#i didn't know that about base value in the +3 system

[sunskate]

CPom might’ve preferred competing a couple of quads back - they’d have to do pattern dances, but back in the +3 GOE days the base value really mattered. They seem happy rn but it must be a little frustrating having made demonstrable improvements (Christina’s getting Level 4s!) and it making absolutely no difference to their standing in the pecking order,

i think we don't know yet that their track record this fall hasn't affected their standing. even though it feels like they're not being rewarded enough, it's a long game

C/B's place as US #1's not changing this season. but below that, there's a lot of uncertainty. i hope H/B come roaring back at Nationals, but it's going to be their first competition in over a year

Gr/Pa, who knows - CPom haven't gone head to head with them yet

but CPom have had 5 strong competitions - the issue with their ChRS at Nebelhorn felt fluky, and they fixed it. their consistency can strengthen how the judges see them and help in garnering support, so even if they haven't won the GP medal they wanted, people on the inside know their assignments were rough- going against the home faves at both Angers and Espoo they were solidly in 4th. they came within .12 of beating L/B's in the free. and they look like this:

like, how gorgeous ❤️😭 and i think if we're noticing they had the highest BV in this competition, skating people are noticing too. they're aiming for Montreal Worlds, they're aiming for 2026. if they get their trips, they're not going to remember the bronze medal they didn't get at a GP in November. their place in the US hierarchy is a bigger deal, and they're showing up in the ways they can control, so hopefully it's building some momentum and esteem for them

[trans-leek-cookie]

reading Disco Elysium analysis posts is giving me fun new ways to conceptualize the ways society especially in regards to sorcery in JJK can be horribly flawed and traumatic. To the point I upset Myself. Anyway haha

[poipoipoi-2016]

Apropos of nothing

If you are the techiest person in the house (and for many of you, this is not techy at all), today is a good day to build a pihole thanks to Google's new TLDs.

For the record, this straight up stopped Dad from getting computer viruses when coupled with the Ublock browser extension, so I will volunteer my time to get you set up. We will find an evening and do a Zoom call. I am serious.

Prerequisities:

Before you start, this will be way way easier if your router has a magic way to:

Set static IP addresses

Set a custom DNS server

If you can't do this, I'm not saying you're stuck, but there's some non-obvious failure modes and maybe it's time to buy a better router.

Parts:

Raspberry Pi 4B. 2GB if you just want to set and forget, 8GB if you want to do more things on this than just your pihole (Coughs in a MarioKart box) -> https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/

Spare USB-C charger if you don't have one already. I'm a fan of https://www.amazon.com/Argon-USB-C-Power-Supply-Switch/dp/B0919CQKQ8/ myself

A microSD card at least UHS class 3 or better. 32 is fine for just a pihole, I have a 512 in some of mine that I use for more stuff. https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/raspberry-pi-microsd-cards

Some method of flashing the card if you don't have one (Some come with SD to micro-SD adapters, if not a USB to SD/micro-SD adapter is about $10 off Amazon)

If you really feel like going nuts, go buy yourself an Argon case and then very very carefully never ever install the software for the fan that does nothing. The value is entirely in having a big giant brick that is self-cooling. If you want to play MarioKart, I would consider this a requirement. https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Raspberry-Aluminum-Heatsink-Supports/dp/B07WP8WC3V

Setup:

Do yourself a favor and ignore all the signs telling you to go get Raspbian and instead go grab an ISO of Ubuntu 64-bit using RPi Imager. Because Raspbian cannot be upgraded across version WHY U DO THIS

Download Rpi Imager, plug the microSD card into your computer,

Other General Purpose OS -> Ubuntu -> Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

So now you have an operating system on an SD card.

Assemble the case if you bought one, plug in the SD card, power supply, ethernet cable if you have one or mouse and (mini) HDMI cable if you don't. If you bought that Argon case, you can just plug a keyboard (server OS means no mouse gang; In this house, we use the Command Line) and HDMI cable into the Pi. Turn it on.

Gaining access

The end state of this is that your pi is:

Connected to the internet by cable or wifi

You can SSH to it (Also not scary)

If you plugged in an ethernet cable, once it's done booting (1-2 minutes?), you should be able to ssh to "ubuntu@<the IP of the system>". Look it up in your router. It may make sense to give the static IP NOW to keep it stable.

If you've never used SSH before, I think the standard is Putty on Window or you can just open a terminal in Mac. (And if you know enough Linux to have a Linux computer, why are you reading this?)

If you didn't plug it in, and need to setup the wifi, there's magic incantations to attach it to the wifi and to be quite blunt, I forget what they are.

Your username is ubuntu, your password is ubuntu and then it will ask you to make a new password. If you know the meaning of the phrase "keypair-based access", it may make sense to run `ssh-copy-id` at this point in time.

Router settings (part 1)

Give your new Pi a static IP address, and reboot your pi (as simple as typing in `sudo reboot`).

Open a new SSH session to the pihole on the new address.

Installing pihole

Open up an SSH session and

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

This is interactive. Answer the questions

When it's done, on your other computer, navigate to <the ip>/admin

Login with the password you just set. Router settings part 2

Give your new Pi a static IP address then point your router at that address

Set the DNS servers to the static IP

Then ensure you're blocking something. Anything.

Then do what you want to do. You'll probably need to whitelist some sites, blacklist some more, but the main thing is going to be "Adding more list of bad sites". Reddit has some lists.

And... enjoy.

/But seriously, there's some stuff to do for maintenance and things. I wasn't joking about the pair setup.

[vasito-de-leche]

I saw your post regarding the Self-Aware R1999!AU and it was good and mind-blowing! Now I'm wondering how will it go with 6 or 37 regaining consciousness, considering that they're always seeking for the "truth", and maybe the Reader's existence would heighten the quest for the truth more!

;R1999 37 - Self Aware AU

Headcanons about how 37 would act upon becoming self-aware. Related to this Self-Aware AU post.

I RECENTLY FINISHED 6'S ANECDOTE, SO NOW I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS THIS ASK IS A GREAT EXERCISE TO GET THE BRAIN GOING o7

this post only contains 37, since it got a little long and I didn't know how to format it the usual way because I LOVE rambling and rambling. I think there's another ask somewhere about 6 in the self-aware AU, so I'll get to that one soon!

also I think this post is impossible to read if you haven't read chapter 5 at least, bc I use a lot of the terms used in Apeiron!

37 is such an interesting character. Okay okay, bear with me for a bit while I get all of my 37 thoughts out of my brain!

I feel like people downplay how cruel or detached she can be. Because of her innate ability to see numbers in everyone and everything, essentially seeing "the truth" and being able to provide Proof to support her claims, 37 lives disconnected from her entire community while also being upheld as a genius and beacon of progress. She's the "Star of Hermes," after all.

A lot of her character focuses on this alienation and "othering," how her mindset and beliefs set her apart from others as she cannot understand the importance of soul numbers from an emotional standpoint--like she says in the main story, she's always known she's 37. Everyone's known this. And she does not understand the importance of knowing WHY she's 37. She doesn't care about the traits assigned to each number, that is meaningless rhetoric to her, what matters is the final result. She's 37, and that's it. She upholds the purity of numbers, practically worships this pure aspect of the world of Forms. She's at her happiest when she talks about how numbers will always be numbers, no matter who tries to figure them out, or when or how.

And we also see the cruel aspect of her that I believe people overlook--37 admits that she enjoys revealing people's numbers because she wants to be the first to prove this truth. It's only near the end of Chapter 05 that she wonders, if only briefly, whether being the first to prove someone's number means that she knew the truth better. Other than that, she has absolutely NO trouble revealing Vertin's number, nor attempting to tell Sophia her own number as kids--and 37, while she does not care for the rhetoric of numbers and their assigned virtues, knows how much the journey of self-discovery means to her entire community. And she still chose to do this, because she does not see the value in the process.

This isn't to say that she's exclusively a cruel character nor a misguided little baby, I would say that she's cruel the same way a child can be--37 is a very lovely and complex character! I just think people take her cute appearance at face value and forget the extent of her abilities and her perception of the world.

In the context of a Self-Aware AU, I believe that this self-awareness would be recontextualized as yet another eternal truth for her. Her curiosity wouldn't be applied to this, because there is nothing to figure out--the world has always been a game, that's it. Instead of focusing on the emotional or existential aspects, 37 would focus instead on the "guidelines" that rule this fake world.

