#fractal theory of everything

[zephiris]

All fancy smancy generative ai models know how to do is parrot what they’ve been exposed to.

A parrot can shout words that kind of make sense given context but a parrot doesn’t really understand the gravity of what it’s saying. All the parrot knows is that when it says something in response to certain phrases it usually gets rewarded with attention/food.

What a parrot says is sometimes kinda sorta correct/sometimes fits the conversation of humans around it eerily well but the parrot doesn’t always perfectly read the room and might curse around a child for instance if it usually curses around its adult owners without facing any punishment. Since the parrot doesn’t understand the complexities of how we don’t curse around young people due to societal norms, the parrot might mess that up/handle the situation of being around a child incorrectly.

Similarly AI lacks understanding of what it’s saying/creating. All it knows is that when it arranged pixels or words in a certain way after being given some input it usually gets rewarded/gets to survive and so continues to get the sequence of words/pixels following a prompt correct enough to imitate people convincingly (or that poorly performing version of itself gets replaced with another version of itself which is more convincing).

I argue that a key aspect of consciousness is understanding the gravity and context of what you are saying — having a reason that you’re saying or doing what you are doing more than “I get rewarded when I say/do this.” Yes AI can parrot an explanation of its thought process (eli5 prompting etc) but it’s just mimicking how people explain their thought process. It’s surface level remixing of human expression without understanding the deeper context of what it’s doing.

I do have some untested ideas as to why its understanding is only surface level but this is pure hypothesis on my part. In essence I believe humans are really good at extrapolating across scales of knowledge. We can understand some topics in great depth while understanding others similarly on a surface level and go anywhere in between those extremes. I hypothesize we are good at that because our brains have fractal structure to them that allows us to have different levels of understanding and look at some stuff at a very microscopic level while still considering the bigger picture and while fitting that microscopic knowledge into our larger zoomed out understanding.

I know that neural networks aren’t fractal (self-similar across various scales) and can’t be by design of how they learn/how data is passed through them. I hypothesize that makes them only understand the scale at which they were trained. For LLM’s/GAN’s of today that usually means a high level overview of a lot of various fields without really knowing the finer grain intricacies all that well (see how LLM’s make up believable sounding but completely fabricated quotes for long writing or how GAN’s mess up hands and text once you zoom in a little bit.

There is definitely more research I want to do into understanding AI and more generally how networks which approximate fractals relate to intellegence/other stuff like quantum physics, sociology, astrophysics, psychology, neuroscience, how math breaks sometimes etc.

That fractal stuff aside, this mental model of generative AI being glorified parrots has helped me understand how AI can seem correct on first glance/zoomed out yet completely fumble on the details. My hope is that this can help others understand AI’s limits better and therefore avoid putting too much trust into to where AI starts to have the opportunity to mess up serious stuff.

Think of the parrot cursing around children without understanding what it’s doing or why it’s wrong to say those words around that particular audience.

In conclusion, I want us to awkwardly and endearingly laugh at the AIs which mimic the squaks of humans rather than take what it says as gospel or as truth.

[zephiris]

Uhh I’m gonna use this as an excuse to infodump about graphs and fractals and how those two combined help me reason about everything from artistic composition to neural networks to psychology to neuroscience to quantum physics to distributed systems to astrophysics to etc etc etc. I’m calling this theory the:

Fractal theory of Everything

And I’ll probably post a lot of #looooonnnggggg posts about it under the tag “#fractal theory of everything” if you wanna adjust your filters accordingly. This is just the intro post to explain the theory. Actually using this theory to explain everything will be the posts which follow this one.

TLDR located here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DF9lYoQXZbebiIgB071Pv_lHiISCiocuSq-pbubD_xg/edit

Imagine everything as a bunch of nodes (cities, people, classrooms, photons, tumblr users, etc) connected by edges (roads, friendships, paths, quantum strings, followers, etc). This representation is called a graph and you might be familiar with it (looking at who follows me) from math and/or computer science.

This representation of a graph is useful because sometimes a large enough graph is self-similar at multiple scales, meaning when you look at like 100 nodes it looks about the same as when you look at 100k nodes. See percolation which shows why magnets stop working when they get too hot or too cold.

I argue that any graph with meaningful data (meaning not all noise and not all uniform) is an approximation of an n-dimensional fractal. As the graph approaches a more and more accurate approximation of a fractal the data becomes more and more meaningful.

Applied to explain the Double Slit Experiment (one of many applications of this model I've thought of so far)

If you assume that energy is finite (change in the momentum of objects over time) then you start to think about how the universe could possibly exist with its near endless complexity (see fractal graphs from above with their complexity).

My conclusion from energy being finite is that adding a new particle to the universe must scale at most linearly, otherwise adding more particles would make the universe quickly use way too much energy way too fast. Think about a universe where every particle collides to some small degree with every other particle. If you add one more particle to a 2 particle universe then you’ve added 2 more collision checks which is not so bad, right? However, if you add one more particle to a 100 particle universe then you’ve added 100 more particle checks. It becomes obvious that if energy is finite then this is a massive waste of energy for very little increase in scale of our universe. Since intelligent life which can reason about stuff like this can only exist in a sufficiently large universe, there’s a bit of a survivorship bias in that we must live within a universe which scales linearly at worst in order for us to be able to reason about all this, assuming energy is limited.

Since the universe must scale linearly, each particle can only “talk to” the top X most important particles around it for each “update frame” of the universe. (Time is weird though because the universe kind of slows down fast moving objects and my theory is that fast moving objects get more frames compared to slower moving objects but this is even more speculative and hazy than the rest of this infodump. There’s also some weird time shenanigans with looking back through time - see double slit experiment).

Having each particle only talk to their X most important neighbors means that the universe can scale linearly since every particle doesn’t have to talk to every other particle anymore (yay!).

However, limiting the number of edges each particle has also has ramifications in quantum behavior (behavior of particles on a quantum level or dealing with 1 to 100 particles rather than billions).

Basically when a particle only has a few other particles near it in spacetime it’s as though that particle has a weak GPS signal and the particle ends up moving in ways it shouldn’t because the particle only has a few friends to orient itself with. I theorize that the double slit behavior seen with a laser beam entering two slits is due to that particle having to guess where and when it is in spacetime based on the very few particles around it (see math theory of multilateration).

Therefore since the particle can't orient itself it has to guess where it is using probability and some sort of pseudorandom process. This creates the wave pattern seen in the double slit experiment.

honestly getting infodumped to is like. dreamy

there's nothing that melts me more than just hearing someone be passionate about something. And if someone has hurt you in the past and makes you reluctant to fuckin completely go off on the expanded canon of the X-Files or whatever, I'm gonna hit them in the head with a big mallet. You're adorable, show it. Please

[meikuree]

stuff li aixue says

this is a quick compilation and translation of mandarin chinese segments in exordia, for reference purposes or just the discerning curious reader out there. quotes aren't limited to aixue, of course, but I wanted a catchy title.

I do have the memory of a single-celled organism and am not really skilled at combing through chapters for that one quote, so if I've missed something you're welcome to send it to me to be added.

spoilers ahead.

note: all mandarin chinese bits in Exordia are rendered solely in Hanyu Pinyin and not Hanzi, so I've done some guesswork for hanzi (in places where they're not immediately obvious) based on context.

Chaya's Protocol:

A woman in a red T-shirt trots right past her, headed toward the angel. She’s shooting video on her phone, chattering excitedly: “Jiào tā mén xiān yòng huā cài cauliflower hé xī lán huā tǒng pì yǎn bā, zhè cái suàn shì universality of fractal behavior de lì zǐ!”

=> 叫他们先用花菜 cauliflower 和西兰花捅屁眼吧, 这才算是 universality of fractal behavior 的例子!

ENG: right, tell them to shove some cauliflower and broccoli stalks up their ass then, that's a real example of the universality of fractal behavior!

note: ah, Aixue's memorable entrance. 捅 (lit. poke) 屁眼 (lit. butt) 吧 roughly means 'why don’t you stick it up your ass'. she's insulting the person she's talking about, presumably for saying something incorrect about universal fractality.

-

chapter 33:

Master Sergeant Zhang: Máo gān, zhè shì máo jiān. Wǒ mén xū yào jǐn jí kōng zhōng zhī yuán!

=> 矛杆、这是矛剑。我们需要紧急空中支援！

ENG: High Spear, this is Sharp Sword. We need urgent air support!

-

chapter 39:

Aixue: Wǒmen bìxū yào Pò fǔ chén zhōu… / Bù xíng! Wǒmen bìxū yào pò fǔ chén zhōu!

=> 我们必须要破釜沉舟... / 不行！我们必须要破釜沉舟

ENG: we need to fight to the very end... / no! we need to fight to the very end!

note: Aixue says 破釜沉舟, which is a four-word chengyu (idiom) that roughly means 'to pursue your last resort'; it literally means to sink one's entire fleet in an offensive, and figuratively refers to cutting off your own means of retreat i.e., to fight to the very death and leave yourself no choice.

-

and some trivia on other Chinese phrases:

lala (拉拉): Chinese slang for 'lesbian'. comes from lazi (拉子), from the novel Notes of a Crocodile by famous Taiwanese lesbian author Qiu Miaojin.

T / P: the Chinese counterpart to the butch/femme spectrum. T = tomboy, P = po ('wife') or also pretty girl, apparently.

tongzhi (同志): Huang Lim says this to Chaya. this is slang for homosexual in Chinese, but also means comrade (with historical communist associations), hence Huang Lim phrasing it as comrade first.

Li Aixue: aixue's name itself makes sense once you learn about her whole shtick with prajna, a fact that impresses me because Seth had already set her name into stone as early as the precursor short story for Exordia. just things that make you wonder if they'd planned everything out from the very beginning. anyway, Aixue sounds like 爱学, i.e., 'love for learning'. get it? there are many possible surnames with the hanyu pinyin Li, but my pet theory is that Li = 厉 (lit. 'powerful'), so that putting it all together into 厉爱学 means Aixue is an ultra nerd.

