#The only outlier is degeneration

[crimescrimson]

Favourite Resident Evil Characterizations Out of All Their Games [1/?]: Short Hair Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015)

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt from the one where Clark forgot to introduce Kon and Jon.

Kon doesn't even know how to make a connection with Jon. Every time he's tried to talk to the kid, it's been weird and stilted and awkward, never mind how the kid opens up like a flower beaming up at the sun whenever it's anybody else he's talking to. He's adorable and sweet and friendly and just so fucking nice right up until Kon says "hey", at which point it's all one-word answers and unhappy mutters and quick excuses to get out of the room. 

The kid doesn't even call him "Kon". It's always, always "Conner". 

Kon doesn't know why it bothers him so much. He was never a twelve year-old with a loving family and amazing parents and a near-idyllic childhood or whatever, so like . . . what would they even talk about, anyway? They have absolutely nothing in common, aside from being the only fully successful Kryptonian-human hybrids in possibly the entire fucking universe, considering Match's (fucking terrifying) degeneration the past few years. Like–that's it. That's all they've got. A genetic similarity, when Kon already knows just how damn little genetic similarities mean. 

And Jon exists because Clark loves Lois, while Kon only exists because Lex hates Superman. So like . . . yeah. Those are two very different origins, aren't they. 

Jon's never going to like him. 

Meanwhile, Kon would literally fucking die for this kid. Like, Jon is just–he's so good. He's all bright sunlight and eager optimism and bold determination, and there is not a single damn grenade that Kon wouldn't throw himself on for him. 

Admittedly, fine, Kon is grenade-proof and also would literally fucking die for a lot of people. Fully-committed willingness to die for somebody is not any kind of an outlier in his personality and never has been. Just . . . the rest of those people can at least make fucking small talk with him. Lex has more to say to him than Jon does. Clark has more to say to him than Jon does.

Kon actually can't think of anyone in his life who wants less to do with him than Jon does. There are literal supervillains in his life with more emotional investment in him. Multiple ones!

Jesus, what a thought. 

He loves this kid so much. When Jon gets excited about something that he thinks is cool, Kon's chest gets tight and warm. When Jon's upset or in a bad mood, Kon can't concentrate on anything except how bad he wants to fix it for him. When Jon's in trouble or needs help or just wants something–

He knows the kid's heartbeat like it's his fucking own. 

Kon digs his fingers into Tim's pillow and does his damnedest to just be normal about this. To just deal with this. 

He will, he knows. He always does, doesn't he? Every time he looks at someone else and feels something that they don't feel for him, he deals. He deals with the amicable and uncrossable distance that Clark keeps between them and Kara's polite disinterest in his existence and Tim having a boyfriend and Match being an asshole and Lex being Lex and whatever else. He can deal with Jon, too. 

Not like he has another choice. 

When has he ever? Tana didn't want him like he wanted her. Knockout didn't care about him like he cared about her. Rex took advantage of him and Roxy was more invested in the fact that he didn't want to kiss her than in just being his friend and he hasn't heard from anyone who ran off with Cadmus since–

Kon shuts down his brain. It's not helping right now. Which, well–when does it ever, really?

He wonders if maybe he shouldn't have come back. Maybe he should've just stayed gone. Stayed forgotten. Stayed . . . away. 

Stayed out of the way. 

He wonders if maybe he should leave on purpose. 

[artsy-hobbitses]

I was wondering about all the current Outliers characters and their abilities that you currently have and what extent their abilities can go, their limits, and side effects if that's alright with you?

Those I control/play so far!

Trailbreaker: Psioplasmic bio-forcefield. Can range in size and molded at will, but if he's not careful, his emotions can change it as well. Uses it mainly to shield his team mates on the field defensively, but it can also be used in a more dangerous manner when he forms it into spikes (he's prone to this when angry and accidentally killed a man in his youth with it, so he's very Pepa Madrigal with his emotions). Downside is it saps a LOT of his energy and he's pretty much narcoleptic everytime he's back from a mission. Dead asleep for three to four days straight and actually needs to be fed intravenously sometimes because his body simply won't let him wake up even for food when he comes back in that state. The more he uses it/the wider ground it needs to cover, the more severe his situation becomes and his organs/muscles can break down from the stress. By the end of the war, he can create a forcefield with a radius of about 2km for five minutes before he starts throwing up blood, but his powers are massively boosted by virtue of one of the 10 Primes (Nexus) trapped in the Matrix choosing to work with him and Skids in tandem.

Blurr: Super speed, still working out the semantics for them

Tarn: Still working out this fucker

Skids: Still working him out!

Skywarp: Teleportation. He has Nightcrawler limitations for most part--he has to be able to see or at least clearly visualize where he needs to be, else he can fucking kill himself by phasing in unintended places (like the middle of a wall). Like Trailbreaker, the further distance he uses it over, the more it taxes on his body. He's able to safely teleport for something like 2-3km. He CAN push himself to 5km or more, but he risks molecular degeneration if repeated in a short span of time.

Soundwave: Super hearing and sound-based telepathy. They can only hear surface thoughts however, it's not possible for them to dig into repressed thoughts. Also their super hearing is a double-edged sword since they can get overwhelmed by it when there's too much stimuli. Initially in their earlier years, their inability to differentiate their thoughts and the thoughts of others was also detrimental as they thought they were going mental and even now, sometimes they can accidentally mistake someone's thoughts as their own if they aren't focusing.

Tailgate: Super strength and durability, still working on this cutie.

Thundercracker: Sonic scream. Though it's not always screaming--shouting and thundering away at his team mates or enemies have the same, dangerous effect. His voice, unmodulated and uncontrolled, can hit a high of 160 decibels, and like Trailbreaker, he has hurt people badly in his youth on accident because of his lack of control or understanding of his abilities (in this case, one of his two mums, who is permanently deaf because of him, though she doesn't blame him for what happened--he was anywhere between five to seven then--and still loves him very much). Still thinking about any side effects. There's a reason almost everyone wears earpieces on the field, and about 50% of that reason is him (It's their luck that he's generally a good-natured fellow who is actually VERY adversed to doing to others what he did to his mom... but push him and he may just make himself heard for the first and last time for you)

[fools-fall-much-too-soon]

Leon's personality "change" between RE2 & RE4

Disclaimer: I'm not a huge fan of the remakes so I don't really take them as 100% canon. When reading this, understand that I'm taking parts from both the ogs and the remakes, but primarily the og games. (TD;DR is at the bottom of the post)

Something that's been on my mind a lot lately is how we went from heart-on-his-sleeve, genuine RE2 Leon to loud, confident, sassy RE4 Leon.

RE4 got me into resi as a kid and remains my favorite game in the franchise. HOWEVER, it's pretty clear (on first inspection) that RE4 Leon is an outlier in the character's development.

In RE2 we get to see rookie cop Leon. I've seen a lot of people claim that og RE2 Leon doesn't have much of a personality but I'd have to disagree. Its abundantly clear that Leon is incredibly pragmatic, a very quick thinker, quite friendly and seems to be able to work well with just about anyone, he even kneels down to get on people's level. Often it seems more like he was trained as an EMT than a cop.

He doesn't approach strangers w a gun. He's so sincere and almost gullible in his faith in other people. That's not to say that he's stupid, he doesn't immediately trust people including Ada (although some folks wanna act like Leon is some lost puppy dog with 0 self-preservation skills). In a lot of ways he comes off a lot like a shonen mc despite him being so snarky. If anything, the closest comparisons I can think of are characters like Percy Jackson or early (comics-era) Peter Parker. All genuine, kind, smart people who are also spunky and funny. He stands his ground, voices his opinion, and is driven by duty. Yes, he's logical and level-headed and pleasant/easily digestible but he's definitely a big personality and a strong character. Practical =/= Boring.

I can't say that much of this changes going into RE4. The only real difference is that he's less gullible and sincere which definitely doesn't feel like its coming out of nowhere. He is 6 years older to be fair and while we only know of Operation Javier between the two installments, we know Leon gets sent on other missions... despite none of them being directly connected to BOWs until OJ. He's been trained by the military which is absolutely part of why he's less gullible other than the obvious reasons. And even then, he's so quick to untie Luis, despite not knowing if he's armed or dangerous, doesn't question the medicine Luis gives them, trusts Ada's intel for some reason, and still considers Krauser a good guy.