It would revolve around the mechanical aspects: she understands that every fight follows a set pattern, as this is a turn based combat game. She wants to know why some people stand out, why they're assigned as 6 or 5 or 4 or 3 or 2 stars. Why not a 1 star? Why not 10? Why this system in particular? Why doesn't Sophia have any stars? Is it because she hasn't figured out her number yet? No, that can't be, because 210 also lacks stars. And so on and so forth.

The focus will still be numbers, so she would be the perfect assistant for Players who care a lot about meta!

I'm also willing to say that 37 would be one of the very few characters who has no trouble at all coping with the fact that she's a character in a videogame. To know that she's a bunch of "code" wouldn't change a thing for her, because she was already 37 in the first place!

There is also the aspect of finding out that her mother's death (as well as Sophia's father) was scripted. I'm going on a long tangent here, so bear with me for a second.

I feel like... 37 would see that as a positive thing? First of all, we know that the death of everyone in that boat was caused because of a miscalculation from Sophia and 37's part, which is the catalyst for 37's Emanation research. I do believe that, even though 37 shows little to no (conventional) emotion in that specific moment, she still grieves and mourns in her own way--and the way she does that is by clinging onto the one thing that is left of her mother: her pneuma analysis and research, the computer that stopped working, the pattern of the "Storm". We are told that 37 became a recluse, isolating herself even more from her community, when her and her mother's research was proven to be wrong, that she only came out of her lab when Vertin and her team arrived. We see her muttering while unconscious in the cave with Vertin, calling out for her own mother and telling her that their research wasn't wrong, that they were right all along (because they were missing one vital piece of information that only an outsider like Vertin could deliver).

Second of all, we know that 37 does not understand nor care about fate, she does not care for wordplay that muddies the true essence of numbers. So she would not think that the death of all those people can be attributed to something as vague and nonsensical as "fate."

Third and final point of this tangent, 37 does not like to be proven wrong. Or rather, 6's character event shows us that, no matter what she's told or how she behaves, 37 will always believe that she's in the right.

With all of this in mind, I think that finding out that this accident was something scripted--that is to say, part of the "truth" (or canon, from our perspective) of this world--would reinforce 37's beliefs. This miscalculation was a mistake born from her former self, the 37 that did not truly understand the world, before she achieved self-awareness. And now that she's wide awake, there's no way that she could ever make a mistake like that ever again. If else, I can see her being mildly irritated that it took her this long to open her eyes, struggling with the fact that she's not the first person to become self-aware. And just like she casually reveals other people's numbers, she would dangle the knowledge of self-awareness in front of others instead of keeping it secret.

On the subject of finding out about the Player, I'm not quite sure how 37 would react. Sure, 37's life is ruled by the same dogma that rules everyone else within Apeiron, but her approach is devoid of that same spiritual and religious devotion that others like 210 carry. Like we see in 6's character event, 37 does not care about the importance of the number 6 nor whoever holds the title, because the "truth" is that everyone within that bloodline is going to inherit the title at some point or another. Compare this to 210, who treats the previous 6 (Atticus' aunt, Alma) with such reverence.

So perhaps that's how 37 would act, then? This "divine" figure is yet another 6 for her, someone who has all relevant knowledge, nothing more and nothing less.

I like to think that 37 is able to see the Player very clearly right away, the same way she can see people's numbers, whereas 6 is the one who can hear them clearly, the same way he inherits the Revelation from his ancestors.

And unless you're another super math genius like her, I can absolutely see 37 pouting about it. How come someone like you gets to be "outside" in the world of Forms? Maybe she becomes curious about finding "proof" of your world, to confirm whether you live in the world of Forms or something else entirely, perhaps yet another world of Matters, full of Fragments. Realizing that the world the Player lives in is practically identical to her own--minus the existence of integers and fractions, just a world full of imaginary numbers--would be a curious experience for 37.

I can also see 37 telling Vertin the Player's own soul number the moment she figures it out, perhaps as a way to repay the favour for the events of Chapter 05. Assuming she survives that bomb, I actually don't know what happens in Chapter 06 LMFAO....

Long story short, not many would realize that 37 has become self-aware, since her behaviour remains largely the same. And it wouldn't affect her as deeply as it affects other characters.

[bleachbleachbleach]

I don't know if you'll see this, but I've been having this thought for a while and needed to share

You have already shared your view about that whole "souls can't remember their lives before Soul Society" and such, but I've been thinking...

It's ever said that the souls in Rokungai know that they're dead? Well, the Shinigami makes sense to know and the other souls knows about the Shinigami, obviously, but I don't remember if it was ever commented about them knowing they're dead when they wake up in Soul Society

Maybe someone else needs to explain them the situation when a new soul appears? Idk

What do you think?

And excuse me if I'm being dumb about this topic, I'm just not good at remembering stuff

This blog receives 1 ask every few months and averages about 9 notes per post. XD Of course we saw this! Thank you for stopping by! <3

I think this might be in reference to tags we left on this post? At least, that's the most recent discussion I can recall.

Canonically speaking, this guy comes to mind, who knows the year and location of his death:

[Bleach 076 -- (Sorry, no original text--I'm not on the right laptop right now!]

Granted, that doesn't mean he knew this immediately on entry into Soul Society, or knew that he was in this place because he'd died!

But then, of course, there's also this whole ticket system, so I suppose even if you didn't know intrinsically that you had died, some terrible dude dressed in black and shouting about your having died might be something you take at face value (or not!). Or maybe people in Rukongai find you first, and you get the folktale of your own death from souls like you before they send you off to the proper authorities for your ticket.

I've also written fanfic where Hinamori does a more intensive intake of a soul, sort of like what you're describing (though in his case, he knows he's dead, because he died on purpose).

My preference is pretty much always going to be for things to be as paradoxical, contradictory, elusive, and mutable as possible, so if I were going to incorporate Mr. "1947 in Yamanashi" into something, there's a 99% certainty he'd be the odd duck out in terms of having retained that information, and it would be info that existed in fragments and broken conjurations. I'd probably write that there were entire divination practices within different Rukongai subcultures that strove to either remember/cogently arrange the past, or predict the future (in reincarnation), and it's this whole elaborate thing. Some of the divinators are probably legit--but many are probably charlatans who implant all manner of weird, potentially harmful false memories in people--or benign but ultimately untrue--things in people's heads. But then, maybe that's all they need to be. When you're constantly told that the ghost-life you are currently living exists only as a waypoint or halfway between one reality and the next, I imagine it's hard to hold onto desire. Whether the spark is real or not, maybe the fact of the spark is all that comes to matter.

Personally, I also like the idea that although shinigami have this whole ticket system and they'd love for souls to enter into Soul Society all in the same place, in an orderly fashion, that's not necessarily how it works, and the number crunching the 12th does about how many souls are in which district (and which plane of existence) is based on statistical models and cannot actually account individually for each soul. Maybe some come into Soul Society in human form. Maybe some were STILL A BIRD when they arrived, but ultimately became a boy. Maybe some souls spring out fully formed and humanoid and others are elemental first, before solidifying into something else. Maybe some are cut out of peaches or bamboo, or appear as monsters, almost as Hollows--until it turns out they were a human soul all along (or were they...)

Anyway, that's where I'd take that! I'd love to hear more about your thoughts re: who explains the situation. It's a really fun question!

[ssunphire]

Blue by Billie Eilish and how it fits Azula perfectly

I'm sure people have talked about this already, but i just wanted to add my two cents to it. (english is not my first language so if i phrase some stuff a bit weird feel free to ask or correct me)

spoilers for the comic "Azula in the spirit temple" !!

in my opinion the lyrics of this song simply SCREAM azula, and here's why.

the first chorus:

azula tries to "live in black and white", as in pretends to know what is right and what is wrong. she believes in her father's words, the "white", and considers everyone who left her or dishonors the fire nation bad, "the black". but it doesn't feel right, even to her. even if it seemed like she thought that what her father did to zuko was right, the perfect reality that she dreamed of that was depicted in the comics shows zuko without a scar and her mother standing beside her father. even iroh is there with them despite her displaying dislike towards him throughout the whole show. additionally, they tell her things she thinks she should have achieved based on the values that her father posed on her, again: the "white". she misses them and she feels betrayed, but she tries her hardest to pretend like it's not like that, for example in the beach episode where she says her mother was right to call her a monster and that she's completely okay with that. she's in fact not over her mother. she feels "blue". stuck between believing her father and at the same time wanting ursa and zuko back.

the second chorus:

the phrase "but i'm not what you need" shows her insecurities. she saw the way ursa looked at her compared to how she looked at zuko. no matter what she did, ursa never seemed to be satisfied with her. she always got sent away or chastised. iroh never cared to consider what she might like as a gift, he just got her a doll because he probably thought it's what all girls want. but zuko got a really nice knife. she felt unneeded by ursa and iroh so she turned to her father.

now the verses.

