#but they continue to function separately... thus far

[150699]

When Viktor says "The doctor was right" at the end of s2ep6, I wonder if he was actually referring to when he visited Singed's lab in s1 and Singed told him, "If you take this path, they will despise you. Love and legacy are the sacrifices we make for progress."

I do think that he's at least partially referring to the exchange in the greenhouse when Singed essentially suggests he sacrifice Vander in favor of guaranteed survival, to which Viktor replies, "I will not sacrifice his humanity for your cause."

I'm not totally convinced he agrees with everything that was said there, but he's certainly changed his opinion on the necessity of sacrificing people's humanity to achieve his vision/the glorious evolution.

Of course, both dialogues are connected if you consider love to be a defining trait of people's humanity (as many do). In that case, Singed's s1 dialogue could be translated to, "Humanity is the sacrifice we make for progress."

Viktor, however, will never be able to fully rid himself of his humanity for the exact reason that - again - Singed gives to Caitlyn and Ambessa.

"Why does anyone commit acts others deem unspeakable? For love."

The commune, the evolutionary goal, all of it is done out of love for people and a desire to help them... if the most effective way to help is to sacrifice their humanity, so be it.

[miafeystits]

re: that last poll i reblogged, one of the reasons i find both mpreg & a/b/o fic kind of morbidly fascinating after many years in fandom (despite not liking either) is how these kinds of fic often function as a way of mapping the tropes and gender dynamics of cis/heterosexual romance onto (almost always cis) m/m stories without going so far as to gender-swap either character

like, this is pretty obvious with mpreg centered on cis men, which is often just the application of common pregnancy-related romance tropes to cis m/m couples (note: im excluding depictions of trans masc pregnancy from my discussion here because i just think its a separate convo with its own nuances, and because i think much of the fic im describing here generally draws from ideas about cis men & women without much consideration for transness). however its ESPECIALLY apparent if you look at common a/b/o tropes in m/m fic. namely, the fact that an a/b/o universe is generally a world in which irl gender essentialism and the resulting sexual power dynamics between (cis) men and (cis) women are able to be applied to relationships exclusively between cis men-- with one partner being dominant, often physically stronger and aggressive, and socially privileged for this (perceived or real) biological superiority, and the other partner (who is generally the one able to bear children) being sexually submissive, weaker, and thus socially disadvantaged or oppressed as a consequence.

furthermore, something EXTRA interesting to me is that in this type of fic these power dynamics are very frequently not just social constructs (the way they are in real life-- pls dont misunderstand me and think im saying women are inherently biologically submissive to men irl or something), but rather almost always depicted as a biological reality within the world of the story. this type of au (at least in m/m dominated circles) offers a way of exploring and depicting what are basically misogynistic tropes without ever naming it as misogyny or involving women at any point. and i'm not trying to make a moral judgement here--i just genuinely find it very interesting that one of the main ways that misogynistic sexual dynamics (and, frequently, the violence resulting from such dynamics) gets explored in fandom spaces is through the development of an alternate biological and social reality in which cis men experience a mirror of those power dynamics, often turned up to 11 via in-universe biological essentialism. it strikes me as a way to engage with irl misogyny and its role within relationships with a certain amount of emotional distance, for better or worse. on one hand, it might be used to explore this imbalance of power without ever needing to depict misogynistic violence happening to female characters, but on the other hand also often offers a way to engage with romantic tropes steeped in irl gender essentialism in a way that is justified within the fiction of the universe and therefore do not need to be considered as critically

now i dont think this alone justifies this trope's existence or popularity (i'm sure a large part of its popularity is people just thinking it's hot tbh, which is fine im not here to judge), and honestly i'm not interested in litigating the question of why people write or read this trope in the first place, but i AM continually fascinated by the degree to which heteronormativity is able to influence what are ostensibly depictions of queer relationships

[daughterofheartshaven]

You put the Last Great Time War “before” the War in Heaven? ((Well before is relative but having romana go back in time to fight in it is my point and thus have the War overwrite the LGTW instead of the other way around.)

Does this mean you place Shalka after new who with Shalka being the Post War fate of EDA 8? With Big Finish 8 becoming the new who who Doctor’s who latter get overwritten by Shalka 9? If so I find that fascinating? Care to give you take of the relationship between the War in Heaven and the Last Great Time War?

And of course how the Enemy fits into that interpretation?

Okay!

I actually consider the War in Heaven and the Last Great Time War to be the same conflict in a continuous timeline. Both kinda get treated in their respective ends of the franchise as The First Time War of This Scale and so saying one happened before the other I don't like, and I don't like separating them into multiple continuities because I want to fit as much Doctor Who as possible into the same continuity. (Also if I do that I can use the Cwej series to justify my claim that Gallifrey was not actually destroyed by the Master and they faked their death in Thirteen's era. I have that argument linked in my pinned post if you're curious).

Re - the Enemy, I consider the Enemy to be the force the war is really fighting against, but this knowledge is restricted by Livia/Rassilon on Gallifrey original. The Daleks are not the enemy - the Daleks are the weapon. The Enemy wove the Daleks into history under the Time Lord's noses and are now using the Daleks as their physical fighting force in the War. The Daleks themselves are completely unaware of this. Notably, while the Daleks didn't win the war, the Enemy kinda did - they wanted Gallifrey returned from the timeline, and while Gallifrey wasn't destroyed in Day of the Doctor, it was functionally removed from time and space.

My timeline for Romana is: she breaks out of the Time War and into Gallifrey's past, where she helps get the Nine Gallifreys project off the ground under her former self's nose, she then establishes herself as War Queen of one of the Nine Gallifreys and begins prepping it for the War, but then The Ancestor Cell happens. Following that fiasco, she abandons Gallifrey, working with the Tharils for a time once the war actually starts (the Little Book of Fate), then eventually fleeing to the far end of the universe and regenerating there (Tomb of Valdemar), then eventually returning to the Post-War Gallifrey and becoming politically involved there (Rebel Rebel).

I consider Shalka to be a "what could have been" to the Ninth Doctor - not in-line with the established timline, but a different possibility that could have happened after the Time War.

This was fun! Any follow-up questions?

[artbyblastweave]

So comic question - my Big 2-reading friend has been raving about the new Ultimates series, and also sworn up and down that it's actually easy to follow and you in no way need to read six different ongoing series in the correct order to understand what's going on or jump in halfway through a totally unrelated one for ten issues to get vital context.

Is he full of shit, or is it actually comprehensible and worth reading if my comics knowledge mostly boils down to pop culture osmosis and reading some posts?