Leon was lied to by Ada, who he wanted to protect, and was left feeling used and betrayed. Only to be abandoned by Claire and had to look after the recently orphaned Sherry alone. That, plus the training would make him grow up quick... So what we're left with is the same old snarky, idealistic, but duty-driven Leon who is only a bit more grounded in reality/jaded.

It's also my opinion that all his cheesy one-liners is more than just a way to cope with stress.

Really think about how military training is meant to strip you of personality... It'd make sense that on solo missions he'd finally have the space to let his personality show. He has to hide it so much, ofc he'd be extra when there's no higher-ups to keep him in place. The thing that really hammers it home for me is that he tends to act a lot more serious when there's other agents/military involved. In both Degeneration and Operation Javier, Leon isn't funny. Even in most of Infinite Darkness he keeps his jokes to himself. He's been silly/campy since day one, it's just time and place and RE4 was the right time and place to let his personality shine (especially with all the other big personalities around him).

Leon's personality "change" just seems like a natural progression in response to his environment.

speaking of natural personality changes... I think Krauser and Luis's deaths really messed Leon up. In one day, Leon has to watch so many people die all over again. Innocent villagers slaughtered at his hand. I can imagine that knowing the parasite could be removed and that the villagers were tricked didn't sit easy on his mind either. Like yeah he gets Ashley home but that's one person saved vs the ~1000 that died. Krauser and Luis were important to him in different ways and in the end, things ended up just like Raccoon.

I think that's when it truly starts to set in for Leon that he's just as helpless as everyone else and what he's doing isn't much in the grand scheme of things... Not that he has a choice to stop. It also very easily explains why Leon starts to get more serious as time goes on. Fundamentally, he never really changes the part of him that gets easily attached and cares deeply about the lives of others, but as he ages, it gets harder for him to believe that what he's doing matters since nothing changes.

TD;DR: At the end of the day Leon's personality in RE4 isn't an outlier in his development, but likely of one of the last moments his personality gets to shine without as heavy a burden on his shoulders as he has later in his life. He was been always sassy and kinda campy since day one and him being the way he is in RE4 makes a lot of sense, even though he gets more serious in later installments.

[geeoharee]

Queer musings: this is not about any one fic because I've seen it a LOT, but it always feels super fake to me when one of our queer Victorians sighs and is like 'if only it was the future, when people will be enlightened about this stuff, probably'

It's not that I think them speculating about the future is unrealistic, Holmes in canon has a mad little bit where he invents a future united US and UK which have a combined flag (not happened yet, but give it time, who knows)

It's that I don't think that would be their frame of reference for queer acceptance. I think they'd instinctively look to the past. There's a reference in Forsythe to 'David and Jonathan' - absolutely everyone has done a fic that mentions classical Greek literature one of them is called The Empty House -

The draconian laws they were living under would not have seemed to them like The Unenlightened Past. These were new laws, passed by a government that was worried about what its people were getting up to in their spare time and whether any of it was degenerate and perverted. Holmes and Watson moved in with each other in 1881, and the Labouchere Amendment is 1885. The Wilde trial famously is 1895. Things were getting worse during their own lifetimes.

What's my point? Not sure! I suppose the cheerful version of this post is 'criminalisation of homosexuality was a historical outlier', and the gloomy version is 'keep a fucking close eye on your government because Progress doesn't happen automatically, it happens when people bleed for it.'

P.S. I do realise sometimes that line is in there because the author would also quite like to imagine an enlightened future, and who can blame them honestly. not mad at anyone. just chewing on a thought

[sawthatmountainburn]

I mean, I do think it's useful to have a way to articulate who transmisogyny affects cause like it's not "everybody" as some might want to claim, but it's annoying that even the pro tma/tme distinction side cannot decide on what it actually means. like the thing that made me lose faith in it was this

like ok, let's accept the premise that TMA doesn't just mean transfem (a loosely defined term anyway) and can include non-transfem drag queens, which are mostly cis queer men with some exceptions. following so far.

but then what makes someone TME is the ability to wield transmisogyny against transfems, which means cis guys are TME. and that's also perfectly reasonable, but it does cause issue with the previous statement that non-transfem drag queens are TMA. Ru-Fracking-Paul himself has been very transmisogynistic on numerous occasions and somehow, I don't think he's an outlier! there's also an argument to be made, and has been made by some transfems and even drag queens, that ceasing to be in drag is more akin to taking off a costume, whereas trying to stop being trans is straight up life threatening. and like, sure, there's nuance to this, but it's a very stark and obvious difference, right? so clearly not all, if any, non-transfem drag queens are TMA. hell, I think there's an argument to be made that drag is actually being attacked because it's a queer artform, like "degenerate art" was attacked by the original Nazis; something related to transmisogyny, but distinct from it.

so like, it's infinitely nuanced as a lot of things are, which would be fine except for the fact that people demand others identify themselves as TME/TMA in order to participate in these discussions. and if you're a binary trans person who doesn't crossdress in anyway, the distinction is easy to make, but for others not so much and sorry if this hurts anyone's feelings, but declaring that it's just not worth talking about those "others" because they're such a minority, is just classic marginalization.

and like idk if there's a real solution to this. in my mind, it makes more sense for TMA to apply only to trans people who were AMAB. then there can be a broader term for stuff which includes that + drag queens who don't fall into that category + femboys who also don't + ditto butches + intersex women who are perceived as more "mannish" + whomever I might be forgetting idk it's 6am. but idk I'm just one guy with a particular (autistic) way of understanding the world so the models I find to make sense, might not resonate with others, nor be particularly useful in analysis. but jfc I'm tired of this wishy-washy nonsense and I'm even more tired of how allergic its proponents are to criticism.

[careforacuppatea]

Messy Homestuck headcanons no body cares to know about

Human!Gamzee definitely uncaps any beverage that comes in a bottle, using his teeth. Only time he doesn’t is if Karkat or Tavros can be there to catch him before he manages it- though Karkat is quicker about snatching the bottle away and scolding Gamzee than Tavros is. Anyway it’s no secret Tavros finds the little trick kind of cool and low-key hot, in that trashy sort of way.

Gamzee can play a Calliope, a steam piano/organ.

Fem!Tavros has a death hawk, and only ever styles it up into it’s long rigid hawk when either Kanaya gets her hands on the girl’s hair, or Gamzee with sticky hands covered in sopor as a sort of gel. Otherwise it’s just left un-gelled and long and loose. 

I support my friend’s headcanon that Tavros wears Birkenstock sandals. That still doesn’t excuse the atrocity of wearing socks with sandals, and only adds to my major distaste because I think Birkenstocks are hideous.

Maybe Tavros isn’t exactly fated to be a legendary rapper, but I can see him actually having the voice + the skills to be a wicked dubstep bro. This one is mainly inspired by Skrillex. Dave showing him how to work with records? That’s some matrimonial bro-bonding right there.

I think it’d make sense if Gamzee had a burner/druggie fried-out voice, since I'd imagine sopor slime, if ingested over long, consistent periods, can cause some serious damage/frying to the vocal chords and throat. 

Tavros and Vriska are better suited as frenemies. 

Aradia and Tavros becoming moirails. 

Human!Gamzee being some white trash white boy with an odd accent that’s a ghetto-burner sort of voice that's heavy and slow with a slight redneck southern twang to it is so hot and spot on don’t even @ me. 

Human!Gamzee was born and is from Detroit, Michigan, only because that’s where Faygo was first created and produced and that’s where the headquarters are stationed at.

Tavros has a septum ring piercing yes. 

Tavros is a perv but Gamzee is a freak so together they’re a recipe for a degenerate disaster. 

Tavros having hazel eyes just makes sense to me, but especially human!Tavros. 

Human!Karkat has grey eyes.

Gamzee is tall and lanky. He is just, generally long. Everything about this boy is long. E v e r y t h i n g. 