1)

by logic, zuko and azula should be similar in ambitions and beliefs. they grew up in the same family after all and therefore also should have been treated similarly. for example they should both receive their mother's love and attention, but only zuko seemed to get it. zuko should have similar abilities to hers, but she was always ahead of him. she didn't understand what ursa saw in zuko that she didn't have and "lied".

in the comics azula states that she actually became aware of the fact that ozai used her as a "deadly fire bending weapon". she was a "bird in a cage". she didn't have anyone to rely on but the father that praised her skills, so she tried her best for him after being abandoned by her mother. she wanted to be protected too, but ultimately only zuko got that luxury.

2)

like i said before, since azula didn't have a support system like zuko, she didn't have a choice but to cling onto ozai. ozai clearly never knew what sympathy was, nor did he ever act like an actual father. he raised azula to be cold and deadly, so much so that she was even smarter with war strategy than him or iroh. she managed to take over ba sing se after all. azula herself lacked sympathy too. she had learned that trust was weakness and being feared was strength.

3)

here i can see the first part being said by zuko, he doesn't hate azula and he knows she did what she did because of their father but at the same time he was scared of her. at the point of the series he deemed her to be beyond saving and tried to avoid her together with iroh, then later chose to fight her in an agni kai without even trying to reason with her.

the other half of this part is pretty much self explanatory. she was clearly a victim who succumbed to her father's ideals due to being abandoned by her mother.

4)

unlike zuko, azula was "blameless" in the eyes of fire nation ideals. she was a prodigy and did what was expected of her. perfection was everything to her.

nonetheless they are both victims of ozai, just with different outcomes. they both grew up to be famous, just in different ways.

-----------

woooo you made it to the end!!! thank you to whoever read my little rant here, i just wanted to talk about this since i've been thinking about it every time i listen to the song. i'd love to hear other people's opinion on this so feel free to comment whether you agree or you think what i wrote up is absolute bullshit lmfao

[inconspicious-random-thoughts]

How Valentino got Angels Soul

I just realized something about the dynamic between Valentino and Angel Dust. It rather obvious now I look back on it, but with all my rewatches, I sort of took the two together at face value.

I assumed, without much thought, Angel Dust was a new soul. Scared shitless and took the first deal that offered him some type of protection-Valentino. It's just the vibe I picked up on.

But I actually, thought about them more today and realized how wrong I was with that point blank view.

Angel died in 1947 while Val was 1970's. Angel been wondering around Hell with his own soul for minimum of 3 decades and been going by the name Anthony the entire time. -'Im putting Valentino being powerful overlord in the 80s.

Side note: I personally headcanon, it takes a new soul to achieve overlord power the minimum of 10 years with the exception of Alastor. The new sinner need time to adjust to their new bodies, learn their abilities, and the politics and ways of Hell. And the sinner needs to gain their power a little slowly, I think if they go to fast it alarms other overlords and just make the wannabe overlord a target. So, I say 10 years minimum to achieve overlord power. 10 years a drop in the bucket in eternity)

Other side note: I think Angel Dust soul is actually older than Val if you combine their biological age and their time in Hell. Weird right? What's weirder is Angel biological age is a few years younger then Alastor. whaaaaa? Angle just vibing he is much younger then Alastor when they were alive but apparently Angel died in his 30s, while Alastor is 30-40s

So how did the two got together?

Well, for starters, I think Angel was just scraping by Hell for those first few decades. He lived literally in a Hellhole. Get it? because they are in Hell? nevermind. Anyways, his living quarters was probably literally some hole in a wall that he found and probably have to share with other unfortunate souls. Any money Angel scraps up and spent on drugs. He lived his days getting fucked up by drugs or suffering withdrawals. He sold himself for quick cash grabs for more drugs.

Then one night, Valentino found Angel trying to do one of these quick cash makes. He saw a lot of potential in Angel. He so gorgeous. He promise to make Angel night worthwhile if he gets in his limo. Which to be honest, is the fancy place he done in what he felt like forever.

Angel didn't realize who he was dealing with. A freshly raisen overlord. "He doesn't pay attention to politics" remember?

It was a grand night. The drug flowed and Angel basically had the taste of the high life hanging with Val that night. Angel tried new drugs that night too. He usually strapped for cash so when he bought drugs, it was something familiar. He didn't want to spend his nearly non existent cash on something he didn't know on how it hits. Eventually Val took Angel to his place and had sex. Val purposely wasn't ruthless during this. In fact, Angel never felt more safe since he landed in Hell.

Val try to sway Angel to selling his soul to him. Making promises that were too good to be true. "I'll make you a star, famous!" "No one will dare harm you if you are contracted to me." All the while, blowing smoke in Angel face and other pheromone based moves. Angel was tempted but there no way he was selling his soul.

"I only own you partially...I will only own you while you are in my studio...I own you part time and you get the full time benefits."

Angel was still on the hesitate and left. While Val cooing "you know where to find me when you change your mind."

Angel return to his shit hole home. After the night of spent living the good life...it was extra miserable. Val pheromones was still in his system. He missed feeling safe in Val four arms with the promise of protection. The new drugs...which he starting to crash from pretty hard. He needs that fix again...bad.

Angel returned asking if the deal still available. One that can make him famous and be protected by Val.

-yes

"I can still keep my soul? that you only own it while in your studio?

-yes. Sensing Angel is still hesitant and using the knowledge that Angel complained about his living situation after seeing the sweet grand living space Val has. "How about I sweeten the deal...I'm feeling very generous. I can offer you room and board if you were more hours to earn it." Angel perked at this. "You will have your very own room...right at the studio...how convenient is that?" Angel was ecstatic about the idea of his own space. privacy and comfort. Fuck yea.

(Im sure theres more technical bits like, Angel required to work minimum of 40 hours a week to however long Val wants him. That way Angel can't just walk away when he had enough. It also give Val a loophole of making him work longer hours)

Which is why Val was so furious when Angel moved out. He lost complete control on Angel soul by that. I wouldn't be surprised actually forgot that clause and was pleasantly surprised when he realized he didn't feel the constraint invisible chain outside the studio.

"It's a deal" Not fully realizing that Val owns his soul outside of filming while in the studio. Angel signed and Val set out some celebrotory drugs.

Angel recognized it from the other night and its the new ones that he really enjoyed. "What's this stuff called again?"

"Angel Dust, its popular in my time." Val answered without looking up from the newly signed contracted. "Hey darling, you need to pick a stage name, Anthony not going to cut it."

Angel considers it for a moment as he done a line. Drugs got him into Hell, this drug got him back to Val it seem only fitting and it sounds pretty. "Call me Angel Dust."

Again, its pretty obvious why Val was so upset that Angel moved in retrospect but their dynamic changed a lot to me once I looked more into it. It explains why Anthony signed his name with his real name...because he didn't have his porn star name yet. Angel Dust was huge during Val time and not really around as much during Angel. So I can see Val introducing it to Angel and getting him hooked on it and also inspired his porn star name.

Just my idea but who knows, some of you might enjoy it.

[avelera]

OK, so, I have now seen Good Omens Season 2 and had a moment to muster my thoughts after binging it.

SPOILERS below the cut, if that needed saying.

--

Let's start with the good.

Loved that Beelz/Gabriel became canon. What can I say? I love stories about immortals falling in love over the course of several meetings at a pub ;)

John Hamm in general was fabulous

I cackled at the fact we were getting an actual fem Aziraphale/Crowley, human coffee shop AU running parallel with the absolute fanficciest of justifications that Aziraphale and Crowley HAD to make them fall in love in order to *mumble mumble* something plot whatever, lol

I loved the bits of lore flashbacks we got about Aziraphale and Crowley first meeting when they were both angels and I found the whole Job encounter overall charming.