He's kind of full of shit but also not. They did one four-issue miniseries called Ultimate Invasion- quite good in it's own right- that lays the groundwork/status quo/Big Ticking Two Year Countdown Clock Until All Hell Breaks Loose for the handful of ongoing series that launched afterwards. The fact that it's been largely easy to follow thus far is largely a function of it's currently limited scope- Only four largely separate ongoings (the two of which I've read are quite legible independent of the other ones) set in different parts of the world with very limited overlap, alongside a couple oneshots released as milestones. You can blow through the entire continuity in an afternoon. The Original Ultimate Marvel was, at it's inception, easy to follow for basically the same reason. This has the potential to metastasize in the same way that that did. They also might successfully tie a bow on it as a completed limited scope project. Time will tell. The other thing is that the Hickman and Camp's metatextual project is to create an imprint where the setting is so aggressively plugged into meta continuity porn bullshit that it would serve as a poison-pill to any attempted MCU adaption effort- In contrast to how the original Ultimate Universe was kind of visibily packaging itself for eventual adaptation to film, they wanted to do a story that can be a comic book and nothing else because of how much it's about comic books. A major theme thus far has been characters coming to terms with the lives they were supposed to lead, for better or for worse, and half of what's clever about this thing is banking on your ability to contextualize where the bit players are in life in this story versus where they wound up in other continuities. I also interpret the entire project as sort of a love letter to the phenomenon of trying to create revised, tightened reboots of long-running continuities that spiral out of control in their own right- the entire joke is that one of the two characters kept around by real-life editorial after the last, kinda-poorly-received attempt at a reboot universe like this is trying to make his own timeline with blackjack and hookers, only for it to spiral out of control in turn. (We Are Never Getting Out Of Here)

All in all, I've mentioned in other posts on this project that I've kind of lost the objectivity necessary to know whether this is at all good, legible or enjoyable if you aren't plugged into the big-two comic-book torment nexus. This shit is my Feldspar and Quartz. If you want to roll the dice, the reading order is Ultimate Invasion, Ultimate Universe, and then as far as I know Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimates, Ultimate Black Panther and Ultimate X-Men can be read in any order. The fact that I had to give you a reading order probably on some level answers your original question, though

[birdsofthefictionalworld]

Alternation of Trigun Plant Generations

So, not a bird post, but they have feathers so it counts, right? Right?? *sweats*

I was recently introduced to Trigun, and am absolutely fascinated by the reproduction cycle of Plants. Its time to, once again, put my degree to good use. Here goes nothing:

So at first glance it seems pretty damn fantastical. The main character(and main villian) are the, presumably asexual, reproductive products of a creature with significant physiological differences from them. This is strange for asexual reproduction, as such a thing usually results in a sort of “clone” of the parent. Or does it?

Enter, the life cycle of a fern.

The diagram is a little confusing, but the main point is that the diploid fern(top) asexually reproduces to create the haploid fern(bottom), which looks very little like its parent. The haploid fern can then sexually reproduce to create a another diploid fern, and the cycle goes round and round. Sound familiar? Don’t worry, I’m about to explain it in excrutiating detail. I even made a diagram!

So similar to the fern life cycle. In Trigun, the Dependent Plant can asexually reproduce to create an Independent Plant.

First, up at the top of the diagram, the Independent Plant reaches a state of sporing.

This happens very rarely, as there are only two instances of it occurring on SEEDS ships, and no instances on Gunsmoke/Nomansland. It does seem to, however, become more common on earth, as more Independent Plants arrive at the very end of the manga. I would theorize that this has to do with an incredibly extended lifespan leading to a very late onset of sexual maturity, but that is a theory for another day.

Second, moving down and to the right on the diagram, the Dependent creates spores. These take the form of humanoid infants.

Now, this part of the diagram assumes that the known Independent Plants (ie Vash/Knives and Tesla) are actually male and female(and aren’t functionally sexless like Dependents), which is how they could theoretically reproduce sexually. This is where things diverge from general fern life cycles, as the two sexes are in separate entities not combined into one plant. Therefore, when the Dependent Plant spores, it would create either X(female) or Y(male) Plants originating from one half or the other of its own XY genes. This does align with fern reproduction somewhat, as Haploid plants are created from only one half of a copy of the Diploid plant’s genes. In ferns, both sides of the genes have both male and female characteristics, but for Plants it seems to be split, creating Independents with separate sexes.

Third in the diagram, moving to the bottom. The spores grow into recognizable Independent Plants, with far more humanoid forms than Dependents. These guys would then, at sexual maturity be able to sexually reproduce to create a Dependant Plant zygote(fancy word for baby), which would then grown into a fully formed Dependent Plant. And thus, the cycle continues.

Obviously, we do not directly see this in Trigun, as for the majority of the story, there are only two(presumably male) Independent plants. This cycles has clearly not been documented in the era of the SEEDS ships, so the initial method of plant reproduction was likely simple cloning with some genetic engineering involved. But it is more than possible that natural Plant reproduction was determined on earth, which would be why we see more independents showing up with the earth ships at the end of the manga.

Additional Notes:

Returning to something I mentioned earlier on, dependent plant sporing was not occurring on Gunsmoke/Nomansland. I would guess that this is due to the levels of stress placed on the Dependents by the human populations relying on them. Had the humans been able to reduce the strain on their Plants, they may have been able to produce Independents, therefore allowing for the creation of more dependents, further reducing the strain on existing dependents. But that is just my pet theory.

I have additional theories on the mechanisms behind Dependent Plants resource production, and what an ideal environment of multiple plants living freely might look like, but that is for another post.

Thank you for reading! I honestly don't know if I will do any more non-bird metas, but if you liked this, you can always look at #bfw(my general works tag). As always, my ask box is open to suggestions for bird stuff for me to check out!

[whatudottu]

Now I’m curious on what your takes on how Cerebrocrustaceans speak are, given how we’ve been given three separate dubiously canon explanations in the form of “electrostatically vibrating gaseous or liquid mediums”, “mentally projecting their thoughts”, and “secret mind link”

Oh well, if I continue to give cerebrocrustaceans gizzards then I'm totally locking in "electrostatically vibrating gaseous or liquid mediums" because for as much as I do love the sci-fantasy of Ben 10, I also like to kinda pseudo ground biology headcanons in a more uh... naturalistic evolutionary way so that Mutants and Magic au shenanigans can shenanigan and leave room for psychics and [x]pathies hehe-! Honestly Dr Psychobos could probably have one of the two latter ones, having been listed as a 'mutant' cerebrocrustacean despite mostly only having cybernetic enhancements (I wonder if they'd act as the opposite and are psychic limiters a la Saiki K., it's just more convenient to have it on the brain than as external clips *thinking thinking*).

Did you know: Fish on Earth make sounds? It's a lot of clicking, humming, popping, purring, grunting, whooping, snapping, laughing, and foghorns! Some of those sounds technically resemble the buzzing whirr of electricity, or at least the sound of electricity burning gases rather than electricity itself, it's not like it produces soundwaves. I imagine that cerebrocrustaceans especially early on in their history when they were still mostly underwater would have developed a language that sounds like this, especially since sound travels very easily very far underwater, even if only benefiting longer noises over rapid switching of vocalisation as clarity is diminished.

It used to be exclusively electrostatic vibration of water, as it tended to just be there as a basic understanding of life on Encephalonus (the original), where vocalisation and language came from the gizzard. The gizzard often remains empty so that cerebrocrustaceans don't choke on water when feeling hungry and only intakes water to have a pressurised system to push the water out, but to use it in communication would be to hold the water in the gizzard and use the water as a conductor of vibration thus a medium for sound induced by electric organs akin to those in the electric eel. These electric organs, present in the brain as a defense mechanism turned useful tool, were initially present in the gizzard to aid in prey consumption but found a second useage in communication. And even if muffled, a cerebrocrustacean can in fact speak with their mouth full with full cohesion.

