#explaining serial experiments lain

[nmwyaeiac]

Explaining Serial Experiments Lain.

The show opens with Lain's classmate, Chisa, committing suicide at the urging of Masami Eiri.

Eiri had previously been an engineer on the technology foundational to the Wired, and he included special code to integrate his personality and memories into the network. This gave him unrestricted access to everything on the network. He set himself up as a god of the Wired, and conscripted the hacker group known as the Knights to serve him. His physical body committed suicide.

His goal, using the Knights as his tools, is to merge the Wired with the real world. Lain is the lynchpin to this plan, and he needs her to abandon her body and transfer her consciousness to the Wired (just as he and Chisa did) to accomplish this.

This raises the question of just what Lain is and why she's so essential. I don't know an easy way to describe this, and this ambiguity is pretty much the heart of the show. I'll give my thoughts at the bottom of this post, but let's just get back to the plot and remember that Eiri needs Lain to commit suicide.

He manipulates Chisa, one of Lain's classmates, into going first so she will urge Lain to join her. This event awakens Lain's interest in computers.

The Knights, partially on behalf of Eiri and partially for their own motivations, create a virtual duplicate/aspect of Lain and use it as a tool for furthering their goals of pushing the Wired into the real world. This duplicate is a feared hacker on the Wired and has at least some capacity to alter memories.

We also have keep in mind that "altering memories" is, in terms of Lain's setting, the same thing as altering reality itself. Whatever people remember to have happened is what actually happened. When Lain or the Knights do something impossible, what they're doing is probably better understood as altering human memories and perception to make that impossible thing happen. (It seems likely to me that the more Lain is reliant on the Wired, the more of this power the Knights have access to through the Lain duplicates.)

The Knights use this ability to perform strange pranks, such as creating a godlike image of Lain in the sky and merging data from the real world and several online games. Some of this is to forward their plan of raising consciousness of the Wired as something just as real as the offline world. This is something they see as philosophically true and, with Lain's help, literally true.

Opposing the Knights are the operatives of Tachibana Labs. These are Eiri's former employers and they continue to maintain the code running the Wired. They are aware of Eiri's scheme and would prefer if it were neutered. They are working to remove Eiri's code from the Wired, and the Men in Black keep Lain under observation. Eventually the Men in Black execute all the members of the Knights, but are betrayed by their employer, who seems to have wanted the Knights removed but is interested in the potential of Eiri's long-term goals.

Eiri has the same basic goal as the Knights, merging the Wired and the real world, but is more focused on Lain. He wants to impress upon Lain that she can rewrite memories/reality because people and their memories are constructs of data, just like the data on the Wired. The Wired is no different from the real world, except that the real world is a place where she suffers from loneliness and isolation, and the Wired is a place of friendship and power.

After introducing Lain to her potential, he strikes the biggest blow: He tries to get Alice to turn on Lain. Alice is the closest thing Lain has to a friend in the real world, and is likely the only person Lain truly cares about.

The Lain duplicate spreads personal rumors about Alice having a relationship with a teacher at their school. (These rumors are untrue, but they're particularly hurtful because Alice does have a serious crush on this teacher. I think later he's shown in a relationship with her when she's an adult.)

When the Lain duplicate's interference is revealed, Alice believes Lain has betrayed her trust and Lain is emotionally devastated. She awakens her latent potential to rewrite memories, and causes everyone to forget about the harmful rumors. Except Alice.

Alice quickly realizes something is wrong. She goes to Lain's house to confront her about the confusing situation, and discovers that Lain has been living in a horrible state. Her physical body has been completely neglected and her home has turned to ruin. (Lain's parents were revealed to be actors, hired either by Eiri or Tachibana Labs to care for her temporarily.) All this shows that Lain has grown to accept Eiri's philosophy: The physical form is meaningless.

At the last moment before Eiri's influence becomes complete and Lain transfers herself to the Wired (likely by committing suicide) Alice appears and manages to convince Lain otherwise. Their relationship has special meaning in their physical bodies, in a way they cannot explain but has sufficient value for Lain to reject Eiri's influence. She even points out that what Eiri is doing is likely something beyond his innate capacity - there must be someone behind Eiri, masterminding this plot without ever being recognized. There's been a true God behind this all along.

Enraged, Eiri manifests the power he has in the real world and attacks. He is quickly defeated by Lain, but the encounter puts Alice in a state of extreme shock. Lain is once again driven to protect Alice, and uses her power to rewrite memory/reality and erase herself from having ever existed. Alice, Eiri and all the others now live in a world where Lain never was.