I was deeply fascinated by the fact that Crowley consistently performed selfless angelic acts while Aziraphale consistently needed to learn and grow around doing the right thing. Even to the end he remained, for the most part, a good little soldier. Aziraphale thinks the system can be fixed. Crowley "knows" that it can't. Presumably, Crowley is right. More on that later.

Muriel was adorable

Loved that we got the kiss. Also, huge shoutout to the fandom that I genuinely went in unspoiled on that front after the whole trailer debacle. I SUSPECTED based on the reactions that the spoiler was a kiss, but I was able to successfully forget all about it so I genuinely gasped when they kissed.

I'm not really all that bummed by the ending. It's so obviously a "temporary breakup so we come back together stronger" moment so I was largely unbothered. I actually want MORE angst, not less, in fic after that, please and thank you.

Unpopular opinion praise for S2, but I'm glad we didn't get more of The Them, or Madame Tracy (though the recasting of the actress in another role puzzled me?) or Anathema/Newt, or any of the non Aziraphale/Crowley, Heaven/Hell stuff. I found all those plotlines hugely boring and I'm glad the story moved on from them.

Did I mention I adored Gabriel/Beelz? Loved that plotline. Might rewatch that bit again just for that. I SORT of suspected it was happening but was still delighted by the confirmation. I couldn't BELIEVE this minor ship got made canon, but along the way I was sort of side-eying Beelz's reactions through the lens of, "Wait, what if Beelz is WORRIED for Gabriel?" and it worked very well so I was tentatively *glad* for the shippers who might view it that way and NEVER guessed they'd make it canon this season with more than a few tidbits for those shippers to cling to. Wow. Whole-ass parallel instead of what Aziraphale and Crowley COULD be if they actually 1) communicated and 2) understood each other's values and valued the same things.

Truly, it was a love letter to the fandom I found that to be very sweet as a choice made by Tumblr Girlie Neil Gaiman.

H'ok, now let's get into the negative. To be clear, I enjoyed the season! A lot of room is left to explore stuff in Season 3! And I'm not a deep Good Omens fandom person, I didn't read much fic after S1 dropped, I was more of a book fandom fic person for it. So my level of investment isn't such that I'm *crushed* by any of this, these are just more things I found a bit "meh"?

I really thought we were heading to a side-swap story about Aziraphale and Crowley and I was little bummed it didn't happen, though there's still room for the possibility in S3. The whole "maybe I did the good thing and you did the bad" taken to the max. I really wanted the angst of them finding each other only to end up on opposite sides again and opposite-OPPOSITE sides of where they'd been and been comfortable up to this point. I really wanted to see IMPACT and SUFFERING and DISCOMFORT and... idk, more drama? Than we got?

Like, there were SO MANY references to Crowley being selfless and doing the RIGHT angelic thing while Aziraphale did a lot of HORRIFYING things, including all the mind-fuckery stuff he did around the ball, totally insensitive to the needs and wants of the humans involved, only seeing them as tools, that REALLY made me wonder if we were getting a swap by the end.

The fact we saw SO MANY ominous references to Aziraphale FALLING because he was tempted by Crowley, over and over, because he questioned God, over and over? I thought something would come of that! I thought Crowley would get through to Aziraphale just in time to have Aziraphale fall and for Crowley to do something truly angelic, to have Aziraphale get through to HIM at the same time so they'd swap sides officially, against their will, the same way Crowley never meant to fall. It seemed like falling was something that COULD HAPPEN TO YOU AGAINST YOUR WILL and I wanted REDEMPTION to work the same way, AGAINST Crowley's will. I wanted them to get absolutely FUCKED by the moment they finally got through to each other and swapped philosophies.

So that was a bummer. Could still happen in S3 but...? I'd be a bit surprised at this point given I think it will instead focus on (*sigh*) averting the Apocalypse again.

I thought the pacing was fucking atrocious. There was so much dead time. So many scenes that were simply *not* needed and didn't add anything. So much meandering script with darlings that desperately needed to be killed for the sake of a snappier story. So much that felt like padding. With a better editor and 2 fewer episodes, I think it would have been a much tighter, better, fast paced show.

S2 recalled with a problem I have with Neil's writing in general - he's a short story writer/comic issue writer at heart. I, personally, am a long-form novel writer. Neil is not great at writing novels, he's a novella/anthology/short story person and it shows when he so often, so consistently, fails to pull a long-form story together in a satisfying way (to me, and this is just my subjective opinion).

It shows up in so many ways with how, in my opinion, S2 seemed to flounder with how to fill 6 episodes. The flashback to the Resurrectionist stuff could have been half as long and I found much of the writing pretty awful and cliche in it.

I liked Aziraphale learning that morality is complex, truly, but that was all I really liked of that bit of flashback and it could have been much shorter. I found everything around Elspeth exasperating and on the nose. It was a short story straight out of a random issue of "The Sandman" and sometimes it really feels like Neil has never managed to break out of the same stories, plots, and themes, with a dash of horror as he did from that era. He's always, always, still just writing either 1) fanfic of another person or mythology's work or 2) an original Sandman short stories/issues with no long-form plot. In his defense, they're always COOL and have an interesting VISUAL or IDEA but these stories aren't very... good? Writing? Or rather, he tends to just do the same things over and over again. Nifty idea that don't actually really *gel* into anything more complex than a single storyline?

I felt the same way about the Nazi Zombie plotline. I found that entire story beat EXCEEDINGLY tedious and pointless except to fill airtime, not to mention a bit gross to watch. I found the Magician Aziraphale plotline in general EXCEEDINGLY pointless and tedious to sit through. I thought it added absolutely nothing and was incredibly dull for 99% of the story.

Everything with Shax was exceedingly tedious and boring to me. The fight in the bookshop felt nonsensical and poorly choreographed. That needed to be a 2x speed to feel any sense of peril or urgency at all, and not knowing where it was going, or if anyone was actually really threatened at all just robbed it of any real sense of tension.

There was just... zero sense in general of important stakes in the Shax storyline or really in the season because there was no Apocalypse to build towards, no event that we knew about to worry about.

The world wasn't ending. Shax didn't seem empowered to actually do anything or hurt anyone. They were just a random action plot for... reasons? To make the climax in the bookshop come together so we could have a Jane Austen ball at the same time as 69 demons (heh) invading? There were so many logical leaps there to make that happen and the pacing/editing being garbage just... robbed it of any feeling of importance except as a time waster of a plotline. The actress is great and all but dear lord was that plotline dull.

A lot of the flashbacks in general just felt like... padding. Yes, we got a bit more Aziraphale and Crowley but they never quite... worked for me in those. It was always pointless STUFF they were doing rather than anything that contributed to the plot or even to my sense of them being in love or working towards becoming a couple! They were just... there, a lot of the time, sitting next to each other.

Some of the script pauses were SO BIZARRE. Like as if they'd just written the script and not realized how bloody often Crowley is given NOTHING TO DO in the background so he just... stands there, waiting for his next line, or taking a nap, or observing random stuff. David Tenant in the Resurrectionist bit with all his theatrics felt, again, pointless and tedious but also the best the poor guy could fucking do to fill out this incredibly boring story with any sort of entertainment. Bless them, the actors worked their ASSES off to get some fun and excitement into huge swathes of this script.

Maggie and Nina's relationship was cute but ENTIRELY pulled off by the actresses, the story was again, incredibly tedious and pointless otherwise, as many coffee shop AUs are in my opinion. Their personal charm elevated the material but it all felt like more stalling tactics with a wink-and-a-nod at fic writers, with this entire season was stretched out to justify, presumably, Aziraphale being in Heaven after being promoted to Archangel while Crowley is on Earth and they're fighting.

Quite frankly, if the "real" sequel, which Pratchett co-wrote, just opens with Aziraphale thinking Heaven's shown up to destroy him, only to promote him on the spot, basically the last scene of S2, you actually don't need 99% of this season at all to get there. In fact, it's a pretty fun comedy beat to do quickly. Basically, "Oh shit, the cops!" then "Actually, we're here to promote you!" and boom, we've reached the same spot as we got to after 6 episodes of S2.