When cerebrocrustaceans moved to drier environments, their water-based communication stopped being as effective due to the reliance of needing to be underwater to speak, but with their electric organs working just as fine in the air as in the sea this is where they began learning out to speak with gas. Breathing wise technically cerebrocrustaceans are still exclusively water-breathers, hence the rebreathers over their gills, but their mouth doesn't connect to the respiratory system. Instead their gizzards, using their muscles to depressurise the organ and allow air (and it's specific chemical make up, whatever that ends up being) to fill the gizzards like they would with water, allowing the air and mainly the gizzard itself to vibrate with electrical induction. Functionally, it's a different enough way of speaking that the sounds - even if one can find comparisons between the two and understand that they are of similar phonetics - similar phonetics does not mean the same phonetics and some sounds cannot be produced in the air; all cerebrocrustaceans are functionally bilingual if only due to the fact that water speaking and air speaking are phonotactically unique enough from each other to be considered different languages, even if they never live anywhere else or live exclusively in one environ over the other, global Encephalonus school systems always have water and air dialects on the curriculum in language classes.

[questionsonislam]

What are the attributes of Allah?

The divine attributes are divided into two groups: personal and affirmative.

Personal Attributes:

1. Wujud (Existence),

2. Qidaam (Pre-eternity, eternal existence in the past),

3. Baqa (Eternity, immortality),

4. Wahdaniyyah (Oneness, having no partner),

5. Qiyam bi nafseehee (The continuation of His existence stems from nothing but Himself),

6. Mukhalafath-un lil hawadith (His essence does not resemble that of His servants and His attributes do not resemble those of His creatures)

Affirmative attributes:

1. Hayaat (Life)

2. Ilm (Knowledge)

3. Iraade (Will)

4. Kudrah (Power)

5. Sam (Hearing)

6. Basar (Sight)

7. Kalaam (Speech)

8. Takween (Creation, making).

As far as the attribute of takween(creation) is concerned, it is regarded as one of Allahs attributes according to the Maturidi school of thought. Another religious leader, Imam Ashari, does not regard this attribute as separate. Thus, there are seven affirmative attributes according to this school of thought.

It is possible to see that in some Islamic sources, the divine names are also considered attributes. For example, Kareem (All-Munificent) is one of Allahs names. At the same time, in terms of qualifying Allah munificent, it functions as an attribute as well. When we say "Allah the Munificent", we also use the name of Munificent as an attribute.

Again, in those sources, the attributes of Allah Almighty are evaluated in three groups:

1. Personal attributes

2. Actual attributes

3. Spiritual attributes

All of Allahs beautiful names rest on one of these attributes. For example, the name of All-Knowing rests on the attribute of "knowledge" from the affirmative attributes, the name ofPowerful on the attribute of "power", and the name of Speaker on the attribute of "speech". In the same way, the name of First rests on the attribute of qidaam (eternal in the past) from the personal attributes the name of Last rests on the attribute of immortality.

Most of the divine names rest on actual attributes. The name of Creator rests on the act of creation; the name of Life-Giver on the act of resuscitation; the name of Giver of Form on the act of shaping, the name of Giver of Death on the act of giving of death.

In addition, some names rest on the spiritual attributes. The name of All-Wise rests on the attribute of wisdom of Allah; the name of Most Great on the attribute of having grandeur; the name of All-Gracious rests on the attribute of beauty of Allah.

[wistsandmagic]

Transformers Headcanon Time 3: There's A THIRD?

Today's Subject: Cybertronian Sex and Gender!

Been a while since one of these came up, huh? I haven't been idle, however, despite the lack of writing about it. Remedying some of that NOW. Again with the disclaimer that this is for a fan continuity, the Eterna AU, so please take everything with a grain of salt. This is how it works for this particular AU, and if it does not align with your own personal headcanons, that is perfectly fine! Your headcanons are yours, not part of this particular fan continuity!

Once again again, we’re going to condense things and call Cybertronians AND the colony-worlders by the umbrella-term “Cybertronian” because it saves me typing and helps with my brain fog, keeping things clearer when I write.

Necessary background: Cybertronians are, as humans define it, an asexual species. They have no genitalia as humans define them, everyone has the exact same thing -- a Spark -- and that is all that is needed. No external genitalia, no internal genitalia or genital organ structures. As mentioned in Headcanon 2: Electric Boogaloo, all Cybertronians are capable of forming a Gestational Forge or laying eggs if they reproduce on their own, and thus there is no sexual difference. With no genitalia, they are not a hermaphroditic species, they are truly 'lacking sex', and thus, asexual, in the scientific (non sexual orientation) way.

HOWEVER.

Cybertronians have 3 distinct 'neurological genders': Mech, Fem, and Novi. There has been debate about increasing this to 4, as the 'Novi' category has two very distinct subtypes, and among the Novi themselves the distinction has resulted in a split into two more neurological genders, Novi and Eda, but legally, there has been no change. For the sake of inclusivity, Novi and Eda will be referred to as separate neurological genders in this essay.

The neurological patterning covering the processor is distinct enough between the four to call them 'genders', with Mech neurological circuit patterns tending toward branched lines, Fem toward interlocking rings, Novi toward connected starbursts, and Eda toward concentric ripples. It is also common for Novi and Eda patterning-structures to be far more dense in certain areas than either Mech or Fem.

There are, of course, variations and 'intermediate' steps in between each of the four types that might equate to the spectrum of intersex individuals for humanity, but there is so much individuality in these variations that they have not been classified as a 'true' fifth gender. Most bots who fall into the variation spectrum personally lean toward one of the other genders, and if they do not, Cybertronians and humans actually share a word for this: Agender.

Mech, since the encounter with humans, has become equated to 'male'. Fem has become equated to 'female'. Novi and Eda donot seem to have a biological human sex counterpart, as 'intersex' among humans has too much variety to easily compare to a Novi or Eda. The closest human terminology seems to be 'nonbinary', and while for humans sex and gender seem to be two separate things, the term is accurate enough for a Cybertronian, as they are biologically sexless, with no reproductive difference between Mech, Fem, Novi, Eda, or any variations in between. Any and all Cybertronians can be a sire or a carrier, barring health issues or other barriers caused by frame type incompatibilities, and their neurological gender has nothing to do with reproductive viability.

Under Functionism, by long-enforced decree of the Senate, only one in thirteen bots born or forged, whether via The Well, Hotspot, or the increasingly-frowned-upon Carrier methodology (whether or not it was achieved via carrier self-splitspark or with sire(s)), could be deemed a Fem, with none being deemed a Novi or Eda, in an attempt to force the population to self-regulate types of alt-modes and enforce classist boundaries. Fem-designated bots were exclusively limited to small, slight frames, deemed weaker and thus more protected and 'fragile' than their forced-Mech counterparts.

Before Functionism, bots born were simply scanned as their protoforms solidified and settled into circuitry patterns, and their gender revealed. They were not locked into this gender, either; as they became more themselves, they were free to transition if they so chose, and their new pronouns in Cybex (and later Neocybex) would reflect the change. They were not limited in body shape nor alt-mode according to their neurological gender, either, only by what their bodies would accept, which varies from individual to individual, though anecdotal preferential 'trends' do tend to appear among the genders.