Finally, Lain ponders what her existence is without anyone to perceive her. She loses all sense of identity and self, until she is saved by another power in the form of her (not actual) father. (This is the very end of the show and is left ambiguous, but this is likely supposed to be God. God also inspired Eiri to insert his consciousness in the Wired and God is capable of perceiving Lain, and thus ensuring her identity and existence, even when no one else can.)

In the last scenes, Lain says good-bye to Alice and the viewers, having accepted her role at God's side.

Okay. So let's go back. What is Lain?

My understanding is that she is basically a collective representation of the humanity. Just as the human mind is a manifestation of billions of neurons, all connected and exchanging information, Lain is the manifestation of billions of humans being connected and exchanging information. With the invention of the Wired, she was awakened. The Wired is a metaphorical brain for her, a literal network between humans.

Eiri identified her existence on the Wired and gave her a true physical body. (No idea how he did this. This is not explained at all. Cloning seems unlikely, perhaps he simply willed her into existence by altering everyone's memories? Personally, I believe her real-world body is related to the KIDS experiment.)

Lain always existed, since she is the collective sum of humanity. This idea can be understood as similar to the collective unconscious. Eiri took this abstract entity and gave it a physical form so he could manipulate it. (This was probably prompted by God, not just his own initiative.)

Since she is made of the human mind, her ability to alter memories is completely explained. She can change the minds of others the same way you or I would move our fingers.

[djnusagi]

can’t believe there’s straight guys walking around who think sex begins and ends at penetration and oral. they will never know the boundless eroticism of simple touch, they don’t even know about frotting, they will never know what it’s like to be spooning fully clothed with another woman and then she asks you to explain serial experiments lain and by the time you start explaining the knights she’s dry humping you harder than you’ve ever been fucked and she put you in a headlock and she just grows more and more in intensity like she’s become fully fucking feral and before you can even mention the psx game you’ve came twice in your one size too big black women’s high waisted skinny jeans from Walmart

[greyvear]

The Kurenai Family's Holiday Card Explained by an Expert

Shu Kurenai: That strange white-haired man with bags under his eyes in the center. The dad. The exhausted one. Instead of going to therapy to help deal with the ole' getting experimented on and subsequently possessed decided to adopt nineteen hundred kids.

Valt Aoi: Is he dating Shu? Is he friends with Shu? Are he and Shu going to take down a cult together? Who knows! Certainly not Valt or Shu. Is only on the card because he accidentally photo bombed in the background while trying to sneak pasta and latkes out of the fridge.

Spryzen: The glowing yellow-eyed spirit hovering directly above Shu's shoulder. Likes to think of themself as the popular uncle. Tries to say wise things and unintentionally gives more knowledge of the universe than mortal minds can handle. Unclear if it lives in Shu's soul or the attic.

Boa Alcazaba: The brown-haired boy who seems consistently to be staring off into the middle distance and holding a skateboard tightly. In many ways, he is less of a son and more Shu's younger brother that Shu was forced to take care of once their dad abandoned them in the middle of the jungle. When did he start skateboarding? Who knows! Says things like "Back in my day" to Fubuki despite only being one year older.

Fubuki Sumie: Shu's oldest son and the black sheep of the family in that he did not get possessed or go on a, to quote another "Metaphysical serial killing spree". Is a very responsible creature, does all his homework on time, is very glad people have finally stopped saying he has banana hair. No one is quite sure where he sleeps. Shu, like, gave him a room in the house. But he never seems to use the bed and always shows up to breakfast wet.

Suoh Genji: The one lying on the floor with one arm propping up their head. Fubuki's annoying pet cat childhood best friend. Shows up to sit on the couch and insult the flower-print wallpaper. Says they should have been adopted and not Fubuki since they actually got possessed.

Delta Zakuro: That green-haired kid Shu has a hand on the jacket of. A lot of people think the feral one of the family is Lain. In reality, it's Shu's second oldest. More like a cousin than a son. Still lives here when he's not "running away" to go blade with the Victories. No one is sure why he has to escape through the attic and run across the rooftops to leave when he could just walk out the front door. Has been asked if Spryzen or possibly Fubuki sleeps in the attic, though. Has bitten people at least five times in the last two months.

Lain Valhalla: Has real middle child energy. Is the one with the yellow eyes that don't blink staring directly at the camera. Used to be the problem child, still carries that reputation, consistently reminds people that Shu was worse than him. There is a running bet to see how many times he smiles in a day, the winner doesn't have to clear their plate at dinner. The winner is always Fubuki's annoying pet cat.

Harry the Hedgehog: Harry the Hedgehog, enough said.