Human!Gamzee with thick black hair and dark blue eyes and crooked teeth that fit in an unconventionally attractive way, paired with his doofy ass grin. 

Gamzee has an aquiline nose. 

Gamzee is just best described as unconventionally attractive. He's not got a bad face per se but he's gross regardless, but in that hot way y'feel me?

When Tavros ends up losing his lance or forced into closed quarters fighting, when it doubt and desesperado, he uses those horns baby. 

Gamzee and Vriska in a kismesissitude/black romance is hot no I don’t take criticism.

Besides the opening bottlecaps with his teeth trick, human!Gamzee is also quite skilled in the art of manipulating smoke, like when he’s taking a drag from cigarettes, or a blunt. 

Gamzee equipped with two, long, deep purple tentacle bulges, both lined with ridges/’’barbs’’. 

Low bloods, whether male or female, typically/commonly having only one bulge to work with- though there can be exceptions and outliers (Sollux having twin bulges) It’s more common for higher bloods to have either larger, or more than one bulge, also either lined with ridging/barbs. Of course outliers exist for high bloods here, too.

Low bloods are easy to bruise. 

Human!Tavros growing up on a quaint ranchero in the boonies, surrounded by chickens and cows and a bull and pigs and rabbits and goats and horses and a donkey, all sorts of animals. Helping out on the small piece of farmland.

Whenever an occurrence happens where Gamzee and Tavros don’t get along, and the red feelings flip pitched, the arguments are petty and cutting and someone always takes it too far. This leads to pretty intense, hateful, rough fucking. Though they never stay pitched for long, and it’s after everything’s been said and done and it’s out of their systems, the red between them returns. That’s usually when apologies come out and they actually try to listen to each other, or just drop it altogether because it was agreed it was stupid to get so angry over.

Tavros struggles more with jealousy than Gamzee does. 

Tavros isn't exactly a fan of being called or labeled as ‘’cute,’’ for a multitude of reasons. 

Tavros has a slight overbite.

Gamzee's feelings towards Tavros were initially unrequited. The kid came around though with how determined and persistent Gamzee was about courting him.

Tavros' favorite color is green.

[finefabrics]

Something we need to be thinking about more regarding the idea that “ooo the pirates are super accepting of gay people as if they’re in the 21st century!! Stede is stupid to have not figured things out sooner!”, is that their attitude towards homosexuality doesn’t seem to be “you’re born this way and that’s okay”. Rather, it seems like the attitude is that men sleeping with men is just an at sea thing, part of degenerate pirate culture and not innate.

I’m pulling from the conversation between Calico Jack and Stede, where Jack says “anything goes at sea” in regards to sleeping with men. This isn’t an attitude of total acceptance; it’s the attitude of “this thing isn’t okay, but we’re pirates.” In the same way that murder isn’t okay, but pirates do it.

Maybe Stede’s ship is different. Maybe it’s not, and it’s only Lucius and Pete who understand the born this way aspect of being gay. If it is different, I think it’s safe to say that it’s an outlier. Otherwise, I think homosexuality in pirate culture is sort of like it is in prison culture: “there’s no women here, so men will have to do” (although I think you have to be bi or gay to even consider sleeping with the same sex tbh. Still, if you’re closeted and adopting this attitude, it’s far from the total acceptance we’re being sold by the OFMD fandom. It’s not an environment free of homophobia, internal and external).

So imagine you’re Stede. Or just any gay pirate, really. You’ve felt these feelings towards the same sex all your life, never being able to name them. You adopt the pirate lifestyle, and find that men are sleeping with other men. But the message isn’t “you were born this way, that’s okay, we accept you”. It’s “anything goes at sea, so we can participate in disgraceful things like this”. That’s not exactly a prime self-acceptance environment. It’s not acknowledging that you’ve had these feelings before even knowing what a pirate ship was. It’s not telling you those feelings are natural and healthy. It’s treating those feelings as a product of being a pirate. Surely that’s going to make things even more confusing for you than they already are.

Or maybe it doesn’t, because again I’m willing to accept that his crew is an outlier, and is genuinely accepting of same sex attraction. But I don’t think we should be acting like that is the popular attitude among pirates. We shouldn’t be overlooking the homophobia that comes with the attitude of “it’s fine here, but not anywhere else”.

[i-just-like-commenting]

It’s all one struggle (part 1)

This is just a rambling thought I’ve had in my head from reading comments and reblogs of this post, mostly positive, others validly critical, a few frustratingly missing my point, and a bunch of terfs to block. (I have finally decided to turn off notifications for the sake of my social anxiety disorder) But especially there was one tag that someone added noting that a lot of transphobia was “rooted in sexism” and...I dunno, I think it kind of fundamentally  is sexism? Or maybe that what we think of as sexism and homophobia and transphobia are all just kind of the same thing and I’m sure I’m not the first person to have had this thought, I’m pretty sure this is just what people mean they talk about “the gender binary” as a negative, but I want to type it out for my sake as part of the whole learning experience. Warning that I’m going to be parroting sexist, homophobic, and transphobic language to unpack it, so decide if you want to read on.

It all comes down to dividing the world up into categories of masculine and feminine, ne’er the twain shall meet, and which category you personally must be is determined at birth by your genitals, sorry you get no say in the matter. And by the way, masculine is better than feminine, and this hierarchy cannot be defied.

From this everything follows. Women are restricted to an inferior position and cannot ascribe to power or to anything else deemed masculine. Men who are attracted to anything deemed feminine are weak, degenerate, defective. All the usual things centered on sexism and what the earliest kinds of feminism were trying to fight.

But this man/woman, masculine/feminine divide defines how you’re supposed to have relationships too. Men must want women, and only fittingly feminine women at that, likewise women must want men, and only fittingly masculine men at that. If men want men, that’s feminine, they’re weak, degenerate, defective. If women want women, they’re transgressing their place and trying to be masculine.

Even sexist societies that have had some “acceptance” of homosexuality like the Hellenistic world or pre-Meiji Japan have tended to do so within the confines of this dynamic. While obviously there have always been people in equal relationships, they are not what these societies publicly celebrated. No, one male partner has to take a feminine role by virtue of social inferiority, often from age (including flat-out pederasty) or class (owners with slaves, monks with novices, samurai with attendants). And lesbians? Assuming anyone wants to talk about you at all, prepare to be depicted as mannish for your desire.

Again, later waves of feminism agree with this, and recognize how sexism and homophobia have been interlinked. It is not a coincidence that religious groups that allow women as leaders are going to be the ones that have begun to accept same-sex marriage. Once you realize that the masculine/feminine proscriptions on behavior are flawed, that connect to the limitations on how relationships can be formed between men and women.

But much, much more fundamentally, this sexism means that you cannot ever defy the category society put you into. You cannot say, this label you have given me does not fit, I do not accept this divide. You cannot cross it to the other side, you cannot say you lie outside it or someone between. Genitals at birth are destiny, they are what define you.

Are you born intersex? Congratulations, your biology will be at best dismissed as an outlier, or at worst surgically altered without your consent to match the social idea of what it should be. Not intersex and want to change your body in any way once you’ve reached an age to voice consent? Mutilating yourself, you must stay exactly as you were at birth!

Sexism plays out in how we treat afab and amab people differently too. Trans men and nonbinary afabs are treated with condescension - you’re just confused, self-hating girls who were probably peer-pressured into transitioning - or you’re vindictively denied medical care because if you were really not women, you couldn’t get pregnant or have a period. You’re out of your place, not being appropriately feminine, you must be punished.

And trans women and nonbinary amabs? You’re defective, perverted men, of course. A danger to women and children, the same slurs put against gay men for the last couple of centuries.

(It is very revealing that those cultures around the world that have accepted some level of trans-ness have done so by eschewing a binary to begin with, by allowing for three, four, or five genders that people are sorted into when they come of age rather than only at birth.)