Mech body-types in general lean toward larger, bulkier, and comparatively stronger than the others, with their alt-modes tending to reflect this, being larger trucks or heavier cars, including muscle cars, large planes, helicopters, or starships (bombers, shuttles, or gunships), larger boats in the old days when Cybertron had oceans, or heavier-duty construction equipment. Beastformer Mechs tend to be bulkier or more heavily-armoured animals and insects for their body size, with longer teeth, horns, antlers, claws, and/or heavier shoulders than their Novi, Eda, or Fem counterparts.

Fem body-types in general lean toward shorter and more lithe than the Mechs, though not necessarily as tiny as what they were forced into under Functionism. They also tend to be much faster, and their alt-modes tend to reflect this, leaning more toward motorcycles, drag-race cars, smaller compact cars, fighter jets or reconnaisance planes, small 'bubble' style helicopters, or smaller starships, such as starfighters, small watercraft like jetskis, or small versions of the mech construction equipment, designed for tighter spaces or handling more delicate parts. Beastformer Fems tended toward sleeker and more lithe than their mech counterparts, albeit with sharper teeth and claws, with some beast alts foregoing things like antlers or horns entirely, in return for being much faster and more agile.

Novi and Eda body-types run the gamut much more than their Mech or Fem counterparts, though in general they fall somewhere in between, though they are more prone to extreme outliers in size and weight. There are exceptions, just as there are for Mech and Fem, so this is not a hard and fast rule, though many Novis tend to have slightly longer limbs and/or digits in comparison to their body than their Mech, Fem, or Eda counterparts, regardless of the rest of their frame. Edas, meanwhile, tend to have thicker shins and feet in comparison to other genders of similar builds, and tend to be slightly more sturdily-built than a Novi of the same frame-type. Novis and Edas both are much more likely to be standard race cars, '4-wheeler' style and amphibious/hover ATVs, small bi-planes or steath fighters, wind-powered watercraft like sailboats, small submersibles, and 'lamprey' style spacecraft that are designed to attach to larger craft and serve as close-quarters guardians. Beastformers tend to have smaller antlers or horns than Mechs, in some cases lacking them entirely like Fems, depending on Mech-to-Fem ratio in their given areas, while Novi and Eda Beastformers tend to, surprisingly, actually have longer fangs and claws than their Mech counterparts, though not as sharp as most Fems'. In the case of Insecticons and Avianformers, Novis and Edas tend to be more brightly or intricately patterned than either Mech or Fem of the same insect type, and their wings tend to be longer or more numerous than either of the others, though a Novi will lean more toward excessive patterning, while Eda lean more toward excessive colouration.

Under the Functionist Senate, Novis (and Edas, as a result) did not exist, and they were typically relegated to Mechs, with a rare Fem occasionally actually being an Eda or a Novi. In addition, any bot that would have otherwise been a Fem whose birth protoform was too large to reasonably accomodate a forced alt-mode that was typically assigned to Fems -- such as a motorcycle -- was assigned to be a Mech, whether or not their neurological patterning readily accepted a Mech-stype altmode or not. Many later 'transitioned' Fems discovered that they had a much easier time scanning and maintaining a Fem-style altmode than they ever had as a Mech, validating their decision to transition. On the other hand, any very small birth protoform tended to be assigned as a Fem, with the same results for forced-feminization as for forced-mechanization for their assigned-Mech counterparts.

Novis and Edas, on the other hand, often found themselves unable to take an alt mode of any kind, as their neurological programming tended to reject forced alts at a young age of both types, and many children and newbuilts, whether they were assigned Mech or Fem, found themselves altless until a much later age than their peers as a result, unless someone took pity on them and assigned them an alt that would have, once upon a time, been a 'true' Novi or Eda alt, now divided up between the Mech and Fem approved alt-mode lists for frame type.

Nowadays, Functionism does not exist, and thus bots are free to be who they are, without being forced into a narrow definition decided by others. This is, sadly, taking some getting used to for quite a few bots, and going has been slow. The rejoining of the lost colonies to Cybertron, however, has helped in this regard, as most of the lost colonies split from Cybertron before the rise of Functionism, and never developed the strict gender roles and alts forced upon their originator planet.

[mysaldate]

AFK Journey review by a beta tester

AFK Journey came out yesterday and I see it getting quite a lot of attention so I figured I'd at least put this out there so that people don't go into it expecting something it's not.

I have been in the testing of this game and continued to provide feedback all the way from the alpha test back in the fall of 2021 and through all the beta testing that started in April or May last year. I have also been aiding in making lore-focused streams about AFK Arena for over a year and seeing as AFK Journey is supposed to be set in the same world, this will be relevant later. I have also been contracted to make officially-backed videos about AFK journey – a deal I left for a number of reasons, not least of all the reasons I have for writing this post. Now with credentials out of the way, let's get to the actual review.

The visuals take your breath away

Let's start with something positive – this game is gorgeous. Farlight Studios have outdone themselves yet again and after the vibrant and futuristic world of Dislyte, their take on Esperia is surprisingly tame, in a good way. The colors are soft and lovely, the models look amazing, and the customization screen of the main character is awesome! The characters look great and move in a smooth fluid fashion. Ult animations, idle animations, and the overall feel of the characters as well as the skins added into the game thus far are all nice and fit into the wider world well, not to mention look wonderful and clean, a lot of effort and skill went into making them. Sadly, if we ignore the skins and ult animations, this has been the case since the alpha without any major changes.

Gameplay could be improved upon

I will be up-front about this, I don't care about gameplay all that much. However, I have to say, the game is not open-world, despite claiming to be so. If you venture off the paths, you get stuck on fences, stuck on bushes, stuck on rocks, or just prevented by an invisible wall. There is no swimming, no climbing, no gliding, or most other things we came to associate with open-world games. The vertical gameplay is a plus to be sure and you get to pick characters to follow you around without having to use them in battles which makes the exploration more fun. The overworld puzzles are creative and fun too! The real issue comes with... everything else. At the start, fights in the overworld are easy. However, they will scale up way faster than you can level and you will soon be adding an additional roadblock to the list: enemies. The combat itself is creative but requires attention as the autoplay function is usually wonky at best and outright damaging to your party at worst. AFK Journey is not living up to its AFK title either. One thing I found really annoying was the story progression not being tied to the AFK rewards. You have to grind a separate set of battles to increase the AFK rewards you receive. The AFK rewards and story also still cap each other so you won't be able to progress in one without progressing in the other.

Outside of the main story, the game offers multiple game modes. If you don't enjoy PvP, be warned that the game puts great emphasis on doing your PvP arena every day and being good at it if you want to build any good characters. The game also has a labyrinth mode which tracks your health across multiple battles and allows you to gain upgrades as you go. This mode is somewhere between AFK Arena's and Dislyte's in terms of fun. It is more varied than AFK Arena's which makes it more fun and less repetitive, however, you have a limited number of characters you can bring in which severely limits how varied your gameplay experience might be. It was also recently nerfed to the ground and now poses little to no challenge. Honor Duel is another PvP mode in which you buy upgrades and then fight randomly generated players with supposedly the same level of upgrades as you. If you can claim eight victories before three losses, you win the run. However, the factions and characters are currently so imbalanced that depending on your luck, you may not win a single battle in a run or you might breeze through all of them without any effort.