Bashara Suiro: You know how Lain has middle child energy? Bashara has "anxious gifted kid who really needs Xanax" energy. Surprisingly good at art and only getting slightly possessed. Bonds with Boa over having the exact same bey. Said bey likes to make flower crowns for Bashara and come up with new skateboarding tricks for Boa.

Pri Forscythe: The green-haired girl, the only one going to therapy. It was Valt's idea, hoping it would send the rest of the Kurenais to find a doctor. This did not work, but at least the youngest child is working some stuff out. In general, well behaved aside from the three days a week that she and Zac the Sunrise have bonding time. This bonding time is putting on "disguises" and running wild around town.

Xander Shakedera: Shu's childhood best friend, tragically not featured on the card because someone didn't invite him to the photoshoot. The wonderful explainer of the Kurenai's for fun and profit!

A/N: Xander was invited to the photoshoot. He just happened to be training on a mountain when it occurred and completely forgot he needed to be present.

[does-it-like-women]

serial experiments lain

Serial Experiments Lain (Anime, 1998)

Explain your reasoning in the tags!

[honey-milk-depresso]

Batboys watching anime with reader

You know my ass went FULL ON LOCK MODE with Tim. I went crazy- 💀

***S/o is above 18, which means characters below are also aged up!

Doing requests until 1 Feb! Please see my pinned post and read the request rules on the navi! Thank you!🩷

Batbros watching anime with you

Dick Grayson

He’s watched a few 90s anime before, more the basic ones like One Piece and Pokémon, and he probably still watches them to this day. Boy has old CDs he has and you should probably try finding a Blue Ray (or use his if he can have Tim help fix it because it’s good as dead 💀) because he’s popping in every CD of old anime’s he have lying about.

“Wow, I didn’t know I had cowboy bebop! Or Slam Dunk!” He got a few rare gems, which makes it all the more fun to sit down on the couch under a blanket as you huddle and watch the nostalgic 90s anime shows together while eating popcorn.

He doesn’t mind watching new, modern day animes, just be prepared for when you two watch sad anime shows because he will sob like it’s the end of the world.

“NO, WHY WOULD KAORI DIE LIKE THIS?? AND SHE LOVES ARIMA- OH MY GOD IM SO—”sobs even more. He gets emotional while watching them because it’s so sad that it’s sO GOOD-

Loves dancing to those danceable anime music with you. He goes ALL. OUT. He even sings all of it in Japanese like wow-

I would love to hear him sing Cruel Angel’s Thesis in his Discowing suit and with goth makeup on it because it “sets the mood”, PLEASE-

Overall, great time watching with Dick. <3

Jason Todd

You expect someone like him to like Chainsaw Man, Trigun or something like those grunge-y, guns and knives animes, right? I mean, he does, but only with you and ONLY with you will he let his inner Magical Girl enthusiast ass shine. Because he LOVES Magical Girl animes. That’s probably the reason and one point of time why he wore red ribbons around his arms, he wanted that Sailor Moon experience and Tim might’ve just teased him about that era without knowing his love for Magical Girl animes and Jason might’ve flipped and freaked the fuck out and started chasing him down the manor.

Jason watches Sailor Moon, Madoka when he feels edgier than usual, Cardcaptor Sakura, every Precure series, Tokyo Mew Mew, man has all these shows somehow. He swears they weren’t through illegal means and he just worked very hard to gather all of them. He also might be a shoujo anime fan because if he loves Jane Austen books, you bet his ass would be reading Fruits Basket, Maid Sama or something because of course he would.

Also a Studio Ghibli fan, although watching the Tale of Princess Kaguya might make him feel too much, especially getting pissed off with the dad who forces his daughter into a wealthy life without her input and- yeah, you gotta calm him down as he cries bitterly and sourly with a pout on his face.

The two of you can go on and on about debating about unclear endings of animes all day long. You know the “AND SHE WAS A PRINCESS” video? That’s Jason.

Great man to watch anime with, and he’ll gladly be your Tuxedo Mask to your Sailor Moon (and not the “But you did nothing meme- or the other way around- he don’t mind being the Usagi-). <3

Tim Drake

I’m very convinced this man got into his whole detective shit because he watched Detective Conan and honestly I can’t blame him. Tim has probably the largest vessel of anime knowledge out of all of them. He doesn’t really have a specific genre he likes but he’s pretty fond of old 90s and 80s animes. He can explain the whole lore of One Piece, Fairytale, Pokémon like Jesus Tim, calm down- 💀

I can see him watching Neon Genesis Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain or Key the Metal Doll because he likes that little bit of horror nature and mystery and thriller in his animes although he really doesn’t mind watching Haikyuu all over again if you want to.