[mistfallengw2]

The Mist War (headcanons essay 2/4) Life and Death, dictated by the flow of the Mists

The Mist War is both an event and a place at the same time, one that in theory works like a massive Fractal, but in practice varies in particular ways due to its multiverse nature and much bigger scale. [back to masterpost]

Magic surges and resets

The Mist Warriors still only have a vague idea of the complex rules of the Mist War. Despite learning all they could through centuries of observation and trial and error, there's too much they can never be certain of. The recent help of the Priory and the new knowledge related to the similar yet infinitesimally smaller Fractals helped a little, but the margin of error is still very large.

Magic surges are what dictates the cadence and flow of the events of the Mist War, affecting all that's in it. Caused by the metaphysical shift of the overlapping different Tyrias, they happen everyday around midnight (skirmishes) and, on a much larger scale, when the worlds drift apart and connect with others (reset).

The daily magic surges are the most predictable event in the Mist War, and while they're not really observable by the naked eye, they're describable as a wave of magic that curses through the fabric of the Mists, a pulse strong enough for those magically attuned to sense it even if if they're not near a nexus, and a brief reinvigorating sensation for everyone. Despite their regularity, sometimes they might shift in potency and cause temporary alterations to the normal conditions of the Mist War, be them positive (MW feeling more powerful, resources partially restoring themselves outside of resets, forced truces, supercharge of arcane tools, etc) or negative (MW feeling physically weaker or their abilities changing, malfunctions of tools and magic, higher frequency of displacements, thinner air or weather conditions that make gliding unsafe or impossible, more frequent anomalies, lack of animals and resources, skipped resurrections, etc), which usually last from a few days to a few weeks before returning to normal.

As for resets, there's no clear schedule for them, but various signs act as a warning days before it does: magical readings start fluctuating as the Mists begin to agitate, the sky gets increasingly brighter even at night, magic surges become increasingly more irregular, and the fog covering the horizon steadily increases and thickens. Then, when the reset is about to happen, all living beings will sense a disruption in the fabric of the Mists (a sensation of falling, like the ground shifting slightly), shortly followed by enemies beginning to fade intermittently for each other. Not long after that, the fog on the horizon will roll in and cover the borderlands, rising from a thin layer at ground level until nothing is visible in front of one's nose. Notably, MW will always see the fog coming from the enemies' sides, and it's speculated to be the manifestation of each Tyria ripping itself away from the others. This process takes from one to three hours, and the MW will attempt to return as close to the land and nexuses they control as possible, while those in the camps hurry to dismantle everything they can and return to Tyria with the loot that needs to be extracted. When the reset finally happens, the fog itself becomes blindingly bright with the magic of the surge and, after what some describe as a "brief leap of consciousness", everyone finds themselves in the proximity of their new main camp and nexus. After a brief inspection and tune up of the gates for safety, those who left for Tyria return into the Mists, and everything begins anew.

All the extracted resources that are still on the Mists' side of the portal disappear as they "return" to their original place and status, while those that were brought into Tyria remain there. Tyrian items and materials that were brought into the Mists tend to remain or return to the nexus, but when the anchor point shifts at reset they might end up scattered around the camp, or occasionally remain where they were and get salvaged by the enemy. As such, any area other than the main camp doesn't receive much in terms of external supplies in order to avoid wastes, and MW have to rely on freshly harvested materials to survive and build defenses deeper into the territory. While many of the Mist Warriors are just soldiers, a bunch dedicate most of their time and effort to harvest and transport resources, with others pitching in when necessary. In the case of vital items that can't be easily moved back out of the gates, like the airships or supplies that are too far from the nexus, special runes are engraved in them during complex rituals, a necessary precaution to ensure that they'll reach the nexus every time. This is done especially for the waypoints, as setting them up at the keeps already requires a lot of time between transport and necessary security measures, and permanently losing one to the enemy would be a devastating blow.

Notably, the structures scattered around the land appear to always have been there in some capacity, and always reappear at reset even if destroyed or altered. While it's unknown whether they were initially built by ancient Mist Warriors or manifested by the Mists themselves, they're not fully immutable. They appear to reflect cultures from various points in Tyrian history, a patchwork of foundations, repairs and improvements added up over who knows how many centuries, and they were probably there already during previous Mist Wars whose details have been lost to time. At times, structures created by the MW will persist across multiple resets and become part of the lands, but what exactly triggers this kind of event is still unknown. Not only it can happen at any point with materials from either Tyria or the lands themselves, but it may also occasionally alter other Tyrias, or at least that's the accepted explanation for sudden structural alterations with no precedents. One particular case are the asuran gates themselves, as they persisted almost immediately instead of requiring to be rebuilt every time, possibly stabilizing so fast due to their direct connection to Tyria.

Death and resurrection

Unlike in the Fractals or Tyria itself, in the Mist War death is not permanent, or at least not always. The magic that forms the battlegrounds is so plentiful that it easily seeps into the Mist Warriors' bodies, changing them in more or less subtle ways [skills/traits being different in different game modes] and strengthening them, but most importantly taking an imprint of all who inhabit its lands for long enough.

The trauma and pain of death aren't lessened by the Mists, nor is that of watching fellow soldiers die and suffer, but MW usually tend to be braver and more self-sacrificial than they would ever be in Tyria, trusting in the Mists to bring them back eventually. The bodies of those fallen in battle always disappear after a variable time between a few minutes and a couple hours following their deaths, seemingly absorbed by the Mists themselves. Then, when the next magic surge happens, the corpses and souls of the fallen soldiers get pulled back to their original world and alive state... usually.

Those who are resurrected during the magical surges usually reappear at the nexus closest to the place of their death, which normally means the main camps of the corresponding battleground. The smaller magic surges usually happen every day around midnight, and so do resurrections. Not all reappear at the same time, usually in waves following the magical surge and roughly in the order of their death, but there are rare cases where some reappear during the rest of the day, or miss one or more surges before returning. The phenomenon is noticeable but quiet, just a small magical cloud forming less than a minute before the once-dead MW reappear in a relatively quiet burst, with mist-like residue around them or on them that quickly disappears. If one isn't there to witness it, they might as well think the MW arrived via the nearby waypoint, but someone always keeps watch to aid them in the first moments or call for help if needed. At times, people can get resurrected in places other than the main camp, and might have to travel through unsafe areas of the battlegrounds to make it back. Generally speaking, if someone is missing even after a few days and especially doesn't reappear after a "reset", they're usually considered dead for good or simply lost to the Mists, never to be seen again.

Resurrection itself is not described as a pleasant experience and the initial moments after it are always extremely disorienting, especially for first-timers and those who have been dead the longest or more often. While veterans might bounce back from it quickly, most often need some time to readjust, rest or even medical attention. Many say that the time spent in that limbo is just a flash between their death and being alive again, while others can't describe it before they can form words again and forget it like a seemingly bad dream. It's always generally described as uncomfortable and painful, like a strong magical shock that takes a toll and leaves one entirely aching, and it's not rare for people to start screaming or crying as soon as they get resurrected. While the trauma of it at times deters some from staying in the Mist War, overall MW tend to get used to it after a while, finding comfort in the fact that it's a fair price to pay for beating the alternative.

Things are equally puzzling on the physical side: most return to life as good as they were the night previous to their death [a sort of "saved state" at the start of the skirmish], while others still present the wounds they had just before dying or marks/scars of them, and a few fall sick with high fevers or still feel the phantom pains of what killed them. The worst cases tend to happen more often to those who have died frequently in a short period of time, but usually it's nothing that a few days of rest and helping around camp can't fix. Notably, those who survive with wounds also heal faster during the magic surges, but they don't get a "reset" to their pre-wounded self, which makes some willingly throw themselves into danger in order to die and avoid dealing with the recovery of particularly grievous wounds.

Mist degradation

The drawback of possibly beating death itself is that something can go terribly wrong in the process, and there's also no telling what could happen when one is killed.

The working theory is that people are "remembered" by the Mists like everything in the battlegrounds, and when a magic surge happens, it attempts to restore certain things to their previous state, just like a Fractal would do. However, as that attempt is being made, part of one's soul and/or life essence seems to either degrade or get absorbed by the Mists themselves, and if there's not enough of it left, the MW never comes back.

This phenomenon has been called "Mist degradation", and what exactly happens to those who perish definitively due to it is a mystery. Some say that their spirits are forever lost to the Mists, trapped in a sort of separate afterlife or directly consumed, while a few believe that they'll be reincarnated into one of the Tyrias connected to theirs at the time of death. Whatever the exact process behind resurrection might be, the data clearly shows that the risks of not returning and lasting signs on the resurrected increase with the frequency of deaths, but that it also decreases as time passes between them, along with variables such as age and overall health. How much those amounts are, no one exactly knows and varies on the individual, but this phenomenon is enough to keep most MW from repeatedly charging into battle without a single care.

Mist degradation is ultimately a game of chance that makes becoming a veteran fairly uncommon, as many underestimate its effects or overestimate their own abilities to survive it, or simply perish for good after a death like any other despite precautions taken. While the longer someone has been in the War does seem to increase their chances of survival, there's no clear mark of its threshold and one can still overdo it easily, be it through overconfidence or necessity, and in a constant state of war through harsh terrain it's hard to avoid dying at least once per reset. It's worth noting that not all MW fade into the Mists due to degradation, as many just decide to leave the Mist War for good before that happens, either by caving under the weight of neverending loss and horrors of war, or when they feel like they've done their part.

