic transformations, risk of system rupture.

Example: Core Output above 200 EFU.

Factors Affecting Energon Pressure

Activity Levels: Combat or rapid transformation might temporarily increase pressure.

Energon Quality: Low-grade Energon may require higher pressure for effective circulation.

Damage/Blockages: Physical damage to conduits could alter pressure.

Upgrades: Advanced systems or specialized roles might demand optimized pressure ranges.

Cybertronian "Heartbeat" (Spark Pulse)

What It Represents:

The spark emits rhythmic energy waves or pulses to maintain the flow of Energon throughout the body.

This rate reflects the spark's health and energy output.

How It’s Measured:

Spark Oscillator: A diagnostic device that detects the frequency and intensity of spark pulses.

Internal Diagnostics: Built-in sensors that report spark pulse metrics during routine self-checks.

Unit: Pulses per Cycle (PPC) — one cycle could be roughly analogous to a second or an Earth-standard time unit.

Normal and Abnormal Spark Pulse Ranges

Ranges vary depending on size, role, and activity level.

Normal Ranges:

Small Cybertronians (e.g., Bumblebee, Sunpath):

Resting: 50-70 PPC

Active: 80-120 PPC

Medium Cybertronians (e.g., Arcee, Bulkhead):

Resting: 40-60 PPC

Active: 70-100 PPC

Large Cybertronians (e.g., Optimus Prime, Megatron):

Resting: 30-50 PPC

Active: 60-90 PPC

Abnormal Ranges:

Hypopulsia (Low Spark Pulse Rate):

Caused by spark damage, Energon deficiency, or exhaustion.

Symptoms: Diminished reflexes, slower reaction time, potential spark instability.

Example: Below 20 PPC for most Cybertronians.

Hyperpulsia (High Spark Pulse Rate):

Caused by stress, Energon surges, or overheating systems.

Symptoms: Erratic behavior, overheating, and risk of spark burnout.

Example: Above 150 PPC for smaller Cybertronians or 120 PPC for larger ones.

Factors Influencing Spark Pulse:

Activity Level: Intense combat or rapid transformations increase the pulse rate.

Energon Quality: Low-grade Energon might force the spark to overcompensate, raising the pulse.

Damage: Spark damage could lead to irregular or weakened pulses.

Emotion: Intense emotions (like anger or fear) may momentarily spike the pulse rate.

Interesting Terminology Ideas:

Sparkbeat: A colloquial term used by Cybertronians to refer to their pulse.

Energon Rhythm: A more scientific name for the pulse pattern.

Spark Sync: The synchronization of spark pulses between Cybertronians during tasks requiring teamwork.

1. Primary Function:

In humans, the respiratory system is responsible for oxygen exchange, but for Cybertronians, it could be more about managing energy and ensuring proper fuel flow. Instead of oxygen, their "breath" could help regulate the flow of energon and facilitate the cooling of internal systems.

2. Ventilation System:

Instead of lungs, Cybertronians could have a network of intakes and vents that function like a respiratory system. These intakes could act as the “breathing” mechanism, where external air (or the Cybertronian equivalent) flows through their body to regulate temperature and energon levels.

Cooling Vents or Heat Dissipation Pipes: Cybertronians might rely on cooling vents that release excess heat from their systems, especially after exertion or battle. These vents could open and close in a similar fashion to how humans breathe.

3. Energy Conversion/Filter System:

A filtering chamber could clean the air entering a Cybertronian’s system, ensuring that it doesn’t contain debris that could clog their internal energy circuits.

Energon Vapors: The intake could pull in a combination of atmospheric gases and energon vapors, mixing them to fuel their internal systems. Cybertronians could "breathe" in energon-infused air to fuel their energy reserves, and expel waste gases that help regulate their internal energy processes.

4. Energy Flow Regulation:

A Flow Regulator: This component could manage the distribution of energon throughout the Cybertronian's body, ensuring that energy is efficiently transferred to different parts of the body while keeping everything cool and well-maintained.

5. Respiratory Mechanism:

The intake system could consist of pipes or ducts, similar to a human's trachea, which would lead to an internal processing unit that absorbs energon from the air. From there, it could flow into "energized conduits" that deliver power to key areas of the body.

We could also explore the idea that Cybertronians "exhale" waste products—such as excess heat, gases, or used energon—to keep their systems from overheating.

6. Special Adaptations:

For combat or intense activity, certain Cybertronians might have advanced cooling or filtration systems to help them “breathe” in challenging environments (e.g., polluted areas, battlefields with lots of smoke).