Might introduce you to underrated and/or old animes like Revolutionary Girl Utena, Nadia the Secrets of Blue Water, every Studio Ghibli movie, those kinds of animes that give off the really pretty and aesthetic old anime animations that is just so pretty to watch and with really good storylines that both of you can cuddle on a couch together and watch. I bet he even watches anime with you even before you two got together, so you guys pretty much have “watching anime together” as part of the foundation of your relationship. Owns so much manga that you can’t even count, too.

Just… don’t make him watch those really slow burn, comedy love animes, specifically Love War. Not that he don’t like romance animes, he watches Ouran High School Host Club and Your Name, trust me, but Love War? He is going absolutely insane because of it.

“OH MY GOD- PLEASE JUST KISS ALREADY. ME AND S/O ARE ALREADY TOGETHER FIVE MONTHS AGO ANF YOU TWO ARE STILL TOO PROUD TO ADMIT YOU LOVE EACH OTHER WHILE BLUSHING- JUST KISS ALREADY-” <3

Damian Wayne

Damian likes anime. Would 100% go to an anime convention with you as a date if you’re up for it. He doesn’t mind (surprisingly- just for you only-).

He doesn’t necessarily like showmen animes although he has enjoyed a few, but he really loves slice of life, I feel. It just feels like he wants to put himself in a normal life and with a tad bit of drama in it like what the characters go through. The touching ones like Hyouka or Natsume’s Book of Friends.

Also animal related anime maybe except Beastars because he didn’t understand shit-?? He calls that peak anime. Aggretsuko, Chi’s Sweet Home and My Roommate is a Cat?? Damian loves this shit, he watches it intently with his arm around you. Even if he doesn’t smile, you know he loves it by the way his eyes sparkle.

Just don’t tell his brothers. He will seriously feel betrayed if you do so because he only watches these kinds of shows with you: the cute animal ones that are actually wholesome and/or funny.

The whole family is into Studio Ghibli, and he is no exception. He feels like it’s the best kinds of anime to watch with you when you guys just want to turn in for the day and huddle up on the couch. It’s one of the rare times he relaxes and softens and he’s glad to have quality time with you. <3

Duke Thomas

He likes anime! Studio Ghibli is definitely a favourite of his and he would gladly watch it together with you! He also love a fair bit of Shounen animes, the more popular ones like Jujutsu Kaisen, One Piece, Haikyuu, or Spy x Family. He likes them a lot!

A big fan of romance animes too: Ouran High School Host Club and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (if you two are in the mood to huddle on the couch together and cry).

Duke doesn’t mind any kind of anime so long as it doesn’t have too much horror or gore like… Higurashi. He gets chills when that anime is mentioned. D-Don’t watch it for your own sake if you don’t know. And if you do, avoid it with him at all cost because he will.

Duke also like singing some good anime songs with you and you guys can go crazy and dance around, just not as dramatic as Dick.

He would be super excited to spend a date with you watching shounen anime movies like from Jujutsu Kaisen and he would be so hype to spend time with you being a fanboy while also sharing that romantic air for the shared love of anime between you two and the love that you two share, although that love is far stronger. <3

Reblogs help! ^^

[thehelltingvilleclub]

May Osewai - Crippling Case of the Cringe

you better hope to god she isn't actually sadako, because she will judge you on your search history on her way through your browser--

Mayumi “May” Osewai [09/09/81] Secretary of Manga AOL / Online Users : [sadako_chan] Theme Songs: Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie | She’s Out of Her Mind - blink-182 | FUNERAL GREY - Waterparks

Favorite Shit: Anime Adaptations, Visual novels, Horror / Gore, Battle Royale(s), Monster Movies, Slasher Flicks, Acrylic Stands, Hard Covers, Asian horror, Foreign Films, Evangelion : Neon Genesis, Ghost in the Shell, Corpse Party, Torrent Sites, The X-Men, Spawn, Teen Titans, Accurate Translations, Uncensored Doujins, Silent Hill, Serial Experiments : Lain

Dude get this girl a therapist and someone other than a rabid werewolf for a brain-worm weird fluttery thought friend GUEHAKL. please. please. With literally no other friends and no longer in an environment surrounded by.. "peers", she kind of has no choice but to keep putting up with Bill despite how much of a creep he gets sometimes. They're like a family.. A horrifically disfunctional family that should maybe only meet every other christmas, and yet they're glued together despite it all. It has to be karma punishing them, right?

We are the weirdos, Mister.