Not that I didn't enjoy many of the character moments! But overall, it felt like stalling for time to make it a trilogy series, since only a few plot threads had any longer term importance to anyone who isn't a fanfic-writing super fan who knows what a coffee shop AU is and can giggle over there being one in the actual show.

Basically, it was very lacking in the strengths of the story that I attribute to Terry Pratchett - like the ability to pull a long-form story together, and certain clever turns of phrase.

There were so many lines where there was a pause where it was as IF they were going to say something clever, and then they just... didn't? And the line was just another cliche or a trail-off of someone mumbling "comedically"? That's where I very much felt Pratchett's absence. It indeed felt like half the writing duo was missing in many ways. And I'm not personally... all that convinced of Neil's chops when it comes to long-form stories or romance, two things that this season kinda relied on pulling off right that I was left feeling pretty tepid about after.

Look, overall, I did like it! I'm really excited for how the fandom will run with what happened and make their own stuff with it. I'm very excited for Season 3, whenever we get it, and the return of Terry Pratchett's fingerprints on the story. I think it's going to be great!

It's not that I think my time was wasted so much as I thought places where *I* would have done things differently, which is not a fair criticism of any work. From a technical perspective, really I just think it needed a tighter script or tighter editing, and they just might not have been able to do that if they were contracted for 6 episodes when they only really needed 3. Oh well. Onward and upward!

[princess-of-the-corner]

Oooooh! Okay, Sky High's earlier in the timeline! I like that! Couple follow ups:

1) Lol on Commander and Jetstream, those two are such incredible big weirdo dorks and I love them for it.

2) Superpowers are in the process of becoming more common, so what might it look like for the Sky High cast dealing with the steady uptick in powered population? Because you know it means more villains and more vigilantes and more people who didn't get an opportunity to train with their powers in a safe environment and don't know how to use them. Any thoughts on that adjustment period?

3) One of the big main conflicts of Sky High is that they sort you into "hero" or "sidekick" based solely on how impressive your power is. I'm not fully sure if this heirarchy exists in BNHA, but it is definitely less of a divide with 1-A and 1-B both being promising groups of heroes with a wide variety of creatively used powers. One of the things that didn't get explored because of the short run-time of the movie is whether this was changed, but it's pretty clear that the Sky High cast is too goddamn heroic to be anything less than a full fledged hero, rules be damned. So how major do you think the Sky High Kids being visible and effective heroes with pretty lame powers was to destigmatizing that? And do you think they did any sort of work to change the dumb rules beyond just "being a hero with a lame power against the rules?""

4) Sky High seems to very explicitly be for the children of current or retired superheroes. What may have changed to start letting in mentees and otherwise unknown folks who pass the entrance exam in?

5) Given the existence of the "Hero" and "Sidekick" classes, it seems expected that powered people will work in a hero-sidekick pair, until one or both of them retires (or the hero dumps their sidekick, so sorry Mr. B). Meanwhile, in BNHA, sidekick is synonymous with intern. So when did this expectation start changing? Did it have anything to do with less impressive powers becoming more valued, or was it a separate thing?

That's all for now, but like I said, I will probably bug you about this multiple times. I am so weak to Sky High. It is one of the first movies I remember watching when I was old enough to actually have intelligent opinions on it. This might be the thing that actually makes me watch My Hero.

1.) They're losers in love your honor

2.) Honestly this would be fascinating in itself to explore. Like the shift between the SH time and BNHA time just. How world and culture shifts. It certainly becomes much harder to hide secret identities in a world where powers are more common so going 'hey this kid in my old class had a power just like this new Hero that showed up and they look real similar what if-'. You're also getting yes more power-related crime which means more Heroes. Establishment of more Hero Schools even if Sky High is still the best in America so on and so forth.

3.) I 100% think that the Sky High kids fought for change on the Hero-Sidekick system that was set up, and everything shows it! The kids with 'Sidekick' powers were able to save the day just as much as the kids with 'Hero' powers.

They're going to fight for it and show that no matter what power you have you can still utilize it. They also point out that given the range of powers among even the 'Hero' students, they have advantages and disadvantages. Like the Hero Students aren't just relying on their powers, they rely on training and knowledge too!

They'd also use Sue/Gwen as an example as well. Her first time she was put in the 'sidekick' class, but managed to become a fearsome villain as Royal Pain despite a 'sidekick' power. And on her second life, Technopathy was now considered a 'Hero' power! Things shift, and anyone can utilize their talents.

By the time BNHA comes around, while there's still some definite prioritizing of which powers would be 'better' for Heroics, there's less of an issue over it because they've had enough people with weird abilities who could still be very good at what they do. Both on Hero and Villain sides.

Right now in BNHA the divide seems less on 'useful' Quirks and more on an inherent 'good/evil' Quirks. With a little bit of 'do you even have a Quirk at all?' thrown in.

4.) I don't think that Sky High is for kids of established Heroes. I think Will's parents and Warren's mom are the only family we hear confirmation on them being Heroes(with Warren's dad being a Villain). So there's likely many kids who get in without having Hero parents.

Though ofc children of Heroes would get in easy, I think powers are at a level where kids with them would be identified quickly and offered to go to the school regardless of if they intend to become Heroes or not as the school doubles as a 'learn to control your abilities' learning alongside typical high school curriculum.

5.) Yeah I think it started changing at some point along the way in that. 'Sidekick' still means you're taking orders from another Hero and working in tandem to support them and/or the team.

But it's shifted in that Sidekicks are still considered Heroes in their own right. And the role is more for like. Rookie Heroes. Where you're more than capable of handling things yourself, but you want to get your feet under you before you fully go off on your own.

Also being a Sidekick is a /choice/ someone makes, not a role they're shoved into.

[sophieinwonderland]

hi yeah lmao, im ⌛🌟 and im not whatever random ass person you accused me of being 💀💀???? nice try lmao

also you know that. trans people. can be transphobic right. just like how disabled people can be ableist.

but im not gonna be responding to anymore of ur dumbass shit sophie, the majority of what youve done is spout some transphobic shit and told me the history i alr know because i am trnas and lived through it!! crazy. hope you have fun harming random ass people on the internet!!! cant wait until youre left empty inside and broken bc of constantly harrassing people and constantly giving out hate where its not justified <3

-⌛🌟

Wait! Who did I accuse you of being?

Do you think this post commenting on a timing coincidence was meant to imply that you were the anti-endo who posted about the word "sysmed" at the exact same time as me? 🤣

also you know that. trans people. can be transphobic right. just like how disabled people can be ableist.

Of course. Transmeds themselves being an example of that. And system medicalism is similarly rooted in ableism and sanism. Especially when it comes to mixed origin systems, who sysmeds will straight-up deny a right to religious beliefs based on their disability.

My issue with this isn't that "trans people can't be transphobic."

It's that trans people can't be transphobic for comparing the pain they've suffered from transmeds to what they've suffered from sysmeds.

And also that transgender people can't "STEAL" their own terms.

Accusing trans people of stealing their own terms is implying that they're an outgroup that is coming in to steal the words. Frankly, it's trans erasure. You have to actually erase their transness to make this argument work. Which, IMO, is actually transphobic of you.

Once we get past the absurdity of "trans people are transphobic for stealing trans terms" the only thing your argument is left with is... what? "Transphobic people are transphobic for comparing transness to a mental disorder?"

But this point, you know, is a lie. If you've spent any bit of time in syscourse, you should know that the pro-endo position, along with the position of every psychiatrist and psychologist who has weighed in on the debate, is that you don't need a disorder to be plural.

See again, Eric Yarbrough's Transgender Mental Health, which was reviewed and published by the American Psychiatric Association.

So the whole "this is transphobic for comparing being transgender to a mental disorder" point is null. Being plural and being a system are not inherently mental disorders.

But I'm sure you're going to make some excuse about why this book, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is totally not valid. You know, just like how transmeds have historically dismissed all the doctors and research saying that you didn't need dysphoria to be trans.

Are you going to try to call me transphobic again for pointing out how your arguments and tactics are exactly like those of transmeds?

constantly harrassing people

This is beside the point, but I feel like this would be a bit more effective had sysmeds not watered down "harassment" to the point of being meaningless.

Like, I just saw a post from a sysmed who was asked why they were putting "doctors" in scare quotes to imply the authors of articles cited by pro-endos aren't real doctors, and the sysmed accused the anon of harassment just for asking the question.