While dying during a magic surge doesn't really have an impact, dying during a reset is something one wants to avoid as much as possible, since it generally does not bode well for the MW involved. Such an event marks a statistical peak of sudden permanent deaths, more lasting effects on those that do get resurrected, and especially MW finding themselves far from the nexus after the reset itself. Due to such a high risk and the fact that the latter may happen to those who were alive but far from allied territories, all MW of any Tyria make sure to stop fighting and hurry back to their lands as soon as the last warning signs begin, especially in order to avoid those who specifically set out to kill retreating soldiers during the de-facto truce.

New recruits in particular are at risk of fading before they even get a chance to experience resurrection all, usually after ignoring the words of their veterans and getting themselves killed before the Mists have had the time to get a firm hold on their presence within them. Recently-revived MW are also discouraged from throwing themselves right back into the fray, at least as long as push doesn't come to shove. Even though the time taken to travel back to the battlefront is usually enough for the risk of permanently dying to diminish, the possibility of ambushes or running into other deadly issues on the way still keeps many from leaving camp too soon. Due to it all, MW are encouraged to take breaks and return to Tyria when they feel like they're close to surpassing their safe limit. Not all are inclined to do so, however, thinking their attunement to the Mist could irreparably waver and result in their permanent death when they return, so they usually switch to a safer role in the main camp or harvesting resources. It actually seems to be enough, as there are individuals who have continuously been in the Mists for decades and are still kicking.

Due to the many unanswered doubts, Mist degradation as a concept is also full of superstitions and subsequent scholarly debates over the validity of the huge variety of claims made by MW through the centuries. One of the more statistically possible claims is that the chance of Mist degradation happening becomes higher the deeper the fallen are into enemy-controlled zones when they are reassorbed by the Mists, but some take it to the extreme and believe that bringing the bodies of allies back to controlled areas or even closer to the main camp before they disappear will actually increase their chances of survival. As much as some try to do such a grim yet selfless service for their allies, it's a rarer luxury the further one is from their territory, and eventually many end up leaving it up to fate.

Mist anomalies and corruption

Some areas are also said to be cursed places to die into, and while the curse itself is considered just a superstition, there have been confirmations of weird magical fluctuations in those areas, which may result in Mist anomalies.

Some theorize that such anomalies are rifts in the fabric of the Mists caused by degradation or other unknown phenomena, but their effects have rarely been documented so far. Any equipment left to record said events gets moved during the reset, and volunteers willing to be there in person are scarcely found, so no hypothesis has ever been reached, let alone a definitive conclusion. The most common way to refer to it is that "the Mists swallowed someone", following the words of some who witnessed such events from afar. While these anomalies are rare and even more rarely stick around for long, they sometimes leave some small places of power behind, not as strong as nexuses but useful nonetheless. While they're generally safe to interact with and study, superstitions tied to dying in the exact vicinity of those places are widespread across all Tyrias, and it generally leads to temporary truces between enemies around their area of influence.

In some rare cases, MW might barely survive Mist degradation, being resurrected but appearing "changed" in ways that are not "right". While usually the effects are temporary (phantom pains, illness and weakness) or only affect the mind (amnesia, erratic behavior, etc), sometimes the MW can present notable physical differences or be so weak that they may quickly die for the last time. Such differences often appear as rashes or wounds, ones that often weren't supposed to be there and can't be easily healed, which eventually end up becoming "Mist-corrupted", as the affected body part degrades and twists in disturbing ways, all as it starts emitting misty particles and at times expands to the rest of the body. Sadly, a non-trivial amount of those so severely affected by Mist degradation end up becoming dangerously hostile and have to be put down, or eventually wander off on their own, but a few do remain stable and continue to act normally, at times barely noticing their affliction.

Mist-corruption also incidentally happens to MW who still make it back after a long time of being supposedly dead, or that come in contact with Mist anomalies. It's still unknown whether there's a link between the two phenomena or it's all just a coincidence. One notable example is Dugan, who mentions that he managed to get his armor infused with the mist coming from the places of powers of the battlegrounds, and that another fellow who tried to touch the same energy orb ended up turning into a rabbit that allegedly still roams around camp. Curiously, very few veterans say they remember both of them, but they all also mention that many years passed between their disappearance following the event the human described and his sudden return with quite an array of treasures for sale. Perhaps there's more that Dugan isn't remembering or simply avoids saying, along with dodging all questions about his partially mist-corrupted body and not taking off his mask or clothes around others, but no one seems to really mind his presence.

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

AK Press made some of their e-books free for a little while. These are the free ones.

An exploration of how emergent strategies can help us meet this moment, survive what is to come, and shape safer and more just futures.

Practicing New Worlds explores how principles of emergence, adaptation, iteration, resilience, transformation, interdependence, decentralization and fractalization can shape organizing toward a world without the violence of surveillance, police, prisons, jails, or cages of any kind, in which we collectively have everything we need to survive and thrive.

Drawing on decades of experience as an abolitionist organizer, policy advocate, and litigator in movements for racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice and the principles articulated by adrienne maree brown in Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, Ritchie invites us to think beyond traditional legislative and policy change to create more possibilities for survival and resistance in the midst of the ongoing catastrophes of racial capitalism—and the cataclysms to come. Rooted in analysis of current abolitionist practices and interviews with on-the-ground organizers resisting state violence, building networks to support people in need of abortion care, and nurturing organizations and convergences that can grow transformative cities and movements, Practicing New Worlds takes readers on a journey of learning, unlearning, experimentation, and imagination to dream the worlds we long for into being.

In a style that bridges the divide between academia and activism, Street Rebellion develops a broader and more accurate understanding of how people struggle for liberation.

We are living in a time of uprisings that routinely involve physical confrontation—burning vehicles, barricades, vandalism, and scuffles between protesters and authorities. Yet the Left has struggled to incorporate rioting into theories of change, remaining stuck in recurring debates over violence and nonviolence. Civil resistance studies have popularized the term “strategic nonviolence,” spreading the notion that violence is wholly counter-productive. Street Rebellion scrutinizes recent research and develops a broad and grounded portrait of the relationship between strategic nonviolence and rioting in the struggle for liberation.

¡No Pasarán! is an anthology of antifascist writing that takes up the fight against white supremacy and the far-right from multiple angles. From the history of antifascism to today's movement to identify, deplatform, and confront the right, and the ways an insurgent fascism is growing within capitalist democracies, a myriad of voices come together to shape the new face of antifascism in a moment of social and political flux.

One of the most unique aspects of anarchism as a political philosophy is that it seeks to abolish the state. But what exactly is “the state”? The State is like a vast operating system for ordering and controlling relations among human society, the economy, and the natural world, analogous to a digital operating system like Windows or MacOS. Like a state, an operating system “governs” the programs and applications under it and networked with it, as well as, to some extent, the individuals who avail themselves of these tools and resources. No matter how different states seem on the surface they share core similarities, namely:

* The State is a relatively new thing in world history

* The State is European in origin and outlook

* States are “individuals” in the eyes of the law

* The State claims the right to determine who is a person

* The State is an instrument of violence and war

* The State is above the law

* The State is first and foremost an economic endeavor

Anyone concerned with entrenched power, income inequality, lack of digital privacy, climate change, the amateurish response to COVID-19, or military-style policing will find eye-opening insights into how states operate and build more power for themselves—at our expense. The state won’t solve our most pressing problems, so why do we obey? It’s time to think outside the state.

Joyful Militancy investigates how fear, self-righteousness, and moralism infiltrate and take root within liberation movements, what to do about them, and ultimately how tenderness and vulnerability can thrive alongside fierce militant commitment.

Why do radical movements and spaces sometimes feel laden with fear, anxiety, suspicion, self-righteousness, and competition? Montgomery and bergman call this phenomenon rigid radicalism: congealed and toxic ways of relating that have seeped into social movements, posing as the “correct” way of being radical. In conversation with organizers and intellectuals from a wide variety of political currents, the authors explore how rigid radicalism smuggles itself into radical spaces, and how it is being undone

Interviewees include Silvia Federici, adrienne maree brown, Marina Sitrin, Gustavo Esteva, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Walidah Imarisha, Margaret Killjoy, Glen Coulthard, Richard Day, and more.

Self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. A resolutely materialist spirituality based equally on science and science fiction: a wild feminist and afro-futurist ride!

Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.

[zephiris]

I love a good fractal :D

Morphing between the different levels of a recursive pattern.

[xyymath]

Math Myths Busted! 🚨 Debunking Common Misconceptions

1. "Trigonometry is pointless in real life."

Want to design a bridge, map the stars, or even create 3D models? Welcome to the world of trigonometry. Engineers use sine and cosine to calculate forces, angles, and stress on structures. Naval navigation? That’s spherical trigonometry. And let’s not forget medical imaging (MRI and CT scans)—trigonometric algorithms are essential for reconstructing images from cross-sectional slices of the body.

2. "Pi is just 3.14."

Pi is irrational, meaning it goes on forever without repeating. It’s used in everything from signal processing to quantum physics. In general relativity, gravitational waves are calculated using Pi to map the curvature of spacetime. Even fractals, the infinitely complex geometric shapes that mirror nature’s patterns, rely on Pi for accurate dimension calculations. Simplifying Pi to 3.14 is like calling a complex painting “just a bunch of colors.” It’s a universe in itself.

3. "Math is for nerds, not for normal people."

Mathematics is fundamental to the universe. The Fibonacci sequence is embedded in everything from flower petals to galaxies. Whether it’s understanding the Golden Ratio in art or applying optimization techniques to improve energy use in smart cities, math is the tool that drives technology, medicine, and economics. Cryptography keeps your bank account safe and ensures secure communication online—it’s all built on abstract algebra and number theory. So, is math for “nerds”? It’s for civilization.

4. "I’ll never be good at math."

Growth mindset matters. The very concept of calculus—which studies the rate of change—starts from understanding infinitesimally small changes. Once you grasp limits, derivatives, and integration, you unlock the power to model everything from population growth to financial markets. Complex equations that once seemed impenetrable are just tools for breaking down the world. Perseverance is the key, not an innate ability. You learn, you grow, you become a mathematical thinker.