This poor girl has a really bad anxiety problem and is also horrifically oblivious to a lot of things which is not a good combo. She hates the thought of missing something or making someone upset by having to make them explain, but good god she cannot read a room sometimes--

She also maybe most definitely has autism. that might have something to do with it..

She masks well enough that she genuinely just thought she was "weird" and just kinda accepted it when she moved to the states. She didn't even start to think about it until Jerry started bringing up the shit he learned in therapy.

She honestly is just kinda.. Blunt? good or bad, though she does have enough forethought to keep the bad thoughts to herself most of the time. It's more in a quiet "wait, what did she just say?" kind of way.

She struggles to express actual internal monologue, her actual emotions and thoughts on the boys, but she shows it in.. other ways.

She genuinely cares about the boys, yes even bill, though he's like.. Like if Jane and Bill were closer in age and Bill actually wouldn't leave her the FUCK alone.

Though it's not like Pete's any better-- he always so weirdly macho and it's... kinda funny? Weirdly endearing? Like a little terrier going going absolutely ballistic on the screen door. Heh. cute.

May has designed entire pokemon decks and trainer teams for the boys. They'll get posted eventually I promise vuv

She absolutely tries to play card games with Jerry and Matt, though she really only likes the play Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, but she'll happily watch the two smears duke it out.

its kinda funny seeing Matt lose every once in a while.

May and Josh argue about Evangelion ALL THE TIME and it's honestly annoying but it's also very funny to see Josh get flashbacks about asuka--

She is also one of the first people Josh goes to to hang out with, even if it's just over a phone call.. well, at least for a while. He likes to talk, so she just kinda doodled mindlessly or painted her figures while listening.

... she could tell he needed it.

ALso girls omg she is still the clumsiest woman I have ever seen. She might need a new prescription like seriously.

May got a job at the local family video, so you bet your ASS Pete harasses her at work whenever he can sneak out of his own work duties. He's lucky he's cute...

She may be oblivious to some emotions, but she's not stupid.

She collects stuffed animals, but mostly pokemon plushies and assorted horror mascots. She is still really embarrassed about having them, but literally can't sleep if she doesn't have at least one like it's a problem--

She is also like icy cold. All the time. like she just pulled her hands out of the freezer. Pete uses this as an excuse to hold her hands because he's a fucking smear I swear to god he needs to grow some BALLS

ALSO HI CAN I TALK ABOUT HER SHIRT FOR LIKE 10 SECONDS ITs an indie japanese-canadian band called "Rotten Cherries" and it does rock covers of japanese pop music and even some remakes of songs by The Cranberries and Boa

THanks guYs

Also I enjoy the reference pic for her pajama shorts LMAO

GUYH Have May.

Also sorry for repeat info at the top, it's to keep with the formatting fhdsjkafinfdsajhfkdlsfhl

[ghostclout]

how do i explain to people i dont like serial experiments lain in a "breakcore, lets all love lain, rei ayanami smoking weed, wow she just like me fr, dont get attached to the internet kids" way. i like it in a "jesus fucking christ a piece of media has never impacted me more and i think has changed my mental health in both a good and bad way. and also i love the old internet aesthetic" way

[dumbgaycatthing]

About this dumb cat:

Haiii ya'll I finally decided to do a pinned post to explain more about who tf I am

My name is Raine and Im some nonbinary transfem punk thing from Ontario and Im also actually a cat

My pronouns are it/its for cool people and they/them for everyone else

Big nerd and T4T so my posts gonna be a complete mix of both horny posting and whatever RPG or show Im obsessed with that week

THAT MEANS MINORS DNI

Continued after the break for those who want more info on whatever the hell I am

Interests I'll probably be posting or rebloging about:

Being a fucking faggot

Anything T4T related

Comic books

Fallout

Vampire the Masquerade

Hermitcraft

Anime (such as Serial Experiments Lain)

Disco Elysium

Warframe

Punk anything really

Probably a lot of other stuff too so I'll add to it when I think of them

Birthday is 09/08/04

Photos of me will be tagged #the Raine

Dump cat thoughts will be tagged #kittyposting

Other people's photos will be tagged #cutuals

[paingoes]

G (gods) for apollo and kitty! Y (YA) and Z (zootopia) for paris delta and lorelai. what are their fursonas.

!!!

G. gods. What would your OC be the god of? If they were a demi-god, who would their divine parent be?

So Apollo and Lun actually are divinity. very, very minor divinity that has been diluted throughout the generations. but they do have a legitimate godly lineage, and are the only ones in the main cast who can claim that besides Kali. which explains the vampire thing and the sun/moon theming. they are descended from like. celestial gods. gods of heavenly bodies.