Perhaps Autobot medics like Ratchet might have specialized breathing systems that help them work in hazardous environments, or there could be a special unit for long-distance scouts like Sunpath.

Refined Energon Waste System:

Weaponry as Waste Expulsion:

Every time a Cybertronian fires their weapon, a small amount of energon waste byproduct is expelled. This process ensures their systems don’t become overloaded with residual energy, much like a pressure release valve.

The waste could be converted into the ammunition or energy beams used for their weapons, meaning the more they fight, the more efficiently they manage their internal energy levels.

Overexertion Risks:

If a Cybertronian overuses their weapons without consuming enough energon, they could risk an energy deficit. This might leave them weak or even force their systems into a low-power mode, creating a natural limitation on how much they can fight without refueling.

Vent Expulsion for Non-Combatants:

For Cybertronians who don’t regularly engage in combat (like medics or scouts), they might rely on cooling vents or specialized waste expulsion systems to release excess energon byproducts. These could be subtle, like vapor escaping from their body, or noticeable during intense situations.

ybertronian Digestive System Overview:

Energon Intake:

Cybertronians can consume energon directly, either by eating it as solid cubes (like in Transformers One: The Movie) or by injecting it into their systems via a port or injector (as seen in Transformers Prime). This could be similar to how humans would consume food or drink, but much more focused on an energy source rather than nutrition.

Energon could be processed through a filtering chamber in the Cybertronian’s intake system, where it’s either absorbed into their body or stored for later use.

Energon Storage:

After energon is consumed, it might be stored in a central storage chamber or energy reservoir, possibly located in the chest area or another central location, depending on the design.

The energon could then be pumped or distributed to different parts of the body as needed for power, cooling, or repairs. Smaller Cybertronians like Sunpath might have a more compact storage system due to their size.

Energon Conversion:

Instead of a traditional digestive system, Cybertronians might have a conversion unit that breaks down the energon and distributes it as pure energy to fuel their internal systems. This could also serve to regulate their temperature or power output. This unit might be responsible for ensuring the energon is in a usable state and maintaining a steady flow to keep the Cybertronian functioning at full capacity.

Excretion/Waste Removal:

There might be minimal waste produced by the energon conversion process, but any excess or unused energon could be expelled through vents or waste outlets. This could happen in a way similar to how a human sweats or exhales gases, helping Cybertronians maintain efficiency and avoid overheating.

This could also be related to their cooling system, where any waste energy is released as heat or vapor. The waste might be expelled in small bursts, especially if a Cybertronian has used a lot of energon quickly.

Cybertronian Nervous System

Primary Components:

Neuro-Relay Network: Instead of biological nerves, Cybertronians would have a network of conductive pathways or neuro-relays that transmit electrical signals. These would serve the same purpose as human nerves, carrying information to and from the central processing unit (CPU) or "brain module."

Central Processor (Brain Module): This functions like a human brain but processes signals digitally. It interprets sensory data, controls movement, and regulates internal systems.

Sensory Input:

Cybertronians perceive the world through a network of sensory nodes that connect to their neuro-relays. These nodes could include:

Optic Sensors for vision.

Auditory Receivers for sound.

Tactile Sensors embedded in their plating to allow them to feel touch and temperature.

Energon Sensors to monitor their internal energy levels and detect external energon sources.

Pain Reception:

Damage Sensors: Pain is transmitted via specialized pathways that detect physical damage or system malfunctions. These sensors provide critical feedback to the brain module, enabling Cybertronians to respond to injuries or stress.

Signal Dampening: Some Cybertronians, particularly medics or warriors, might have the ability to temporarily suppress pain signals to function during emergencies.

Reflex Systems:

Reflex responses would be handled by local processors located near the limbs or other body parts. These allow for quick reactions without requiring the signal to travel all the way to the central processor, much like how human reflex arcs bypass the brain.

Cybertronian Equivalent of the Spinal Cord:

Instead of a biological spinal cord, they might have a main energy conduit running down their frame. This conduit would house the primary neuro-relays, acting as the central pathway for signal transmission.

Cybertronian Musculoskeletal System

Skeleton Framework:

Cybertronians would have a modular skeletal structure, consisting of:

Primary Struts: These act as their main support beams, equivalent to human bones, but are reinforced with a high-tensile alloy to handle stress during transformations.

Secondary Struts: Smaller, more flexible structures that allow fine movements and adapt to shape changes during transformations.