The gacha element is pretty much non-existent. If you scrounge up enough resources to pull, you likely won't get anything much. You'll be relying on hand-outs of pulls and PvP shops to build your characters. AFK Journey should not be called a gacha game. It is, at best, a game with rare gacha elements.

Co-op is a lie

While AFK Journey does have a cooperative mode, in the form of connected guild dungeons, it is not really what it advertises to be either. All your guildmates can separately whale on some enemies together and depending on how you do, you will receive rewards that are generous compared to what the rest of the game offers. You can lend your friends your characters but they'll be the ones fighting with them, not you. The most social aspect of the game is seeing other players around the map and spending your friend points to buy different animations to perform at each other. The chat function is also pretty bad, though not as terrible as it is in AFK Arena.

The guilds and friends to add also don't work cross-server. So if you have a friend on another server, you won't be able to see them or talk to them or enjoy even the limited interactions that are actually in the game.

The story is disappointing at best and nobody knows the world

You may have noticed I've been avoiding talking about the story of a story-focused game. This is where the biggest disappointment lies. Let me preface this by saying, the story didn't always use to be this way. It used to be actually really really good back in the alpha and even at the start of the beta. However, in the last three months, the game underwent five or six complete rewrites of the main story, each worse than the last. As things stand right now, there is no nuance in protagonists or villains, there is a literal diarrhea conversation (like an actual conversation, several scenes long) for no reason, most of the story could be summarized on one page and the rest is pointless bickering that makes every other character utterly unlikable. The main character is an amnesiac going by the title of "Magister Merlin" despite the fact that Merlin from Arthurian myths, whom this is clearly based on, is an existing character in the world of Esperia.

In terms of lore, AFK Journey is not even close to what it promised. It promised to be a game set in the world of AFK Arena – a world with surprisingly rich and interesting lore that has been built up over the years. Unfortunately, it is very much not that. Not only are important world events treated as nonexistent, not only does the writing erase character relationships and dynamics, but the writers couldn't have even been bothered to learn the basics of the world they're working with. Factions get swapped around randomly for no reason, and important factional politics have been flipped on their heads. An organization that is supposed to be an outcast is now the ruling class, the timeline is all over the place, and even the names of things are not only inconsistent with AFK Arena but also inconsistent with Journey's world itself. The loading screen already breaks the world by telling you magic didn't exist until the "Fall of the gods" which is supposed to have happened recently, yet the entire time you will be running around ruins of magical civilizations from ages long past.

Speaking of the gods, there are characters who straight-up don't know what a celestial is. If you know anything about Esperia's lore, you know how important religion is to its history and how jealously the gods guard their authority. The thought of someone having completely no idea of what they were is strange, to say the least. The game also invents new gods instead of using preexisting ones with the same function and even disregards events relating to the gods that changed the course of Esperian history – such as the death of Esperia's primary goddess Dura. In fact, AFK Journey doesn't even consider Dura important enough to have a model. Once again, this is the primary goddess of this world. As for the characters brought over from AFK Arena, they have been butchered beyond recognition. The warlord of an entire country who slew countless enemies is now a pacifist whose only interest lies in spicy food, a hard-working girl who, for the sake of her family, developed her skills until she was recognized by the stars and became the fulfillment of a prophecy is now an angry Mary-sue who was always perfect and didn't actually need to work for anything – and gets offended if you suggest otherwise, the list goes on.

The sound design is refreshingly good – for the most part

As a game with voices, we have to talk about those first. The voices, for the most part, are alright. None of them really stands out as particularly amazing, though I do like a few of them more than the others. I like Fay's voice quite a bit. Sadly, none of the characters from AFK Arena is voiced by the same person anymore, and in most cases, it is a massive downgrade. And that isn't talking about the worst offender of all – Valen, one of the main characters you'll have to listen to the whole time. Valen used to have a voice that fit his character – suave and kind of bold and full of life. Now he sounds like he's still going through puberty, and he's a whiny crybaby at that.

The sound design outside of the voice acting is great. Once again, this is a very strong point for the game. The music and background noises are great and even the menu sounds are not disruptive in the least. If anything, they feel natural to the world.

PC client could as well not exist at all

This is coming from second-hand knowledge as I have played AFK Journey on phone but so far the reviews I've seen appear to be as follows: Game lags when walking, freezes when trying to talk to NPCs, and is prone to crashing. Mobile devices perform better for AFK Journey than PCs do.

The mystery of translation

Back in January, the only publicly admitted localizer has been fired from the project. About a week and a half ago (around 10 days before the game's launch), the official Discord posted an application form looking for translators for the game. Apparently, the game has several translations already out at this moment, but none of them particularly good. Some are even so bad it's sort of funny. In a really... pathetic sad way. It probably doesn't help that they're still looking for translators as we speak.

In conclusion...

I wish I could recommend AFK Journey, I really do. I've been excited about this game ever since its announcement and I've been providing as much feedback as I could throughout both alpha and beta. The organization has been awful and the game suffers for it. Internal changes happened a few months back and since then, everything about the game just fell apart. Even things that were good before got ruined and now all that remains is pretty visuals and nice music with nothing else worth paying attention to. It is a major letdown when it could've been incredible. The game is nothing it was advertised as – it is not an open-world game, it is not a gacha, and it is most certainly not set in the world of AFK Arena.

I hope the people who decide to play it can still find some fun in it regardless.

[meowthefluffy]

An update on my unfinished au’s!

I have over the last few months fallen deeply out of love with the Sanders Sides series and as a result I have not updated any of my projects in some time. At the current point I am at I am only planning to do the final two installments in the cupid au (because I pretty much lost my affection for the ts series right before the big finale of the project!!) and the lust Roman au (as it is my longest running work to date and I want to comple the project as a show of dedication to my younger self) although it will most likely be on a much quicker time scale than I was intending originally! (Instead of the 11 more parts I was hoping to produce it will probably be closer to 5 and I will most likely skip a few parts of the story that weren’t as important)

I feel a lot of affection for the work I have created but not a lot for the actual series so I’m trying to find a way to rework the stories I’ve created for the au’s to become independent creations that I will enjoy continuing to make! (Aside from the Lust au which I feel is mostly a story I don’t feel the need to come back to/rework since it relies so heavily on the source material) Most of my au’s function as stories mostly separate from canon material except for the characters archetypes present in each, so I’ll be working on retooling/reskinning said work to be more original and workable as long term projects! (Since u guys were really invest in my plots which had almost nothing to do with the canon characterization)

I’m currently working on retooling the Zombie au (Which I used as heavy inspiration for my oc Sophia I sometimes post about and her girlfriend) the Cupid au (I’m putting together more creative designs for the characters so that I can hopefully redo the comic- since I’m super in love with the concept) The sleeping beauty au (since it functions entirely the same as a stand alone story- and I could use the designs of my princess characters from that comic I made a long time ago for Valentine’s Day ) and the Super hero au! (Which I never properly defined and thus have a lot of incomplete ideas for, and my only struggle is coming up with better super hero names for them)

The only one of my main au’s I probably won’t rework is the Evil king au- just because I’m not sure how I could retool it to not just be a story about abuse(I feel more comfortable creating a story where everything is horrible and bad and the people involved are just bad for eachother when it’s an au- because there is other work of those characters where they aren’t that way to balance it out- but if it were my own new characters I feel as though it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to read or write)

This is a series of decisions I’ve been trying to wait on for a long time because I have been hoping something sanders Sides related would come out soon that would re spark my interest but nothing so far has happened- and with the way the story is going I don’t think it’s something that is going to happen. I still love all the work I have created for this fandom and I am so proud of all the collaborative projects I have been able to create with you all! I will happily re-read your asks and comments on my comics and I am still really proud of the community I’ve been able to create!