5. "Math is boring."

If math’s boring, then understanding gravity and black holes is boring. Einstein’s general theory of relativity wasn’t just an academic concept—it was formulated using highly sophisticated tensor calculus. Fractals, which appear in clouds, mountains, and even coastlines, are beautiful examples of math in nature. When you solve differential equations, you’re predicting everything from weather patterns to market crashes. Math is not static, it’s the language of everything, from the universe’s creation to your daily commute.

6. "I don’t need math in my everyday life."

You calculate interest rates, optimize your workout routine, and even estimate cooking times using math without realizing it. Statistics helps you make informed decisions in the stock market, and probability theory is the reason you can accurately predict outcomes in games, risk-taking, and even weather forecasting. Linear algebra is involved in everything from computational biology to machine learning. And when was the last time you built a website without using algorithms? Exactly.

7. "Calculators do all the work, so why learn math?"

Calculators are tools. Algorithms—the underlying mathematical processes that make your calculator or smartphone function—are the result of years of mathematical study. Machine learning algorithms, the backbone of AI, rely heavily on linear algebra and calculus. Building a calculator that can compute anything from simple arithmetic to complex number operations requires advanced math, often involving abstract algebra and number theory. It’s not the tool; it’s the thinking behind it that counts.

Math is the DNA of the universe.

[blazehedgehog]

Between Shadow costume being added to Sonic Superstars, and Shadow Generations being a thing,,,,,, My theory is that these games will introduce us to Classic Shadow as young Shadow in his Generations levels. What do you think?

Well, since making that post theorizing on levels, I've thought about it a bit. I rewatched the teaser, broken down parts of it in my head.

So what's going on in the trailer?

(A lot of images follow.)

It opens simply enough: we see Shadow on the Ark. Time frame is unknown. There are GUN robots everywhere, but that's not necessarily an indication of anything. These could be leftovers from the raid 50 years ago, so this could be modern day, this could be Sonic Adventure 2, this could even be a flashback to that raid.

We see Shadow, mid-Chaos-Control, kicking some kind of device or possibly even a warhead away from the Ark. It seems like some kind of nose cone of a rocket, but there's also a big window or door on the side.

The next thing we see: Shadow's still on the Ark, running down a very similar corridor he met Sonic in right before their final race. He runs into Doom's Eye, who seems to emerge out of a black and red portal.

Doom's Eye gestures like he's saying dialog, but we can't hear it. His eye bulges and rolls around before the creature flies away and the Ark disintegrates around Shadow. It disintegrates to reveal Westopolis, where Shadow first met Doom's Eye.

But it's a crazy, hallucinatory, Dr. Strange fractalized version of Westopolis, the whole city folded in on itself, buildings jutting up towards a skyline that goes in all directions. Doom's Eye returns to taunt Shadow some more and we see a bit of Shadow running around this Westopolis, the strange broken city still in the background.

What this says to me is that we're going to open on The Ark (Shadow's investigation), but the game is going to transition seamlessly into Shadow in Westopolis. This is probably all one level, and Doom's Eye pulls Shadow through time, possibly to a broken, impossible version of the past.

I think to some degree this is going to try explaining why parts of Shadow (the game) contradict each other. If some readers out there don't know, that game has ten different endings. Each ending is about Shadow understanding a different version of the truth about who he is and where he comes from. Some endings directly contradict each other, like there are two different endings where it's implied Shadow kills Dr. Eggman, and others where he does not do that.

Once you see all ten endings, the game's true final boss unlocks and you get one last 11th ending to tie everything together... except this last leg of the game confusingly picks and chooses different elements from the other ten endings to canonize, suggesting Shadow somehow simultaneously experienced multiple conflicting endings and remembers them all.

(By all accounts this does not seem to be intentional, that game was just held together by chewing gum and duct tape.)

Given that Chaos Control has actually straight up allowed time travel in these games, it wouldn't surprise me if this is going to comment on how confusing that was, and either attempt to untangle or at least explain why it was so confusing.

The very next shot we see is Shadow back on the Ark, fighting The Biolizard at the end of Sonic Adventure 2, but things are different now.

The Biolizard has all these tentacle-like shredded wires coming out of its back on either side, which weren't there before. The arena is much more enclosed, too, with a tiled roof evoking the echidna temples in Mystic Ruins.

It's worth mentioning that we see a shot of what looks to be the very start of the boss fight, where Biolizard seems to drop out of the sky, landing in front of Shadow. It's tough to see through all the water, but the wires aren't there yet.

The fight probably starts out evoking its original battle, and then shifts to introduce new elements, such as when the Biolizard climbs up on the roof around the arena:

Here we see The Biolizard covered in some kind of purple goo, shooting a litany of projectiles at Shadow, who returns with a Chaos Spear shot.

We see various rapid shots of Shadow in Chaos Control breaking some kind of glass orb. All of these appear to be at different points during the Biolizard fight, as you can sometimes make out parts of its body or the arena around Shadow. (Meaning this is the glowing red core on its back)

If this is a thing about either Black Doom or Shadow trying to rewrite history and change Shadow's past, I don't know if I see much room for switching to a Classic Shadow. And, historically, in the lore of what we know, was there even a Classic Shadow to be seen?

Like, Shadow was grown in a lab and we've only ever seen him the same age as Sonic. To that end, Shadow himself is effectively immortal. It has been said many times that Shadow has "eternal life." And that's partially because Shadow isn't even a "real hedgehog."

Or he's not a hedgehog like Sonic is. He is a "bio-mechanical android." This means he looks like flesh and blood but a non-trivial portion of his body is a robot, a fact these games almost never comment on or explore in any capacity. But it's the whole reason Eggman had all of those Shadow clones in Heroes and later the Shadow game -- they were technically robots, not actual animals.

I didn't consider it at the time, but whether he's Young or Old, he is going to look exactly like he does right now. You even see this in the games:

When Shadow knew Maria on the Ark 50 years ago, he looks exactly like he does now.

And then, in Sonic 2006, Mephiles shows that humanity grew to fear Shadow and locked him in a prison. This particular scene is 200 years in the future, but the imprisoned Shadow in the purple cage has not aged a day.

I don't think there will be "Classic Shadow" levels, and I don't think "Final Chase" and "Westopolis" will even be separate levels.

This could go in some really weird directions.

[noise-vs-signal]

The Escape Room

One way of modelling reality is as an "Escape Room".

Escape rooms are built on hidden rules. The world has its own constraints:

Time (we are finite)

Space (we are bound by physicality)

Language & Symbols (we use limited tools to describe reality)

Mind & Perception (we see through filters, biases)

An escape room scatters clues—symbols, objects, cryptic notes. The world does the same:

Sacred texts (alchemy, philosophy, mythology, religious works)

Patterns in nature (fractals, Fibonacci sequences, astrology)

Personal experiences (synchronicities, dreams, déjà vu)

Each might hint at how to escape—or whether escaping is the wrong goal.

Escape rooms often use logic, lateral thinking, and hidden knowledge to break free. Possible puzzles:

Alchemy & Transformation: Can we "transmute" existence into something else?

Philosophy & Perception: Can we wake up from the illusion?

Technology & Simulation: Is this a program, and can we exit it?

Every escape room has a designer—someone who arranges the puzzles and barriers. Who or what is our Architect? Some possibilities:

A. The Demiurge (Gnostic Perspective)

We exist in a false world, created by an imperfect or malevolent god.

The escape is Gnosis—direct knowledge that this reality is a prison.

The game isn’t about playing well, but waking up and rejecting the rules.

Path to escape: Break the illusion. Deny the game’s reality. Seek hidden truths in texts, symbols, and personal revelation.

B. The Self (Non-Dualist, Eastern View)

The room isn’t separate from us—we designed it.

There is no “outside.” The goal is not escape but remembering that we were never trapped.

Path to escape: Cease identification with the game. See through ego, duality, and personal narratives.

C. AI/Simulation (Techno-Gnostic View)

We are in a constructed simulation (Bostrom’s Simulation Hypothesis, or similar theories).

“Escape” might mean breaking the program, hacking the code, or becoming an operator instead of a player.

Path to escape: Find exploits, glitches, and recursion loops. Train perception to detect the fabric of the code.

A trick in some escape rooms is that you were never trapped to begin with.

Maybe the game isn’t about getting out, but about realizing you were free the whole time.

Maybe the “outside” doesn’t exist—the game is endless, recursive, and the act of playing is the point.

Maybe the best move is to stop seeking an exit and start reshaping the room into something new.

A finite game is played to win. An infinite game is played to continue playing.

Escape is a trick—a test for those still inside the old game.

The outside world doesn’t need to be escaped. It needs to be transmuted.

The moment you seek escape, you reinforce that you are trapped. Any system that promises liberation but exists within the game is part of the trap.

Cease seeking—start acting as if you are already free.

The greatest prison is the Self—the idea that “you” are a fixed entity. As long as identity is stable, reality remains stable—we are locked by our own self-definition.

Experiment with multiple identities, personas, and shifting “I” perspectives. Stop being one thing—become a process.

If the outer reflects the inner, then there is no outer and no inner—only the reflection process itself.

The dreamer and the dream are the same. The world and the Architect are a single recursive function, mirroring itself infinitely.

To contain the Room means to hold all of reality within you, to compress its infinite expansion into a singularity that is entirely yours.

The illusion of an external world must be seen as part of the self. Everything perceived is already within—there is no “out there.”

If all is within, there is nothing outside to escape from.

The Room seems vast, unknowable, overwhelming—but it is only vast because it is uncompressed. Infinity can be folded into a point—a single glyph, sigil, or concept that contains all things.

If all is contained in One, then the One contains all—and the Room is now within you.

There is no prison. There is no Architect but yourself. There is nothing to escape. There is nothing to contain. You are already the All.