The so-called feminists who want to carve out this final space and say that, no, this isn’t the same, you need the definitions of man and woman to match up to your genitals at birth (please continue to ignore intersex people as we always have). And so “women are the ones who can get pregnant” becomes a definition they’re willing to accept, never mind that this just tells cis women that they are defined by their fertility, the same concept that has limited fertile cis women from getting medical treatment to limit their fertility and has questioned the womanhood of those of us who can’t get pregnant. Which is, you know, sexist.

It circles right back. Because it’s all the same struggle, against the same thing. You cannot care about one part of it without caring about all the other parts, Heck, I’m probably missing what some of those parts are because I haven’t seen or experienced, feel free to add your own.

You can certainly try, of course, and I can say that from experience as starting out like most people of my generation as pretty transphobic, but if you start to think about it all, that begins to fall apart. We’re all in this together, our needs intersect, we have to share space with each other somehow. Maybe it’s still not clear what that space will eventually end up looking like, what language we’ll use to describe it. We’ll step on our toes trying to all get the spotlight, it will be messy. But ultimately we can’t throw anybody under the bus.

(This is part 1 because I actually think that this struggle is part of another even more fundamental one, but this post is getting long enough as it is.)

[fonulyn]

Hello hi, felt like adding to the discussion about re6 Leon being an outlier. Especially when compared to Damnation. First point, I don't know but I'm thinking there would have been two different writing teams, as given how closely together they were released, then they would have been in production around the same time at some point. So that could be one cause to the difference between Damnation and re6.

Second point, I do agree there seems to be a character shift. But there's also a shift between Degeneration and Damnation, and for all that he doesn't fricken emote, Degen Leon feels closer to re6 while Damn (heh) falls closer to Vendetta as far as personalities go. Then throw ID in the mix and you get this wave of up/down that I think anyone in his position would go through so that their personality is affected by whatever situation they are in when said events are so extreme.

Third, and my most important point, re6 is so far the only instance where we see (or at least it's heavily implied) that Leon has a personal connection with someone other than Claire (Adam Benford) who he had to kill with his own gun. So it would make sense (loathe as I am to admit it) if he does seem a little closer to Ada in re6 simply because despite it being a complex relationship, it's still a connection, and he's already lost one by his own hands no less.

Ok, rambled enough. Totally not disagreeing, just offering a different angle while still pretty much agreeing.

oh your addition is very much appreciated!

and I agree, people aren't stagnant, people act differently and different parts of their personalities are highlighted depending on the situation they're in. so it does make sense that he also has these shifts.

plus like, the fact that Leon had to shoot Adam is a huge thing. he doesn't get many friends, and when he has to shoot one? it's gigantic. so it makes absolute sense he'd be more withdrawn and subdued in re6 than he is in general. i always read him as tired and sad, at least? so to me, that'd explain a lot why the overall feel is slightly different than in, let's say, Damnation.

[nightcoremoon]

weird opinion but christians aren't religious.

ok so like, jews generally follow god's rules, muslims follow allah's rules, hindus probably follow their gods rules, so on and so forth. and overall they do it out of faith; they do it because they want to honor the deity who loves them rather than because society forces them to.

granted the zionists and the radical extremists and the zealots do exist but as loud minorities and thus are statistical outliers & don't matter.

christians are... a different breed.

"if you aren't x branch and dont obey y rules you'll go to hell so we'll fucking murder you" is pretty much the main driving force behind a significant portion of christianity in history. the catholics, the protestants, the orthodoxy, all are built on a foundation of fear, anger, and hatred. it's shaped the way society developed; in the 4 nations that did the most genocidal imperialist colonialism- England, France, Spain, and Italy- a combination of convenient coastal locations, naval prowess, military tendency, christianity, and ultranationalism lead them down a path of missionaries, holding bibles in one hand and bloodstained knives in the other. the religion is inseparable from the culture and inseparable from the horrible things done in the name of their god, and the resulting cancers of society we feel today from the campaigns of slaughter. xenophobia. capitalism. savage barbarism via sensationalized capitol punishment. misogyny. queerphobia. gender fascism. classism. racism. all of these issues in the "civilized world" stem predominantly from those four nations and the disease ridden pestilent filth some call pilgrims.

here's something interesting:

there are less than 1 million rastafari in the world.

there are less than 5 million shinto in the world.

there are less than 25 million jews in the world.

there are less than 30 million sikhs in the world.

there are roughly 100 million african cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are less than 400 million chinese cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are about 500 million buddhists in the world.

there are about 1.1 billion hindus in the world.

there are about 1.2 billion nonreligious people in the world.

there are 1.6 billion muslims in the world.

and one final statistic

there are over 2.1 billion christians in the world.

the jewish count is a highball, rounded up, and includes several different definitions of jewish including people who are only one quarter. so for every single person who is even remotely jewish, there are more than 8 christians. for every hindu, there are 4 christians. for every atheist, agnostic, or "other", 2 christians. this frightening statistic should set off warning bells for everyone who is involved in a discussion about religion. and anyone who knows BASIC world history and can correlate data at all can probably piece together what I'm putting down.

now, I may be slightly biased here considering my eclectic religious beliefs. now, I personally believe that there is some primary force of energy that may or may not manifest itself as a humanoid being, that engineered the most basic laws of physics in the universe: atomic magnetism. as can be inferred by planck's constant and its implications, our universe is digital, written in binary. an electron either moves or doesn't move. there are no other options. so I genuinely believe in some form of intelligent design; whether it's a bearded guy on a cloud, some dude with six arms and an elephant for a face, just a big swirling pool of ectoplasm, or a big ol' plate of spaghetti and meatballs, something is out there that we are physically incapable of contacting from our plane of existence, just as a drawing on a piece of paper cannot reach out to interact with the world: a gif will move on its own but it will never acknowledge our existence, even if it could think by itself. and all the different mythologies of the world- egyptian, greek, norse, shinto, whatever- very well could be the agents of that unknown "god". perhaps anubis, ra, and bastet are just angels with animal heads that all of the peoples of ancient egypt saw and were like oh I guess this must be a god. maybe zeus and loki were the same person with a magic dick who fucked a bunch of animals in both greece and the scandinavian countries and spawned all of the horrible half-animal monstrosities that, idk, made vishnu think "well I have to kill that" and caused the biblical flood or something. maybe the jewish god gifted wisdom to siddhartha for sitting under a fig tree for 6 years through the angel pomona [roman goddess of fruit, had to google that one], so buddha gets his wisdom from demeter and is in nirvana right now right a step up from hades on yggdrasil the world tree keeping an eye on his charge persephone. any theory could theoretically be true but we ants of humans will never fucking know because we can't just point a telescope at the magellanic clouds and say "look, there's amaterasu with russell's teapot, and she's having tea with... *rubs eyes* lemmy kilmister??? wow I guess gods are real after all!" it's impossible to know the secrets of our universe because of the very restrictive nature of the universe itself. is it a circle? is it a donut? WE DONT FUCKIN KNOW.

we cannot know what religion is truthful.

""anyone who says that any one religion is more or less true than any other is a fucking moron, and if they're suggesting that White Western European Colonial Imperialist Protestantism is the one true faith, they're probably a fucking racist colonizer who beats his wife/sister and burns gays at the stake. and considering how that exact demographic is typically the one that murdered people for not converting to their religion, I don't think they have the intellectual non-deranged ability to make those logical connections.

again, I'm not saying that there AREN'T a lot of people of every religion who are evil assholes who contributed to mass genocide. israelites killed palestinians. shiites killed sunnis. hutus killed tutsis. danes killed geats. turks killed armenians. the ottoman empire has as much blood on its hands as the holy roman empire. germans who called themselves aryans but weren't actually aryan killed jews. but all of these tragedies were isolated incidents rather than repeated patterns over the course of two thousand years. not like christianity was and is.