I’m sad to let this part of my life go (it’s taken up a solid 4th of my lifetime) and I understand that a lot of you all won’t follow me to my new projects- because I understand you guys didn’t come here for random oc projects- or original comics. And Altho it breaks my heart to see some of you move on and leave my notifications I am happy I the time with you all that I did!

Thank you all for everything- and I’ll see you soon 💖

[max1461]

I think one of the main things that separates me from most rationalists is this: I think that rationalists have a tendency to bullet-bite object level claims to make their meta-views coherent, where I have very strongly the opposite tendency, to bullet-bite meta-level claims to make my object level views coherent. Thus wackier inclinations of mine like "there's nothing particularly wrong with hypocrisy" and others of similar type, which emerge out of a kind of radical disinterest in the elegance of the meta-level...

Uh, that might not make a lot of sense. Let me approach this from another angle. Rationalists, coming out of the econ bloggosphere and tech world as they have, seem to me to often be very interested in equilibria, convergence, and other notions of coherence between disparate things. They want meta-beliefs that commute nicely with their object-beliefs. To continue on with the previous example, if you believe that hypocrisy is wrong, then in some sense you are asking that the following diagram commute:

or commute up to some weaker notion than actual isomorphism, or whatever, for just actions and just statements. This is a kind of coherence condition on one's object-beliefs and meta-beliefs.

Now, to be clear, I don't feel that rationalists are particularly concerned with the concept of hypocrisy, at least not more so than any other group. But most people are somewhat concerned with hypocrisy. So my point is that I feel I am far less inclined towards interest in meta-coherence than the average person, whereas rationalists are often far more inclined towards it. Thus ideas like "finding your own utility function in order to maximize it", which I've encountered in rationalist spaces, and which seem to rely on the assumption (or imposition) of certain coherence conditions between certain object-level and meta-level preferences that one has.

And, anyway, it seems to me that the object level is very often a mess of random bullshit, and so demanding these kinds of coherence conditions is something of a big ask. This means that if you want a pretty looking meta-level, you often have to bite the bullet on a lot of object-level propositions, hence the heavily "bullet-biting" character that a lot of rationalist discourse seems to take relative to normie discourse.

I, on the other hand, am much more willing to bite the bullet on having nice looking meta-views. I don't think my meta-views satisfy any good coherence conditions, really. This is a less obvious form of bullet-biting, but I've always noticed it at least somewhat when talking to others, and I've noticed it especially strongly when talking to rationalists. Thus I think the characterization that I've received from a few people on here, that my ethical views seem to be (in so many words) made entirely of a big list of a priori carve-outs. Of course they aren't, I have various more universal convictions, but when it comes down to it I will much more rarely privilege one of these universal convictions over a considered intuition to the contrary on the object level.

Cf. this post about eating dog meat for some views of mine that might initially seem contradictory (or at least opposite-valence) to the ones I've sketched here, but which I don't think really are. Uh in fact I think that perhaps they're only contradictory if you impose the exact kind of coherence conditions I am saying here that I don't care about. But I'm not sure.

[milfygerard]

If she let me sit with the main ttpd project (fortnight to clara bow) for a month or three maybe I would like it more. I love piano led music and was fond of the artistry and storytelling of folklore and evermore and thus prefer that half slightly more. I get the urgency and the need to subvert and match expectations but ttpdta was simply too much all at once. I hope she shows more restraint on her next project, whenever that comes and I am in no rush. Still catching up with ttpdta.

Yeah, adding the anthology at the end made TTPD by itself feel almost incomplete as a project which sucks because I really dont think it is. The album is big and messy but I wouldnt call it incomplete in any way, it exists in its universe and that universe is so removed from the anthology, the mindsets and the artistic decisions (instrumentally and lyrically) are very different even if they have the same packaging and function well as a double album. Honestly, I think TA deserved better packaging and promotion wise, because making it quite literally TTPD part 2 does a disservice to both albums.

Compare the anthology to evermore, which in many ways functions as a continuation of what folklore started. Evermore is aesthetically very close to folklore, but the packaging (no longer in black and white, very warm and woodsy colors, the almost opposite framing of taylor in the shot) and the music video (much more world and character focused, leaning more into this fleshed out world of the imaginary compared to the more abstract and general imagery of cardigan) leads us through the albums differences. Evermore is even further from pop than folklore, wading fully into folk and the alt/indie sounds that were introduced on folklore, removing the songs even more from taylors personal life, pulling more visual detail and fully realized dynamics from far more characters throughout. The albums are structured similarly and touch on a lot of connected themes and ideas, but evermore stands on its own as well as in a ser because of how taylor was able to distinguish it as different via its visuals, and the anthology just didnt get that.

putting this under a readmore but heres my very disorganized thoughts on what the anthology couldve done

I think where TTPD leans into the idea of the poet and the performer, the anthology could lean into the idea of the author or the professor. I don't think it needs to vary wildly from TTPD, just like how evermore didnt have to vary wildly from folklore. Im picturing something that leans harder into the library or professor side of the TTPD visuals, a little older and more yellowed, maybe a little darker than the stark black white and greys of TTPDs. TTPD is pure melodrama, arch and exaggerated and very raw, which contrast with the albums presentation as a sort of legal case. For the anthology I think it should feel less professional in its aesthetics, but in exchange more reserved in its photoshoot choices. These pics from the TTPD photoshoot speak more to this.

These are more organic photos in some ways, but they also feel reserved and even mysterious. We get very little from her expression

while for TTPD the photos that fit best for me were the more raw and "chaotic"/messy ones, especially ones where shes extremely expressive

Now I'll say I actually do like the covers I've seen for the anthology. They already cover some points on what I was hoping for.

The choice to use the black dog cover (though the photo for it is all TTPD, the MOST emotions) was smart, as well as the subtle change to the formatting of the photo to separate it from the business card - esque look of TTPD that contrasts with the intimacy of taylor in bed, curled up in sexy sadness, both posing and being completely honest and vulnerable.

for the general imagery, the visuals from the TTPD pop up are I think whats coming to mind, as they aren't really the imagery that came to life for TTPD in the lyrics or the tour (I think for the better, the tour imagery connects really well both for each song individually and as a cohesive whole) and feel much more evocative of the writing and sound of the anthology

ok tumblr wont allow me to add more photos so im gonna wrap up this weird little ramble that im not sure makes any sense. I spent way too much time looking for the right photos and I dont think ive articulated myself very well but oh well

[gotta-bail-my-quails]

I would like to preface this post with an acknowledgement that I have blocked the user who originally posted this. The main reason is because nothing would convince them to change their mind (especially because they seem to be intent on "changing minds" but only if it is from a Pro-Palestine to Pro-Israel mindset). That being said, this post I'm making may seem superfluous—why make a response if I don't want the person to see it? Mostly, I want to warn others of the rhetoric used against support for Palestine and—as I will soon address���because these people dared to bring up a subject personal to me and I will not stand to let it to be appropriated for this purpose.