The joints connecting these struts would use rotational pivots and telescopic mechanisms, enabling smooth motion and compact folding without compromising structural integrity.

Muscle Equivalent:

Instead of organic muscles, Cybertronians would have servo-motors and hydraulic actuators:

Servo-motors control precise, small movements and offer agility.

Hydraulic actuators provide raw power for heavy lifting or combat.

A network of flexible tension cables might run through the struts, mimicking the function of tendons. These cables could adjust tension dynamically for stability or flexibility depending on their form.

Transformation Mechanism:

Adaptive Plating: Cybertronians’ outer plating would be segmented and connected to the skeletal system via nano-locks or micro-hinges, allowing it to shift seamlessly between forms.

Reconfiguration Nodes: Located at key points (like shoulders, hips, or spine), these nodes act as control hubs that direct the transformation process. They redistribute energy to make the process fluid and efficient.

Energy-Based Stabilizers: These stabilizers might create a temporary magnetic or energon-based field to reduce wear and tear on joints during transformation.

Durability and Flexibility:

Their framework is reinforced with shock-absorbing materials to withstand impacts during combat or transformations. These materials could be distributed around joints and vulnerable points.

Elastic Memory Alloys: A special material in their skeletal system allows the structure to return to its original shape after deformation, ensuring durability over long-term use.

Regeneration and Repairs:

Damaged components can be repaired or replaced, but some Cybertronians may have systems for self-repair, such as nano-drones that patch structural weaknesses or reforge broken struts.

Medics like Ratchet or Sunpath might specialize in repairing musculoskeletal damage, using Cybertronian “welding” tools and synthetic alloys.

Cybertronian Brain Structure and Functions

Core Brain Regions:

Cognition Module: Handles logic, decision-making, and problem-solving. Equivalent to the human prefrontal cortex.

Energon Regulation Center (ERC): Manages energy intake and distribution, ensuring optimal system performance. Think of this as a mix of the hypothalamus and autonomic nervous system.

Memory Core: Stores long-term and short-term memories, utilizing quantum processing for near-instantaneous retrieval.

Sensory Integration Hub (SIH): Processes input from optic sensors, auditory receivers, and tactile sensors. Functions similarly to the thalamus.

Combat Response Nexus (CRN): Controls reflexive actions, combat strategies, and adrenaline-equivalent surges. A Cybertronian version of the amygdala and motor cortex.

Emotional Processor (EP): Allows Cybertronians to experience and regulate emotions. It integrates sensory data and memory to produce emotional responses.

Brainwave Ranges:

Cybertronians' brainwaves would be electro-neural oscillations, tied to their neural relay activity. Here’s how we might define their ranges:

Gamma (High Performance): 60–100 Hz

Indicates heightened focus, rapid processing (like in battle or high-stakes missions).

Beta (Active State): 25–60 Hz

Normal operating state; used for conversations, everyday tasks, or casual patrols.

Alpha (Calm State): 10–25 Hz

Rest mode, system maintenance, or low-priority tasks. Often seen in non-combat situations.

Theta (Reflection Mode): 3–10 Hz

Used for introspection, memory recall, or processing emotional data. Common after intense battles or personal interactions.

Delta (System Recovery): 0.1–3 Hz

Occurs during deep rest or self-repair. Similar to human sleep.

Neural Dynamics:

Synchronization: When focusing on a task, different brain regions synchronize their oscillations, increasing efficiency.

Desynchronization: In high-stress scenarios, certain regions (e.g., Combat Response Nexus) might overclock, while others (like the Emotional Processor) suppress activity.

Unique Traits for Sunpath:

Sunpath’s smaller frame could mean her neural pathways are shorter, allowing for faster oscillation changes and quicker transitions between brainwave states.

She might also have a specialized SIH, enabling her to process multiple sensory inputs at once—crucial for a scout’s survival in the field.

Types of Cybertronian Muscles

Servo-Motor Fibers (Precision Movement)

Purpose: These are responsible for small, precise movements, like operating their fingers, adjusting facial plates for expressions, or delicate tool manipulation.

Structure: A combination of micro-servo motors and synthetic fiber cables, allowing fine control.

Analog to Humans: Similar to skeletal muscles used for fine motor control, like those in human fingers.

Hydraulic Actuator Muscles (Power and Strength)

Purpose: These provide raw power for heavy lifting, intense combat, and large movements like transforming limbs or operating vehicular parts.