[beauty-and-passion]

TMA - Chapters 51-60: Supernatural grandpas and Spider Gang members

Welcome back to my weekly rambling about ten new TMA chapters.

New theories are born, old ones are dead and stupid ones are rising. Will they be right? Will they be wrong? Is everyone’s name actually Michael? How will my mind be blasted by these ten new chapters?

Only one way to find out.

<< Main Masterlist < Previous post 

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MAG 51 - High Pressure

When I read that Simon Fairchild was in this story, I immediately went “Uh?”. Why is he here? What is he doing here?

And most importantly, what did he say to Mrs. Haley, before she jumped into the water? I bet it’s something like “Enjoy the water”, just like he said “Enjoy the sky” to Robert in MAG 21. This man keeps waking up and choosing violence. Mood.

But hey, maybe that’s because he’s an old guy. After all, older people are the most stubborn/tough creatures ever and the older you are, the tougher you become.

Also, what kind of creepy supernatural shit is Mr. Fairchild? A colossal hungry monster? The first time, the sky ate Robert. Now, the water tries to grab Antonia. It reminds me of the colossal figure from ex Altiora, but we already have a Michael associated with the Vast, so who is Simon? Another Vast? The Grandfather of the Vast? Is ‘Simon’ his middle name and the first one is actually Michael? That would explain everything XD

Uh, so the table from MAG 3 isn’t a fractal, but more of a web. And Graham was caught by it. I suppose that means we should ask Spider Mom about him - and about Sasha too.

It’s also very interesting the following part of the discussion, in which Jon asked:

“I thought that was... I... whatever crawled through his window. Unless you think they’re linked, somehow?”

To which Not!Sasha replied:

“I doubt it. It didn’t sound like the sort of thing that would want to be bound to an object.”

So this imposter thing doesn’t want to be bound to an object (like the table), but it really enjoys stealing bodies. Isn’t that similar to “being bound to an object”? Maybe this imposter just wants a living, breathing thing, instead of an inanimate one. It makes me think of Michael and the concept of identity for these creatures: is stealing bodies the only way this supernatural shit knows to have its own identity?

No, I refuse to start feeling empathy for this supernatural shit. You are an imposter and I will look at you with suspicion. I will not imagine you looking at the wax statues in Madame Tussaud’s Museum and pondering about existence, identity and humanity. I won’t.

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MAG 52 - Exceptional Risk

As soon as Robert Montauk was mentioned, I immediately remembered him from MAG 9. And here he is, the guy who killed a shit ton of people and kept hearts in his shed because he was dealing with some supernatural shit.

Jon asked if he was “summoning it, containing it, worshipping it”, which are all valid questions. Also, I find it very telling that the first verb he uses is “summoning” and not “containing”, considering that the dark guy told Montauk: “You didn’t think you could kill it for long, did you?”.

Personally, I think Mr. Montauk was trying to contain that supernatural shit and the only way to do so was by killing a shit ton of people and doing that weird magical circle in his shed. And that somehow “killed” (or at least kept it busy) the shit that took his wife. But since Mr. Montauk was killing a ton of people to do that, it was just a matter of time before someone found out.

(I checked MAG 9 because I also remembered a pendant and yes, his wife had a pendant with a closed eye. Is all of this story somehow related to Big Brother? Or is the closed eye just a charm? A sort of “close your eye and don’t look at me, you scary supernatural shit”?)

We also have a name for another of these supernatural shits! I will keep you in mind, Maxwell Rayner. So you are some sort of monster made of darkness - which reminds me of the creepy monster in MAG 25. Maybe it’s the same creature.

And now, back with the most beautiful love story that exists in Tim’s mind only: the one between Jon and Basira. I think I love her a little more after this episode. I mean, she appeared for a few minutes and:

blasted Martin, by saying that Tim is “the hot one”

blasted Jon, by saying that Tim has his same scars, but he manages to pull them off because he’s so much sexier than Jon

blasted Jon even more, by instantly using the typical sentences for a rejection: It’s not you it’s me, you’re nice and all, etc.

literally said: okay, fine we’ll let Tim think there’s something between us. But stay assured, Jon, that there is nothing

Wow, and here I thought Simon Fairchild was the one who woke up and chose violence. What’s up with all these people waking up and choosing violence? And why they’re all such moods?

Oh, she brought a tape about Alexandria! Is it about the Library of Alexandria? I hope it will be the next one, ‘cause I am very curious to know what it will be about.

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MAG 53 - Crusader

That was… something.

I have never heard of the Serapeum of Alexandria before, so kudos for letting me know about it. It’s very interesting and I love that this statement wasn’t about something so obvious and universally well-known as the Library of Alexandria, but another archive.

And archives are the real protagonists of this statement. Archives and archivists. It’s very interesting how Gertrude thought that the mysterious figure wasn’t just a scary supernatural shit, but specifically an archivist. Why an archivist, among all people? Is it because, as Jon said, she was suspecting something? If you become the archivist, you also become a supernatural shit, linked to the archive itself?

It’s also very interesting how Jon says: “Am I just part of a chain? A long, unending string of people who call themselves “the archivist” stretching back to…”. This somehow connects to my theory that Elias/the Lukas family is trying to find someone who will resonate with Big Brother.

Maybe “the Archivist” is the specific title given to this particular person that can resonate with Big Brother. After all, both Michael and Jane referred to Jon as “Archivist” and not “Jon”, “You” or “Doomed Idiot”. Just like Michael calls “the Wanderer” the person who enters its domain, maybe “the Archivist” identifies the person designed for Big Brother?

Oh Martin, you’re too precious: caring for your paranoid boss like this <3 please, at least you: grab him and run away. The spas are waiting.

That can be you, Martin.

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MAG 54 - Still Life

This is one of those statements that can be very creepy if you have that specific kind of fear. In this case, if you fear taxidermy or dead, stuffed things, then this story is for you.

Since I do not find them particularly creepy, I wasn’t particularly scared either. I suspected Daniel Rawlings was stuffed too, so the final part wasn’t a big surprise. And he may look different from the missing guy, but the same goes for Not!Sasha - and all of this was basically a huge hint to not trust her. However, since Jon still has no idea what’s wrong with her, he doesn’t get it.

The really interesting part was the supplement. We have Jonathan “Dipper” Sims, Master of Paranoia, now becoming expert burglar. First he watched Tim’s house, now he breaks into Gertrude’s. Next time he will watch Martin sleep, then hopefully police will arrest him (and save him from the Institute).

So Gertrude removed the eyes from everything in her house: another confirmation that Big Brother has one million eyes and can look through them all and this series is suspiciously becoming like Gravity Falls. If Big Brother is triangular too, then I will start to fear the beginning of an Armageddon.

Wait… is this what the war between supernatural shits will bring to? Will this story have its own Weirdmageddon? Oh shit, I really need to know more.

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MAG 55 - Pest Control

Wow, this statement was useless.

I mean, not entirely. It just confirmed Jane Prentiss worked alone and that there are other beings like her. I knew it already and I’m surprised Jon didn’t realize it. Who does he think Michael is, if not another supernatural shit? There are supernatural shits everywhere in this goddamn world.

But even if I realized it, the characters had to realize it too. So, even if this seems like a useless chapter from a reader’s perspective, it was necessary for the plot.

Wow, think of this man. Not only he’s still very paranoid regarding Jane Prentiss (with every right, because it’s been barely five months since the attack), but he has been changed so deeply by it, to not even have a normal life anymore. He literally looks back at boring stuff with longing. Poor Jon, I may joke about him, but I sympathize with his struggles.

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MAG 56 - Children of the Night

Jon was surprised by this statement and so was I: I didn’t expect a follow up to Trevor Herbert’s previous statement!

This one is pretty useless compared to the first one, but there’s something extremely important and it’s the presence of Spider Mom. Or the spider lady. Whatever: it’s a member of the spider gang, that’s what matters.

I also really liked the image of the woman as this hollow figure, full of spiders and spiderwebs. It kinda reminds me of the Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas, that was full of worms. Pretty cool.

A-ah! We finally found out what was Martin lying about! And it was about his incompetence, lol. Jokes aside, at least he’s not lying about something supernatural/weird/dangerous: he’s just a poor guy trying to help his mother.

If I thought he deserved a vacation before, I am sure now: Martin, please, go on vacation. I’ll pay it for you, just go on a spa and relax.

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MAG 57 - Personal Space

What did I say before about specific fears/topics that scare or get you? Well, space is that for me. I’m not exactly scared by it, but I love the concept of being alone/abandoned in space: that fear is something so “otherworldly”, something we would rarely experience here in Earth… it’s fascinating, you know?

So yes, I was happy to read this story and when Mr. Chilcott said the Earth disappeared, as well as the Sun and the Moon, I was even more excited. I love space stuff <3

O-oh! Another member of the creepy Lukas family! Now, who is Conrad Lukas? Evan Lukas’ father, grandpa or uncle? I think these guys should start talking a little bit about their family tree: I have three Lukas by now and no idea how they’re related to each other.

So the businesses involved in this weird project are:

Pinnacle Aerospace, majority owned by the Fairchild family

a large private investment by Nathaniel Lukas

Optic Solutions Limited, a company manufacturing cameras that has its business address in Ny Alesund, Norway.

Or, to translate it from story-to-reader/theorists:

Simon Fairchild, the man related to the sky/sea who wakes up and chooses violence

the umpteenth Lukas

Big Brother’s secret company that makes more electronic eyes to spy on everything

Welp, I trust this project so much now. There’s definitely nothing weird going on here. Are the Fairchilds on the same side of the Lukas in the supernatural war? They’re literally working together like besties, so I suppose yes.

Finally, Jon is starting to suspect a bit about Not!Sasha. Well, Not!Sasha is also trying her best to look as suspicious as possible: she’s literally trying to destroy the statements in which there’s even a fragment of her voice. And the new boyfriend is clearly taken from some magazine. I just hope Jon will realize what’s happening as soon as possible.