just look at the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, & India's British Raj. Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, by extension Protestantism and Catholicism, are the shared factor between the long and bloody history fraught with massacring indigenous populations who wouldn't convert religions. native americans, indigenous canadians, latin americans but predominantly mexicans, the eastern chinese, coastal africans, aborigine aussies, indians- coastal coastal coastal. true the western chinese and the mongols/hunnu and xinjiang muslims haven't exactly been on civil terms and the silk road has always been a battleground and the middle east was already tenuous before murrica bombed them for oil but those happened in such a spread out area among asia which is FUCKING HUGE, MIND YOU! but also that's three high traffic places with massive diversity, it's human nature to have conflict, but not nearly to the same level as all of the shit christianity has done to the world. it's impossible to separate the religion from the cultures; victorian england without protestantism is just dirty people who die at 15 from having their 3rd child. italy without the catholicism is just grass and cheese. france and spain without religion are just kingdoms that fought wars with england for forever and now just make food that's one part delicious and three parts horrifying. religion is directly responsible for a significant portion of the evils those countries committed. one religion in particular.

they don't practice religion the same way as the rest do. they aren't faithful to their god. they don't follow his rules out of love but out of fear. they execute dissenters without a second thought, heresy they cry. they execute women and little girls for being free thinking or having sickness associated with mercury poisoning in the water, witch they cry. they slaughter men women and kids alike in the name of cramming their beliefs down the natives throats, we're chasing out the snakes they cry, we're bringing god to your godless people they cry, we're just civilizing you they cry. they shit in the streets and proudly display rotting corpses and leave the impoverished disabled and starving to die alone and whip their slaves and rape teenage girls and scrap in the streets while sopping wet with spilled ale over insignificant insults and stab people to death in the night and never even fucking BATHE, and they have the nerve to say the natives were uncivilized. the nerve. because hey. they read a magic book they stole from a culture who stole from another culture who stole from another culture, mistranslating each time from hebrew to greek to italian to english, and they think they're better because their skin is white.

christians never evolved. their mentalities have stayed the same. all thatms advanced has been technology. that's it. they're still the same evil disgusting degenerate bastards they always were. they just have the money they stole to buy stained glass windows, rosary beads, giant tacky metal statues, bigass robes, leather, and printing presses. and as time passed they used the money they continued to steal to buy cars and websites and radio stations and commit felony tax evasion and secretly molest children and line the pockets of the politicians.

all of their holidays are stolen from pagans anyway.

so fuck christmas. fuck easter. fuck lent. fuck the golden calf christian holidays that the tiny minded fragile snowflake conservatives lose their collective shit over because the pandemic response common sense stipulations won't let them buy the shit they can't afford with money they shouldn't have for people they don't even LIKE, all in the name of tradition, tradition! the rituals that worship something so much worse than satan or baphomet or pan or whatever: the dollar. they buy all the new shiny shit they can, at the expense of the chinese kids that the corporate pigs outsource to, buy the pine trees and the coca cola vunderbar and the fake mint corn syrup Js and watch the same shitty cookie cutter white supremacist hallmark fash movies and stuff their kids full of enough sugar to go into a goddamn coma when the african slaves who pick the cocoa beans will never get to know what actually being a kid will ever feel like because they're gonna die from falling into a combine harvester and be eternally forgotten to history and no christian will ever give a shit because they don't fucking care about what they don't see on their safe space news or hear on their safe space radio or read on their safe space social media. they think their worst sin is eating cheeseburgers so instead they'll go eat a mcchicken or chick fil a or an arby's chicken sandwich instead but not at popeyes because "that place is sketchy" and by that they mean they don't wanna eat where black people eat, that's why cracker barrel was so popular for so many white christians for so long because it had racially segregated seating until barely 20 years ago.

they don't love jesus. they love a paper doll they shove into their back pockets until every other sunday where they go to a fucking mall with a baptism waterslide and raise their hands like a bunch of dumbass weirdos and away to adult contemporary indie schlock with the word jesus pasted into a boring-ass hetero romance song, pat themselves on the back, then go to starbucks to scream slurs and misgenderings at 14 year old starbucks baristas who give them a cappamochalattechino instead of a fucking carmamochalattechino because you mumbled under the mask you didn't even fucking cover your nose with because you don't give a shit about the virus beyond how it inconveniences you.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. until you suggest the slightest infinitely small inconvenience to them that would alter their holiday plans even the littlest smidge. then they would kill you if not for the police. don't get me started on them because you know by now what I'd say about those fuckers. but they'll gladly wear shirts about how they'll kill you. how they'll go back 200 years. how they'll murder you and watch you slowly suffer because their primate brains shoot a million endorphins when they watch things die by their hands because they never evolved a sense of empathy, compassion, or morality beyond how wearing a cross necklace will remove any of the consequences they will face in their afterlife.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. unless you're gay or black or trans or Not Christian™ or mexican or disagree with them about politics economics sociology science technology music or movies. assimilate or die. assimilate or die. assimilate or die.

they don't deserve special treatment for their false idols.

they aren't better than jews or muslims.

they're worse.

so much worse.

and they should be stopped.""

-Nightingale Quietioca

save as draft arch draft bookmark draft where did I put my keys contra code kontra kode I need to remember this and copy it buzzwords keywords find it later please god tumblr don't bork on me this is good stream of consciousness repackage repackage change the words this is a great character study if I do say so myself thanks 3am me you're welcome 3am me

[cursedtm]

UPDATED BIO/STATS. carrd will be updated <24hrs. posted here for your convenience. trigger warning for suicide.

FULL NAME. august lenora singh-erriksen. BIRTH NAME. name withheld. ALIASES.

octavarium “o” no last name given (2014-). alternatively: OCTAVARIUM.EXE and OCTAVARIUM.CMMD

 oberon “o” sweetwater (2031-2049). oberon, for their mother anita’s love for the shakespearan play midummer’s night dream. the name further signifies o’s character as they are known to be: cunning. mischievous. reign of tricksters. possessing the thought that they can do whatever they want when they want and knowing exactly how to do so. for their two sides.  sweetwater, an ode to their mother, dr errikson’s involvement in its development. serves as a warning given the nature of the circumstances surrounding the creation of the alias.

 LORRY V.156.43

AGE.

> the alias OBERON is twenty four years old.

> the alias OCTAVARIUM does not exist on public records and remains undisclosed to the public.

> august singh-errikson… retrieving data…

> ERROR 08. DIAGNOSING…

> in relation to the paucity of understanding encircling the duality of human – machine age when inquiring for data listed “physical age,” sufficient nor accurate data cannot be given.

> hypothetically, if user august errikson had not alienated to anomaly fifteen point three nine point x, in which system creator dr errikson had transferred user august from their biological body into the MODEL OCTAVARIUM SERIAL #730 008 002, august singh-erriksen would be at the physical age of 53 during december of 2058. however, the statistics for this variation does not correlate to pre-existing health condition: aggressive osteoblastoma occurring age nine leading to severe bone degeneration by age sixteen, leading to inevitable death at an approximate age seventeen with appropriate treatment. approx. death is age thirteen due to variant one point x three – lack of appropriate health care due to financial issues and healthcare policies. system configuration highly advises for readers to be aware that this data may be inaccurate for the current path and its future variations of august singh-erriksen. please contact dr errikson or DELOS inc. for further explanation.

AGE AT DEATH. fourteen.

CAUSE OF DEATH: suicide. exsanguination.

> system advises that this data is not currently known to officials and under the us death records august singh-erriksen had past away during the system malfunction of a host throughout the westworld pre-opening stockholders soiree. this incident also records the murders of delos stockholders, dr errikson and dr ford, leading to a mortality rate of 113. system further advises that the correct date of deaths for both user august and system creator dr errikson does not corelate to the us death records and is in fact incorrect and occurred three years and forty seven days prior to the date recorded.

AGE OF REBIRTH. fifteen.

AGE OF APPEARANCE. twenty five. variations in relation to alias are sufficient to change.

SPECIES. human – machine hybrid. cyborg, however, this is yet to be a scientifically approved term.

ETHNICITY. korean.

CITIZENSHIP.

> the alias OBERON is a dual korean and british citizen.

> user august singh-erriksen was a united states citizen.

GENDER. nonbinary. PREFFERED PRONOUNS. they/them strictly. SEXUALITY: bisexual (bisexual is inclusive of trans identities)

DATE OF ADOPTION. 17th of march 2013. AGE AT ADOPTION. ten years old.

BLOOD TYPE. AB+

BIRTH MOTHER. name withheld at request. BIRTH FATHER.  name withheld at request.