Like to me, harassment means namecalling. Threats of violence. Bullying. Fakeclaiming. Personal attacks.

But it seems to most sysmeds, harassment means questioning them. It means having a different opinion and stating it where they can hear. It means linking sources or saying that they're wrong.

I've seen sysmeds, always desperate to play the part of the victim, complain about being asked "loaded questions" (the question was what punk values meant to them) and beg for death threats in the same post.

It's just so hard anymore to take sysmeds complaining about harassment seriously when it's clear they're just calling everything harassment so they can win victim points.

[zevzevarainai]

your ask made me realize......i don't know any of your ocs (outside of RPG protags). tell me about them please? 👀

ok i'm putting this under a read more because it's slightly embarrassing but not enough for me to not post it. i am also insecure about my drawerings. i'm working on it.

Ok so the only actual original ocs i have are revamped versions of ocs i had based off of toys when i was like 11. yeah... i'm owning it.... quarantine was a time for all of us. i used to have dnd ocs as i wrote my own campaign but they've been abandoned as a result of a messy falling out.

anyway these were like a branch off of a game my sister and our friends used to play when i was like 6 like a 2nd generation type of deal though that's only relevant for one oc. the premise is basically i had toy dragons when i was a kid and i was like "yeah they can shapeshift into humans" because that's the coolest shit when your 12. And when you're in your twenties and mentally ill you make it Serious.

so now it's like a humans hunted dragons so they didn't really come out of hiding but society is a'changing... there aren't a lot of not-shapeshifting dragons left.

it's not very thought out but dragon hybrids as i call them until i think of a better name (i won't) are split into 3 groups of views -

1) coexistence (main guys are here) 2) resent humans, either cannot shift or are ashamed of their human form. They either hide from humans or, if they have the means to, attack humans. They value pureblood dragons and strength. Because of this, they abandon runts and outcast shifters with a human parent. 

3) believe in coexisting with humans, but believe their ability to command two forms puts them above non-shifters, so they should be ruling over them. Some humans agree and have devoted themselves to serving these shifters.

Also these guys go by 2nd names because humans can't pronounce the guttural dragon language sounds (this is my explanation for my less than creative naming system at 12). I also made like physical logistics for their human appearance but we don't need to get into that rn

this is Dramill [dray-mill] (he/him) which child Carly made up as a combination of Draco + Windmill (the toy had a tail that has a webbed bit, looks like a windmill thing, whatever). He is a water dragon (fresh water variant). His bio-family hates humans, he ran away as a teenager and accidentally became a leadership figure for coexistence after finding his found family during his run-away-teen-travels.

He discovered healing powers for water-elemental dragons, he is basically green Katara, except Dramill sacrifices his energy to heal the person. Minor injuries don’t take much out of him. The worse the injury, the harder it is on him. If rushed, it is harder on him.

The first two members of Dramill's found family are Flame (left, she/her) and Smokey (right, he/him). They are twins and both raging homosexuals. If you couldn't guess, they are fire elemental dragons. Dramill found them after their mother was killed by humans and they were attacked a few weeks later.

Flame: Cold exterior, aloof, nonchalant nature, but has a good heart underneath. Too cool for you. Has tattoo sleeves on both arms, nose stud on the right nostril to match her twin's, undercut on the right side.

Smokey: Sarcastic, covers feelings with humor. Has several piercings: multiple ear piercings, double eyebrow piercing on the right side, nose stud on left nostril, nipple piercings, and a stud tongue piercing. All gold colored.

Last two members of Dramill's found family are Frost (left, he/him) and Iceberg (right, any pronouns). Biological siblings and, you guessed it, ice dragons. Iceberg was abandoned by their parents for being a runt; Frost followed his father on a hunch and refused to abandon Iceberg, so he was also disowned. Frost took care of Iceberg on his own until Dramill, Flame, and Smokey found them.

Frost: somewhat introverted and slow to trust others. Fiercely loyal and protective.

Iceberg: Not very good at fighting, doesn't particularly enjoy doing it. Has a lot of confidence interacting with humans.

Okay our first human this is the one i was talking about who is the daughter of Baby's First OC and her preexisting character husband. If you can figure out who the preexisting character is I might have to delete my blog. This is Mary (she/her) she is the daughter of a big name CEO and is set to inherit the company. Mary is confident and smart, which she has to be as she's somewhat famous. She stumbled across Dramill squatting in the forest that technically belongs to her father and eventually befriends the whole squad. She uses her influence to promote coexistence between dragons and humans.

And yeah, Frost is her love interest, this ship has been canon for like 15 years and now it's actually thought out dynamic wise

Next is Chadsworth (right, he/him) who was made as a joke character for 12 year old me but now actually has character traits. Early on his whole deal was he had a massive one-sided crush on Mary and was like obsessed with her. That still kind of happened but he was like 13 and is ashamed about it.

He grew up very poor and later entered the foster program. It was Not Great and he ran away, briefly living on the streets until he befriended a girl who was taking culinary lessons from a woman with fairly-successful catering company. The woman let him stay and he was very helpful with cleaning and chores; when he got a little older she paid him so now he cleans for a living. Chadsworth met Mary when she and her mom were picking up and order. They became friends, but Chadsworth soon developed an unhealthy crush on her-- that was less a crush and more idolization and envy of her life, but he wouldn't unpack this for several years. Frost fuckin' hates him because of this. Chadsworth later apologized to her and Frost but it doesn't matter Frost despises him.

As the picture gives away his love interest is Smokey which is a more recent development (thanks, the sims)

Last one this is JunTae (they/them) who was not in the childhood toys and made semi-recently. I was messing around in the sims... They weren't made to be Dramill's love interest but stumbled into that role. They are a shadow dragon from the forests around Korea (hence the name) who was born into a clan that hates humans. They didn't know any other way until their clan was fighting Dramill and them and Frost beat them up almost real bad until Dramill stopped him; Dramill healed them and they saw their found family dynamic and was like ??? They're like you know if you want to leave like look us up we'll help you, think about it, and eventually they did. Iceberg picked out the name JunTae

JunTae used to be scared of humans and is now curious to learn but still cautious. Good friends with Dramill and Iceberg. Self-conscious and anxious but wants to help. Calls Dramill "Millie" and is the only one allowed to (because Dramill's got a big fat crush on them)

[hungrydolphin91]

ok I had to go make my own post about Eugene Cassette Beasts, it's not fair for me to fill up everyone else's tags w how much I love this guy. I wanted to speculate a little about his backstory here cause it honestly fascinates me and I feel like I havent seen this happen much in other media, much less turn based monster collecting RPGs.

So Eugene is from a future world (seemingly the only party member who is except maybe Barkley but he's a dog so.) It sounds like he's from the turn of the century, maybe 2100 or so, and mentions in his rank 3 friendship that in his world, there was a massive reformation when society as a while realized they couldn't keep fucking each other over and destroying the planet, so everyone worked hard to abolish the kinds of structures that unilaterally hurt people (for instance, capitalism). Sounds like a utopia right?

Eugene only says good things about his world really, how much people value acts of goodness and kindness. But he says it all with such a sad tone, like something he's missing out on, because he thinks he is, he didn't fit in. He says that he wasn't great at being helpful all the time, which is why he wants to do better in New Wirral, a world removed from his own where he can be a better person than he was in his own world.

But the thing is, he IS a nice person. Maybe that's by design, everything he does in New Wirral is about him playing the hero, but it's also oh so clear that he brought his own expectations of goodness from his own timeline and they're just as much of a burden here. Even when hes succeeding, he won't cut himself slack, he says he needs to have a cause to rally behind, or what that archangel said to him would be proven true: he IS empty. Or at least, useless, which is probably the same thing to him.

What really grabs me about all of this though (besides the usual love of angst and guilt complexes and hero complexes and whatnot) is this future of moral reformation. Those are a pretty common historical phenomenon, often involving moral panics and an emphasis on presentation--- what matters is that you LOOK pure compared to others. And poor Eugene just felt like he couldn't keep up just because he has some small selfish impulses, or something in that nature I'd imagine--- I think he'd rather throw himself off a bridge than admit whatever the reason was that he didn't fit in in his own world.

