#is it obvious i'm losing my mind or no?

[mobius-m-mobius]

#ep 2 but upgrade every parallel 😳

[eirianerisdar]

As a Chinese person from Hong Kong I'm going to officially say this absolutely blows my mind. Here's why.

In the video, Charles and Carlos were plainly copying calligraphy stroke-by-stroke from a large image in front of them. What makes Carlos' attempt so impressive is that he's effectively gotten nearly all the proportions, starting and ending brush pressures and tail-offs, and the structure right. It's not perfect. But it's damn well near perfect.

Compare it to Charles': Charles didn't do a bad job at all, and has successfully copied many of the requisite features, but he has seen each stroke as a line, as many people who write Chinese characters with ballpoint pens do nowadays - point A to point B, with natural loss of shape and flow in between. It's not necessarily a problem. Charles is writing the characters. But interestingly, Carlos isn't writing at all.

On rewinding the video you see why Carlos' was shaped so perfectly. He doesn't know Chinese. He doesn't know anything about stroke order, or speed. But he knows detail.

If you look at his hands as he writes he separated each stroke into a shape. Then he did his level best to recreate each shape as carefully as he could by pressing the brush until he could see it formed the right thickness of the line.

He didn't write, like Charles did. He painted.

If this is how good Carlos is at copying a language he does not know I wonder how amazing he would be at painting if he actually spent time to learn.

[all-lars-bars]

What if when Stan killed Bill, he got some of Bill's powers, like telekinesis or telepathy or smth. But he's still Stan, so he just uses them to cheat, scam, or to mess with his brother

The Stan O' War II would chaos

Stan: blows up pancakes with mind

Ford, sleep deprived from Stan projecting "the ocean is a soup" or something into his mind last night: My fucking panca-💥💥💥💥

[backintimeforstuff]

I am three seconds into the sixth extinction and scully's already called mulder's mind "beautiful" through the medium of passionate voice-over truly she is insane

[buk-kakyoin]

Magnus Protocol Theory —

(Spoilers up to ep. 5)

I think I've figured out the catch of OIAR staff being able to "quit at any time"

It's not immediately obvious why they can't quit the same way it was in TMA because, well, Teddy quits in the first episode! And he seems quite content with fucking off from the OIAR and never coming back, but he has this exchange with Collin:

TEDDY Colin, mate, you know you’re never getting out of here. COLIN Christ, don’t say that. TEDDY Even if his nibs lets you off the hook, which he won’t, you couldn’t bring yourself to just leave. Not 'til you’ve figured out all these fun little errors. COLIN Or they finally kill me. TEDDY I mean, sure, that too.

What do they know that we don't?

Bear with me on this one, but I suspect it has to do with how the Fears function in this world. I've been seeing quite a few theories floating around saying that the Fears in this world are more likely tied to Desire and I think they're right.

Every story so far has been driven by some kind of want or yearn or need—the yearn to hear a dead lover's voice, the need to understand why a place is marked "cleared," the desire to look different, the need to hide from the repercussion of your actions, the hunger for recognition as the best, the itch to feel real fear. Every time, the supernatural experiences commence after a desire(or obsession) is expressed, and every desire is granted in the most fucked up Monkey's Paw way possible.

How does this apply to our merry band of fucked up civil servants? Why are they still here?

Well, Collin's not gonna quit until he makes sense of the computers, and we're already seeing the negative effects this obsession has on him. Gwen wants Lena's job and to be the best of the department (and possible something else that we're not privy to yet). Sam wants answers to whatever the fuck is wrong with the OIAR/their cases and likely has some personal obsessions involved (*cough cough*the Magnus Protocol*cough cough*)

Alice is a bit of an outlier since she doesn't have any obvious "wants" that we've seen, but she seems way more conscious of what this job does to people than the others. From telling Sam to report Collin's behavior to telling Same this:

ALICE I wasn’t messing with you earlier, you do need to compartmentalize for this job. Make a box in your head and at the end of the shift you dump everything in there and hit the incinerate button okay? You do not want to be thinking about this stuff outside of here. It’s not good for you. I’ve seen people go weird before now.

Alice seems to at least somewhat understand what's going on—she's seen people go "weird" and knows that getting obsessed is dangerous, which is why she herself tries to stay as separate from the work as possible, tells Sam to do the same, and why I suspect she tries to have Collin reported(to keep him from sinking any deeper). But I suspect Alice is ensnared in her own way, possibly by the brother she keeps fielding calls from at work.

It's not a whole lot to go off of yet, but she keeps referencing her next paycheck while talking to him and overall implies than her brother musical career is unsuccessful but that it might turn around soon. Maybe she stays working there because she wants to support herself and support her brother's career?

Tl;dr the fears in his world are based in desires and obsession. Technically, anyone can quit the OIAR and they do—so long as they don't get obsessed. And if they do get obsessed, they won't stop until they either get what they want or, as Collin said, they die.