Structure: High-pressure hydraulic systems surrounded by flexible alloy sheaths to absorb stress and transfer energy efficiently.

Analog to Humans: Comparable to large skeletal muscles, such as those in the legs or back, used for heavy work.

Magnetic Coil Strands (Flexibility and Elasticity)

Purpose: Enable flexibility and maintain tension during transformations or rapid shape changes.

Structure: Strands of elastic metallic coils lined with magnetized particles that contract or expand based on electrical input.

Analog to Humans: Similar to smooth muscles, which handle involuntary movement, like in the digestive tract.

Pneumatic Muscles (Speed and Agility)

Purpose: These power quick, explosive movements, such as dodging attacks or sprinting at high speeds.

Structure: Compressible air chambers with reinforced valves that release pressure in bursts for rapid motion.

Analog to Humans: Similar to fast-twitch muscle fibers, which generate speed and explosive power.

Energon Conduit Muscles (Stamina and Endurance)

Purpose: Sustain prolonged activity by efficiently distributing energon to active systems.

Structure: Tubular conduits filled with energon plasma, surrounded by a lightweight, durable alloy mesh that flexes without compromising the flow.

Analog to Humans: Equivalent to slow-twitch muscle fibers that focus on endurance.

Integrated Reinforcement Bands (Shock Absorption)

Purpose: Absorb impacts and distribute force evenly during combat or high-stress transformations.

Structure: Flexible bands made of impact-resistant alloys woven with a gel-like shock-absorbing material.

Analog to Humans: Comparable to ligaments and tendons that stabilize joints and absorb shock.

1. Standard Energon

General Use: This is the typical fuel source for daily sustenance and energy replenishment. It’s used in routine medical treatments to maintain stable energon levels in patients.

Wound Healing: Infused into damaged areas to promote quicker regeneration of Cybertronian tissue and circuits.

2. High-Potency Energon

Emergency Situations: Administered during critical moments, like severe energon loss or life-threatening injuries, to quickly stabilize and boost a Cybertronian’s energy levels. It acts like a concentrated power surge to jump-start vital systems.

Intensive Care: Used in intensive care units where patients are in critical condition, ensuring their spark and primary systems remain functional during delicate surgeries or after severe trauma.

3. Refined Energon

Precision Treatments: Highly refined energon is used for targeted therapies, such as repairing delicate internal components or treating specific system failures. Its purity allows for precise dosages and minimal side effects.

Surgical Aid: During surgeries, refined energon can be used to maintain optimal system functionality and prevent shock or system collapse.

4. Energon Supplements

Chronic Conditions: These are lower concentration doses designed for long-term use in patients with chronic conditions or those recovering from extensive repairs. They help in maintaining steady energy levels without overloading the system.

Recovery Aids: Given to patients post-surgery or after significant repairs to support gradual recovery and energy replenishment.

5. Synthetic Energon

Experimental Treatments: Used in research or experimental procedures when natural energon isn’t viable. It may be used in patients with specific needs or intolerances to standard energon.

Risky But Necessary: In emergencies where standard or high-potency energon isn’t available, synthetic energon serves as a temporary substitute, though with potential risks or side effects.

6. Energon Infused with Medicinal Compounds

Specialized Therapies: Infused with additional compounds or nanites designed to target infections, toxins, or internal system corruption (like Decepticon virus attacks). This energon type is used to cleanse and repair internal systems.

Anti-Viral and Anti-Toxin Treatments: Particularly useful in combating mechanical infections or foreign contaminants in the system.

7. Energon Plasma

Critical Spark Treatment: Used in spark-related emergencies, energon plasma is highly energized and can directly stabilize or revive a fading spark. Its potency is carefully controlled due to its intense nature.

Revival Scenarios: In near-death experiences, energon plasma can act like a defibrillator, shocking a spark back to life or sustaining it during critical moments.

8. Dark Energon (Cautiously Controlled)

Last Resort: Although highly dangerous and corruptive, in rare, desperate situations, tiny controlled amounts might be used to shock the system into overdrive to fight off severe infections or stabilize failing systems temporarily. Its use is highly controversial and risky.

Usage in an Emergency:

Triage Approach: In a battlefield scenario, medics would prioritize high-potency energon for the most critically injured, using it to stabilize patients rapidly before moving on to more refined or specialized treatments.

On-the-Fly Adjustments: Medics might carry a range of energon types, adjusting their use based on the severity of the injury, the immediate need for stabilization, and the patient's existing conditions.

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