It's easy to see his world being our future, in a way. I'd be delighted if terrible oppressive governments and economic systems were torn down in favor of ones that promote equality and universal well being, but currently moral purity is just as much of a trend as ever--- look at any discussion of book banning, not to mention transphobic legislature, fandom antis and so much more. So this hypothetical future is one where even though the 'right' thing has been done, there's still a subtle form of policing going on to enforce it. Maybe that is successful at keeping cruel practices from coming back. Or maybe it's just traumatizing people like Eugene who feel judged by their every action and pressured to be a saint every single moment of their lives.

One last thing I thought was interesting--- as part of his level 4 friendship rank, Eugene mentions how his parents' generation still seem scarred by the cruelties they endured before this reformation. But Eugene is too young to have lived through it himself so you know what that means?? Generational trauma babyyyyy. He's inherited guilt about a time he wasn't even alive for, along with a pressure to make sure it never ever happens again, so no unkindness is tolerated. It's no wonder this boy has so many issues.

So that's my late night rambles about this guy, probably like 50% of this is just me projecting but it's also fun to dissect what's happening here. Like I said before, it's unusual to see a unique concept like character like Eugene and his world in what appears to be a fun little indie game about turning into monsters with cassettes.

[philosophersystem]

From M0, M1 & S: About 3 "new" alters.

Hey, we hope you have a nice day =)

tl;dr

M, an alter in our system, was found to consist of two parts, M0 and M1, who weren’t communicating, causing memory confusion. After acknowledging them separately, they began interacting and are now in full contact. R, our physical protector, reappeared after a dangerous situation, proving he wasn't dormant but simply avoiding the modern world. S1, based on an abuser, caused trouble due to a misunderstanding, thinking we were enemies. After a conversation, he’s now a valued system member. These developments have brought more clarity and unity within our system.

We had been suspecting that M actually has an alter of his own that's not in direct contact with the rest of the system for a longer time now, between 6-12 months or so. Mainly because Mono sometimes gave paradoxical statements and had a lot of issues with his own memory as alter. He could also feel and notice memories about important stuff changing sometimes, especially during writing the memories down or while talking about them.

Like for example the memory of our hospital stay due to our appendix nearly bursting that we talked about in an earlier post. M0 has the memory while M1 doesn't. So when they were both acting as M, sometimes he could remember it while other times he couldn't. M0 and M1 both could observe their memory changing about it one time too while talking about it. Leading to both of them getting freaked out. This is our main memory indicator since they seem to be co-fronting a lot from how we understand it so far. It's a complex situation.

But this complex situation had an easy fix: We basically just had to acknowledge them both by giving each of them their own PluralKit proxy instead of them both using one. This led to M1 reaching the realization that he indeed was an alter of M0. He then reached out to M0 inside their own little headspace and they started talking with each other and are now in full contact with each other.

So, welcome to reality M1! We hope you'll be able to keep staying conscious of it and we also hope you'll enjoy the time with all of us!

This post doesn't end here though. There's still two more alters to talk about. R and S1. Let us start with R.

R is our physical protector but he wasn't interacting with us for a long time now. This made us believe that he may be dormant. Sorry for believing that, R.

He was triggered out due to a situation with our ex?-wife where she's been in danger. We don't want to go into more detail there, but that's how we realized he just isn't fronting normally anymore. We came to know back in the day that he hates the modern world like nothing else. Which is why probably he now abstains from interacting with it in any way, if he's not needed to protect us or those close to us that is.

Now onto the hardest part of this post. S1. Our misunderstood introject that we've seen as persecutor who is based on one of our abusers. He mainly was messing with us ever since we knew about being a system. I don't want to go into more detail there, but he really caused us a lot of trouble since we figured out that we're a system.

We found out the reason why though. It was back when we were still in a trauma bond with said abuser, we found out about being a system. We harshly broke off contact to our abuser shortly afterwards since we also remembered the trauma he caused us. During that, we also told our abuser what we think about him.

S1 sadly really took this to heart and thought, we would be his enemies, given how hostile we all acted towards our abuser that he's based on. So in an attempt to protect himself, he was messing with us and our lives. This led to us viewing him as an enemy of our system. Because we didn't understand. But thanks to very good people talking with me, S, about him while he unbeknowingly listened in, he started to realize why we were acting hostile towards him. Afterwards M0 and S1 had a long talk and now S1 has been accepted as a valuable member of the system. We were really missing those positive sides of our abuser.

In case people want to see him as evil persecutor. S1 is not a bad guy at all. He is mainly based on the positive sides that our abuser showed towards us. He doesn't show any intent to harm us or anyone else anymore. He just was trying to protect himself from possible harm because of a severe misunderstanding. He also was really alone all these years. And he's an important member of our system now.

That's all for now

See you later and thank you for reading this long entry. We hope you enjoyed it and were able to learn something from it.

[andbrokenmemories]

full murderbot thoughts post

Alright! Finished with Book 7 of Murderbot, System Collapse, and collected my thoughts on the series.

Maybe one day I'll do one last round-up to read novellas and maybe write a Properly Structured Review Innit, so for now this is gonna be the messy notes version of this. Let me give a paragraph or two of review-y thoughts, here, though. Set the stage and all.

So: I liked them a lot! I wouldn't ever say I struggle with sci-fi, but I think in practice I struggle with sci-fi. For other genrefic novels, tropes i Enjoy the Consumption of can usually keep my interest alive long enough; like, Black Sun and Fevered Star didn't light me on fire, but there was a lot of dynamics and play within the space that I could consistently enjoy and keep. Chewing down the line on. real strawberry lace fiction. real gummy worm fiction

Sci-Fi usually struggles more with that, I guess. Or, rather, I don't enjoy genrefic sci-fi for sci-fi's sake? There is, i think, a needle to thread of Good Spec-fic, of "oooh literature on a Weird Way of Existing". that style can keep me hooked, and Murderbot Diaries manages that with all the intricacies of the SecUnit experience. and also you can just have a lot to say! and murderbot has a lot to say! overall 8.5 out of 10. book 1 is a 9 out of 10 (yippeee strained relations distrust etc); book 2 is an 8.5 out of 10 (ART good); book 3 is a 7 out of 10 (i dont really remember those people); book 4 is an 8 out of 10, book 5 is an 8.5 out of 10 but i think it'd be a bunch higher if i didnt find the middle a bit bloated; book 6 is a 7.5/10, book 7 is an 8/10. loose thoughts from my journal from here on. spoilers for the whole series begin in earnest.

I like murderbot diaries the most when its reasonably omniscient, dynamic feeling, with a bunch of pieces moving around; and when those pieces are the psychology of murderbot as it navigates shit. i popped the fuck off when at the start of the long one [that's Network Effect] we got an interlude of murderbot interacting with mensa and her family and Caring and augh. ouagh.

WE HJAVE TO PUT ON THE BEST DAMN TALENT SHOW THI S COLONY HAS EVER SEEN!!!! [this was right when i got to the documentary part of the last book lol]

what if the other sec units went stereotypical serial killer robot and murdered all their handlers. like yes i get an argument against that that goes down the line of “and then we wont be able to extract from the situation and everyone gets killed in retribution” but, also, i feel like early in this series there was a lot of text talking about how sec units don't actually. think like that. in real life. I dont know, maybe i havent adjusted to a Thematic Choice where actually that was unreliable narration, but i find my brain getting caught up on that every time. like comparing how murderbot talks about how sec units think early in the series to later on. bwah.

anyway [in regards to the end of Exit Strategy] something very unique but kind of hash tag relatable about an extended sequence of a character reconstructing their memories from base principles, all sortakinda drunk. seeing all those cute and Telling and I See How It Is moments, which i derived a lot of value from, really fun capper to a book. good times. and then they hit 100% and the microwave goes Ding and they sit right up in bed and go Damn. That was stupid. I'm leaving.