I will be addressing one main post and a few other arguments used against Palestinian resistance.

The main post was posted on Tumblr, and was a respost of a post from Reddit. It is in image form below, but I will add the text if asked in a reblog. My response summarizes the points I address. Also I'm going to have to add my full response in multiple reblogs due to character limits.

The arguments can be summarized as thus:

The methods Western leftists use are ineffective and/or immoral due to idealism and radical approaches. The suggested solution is to give funds to "the Israeli left" and supporting a "reasonable solution" meaning a two-state or one-state under Israel solution, with a "humanitarian end" with a "unilateral Hamas surrender"

Here, they compare the "dream scenario that will never happen" to the situation in Vietnam. I presume they mean the opposition to the war, while the government continued to bomb the country more than all of Europe in WWII combined despite knowing full well they would lose and that they do not mean to make an analogy using the war as a whole. If they had, then I would like to make a snide comment here about the North winning despite the South having the US's support, but I will refrain. More than that, I would relate this to a later argument the poster makes about the "destabilization of Western democracy". Considering the poster is American, I will address this within a US context (although we should really explore the ways other Western countries are acting). This is a reflection of the failure of the power structures within the US as a whole, and not the ineffectiveness of the protests. The war in Vietnam was vastly unpopular but the executive department has historically used presidential power to push war—evidenced by the war power acts previously and Biden forcing through funding for the conflict now. The US is a republic, not a true democracy, and it is self-evident that the same reason the poster claim protests don't work invalidates their claims of an otherwise functioning Western democracy. I would go so far as to suggest revolution is being implied, but the poster evidently thinks resistance is hardly reasonable.

I am curious as to how the poster thinks positive changes have occurred, if they consider boycotts and the like are ineffective (they only say "it doesn't take a lot of thought" to see their point, but it seems to me they are avoiding the issue under the excuse of "common sense" and "brevity"). Most Americans (and most in general) do not have a direct hand in the government—California excepted, perhaps, given the proposition system—so, we turn to utilizing economic power and force. Unions, for one, have earned better treatment for workers for decades (remember the recent SAG-AFTRA strikes?) through the threat of withholding labor and therefore profits. After all, our world is one based heavily in economic-morality (which I am currently writing a separate essay on and which we may point to the response to Yemen right now).

1/5

[thoughtportal]

How to install and use IrfanView in Linux - Tutorial

How to install and use IrfanView in Linux - Tutorial

Updated: May 30, 2022

My Windows to Linux migration saga continues. We're still a long way off from finishing it, but it has begun, and I've also outlined a basic list of different programs I will need to try and test in Linux, to make sure when the final switch cometh that I have the required functionality. You can find a fresh bouquet of detailed tutorials on how to get SketchUp, Kerkythea, KompoZer, as well as Notepad++ running in Linux, all of them using WINE and successfully too, in my Linux category.

Today, my focus will be on IrfanView, a small, elegant image viewer for Windows, which I've been using with delight for decades now. It's got everything one needs, and often more than the competitors, hence this bold foray of using it in Linux despite the fact there are tons of native programs available. But let's proceed slowly and not get too far ahead of ourselves. After me.

As I said, it's majestic. A tiny program that does everything. It's fast and extremely efficient. When I posted my software checklist article, a lot of Linux folks said, well, you should try XnView instead. And I did, honest, several times, including just recently, which we will talk about in a separate article, but the endeavor reminded me of why I'd chosen IrfanView all those years back. And those reasons remain.

Then, I did play with pretty much every Linux image viewer out there. None is as good as IrfanView. It comes down to small but important things. For instance, in IrfanView, S will save a file, O will trigger the open dialog. Esc quits the program. Very fast. Most other programs use Ctrl + or Shift + modifiers, and that simply means more actions. I did once try to make GwenView use the full range of Irfan's shortcuts, but then I hit a problem of an ambiguous shortcut, wut. I really don't like the fact that hitting Esc takes you to a thumbnail overview mode. But that's what most programs do.

WINE configuration

The first step is to have WINE installed on your system. I am going to use the exact same method outlined in the SketchUp Make 2017 tutorial. I have the WINE repositories added, and I installed the 6.X branch on my system (at the time of writing).

IrfanView installation

Download the desired 32/64-bit version of the program and then install it. The process should be fast and straightforward. You will be asked to make file type association. You can do this, or simply skip the step, because it doesn't make any difference. You need to associate IrfanView as the default image viewer, if this is your choice, through your distros' file type management utility, whatever it may be.

And the program now works! In Plasma, on top of that, you can also easily pin the icon to the task manager.

Plugins and existing configuration(s)

Much like with Notepad++, you can import your existing workspace from a Windows machine. You can copy plugins into the plugins folder, and the IrfanView INI files into the AppData/Roaming folder. If you don't have any plugins, but you'd like to use some, then you will need to download the IrfanView plugins bundle, extract it, and then selectively, manually copy the plugins into the WINE installation folder. For instance, for the 64-bit version of the program, this is the path:

~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/IrfanView/Plugins

As a crude example, you may want to make IrfanView be able to open WebP files. In that case, you will need to copy the WebP.dll file into the folder above, and relaunch the program. Or you can copy the entire set of IrfanView plugins. Your choice, of course.

Conclusion

And thus, IrfanView is now part of our growing awesome collection of dependable tools that will make the Windows to Linux migration easier. I am quite sure the Linux purists will be angry by this article, as well as the other tutorials. But the real solution is to develop programs with equivalent if not superior functionality, and then, there will be no reason for any WINE hacks.

If you're an IrfanView user, and you're pondering a move to Linux, then you should be happy with this guide. It shows how to get the program running, and even import old settings and plugins. I've been using IrfanView in Linux for many years, and there have been no problems. That doesn't say anything about the future, of course, but then, if you look at what Windows was 10 years ago, and what it is now, it doesn't really matter. Well, that's the end of our mini-project for today. See you around. More tutorials on the way!

Cheers.

[panjunli]

What accompanies you to your next life?

Here’s an article for this quarter:

Source:

https://www.ctworld.org.tw/sutra_stories/story1001-1200/story1167.htm

An Analogy of Four Wives

There was once when the Buddha was giving a sermon in Jetavana Monastery in Shravasti. He told the monks, “Humans have four areas of attachment. The degree to which we are drawn to them may range from light to heavy, but once the seed of desire sets in, we stray far from enlightenment.”

He follows up with an analogy: “Let’s say a man has four wives. He places the greatest amount of favor and importance upon his first wife, always keeping her by his side whether he is traveling, sitting down or lying down. From the provision of refreshing showers, comfortable clothes, delectable dishes, tasty beverages and other sensory delights, she is accorded top priority. He takes great care in catering to her every need, be it mitigating the effects of cold winters, hot summers, hunger or thirst. He gives in to her every whim, never allowing a quarrel to occur between them.