NATIONALITY.

> the user august was of united states nationality. > the alias OBERON is of korean nationality.

D.O.B. august is of 12th of december 2003. P.O.B. august is of san antonio, texas.

EDUCATION. august has acquired high school diploma. attended internship with robotics engineers dr ford, dr weber and ai specialist dr errikson. internship terminated after ten months for unknown reasons as requested by dr ford and dr weber upon the leave of dr errikson. home schooled from adoption under dr singh and dr errikson, furthering their knowledge of robotics, ai theory, intellectual technology, english, creative writing and international laws. noted: an advanced learner. understood relevant principles for ai, it and robotics in minutes. lacked fluency in english, laws and writing theory as noted by dr singh, adopted parent.

OCCUPATION.

> the user OBERON “O” is a technologist hired for INCITE as per request of liam dempsy, co-CEO of INCITE, in the years 2049-2055 shortly after the pair met at a party in 2049. this was after serac froze jean mi after convincing his brother that his fiancée (o) left him for greed (2048) when in fact he, serac, forced o into the first instance of INCITE’s reconditioning therapy (2047). the goal o possessed in this instance was to gain control of rehoboam, mirroring delores’ in 2058. this, in both instances, proved futile. the reconditioning o was exposed to in the years prior sought to be constraining on their grip of self and memory, slipping in and out, and therefore was their downfall in gaining control and executing their initial plans, leading to their third loop.

AFFILIATIONS.

> the alias OBERON is a minor stockholder in INCITE. the alias holds <2% of company shareholds as a gift from liam dempsy, co-ceo and minor controller of rehoboam. in specific, oberon holds majority stocks in INCITE’s failed reconditioning therapy in mexico. the gift in and of itself has no real meaning and is useless for any financial benefit. however, they are the only stocks vital for o’s initial planning.

> the alias OCTAVARIUM is a major silent stockholder and silent director in DELOS inc. after accumulating the majority after the westworld massacre which saw stocks plummet (54% in the year 2019). amongst these stocks, o has distributed the stocks between thirty six people, of whom are active directors that act in o’s absence. whatever these stockholders, previously incomers living below the poverty line, chooses to do with their power is up to them, only until it isn’t. this is the terms of the contract they signed with the unknown o.

> the alias known simply as “o”, works alongside brothers engerraund and later lover jean mi serac, to aid (and thereby unknowingly – to the brother’s knowledge - sabotage) the serac brothers into creating failed prototypes sol and david whose goal is to predict and guide human behaviour (2029-2031). the goal to sabotage was to prolong the system’s purpose until o could find a use for it in their plans.

> “o” created the implant and its discs that correspond with the successful prototype solomon and its successor rehoboam. o’s disks and implants aid solomon in feeding the system updated information on the day to day decisions of the users in order to further predict their future outcomes – thereby predicting the course of humanity’s fate. the data is also anonymous syphoned by o to feed them information which is needed to formulate the accuracy of their plan.

DISKS and its daily ingested IMPLANTS help control a human’s bodily and mental behaviours. they regulate sleep, moods, senses, blood levels, hormones, surrounding technology such as home security (requires subscriptions), etc.

o’s disks and implants have become a systematic norm in society as it progresses thanks to INCITE’s influence over government procedures. those who neglect to activate their implant nor ingest discs are systematically doomed to fail and, due to their lack of jobs, healthcare, food and housing in association with their turned off implant, die.

> this allows o to create an application called RICO, an app that allows degenerates – those who are lower class and either cannot afford to keep their implants on or chooses to keep them off (in other words, people who are invisible to rehoboam – to engage in illegal activities warranted from and paid from anonymous sources. INCITE is under the impression that o conceived the program in order to allow INCITE the ability to engage reconditioned outliers to hunt the unconditioned ones who lie a threat to rehoboam’s plan. while the program does run under this purpose, the initial purpose was to allow o to hire anonymous and untraceable users to aid in conducting miscellaneous missions which help advance their plans, unknown to INCITE’s eye.

> it is later discovered by engerraund serac, after his knowledge of o’s true nature since forcing them under solomon’s experimental reconditioning therapy, that he takes control of o’s shared stocks in INCITE and DELOS. here, upon exposing the truth of o to jean mi, engerraund discovers from jean mi of dr ford’s library of guest data, knowledge that is only known by o and the ceo of delos.

LANGUAGES. infinite. subject to the delos mainframe.

HEIGHT. 166cm. WEIGHT. 52kg.

EYES. obsidian. HAIR. tidy but long. black. well kept. black. BODY. small. lithe. titanium. built to withstand.

FACECLAIM. jung jaewon. VOICE CLAIM. ashe.

SIBLINGS. none. biologically unknown as parental names are withheld from the system.

PERSONAILITY.

> the alias OBERON is a party goer. narcotics veined. dinoysus born. player, brilliant in their works, a low born who managed to outrank the lot of them. a value to INCITE. earnt the respect of the blue bloods by befriending the low self esteem liam stempsy when they were sixteen.  

> o is aggressive. quiet. manipulative. cunning. serves no purpose in interacting with others unless the person is needed to advance their plans. this is met with a personality that contours to the need of the person.

due to the reconditioning therapy, the lines between themselves and the aliases blur.

PHOBIAS.  hemophobia – the fear of blood.

ZODIAC. sagittarius

MBTI. INTJ

intjs are analytical problem-solvers, eager to improve systems and processes with their innovative ideas. they have a talent for seeing possibilities for improvement, whether at work, at home, or in themselves.

often intellectual, intjs enjoy logical reasoning and complex problem-solving. they approach life by analyzing the theory behind what they see, and are typically focused inward, on their own thoughtful study of the world around them. intjs are drawn to logical systems and are much less comfortable with the unpredictable nature of other people and their emotions. they are typically independent and selective about their relationships, preferring to associate with people who they find intellectually stimulating.

TEMPERMANT.  melancholic

ENNEGRAM. 5w4

ALIGNMENT. neutral evil.

ABILITIES: LORRY allows o to similarily manipulate surrounding to their will like delores in s3. however, due to o’s outdated programming and overall bugs, their inability to do so in their current verse makes them as blind as a human in a technological advanced world.

DIVERGENCE & ANAMOLIES CAUSED:

UNKNOWN DATE - DIVERGENCE : SOUTH CHINA SEA 9° 55N, 115° 32E 6.06 ARC SECONDS

UNKNOWN DATE - ANOMALY DETECTED:  LOS ANGELES, USA. 34.0522°N, -118.2437°W    MINOR IRREGULARITIES. ANALYSIS REQUIRED.

12/09/24 – DIVERGENCE: BUENOS AIRES. ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES.

UNKNOWN DATE – DIVERGENCE: LILLE, FRANCE 50.6292°N, 3.0573°E        2.011 ARC DEGREES

10/09/25 – DIVERGENCE: PARIS. THERMONUCLEAR INCIDENT.

UNKNOWN DATE – DIVERGENCE: DEHLI, INDIA   28.7040°N, 77.1024°E     1.014 ARC DEGREES        

UNKNOWN DATE – DIVERGENCE: PERTH, AUSTRALIA -33.9505°S, 115.8605°E 12.624 ARC DEGREES

UNKNOWN DATE – DIVERGENCE: ATHENS, GREECE  37.9838°N, 23.72757°E   9.105 ARC DEGREES

UNKNOWN DATE – DIVERGENCE: SAN FRANCISCO, USA   37.7749°N, 122.4194°E   21 ARC DEGREES

[aftgficrec]

any canon compliant long slow burn fics? thank you :)

The dilemma is that there are authors who have written canon compliant fics of the first two books OR the last book. This precludes a slow burn because Andrew and Neil are either getting to the point of admitting/understanding their attraction, or THEY ARE THERE. 

So. We are going to rec some long, pre-slash, canon compliant fics, and some long canon compliant versions of The King's Men. Most of these can also be found in our Andrew’s pov during aftg ask, which contains other stories you may enjoy. 