Kitty is a more interesting question. i can see it going two ways w her. the thing is i see the gods as being very anachronistic and existing within mythical times, so i can see her just being some kind of nondescript nature spirit and enjoying that. but the more characteristic and interesting answer is the techno-pagan route. she is so intertwined w technology that i can see her being a kind of web-based deity that appears on a bunch of random websites and cant be blocked. or as a sentient computer worm!!! have you seen serial experiments lain. neo-divinity kitty who only exists on the internet and through screens.

Y. YA. How would your OC fare in a popular YA franchise, like Hunger Games or Divergent? Would they buy into the system? Fight against it? What would their district/faction/house/etc. be?

hmm. i feel like generally speaking lorelai is most likely to be a protagonist in those kinds of stories whereas paris and delta are delegated to be villains by default. they're bad guys..... i don't think it would be too distinct from how they exist in canon basically, just w a narrative shift. paris is destined to be an edgy misunderstood villain aligned with the system and delta is destined to be a sort of faceless threat and agent of its will. lorelai would be rebel aligned and win them over with the power of love or friendship or something.

i dont know much about YA except for the hunger games. and in panem, paris and lorelai would likely be capital citizens and delta would likely be a district 4 victor like finnick. i can imagine this pretty clearly actually. theyre friends but theres always that underlying tension and condescension yknow.

Z. zootopia. What animal would your OC be if they were an anthropomorphic animal? Would your OC be a furry? What would their fursona be?

delta is an unspecified deep sea fish. he's...basically this already but i guess with more animalistic features? this would be his fursona as well. he is a furry by association because of kitty.

i think paris's fursona would likely be a wolfdog and lorelai's would likely be a fawn or a brown cow <3

[matsonkey]

found this and couldn't reblog so I'm reposting

image id:

first image: two-part meme of joey from friends. first part is a picture of him smiling at something out of frame, captioned "The hotel's free WiFi is really fast". second part is him staring wide eyed in horror, captioned "Your IP address starts with 172.16.42.x".

second image: lain from the anime "serial experiments lain" sitting in a chair in a dim room, in front of a glowing computer screen, and smiling at the camera. the text boxes in the image say:

Hey, guys. Lain Iwakura here to explain the joke.

You see, when a computer like your laptop or smartphone connects to wifi, the router assigns it a "local IP address" to distinguish it from other machines on the network.

Most routers use IPv4 for this, where an IP address is four numbers separated by periods. The first two or three numbers of your local IP address are usually the same for all machines on the LAN, and the most common schemas for local IP addresses are 192.168.0.x or 10.0.0.x. Those are just common defaults - they can be set to anything in the router's configuration.

The address schema 172.16.42.x is not a common default for a normal router. It is the default for a device called a "WiFi Pineapple", which is a hacking tool primarily intended for "pentesting", i.e. finding exploitable vulnerabilities in a computing or networking system. The WiFi Pineapple acts as a router from the perspective of the computers on the local network, but a malicious actor can use it to passively scan those computers for vulnerabilities, and can even spy on network traffic going through it. Thus, the joke is that the person in the hotel, finding that their local IP address is under 172.16.42.x., realizes to their horror that the hotel's LAN has been pwned by a (likely malicious) rogue access point, possibly causing their computer to be cracked and their sensitive information to be stolen by cybercriminals. In light of this breach, their panic is understandable! Always keep your software up to date and never connect to a suspicious or unsecured wifi network!

/end id

[supersuperdupersecretnerd]

So when Alice covers Lains ear before telling her what she's saying is wrong, she specifically only covers her right ear.

[IMAGE ID START A screenshot from the 12 episode of Serial Experiments Lain. It shows a girl in a red jacket holding out her hand to hold the head of the girl sitting in front of her; this latter girl is wearing a white dress and is connected to various wires. They are sitting on a bed with a window showing the sunset behind them. IMAGE ID END]

This is made more interesting when you take into context of why Lain has long hair on the right side of her face, which is explained in the psx game (basically Lain thinks doing so will block out her auditory hallucinations).

Light grey is Touko speaking and black is Lain speaking.

[IMAGE ID START A screenshot of white text on a black and grey background, which reads as follows (note names of the characters have been added for better clarity);

Touko: I wanted to ask last time, but why do have that kind of hairstyle?

Lain: It's weird?

Touko: No, it's great! You really look good that way. Is it a popular look at your school?

Lain: No. It's just my own style.

Touko: You mentioned that you want to be like other kids. Why do you have a unique look?

Lain: It comes from the right, and probably, that's why it goes out of the left. That's why...

IMAGE ID END]

Also due to this, I think this is why Eiri didn't refute what Alice said until she took her hand off of Lain's ear.