He also keeps his second wife as a frequent companion in his daily life. He was ecstatic when he won her hand in marriage. And prior to that, he was severely vexed when he could not see her, to the point where he visibly aged and fell ill with worry. Sometimes, he would land himself in trials of arbitration while competing for her attention with his rivals.

He occasionally meets his third wife, exchanging inquiries regarding each other’s well-being. But if beset by poverty, they would hate the sight of each other. However, after periods of separation, they would miss each other again.

His fourth wife functions as a slave at his beck and call. Kept busy with various household chores, she is capable of handling the most difficult of tasks. But her husband does not inquire about her well-being, and does not show the slightest amount of care or concern for her.

One day, this man knew his life was to about to end. Thinking of his impending demise, he summoned his first wife, and said, “You should accompany me to the afterlife.” But she replied, “I’m unwilling to accompany you.” To which he argued, “But I’ve doted on you the most, acceding to your smallest whim. I’ve supplied you with whatever you needed. I’ve loved you, cared for you, and fulfilled your every wish. Why won’t you leave with me?” But she insisted, “Although you’ve doted on me, I still won’t leave with you.” Her reply made the man leave with indignation.

The man summoned his second wife, and said, “You should accompany me to the afterlife.” But she replied, “Just as your first wife who is your favorite, I shan’t leave with you.” To which he argued, “Before I managed to win your hand in marriage, I had to endure unspeakable hardships such as harsh winters, sweltering summers, hunger, thirst, floods, fires, trials of arbitration, bandit attacks and fierce competition with my rivals. Why won’t you leave with me?” But she asserted, “It was you who bore desire and insisted on courting me. I didn’t ask for your courtship, so why are you recounting the troubles you had gone through?” Again, the man left in a huff.

The man summoned his third wife, and said, “You should accompany me to the afterlife.” But she replied, “To repay the debt of gratitude that I’ve taken on, I shall accompany your funeral procession to the gates of the city, but I shan’t travel far to your final resting place.” Once more, the man stomped off with resentment.

Finally, the man summoned his fourth wife, and said, “I’m not long for this world, so accompany me to the next.” And she replied, “I left my parents and arrived at your home, so that I may attend to your beck and call. I will accompany you, whether in life, death, bitterness or joy.” So in the end, the man could not get his first three wives whom he favored to accompany him to the afterlife. Instead, only his fourth wife, who was ugly and was thus neglected, chose to do so.”

The Buddha continued his sermon, “In the analogy I’ve used, the man depicts a person’s consciousness, while his first wife depicts a person’s body. We humans cherish and protect our bodies in a manner which exceeds the way in which the man loves his first wife. When a person’s life ends, the soul departs with positive and negative karmic imprints, leaving the body to become a rigid shell which can only lie on the floor and does not follow them. O monks! If you do not observe the Four Noble Truths, then you cannot attainment enlightenment. What are they? Knowing the truth of suffering, knowing the truth of the cause of suffering, knowing the truth of the end of suffering, and knowing the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. If you want to be liberated from suffering, you should practise the Eightfold Paths (For further reading: https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism/eightfold-path/) and see the Four Noble Truths for yourself.

The second wife depicts a person’s wealth. When we obtain it, we feel elated, but if we cannot obtain it, we are vexed. When one’s life ends, one’s wealth remains on this earth and does not follow them. The third wife depicts immediate family members such as parents, spouses, children and siblings, and close acquaintances such as friends and even servants. While one is still alive, they may display a lot of affection and longing towards their family members and friends. But once one’s life ends, their family members and friends may at the most accompany the funeral procession to the cemetery where they would leave the deceased and return to their homes. Their remembrance for the departed would not last more than ten days, following which they would eat and drink to their hearts’ content and forget about why they were crying in the first place. The fourth wife depicts a person’s mentality. There are only but a few in this world who can cherish and protect a clear sanctity of thought. Most tend to let their desires take charge, letting greed, anger and ignorance grow, and not believing in the right path. And as such, when their lives end, they end up in the Three Evil Realms of Hell, Animals and Hungry Ghosts. These are karmic results of letting their desires run wild.

A self-cultivator should maintain an upright state of mind, forsaking ignorance and evil, and desist from acts of ignorance and evil. A path devoid of evil acts would also be devoid of negative karmic repercussions, which would cut the endless cycle of rebirths among the different realms. Without rebirths, we would not be subject to the subsequent stages of aging, illness and death. That is how we shall break free from Samsara and attain nirvana.”

At the end of the sermon, the monks were filled with joy and resolved to follow His teachings.

Taken from the Samyukta Agama

Reflection:

An ancient sage once said, “When death comes, you cannot take any of your worldly possessions with you. What does follow you is your karmic imprint.” Using an analogy of a man and his four wives, the Buddha has used the differing degrees of affection between them to illustrate the attitudes displayed by humans towards their bodies, wealth, loved ones and mentality. While alive, we tend to chase after what we crave with a fervent desire. But once our lives end, we cannot take what material gains we have obtained with us. Yet as a result of our actions, our souls bear karmic imprints which then affect our respective venues of rebirth. So the Buddha was encouraging us to maintain an upright state of mind, forsake ignorance and evil, and follow the Eightfold Path. Only by experiencing the Four Noble Truths for ourselves can we go against the flow of Samsara and attain nirvana.

[linmelon3o]

A note to anyone who has made it down here

To whoever finds this note,

We are the explorers from a world called Craft and if you are reading this, we are all most likely trapped inside a different pocket dimension and are not able to leave or dead. Allow me to explain. You see, after our world collapsed, the people of Craft were scattered across the universe and lost in a constant search for each other. Our one small group has managed to find twenty five of our hermits (as we like to call our group members) thus far, although some have gone their separate ways in the vast unknown in hopes of finding others. The worlds we find to inhabit are never sustainable enough for living so, we have to continue moving, changing, and adapting. I have suspected that for a long while a mysterious force has been chasing us out each time in search of something. Chasing me again to erase my past memories. I don’t know how I know, but I can feel them, sense them in a way. The red-stone technicians don’t seem worried though, so it should be ok. They are the professionals. My job is simply to build magnificent structures. We build different bases, change up how they look to keep us occupied, and sometimes we almost forget that it’s too good to last. After all, we have gotten used to moving after X (our leader) senses the worlds when they begin to decay. Everything has always changed and moved too fast for our comfort (at least mine). I have only been a member in this group since my friend Mumbo found me crash landed on world six (although that was almost six years ago). But even I know that some unusual activities have started to mess with the decay and function of the worlds. The air had always felt stranger after our eighth world exploded as a result of the moon crashing into it. The most unexpected activity however, happened on our ninth world a few weeks ago. It was a portal that seemingly lead to nowhere at first that appeared in the cave underneath my base. Could this be a sign? Will we get new answers? Well, dear reader that you will have to wait and see. I have given out compasses to my friends and I have ignored my inner desperate longings to press the ever so tempting button sitting only a few inches away from me as I write. And now I am ready to find the answers. If you are reading this letter right now

DONT GO INTO THE PORTAL

-G