[dollypopup]

y'all can all cancel me (again) for this, but if there's even a SHRED of 'who should I pick?' from Penelope in season 3, I am tuning out SO fast because like. . .sorry not sorry, there IS no choice. Debling is some crusty OC suitor she barely even knows and Colin is a man who she has been so supposedly in love with to the point where she'd ruin her entire family's reputation to have a potential love story with him. Penelope and Colin have background, years of knowing each other, intimacy that few people in the Ton can boast of having (letters, conversations about purpose, fights and arguments and makeups) and her and Debling have. . .a dance or two at a ball because he's a rebound for Penelope's broken heart. he means nothing. he has no nuance, he has no weight to the story, he is such an afterthought to me. either I wanna see Penelope going 'you know what? I don't even LIKE this dude. he's. . .fine, but I don't care about him even a shred as much as I care about Colin' or the INSTANT Colin's like 'you know what? we should get married' if it's not an immediate 'say less, you're already my husband, try returning me without the receipt, Debling whomst?' then I don't want it!

like. . .it's just so frustrating to see all the 'I hope Debling sweeps her off her feet and she rejects Colin's proposal and she makes him work for it and and and-' nonsense from the fandom and it's always tagged and no matter how many times I block it, it just keeps popping up. I go into the Polin tag for POLIN. I don't give a SHIT about a male love interest other than Colin. Not one. Not a shred. Not an iota.

and also. . .Debling has the 'benefit' of not having depth, or character traits, or HISTORY, so peeps can project onto him however they want, but I'm calling it now, there is NOTHING he could do or be that would make me like him more than Colin. Colin will always hit different, and I will always love him more. and if Pen's not on that same page? lol bye

you want me to believe Penelope and Colin are soulmates and it's romance for her to hem and haw about how difficult a decision it is for her to marry a stranger who knows barely anything about her. . .

when Marina was out here dropping banger lines like 'You were the only man with which I could see myself being happy' and 'I do not care about any of these men, where is Colin?'? like hello??? and she wasn't even fully in love with him!!!! but we'll demonize her until the cows come home in our fandom and make her the villain in Polin's love story for DARING to get in between Polin, yet Debling, a white man, is a darling dear perfect prince for getting in between Polin? existing in our fandom solely so Penelope can be like 'lol, Colin ain't shit, let me entertain any and everyone else'?

if that's the direction it goes then, ten toes down and on my mama, she doesn't deserve Colin and she can move because I'm on my way to court him my damn self

and that's that on that

[kaurwreck]

oh, i figured out aya's skill.

[willslun]

stranger things and the art of breath catching

they're all endgame i know I'm right

[running-in-the-dark]

my niece is staying with us for the whole weekend for the first time. until now it's always been one night only, not two.

it's the second night now and I have already decided this is not happening again anytime soon. I'm so fucking exhausted. it'd be less exhausting if it was my nephew, I think - he's older and also doesn't need as much help (even when he was her age).

I love my niece but she just asks so many questions. like when we're watching a show or a movie, even if it's one she has seen before (even multiple times), she doesn't understand what's going on and constantly asks me to explain everything. I don't mind it, really, but it does take a lot of energy. plus tonight it took over two hours for her to fall asleep because she was scared by the noises of the house and the nearby road. I get it, but damn I'm so fucking tired, I just want to sleep 😭

[its-yashas-strong-arms]

also I know I'm on a AMCE kick but the obvious parallels between Teixcalaan and America keep kicking me in the gut.

the export of literature, poetry, media. Teixcalaanli epics as a parallel to Hollywood movies. the unspoken expectation that one should, of course, be fluent in the references and know the cultural context and be aware of the political shifts happening there even if one is from a sector (read: country) outside the Empire (read: the USA). the subtle and not-so-subtle mix of xenophobia and xenophilia aimed at visitors.

the idea that you're uncivilized for having missed out on "ubiquitous" experiences - "All 90s Kids Played With These Seven Forgotten Toys", "what, have you really not seen that movie? it's a classic!" "wait, you listen to American Music there? don't you people make your own?" "how have you not heard of [American band] before??"

the conflation of My Country and The World. that post about how Americans will never include their country in their address, even on international orders. thinking about how i know more about American politics than those of my own country, because those are what I see online every minute of every day.

[zugmode]

drawing back the curtain to talk about my real life (again. whatever). i think i am in the midst of the most adolescent social situation of my adult life so far. i had a crush on a man two years ago; shot my shot, he rejected me because he was already talking to someone. cool. this morning, he pops up on my hinge. i swipe (obviously). that was nine hours ago. i post an on-repeat song to my private story on snapchat (which he's still on... for some reason). within FIVE MINUTES he slides up and tells me how much he loves that song. ARE WE PLAYING A GAME? IS THIS A GAME TO YOU SIR!???

[flatstarcarcosa]

series of events:

kid reese got scared of a monster under the bed, woke him up, he immediately scared them a second time, now they're hugging about it.

[hyperfixation-or-death]

i have. an analysis. idk if i actually believe the whole thing.

but it's so interesting. like. i've connected. the dots.

i have identified a potential root of the deslandes family issues.

[august--and-everything-after]

I'm so good at everything I feel like I deserve fucking around some.

[rebelontherocks]

i think it's a little concerning that ppl watch dune 2 and don't realize that paul is a villain

[poughkeepsies]

listen I love teaching but having the other person respond with a lost confused stare to most of what I say in 90% of my conversations throughout a week is wearing on my soul