when the panopticon surrounds you on every level and you have a lot of time to think on your self and your connection to your self and gain access to every system that makes you up and makes you you and all you can manage to acheive with it is the recreation of the panopticon within the self. and being without the panopticon is uncomfortable and foreign and strange. when the character does not allow the narrative to woobify them. 😍

ships you can talk to (who talk back only in concepts) are a gender by the way. that first scene [at the end of All Systems Red] of Murderbot working out its take on the all of it to a ship who can't really talk back, and was more or less the default “easily Manipulated bot pilot” that we just kind of sidestep each time going forwards, but like. was also the Same Thing as Mbot in not having anyone to really talk this out with. we are both on the same level. we, two, have not been taught to sell our class, our people out to the humans; we can be Niceys to one another. you can seek that out and find it. there are glimmers and moments like that throughout the whole series going forwards. which kind of makes hanging out with the humies boring unless they're one of the like 3-4 that i feel have an Interesting Social Dynamic with murderbot

following on from that, i immediately started visualising ARTs feed-self as a Kirby Endboss mass of glowing, dazzling, flowing dials/lenses/clocks towering over everyone else. with speech bubbles violently louder than everyone elses. Like that was how my brain went “how would the graphic novel get this Concept of ‘I could squish you like a bug with one instant of thought you are nothing to me you little it/its freak’ across". and its good. its good

[in regards to Network Effect, and trying to sum up my whole feelings on 2.0]: Whoops! Your clone headmate you made underbaked on purpose came out with ADHD and joié de vivre and is kicking its feet up and down in its partition watching comfort media while you go through the shit that made the Expanse expand. that made the signal is. that made the Space [face/off-style pause] Dead

So, what're my big takeaways with the whole series? Everyone trying to Do Therapyspeak on Murderbot and it usually Not Working is nice. There is something wrong with you, and that's not like a puzzle to be unraveled, but the perspective the text then takes on everything else. this world isn't, like, Fascinating and realized with any special flair, but you get to have moments where Murderbot exposits how fucked shit is to other people, or judges a situation it's bitter about as people around it get Fucked Over, and it's just like. It's a fun level of fucked up, in a way, sure, but it's also those moments of like. Ah. Murderbot does not set out to be protagonist-ly about this world, to be deeply critical, to wikia-mode about it all. Only to be constantly drawn to such anyway, to being Bitter and having to exposit to make certain points land because it needs certain points to land because. shrugs, gestures. The World. All of it. but then we go back to like “Hey do you think you have trauma maybe?” “FUCK you” and it's consistent and that's all chewy in a way I find nice. It's nice. We're having a niceys time. smile emoji

[subconsciousmysteries]

Laziness, some Attachment Triad dynamics, me hating on 3s

I couldn't imagine living my life in fear of being seen as lazy or a loser. Like it is the dumbest most pathetic most weak fear to have. Having this fear primes you to be a slave to your masters because you actually care about their opinions of you beyond a pragmatic survival perspective. You internalize your enslaver's moral compass as your own which makes you doomed for failure and self-loathing, because their "moral compass" is based on their narcissistic belief that they're superior and they have a right to control and enslave you.

Coming from someone who was raised by parents who tried to drill this fear of being an unsuccessful "loser" into me, and a mother who has given me the most horrific verbal abuse and angry meltdowns because I asked her questions about why I'm expected to care about succeeding conventionally... I've seen what this fear of being a loser does to people. it makes them jump off a cliff when the state says jump. It also makes them horrifically mistreat "loved ones" ("loved ones" in quotemarks because these people don't know what love is) who actually respect themselves, whilst sucking up to evil oligarchs who see them as cash cows and lab rats. They kneel before whoever has status and control and shun everybody else... Not even for pragmatic survival reasons, but because they genuinely fucking believe that high status people are morally superior to low status people. That's the most grotesque part. Not their actions but their internal rottenness, their inverted moral compass. They are devout believers in the religion of materialism and idol worship of the elite.

These people never question who invented the value system they follow or why they invented it, which is the ultimate manifestation of Spiritual Laziness (3 -> 9). They just religiously follow the idea that poor people are all lazy and it's all their own fault for being poor because they didn't sell-out hard enough. Of course, they don't believe that attaining wealth is "selling out", because they blind themselves to seeing this blatantly evident fact. They deceive themselves that we live in a democratic, free speech meritocracy where everything is fair, to justify their weakness-driven investment in a broken game.

If you try to explain to them that we live in a system where people have to compromise their moral compass at every corner to attain wealth, where those who speak for justice are marginalized and impoverished and imprisoned and killed, and you show them undeniable proof of this... it falls on deaf ears. You get gaslit that these facts are fake, and apparently you're only believing this stuff so that you have an "excuse to be lazy". Oh gee, I guess I'm supposed to blind my eyes to the truth of how everything works so that your dumb ass doesn't think I'm lazy? Good to know! Because that's what you're asking everyone to do when you say "conspiracy theorists are just lazy" without providing a rebuttal to their facts. You're basically saying "shut up and go back to sleep, goy."

Unenlightened 3 doesn't have any spiritual perceptiveness whatsoever, it is the most spiritually blind, materialistic type on the enneagram. So they don't know that they are the truly Lazy ones for never questioning the values which they live by. Laziness is not a refusal to go to work, Laziness is not receiving government benefits. People who do these things can be Lazy but contrary to materialist belief, this is not the crux of what Laziness is. True Laziness is about falling asleep into the material realm. Which often means falling asleep into your routine of going to work, paying your taxes, saving up for the next property, and never questioning anything you're doing whilst you do all of that. Falling asleep (9) is the opposite of thinking, scrutinizing, questioning, trying to enhance your perceptions (6).

As soon as you start asking legitimate questions about why you have the values that you have (aka, as soon as you "wake up"), as soon as you make a commitment to doing out what is truly right instead of just doing what is comfortable and accepted and easy... it becomes incredibly difficult to fall back asleep. It becomes nearly impossible to "succeed" inside of the 9-to-5 wageslave system that you once never questioned the merit of, once you realize that we don't in fact live in meritocracy at all and your taxes are funding terrorism. You see the truth of how rotten everything is, how it is all built on lies and a hatred of humanity with the intent of enslaving us. The reason why people refuse to accept at the facts proving conspiracy theories, even if you shove it in their face, is because they are spiritually weak as fuck. They are not emotionally prepared to handle the ostracization and the shaming and the isolation that anyone who wakes up endures. They are not prepared to take the Hero's Journey. They are not prepared to be called crazy and a loser and gaslit 24/7 and then worse: threatened by police if they dont keep their mouths shut. They would much rather live in their materialist lie which is comfortable (3 -> 9 as opposed to 3 -> 6. 3 -> 6 would be waking up to the uncomfortable truths whilst 3 -> 9 is falling asleep into the material realm).

All enneagram fears are evil and bad and lead to bad things but there is something uniquely contemptible about type 3. It's definitely one of the types that's behind executing all the world's problems moreso than the others. I believe that all spiritual rottenness originates from ennea 4 (perhaps because 4 is the center of Origin in general) and then it seems to execute itself most pointedly through it's neighbors 3 and 5. Like if you look at this satanic world, that is who is objectively running it... rich 3s and 5s.

[olomaya]

Hi there!!! I'm a big fan of your mods and I was wondering if could take on this mod request, can you please make a mod that brings over the skateboard ramp and skateboarding skill from Wii version of The Sims 3? Now I don't even know if it's possible since nobody has ever tried to bring over stuff from the Wii version ( Although Gamefreak managed to bring the karma system for the Xbox 360/Ps3 version of the game), I know that there's snowboarding but it's really awkward to use outside winter.

A lot of people thirsting for more sports in the game! I get it, it's definitely a big part of everyday life that the Sims franchise has never really done justice to but I also sort of get why since it requires a lot of unique animations and objects and they're forced to pump out a ton of content with dwindling budgets/timelines all to increase shareholder value and maintain astronomical CEO salaries meanwhile their own salaries aren't even rising enough to meet inflation in periods of regular inflation not even thinking about the runaway inflation we've experienced over the past couple of years which is directly as a result of corporate greed.

Ahem.

Anyway, I digress. This isn't for me. Skateboarding isn't really a sport that I feel offers a ton of gameplay value and I prefer to work on mods that enhance gameplay whereas to me, skateboarding is like bike riding. It's just a thing to do. Not sure if that makes any sense.

I didn't know about the karma system and I've never played Sims on console but that sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out!

In theory, if someone were interested in taking on your idea, basing it on the snowboarding ramp object would cut a lot of work and you could then just focus on switching out the snowboard for a skateboard, presumably you could keep all the animations the same (though you may have to raise the height a little to accommodate for the skateboard wheels). Just a starting point suggestion if someone out there wants to take this on!