[uzi-x33]

the Truman show kinda reminds me of serial experiments lain I can’t explain why

[iantimony]

a very uncertain tuesday

listening

TWO new Jim Gordon Must Die episodes in the past few weeks !!!!! I am eating well.

gym music was Painted Paradise (Fleshbore) and their other album Embers Gathering which I don't think is on bandcamp. not my standard fare and I definitely can't pick out a song to be my favorite but it's good yelly gym music.

Redd & The Paper Flowers will be playing live near me at a nebulous date but I unforch won't be able to go. they're good! all singles so far, no full albums. reminds me of laufey so I found myself going to listen to her instead. favorite tracks: ljams, dipsomania. (dipsomania reminds me of the beatle's song "my guitar gently weeps", something about the chord progression maybe?)

reading

The Playlist Power Broker Who Makes or Breaks New Artists (Anne Steele): on one hand, I'm surprised her job hasn't been algorithm-ified yet. on the other, I feel like this kind of recommendation system works best when it's a close friend going "yo, check out this album, it's great". especially with the drama from last year with spotify's genre categories or lack thereof because they fired that one guy this feels a little like trying to come back from that? also lol didn't I just see a post about how spotify did something at the Trump inaugeration ...

Her dad, the 10,000 records he left behind and a viral lesson in grief (Janay Kingsberry): lots of articles about dead dads across my radar lately. this is a really sweet story.

watching

I'm watching Serial Experiments Lain again with my beloved boyfriend! my charlie day pepe sylvia moment was trying to explain the parallels to gnosticism I was seeing in the show to two different friends who had seen Lain and having them both go "??!" so I'm very excited to have that conversation with someone who DOES kind of know what gnosticism is already so I can be told whether or not I'm insane for seeing it

got my friends into Comrade Detective. gotta finish rewatching that with the boyf as well, and he suggested Death of Stalin after we watched the first ep together.

I've Been Keeping a Secret From You (Florian Gadsby): he is sooo meticulous.

Creating a Classical Tanto (Crossed Heart Forge): this dude is fucking insane. months of work to just lacquer the handle...

Making the Banana Knife (Bobby Duke Arts): I forgot about this guy! good to see that he's still making things though I do still find him slightly annoying! his setup also seems to have been significantly upgraded since I last watched so good for him

playing

more hades game, more dnd, doing session 0 for a blades in the dark game this weekend!

making

working on the fingerless gloves still! I have about a week to finish less than a dozen rows so I'm feeling good about that. early birthday present for my mom, gotta get a card for my grandma as well...

eating

Creamy Miso + Coconut Butter Beans from beloved mutal girlfriendsofthegalaxy - REALLY fucking good. maybe the coconut is a little too rich for me but it's sooo tasty. I added more liquid to make it more soupy but I do still have about half a can of coconut that I gotta figure out what to do with asap.

boyfriend made keema matar that I am just finishing tonight. really yummy over rice. this plus the bean soup thing has had me in Slop Food mode (appreciative) lol

moving

only one gym visit this past week! 11am-noon: leg extension (60lb, 3x8 then 2x5 slowly), inner thigh (70 lb, 3x8 then 2x5 slowly), outer thigh (70lb, 3x8 and 80lb, 2x5 slowly), hip thrust machine (no weight, 2x5 and 10lb, 2x6), leg press (80lb, 3x8), and inclined bicep curls (15lb 5 4 2, 10lb 3x8) for fun on this leg day

I still really want to integrate more yoga and stretching...goal for next week.

misc

[looks at the state of scientific grants and funding in the USA right now] Uh Oh Sisters! tune in next week to see if I still have a job!

[myrmyrtheorca]

give me your favorite manga or anime of all time. NOW. like, the ones who changed you as a person. if you are okay with questions like that!

HELLO HI I RISE FROM THE GRAVE FOR THIS INCREDIBLE YAPPING OPPORTUNITY

fr tho thank you Lottie for asking me too despite my death apparent, this will be long, I'll put the honorable mentions first as to make it a little more interesting and KHR will be at the bottom for the same reason-

Honorable mentions!

Sailor Moon - love myself some female friendship and magical girls. And women who could kick my ass like Pluto.

Black Rock Shooter - as above, plus vague setting and cool transformations.

Fate series - ok hear me out. I haven't watched the anime and just started the VN, I mostly play the mobile game, but it's about history and there's cute girls in it. Peak.

The Vision of Escaflowne - COOL MECHAS (hasn't finished it)

Yuru Camp - CUTE GIRLS FRIENDHIP AND COZYNESS also relaxing music (hasn't finished it)

Serial Experiments Lain - what the fuck was that

Violet Evergarden - tears? tears in my eyes? stop???