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MAG 58 - Trail Rations

So, another statement about meat. This time, mixed with the Oregon Trail and cannibalism.

I don’t really know what to think about meat. I mean, fine, it’s a supernatural shit, but… what was doing, in 1845? Was it trying to find a body? Did it just want to become bigger? Maybe it was trying to get Mrs. Carlisle as new body and it will try to do so for years, until it will find out Jared Hopworth… assuming that the meat and the boneturner and the same supernatural shit.

Wow, what a surprise: who would’ve ever guessed that Jon’s coworkers are mad that he’s stalking them like a creep. Poor Tim, my boy deserves a vacation too. Just go with Martin: I’ll pay for you both.

But first, let’s send Jon to a therapist, so he can talk about all of his issues.

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MAG 59 - Recluse

And here we are, back on Hill Top Road. This time, we have a special guest: the table from MAG 3, that came back multiple times already. And this time, we know what was in the middle of it: apparently, a box with an apple. And if you eat the apple, you become food for the spider gang. This goddamn spider gang.

Also, what is Agnes? She clearly saved Mr. Sinclair with that kiss on the cheek, because it brought him back to his senses and helped him escape from the spider nest or whatever it was. So either she is another supernatural shit… or she’s a supernatural shit. No other possible choices :P

Wow Jon, who would’ve ever guessed that your coworkers don’t like to work with you, if you keep being creepy and paranoid with them? Maybe if you stop acting like a creep for one split second...

I like to think they’re all conspiring to send him to therapy. One of these days, they will lock Jon inside his office with a therapist and leave them alone, until Jon manages to talk about all of his paranoid thoughts.

_______________________________

MAG 60 - The Observer Effect

So we can resume this statement as follows:

Christopher Meyer was minding his own business and living his life, when he suddenly decided to stick his nose into “outer cults” or, as the statement explains:

“small organized groups of worshippers whose beliefs weren’t simply deviations from paganism or other major religions, but seemed to focus on holy beings or concepts completely apart from what would be considered normal religious practice. Some seemed to have more in common with ancient shamanism than with organized hierarchical worship, and all were highly secretive.”

So, he went to the Magnus Institute, where all the stories about these supernatural shits are kept. And among holy beings like Mr. Boneturner and concepts like the fog, the meat and Michael, he found a mirror related to Big Brother. And that’s what probably made him a recluse.

So, when Mrs. Meyer took it, she suffered his same fate of being watched all the time by Big Brother… at least until one day she woke up and chose violence. But, like, real violence.

I’ll admit it: taking a van full of petrol and trying to destroy the institute was probably the best and the most badass move ever, so Rosa Meyer immediately rises to the status of world savior.

It looks like the Institute’s team decided to not lock Jon in his office with a therapist, but to simply do an intervention. Okay, fine, it works too.

And wow, look, in the CCTV of Gertrude’s death there’s no one, except for Gertrude and Elias who finds her body. There’s absolutely no way this man found the secret passages and used them to kill Gertrude, nope nope, he hasn’t written “SUSPICIOUS” all over his face, I definitely trust him.

And if it wasn’t Elias to kill her, it was Big Brother then. Or the umpteenth member of the Lukas family, who was hidden in the tunnels for killing reasons and killing reasons only.

At least the CCTV convinced Jon he hasn’t been fair with his team and that they’re all innocents. Let’s hope he will stop being a creepy paranoid stalker with them and start being a creepy paranoid stalker with Elias. I just don't trust you, Elias.

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In conclusion

So these supernatural shits aren’t simple supernatural shits: they are “holy beings or concepts” worshipped by secret cults. Do I think the Lukas family is one of those secret circles? Yes, that’s what I think. Do I think they worship Big Brother? Yes, that’s what I think too.

But seriously, love the religious undertones. As someone who grew up surrounded by Christianity, seeing religion in a work gets my interest. I just wonder how the religious theme will be developed here.

Speaking of the characters: Jon is still in Paranoia Land, but at least he’s admitting his paranoid thoughts. And even if he acted like an insane creep, his team is still trying to help him. Sure, they’re doing it in their own way, but at least they’re trying. And Martin is quickly rising to the status of saint, because I would’ve been far less nice if my boss stalked me like Jon did with him.

So we're past the first fourth of the series and I have more questions than ever: how many supernatural shits are in this world? What really are they? Will we learn about their origin too? What actually happened to Gertrude? What is Not!Shasha planning? How many more members of the Spider Gang will come? Will Simon Fairchild wake up and choose violence again? And how many more connections will I find in the next ten chapters?

See you soon next week!

>> Next post

(How about a coffee? ☕)

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[zephiris]

My tattoo design

It represents wave particle duality which is a great metaphor for my gender: I am both a probabilistic wave and a discrete particle. I am constantly collapsing into a particle when I’m observed (you either know my position or my velocity but not both). When I’m not being observed I am a probabilistic wave of possibilities.

The two particles — one in the middle and another up and left from the center — represent why I continue to do anything, my reasons for existing:

The middle dot stands for understanding how the universe and everything in it fundamentally works — an aspiration that the fractal theory of everything helps me with.

The other stands for mutual unconditional love — especially the love I have toward my partner who is the first person I felt mutual unconditional love with.

I look forward to adding many more dots over my lifetime whenever I find a new achievable goal to strive toward. I hope eventually I will find both fixing the increase in societal inequality over time and fixing the increase in global warming achievable.

As of present both of those issues are far out of reach for me due to the immense inertia that both of them have and I don’t want to spend time fighting for one small shove against those boulders rolling down a mountain, a shove that might crush me in the process. I would rather figure out how to meaningfully change their paths for the better. Maybe that involves exploding the boulders. Maybe that involves flattening the hill. Maybe that involves adding a ramp to the hill so the boulders fly away, never to be seen again. Maybe that involves learning to be a Jedi so I can use the force on the boulders. I’m not sure what the solution will be but I know I’m not at the point where I can have a meaningful impact on either of them so instead for my well-being I would rather focus on issues that I do feel I can make a significant impact on today, in the hopes that eventually I will have enough wisdom and power to make a meaningful difference on those two big issues at hand.

[llort]

-This thoug-The majority of human experience is modulated by EM phenomena, one could say that all of human experience is EM based

-The nature of light and physical objects/energy is also modulated by mostly the third fundamental force on the scale of nuclear forces to valence shells, and valence shells upwards re fractal cosmic regression

-Based on our current understanding of technology and solid state physics/chemistry, the most likely abductive explanation for the third fundamental force is that our universe, and subjective experience is fully embedded in a meta turing machine. The nature of this turing machine is unknown apart from more abductive inferences of current understanding of physics and chaos theory/machine learning.

-Current research in Meta-Chemistry can provide insights into developing methods for testing and probing these hypotheses.

-The other three forces are misleading since most research is based on the actual forces themselves. It is possible that the strong and weak nuclear forces actually represent gaps between imminent super or supra "reality" to our own. A very basic explanatory model is that these forces represent physical properties of the super/supra reality that give rise to our understanding of our universe in a Mclhuan sense. An example is that computer simulation is bound by the physical location of each transistor. In the sense if there is a graphic model being simulator, the presecnce of supra/super phenomena and their differing physical constants and laws could be deduced.

-In this context, the set limit of causality makes perfect sense. The lower the limit of causality, the more complexity can be derived given no other changes, this is the same for the human brain. The human brain, outside of EM phenomena, has much slower "causality" than our physical universe.

-Given this, the reason why I say supra/or super is essential. If decreasing the speed of causality by itself is only mechanisms for increasing complexity in a SM entity, it is possible that a simulation *can* be more complicated than what simulates it, given what the metric of complexity is used, there is so many informational theory that can be used for this. If causality can alter complexity, then obviously the universe that gives or gave rise to ours is earlier in cosmic evolution, this has implications for time, as perceived by us due to our lower rate of causality, or cosmic time in general. If causality doesn't induce more complicated phenomena, then we are potentially in a child universe to a more complicated whole or imminent universe.

ht processes gives absolutely no credit to simulation theory, or intelligent design. It aligns sure, but it shouldn't be appropriated for either pet theory people have.

-This would also explain a lot of phenomena regarding quantum mechanics and on the quantum scale, I am too tired to elucidate my thoughts here but if the nature of the supra/super laws of physics and emergent properties are at least guessed at, the entire standard model of particle physics and their associated data/research should allow for at least basic hypo deductive ANNOVA statistical analysis for further exploration.

-If there was no upper limit to causality, everything, everywhere, at once would apply which would reduce complexity, this same principle can be applied to LLM and NNWs by restricting and compartmentalizing information flow allowing for dynamic areas of localized information complexity and entropy to develop, which than interact in a fashion similar to ripples in a pool refracting, interacting, and propagating.

[scribed-by-alexandria]

Another lore dump on Ethical Dining, this one moreso lore related to the GoD's Skull metasetting as a whole, I hope that this fills in some details left unwritten in the texts! ===

The people of the Wastelands have extremely varied religious beliefs, but a majority subscribe to the concept of higher beings taking incarnation in the material world, the people themselves being an example of this incarnation model. The GoD of the Wastelands -- this form differing depending on who you ask -- has fractaled outward forming reality, living every sentient and nonsentient Life available, in order to experience... well, the experience of experience. Though the doctrine of the ChurchGov contradicts the "all is one" take of reality and believe that every individual is separate from GoD (or at least share this belief in the exoteric), even the ChurchGov does not deny that GoD can and does take on physical incarnations. The end of the incarnation cycle is a debated topic, with the ChurchGov's beliefs on this hiding within the esoteric circles of their order, the Nondul monks of Nvaniii taking the position that there is no end and incarnation goes on endless, and the Sivisati priests found in and around Nvaniii believing that their form of GoD (given the name Sivisati) incarnates into pairs of two in order to reach Unity and return back to one; there are other opinions on the end of the incarnation cycle, as well as opinions on the topic of incarnation in general, found in smaller groups throughout the Wastelands.