Also, ‘The Court-Hole Fox’ by Moth2Flame covers the entire series and upon completion should be just what you’re looking for. The same goes for the ‘Fuck the Game’ series by Luci_Cunt. They are the first two listed here. There is also the outlier series, ‘oh be cautious, do not stand too near’ by badacts, which has lain fallow for years but just updated (omg!). - A

Long Pre Slash Canon Compliant

The Court-Hole Fox by Moth2Flame [Rated M, 94136 Words, Incomplete, Updated Sept 2019]

Basically, its the series based on Andrews point of veiw.

From the first time they meet Neil.

tw: implied/referenced past abuse, tw: suicide ideation, tw: violence, tw: non consensual drug use, tw: alcohol, tw: referenced rape/non con, tw: csa, tw: blood, tw: asphyxiation, tw: implied underage prostitution, tw: graphic descriptions of self harm

Fuck the Game by  Luci_Cunt [Rated T, Series, Last Updated Sept 2019] Ayyeeee it's me rewriting all the books almost chapter for chapter but from Andrew's POV cause I love him

Part 1 The Degenerate Court [42171 Words, Complete]

just the books from Andrew's POV

tw: canon typical violence, tw: vomit, tw: psychiatric medication, tw: alcohol, tw: drugs, tw: non consensual drug use, tw: self harm, tw: implied/referenced overdose, tw: implied/referenced murder

Part 2: Raven Feathers and Fox Blood [3079 Words, Incomplete]

The 2nd installation of me rewriting the All For the Game series but from Andrew Minyard's POV

This is The Raven King, but Andrew

tw: canon typical violence, tw: psychiatric medication, tw: implied/referenced csa

oh be cautious, do not stand too near by badacts [Locked, Rated M, Series, Updated 2020]

a freedom sound (do not cherish memory) [47053 Words, Complete]

Andrew only needed a few minutes to determine that Neil Josten was going to get under his skin. He just didn’t foresee exactly how deep.

tw: discussion of drug use/psychiatric medication, tw: alcohol, tw: vomit, tw: non consensual drug use, tw: violence, tw: blood, tw: implied/referenced overdose, tw: implied/referenced murder

the execution sound (the sound of prayer)  [17034 Words, Incomplete]

Commitment has never been Andrew's problem. Unless you count Aaron, Nicky, Kevin, and now Neil.

tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: implied/referenced csa, tw: discussion of drug use/psychiatric medication, tw: violence, tw: blood

Long Getting Together Canon Compliant 

Monster by NightMuse [Rated G, (we say M) 52817 Words, Incomplete, Updated May 2019]

A look inside Andrew's head throughout The King's Men.

tw: vomit, tw: blood, tw: implied/referenced rape/non con, tw: implied/referenced murder, tw: implied/referenced abuse, tw: scars, tw: graphic memories of rape, tw: mentions of self harm, tw: suicidal thoughts, tw: alcohol, tw: drugs

NB: There’s a revised version of this on ao3, ‘Monster 2.0’; however, the original has been updated more recently than the revised version.

The King's Men (Andrew's Point of View) by naj10ajm03 [Rated E, 33745 Words, Incomplete, Updated Jan 2019]

The King's Men from Andrew Minyard's point of view.

tw: past rape/non-con, tw: violence, tw: minor character death, tw: implied/referenced self-harm, tw: explicit language, tw: alcohol, tw: drugs, tw: blood

[yeniayofnymeria]

Arya Stark and Black Swan

(I don't know who the picture belongs to, I found it a long time ago.)

Hello/Selam,

In fact, as you know, Arya is one of the biggest five of GRRM. She has a key role in the books. The problem is that it's hard to predict exactly what this role is. I've been trying to piece together her puzzle pieces for years. The result I have achieved so far; Arya is on the side of the ice in the Battle of Ice and Fire alongside FM / Great Other ... Most people see this story as a classic good-bad battle, but I don't. The reason I think so is GRRM's statements.

Men are still capable of great heroism. But I don’t necessarily think there are heroes. That’s something that’s very much in my books: I believe in great characters. We’re all capable of doing great things, and of doing bad things. We have the angels and the demons inside of us, and our lives are a succession of choices…[Woodrow Wilson] was a racist who tried to end war. Now, does one cancel out the other? Well, they don’t cancel out the other. You can’t make him a hero or a villain. He was both. And we’re all both. - GRRM

...

Much as I admire Tolkien, and I do admire Tolkien — he’s been a huge influence on me, and his Lord of the Rings is the mountain that leans over every other fantasy written since and shaped all of modern fantasy — there are things about it, the whole concept of the Dark Lord, and good guys battling bad guys, Good versus Evil, while brilliantly handled in Tolkien, in the hands of many Tolkien successors, it has become kind of a cartoon. We don’t need any more Dark Lords, we don’t need any more, “Here are the good guys, they’re in white, there are the bad guys, they’re in black. And also, they’re really ugly, the bad guys.” - GRRM

So I don't see the side of ice and fire pure good and pure bad. They're both. Just like the Stark and Lannister war. So I don't see any problem putting Arya on the ice. After all, she's a Stark, and the Stark family is portrayed as "ice."

Lets continue.

The post was created using multiple topics(I combined them.): u/DutchArya 's https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/146440-arya-the-singing-bird-stark/ post and u/Arya1100's https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/7vw332/spoilers_extended_black_swans_and_arya_stark_an/ post.

It's an old theory(of theirs), but it's been a year or so. I wanted to resurrect. I just added a few things. And I commented in my own words.

Black Swan Theory

The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight**.** The term is based on an ancient saying that presumed black swans did not exist – a saying that became reinterpreted to teach a different lesson after black swans were discovered in the wild.

The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain:

The disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology.

The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities).

The psychological biases that blind people, both individually and collectively, to uncertainty and to a rare event's massive role in historical affairs.

Unlike the earlier and broader "black swan problem" in philosophy (i.e. the problem of induction), Taleb's "black swan theory" refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers**, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences:**xxi More technically, in the scientific monograph 'Silent Risk', Taleb mathematically defines the black swan problem as "stemming from the use of degenerate metaprobability" - From wikizeroo.org

Black Swan in summary = A term used to refer to an unexpectedly large event, effect, event.

Arya Stark is thought to have a connection with the Black Swan... This is both a “theory i'm issue I mentioned above and a kind of ugly duckling that turns into a beautiful swan.

Black Swan

Arya felt as though the lake were calling her. She wanted to leap into those placid blue waters, to feel clean again, to swim and splash and bask in the sun. But she dare not take off her clothes where the others could see...

From up here, she could see a small wooded island off to the northeast. Thirty yards from shore, three black swans were gliding over the water, so serene . . . no one had told them that war had come, and they cared nothing for burning towns and butchered men. She stared at them with yearning. Part of her wanted to be a swan the other part wanted to eat one. - (Arya, A Clash of Kings)

The important thing in this quote is that he sees “3 BLACK SWAN as I mentioned above. In fact, the Europeans did not know Black Swan until the 1697s, and I think that this is the basis of the theory that I mentioned first. So, in essence, these animals are a very rare species. Considering that the ASOIAF universe is a kind of a different version of Europe... In other words, the author added a “black swan" instead of the common white swan.

In the next book (book 3) Arya meets some of the Brotherhood and Lady Ravella Smallwood. She treats Arya well, washes and dresses her.

It was even worse than before; Lady Smallwood insisted that Arya take another bath, and cut and comb her hair besides; the dress she put her in this time was sort of lilac-colored, and decorated with little baby pearls. The only good thing about it was that it was so delicate that no one could expect her to ride in it. So the next morning as they broke their fast, Lady Smallwood gave her breeches, belt, and tunic to wear, and a brown doeskin jerkin dotted with iron studs. "They were my son's things," she said. "He died when he was seven."

"I'm sorry, my lady." Arya suddenly felt bad for her, and ashamed. "I'm sorry I tore the acorn dress too. It was pretty."

"Yes, child. And so are you. Be brave."

This woman from House Swan. Their sigil is so interesting 

Battling swans black and white and so is the House of Black and White and that is where Arya is being reborn at every dark moon.