Dungeon Food - I'd have put this above if I wasn't just at the second volume of it, holy shit this is so fun but I feel it will crush my soul soon

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Ah. Lord, NGE. The vagueness of its worldbuilding, the psychological aspects, the occult and religious simbology, and the GODDAMN MUSIC. If you like classical, epic and otherwordly music, I beg you to check out NGE's score even if you're not interested in the anime itself because Shiro Sagisu is a gift from the gods and one of the best composers of our time. The series is a masterpiece. People despise the movies but IMO they do exactly what a movie should do: entertain. Anno embraced the "I'll be cringe, but I'll be free" and went all out on them, as he should have. Also, there's Kaworu Nagisa. Look at him!

Steins;Gate

PLEASE. PLEASE DO AND DON'T DO THIS TO YOURSELF AT THE SAME TIME. I WAS NOT READY. This anime will take your heart, embrace it, warm it up, GRIP IT IN ITS HANDS, CHEW IT AND SPIT IT OUT. Admittedly I played the VN because I wanted to experience all endings and OH MY GOD. It's terrifying and emotionally damaging. I started playing the sequel (Steins;Gate 0) and I had to STOP because it's so gut-wrenching in all the good ways that I need to be in the right spot for it.

Bleach

talk about recent experiences. I live under a rock when it comes to popular anime most times, and I never had the occasion to watch Bleach until recently (still haven't technically finished it because I'm waiting for TYBW to finish releasing to watch it). I... don't know what it is about Bleach that I like so much, but it got me in a similar way to KHR, as in I think about it often against my will and I'm even considering creating an OC for it. I think it's the characters, because the story is pretty straightforward... yeah, yeah it's the fictional men again. Kubo makes handsome men who fight with swords and transformation and everyone has their own powerups and...hhhngh. Look at this batch of cookies.

Ah no, wait, there's Shiro Sagisu again as composer. Almost forgot. *dances aggessively to spanish guitars*

Dr. Stone

I'm not a science brain, totally the opposite. Math doesn't math, geometry is evil and chemistry is wizardry. BUT, I love things that TRY to teach me those things in a funny and accessible way. I still won't understand them, but it was fun trying! And Dr. Stone has that, it's the moment I realize I like it when things are explained to me in that way, especially through media. Plus, fun characters, emotional moments, and cool plot.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your opinion on the show, KHR was the first ever japanese piece of media (excluding videogames) I've ever consumed. Being a lonely and socially awkward human being, it soon became my personality. It was these fuckers who made me get into manga altogether, I started buying the volumes (but only up to Varia Arc because 1. I didn't have an allowance, everything was done with Christmas/Easter/birthday money and 2. I was so obsessed with the Varia that my goldfish brain lost interest mid Future Arc.) and from there I discovered the pleasure of physical copies. The show has never aired in Italy, so nobody knew what the fuck I was talking about. It was, as many others were for me, a very lonely experience. But it was also the first time I felt... unique? Like, "this is my special little treasure and nobody can take it from me" kinda thing. I was emotionally invested in this show and every small piece of merch I could find like my Varia character songs CD became some of my most prized possessions (UNTIL I STARTED GIFTING AWAY MY SET OF VONGOLA RINGS BECAUSE I WANTED TO BRIBE PEOPLE INTO LIKING THE SHOW) (YEAH THAT WAS. STUPID. BECAUSE IT OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T WORK. AND ONLY MADE ME FEEL MORE LONELY AND RINGLESS) Then, the falling off. I started playing an MMO that also shaped part of my personality and as you often do with things that remind you of lonelier times, I sold my volumes and stopped thinking of KHR... until recently, when I joined this fandom and the spark came back because fuck it I'll be cringe but I'll be free. I got my fair share of flack for hyperfixating on an old anime at 24 years old, but it's one of the best experiences I've ever had. So yeah. KHR was ultimately good for me.

[dustpan-dispatch]

"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others - the living - are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is still Out there."

- Hunter S. Thompson, "Hell's Angels"

Part of what attracts me to Serial Experiments Lain is the compelling, alien nature of the computers. When I was a kid I didn't have wi-fi at my house so I had to walk to the library all the time, then I was able to use the computer a bit more often at my mum's job. I could connect with other people through the screen. Maybe this obsession is what gave me the urge to seek out more and more compelling experiences, to immerse myself in the unknown, to chase the Edge.

[your-fav-is-divorced]

is fallout fun

thanks serial experiments lain for explaining the meme! and yes its really fun...