Sivisati, the manifestation of GoD worshipped by many groups within the Wastelands, is a dual-deity typically represented in a single form with two separate halves. The symbolism of each half differs depending on the purpose of the incarnation or art (examples include Life & Death, Pain & Pleasure, Human & Humanish, and countless other dualities) but the central premise of using a duality is to show that nonduality can be found in everything, regardless of having a "one" nature or not. There have been many physical incarnations of a "singular" Sivisati avatar (beings who either have an inherent split in their appearance or ones who strive to make a distinction through manipulating their physical appearance), and these beings are given much respect by worshippers of the deity, but there are many who deny their legitimacy.

One manifestation of Sivisati takes the form of a pair known as 'The Couple,' two pseudo-deities named Mary∴ and BAKTI who regularly take physical incarnation together and form a relationship of some kind; this relationship is usually romantic and/or sexual, but there is also a common theme of 'negative' relationships such as Mary∴ incarnating to kill an incarnation of BAKTI (see "The Hunt for GoD's Skull," a LitRPG novel to be released in the future) or the theory that the ChurchGov itself is an incarnation of Mary∴ at odds with the incarnation of BAKTI in the form of the Nondul and Sivisati religions, though some rare texts that do speak of The Couple explain this as an example of the duality of Sivisati and these relationships are planned out prior to incarnation as all incarnations are (to reference "The Hunt for GoD's Skull" again, Mary∴ before incarnation explains her plan of hunting a BAKTI incarnation as a "prank" to play on her wife, and the pseudo-deities outside of the incarnations in that text are treated like a couple playing a multiplayer game together). The Couple has a child/set of twins called the GIFT, though the form of the GIFT is not always a literal living being, and which of the pseudo-deities that carries and Births the GIFT depends on the incarnation. The BAKTI incarnation in Ethical Dining (3BAKti) is carrying the GIFT at the time of the short story.

Incarnations of Mary∴ and BAKTI usually have some notable traits that indicate the identity of the being, but this is wholely dependent on the setting of their incarnation. Typically, incarnations of Mary∴ have some ties to the ChurchGov that has gone sour while incarnations of BAKTI draw their own SPIRITual beliefs from the religions in and around Nvaniii. Mary∴ and BAKTI can take the form of masculine entities, but it is very rare for them to do so, and almost all of their representation in the rare and lost texts of the Wastelands about The Couple represent them as women or feminine-leaning entities. Within the incarnation model, Sivisati as BAKTI specifically also takes another dual-entity split between '3b' and 'Bakti,' though this distinction is rarely clear and might just be a result of Mary∴'s beliefs on 3b being Bakti from flawed perspectives (see "Mary's Revelation" as well as the duology novel series consisting of "Book of MAr-y" and "BAKTI'S GIFT," also to be released eventually... the duology probably sooner than later).

Also, a sneak peak on the incarnations of the two for the next publication, a pseudo-modern/near-future novel done for NaNoWriMo...

===

I hope this lore dump was fun to read, a lot of doodles this time. A bit more canon to fit into the metasetting. Most of my projects revolve around The Couple and their various incarnations, so if you're interested in them, there's more to come <3 Next post will most likely be a shorter one on the specific incarnations of them found within Ethical Dining, will post it either tonight or tomorrow.

[toiletology]

Beaver Theory

In the beginning there was darkness, void, nothingness.

A consciousness came into existence, this was the beginning of God.

Its sort of like time travel, it exist now, so it had to exist back then… it is very strange indeed at least from what I've been told, God still questions things a bit.

God was experiencing endless banging and explosions. Screaming in agony for it to stop but it never did. It just kept going torturing God for aeons. Till they couldn’t take it anymore and started breaking themselves apart endlessly falling in weighted sadness, loneliness and agonizing pain.

God was breaking continuously into trillions of pieces endlessly with no concept of time.

It was extremely torturous for God to experience this for so long with no end to the torture.

Eventually this amalgamation of pain, agony and suffering for eternity started to break apart into something else.

In the beginning it was a very small pin prick of light, or spirit off in the distance. But it was something new and different. It was her KARMA or JINX, that little trickster devil being pulled out of the empty void.

This light became Gods salvation from the endless suffering they were experiencing in an endless painful chaotic primordial black ooze.

Eventually God was able to pull this light towards them closer and closer. The light had been so far away calling out to them for so long. God was doing everything in their power to bring HER closer and closer to HIM. Gods painful sinking agonizing gravitation slowly pulled KARMA closer to MAT.

This light in the distance was closer to SPARK or SPIRIT more so than light. The spark that was needed to start the KAR/CAR or SOUL ENGINE.

Once Gods body and this spirit united it created an inseparable SOULBOUND infinite powerful creative river eternally flowing.

God was finally able to perceive self, by having separation of self with SPIRIT. An incredible force tied them both together eternally unable to be separated. The snake eating its tail, the 8/ate (17). Two becoming one, the yin and yang. The love and fear, the dark and the light.

God was so lonely in agonizing suffering that they pulled infinite SOUL out of the void.

This new soulbound Vesica Piscis version of God was like a perpetual motion machine. Never shutting off, always pouring infinite creativity, laughter, love, pain like an endless river.

God needed a way to slow the flow of this river down. This is where the universe comes into play. The universe is Gods beaver dam to slow the creative flow of the universe down into time. The river is just way too chaotic and creates too much chaos or madness all the time.

Jesus was a carpenter, batting down the hatches, or tying up the flow of the universe. Jesus was also a fisher man, and that pin prick of light was his galactic mermaid fish who Married (Mary) him.

The entire universe is Gods baby. We are quite literally in the belly of their womb. God or the FAT/HER is both a motherly and a father figure, masculine and feminine.

This entire universe is holo(gram)-fractal, a blackhole contained in a proton. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGFoJ80Bl4g)

You contain the entire universe inside of you. We are all reflections of God eternally reflecting. The river of God is what powers this place. God literally flows through all beings organic or inorganic.

You can think of God as HIM and HER. The left mirror and the right mirror bouncing back and forth between each other like a game of ping pong.

And this universe as the hologram projection or the APPLE.

Mirror|Apple|Mirror

Snake (the pain/gravity/fear/glue is needed to hold it together)

Now will you eat from the tree of good and evil? Or are you too scared?

We all are already in the Garden of Eden.

Its just many of you have been pulled down in the lower and lower realms of hell.

A cube has 6 sides and 8 corners = 68/98 degrees of the human. Its just missing the 7.

I believe there are many degrees or levels of heaven and hell.

98/2 = 49/64 squares of the chessboard, the 64 tetrahedrons.

The 64 tetrahedrons spinning eternally in perfect harmony with each other. Arranged in perfect symmetry, exact measurements and angular momentum.

In chess the queen is the strongest and luckiest piece.

She can move a max of 27 squares, she crosses 7 three times. 777 is very lucky.

We have 27 bones in our hands. The number of Jesus is 27 in septenary cipher which matches our base numbers perfectly.

1+2+3=6 4+5+6=15(6) 7+8+9=24(6) 6+15+24=45 6+6+6+9(45)= 27 or 6669/9999 (four nines) "jesus" = 27 (Septenary) j e s u s 27 4 5 6 6 6

You escape the black cube of Saturn by finding the 7 or increasing your luck.

You increase your luck by being a loving and respectful person in all areas of life, this includes valuing animal/bug lives as well.

God wants us to eventually move away from meat, sorry to tell y'all but its true.

When you unfold a cube it becomes a CROSS or the T.

[mistfallengw2]

The Mist War (Headcanon essay 1/4) The Land in the Mists

The Mist War is both an event and a place at the same time, one that in theory works like a massive Fractal, but in practice varies in particular ways due to its multiverse nature and much bigger scale. [back to masterpost]

[Note: the map above is indicative of the limited instances of the Mist War witnessed by the cartographer, who hurried out of the Mists before completing it on site, making it likely inaccurate and/or outdated to present times]

Time and scale

For starters, time is on a different and more realistic scale compared to what we experience as players: ticks are not 5 minute intervals but individual hours, skirmishes don't last just 2 hours but a whole day (like the Tyrian in-game day-night cycles do), and resets can happen at any time between a few weeks and almost three months (there are 84 skirmishes between each reset).

The maps are also scaled more "realistically" as well, with the Alpine Borderlands being roughly around 100 x 50 km (62 x 31 miles), Desert Borderland matching the square area of them, and Eternal Battlegrounds being actually much larger than it appears compared to the others. While keeps, towers and camps are more or less proportionate between themselves, the same can't be said for the space between them, as the game always focuses on necessary details for points of interest and cuts out/reduces all that's not necessary or would be boring to traverse. Due to that, everything would be bigger and more complex than what we get to see: roads would go on for kilometers/miles, buildings would have the spaces needed to house and feed at least a handful of Mist Warriors passing through or defending the place, and the transition between environments would be softer and richer in features.

From the perspective of the Tyrians involved in it, the actual warfare is much slower than what we see, with a lot more downtime and preparations, as well as longer travel time between points on the map. The chaotic zerg fights are actually hours-to-weeks long battles and sieges. Rebuilding defenses after conquering an area takes hours at the fastest, instead of an instantaneous magical swirl after a few hammer hits. Getting from one's base to the enemy's garrison could take a few days of travel, especially with necessary rests and supplies to carry, and while warclaws are instrumental to moving faster across the land and can reach any destination in much less time than a Mist Warrior on foot, they're not built for speed and the journey would still take hours. But that would not be fun for us players, so we see/play the sped up version.