In the books Black and White was often touted as the struggle for darkness and light; therefore, we may interpret the question of swans as the struggle between dark and light parts of Arya or some kind of foreshadowing, which expresses an "enemy" in the future. In another comment 3 black swans; 3 can not be predicted to affect the story, may also express the great effect.

Water Dance

Arya stands on her toes, on one leg. This is indeed reminiscent of ballet. Ballet dancers learn to stand upright, on the tip of their toes, often on one leg. It's explicitly linked to the water dancing. So, "water dancing" = "ballet" and Swan Lake is a ballet that also has narrative similarities to Arya's story.

Ned stopped and looked at her. "Arya, what are you doing?"

"Syrio says a water dancer can stand on one toe for hours." Her hands flailed at the air to steady herself.

Ned had to smile. "Which toe?" he teased.

"Any toe." - (Eddard V, aGoT)

Later on, Arya wishes she could dance on water. This is what the Swan ballet dancers do!

Skinny as they were, her legs were strong and springy and growing longer every day. She was glad of that. A water dancer needs good legs. Blind Beth was no water dancer, but she would not be Beth forever. - The Blind Girl, ADWD

...

She was not far from the Gate as the crows flies, but for girls with feet instead of wings, the way was longer. - Mercy, Winds

Ugly Duck and Beautiful Swan

You all know the story of the ugly duckling. The swan, which started life as an ugly duck, is considered by all to be ugly and excluded. But one day something happens that when the ugly duck grows up, it turns into a beautiful swan and amazes everyone.

Readers think that the swan motif is also one aspect of it, which I'm sure everyone who reads the books carefully noticed it.

Arya considered herself ugly from the very beginning, and Sansa and Jeyne mocked her long face and subjected them to “Horse-faced” insults. According to Arya, her mother told her; if she wore beautiful dresses like Sansa and combed her hair, she could have been as beautiful as her sister.

But Jon and Ned always said she was beautiful; his father stated that she resembled his sister Lyanna, who is said to be a very beautiful girl. On the other hand, as she grew up during her adventure (such as Lady Smallwood), some began to emphasize that she was “beautiful.. For example, we have recently seen The Gentle Man said to her face is beautiful.

There is also a reference link to the swan and beauty in the series.

Arianne touched the pin that clasped [Balon’s] cloak, with its quarreling swans. “I have always been fond of swans. No other bird is half so beautiful, this side of the Summer Isles.”

“Your peacocks might dispute that,” said Ser Balon.

“They might,” said Arianne, “but peacocks are vain, proud creatures, strutting about in all those gaudy colors. Give me a swan serene in white or beautiful in black.” - The Watcher, ADwD

Thank you for read.

[familiaralien]

disastertiffic replied to your post: Going into a little bit of a trans rant...

Most of the time their actual response to these things ime is “well that’s only a small fraction of the population so it shouldn’t count” but they will pull out screen shots of the small fraction of trans people who “prove” their arguments on certain topics. Also they will say “don’t reduce women to their vaginas” and reduce us to our uteri and fuck I would rather be reduced to my vagina thanks.

Yeah basically, like its no surprise when someone’s entire ideology is basically “hate tiny minority of people on the basis of being slightly different” that they ya know... contradict themselves constantly. Bringing up outliers and reducing women to their body parts is wrong except when its not which is conveniently when I, Terflet McBigBrain, need to weaponize something against the transes.

Oh and to be serious here for a moment my mockery is honestly being extremely kind because I have legit encountered a number of tervens, like ones that definitely aren’t trolls, on Twitter that have harassed women over their height, breast size, shoes size and even the length of their fingers.

Sorry ladies if you’re above 5′8″, wear size 8+ women’s shoes, have B cup breasts or smaller and/or don’t have little tiny soft fingers you clearly are a big stinky degenerate male!

[chaosmagick101]

From Wikipedia:

Austin Osman Spare is largely the source of chaos magical theory and practice.[5][7][8][11] Specifically, Spare developed the use of sigils and the use of gnosis to empower these. Most basic sigil work recapitulates Spare's technique, including the construction of a phrase detailing the magical intent, the elimination of duplicate letters, and the artistic recombination of the remaining letters to form the sigil. Although Spare died before chaos magic emerged, many consider him to be the grandfather of chaos magic because of his repudiation of traditional magical systems in favor of a technique based on gnosis.

Aleister Crowley was a marginal yet early and ongoing influence, particularly for his syncretic approach to magic, and his emphasis on experimentation and deconditioning.[8] Other early influences include Discordianism, the punk movement, postmodernism and the writings of Robert Anton Wilson.[8]

Gran'Daddy AOS is the primary contributor to modern chaos magic because of his introduction of Sigils and the Alphabet of Desire to the magical scene. While himself an outlier AOS' works influenced both Peter J Caroll and Ray Sherwin in the creation of the IOT. Now, this statement often downplays the importance of Aleister Crowley's influence over the thought of almost all western (read English) magicians at the time. See, everyone who “does what thou wilt” or “in harms none” uses Thelemic magic to some extent. So though Uncle Al is a major creeper his magical influence is still there and is important for understanding the praxis of chaos magic.

So chaos magic is based off correspondences, links to magical personae that have a powerful impact on the Gnostic state. These correspondences where explored by crowley and company via a very rigid framework known as qabbalah (and its not even “real” Qabbalah, its english qabbalah based on Crowleys system). Now, this said, the system IS effective, though limited because of the stifiling affect of the qabbalah used.

The early attempts at reconciling the issues faced in these attempts resulted in the questions of the system's necessity to rely on religus paradigm; the qabbalah is mired in religus associations, can it function without those trappings? Well the answer is yes, and grandaddy spare had the reason why. The Alphabet of desire showcased the reality that the functions the english qabbalists where using the qaballah for did not at all require a religious correspondent to function! Huzzah! Only the drama of the gnostic state was necessary! With this newfound information the Chaos magicians of yore discarded the chains of religion and magical traditions, I mean, if the magic works without it why use it right? The glaring downside: the magic performed by the early chaos magicians was not exactly powerful as far as their own measurement of success was concerned. This was coupled with a feeling of being lost and going nowhere because of the lack of central direction within the community at large.

Now a second wave of thought came with the rise of the Grimoirists. These Grimoireists are often dedicated revivalists but use the results oriented ideology of the chaos magicians and begin to fill in a missing and rarely acknowledged aspect of chaos magic's form of “shamanism;”its distinct lack of tradition.

Wikipedia's jason miller quote sums it up well:

Jason Miller has argued that contemporary occultism has entered a "post-chaos" phase, in which chaos magicians are increasingly initiating into "very old lineage traditions", partially triggered by the realisation that "imaginary gods and spirits or fictional characters do not seem to have the same effect as traditional ones".[60] 

So now, we look to Grimoires to seek traditional methods to utilize for our chaos magic ends.

This often means engaging in the cultural framework of the magical tradition you are learning from and humbling yourself to be part of that tradition's community.

Provided one does this  lot more of chaos magic's techniques begin to make more sense. The cut up technique can be used as a tool for communicating with spirits and indeed bears great fruit when used alongside the goetic techniques of The True Grimoire  or with the enochian techniques of john dee.

Further the practice of synchromysticism (the art of realising meaningful coincidences in the seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance ) takes on a newer power for chaos magicians when tradition is adapted as tradition offers an oral lineage of synchronistic parables ripe with magical knowledge of both the symbols themselves and how to use them effectively!

Trumping the grimoires are living traditions, practiced and used daily, not talked about and theorized. Now the danger are false and degenerate traditions that keep no records, traditions that insist on doing things for arbitrary reasons based around ego, and traditions based on trying to get you to have sex with clergy or other members of the parish. These predatory traditions dont want you to become better, they want you to be a perpetual victim.

Ok, so why all this?

Easy: you cannot effectively do chaos magic without studying the history and knowing why things are moving the way they are. The methods of chaos magic are based off of scientific illuminism, how many even know what that is? Does anyone know the egregore model is clearly a ripped off version of crowley and mather's goetia? The truth is knowing the source of these ideological models helps magicians to become better.

I guess just be better.