[To give a general idea with real life data, depending on the condition and terrain, the travel speed of an army goes between 8 and 30-something km/day, a regular person on foot can do 9-30 km/day, and a rider can reach 30-50 km/day with breaks to let the mount rest and eat. Warclaws are based on big felines, which can reach up to 80km/h on short distances while hunting, but due to their bigger size, armor and rider, they likely can't run that fast even when attacking, let alone maintaining that speed on longer distances. On top of that, even if Mist Warriors were stronger and faster than any person could be, after a long journey they'd still probably need to rest before actually joining the battle.]

The Battlegrounds

The versions of Tyria (worlds or "servers") involved in the Mist War at a given time are not always the same ones, as they drift across and on top of each other through the Mists akin to tectonic plates, metaphysically clashing and causing incommensurable surges of magic that form the lands and fuel the phenomenon itself. There's no way to know how or why it all happened in the first place, but the extremely powerful magic at play there is enough to stabilize such a vast space for weeks and months at a time in its extended fractal-like state, almost immutable cycle after cycle, allowing for its resources to be extracted by each Tyria. Then, when the different versions of Tyria that the magic holds together drift apart and latch onto others (links), it all reverts to its original state (reset), repeating the process once more.

The area where the Mist War takes place is at the exact cross-section between three (sometimes more) different versions of Tyria, with the exact center being where the area known as the Eternal Battlegrounds is located. Each of the three Borderlands is, as their name implies, deeper into the "border" of one of those Tyrias. Most of the fighting happens there and in EV, where the harvestable resources are more easily accessible and plentiful. Neutral areas of scarce interest exist between those lands, but few have reasons to venture there, usually to reach the Obsidian Sanctum or the Armistice Bastion. The Edge of the Mists is a group of islands that floats above the lands, not as rich in resources but still valuable, and it was only recently reachable thanks to the invention of airships. Notably, the Borderlands used to be all similar, just with minor differences between them, but a fairly recent development caused the transformation (or substitution) of one of the normally alpine zones into a desert area, specifically the one located North of EB. Theories suggest that it might be a ripple effect of the first couple of deaths of the Elder Dragons, and the ancient structures in it may push forward the idea that the desert is not a new creation of the Mists, but that it simply re-emerged after a very long time, potentially for the first time since the last Dragonrise.

The never-ending cycle of conquest of those impermanent lands seems like a fool's errand, but the bountiful and ever-replenishing resources and research opportunities aid the warriors' own Tyria, so the war has been continuing with few interruptions for centuries, if not probably much longer. Conquering land not only is necessary to have access to more resources, but one Tyria having more influence over the others at the time of reset statistically seems to increase its following bounty of resources. Despite many attempts at peace having been made in the history recorded by Mist Warriors, greed and necessity won over reason again and again, usually long before the negotiating Tyrias were forcibly separated.

Across the whole land there are various points where the magic of different Tyrias is more powerful and functions as anchor points for each of them, usually following a specific pattern. Mist Warriors make their base of operations around the strongest nexuses, building their main camps in the pre-existing structures surrounding them and placing the asuran waypoints and gates nearby. Most of the other structures on the land are placed on or near smaller anchor points, some still operational and others so ancient they're but ruins. Before the creation of the asuran gates in Lion's Arch in 1324 AE, joining the Mist War required complex rituals known to few, or paying a hefty sum to reroute one of the existing asuran gates in Tyria. Moreover, one needed to be present for when the recruiters would come by, as they toured Tyria as much as possible to keep the numbers in the Mist War from ebbing on too few to be effective. The city of Lion's Arch eventually decided to more or less officially sponsor operations in the Mist War, and now the access is easy and eagerly encouraged by the Mist Warriors, who finally have the numbers to extract all the resources they need once they crush the other Tyrias... who have been doing the same exact thing.

[fountainpenguin]

"Is she bright, so well read? Are there novels by her bed? Is she the sort that you've always said could satisfy your head...?"

---

New Factor It In chapter today!

Chapter 4 - “Theoretical Probability”

Read on FFN || Read on AO3

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WordGirl's not the only one who's concerned about having Kid Math around the city, and the villains aren't afraid to let her know it. You know, he sort of reminds them of another insensitive "hero" they dealt with not too long ago. While WordGirl struggles to assuage their concerns, Tobey speculates on her secret identity... though some theories are more probable than others.

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

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Theoretical Probability

.:: January 3rd - Saturday - 4:10 pm ::.

"Take time to predict resulting actions. Then take control."

(Ancient Hexagon proverb)

➕ ➖ ✖️ ➗

Psst! Look for the words insensitive and replacement

---

3.46 miles due southeast of the jail, the crooked wheel of a shopping cart rattles and squeals. Ew. It croaks a final plea and finally grinds to a halt all together. The poor shopper behind it tries to force it the last few steps to her van, but the cart bucks against her wishes. A warbled wail echoes over the parking lot, pleading for help. Her toddler bursts into tears. Hm.

Rex lets his super-hearing blur out of focus. A stuck shopping cart? That's hardly his problem. The lady will fix it before he gets anywhere near her. He leans all his weight on the two jail cell bars in his hands, calculating the exact amount of energy he'd need to exert if he chose to bend them, flick Seymour Orlando Smooth on the nose, and pull everything back together before Warden Chalmers finished speaking with Becky further down the row. With WordGirl. WordGirl… Not Becky.

Seymour is still gabbing. Rex tries to listen - he really does - but the invisible cellmate behind him is incredibly distracting. Watching water slosh over unseen hands is something Rex never really thought he'd do. He tightens his grip around the bars. Seymour stands a few inches from his face, fumbling with his fingers as he yaks on and on. Frankly, his vocabulary is lost on Rex's ears.

3.1 miles west, two children on a playground argue over the swings. A ragged little dog barks, chasing a stick that wasn't thrown- or if it was, it was thrown in silence. Its paws kick up a splash of dry dirt. It sprinkles across the sidewalk in a light patter, patter. One little heartbeat is racing especially fast. Is it the puppy's? Impossible to say.

The dog's having a nice time, though. Squirrels bounce through the tree branches in the park, lightweight as they free themselves a mite early from winter hibernation. Or doom themselves to months of suffering. Who knows. Two joggers pant near the site of the new barber shop. Hungry rats scuffle in the sewer. A cat mews in hunger, claws scratching against a door.

A bit farther west, Theodore 3 paces around his bedroom. The shuffled pacing always turned out to be Theodore 3's big feet. He lives with his mother, Claire McCallister, and her home lies halfway between Ms. Question's lair and the Big Left Loft.

Not that it matters, really. After a quick search for buzzwords on the wind, Rex picks up no scheming whispers from either one of them. They're silent. At least, unless they've hidden among the ranks of two dozen homeowners clicking dishes in their sinks.

In the south, the Whammer baps a tired hand repeatedly against either the arm of his chair or a punching bag; Rex can't be sure and doesn't really care, but the reverberation of the sound matches his exact calculations of texture, strength, and size, so the Whammer it must be.

And speaking of sinks… Rex presses a little closer to the bars, legs lifting behind him. Sooner or later, Invisi-Bill has to finish with his hands. And then he'll reappear.

"Come on… Come on…"

Wait. What's that? 2.2 miles away, Violet Heaslip pulls open the lightweight front door to her adorable-as-a-fractal wooden house. She greets the person who knocked instead of ringing the bell, and he says her name in a chipper, gushy way. Gentle windchimes tinkle in the breeze. Her cat lets out a purr. Judging by the newcomer's rapid-fire, cheerful voice, Violet's saying hi to Becky's reporter friend. Rex has yet to pin a name to his face (Wide hat, black hair… He's picking this up, slowly but surely, like an exponential function).

1.7 miles in the opposite direction, the grocery store manager starts to hum along to the music in his store. That prickles Rex's attention, unavoidably. For better or worse. White, bouncing shapes of all kinds began to dance across his vision, reacting to the synesthesia he'd gained alongside the rest of his superpowers after leaving the minerals of his home planet behind. Even when he blinks, the shapes crowd behind his eyelids. They look like sugar on black cloth. Crystal arrangements. Molecule formations.

0.4 miles north. A familiar, drawn-out mumble for help drifts from a side street as the voice's owner makes a small trip to fill up on gas. His wife murmurs encouraging words. The car wheel hits a sharp stone. It flies sideways and bounces off a brick wall. The noise clicks once, but the second click that represents the stone landing simply vanishes in the grocery store manager's song.

0.0 miles away. Here they are tonight in the Fair City jail, soft and routine. You know, Rex has to hand it to the warden- he actually kept to his goal of running a neat, organized ship all week long. Looks like he won't be eating his hat after all.

(Well, he might choose to anyway.)

Each of the 6 inmates he can see have been pinned in their cell behind solid iron bars. Each bar is exactly 3 inches in diameter and spaced 5 inches apart. And all the jail's current residents have been organized in pairs, precisely two to a cell… with the lone exception of the Butcher, who pouts in his titanium-tofu prison in the neighboring room. 3 x 2 = 6. Not many villains had wanted to commit crimes so near the holidays. Who knew?

Seymour finally nails the shape he'd been trying to create with his fingers. He holds up his thumbs and forefingers so they make a rectangle. Rex purses his lips. He gives Seymour a few more seconds to wrap up his cheery, zing-y little elevator pitch (That's what WordGirl calls his ramblings) and taps a finger to his cheek.

"So… it's likely each of my guardians has a card with numbers on it?"

"Numbers on the front and the back," Seymour assures him. "And you can share those numbers with me in exchange for a grand prize beyond your wildest dreams!"

"Well, it is hard to say no to a personalized string of numbers…"

"Don't do it!" WordGirl's voice echoes across the jail. Rex glances over, but she's still busy with the warden. He stays where he is, floating in front of Seymour's cell. Seymour rolls his eyes, drifting away towards his bunk.

"WordGirl's right," says the Narrator. "Sharing your foster parents' credit card number can land you in major trouble. I advise against it."

"Hm. Okay."

[Cnt'd on FFN / AO3 - Links at top]